• Source: Hikeshi

Hikeshi (Japanese: 火消) were fire brigades in Edo and Meiji-era Tokyo; also members of these brigades.
Japanese cities were extremely prone to fires due to the fact that paper and wood were the main building materials. Firefighters cleared the buildings that stood on the fire's path, preventing it from incinerating nearby buildings. Water extinction was almost never used because of its low efficiency.
The first fire brigades were organised by daimyo; but after the Great Fire of Meireki, a city fire service was started. Later, volunteer fire brigades joined the city firefighters. All three types of hikeshi worked simultaneously in intense competition.




Background and techniques


Fires in Edo (modern Tokyo) and Nagasaki were the most dangerous in Japan. Tokyo's position in the centre of the Kantō Plain makes the buildings fire-hazardous in the winter: the cold and dry Siberian winds facilitated burning while making the residents to keep active fireplaces to stay warm and to use oil lamps for lighting; because of this, two-thirds of all Tokyo fires occurred from November to February. Japanese houses of that time were built from paper and wood (plastering was only accessible for the daimyo and the wealthiest of the merchants), with hay or wooden covering; only palaces and some of the administration's residences had roof tiles. Edo's population doubled from 1640 to 1693, making 800,000 people, while in the country's main port city, Nagasaki, it grew from 5,000 in 1590 to 64,000 in 1696; this led to an unprecedented population density for that time. Fires were so frequent in Edo that a saying was coined: "Fires and fights are Edo's flowers". Between 1601 and 1867 Edo had 49 big fires while in Osaka, where almost all of the buildings were plastered and had roof tiles, only had 6.
The main technique of firefighting was demolishing the buildings that stood by the sides of the flame source so that the houses standing by the wind's direction would burn down until the paddy fields; the fire's path became long but very narrow. Edo's hikeshi were held the highest qualification; they climbed to the roofs and destroyed only the smallest necessary part of the hazardous roof covering or walls; in contrast, Osaka's firefighters demolished buildings completely.
Water pumps only appeared in Japan in the middle of the 18 century, but did not become very popular because bamboo hose were hard to use while the water pressure was merely enough for a weak stream. Citizens trusted the dry firefighting more and used water hoses solely to pour water on cotton banten-clad hikeshi before they begin work; water pump porters received only half of the salary of a matoi bearer. Samurai firefighter brigades used water extinction and undressed up to their fundoshi before work. The way Japanese cities were built made dry firefighting more effective compared to water extinction.





















Daimyo's fire brigades



In Tokugawa Japan, the fire service depended on the daimyo's management capabilities as they oversaw temporary fire brigades recruitment and controlled their work; these brigades were called daimyo bikeshi. Tokugawa era cities were strongholds with a military camp first and foremost, so their administration was not very concerned with the welfare of common folk; they saw the fires as a result of insufficient control over the city population. Edo bureaucrats regularly published orders requiring every town block to build a firewatch tower and assign people to it, as well as mandating a night watch; in 1742, the shogun ruled that the owner of the house where a fire had started was to be arrested for 30 days if the fire spread to the neighbours' houses, and later ordered the same punishment for people who abstained from help in fire extinguishing. The law forbade commoners from lighting candles at the upper floor; to have bathing rooms (they had to use public baths instead), baths and food places had to extinguish their fireplaces after 6 pm; in especially windy days common people were not allowed to leave their houses because they had to watch their house to not catch fire.
Many fires started due to arson; according to a 1870s estimate, arsonists started 40−50% of fires in Edo. Arsonists' motifs included getting out of debt, receiving a subsidy for restoration of their housing and getting more jobs in construction. Tokugawa administration violently persecuted arsonists: they tortured people suspected in arson and organised public executions, although the fact that about half of the executed people belonged to the lowest social class (hinin) or were vagabonds suggests that maintaining the social hierarchy was equally important. At the same time, the shogunate strengthened their authority by giving the fire victims money and food. Arson was condemned to the extent that arson allegations became an effective form of blackmailing: a wooden tablet or a paper note with such allegation was placed at the target's gate or door.




Permanent fire service



After the 1657 Great Fire of Meireki that destroyed most of Edo, shogunate became concerned with fire safety. The new city plan required dividing groups of blocks from each other with wide streets called hiyokechi and hirokoji that protected the rest of Edo from the spread of the fire. In addition to the daimyo-controlled temporary hikeshi brigades, new permanent city fire brigades jo bikeshi appeared; they worked together with daimyo-bikeshi but mainly concerned with protecting the Edo castle from fires. This was the first permanent fire service in the world; the second one was the London Fire Brigade set up after the 1666 Great Fire of London.
Jo bikeshi were divided into brigades managed by the ten direct subordinates of the shogun. Other than that, dozens of volunteer fire brigades (machi bikeshi) appear, staffed with common city residents.
Hikeshi brigades included experts in speedy demolition, tobi (Japanese: 鳶, lit. kites), hired from construction workers' guilds and roofers; they climbed the burning houses and destroyed their roofs with pike poles called tobiguchi, preventing the fire from spreading further. This technique was only effective with small fires, but its use continued up until the 1880s. Building companies adopted the rapid building and demolition from the tobi, and the latter learnt from the builders.
Other types of hikeshi are: hashigo mochi who carried ladders; hirabito helped around; matoi mochi carried matoi, a special kind of flag that was raised by fire brigades next to the burning buildings in order to claim their priority. Matoi consisted of a long pole with a lot of paper or fabric ribbons attached to its top alongside with the fire brigade's logo.

























Volunteer fire service



In 1700, Edo population reached a million inhabitants; it became the biggest city in the world. In 1718, volunteer fire brigades, machi bikeshi, received an official status. Fire brigades got legally recognised numbers using the Iroha (there were 47 of them in total); every brigade had its own logo that was attached to the matoi. Technically, the samurai-managed brigades were supposed to only fight the fires in samurai blocks while the city brigades were assigned to commoners' housing, but in reality this division could not be maintained, and the brigades competed against each other. In 1747, the authorities specifically called for the machi matoi brigades to extinguish the Edo Castle fire, which became an official acknowledgement of their higher status.
Brigades divided their firefighters into six ranks; all of them received a small allowance that was not enough for permanent employment, so the hikeshi had to accept work in constriction or look for patrons. At the same time, hikeshi were celebrated as city heroes while tobi received the biggest salary among the day laborers. After a fire the owners of the unaffected buildings gifted the brigades with barrels of sake and money, which was the reason why hikeshi hurried to set up their matoi during fires. Sometimes hikeshi brigades fought each other or extorted money from the locals: during the Kanda fire of 1881, the hikeshi demanded to pay them upfront before starting to extinguish the fire. Most of hikeshi were of lower socioeconomic class and were famously stubborn. In the beginning of the 19th century they could intentionally demolish a building or lead the flames to it if its owner was unfriendly with the brigade. Samurai hikeshi brigades were only concerned with "their" buildings' safety during fires in the commoners' blocks; they climbed the roofs and waved enormous hand fans to keep the fire flakes away.




Japan after the WWII


In modern Japan, hikeshi were replaced by a permanent service: Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Matoi are still used during festivals as decor.
Katsuhiro Otomo's short film Combustible (Japanese: 火要鎮, hi no yōjin) from the Short Peace project shows the work of a premodern fire brigade in detail.




Notes






Footnotes






References

• Source: HIKESHI

HIKESHI is a protein important in lung and multicellular organismal development that, in humans, is encoded by the HIKESHI gene. HIKESHI is found on chromosome 11 in humans and chromosome 7 in mice. Similar sequences (orthologs) are found in most animal and fungal species. The mouse homolog, lethal gene on chromosome 7 Rinchik 6 protein is encoded by the l7Rn6 gene.




Gene


HIKESHI is a protein-coding gene in Homo sapiens. Alternate names for the gene are FLJ43020, HSPC138, HSPC179, and L7RN6. Located on long arm of chromosome 11 at area q14.2, the entire gene including introns and exons is 42,698 base pairs on the plus strand. The mRNA of HIKESHI Variant 1 includes exons 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 amounting to 1,183 base pairs, with base pairs 239 to 832 representing the coding regions.




= Alternative Splicing

=
Variant 1 is the longest and most common protein coding variant. The three other main variants use an alternate exon sequence that throws off the reading frame, causing early termination of the mRNA sequence and undergoes protein decay. The table below shows the different variants and exon usage.

The four variants shown in the table above are the most common isoforms found in human cells. There are a total of 13 alternatively spliced sequences and three unspliced forms that utilize two alternative promoters. The mRNA variants differ on the combination of 8 different exons, alternate, overlapping exons, and the retention of introns. Besides alternative splicing, the mRNAs differ by truncation on the 3’ end. Variant 1 is one of ten mRNAs that has been shown to code for a protein, while the rest seem bound for nonsense mediated mRNA decay.
AceView representation of C11orf73 isoforms




= Promoter

=
The Promoter region, GXP 47146, was found using the ElDorado tool from Genomatix. The 840 bp sequence is located before the HIKESHI gene at DNA points 86012753 to 86013592. The promoter is conserved in 12 of 12 orthologs and codes for 6 relevant transcripts.
Conserved transcription factor binding sites from Genomatix ElDorado tool:




= Termination

=
Termination of the mRNA product is encoded for within the cDNA of the gene. The end termination of an mRNA product generally has three main features: the poly A signal, the poly A tail, and an area of sequence that can form a stem loop structure. The poly A signal is a highly conserved site, six nucleotide long sequence. In eukaryotes the sequence is AATAAA and is located about 10–30 nucleotides from the poly A site. The AATAAA sequence is a highly conserved, eukaryotic polyA signal that signals for polyadenylation of the mRNA product 10–30 base pairs after the signal sequence. The polyA site for C11orf73 is GTA.




Gene expression


HIKESHI was determined to be expressed ubiquitously at a high level of 2.3 times above the average. C11orf73 is expressed in a large number of human tissues. Between the Expression Profiles and the EST Profile on UniGene, only 11 tissues were shown not to express C11orf73, most likely due to small sample sizes in the tissue.




Protein


The human HIKESHI gene encodes for a protein called uncharacterized protein C11orf73. The homologous mouse L7rn6 gene encodes a protein called lethal gene on chromosome 7 Rinchik 6.

1 mfgclvagrl vqtaaqqvae dkfvfdlpdy esinhvvvfm lgtipfpegm ggsvyfsypd
61 sngmpvwqll gfvtngkpsa ifkisglksg egsqhpfgam nivrtpsvaq igisvellds
121 maqqtpvgna avssvdsftq ftqkmldnfy nfassfavsq aqmtpspsem fipanvvlkw
181 yenfqrrlaq nplfwkt

The encoded human protein is 197 amino acids long and weighs 21,628 daltons. Through analogy to the mouse protein, the hypothetical function of the human HIKESHI protein is the organization and function of the secretory apparatus in lung cells.

The protein domain known as DUF775 (Domain of Unknown Function 775) is located within both the human HIKESHI and mouse L7rn6 proteins. The DUF775 domain is 197 amino acids long, the same length as the protein. Other proteins that make up the DUF 775 super family by definition include all the orthologs of C11orf73.
Hydropathy analysis shows that there are no extensive hydrophobic regions in the protein and, hence, it is concluded that HIKESHI is a cytoplasmic protein. The isoelectric point for C11orf73 is 5.108 suggesting it functions optimally in a more acidic environment.




= SNP

=
The only SNP, or single-nucleotide polymorphism, for the C11orf73 sequence results in an amino acid change within the protein. The lack of other SNPs are most likely due to the high level of conservation of HIKESHI and the lethal effect a mutation in the protein bestows upon the organism. The phenotype for the SNP is unknown.




= Gene Neighborhood

=
The surrounding genes of HIKESHI are CCDC81, ME3, and EED. The genetic neighborhood is looked at in order to get a better understanding of the possible function of the gene by looking at the function of the surrounding genes.

The CCDC81 gene codes for an uncharacterized protein product and is oriented on the plus strand. CCDC81stands for coiled-coil domain containing 81 isoform 1.
The ME3 gene stands for mitochondrial malic enzyme 3 precursor. Malic enzyme catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation of malate to pyruvate using either NAD+ or NADP+ as a cofactor. Mammalian tissues contain 3 distinct isoforms of malic enzyme: a cytosolic NADP(+)-dependent isoform, a mitochondrial NADP(+)-dependent isoform, and a mitochondrial NAD(+)-dependent isoform. This gene encodes a mitochondrial NADP(+)-dependent isoform. Multiple alternatively spliced transcript variants have been found for this gene, but the biological validity of some variants has not been determined.
The EED gene stands for embryonic ectoderm development isoform b and is a member of the Polycomb-group (PcG) family. PcG family members form multimeric protein complexes, which are involved in maintaining the transcriptional repressive state of genes over successive cell generations. This protein interacts with enhancer of zeste 2, the cytoplasmic tail of integrin beta7, immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) MA protein, and histone deacetylase proteins. This protein mediates repression of gene activity through histone deacetylation, and may act as a specific regulator of integrin function. Two transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms have been identified for this gene.




= Interactions

=
The programs STRING and Sigma-Aldrich's Favorite Gene suggested possible protein interactions with C11orf73. ARGUL1, CRHBP, and EED were derived from textmining and HNF4A came from Sigma-Aldrich.

ARGUL1 is an unknown protein with an unknown function. CRHBP is a corticotrophin releasing hormone binding protein which could possibly play a role in a signal cascade that involves or activates HIKESHI. EED, a neighboring protein of C11orf73, is an embryonic ectoderm development protein and is a member of the Polycomb-group (PcG) family. PcG family members form multimeric protein complexes, which are involved in maintaining the transcriptional repressive state of genes over successive cell generations. HNF4A is a transcription regulator and it is unknown if HNF4A regulates C11orf73's expression or simply interacts with it.[12




Evolutionary History



The evolutionary history of organisms can be determined using the sequences of orthologs as time references to create a phylogenetic tree. The CLUSTALW compares multiple sequences, the program can also be used to create such a phylogenetic tree based on the orthologs of C11orf73. The tree to the right shows the generated phylogenetic tree with a time line based on time of divergence. The tree made from the HIKESHI orthologs is identical to the literature phylogenetic tree, even grouping together similar organisms such as fish, birds, and fungi.




= Orthologs

=
Homologous sequences are orthologous if they were separated by a speciation event: when a species diverges into two separate species, the divergent copies of a single gene in the resulting species are said to be orthologous. Orthologs, or orthologous genes, are genes in different species that are similar to each other because they originated from a common ancestor. Orthologous sequences provide useful information in taxonomic classification and phylogenetic studies of organisms. The pattern of genetic divergence can be used to trace the relatedness of organisms. Two organisms that are very closely related are likely to display very similar DNA sequences between two orthologs. Conversely, an organism that is further removed evolutionarily from another organism is likely to display a greater divergence in the sequence of the orthologs being studied.
Table of Chromosome 11 open reading frame 73 Orthologs

The table shows the 13 sequences (12 orthologs, 1 original sequence) along with protein name, accession numbers, nucleotide identity, protein identity, and E-values. The accession numbers are the identification numbers from the NCBI Protein database. The nucleotide sequence can be accessed from the protein's sequence page from DBSOURCE, which gives the accession number and is a link to the nucleotide's sequence page. The length of both the nucleotide and protein sequence for each ortholog and its respective organism are listed in the table as well. Next to the sequence lengths are the identities of the ortholog to the original HIKESHI gene. The identities and E-values were acquired using the global alignment program, ALIGN, from the SDSC Biology Workbench and BLAST from NCBI.

The graph shows the percent identity of the ortholog against the divergence time of the organism to produce a mostly linear curve. The two main joints within the curve suggest times of gene duplication, around 450 million years and 1150 million years ago respectively. The paralogs from the gene duplications are probably so dissimilar from the highly conserved orthologs of HIKESHI that it was not found using the Blink or BLAST tools.

The value m (total number of amino acid changes that have occurred in a 100 amino acid segment), which is the corrected value of n (number of amino acid differences from the template sequence), is also used to calculate λ (the average amino acid changes per year, usually represented in values of λE9).

m/100 = –ln(1-n/100)
λ = (m/100)/(2*T)




References






External links


Human C11orf73 genome location and C11orf73 gene details page in the UCSC Genome Browser.

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