Phylogeny and a structural model of plant MHX transporters

Abstract Background The Arabidopsis thaliana MHX gene (AtMHX) encodes a Mg2+/H+ exchanger. Among non-plant proteins, AtMHX showed the highest similarity to mammalian Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX) transporters, which are part of the Ca2+/cation (CaCA) exchanger superfamily. Results Sequences showing similarity to AtMHX were searched in the databases or sequenced from cDNA clones. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the MHX family is limited to plants, and constitutes a sixth family within the CaCA superfamily. Some plants include, besides a full MHX gene, partial MHX-related sequences. More than one full MHX gene was currently identified only in Oryza sativa and Mimulus guttatus, but an EST for more than one MHX was identified only in M. guttatus. MHX genes are not present in the currently available chlorophyte genomes. The prevalence of upstream ORFs in MHX genes is much higher than in most plant genes, and can limit their expression. A structural model of the MHXs, based on the resolved structure of NCX1, implies that the MHXs include nine transmembrane segments. The MHXs and NCXs share 32 conserved residues, including a GXG motif implicated in the formation of a tight-turn in a reentrant-loop. Three residues differ between all MHX and NCX proteins. Altered mobility under reducing and non-reducing conditions suggests the presence of an intramolecular disulfide-bond in AtMHX. Conclusions The absence of MHX genes in non-plant genomes and in the currently available chlorophyte genomes, and the presence of an NCX in Chlamydomonas, are consistent with the suggestion that the MHXs evolved from the NCXs after the split of the chlorophyte and streptophyte lineages of the plant kingdom. The MHXs underwent functional diploidization in most plant species. De novo duplication of MHX occurred in O. sativa before the split between the Indica and Japonica subspecies, and was apparently followed by translocation of one MHX paralog from chromosome 2 to chromosome 11 in Japonica. The structural analysis presented and the identification of elements that differ between the MHXs and the NCXs, or between the MHXs of specific plant groups, can contribute to clarification of the structural basis of the function and ion selectivity of MHX transporters. </jats:sec

Quality of life among women with symptoms of gynecological morbidities: results of a cross‐sectional study in Karachi, Pakistan

AIMS: A population-based cross-sectional study design was used to study the effects of symptoms of various gynecological morbidities (GM) on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of women, residents of squatter settlements of Karachi, Pakistan. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in squatter settlements of Karachi from September 2012 to August 2013, with 1002 married, non-pregnant women. After obtaining written informed consent from every participant, a structured questionnaire was used to collect information about symptoms of GM and their effect on four domains of HRQoL (physical, social, functional and financial domains). RESULTS: Of 1002 women who participated in the study, 578 reported suffering from one or more symptoms of GM. The most commonly reported symptoms were foul-smelling vaginal discharge, dysmenorrhea and uterovaginal prolapse while the least reported symptom was post-coital bleeding. Symptoms of GM were found to have a negative impact on HRQoL. Approximately one-third of women with the symptoms of GM reported having negative influences on the physical, financial and functional domains of HRQoL with social domain being comparatively less affected. Compared to other symptoms, dysmenorrhea and uterovaginal prolapse were reported to be mostly associated with poor HRQoL of women. CONCLUSION: The concept of HRQoL has been kept marginal and inconspicuous by clinicians. In order to achieve the psychosocial satisfaction of the patient, the focus needs to be diverted to all domains of HRQoL

CTrGAN: Cycle Transformers GAN for Gait Transfer

We attempt for the first time to address the problem of gait transfer. In contrast to motion transfer, the objective here is not to imitate the source's normal motions, but rather to transform the source's motion into a typical gait pattern for the target. Using gait recognition models, we demonstrate that existing techniques yield a discrepancy that can be easily detected. We introduce a novel model, Cycle Transformers GAN (CTrGAN), that can successfully generate the target's natural gait. CTrGAN's generators consist of a decoder and encoder, both Transformers, where the attention is on the temporal domain between complete images rather than the spatial domain between patches. While recent Transformer studies in computer vision mainly focused on discriminative tasks, we introduce an architecture that can be applied to synthesis tasks. Using a widely-used gait recognition dataset, we demonstrate that our approach is capable of producing over an order of magnitude more realistic personalized gaits than existing methods, even when used with sources that were not available during training

Evaluation of Strategies and Implementation of Biological Control of Fire Blight

The main objective of this study was to develop data that would facilitate a consistently effective method of biological control of fire blight disease to be developed and to enable its implementation for disease control by ensuring its compatibility with variations in the biological, environmental, and chemical conditions present in pear orchards. As considerable information on the pathogen and biological control of fire blight was already gathered from studies in California and elsewhere, an emphasis was placed on investigating the genetics and ecology of Erwinia amylovora, the causal agent of fire blight in Israel. Studies of plasmid profile, virulence on several host, serological characteristics, as well as DNA fingerprints with selected primers all revealed E. amylovora strains in Israel to be homogeneous. Strains did vary in their resistance to streptomycin, with those from more northern locations being resistant while those in the southern costal plain were all sensitive to streptomycin. Resistance appeared to be conferred by chromosomal mutations as in streptomycin-resistant strains in California. The biological control agent Pseudomonas fluorescens strain A506 colonized flowers of both the Costia and Spodona pear cultivars in Israel as well as Bartlett pear in California. Flowers that were open at the time of spray inoculation of trees subsequently harbored from 105 to 107 cells of strain A506 per flower, while those that opened subsequent to spraying developed population sizes of about 105 cells/flower within 5 days. The incidence of fire blight infections were reduced about 3-fold in several trials in which moderate amounts of disease occurred in the plot areas; this degree of biological control is similar to that observed in California and elsewhere. On two occasions warm and moist weather that favored disease led to epidemics in which nearly all flowers became infected and which was so severe that neither P. fluorescens strain A506 nor chemical bactericides reduced disease incidence. A novel method for identifying antagonistic microorganisms for biological control of fire blight and other diseases was developed. A bacterial ice nucleation gene was introduced into E. amylovora to confer an Ice+ phenotype and the population sizes of this modified pathogen on flowers that had been pre-treated with potential control agents was estimated by measuring the freezing temperature of colonized flowers. Antagonistic strains that prevented the growth of E. amylovora in flowers were readily detected as those in which flowers froze at a low temperature. The method is both rapid and unbiased and several bacterial strains with substantial biological control potential have been identified using this method.</p