A multiplexed quantum memory.

A quantum repeater is a system for long-distance quantum communication that employs quantum memory elements to mitigate optical fiber transmission losses. The multiplexed quantum memory (O. A. Collins, S. D. Jenkins, A. Kuzmich, and T. A. B. Kennedy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 060502 (2007)) has been shown theoretically to reduce quantum memory time requirements. We present an initial implementation of a multiplexed quantum memory element in a cold rubidium gas. We show that it is possible to create atomic excitations in arbitrary memory element pairs and demonstrate the violation of Bell's inequality for light fields generated during the write and read processes.

Quantum interference of electromagnetic fields from remote quantum memories.

We observe quantum, Hong-Ou-Mandel, interference of fields produced by two remote atomic memories. High-visibility interference is obtained by utilizing the finite atomic memory time in four-photon delayed coincidence measurements. Interference of fields from remote atomic memories is a crucial element in protocols for scalable entanglement distribution.

Dual-species matter qubit entangled with light.

We propose and demonstrate an atomic qubit based on a cold 85Rb-87Rb isotopic mixture, entangled with a frequency-encoded optical qubit. The interface of an atomic qubit with a single spatial light mode, and the ability to independently address the two atomic qubit states, should provide the basic interferometrically robust element of a quantum network.

Deterministic single photons via conditional quantum evolution.

A source of deterministic single photons is proposed and demonstrated by the application of a measurement-based feedback protocol to a heralded single-photon source consisting of an ensemble of cold rubidium atoms. Our source is stationary and produces a photoelectric detection record with sub-Poissonian statistics.

Entanglement of remote atomic qubits.

We report observations of entanglement of two remote atomic qubits, achieved by generating an entangled state of an atomic qubit and a single photon at site , transmitting the photon to site in an adjacent laboratory through an optical fiber, and converting the photon into an atomic qubit. Entanglement of the two remote atomic qubits is inferred by performing, locally, quantum state transfer of each of the atomic qubits onto a photonic qubit and subsequent measurement of polarization correlations in violation of the Bell inequality [EQUATION: SEE TEXT]. We experimentally determine [EQUATION: SEE TEXT]. Entanglement of two remote atomic qubits, each qubit consisting of two independent spin wave excitations, and reversible, coherent transfer of entanglement between matter and light represent important advances in quantum information science.

Observation of dark state polariton collapses and revivals.

By time-dependent variation of a control field, both coherent and single-photon states of light are stored in, and retrieved from, a cold atomic gas. The efficiency of retrieval is studied as a function of the storage time in an applied magnetic field. A series of collapses and revivals is observed, in very good agreement with theoretical predictions. The observations are interpreted in terms of the time evolution of the collective excitation of atomic spin wave and light wave, known as the dark-state polariton.

Storage and retrieval of single photons transmitted between remote quantum memories.

An elementary quantum network operation involves storing a qubit state in an atomic quantum memory node, and then retrieving and transporting the information through a single photon excitation to a remote quantum memory node for further storage or analysis. Implementations of quantum network operations are thus conditioned on the ability to realize matter-to-light and/or light-to-matter quantum state mappings. Here we report the generation, transmission, storage and retrieval of single quanta using two remote atomic ensembles. A single photon is generated from a cold atomic ensemble at one site , and is directed to another site through 100 metres of optical fibre. The photon is then converted into a single collective atomic excitation using a dark-state polariton approach. After a programmable storage time, the atomic excitation is converted back into a single photon. This is demonstrated experimentally, for a storage time of 0.5 microseconds, by measurement of an anti-correlation parameter. Storage times exceeding ten microseconds are observed by intensity cross-correlation measurements. This storage period is two orders of magnitude longer than the time required to achieve conversion between photonic and atomic quanta. The controlled transfer of single quanta between remote quantum memories constitutes an important step towards distributed quantum networks.

Entanglement of a photon and a collective atomic excitation.

We describe a new experimental approach to probabilistic atom-photon (signal) entanglement. Two qubit states are encoded as orthogonal collective spin excitations of an unpolarized atomic ensemble. After a programmable delay, the atomic excitation is converted into a photon (idler). Polarization states of both the signal and the idler are recorded and are found to be in violation of the Bell inequality. Atomic coherence times exceeding several microseconds are achieved by switching off all the trapping fields--including the quadrupole magnetic field of the magneto-optical trap--and zeroing out the residual ambient magnetic field.

Roles of the polypyrimidine tract and 3' noncoding region of hepatitis C virus RNA in the internal ribosome entry site-mediated translation.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome contains a 3'noncoding region (3'NCR) consisting of a variable region, a polypyrimidine tract (polyU/UC) and the X region. To examine the roles of 3'NCR and polyU/UC tract in the internal ribosome entry site (IRES)-mediated translation process, a variety of 3'NCRs containing different lengths of polyU/UC tract were obtained from HCV infected patients and cloned respectively to the downstream of the firefly luciferase coding gene linked to HCV 5'NCR and 30 nucleotides of core gene (containing IRES element). The results of in vitro translation in rabbit reticulocyte lysate (RRL) and cell transfection assay in mammalian cells showed that the IRES-mediated translation efficiency could be enhanced by the full-length of 3'NCR of HCV RNA. However, contradictory results were observed when the role of polyU/UC tract in the IRES-mediated translation was studied. While the IRES-mediated translation efficiency was inhibited by the presence of polyU/UC tract in in vitro translation experiments, transfection of these expression cassettes into hepatic cell line showed that polyU/UC tract enhanced IRES-mediated translation efficiency in vivo. Cellular-fraction complement experiments showed that cellular factors were required for the enhancement by the polyU/UC tract. Further antibody blocking assay and UV cross-linking assay suggested the correlation of IRES-mediated translation with host factors, including the La protein. The data above also indicated that the modulations of the IRES-mediated translation by the HCV 3'NCR and the polyU/UC tract were in a length-independent manner.

[Ultrastructural localization of ATPase activity in fertile and sterile anther of rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. Marxie)].

Pb3 (po4)2-precipitation was used to study the ATPase activities both in fertile and sterile anthers of rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. Marxie). At big-vacuole pollen stage, tapetum of the fertile anthers showed high ATPase activity in their nuclei. In fertile pollen, ATPase was localized on the outside surface of the exine and in the nucleus both at big-vacuole and at bi-nucleate pollen stage. At late bi-nucleate pollen stage, a large amount of Pb3 (PO4)2 precipitated in endintine of the fertile pollen. In sterile anthers, tapetum was fully degenerated at big-vacuole pollen stage. In sterile pollen, ATPase was localized both on the plasmamembrane and in intine. These phenomena lasted to the bi-nucleate pollen stage. In addition, most of the sterile pollen did not show well-developed endintine. Based on the above results, we suggested that abortive tapetum could not provide enough nutrition for pollen development, and the high ATPase activity both on plasma membrane and in intine would likely result in ATP shortage in sterile anthers.

Stability of nucleosome placement in newly repaired regions of DNA.

Rearrangements of chromatin structure during excision repair of UV-damaged DNA appear to involve unfolding of nucleosomal DNA while repair is taking place, followed by refolding of this DNA into a native nucleosome structure. Recently, we found that repair patches are not distributed uniformly along the DNA in nucleosome core particles immediately following their refolding into nucleosomes (Lan, S. Y., and Smerdon, M. J. (1985) Biochemistry, 24,7771). Therefore, the distribution of repair patches in nucleosome core DNA was used to monitor the stability of nucleosome placement in these regions. Our results indicate that in nondividing human cells undergoing excision repair there is a slow change in the positioning of nucleosomes in newly repaired regions of chromatin, resulting in the eventual randomization of repair patches in nucleosome core DNA. Furthermore, the nonrandom placement of nucleosomes observed just after the refolding event is not re-established during DNA replication. Possible mechanisms for this change in nucleosome placement along the DNA are discussed.

A nonuniform distribution of excision repair synthesis in nucleosome core DNA.

We have investigated the distribution in nucleosome core DNA of nucleotides incorporated by excision repair synthesis occurring immediately after UV irradiation in human cells. We show that the differences previously observed for whole nuclei between the DNase I digestion profiles of repaired DNA (following its refolding into a nucleosome structure) and bulk DNA are obtained for isolated nucleosome core particles. Analysis of the differences obtained indicates that they could reflect a significant difference in the level of repair-incorporated nucleotides at different sites within the core DNA region. To test this possibility directly, we have used exonuclease III digestion of very homogeneous sized core particle DNA to "map" the distribution of repair synthesis in these regions. Our results indicate that in a significant fraction of the nucleosomes the 5' and 3' ends of the core DNA are markedly enhanced in repair-incorporated nucleotides relative to the central region of the core particle. A best fit analysis indicates that a good approximation of the data is obtained for a distribution where the core DNA is uniformly labeled from the 5' end to position 62 and from position 114 to the 3' end, with the 52-base central region being devoid of repair-incorporated nucleotides. This distribution accounts for all of the quantitative differences observed previously between repaired DNA and bulk DNA following the rapid phase of nucleosome rearrangement when it is assumed that linker DNA and the core DNA ends are repaired with equal efficiency and the nucleosome structure of newly repaired DNA is identical with that of bulk chromatin. Furthermore, the 52-base central region that is devoid of repair synthesis contains the lowest frequency cutting sites for DNase I in vitro, as well as the only "internal" locations where two (rather than one) histones interact with a 10-base segment of each DNA strand.

Sodium butyrate stimulates DNA repair in UV-irradiated normal and xeroderma pigmentosum human fibroblasts.

Histone acetylation, DNA replicative synthesis, UV-induced DNA repair synthesis, and UV-induced endonuclease-sensitive sites were measured in normal human fibroblasts and xeroderma pigmentosum fibroblasts (complementation groups A, C, and D) following exposure to sodium butyrate. In all four cell types, treatment with millimolar concentrations of sodium butyrate resulted in a hyperacetylation of the core histones. Furthermore, following an exposure of 20 mM sodium butyrate for 48 h, the extent of hyperacetylation was the same in each cell type. In agreement with previous reports, we observed a marked decrease in DNA replicative synthesis in each cell type following increasing times of exposure to sodium butyrate. On the other hand, we observed a marked increase in DNA repair synthesis occurring during early times after UV irradiation in normal cells and in two of the xeroderma pigmentosum cell strains (groups C and D). This increase appeared to correlate with the increase in the highest acetylated form of histone H4. Furthermore, the total number of endonuclease-sensitive sites (i.e. prior to the onset of repair) induced by UV radiation was the same in both butyrated-treated and untreated normal cells over the dose range of 0-20 J/m2. However, the initial rate of removal of these sites increased in butyrate-treated normal cells. These results indicate that sodium butyrate stimulates the initial rate of nucleotide excision repair in both normal and (partially) repair-deficient human cells at concentrations where the histones are maximally hyperacetylated.

In vitro conversion of leucine to valine: configurational assignment of [5-13C]leucines.

Chiral (2S)-[5-13C]leucine was obtained from Escherichia coli deficient in the synthesis of acetolactate when cultures were supplemented with (RS)-[2-13CH3]acetolactate. The carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum showed one strong peak with a chemical shift of 21.4 ppm relative to tetramethylsilane [Sylvester, S. R., & Stevens, C. M. (1979) Biochemistry 18, 4529-4531]. Silver picolinate oxidation of the labeled leucine gave isovaleric acid which was then brominated at the alpha position to give (2RS)-2-bromo[3-13CH3]-isovaleric acid (2-bromo-3-[13C]methylbutanoic acid). Aminolysis afforded (2RS)-[4-13C]valine which was treated with D-amino acid oxidase in the presence of catalase. The final product was identified as (2S,3S)-[4-13C]valine by the specificity of D-amino acid oxidase, by amino acid analysis, and by the persistence of a strong signal at gamma 17.8 in the carbon-13 magnetic resonance spectrum. These results establish the absolute configuration of the biosynthetic leucine to be (2S,4S)-[5-13C]leucine.