Tigers prove point versus Hawks

The Melbourne Tigers' Mark Worthington can't stop the Hawks' Rhys Martin from driving to the basket. Source: News Limited

THE Melbourne Tigers haven't had the league's leading scorer since Andrew Gaze was still doing his thing more than a decade ago.

Yesterday Chris Goulding again showed why he is the man to change that statistic.

After an indifferent start - his first points came from a three-point bomb on the quarter-time buzzer - the Tigers scoring machine flicked the switch and then when the game was on the line delivered to get his team home 81-76 against a dogged Wollongong Hawks.

Goulding finished with his first NBL double-double - 29 points and 12 rebounds - as the Tigers withstood a last quarter comeback to close out their third victory of the season.

While there were several other important contributions including 20 points from Mark Worthington, some improved output from Canadian centre Scott Morrison (12 points, eight rebounds and three blocks) and valuable defensive minutes from youngster Owen Odigie, it was two big plays from Goulding which decided the contest.

With less than two minutes to go the Tigers star drove to the basket, sucking two defenders to him before producing a brilliant no-look behind-the-head pass to Morrison for an easy dunk.

Then with 34 seconds to go and the lead only two points, Goulding wandered into the corner and despite defenders all over him nailed the winning jumper.

Hawks guard Rotnei Clarke, a former US college star with Butler University who led his team with 17 points, summed it up best afterwards: "He (Goulding) is a great player, he takes some tough shots and they go in."

Tigers coach Chris Anstey was happy to mention Goulding, who is averaging 26.6 points this season to lead the NBL in scoring, in the same sentence as Gaze afterwards.

"I don't think this club has had a scorer like him since Andrew Gaze," Anstey said. "That's what he is to us right now at the offensive end, you put the ball in his hands and he creates something.

"Even the bad shots he takes you still expect to go in, and when I say that, they are a bad shot for others but not for him."

It has already been a big year for the Tigers reigning MVP after a workout with NBA star Kyrie Irving earlier in the year led to an invite to the Cleveland Cavaliers' pre-summer league camp and then a spot on the team for its series in Las Vegas.

Worthington, who previously played with Goulding at the Gold Coast, afterwards praised the maturing of his teammate which the man himself admitted was a factor in overcoming his tardy start.

"It is something I have been working on," Goulding, 25, said. "I've realised over the last couple of years that it is a long game, 40 minutes is a long time.

"I think in my earlier years I would have got a bit antsy and tried to force it a little bit but the same thing happened in Adelaide (on Friday night) as well, personally I didn't get off to a great start but it's a long game.

"So I just had to stay in that mindset, try not to force it, take the opportunities when they come."

The victory over the Hawks, who now slip to 1-5, was important for the Tigers given they came up short, 90-87, to the Sixers in Adelaide on Friday night.

Anstey praised his charges for willing themselves over the line given they were once again hampered by injuries with Lucas Walker (illness) sitting out while Nate Tomlinson also battled through a stomach ailment.

"We needed a win, and we ground it out," he said.

The Tigers next game is against the Cairns Taipans on Saturday night at The Cage.

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Identification Of The Role Of The Cellular Entry Point Of Anthrax

Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Also Included In: Bio-terrorism / Terrorism
Article Date: 04 Dec 2012 - 1:00 PST Current ratings for:
Identification Of The Role Of The Cellular Entry Point Of Anthrax

Anthrax uses a receptor on the surface of cells to inject its lethal toxins. However, the physiological function of this receptor, named Anthrax Toxin Receptor 2a (Antxr2a), remained unknown until now. A team led by Marcos Gonzalez-Gaitan, a professor at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, in collaboration with Gisou van der Goot at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne), reveals that Antxr2a actually plays a role in embryonic development, orienting cell division along a specific plane, which is a prelude to the formation of future tissues and organs. At the cellular level, this receptor exerts traction on the system that allows chromosomes to separate to opposite poles, the mitotic spindle, to position it along the plane of division. These results are presented in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

Anthrax is a particularly virulent germ once a person is infected by inhaling its spores. The severity of symptoms, which affect various organs, is mainly due to bacterial toxins which are lethal to cells. It is by attempting to understand how the bacillus' toxins enter cells that the Antxr2a receptor was discovered. Otherwise, its physiological role would not have been identified at present.

A cap of proteins indicates the plane of division

During animal development, the orientation of cell division along a specific plane is important for the organization of the different tissues and the generation of cellular diversity. This orientation is provided by the position of the mitotic spindle in the cell that is about to divide. This temporary assembly of microtubules forms an actual spindle between opposite poles of the cell in order to guide the migration of each set of chromosomes.

"When the cell receives an external signal to initiate its division, a cascade of biochemical events is launched to transmit the message to the interior of the cell and have it carried out. We knew that an external signal, a protein called Wnt, was necessary to properly position the mitotic spindle, but knew nothing of the intracellular messengers involved," explains Marcos Gonzalez-Gaitan, Professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Geneva.

This has now been accomplished. The scientist and his group have established the complete sequence of intracellular events allowing the mitotic spindle to align itself along the general plane of division. They conducted their experiments on zebrafish embryos, a model system in developmental studies. "Once Wnt binds to the cell membrane, different molecular agents prompt the formation of a layer of filamentous proteins along the cell membrane, at the site of the future plane of division," explains Irinka Castanon, first author of the article.

The anthrax receptor used as a control lever

This internal 'cap' associates itself in turn with the Antxr2a receptors, known to bind the anthrax toxin. The accumulation of these receptors will thus form a second layer, superimposed on the first. Everything is now in place for the final phase: "The Antxr2a receptors recruit in turn 'motor' proteins capable of attaching themselves to the mitotic spindle and pulling it towards the internal cap," states Marcos Gonzalez-Gaitan. Motor proteins probably act by travelling back up along the cap's filaments, allowing the alignment of the spindle with the plane of cell division.

In mammals, the Antxr2a receptor is also involved in the formation and proliferation of blood vessels. "It is therefore possible that the role of this receptor in the orientation of cell division is not restricted solely to embryonic development," states the professor, who is a member of two Swiss National Research Programs: Frontiers in Genetics, and Chemical Biology.

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