Both free indole-3-acetic acid and photosynthetic performance are important players in the response of medicago truncatula to urea and ammonium nutrition under axenic conditions

We aimed to identify the early stress response and plant performance of Medicago truncatula growing in axenic medium with ammonium or urea as the sole source of nitrogen, with respect to nitrate-based nutrition. Biomass measurements, auxin content analyses, root system architecture (RSA) response analyses, and physiological parameters were determined. Both ammonium and ureic nutrition severely affected the RSA, resulting in changes in the main elongation rate, lateral root development, and insert position from the root base. The auxin content decreased in both urea- and ammonium-treated roots; however, only the ammonium-treated plants were affected at the shoot level. The analysis of chlorophyll a fluorescence transients showed that ammonium affected photosystem II, but urea did not impair photosynthetic activity. Superoxide dismutase isoenzymes in the plastids were moderately affected by urea and ammonium in the roots. Overall, our results showed that low N doses from different sources had no remarkable effects on M. truncatula, with the exception of the differential phenotypic root response. High doses of both ammonium and urea caused great changes in plant length, auxin contents and physiological measurements. Interesting correlations were found between the shoot auxin pool and both plant length and the "performance index" parameter, which is obtained from measurements of the kinetics of chlorophyll a fluorescence

Somatic activating mutations in Pik3ca cause sporadic venous malformations in mice and humans.

Venous malformations (VMs) are painful and deforming vascular lesions composed of dilated vascular channels, which are present from birth. Mutations in the TEK gene, encoding the tyrosine kinase receptor TIE2, are found in about half of sporadic (nonfamilial) VMs, and the causes of the remaining cases are unknown. Sclerotherapy, widely accepted as first-line treatment, is not fully efficient, and targeted therapy for this disease remains underexplored. We have generated a mouse model that faithfully mirrors human VM through mosaic expression of Pik3ca(H1047R), a constitutively active mutant of the p110α isoform of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), in the embryonic mesoderm. Endothelial expression of Pik3ca(H1047R)resulted in endothelial cell (EC) hyperproliferation, reduction in pericyte coverage of blood vessels, and decreased expression of arteriovenous specification markers. PI3K pathway inhibition with rapamycin normalized EC hyperproliferation and pericyte coverage in postnatal retinas and stimulated VM regression in vivo. In line with the mouse data, we also report the presence of activating PIK3CA mutations in human VMs, mutually exclusive with TEK mutations. Our data demonstrate a causal relationship between activating Pik3ca mutations and the genesis of VMs, provide a genetic model that faithfully mirrors the normal etiology and development of this human disease, and establish the basis for the use of PI3K-targeted therapies in VMs.Postdoctoral fellowships were from EMBO (A LTF 165-2013) to S.D.C, EU Marie Curie (MEIF-CT-2005-010264) to E.T. and EU Marie Curie (PIIF-GA-2009-252846) to I.M.B. M.Z.-T. is supported by the EPSRC Early Career Fellowship of T.L.K. (EP/L006472/1). D.J.S. is a BHF Intermediate Basic Science Research Fellow (FS/15/33/31608). A.L.D is supported by the UK NIHR Joint UCL/University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre. V.E.R.P. was supported by the Wellcome Trust (097721/Z/11/Z). R.K.S. is supported by the Wellcome Trust (WT098498), the Medical Research Council (M RC_MC_UU_12012/5). R.G.K. is supported by the NIHR Rare Diseases Translational Research Collaboration. V.W. is supported by the European FPVI Integrated Project ‘Eurostemcell’. M.F.L. and A.B. are supported by the King’s College London and UCL Comprehensive Cancer Imaging Centre CR-UK and EPSRC, in association with the MRC and DoH (England). W.A.P. is supported by funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia. Work in the laboratory of M.G. is supported by research grants SAF2013-46542-P and SAF2014-59950-P from MICINN (Spain), 2014-SGR-725 from the Catalan Government, the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013/ (REA grant agreement 317250), the Institute of Health Carlos III (ISC III) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the integrated Project of Excellence no. PIE13/00022 (ONCOPROFILE). Work in the laboratory of B.V. is supported by Cancer Research UK (C23338/A15965) and the UK NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Association for the Advancement of Science via http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aad998

Genetic parameters and trends for milk production of Blond-Faced Latxa sheep using Bayesian analysis

The genetic progress attained with the breeding scheme of the blond-faced Latxa dairy sheep in the Spanish Basque Country was assessed by a Bayesian approach based on the marginal posterior distributions of parameters achieved via Gibbs sampling. The data file included 49,056 milk yield records of 22,363 ewes. Normal distributions were assumed for EBV and fixed effects, and scaled inverted chi-square distributions were assumed for variance components or additive, permanent environment, and residual effects. Under vague priors for variance components, the posterior means (SD) for heritability and permanent environment coefficient for milk yield at 120 d were 0.22 (0.01) and 0.20 (0.01). An important effect on the milk yield (41.6% of the mean) was evident for a genetic group of imported rams. Selection was effective for sheep that were bred by AI and that had known parents. The robustness of results for effect of genetic group and genetic trends was validated using a mildly informative prior constructed from variance components estimated with the related black-faced Latxa breed

El queso idiazábal y los sistemas de producción de las razas latxa y carranzana

El queso Idiazábal se elabora en las Comunidades Autónomas del País Vasco y Navarra exclusivamente a partir de la leche cruda de oveja Latxa y Carranzana. La base territorial media de las explotaciones de ovino lechero es de 10 Ha de superficie total. Es frecuente el alquiler temporal de praderas o monte fundamentalmente en invierno. Además,un elevado porcentaje de rebaños pastan en terrenos comunales durante el verano, en un período siempre superior a cinco meses. La duración del ordeño es de aproximadamente 120 días, estando condicionado el secado en la mayor parte de los casos por el traslado del ganado a los montes comunales. La producción lechera media estimada en la raza Latxa según datos del control lechero de 1995 ha sido 109 litros por lactación ordeñada. En la mayor parte de las explotaciones el ordeño se hace a mano, con o sin amarre. Según datos de la D.O. de 1995 existen inscritas 633 explotaciones de ovino de aptitud lechera, de las cuales 535 venden leche de oveja a 20 queserías acogidas a la D.O. y 98, reunidos en una asociación denominada Artzai-Gazta (queso de pastor), utilizan la leche de su propia explotación en la elaboración de quesos. Al final de la maduración el queso debe cumplir, entre otras, las siguientes características físico-químicas: la grasa no ser inferior al 45% sobre el extracto seco, un extracto seco mínimo de 55%, un pH entre 5,1 y 5,8 y una proteína total mínima del 25% sobre extracto seco

El queso idiazábal y los sistemas de producción de las razas latxa y carranzana

El queso Idiazábal se elabora en las Comunidades Autónomas del País Vasco y Navarra exclusivamente a partir de la leche cruda de oveja Latxa y Carranzana. La base territorial media de las explotaciones de ovino lechero es de 10 Ha de superficie total. Es frecuente el alquiler temporal de praderas o monte fundamentalmente en invierno. Además,un elevado porcentaje de rebaños pastan en terrenos comunales durante el verano, en un período siempre superior a cinco meses. La duración del ordeño es de aproximadamente 120 días, estando condicionado el secado en la mayor parte de los casos por el traslado del ganado a los montes comunales. La producción lechera media estimada en la raza Latxa según datos del control lechero de 1995 ha sido 109 litros por lactación ordeñada. En la mayor parte de las explotaciones el ordeño se hace a mano, con o sin amarre. Según datos de la D.O. de 1995 existen inscritas 633 explotaciones de ovino de aptitud lechera, de las cuales 535 venden leche de oveja a 20 queserías acogidas a la D.O. y 98, reunidos en una asociación denominada Artzai-Gazta (queso de pastor), utilizan la leche de su propia explotación en la elaboración de quesos. Al final de la maduración el queso debe cumplir, entre otras, las siguientes características físico-químicas: la grasa no ser inferior al 45% sobre el extracto seco, un extracto seco mínimo de 55%, un pH entre 5,1 y 5,8 y una proteína total mínima del 25% sobre extracto seco

Both free indole-3-acetic acid and photosynthetic performance are important players in the response of medicago truncatula to urea and ammonium nutrition under axenic conditions

We aimed to identify the early stress response and plant performance of Medicago truncatula growing in axenic medium with ammonium or urea as the sole source of nitrogen, with respect to nitrate-based nutrition. Biomass measurements, auxin content analyses, root system architecture (RSA) response analyses, and physiological parameters were determined. Both ammonium and ureic nutrition severely affected the RSA, resulting in changes in the main elongation rate, lateral root development, and insert position from the root base. The auxin content decreased in both urea- and ammonium-treated roots; however, only the ammonium-treated plants were affected at the shoot level. The analysis of chlorophyll a fluorescence transients showed that ammonium affected photosystem II, but urea did not impair photosynthetic activity. Superoxide dismutase isoenzymes in the plastids were moderately affected by urea and ammonium in the roots. Overall, our results showed that low N doses from different sources had no remarkable effects on M. truncatula, with the exception of the differential phenotypic root response. High doses of both ammonium and urea caused great changes in plant length, auxin contents and physiological measurements. Interesting correlations were found between the shoot auxin pool and both plant length and the "performance index" parameter, which is obtained from measurements of the kinetics of chlorophyll a fluorescence