Kontribusi Naungan Pohon Terhadap Kepadatan Cacing Tanah

This research aims at exploring the contribution of the shade of treetowards the density of earthworms. The convertionof forest into a farmland causeda change in the shade of tree from a closed into an open ecosystem that was predicted to be followed by the decrease of earthworms density. The kinds of land thatis used for research are forest, complex agroforestry, simple agroforestry, teak monoculture, teak-accacia polyculture, and peanut crops. The data were analyzed quantitatively using statistical methods by SPSS 0.16. The results show that the wide oftree shade contributes to the density of earthworms on rainy season as much as 71.5% and also contributes to the density of earthworms on dry season as much as 52.2%. From the results, it can be concluded that the shade of tree has a strong role towards the density of earthworms

The Ca2+Ca^{2+}-activated Cl−Cl^- current ensures robust and reliable signal amplification in vertebrate olfactory receptor neurons

Activation of most primary sensory neurons results in transduction currents that are carried by cations. One notable exception is the vertebrate olfactory receptor neuron (ORN), where the transduction current is carried largely by the anion $Cl^-$. However, it remains unclear why ORNs use an anionic current for signal amplification. We have sought to provide clarification on this topic by studying the so far neglected dynamics of $Na^+$, $Ca^{2+}$, $K^+$ and $Cl^-$ in the small space of olfactory cilia during an odorant response. Using computational modeling and simulations we compared the outcomes of signal amplification based on either $Cl^-$ or $Na^+$ currents. We found that amplification produced by $Na^+$ influx instead of a $Cl^-$ efflux is problematic due to several reasons: First, the $Na^+$ current amplitude varies greatly depending on mucosal ion concentration changes. Second, a $Na^+$ current leads to a large increase in the ciliary $Na^+$ concentration during an odorant response. This increase inhibits and even reverses $Ca^{2+}$ clearance by $Na^+/Ca^{2+}/K^+$ exchange, which is essential for response termination. Finally, a $Na^+$ current increases the ciliary osmotic pressure, which could cause swelling to damage the cilia. By contrast, a transduction pathway based on $Cl^-$ efflux circumvents these problems and renders the odorant response robust and reliable.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures (including SI

Evaluation of voltage-dependent calcium channel gamma gene families identified several novel potential susceptible genes to schizophrenia

Voltage-gated L-type calcium channels (VLCC) are distributed widely throughout the brain. Among the genes involved in schizophrenia (SCZ), genes encoding VLCC subunits have attracted widespread attention. Among the four subunits comprising the VLCC (α − 1, α −2/δ, β, and γ), the γ subunit that comprises an eight-member protein family is the least well understood. In our study, to further investigate the risk susceptibility by the γ subunit gene family to SCZ, we conducted a large-scale association study in Han Chinese individuals. The SNP rs17645023 located in the intergenic region of CACNG4 and CACNG5 was identified to be significantly associated with SCZ (OR = 0.856, P = 5.43 × 10(−5)). Similar results were obtained in the meta-analysis with the current SCZ PGC data (OR = 0.8853). We also identified a two-SNP haplotype (rs10420331-rs11084307, P = 1.4 × 10(−6)) covering the intronic region of CACNG8 to be significantly associated with SCZ. Epistasis analyses were conducted, and significant statistical interaction (OR = 0.622, P = 2.93 × 10(−6), P(perm) < 0.001) was observed between rs192808 (CACNG6) and rs2048137 (CACNG5). Our results indicate that CACNG4, CACNG5, CACNG6 and CACNG8 may contribute to the risk of SCZ. The statistical epistasis identified between CACNG5 and CACNG6 suggests that there may be an underlying biological interaction between the two genes

Eksistensi Cacing Tanah Pada Lingkungan Berbagai Sistem Budidaya Tanaman

Penelitian ini sebagai langkah awal untuk meneliti peran cacing tanah terhadap hara N dan C didaerah berkapur. Penelitian dilakukan pada musim penghujan dilahan berbagai system budidaya tanaman yang meliputi 13 SPL tanaman: (1) jati, (2) mahoni, (3) sengon, (4) akasia, (5) jati, akasia, (6) jati, jambumete, (7) mahoni, ketela pohon, (8)tebu, (9) kacang tanah, (10) jagung, (11) sawah irigasi, (12) sawah tadah hujan dan (13) lahan terlantar/semak. Lokasi penelitian pada lahan tanah berkapur dengan kemiringan 0- 15 %., Sampel cacing tanah diambil secara manual dengan menggunakan metode monolit (25 x 25 x 30 cm3). Dari hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa ada perbedaan mengenai eksistensi cacing tanah ditinjau dari kepadatan dan biomasa cacing tanah pada lingkungan berbagai system budidaya tanaman dilahan berkapur. Kepadatan populasi cacing tanah yang tertinggi adalah 176 individu/m2 pada budidaya tanaman Kacang Tanah. Sedang kepadatan populasi cacing tanah terendah dari 13 SPL didapatkan pada budidaya tanaman Sengon yaitu 16 individu/ m2. Untuk biomasa tertinggi ada pada budidaya tanaman Akasia yaitu 112,32 gram/m2 dan yang terendah ada pada polikultur jati-akasia 4,64 gram/m2. Kesimpulan yang didapat pada hasil penelitian adalah: (1) ada perbedaan eksistensi cacing tanah pada berbagai sistem budidaya tanaman di lahan berkapur ditinjau dari kepadatan dan biomasa. (2) Perbedaan eksistensi cacing tanah pada berbagai system budidaya tanaman dilahan berkapur disebabkan oleh perbedaan iklim mikro dan kualitas seresa

EKSISTENSI CACING TANAH PADA LINGKUNGAN BERBAGAI SISTEM BUDIDAYA TANAMAN DI LAHAN BERKAPUR

Penelitian ini sebagai langkah awal untuk meneliti peran cacing tanah terhadap hara N dan C didaerah berkapur. Penelitian dilakukan pada musim penghujan dilahan berbagai system budidaya tanaman yang meliputi 13 SPL tanaman: (1) jati, (2) mahoni, (3) sengon, (4) akasia, (5) jati, akasia, (6) jati, jambumete, (7) mahoni, ketela pohon, (8)tebu, (9) kacang tanah, (10) jagung, (11) sawah irigasi, (12) sawah tadah hujan dan (13) lahan terlantar/semak. Lokasi penelitian pada lahan tanah berkapur dengan kemiringan 0- 15 %., Sampel cacing tanah diambil secara manual dengan menggunakan metode monolit (25 x 25 x 30 cm3). Dari hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa ada perbedaan mengenai eksistensi cacing tanah ditinjau dari kepadatan dan biomasa cacing tanah pada lingkungan berbagai system budidaya tanaman dilahan berkapur. Kepadatan populasi cacing tanah yang tertinggi adalah 176 individu/m2 pada budidaya tanaman Kacang Tanah. Sedang kepadatan populasi cacing tanah terendah dari 13 SPL didapatkan pada budidaya tanaman Sengon yaitu 16 individu/ m2. Untuk biomasa tertinggi ada pada budidaya tanaman Akasia yaitu 112,32 gram/m2 dan yang terendah ada pada polikultur jati-akasia 4,64 gram/m2. Kesimpulan yang didapat pada hasil penelitian adalah: (1) ada perbedaan eksistensi cacing tanah pada berbagai sistem budidaya tanaman di lahan berkapur ditinjau dari kepadatan dan biomasa. (2) Perbedaan eksistensi cacing tanah pada berbagai system budidaya tanaman dilahan berkapur disebabkan oleh perbedaan iklim mikro dan kualitas seresah Kata kunci : Eksistensi cacng tanah, system budidaya tanama

Risk stratification for the development of chronic postsurgical pain

Chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) is a common complication of surgery with important consequences for the individual patient and society as a whole. Risk stratification is best defined as the grouping of patients based on factors measured at baseline (in this context before surgery), to determine an individual's risk of suffering a particular condition and thereby the likely level of need for preventive interventions. Risk factors for CPSP have been identified in the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative periods and cover 6 broad domains: genetic, demographic, psychosocial, pain, clinical, and surgical factors. Risk stratification for CPSP enables clinicians to address these risk factors before surgery, to discuss the necessity of surgery or to change the surgical and anaesthetic/analgesic planning

AMPA receptor auxiliary subunits emerged during early vertebrate evolution by neo/subfunctionalization of unrelated proteins

Altres ajuts: Career Integration Grant (ref. 304111), Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (RYC-2011-08391p), IEDI-2017-00822In mammalian synapses, the function of ionotropic glutamate receptors is critically modulated by auxiliary subunits. Most of these specifically regulate the synaptic localization and electrophysiological properties of AMPA-type glutamate receptors (AMPARs). Here, we comprehensively investigated the animal evolution of the protein families that contain AMPAR auxiliary subunits (ARASs). We observed that, on average, vertebrates have four times more ARASs than other animal species. We also demonstrated that ARASs belong to four unrelated protein families: CACNG-GSG1, cornichon, shisa and Dispanin C. Our study demonstrates that, despite the ancient origin of these four protein families, the majority of ARASs emerged during vertebrate evolution by independent but convergent processes of neo/subfunctionalization that resulted in the multiple ARASs found in present vertebrate genomes. Importantly, although AMPARs appeared and diversified in the ancestor of bilateral animals, the ARAS expansion did not occur until much later, in early vertebrate evolution. We propose that the surge in ARASs and consequent increase in AMPAR functionalities, contributed to the increased complexity of vertebrate brains and cognitive functions

Impact of constitutional copy number variants on biological pathway evolution

Background: Inherited Copy Number Variants (CNVs) can modulate the expression levels of individual genes. However, little is known about how CNVs alter biological pathways and how this varies across different populations. To trace potential evolutionary changes of well-described biological pathways, we jointly queried the genomes and the transcriptomes of a collection of individuals with Caucasian, Asian or Yoruban descent combining high-resolution array and sequencing data. Results: We implemented an enrichment analysis of pathways accounting for CNVs and genes sizes and detected significant enrichment not only in signal transduction and extracellular biological processes, but also in metabolism pathways. Upon the estimation of CNV population differentiation (CNVs with different polymorphism frequencies across populations), we evaluated that 22% of the pathways contain at least one gene that is proximal to a CNV (CNV-gene pair) that shows significant population differentiation. The majority of these CNV-gene pairs belong to signal transduction pathways and 6% of the CNV-gene pairs show statistical association between the copy number states and the transcript levels. Conclusions: The analysis suggested possible examples of positive selection within individual populations including NF-kB, MAPK signaling pathways, and Alu/L1 retrotransposition factors. Altogether, our results suggest that constitutional CNVs may modulate subtle pathway changes through specific pathway enzymes, which may become fixed in some populations

PENGEMBANGAN MODEL PEMBELAJARAN EVALUASI PENDIDIKAN DAN AUTENTIK ASSESMEN BERBASIS KEBUN SEKOLAH UNTUK MENGEMBANGKAN KEMAMPUAN BERPIKIR KRITIS DAN KARAKTER MAHASISWA PGSD

Global climate change is expected to have major effects on host-parasite dynamics, with potentially enormous consequences for entire ecosystems. To develop an accurate prognostic framework, theoretical models must be supported by empirical research. We investigated potential changes in host-parasite dynamics between a fish parasite, the eyefluke Diplostomum baeri, and an intermediate host, the European perch Perca fluviatilis, in a large-scale semi-enclosed area in the Baltic Sea, the Biotest Lake, which since 1980 receives heated water from a nuclear power plant. Two sample screenings, in two consecutive years, showed that fish from the warmer Biotest Lake were now less parasitized than fish from the Baltic Sea. These results are contrasting previous screenings performed six years after the temperature change, which showed the inverse situation. An experimental infection, by which perch from both populations were exposed to D. baeri from the Baltic Sea, revealed that perch from the Baltic Sea were successfully infected, while Biotest fish were not. These findings suggest that the elevated temperature may have resulted, among other outcomes, in an extremely rapid evolutionary change through which fish from the experimental Biotest Lake have gained resistance to the parasite. Our results confirm the need to account for both rapid evolutionary adaptation and biotic interactions in predictive models, and highlight the importance of empirical research in order to validate future projections

Characterisation of a novel transmembrane protein in primary human CD4+ T-cells

PhD ThesisThere are two main mechanisms of tolerance, one in the thymus and one in the periphery. Anergy, a peripheral mechanism, is a state of hypo-responsiveness where T-cells fail to respond to antigenic stimulus. A breakdown in immunological self-tolerance leads to autoimmunity and so provides an exciting research area for therapeutic intervention in autoimmune disease. Differential display studies comparing anergic and activated CD4+ T-cells identified claudin domain containing protein 1 (CLDND1) to be differentially expressed between these two states. In addition, preliminary experiments performed in our lab identified CLDND1 as a potential negative regulator of CD4+ T-cell activation. The aim of this study was to identify the role of CLDND1 in CD4+ T-cells. Antibodies against CLDND1 were raised and validated before use to determine CLDND1 expression in immune cell subsets and during T-cell activation. The function of CLDND1 in T-cells was investigated using gene silencing or over-expression techniques. CLDND1 expression was also sought in the autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), to identify whether CLDND1 may be involved in disease pathogenesis. Antibodies were successfully raised against CLDND1 and CLDND1 was found to be transiently up-regulated during CD4+ T-cell activation. CLDND1 gene silencing attempts, while successful at the RNA level, did not translate to a reduction in CLDND1 protein, suggesting CLDND1 may be regulated independently of gene transcription. Over-expression studies were consistent with CLDND1 being a negative regulator of T-cell proliferation or an inducer of cell death, depending on the activating stimulus used. CLDND1 expression was found to correlate with rheumatoid factor (RF) status in early RA patients and may suggest a role for CLDND1 in the disease setting. Some findings identify similarities between CLDND1 and other proteins, providing links for functional pathways and a plethora of further avenues of research.biotechnology and biological sciences research council (BBSRC) and UCB Celltec