An advanced sheep (Ovis aries, 2n = 54) cytogenetic map and assignment of 88 new autosomal loci by fluorescence in situ hybridization and R-banding

Presented herein is an updated sheep cytogenetic map that contains 452 loci (291 type I and 161 type II) assigned to specific chromosome bands or regions on standard R-banded ideograms. This map, which significantly extends our knowledge of the physical organization of the ovine genome, includes new assignments for 88 autosomal loci, including 74 type I loci (known genes) and 14 type II loci (SSRs/microsatellite marker/STSs), by FISH-mapping and R-banding. Comparison of the ovine map to the cattle and goat cytogenetic maps showed that common loci were located within homologous chromosomes and chromosome bands, confirming the high level of conservation of autosomes among ruminant species. Eleven loci that were FISH-mapped in sheep (B3GAT2, ASCC3, RARSL, BRD2, POLR1C, PPP2R5D, TNRC5, BAT2, BAT4, CDC5L and OLA-DRA) are unassigned in cattle and goat. Eleven other loci (D3S32, D1S86, BMS2621, SFXN5, D5S3, D5S68, CSKB1, D7S49, D9S15, D9S55 and D29S35) were assigned to specific ovine chromosome (OAR) bands but have only been assigned to chromosomes in cattle and goat

P2RX7 Purinoceptor: A Therapeutic Target for Ameliorating the Symptoms of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

open access articleDuchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most common inherited muscle disease, leading to severe disability and death in young men. Death is caused by the progressive degeneration of striated muscles aggravated by sterile inflammation. The pleiotropic effects of the mutant gene also include cognitive and behavioral impairments and low bone density. Current interventions in DMD are palliative only as no treatment improves the long-term outcome. Therefore, approaches with a translational potential should be investigated, and key abnormalities downstream from the absence of the DMD product, dystrophin, appear to be strong therapeutic targets. We and others have demonstrated that DMD mutations alter ATP signaling and have identified P2RX7 purinoceptor up-regulation as being responsible for the death of muscles in the mdx mouse model of DMD and human DMD lymphoblasts. Moreover, the ATP–P2RX7 axis, being a crucial activator of innate immune responses, can contribute to DMD pathology by stimulating chronic inflammation. We investigated whether ablation of P2RX7 attenuates the DMD model mouse phenotype to assess receptor suitability as a therapeutic target

The Comet Interceptor Mission

Here we describe the novel, multi-point Comet Interceptor mission. It is dedicated to the exploration of a little-processed long-period comet, possibly entering the inner Solar System for the first time, or to encounter an interstellar object originating at another star. The objectives of the mission are to address the following questions: What are the surface composition, shape, morphology, and structure of the target object? What is the composition of the gas and dust in the coma, its connection to the nucleus, and the nature of its interaction with the solar wind? The mission was proposed to the European Space Agency in 2018, and formally adopted by the agency in June 2022, for launch in 2029 together with the Ariel mission. Comet Interceptor will take advantage of the opportunity presented by ESA’s F-Class call for fast, flexible, low-cost missions to which it was proposed. The call required a launch to a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point. The mission can take advantage of this placement to wait for the discovery of a suitable comet reachable with its minimum ΔV capability of 600 ms−1. Comet Interceptor will be unique in encountering and studying, at a nominal closest approach distance of 1000 km, a comet that represents a near-pristine sample of material from the formation of the Solar System. It will also add a capability that no previous cometary mission has had, which is to deploy two sub-probes – B1, provided by the Japanese space agency, JAXA, and B2 – that will follow different trajectories through the coma. While the main probe passes at a nominal 1000 km distance, probes B1 and B2 will follow different chords through the coma at distances of 850 km and 400 km, respectively. The result will be unique, simultaneous, spatially resolved information of the 3-dimensional properties of the target comet and its interaction with the space environment. We present the mission’s science background leading to these objectives, as well as an overview of the scientific instruments, mission design, and schedule

Cascaded solid-spaced filters for DWDM applications

We report in this manuscript the study of solid-spaced Fabry-Perot filters. The use of high quality wafers as thick spacers and broadband dielectric mirrors with only few layers provides filters which have almost the same specifications as classical WDM interference filters. Multiple cavity filters, composed of single cavities of equal or different thick spacers are easy to manufacture and exhibit very low absorption and scattering losses. Experimental results concerning simple and double cavity filters with thick spacers centered at 1.56 µm with a maximum transmission more than 98 % and a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of about 0.5 µm are exposed. We then propose different solutions for the extension to triple cavity filters with improved spectral properties

Development of diffraction gratings and grisms engraved by photolithography for NIR space instruments

International audienceTHESEUS mission aims to detect and observe transient sources in the X-ray and Gamma-Ray bands, with a follow-up in the infrared band. The primary objectives are to provide real time trigger and accurate location of GRBs and to discover new high-energy transients. THESEUS InfraRed Telescope (IRT) is, with the Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) and the X-Gamma ray Imaging Spectrometer (XGIS), one on the 3 instruments onboard THESEUS satellite. The IRT (0.7-1.8 μm) is a 0.7 m class IR telescope with 15x15 arcmin FOV, for fast response, with both imaging and spectroscopy capabilities. The most critical component for the spectroscopic mode is the grism. This grism is a complex component with multi - function properties: (i) fixing the line of sight towards the detector; (ii) selecting the correct spectral band with interferential filter; (iii) compensating for aberrations (both geometrical and chromatic) to reach near diffraction-limit image quality; (iiii) dispersing the wavelengths with a resolving power around 400. Such grisms have been developed by our laboratory for the NISP instrument of the EUCLID mission, with industry partnership from Silios Technologies. These grisms, with curved lines, are manufactured by photolithography. In the context of THESEUS IRT grisms, new R&D activities are mandatory to validate the manufacturability of the gratings since they have a groove density 3 times higher than NISP grisms. In this article, we will present the results we obtained on grating prototypes developed during the phase A of the project. Profilometric measurements of the groove profile and diffraction efficiency measurement are analyzed