2,772 research outputs found
Microsatellite Markers For Urochloa Humidicola (poaceae) And Their Transferability To Other Urochloa Species
Background: Urochloa humidicola is a warm-season grass commonly used as forage in the tropics and is recognized for its tolerance to seasonal flooding. This grass is an important forage species for the Cerrado and Amazon regions of Brazil. U. humidicola is a polyploid species with variable ploidy (6X-9X) and facultative apomixis with high phenotypic plasticity. However, this apomixis and ploidy, as well as the limited knowledge of the genetic basis of the germplasm collection, have constrained genetic breeding activities, yet microsatellite markers may enable a better understanding of the species' genetic composition. This study aimed to develop and characterize new polymorphic microsatellite molecular markers in U. humidicola and to evaluate their transferability to other Urochloa species. Findings: A set of microsatellite markers for U. humidicola was identified from two new enriched genomic DNA libraries: the first library was constructed from a single sexual genotype and the second from a pool of eight apomictic genotypes selected on the basis of previous results. Of the 114 loci developed, 72 primer pairs presented a good amplification product, and 64 were polymorphic among the 34 genotypes tested. The number of bands per simple sequence repeat (SSR) locus ranged from 1 to 29, with a mean of 9.6 bands per locus. The mean polymorphism information content (PIC) of all loci was 0.77, and the mean discrimination power (DP) was 0.87. STRUCTURE analysis revealed differences among U. humidicola accessions, hybrids, and other Urochloa accessions. The transferability of these microsatellites was evaluated in four species of the genus, U. brizantha, U. decumbens, U. ruziziensis, and U. dictyoneura, and the percentage of transferability ranged from 58.33% to 69.44% depending on the species. Conclusions: This work reports new polymorphic microsatellite markers for U. humidicola that can be used for breeding programs of this and other Urochloa species, including genetic linkage mapping, quantitative trait loci identification, and marker-assisted selection.
An extrasolar planetary system with three Neptune-mass planets
Over the past two years, the search for low-mass extrasolar planets has led
to the detection of seven so-called 'hot Neptunes' or 'super-Earths' around
Sun-like stars. These planets have masses 5-20 times larger than the Earth and
are mainly found on close-in orbits with periods of 2-15 days. Here we report a
system of three Neptune-mass planets with periods of 8.67, 31.6 and 197 days,
orbiting the nearby star HD 69830. This star was already known to show an
infrared excess possibly caused by an asteroid belt within 1 AU (the Sun-Earth
distance). Simulations show that the system is in a dynamically stable
configuration. Theoretical calculations favour a mainly rocky composition for
both inner planets, while the outer planet probably has a significant gaseous
envelope surrounding its rocky/icy core; the outer planet orbits within the
habitable zone of this star.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, preprint of the paper published in Nature on May
18, 200
Microsatellite markers for urochloa Humidicola (poaceae) and their transferability to other urochloa species
Urochloa humidicola is a warm-season grass commonly used as forage in the tropics and is recognized for its tolerance to seasonal flooding. This grass is an important forage species for the Cerrado and Amazon regions of Brazil. U. humidicola is a polyploid species with variable ploidy (6X-9X) and facultative apomixis with high phenotypic plasticity. However, this apomixis and ploidy, as well as the limited knowledge of the genetic basis of the germplasm collection, have constrained genetic breeding activities, yet microsatellite markers may enable a better understanding of the species' genetic composition. This study aimed to develop and characterize new polymorphic microsatellite molecular markers in U. humidicola and to evaluate their transferability to other Urochloa species. Findings: A set of microsatellite markers for U. humidicola was identified from two new enriched genomic DNA libraries: the first library was constructed from a single sexual genotype and the second from a pool of eight apomictic genotypes selected on the basis of previous results. Of the 114 loci developed, 72 primer pairs presented a good amplification product, and 64 were polymorphic among the 34 genotypes tested. The number of bands per simple sequence repeat (SSR) locus ranged from 1 to 29, with a mean of 9.6 bands per locus. The mean polymorphism information content (PIC) of all loci was 0.77, and the mean discrimination power (DP) was 0.87. STRUCTURE analysis revealed differences among U. humidicola accessions, hybrids, and other Urochloa accessions. The transferability of these microsatellites was evaluated in four species of the genus, U. brizantha, U. decumbens, U. ruziziensis, and U. dictyoneura, and the percentage of transferability ranged from 58.33% to 69.44% depending on the species. Conclusions: This work reports new polymorphic microsatellite markers for U. humidicola that can be used for breeding programs of this and other Urochloa species, including genetic linkage mapping, quantitative trait loci identification, and marker-assisted selection8
Exercise Intensity Modulation of Hepatic Lipid Metabolism
Lipid metabolism in the liver is complex and involves the synthesis and secretion of very low density lipoproteins (VLDL), ketone bodies, and high rates of fatty acid oxidation, synthesis, and esterification. Exercise training induces several changes in lipid metabolism in the liver and affects VLDL secretion and fatty acid oxidation. These alterations are even more conspicuous in disease, as in obesity, and cancer cachexia. Our understanding of the mechanisms leading to metabolic adaptations in the liver as induced by exercise training has advanced considerably in the recent years, but much remains to be addressed. More recently, the adoption of high intensity exercise training has been put forward as a means of modulating hepatic metabolism. The purpose of the present paper is to summarise and discuss the merit of such new knowledge
Gauge-independent renormalization in the 2HDM
We present a consistent renormalization scheme for the CP-conserving
Two-Higgs-Doublet Model based on renormalization of the mixing
angles and the soft--symmetry-breaking scale in the Higgs sector.
This scheme requires to treat tadpoles fully consistently in all steps of the
calculation in order to provide gauge-independent -matrix elements. We show
how bare physical parameters have to be defined and verify the gauge
independence of physical quantities by explicit calculations in a general
-gauge. The procedure is straightforward and applicable to other
models with extended Higgs sectors. In contrast to the proposed scheme, the
renormalization of the mixing angles combined with popular
on-shell renormalization schemes gives rise to gauge-dependent results already
at the one-loop level. We present explicit results for electroweak NLO
corrections to selected processes in the appropriately renormalized
Two-Higgs-Doublet Model and in particular discuss their scale dependence.Comment: 52 pages, PDFLaTeX, PDF figures, JHEP version with Eq. (5.23)
correcte
The XMM-LSS survey. Survey design and first results
We have designed a medium deep large area X-ray survey with XMM - the XMM
Large Scale Structure survey, XMM-LSS - with the scope of extending the
cosmological tests attempted using ROSAT cluster samples to two redshift bins
between 0<z<1 while maintaining the precision of earlier studies. Two main
goals have constrained the survey design: the evolutionary study of the
cluster-cluster correlation function and of the cluster number density. The
results are promising and, so far, in accordance with our predictions as to the
survey sensitivity and cluster number density. The feasibility of the programme
is demonstrated and further X-ray coverage is awaited in order to proceed with
a truly significant statistical analysis. (Abridged)Comment: Published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physic
Glycoprotein Hormone Receptor Knockdown Leads to Reduced Reproductive Success in Male Aedes aegypti
Glycoprotein hormone receptors mediate a diverse range of physiological functions in vertebrate and invertebrate organisms. The heterodimeric glycoprotein hormone GPA2/GPB5 and its receptor LGR1, constitute a recently discovered invertebrate neuroendocrine signaling system that remains to be functionally characterized. We previously reported that LGR1 is expressed in the testes of adult Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, where its immunoreactivity is particularly regionalized. Here, we show that LGR1 immunoreactivity is associated with the centriole adjunct of spermatids and is observed transiently during spermatogenesis in mosquitoes, where it may act to mediate the regulation of flagellar development. RNA interference to downregulate LGR1 expression was accomplished by feeding mosquito larvae with bacteria that produced LGR1-specific dsRNA, which led to defects in spermatozoa, characterized with shortened flagella. LGR1 knockdown mosquitoes also retained ∼60% less spermatozoa in reproductive organs and demonstrated reduced fertility compared to controls. To date, the endocrine regulation of spermatogenesis in mosquitoes remains an understudied research area. The distribution of LGR1 and detrimental effects of its knockdown on spermatogenesis in A. aegypti indicates that this heterodimeric glycoprotein hormone signaling system contributes significantly to the regulation of male reproductive biology in this important disease-vector
Chemical composition, cytotoxicity and larvicidal activity against Aedes aegypti of essential oils from Vitex gardineriana Schauer
Vitex gardneriana Schauer (Lamiaceae) popularly known as “jaramataia”, is a shrub commonly found in caatinga biome located in Northeast Brazil. In folk medicine, its leaves have been used as analgesic and anti-inflammatory agents. The chemical composition of the essential oil from leaves obtained by hydrodistillation was analyzed and identified by GC-MS and GC-FID and showing a total of 26 constituents (95.9%) being 2 monoterpenes (0.4%) and 24 sesquiterpenes (95.4%). The main constituents identified were cis-calamenene (29.7%), 6,9-guaiadiene (14.5%) and caryophyllene oxide (14.0%). The essential oil has been demonstrated high larvicidal activity againstAedes aegypti (LC50 = 28.0 μg/mL). In the evaluation of the bioassay with Artemia salina the essential oil showed LC50 = 98.11 μg/mL. Inaddition, the essential oil did not show cytotoxicity (IC50 > 2.50 mg/mL) by the hemolysis assay
A vacuum double-crystal spectrometer for reference-free highly charged ions X-ray spectroscopy
We have built a vacuum double crystal spectrometer, which coupled to an
electron-cyclotron resonance ion source, allows to measure low-energy x-ray
transitions in highly-charged ions with accuracies of the order of a few parts
per million. We describe in detail the instrument and its performances.
Furthermore, we present a few spectra of transitions in Ar, Ar
and Ar. We have developed an ab initio simulation code that allows us
to obtain accurate line profiles. It can reproduce experimental spectra with
unprecedented accuracy. The quality of the profiles allows the direct
determination of line width.Comment: 21 pages; Version
Cross-sectional Survey of Hantavirus Infection, Brazil
A cross-sectional serosurvey was conducted to assess the proportion of persons exposed to hantaviruses in a virus-endemic area of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Findings of this study suggested the presence of >1 hantaviruses circulating in this region causing hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, mild disease, or asymptomatic infection
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