Identification and genetic characterization of an Aegilops tauschii ortholog of the wheat leaf rust disease resistance gene Lr1

Aegilops tauschii (goat grass) is the progenitor of the Dgenome in hexaploid bread wheat. We have screened more than 200 Ae. tauschii accessions for resistance against leaf rust (Puccinia triticina) isolates, which are avirulent on the leaf rust resistance gene Lr1. Approximately 3.5% of the Ae. tauschii accessions displayed the same low infection type as the tester line Thatcher Lr1. The accession Tr.t.213, which showed resistance after artificial infection with Lr1 isolates both in Mexico and in Switzerland, was chosen for further analysis. Genetic analysis showed that the resistance in this accession is controlled by a single dominant gene, which mapped at the same chromosomal position as Lr1 in wheat. It was delimited in a 1.3-cM region between the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers ABC718 and PSR567 on chromosome5DL of Ae. tauschii. The gene was more tightly linked to PSR567 (0.47cM) than to ABC718 (0.79cM). These results indicate that the resistance gene in Ae. tauschii accession Tr.t.213 is an ortholog of the leaf rust resistance gene Lr1 of bread wheat, suggesting that Lr1 originally evolved in diploid goat grass and was introgressed into the wheat Dgenome during or after domestication of hexaploid wheat. Compared to hexaploid wheat, higher marker polymorphism and recombination frequencies were observed in the region of the Lr1 ortholog in Ae. tauschii. The identification of Lr1Ae, the orthologous gene of wheat Lr1, in Ae. tauschii will allow map-based cloning of Lr1 from this genetically simpler, diploid genom

Long-term psychological intervention for parents of children with prolonged disorders of consciousness: a pilot study

BackgroundChildren with prolonged disorders of consciousness experience severe intellectual and behavioral disabilities that will last for decades or even a lifetime. Parents generally experience severe anxiety, stress, sadness, or family conflicts, which can lead to abnormal parenting behavior and can, in turn, adversely affect the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral well-being of the children. This causes a serious burden on children, families, and society. Psychological interventions targeting parents using online conversations provide an opportunity to improve the overall well-being of the parents, their children, and the family as a whole.MethodsA total of 13 patients completed the protocol. Six were girls (46.2%), the mean age was 4.5 ± 3.0 years, and the length of time before emergent from minimally consciousness state was 244 ± 235 days. A staff member with psychological counseling qualifications implemented all psychological interventions. Regular online psychological interventions were performed annually before and after discharge. Evaluation data were collected before discharge and at 1 and 3–5 years post-discharge.ResultsWith the extension of intervention time, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21, and the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale scores showed significant improvement (p < 0.05), while the Revised Scale for Caregiving Self-Efficacy scores did not. With the extension of intervention time, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Total Difficulties scores, TD) scores showed significant improvement (p < 0.05), while the scores did not after 1 year compared with before intervention. The Index of Child Care Environment evaluation scores declined significantly (p < 0.05).ConclusionPsychological interventions aimed at the parents of children with prolonged disorders of consciousness performed at least once per year resulted in significant improvements in negative parental emotions, parental self-efficacy, and emotional and behavioral problems in their children. However, the childcare environment continued to decline

ADAM8 signaling drives neutrophil migration and ARDS severity

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) results in catastrophic lung failure and has an urgent, unmet need for improved early recognition and therapeutic development. Neutrophil influx is a hallmark of ARDS and is associated with the release of tissue-destructive immune effectors, such as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and membrane-anchored metalloproteinase disintegrins (ADAMs). Here, we observed using intravital microscopy that Adam8–/– mice had impaired neutrophil transmigration. In mouse pneumonia models, both genetic deletion and pharmacologic inhibition of ADAM8 attenuated neutrophil infiltration and lung injury while improving bacterial containment. Unexpectedly, the alterations of neutrophil function were not attributable to impaired proteolysis but resulted from reduced intracellular interactions of ADAM8 with the actin-based motor molecule Myosin1f that suppressed neutrophil motility. In 2 ARDS cohorts, we analyzed lung fluid proteolytic signatures and identified that ADAM8 activity was positively correlated with disease severity. We propose that in acute inflammatory lung diseases such as pneumonia and ARDS, ADAM8 inhibition might allow fine-tuning of neutrophil responses for therapeutic gain

A comparison of the effects of endurance training on alternate days and on consecutive four days each week for eight weeks on the abundance of PGC-1α, CaMKII, NRF-1, mtTFA and COXIV proteins in rat skeletal muscle

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of two training protocols, training on alternate days (A) or on consecutive four days followed by three days of rest in each week (C) for eight weeks, on selected proteins involved in the biogenesis and function of mitochondria in skeletal muscle. Eighty male SD rats were randomly allocated into 10 groups (n=8 each), including Pre and Post control groups, and A or C training groups with 8, 16, 24 and 32 training sessions, respectively. The vastus lateralis and soleus muscle samples were obtained 24 hours after the last training session, or at rest for the controls. The abundance of the proteins for PGC-1α, CaMKII, NRF-1, mtTFA and COXIV was analysed by Western blotting. Analysis of the results with two-way ANOVA showed no significant effect and interaction (training protocol by duration) in abundance of the proteins by the two protocols. However, fold changes normalized to control showed significant increases COXIV of the soleus muscle at most time points in both A and C training as indicated by Krumkal-Wallis H tests. There were significant correlations found between the abundance of the measured proteins of the vastus lateralis. The findings suggest that the two training protocols with the same intensity and total volume of work would not make a significant difference in respect of the changes in the targeted proteins. Alternative regulatory factors and the responses in different types of muscles to the training programs need to be examined in future research

A Comparison of Improved Artificial Bee Colony Algorithms Based on Differential Evolution

The Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm is an active field of optimization based on swarm intelligence in recent years. Inspired by the mutation strategies used in Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm, this paper introduced three types strategies (“rand”,” best”, and “current-to-best”) and one or two numbers of disturbance vectors to ABC algorithm. Although individual mutation strategies in DE have been used in ABC algorithm by some researchers in different occasions, there have not a comprehensive application and comparison of the mutation strategies used in ABC algorithm. In this paper, these improved ABC algorithms can be analyzed by a set of testing functions including the rapidity of the convergence. The results show that those improvements based on DE achieve better performance in the whole than basic ABC algorithm. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/telkomnika.v11i10.334

Identification and genetic characterization of an Aegilops tauschii ortholog of the wheat leaf rust disease resistance gene Lr1

Aegilops tauschii (goat grass) is the progenitor of the Dgenome in hexaploid bread wheat. We have screened more than 200 Ae. tauschii accessions for resistance against leaf rust (Puccinia triticina) isolates, which are avirulent on the leaf rust resistance gene Lr1. Approximately 3.5% of the Ae. tauschii accessions displayed the same low infection type as the tester line Thatcher Lr1. The accession Tr.t.213, which showed resistance after artificial infection with Lr1 isolates both in Mexico and in Switzerland, was chosen for further analysis. Genetic analysis showed that the resistance in this accession is controlled by a single dominant gene, which mapped at the same chromosomal position as Lr1 in wheat. It was delimited in a 1.3-cM region between the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers ABC718 and PSR567 on chromosome5DL of Ae. tauschii. The gene was more tightly linked to PSR567 (0.47cM) than to ABC718 (0.79cM). These results indicate that the resistance gene in Ae. tauschii accession Tr.t.213 is an ortholog of the leaf rust resistance gene Lr1 of bread wheat, suggesting that Lr1 originally evolved in diploid goat grass and was introgressed into the wheat Dgenome during or after domestication of hexaploid wheat. Compared to hexaploid wheat, higher marker polymorphism and recombination frequencies were observed in the region of the Lr1 ortholog in Ae. tauschii. The identification of Lr1Ae, the orthologous gene of wheat Lr1, in Ae. tauschii will allow map-based cloning of Lr1 from this genetically simpler, diploid genom

Insights into the evolution and diversification of the AT-hook Motif Nuclear Localized gene family in land plants

BACKGROUND: Members of the ancient land-plant-specific transcription factor AT-Hook Motif Nuclear Localized (AHL) gene family regulate various biological processes. However, the relationships among the AHL genes, as well as their evolutionary history, still remain unexplored. RESULTS: We analyzed over 500 AHL genes from 19 land plant species, ranging from the early diverging Physcomitrella patens and Selaginella to a variety of monocot and dicot flowering plants. We classified the AHL proteins into three types (Type-I/-II/-III) based on the number and composition of their functional domains, the AT-hook motif(s) and PPC domain. We further inferred their phylogenies via Bayesian inference analysis and predicted gene gain/loss events throughout their diversification. Our analyses suggested that the AHL gene family emerged in embryophytes and further evolved into two distinct clades, with Type-I AHLs forming one clade (Clade-A), and the other two types together diversifying in another (Clade-B). The two AHL clades likely diverged before the separation of Physcomitrella patens from the vascular plant lineage. In angiosperms, Clade-A AHLs expanded into 5 subfamilies; while, the ones in Clade-B expanded into 4 subfamilies. Examination of their expression patterns suggests that the AHLs within each clade share similar expression patterns with each other; however, AHLs in one monophyletic clade exhibit distinct expression patterns from the ones in the other clade. Over-expression of a Glycine max AHL PPC domain in Arabidopsis thaliana recapitulates the phenotype observed when over-expressing its Arabidopsis thaliana counterpart. This result suggests that the AHL genes from different land plant species may share conserved functions in regulating plant growth and development. Our study further suggests that such functional conservation may be due to conserved physical interactions among the PPC domains of AHL proteins. CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses reveal a possible evolutionary scenario for the AHL gene family in land plants, which will facilitate the design of new studies probing their biological functions. Manipulating the AHL genes has been suggested to have tremendous effects in agriculture through increased seedling establishment, enhanced plant biomass and improved plant immunity. The information gleaned from this study, in turn, has the potential to be utilized to further improve crop production. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-014-0266-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users