A Pair of Partially Overlapping Arabidopsis Genes with Antagonistic Circadian Expression

A large number of plant genes are aligned with partially overlapping genes in antisense orientation. Transcription of both genes would therefore favour the formation of double-stranded RNA, providing a substrate for the RNAi machinery, and enhanced antisense transcription should therefore reduce sense transcript levels. We have identified a gene pair that resembles a model for antisense-based gene regulation as a T-DNA insertion into the antisense gene causes a reduction in antisense transcript levels and an increase in sense transcript levels. The same effect was, however, also observed when the two genes were inserted as transgenes into different chromosomal locations, independent of the sense and antisense gene being expressed individually or jointly. Our results therefore indicate that antagonistic changes in sense/antisense transcript levels do not necessarily reflect antisense-mediated regulation. More likely, the partial overlap of the two genes may have favoured the evolution of antagonistic expression patterns preventing RNAi effects

Principles of Diagnosing the Technical Condition of the Bearings of the Gas Turbine Engine Supports Using Rhythmogram and Scatterogram

The possibility of using a rhythmogram and a scatterogram for bearings of diagnosing a gas turbine engine and its components is discussed. Rhythmogram and scatterogram evaluate the quasi-periodicity of the technical system of a gas turbine engine. Rhythmogram and scatterogram were obtained using the method developed by us for processing quasi-periodic pulse signals. The method is based on the principles of the theory of optimal filtering, the theory of wavelet transform, and the Hermite transform. The wavelet transform is considered as a cross-correlation function. The Gauss-Hermite functions are used as the basis for wavelet analysis. The effectiveness of the diagnostic method is demonstrated by the example of the operation of the bearing supports of a gas turbine engine and the engine as a whole

Sense and Antisense Transcripts of Convergent Gene Pairs in Arabidopsis thaliana Can Share a Common Polyadenylation Region

The Arabidopsis genome contains a large number of gene pairs that encode sense and antisense transcripts with overlapping 3′ regions, indicative for a potential role of natural antisense transcription in regulating sense gene expression or transcript processing. When we mapped poly(A) transcripts of three plant gene pairs with long overlapping antisense transcripts, we identified an unusual transcript composition for two of the three gene pairs. Both genes pairs encoded a class of long sense transcripts and a class of short sense transcripts that terminate within the same polyadenylation region as the antisense transcripts encoded by the opposite strand. We find that the presence of the short sense transcript was not dependent on the expression of an antisense transcript. This argues against the assumption that the common termination region for sense and antisense poly(A) transcripts is the result of antisense-specific regulation. We speculate that for some genes evolution may have especially favoured alternative polyadenylation events that shorten transcript length for gene pairs with overlapping sense/antisense transcription, if this reduces the likelihood for dsRNA formation and transcript degradation

Co-operative inhibitory effects of hydrogen peroxide and iodine against bacterial and yeast species.

BACKGROUND: Hydrogen peroxide and iodine are powerful antimicrobials widely used as antiseptics and disinfectants. Their antimicrobial properties are known to be enhanced by combining them with other compounds. We studied co-operative inhibitory activities (synergism, additive effects and modes of growth inhibition) of hydrogen peroxide and iodine used concurrently against 3 bacterial and 16 yeast species. RESULTS: Synergistic or additive inhibitory effects were shown for hydrogen peroxide and iodine mixtures against all 19 species used in the study. Both biocides were mostly cidal individually and in mixtures against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Both compounds manifested static inhibitory effects individually, but their mixtures were synergistically cidal for Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherihia coli. Cells of S. cerevisiae treated with hydrogen peroxide and iodine-hydrogen peroxide mixture produced increased numbers of respiratory deficient mutants indicating genotoxic effects. CONCLUSION: Iodine and hydrogen peroxide used concurrently interact synergistically or additively against a range of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms. The study provides an insight as to how these traditional antimicrobials could be used more effectively for disinfection and antisepsis. In addition, a simple approach is proposed for scoring genotoxicity of different biocides by using the budding yeast system

Self-fertile cybrids nicotiana tabacum (+hyoscyamus aureus) with a nucleo-plastome incompatibility

Cytoplasmic hybrids (cybrids) in a novel inter-generic combination, Nicotiana tabacum (+Hyoscyamus aureus), were generated by fusion of protoplasts from a plastome tobacco albino mutant (line R100a1) and %-irradiated green protoplasts of H. aureus. Cybrids possessed a plastome of H. aureus and a rearranged mitochondrial DNA. The cybrids displayed a syndrome of nucleo-plastome incompatibility expressed as a partial chlorophyll-deficiency of cotyledonary and true leaves at the early stage of vegetative development of plants grown from seeds in soil. During later development, the plants restored a normal green coloration. This character is phenotypically indistinguishable from the same syndrome in previously generated cybrids N. tabacum (+H. nigrum). In contrast to the cybrids N. tabacum (+H. nigrum), cybrids N. tabacum (+H. aureus) were self-fertile, and did not manifest other features that were interpreted as nucleo-mitochondrial incompatibilities in N. tabacum (+H. nigrum) plants. Therefore, the cybrids N. tabacum (+H. aureus) present a self-propagating system of Nicotiana (+Hyoscyamus) nucleo-plastome incompatibility in its pure form

Intrachromosomal recombination between attP regions as a tool to remove selectable marker genes from tobacco transgenes

International audienceecombinant genes conferring resistance to antibiotics or herbicides are widely used as selectable markers in plant transformation. Once transgenic material has been selected, the marker gene is dispensable. We report a novel strategy to remove undesirable parts of a transgene after integration into the tobacco genome, This approach is based on the transfer of a vector containing a NPTII gene flanked by two 352 bp attachment P (attP) regions of bacteriophage lambda, and the identification of somatic tissue with deletion events following intrachromosomal recombination between the attP regions. This system was used to delete a 5.9 kb region from a recombinant vector that had been inserted into two different genomic regions. As the attP system does not require the expression of helper proteins to induce deletion events, or a genetic segregation step to remove recombinase genes, it should provide a useful tool to remove undesirable transgene regions, especially in vegetatively propagated species

New CMS-associated phenotypes in cybrids nicotiana tabacum L. (+Hyoscyamus niger L.).

Morphological characteristics were studied in cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) cybrids possessing the tobacco nuclear genome, Hyoscyamus niger plastome and recombinant mitochondria. After backcrosses with tobacco, new flower modifications were found, including: conversions of stamens into branched filamentous structures; alterations in the shape of petals and the corolla limb; and high degrees of reduction in most flower organs. Vegetative alterations (leaf elongation and stem branching) occurred in some cybrids. Results confirmed that a protoplast fusion-based alloplasmic cytoplasm transfer, followed by conventional backcrosses, is a useful tool for generating alternative CMS sources with novel nucleo-cytoplasmic compositions. These alterations in the genetic status were accompanied by modified floral and vegetative phenotypes

Elasticita jako určující faktor přirozené obnovy sídelní struktury

The contemporary transformation of settlements and landscapes follows the transformation of lifestyle, the relationship of man to the landscape. The relationship to the soil as a source of livelihood disappears, the attitude of the inhabitants to the forms of settlements changes. Built area is expanding extensively, the scale and forms of settlement are changing, neoplasms have been written into the structure without any relation to the territory. Relations in the territory that create the properties of living structures are lost. The development of settlements in relation to the landscape recorded in the monitored period at least two problematic phases - the transformation of the land structure in the post-war period, and the last period of approximately 25 years, when there is a significant suburbanization. The way of spatial planning is signed on the form of landscape and settlement. It is therefore necessary to emphasize the creation of mutual relations, preservation of the landscape as irreplaceable value. Probably the traditional model of settlement provides a binding structure that has a sufficient elasticity for changing conditions. This hypothesis will be verified by the analysis of the functionality of the settlement structure, the case study focuses on the area of Židlochovice. The results should be compared with examples of other settlements in a similar cultural circuit