Kappa, a mischievous monster found in Japanese folklore, supposedly lives in a stream or pond, and has webbed hands and feet so that it's good at swimming. Human hands also have an interdigital web in the early embryo, but it disappears by apoptotic programmed cell death like a tadpole's tail. The intracellular signaling pathway that triggers apoptosis has been studied well; the signal flows down the ‘cascade’ that consists of multiple caspases (Cysteine‐ASPartic proteASE) such as caspase 9 or 3 encoded by CASP9 or CASP3, respectively. This poor Kappa in this drawing has been saturated with the water flowing down the caspase cascade, and its vaunted web is in danger of disappearing by apoptosis. Designed by TRAIS Co., Ltd. (Kobe, Japan)

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GENES TO CELLS, Vol. 1356-9597, Iss. 10, 2015-10 ,pp. : i-i

John Wiley & Sons Inc

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Genome editing technologies have been invented and improved in recent years, and there is a growing expectation that the technologies can be utilized as a tool not only for molecular biological studies, but also for genetic therapies. Among them, CRISPR‐Cas9 system that was originally found as a part of the bacterial adaptive immune system gets noticed for its easy introduction. Here, users are only required to design a guide RNA with a 20‐nt sequence that is complementary to the target DNA sequence and co‐express Cas9 with the RNA in vivo, then Cas9 protein will cleave the target DNA in a site‐specific manner. This is a portrait of a kabuki actor who plays Cas9 as indicated by the crest “ku” (‘nine’) on kimono he is wearing. The “actor” definitely has a promising future ahead of him. Designed by TRAIS Co., Ltd. (Kobe, Japan)

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GENES TO CELLS, Vol. 20, Iss. 4, 2015-04 ,pp. : i-i

John Wiley & Sons Inc

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The fragrance of Japanese plum blossoms is the essence of early spring in Japan. This well‐kept plum garden has a unique feature that it is a copy of a landscape of the outer side of animal plasma membrane. The ground represents hydrophilic head domains of the lipid molecules, while the trimmed trunks and branches in the front and the garden stones in the back look like glycosylated membrane proteins. There are a lot of plum trees that look like glycans far off in the distance. A mound on the ground under a basket and a pond in the back express lipid raft (a microdomain that has a different lipid composition) and endocytosis in process, respectively. Designed by TRAIS Co., Ltd. (Kobe, Japan)

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GENES TO CELLS, Vol. 20, Iss. 3, 2015-03 ,pp. : i-i

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The normal white (w+) gene in Drosophila is required for production of red pigment in the eyes. In some mutants in which the w+ gene has been moved to a region near the centrosomal heterochromatin due to an inversion in the X chromosome, the eyes are mottled with red and white patches; the w+ gene in the white cells has been silenced due to spreading heterochromatin, while w+ gene in the red cells is active. This phenomenon is called PEV (position‐effect variegation), and a number of factors that control epigenetics, such as histone methyltransferases, have been identified by measuring the extent of variegation. Now, in this sliding screen, maple leaves in autumn were drawn with Japanese ink on gold foil background except some in the central oval with a red paint as an accent. A shadow that looks like Drosophila happened to be cast on it, emerging a figure of the w mutant with a mottled eye. Designed by TRAIS Co., Ltd. (Kobe, Japan)

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GENES TO CELLS, Vol. 20, Iss. 11, 2015-11 ,pp. : i-i

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Shoki (Zhong Kui in Chinese), derived from Chinese Taoism, is a god for warding off diseases. According to a legend, one night when Emperor Genso (Xuanzong) of the Tang Dynasty had a high fever, Shoki appeared to him in a dream, killed a monster, and saved the Emperor at last. In tribute to the legend, Shoki has been worshipped as a god who protects people from illness for hundreds of years in China and Japan. The role of Shoki in the legend is that of the immune system itself. In this drawing, Shoki holds asasumata (spear fork) with an IgG‐like spearhead in the right hand and wears a cloth with a crest of IgM and a pattern of a dendritic cell; they are weapons of mammalian adaptive immunity. In contrast, his left hand contains a monster (pathogen) by melanization, which is one of the weapons of the innate immunity of insects. We thank Prof. Hirotaka Kanuka's lab (The Jikei University School of Medicine) for their valuable suggestions for our drawing. Designed by TRAIS Co., Ltd. (Kobe, Japan)

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GENES TO CELLS, Vol. 20, Iss. 9, 2015-09 ,pp. : i-i

John Wiley & Sons Inc

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