太驚人了! 有史以來, 第一次由知名日本漫畫家, 以 "ジョジョの奇妙な冒険" (台譯: "JoJo冒險野郎") 著名的荒木飛呂彦老師, 幫最新一期 (Volume 130 Issue 5: September 7, 2007) 的細胞生物學期刊王者 Cell 繪製封面.
Marvelous! For the first time in history, the cover of the newest (Volume 130 Issue 5: September 7, 2007) issue of Cell, No. 1 scientific journal in the field of cell biology, is illustrated by Japanese manga artist Hirohiko Araki, famous for his JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
這個圖中的 "替身" 名叫 "SCRAPPER," 是一種新發現的 ubiquitin ligase, 可以 ubiquitinates RIM1, 使後者被降解. SCRAPPER knock-out mice 的突觸會有超常的電生理活動, 且 RIM1 的量也會增加, 而這個生理效應可以用再表現 SCRAPPER 或是 knock-out 掉 RIM1 來達成. 茲引封面註釋的原文如下:
On the cover: Presynaptic plasticity is a fundamental, yet poorly understood, neural phenomenon that is thought to be the basis of learning and memory. In this issue, Yao et al. (pp. 943–957) identify a novel ubiquitin ligase named SCRAPPER, which is responsible for tuning of synaptic vesicle release probability. SCRAPPER ubiquitinates presynaptic active zone protein RIM1, triggering its proteasomal degradation. Neurons from the Scrapper-knockout mice have hyper electrophysiological activity and contained increased amount of RIM1, and these phenotypes could be rescued by re-expression of SCRAPPER or knockdown of RIM1. The results highlight the importance of protein degradation in the regulation of synaptic activity in vivo. On the cover, the purple SCRAPPER humanoid is putting blue heart-shaped ubiquitins on the red RIM creatures. Japanese manga artist Hirohiko Araki created the cover image with scientific direction from Drs. Setou and Ageta.
太感謝您了, 荒木老師. 也謝謝兩位研究人員 (瀬藤光利准教授與 Dr. Ageta... 漢字不明) 的指導, 以及 Cell 編輯們的創意.
Thank you very much, Araki-sensei. Also thanks for instructions from two researchers, as well as creative minds of Cell editors.
