Molecular Mapping of Male-Sterility Loci ms2 and ms9 in Soybean

Markers linked to male-sterile, female-fertile loci on the soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] molecular map would facilitate early identification of male-sterile plants. The objectives were to verify the chromosome location of the ms2 (A00–63) mutation, to determine the allelism and the chromosome location of the suspected ms2 [ms? (A00–39)] mutation, and to determine the chromosome location of the ms9 (T359) mutation. Simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to molecularly map the male-sterile, female-fertile loci reported in this study. Segregating F2 populations were developed from crosses of ms?ms? (A00–39) × ‘Minsoy’ (PI 278901), ms2ms2 (A00–63) × Minsoy, and Minsoy × Ms9ms9 (T359H). The ms?(A00–39) locus was positioned on MLG O at 9.9 centiMorgans (cM) distance from the marker Sat_190. The ms2 (A00–63) locus was positioned on molecular linkage group (MLG) O between markers Sat_190 and Scaa001, with a distance of 6.9 and 9.0 cM, respectively. Thems9 locus was located on MLG N between markers Satt521 and Satt237, with a distance of 8.5 and 16.2 cM, respectively. Classical allelism tests confirmed that mutant ms? (A00–39) was allelic to ms2 (A00–63). The A00–39 mutant line was assigned Genetic Type Collection number T375H and gene symbol Ms2ms2 (Ames 2). Thus Genetic Type T360H, previously identified at Ames, Iowa, becomes Ms2ms2 (Ames 1)

Effects of coffee with different roasting degrees on obesity and related metabolic disorders

This study aimed to assess the effect of unroasted, dark and very dark roasted coffee on obesity and metabolic disorders in obese rats. All coffee samples significantly reduced weight gain (∼17%) compared to obese control. Coffee reduced glucose levels (∼17%) upon a glucose tolerance test in all cases compared to the control, while fasting glucose only decreased (∼26%) with very dark coffee. Insulin levels and insulin resistance significantly decreased (∼77% and 65% respectively) with all coffee samples compared to the control. Unroasted and dark roasted coffee decreased triglycerides (∼21% and ∼ 11%, respectively), and unroasted coffee also reduced free fatty acids (∼43%) and adipocyte size. Coffee decreased liver steatosis (∼55%) and Caspase-3 levels (∼27%), regardless of the roasting degree. Overall, coffee plays a positive role in restraining obesity and related metabolic disorders but, depending on the metabolic pathway and relevant marker, an effect of roasting could be either found or not

Young ages and other intriguing properties of massive compact galaxies in the Local Universe

We characterize the kinematics, morphology, stellar populations and star formation histories of a sample of massive compact galaxies in the nearby Universe, which might provide a closer look to the nature of their high redshift (z > 1.0) massive counterparts. We find that nearby compact massive objects show elongated morphologies and are fast rotators. New high-quality long-slit spectra show that they have young mean luminosity-weighted ages (< 2Gyr) and solar metallicities or above ([Z/H]> 0.0). No significant stellar population gradients are found. The analysis of their star formation histories suggests that these objects have experienced recently enormous bursts which, in some cases, represent unprecedented large fractions of their total stellar mass. These galaxies seem to be truly unique, as they do not follow the characteristic kinematical and stellar population patterns of present-day massive ellipticals, spirals or even dwarfs.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures; Accepted for publication in MNRA

Long-term platinum-based drug accumulation in cancer-associated fibroblasts promotes colorectal cancer progression and resistance to therapy

A substantial proportion of cancer patients do not benefit from platinum-based chemotherapy (CT) due to the emergence of drug resistance. Here, we apply elemental imaging to the mapping of CT biodistribution after therapy in residual colorectal cancer and achieve a comprehensive analysis of the genetic program induced by oxaliplatin-based CT in the tumor microenvironment. We show that oxaliplatin is largely retained by cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) long time after the treatment ceased. We determine that CT accumulation in CAFs intensifies TGF-beta activity, leading to the production of multiple factors enhancing cancer aggressiveness. We establish periostin as a stromal marker of chemotherapeutic activity intrinsically upregulated in consensus molecular subtype 4 (CMS4) tumors and highly expressed before and/or after treatment in patients unresponsive to therapy. Collectively, our study underscores the ability of CT-retaining CAFs to support cancer progression and resistance to treatment.This work has been supported by grants from Fundación científica AECC -Asociación Española contra el Cáncer- (GCAEC20030CERV) to A.Ce., from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) co-funded by the European Union (CP16/00151, PI17/00211, PI20/00011; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) to A.Ca. and PI20/00625 to P.N., from la Caixa Foundation (LCF/PR/HR19/52160018) and MICINN (PID2020- 119917RB-I00) to E.B., from Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) and FEDER funds (PID2019-104948RB-I00) to R.R.G. This work was supported by Grant PT20/00023, funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and co-funded by the European Union, and the Xarxa de Bancs de tumors sponsored by Pla Director d’Oncologia de Catalunya (XBTC). A.Ca. is the recipient of funding from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III co-funded by the European Union (MS16/00151; CPII21/00012). J.L. is the recipient of a Junior Clinician fellowship from Fundación científica AECC (CLJUN19004LINA)

Multi-particle azimuthal correlations in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

Measurements of multi-particle azimuthal correlations (cumulants) for charged particles in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions are presented. They help address the question of whether there is evidence for global, flow-like, azimuthal correlations in the p-Pb system. Comparisons are made to measurements from the larger Pb-Pb system, where such evidence is established. In particular, the second harmonic two-particle cumulants are found to decrease with multiplicity, characteristic of a dominance of few-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions. However, when a $|\Delta \eta|$ gap is placed to suppress such correlations, the two-particle cumulants begin to rise at high-multiplicity, indicating the presence of global azimuthal correlations. The Pb-Pb values are higher than the p-Pb values at similar multiplicities. In both systems, the second harmonic four-particle cumulants exhibit a transition from positive to negative values when the multiplicity increases. The negative values allow for a measurement of $v_{2}\{4\}$ to be made, which is found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions at similar multiplicities. The second harmonic six-particle cumulants are also found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions. In Pb-Pb collisions, we generally find $v_{2}\{4\} \simeq v_{2}\{6\}\neq 0$ which is indicative of a Bessel-Gaussian function for the $v_{2}$ distribution. For very high-multiplicity Pb-Pb collisions, we observe that the four- and six-particle cumulants become consistent with 0. Finally, third harmonic two-particle cumulants in p-Pb and Pb-Pb are measured. These are found to be similar for overlapping multiplicities, when a $|\Delta\eta| > 1.4$ gap is placed.Comment: 25 pages, 11 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 20, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/87

Multiplicity dependence of jet-like two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5.02 TeV

Two-particle angular correlations between unidentified charged trigger and associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The transverse-momentum range 0.7 $< p_{\rm{T}, assoc} < p_{\rm{T}, trig} <$ 5.0 GeV/$c$ is examined, to include correlations induced by jets originating from low momen\-tum-transfer scatterings (minijets). The correlations expressed as associated yield per trigger particle are obtained in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<0.9$. The near-side long-range pseudorapidity correlations observed in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions are subtracted from both near-side short-range and away-side correlations in order to remove the non-jet-like components. The yields in the jet-like peaks are found to be invariant with event multiplicity with the exception of events with low multiplicity. This invariance is consistent with the particles being produced via the incoherent fragmentation of multiple parton--parton scatterings, while the yield related to the previously observed ridge structures is not jet-related. The number of uncorrelated sources of particle production is found to increase linearly with multiplicity, suggesting no saturation of the number of multi-parton interactions even in the highest multiplicity p-Pb collisions. Further, the number scales in the intermediate multiplicity region with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions estimated with a Glauber Monte-Carlo simulation.Comment: 23 pages, 6 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 17, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/161

A note on comonotonicity and positivity of the control components of decoupled quadratic FBSDE

In this small note we are concerned with the solution of Forward-Backward Stochastic Differential Equations (FBSDE) with drivers that grow quadratically in the control component (quadratic growth FBSDE or qgFBSDE). The main theorem is a comparison result that allows comparing componentwise the signs of the control processes of two different qgFBSDE. As a byproduct one obtains conditions that allow establishing the positivity of the control process.Comment: accepted for publicatio

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Chitosan–Starch–Keratin composites: Improving thermo-mechanical and degradation properties through chemical modification

The lysozyme test shows an improved in the degradability rate, the weight loss of the films at 21 days is reduced from 73 % for chitosan-starch matrix up to 16 % for the composites with 5wt% of quill; but all films show a biodegradable character depending on keratin type and chemical modification. The outstanding properties related to the addition of treated keratin materials show that these natural composites are a remarkable alternative to potentiat-ing chitosan–starch films with sustainable featuresChitosan–starch polymers are reinforced with different keratin materials obtained from chicken feather. Keratin materials are treated with sodium hydroxide; the modified surfaces are rougher in comparison with untreated surfaces, observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy. The results obtained by Differential Scanning Calorimetry show an increase in the endothermic peak related to water evaporation of the films from 92 °C (matrix) up to 102–114 °C (reinforced composites). Glass transition temperature increases from 126 °C in the polymer matrix up to 170–200 °C for the composites. Additionally, the storage modulus in the composites is enhanced up to 1614 % for the composites with modified ground quill, 2522 % for composites with modified long fiber and 3206 % for the composites with modified short fiber. The lysozyme test shows an improved in the degradability rate, the weight loss of the films at 21 days is reduced from 73 % for chitosan-starch matrix up to 16 % for the composites with 5wt% of quill; but all films show a biodegradable character depending on keratin type and chemical modification. The outstanding properties related to the addition of treated keratin materials show that these natural composites are a remarkable alternative to potentiat-ing chitosan–starch films with sustainable featuresUniversidad Autónoma del Estado de México Tecnológico Nacional de México, Instituto Tecnológico de Querétaro Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Tecnológico Nacional de México, Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya Universidad Autónoma de Cd. Juáre

New Insights into the Evolution of Metazoan Tyrosinase Gene Family

Tyrosinases, widely distributed among animals, plants and fungi, are involved in the biosynthesis of melanin, a pigment that has been exploited, in the course of evolution, to serve different functions. We conducted a deep evolutionary analysis of tyrosinase family amongst metazoa, thanks to the availability of new sequenced genomes, assessing that tyrosinases (tyr) represent a distinctive feature of all the organisms included in our study and, interestingly, they show an independent expansion in most of the analyzed phyla. Tyrosinase-related proteins (tyrp), which derive from tyr but show distinct key residues in the catalytic domain, constitute an invention of chordate lineage. In addition we here reported a detailed study of the expression territories of the ascidian Ciona intestinalis tyr and tyrps. Furthermore, we put efforts in the identification of the regulatory sequences responsible for their expression in pigment cell lineage. Collectively, the results reported here enlarge our knowledge about the tyrosinase gene family as valuable resource for understanding the genetic components involved in pigment cells evolution and development