Interplay between Human Cytomegalovirus and Intrinsic/Innate Host Responses: A Complex Bidirectional Relationship

The interaction between human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and its host is a complex process that begins with viral attachment and entry into host cells, culminating in the development of a specific adaptive response that clears the acute infection but fails to eradicate HCMV. We review the viral and cellular partners that mediate early host responses to HCMV with regard to the interaction between structural components of virions (viral glycoproteins) and cellular receptors (attachment/entry receptors, toll-like receptors, and other nucleic acid sensors) or intrinsic factors (PML, hDaxx, Sp100, viperin, interferon inducible protein 16), the reactions of innate immune cells (antigen presenting cells and natural killer cells), the numerous mechanisms of viral immunoevasion, and the potential exploitation of events that are associated with early phases of virus-host interplay as a therapeutic strategy

Somatic variants for seed and fruit set in grapevine

Background: Grapevine reproductive development has direct implications on yield. It also impacts on berry and wine quality by affecting traits like seedlessness, berry and bunch size, cluster compactness and berry skin to pulp ratio. Seasonal fluctuations in yield, fruit composition and wine attributes, which are largely driven by climatic factors, are major challenges for worldwide table grape and wine industry. Accordingly, a better understanding of reproductive processes such as gamete development, fertilization, seed and fruit set is of paramount relevance for managing yield and quality. With the aim of providing new insights into this field, we searched for clones with contrasting seed content in two germplasm collections. Results: We identified eight variant pairs that seemingly differ only in seed-related characteristics while showing identical genotype when tested with the GrapeReSeq_Illumina_20K_SNP_chip and several microsatellites. We performed multi-year observations on seed and fruit set deriving from different pollination treatments, with special emphasis on the pair composed by Sangiovese and its seedless variant locally named Corinto Nero. The pollen of Corinto Nero failed to germinate in vitro and gave poor berry set when used to pollinate other varieties. Most berries from both open- and cross-pollinated Corinto Nero inflorescences did not contain seeds. The genetic analysis of seedlings derived from occasional Corinto Nero normal seeds revealed that the few Corinto Nero functional gametes are mostly unreduced. Moreover, three genotypes, including Sangiovese and Corinto Nero, were unexpectedly found to develop fruits without pollen contribution and occasionally showed normal-like seeds. Five missense single nucleotide polymorphisms were identified between Corinto Nero and Sangiovese from transcriptomic data. Conclusions: Our observations allowed us to attribute a seedlessness type to some variants for which it was not documented in the literature. Interestingly, the VvAGL11 mutation responsible for Sultanina stenospermocarpy was also discovered in a seedless mutant of Gouais Blanc. We suggest that Corinto Nero parthenocarpy is driven by pollen and/or embryo sac defects, and both events likely arise from meiotic anomalies. The single nucleotide polymorphisms identified between Sangiovese and Corinto Nero are suitable for testing as traceability markers for propagated material and as functional candidates for the seedless phenotype

Whole-genome sequencing and SNV genotyping of 'Nebbiolo' (Vitis vinifera L.) clones

'Nebbiolo' (Vitis vinifera) is among the most ancient and prestigious wine grape varieties characterised by a wide genetic variability exhibited by a high number of clones (vegetatively propagated lines of selected mother plants). However, limited information is available for this cultivar at the molecular and genomic levels. The whole-genomes of three 'Nebbiolo' clones (CVT 71, CVT 185 and CVT 423) were re-sequenced and a de novo transcriptome assembly was produced. Important remarks about the genetic peculiarities of 'Nebbiolo' and its intra-varietal variability useful for clonal identification were reported. In particular, several varietal transcripts identified for the first time in 'Nebbiolo' were disease resistance genes and single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) identified in 'Nebbiolo', but not in other cultivars, were associated with genes involved in the stress response. Ten newly discovered SNVs were successfully employed to identify some periclinal chimeras and to classify 98 'Nebbiolo' clones in seven main genotypes, which resulted to be linked to the geographical origin of accessions. In addition, for the first time it was possible to discriminate some 'Nebbiolo' clones from the others

Albert Paley : Threshold, Klein Steel

Albert Paley [College at Brockport former faculty member]. Edited by Linda Shearer ; editor, Paola Gribaudo.https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/bookshelf/1078/thumbnail.jp

Circular Economy: a Coloured Petri Net based discrete event simulation model

Transition from linear economy to circular economy has been so fast due to worsening circumstances stem from climate change and pollution environmental effect. The circular economy has provoked by the emergent need to cope with resources scarcity (e.g. water and food). This economy generates a new way of rethinking and re-design process by re-using the same material, minimise the impact of waste and pollution, and revamp the economy. In this context, cities offer a desirable place for the evolution of the circular economy thanks to their closeness to citizens, companies, and service suppliers. Such cycles, are very interesting systems from a performance evaluation point of view: in this paper we offer an holistic case study by employing Coloured Petri Nets to describe a real case scenario of circular economy. We focus on a very current example which considers the circular production of chitin by bioconversion of municipal waste and we show how we can describe and analyse it by using standard approaches to performance evaluation. The results allow to focus on interesting metrics and performance indicators, which may not be easily obtainable with conventional techniques used in the economic domain

A Simulation Based Approach For The Evaluation Of Outcome Driven Innovation Models

The evaluation of the opportunity of investments on complex production processes is a critical factor in order to enable the balance of risks and potential benefits. There is no out-of-the-box tool that can solve this problem: only the experience of the responsible expert and his knowledgeability of the process can help. Outcome Driven Innovation is an evaluation technique that can support decisions, based on a structured approach to process analysis and on the availability of domain experts: anyway, the need for experts can make the evaluation itself very expensive. In this paper a simulative approach is used to provide an a priori characterization of the conditions that can suggest the opportunity of adopting Outcome Driven Innovation for a process. © ECMS Valeri M. Mladenov, Petia Georgieva, Grisha Spasov, Galidiya Petrova (Editors