Improved reference genome of Aedes aegypti informs arbovirus vector control

Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infect more than 400 million people each year with dangerous viral pathogens including dengue, yellow fever, Zika and chikungunya. Progress in understanding the biology of mosquitoes and developing the tools to fight them has been slowed by the lack of a high-quality genome assembly. Here we combine diverse technologies to produce the markedly improved, fully re-annotated AaegL5 genome assembly, and demonstrate how it accelerates mosquito science. We anchored physical and cytogenetic maps, doubled the number of known chemosensory ionotropic receptors that guide mosquitoes to human hosts and egg-laying sites, provided further insight into the size and composition of the sex-determining M locus, and revealed copy-number variation among glutathione S-transferase genes that are important for insecticide resistance. Using high-resolution quantitative trait locus and population genomic analyses, we mapped new candidates for dengue vector competence and insecticide resistance. AaegL5 will catalyse new biological insights and intervention strategies to fight this deadly disease vector

Effect of chromium and aluminum addition on anisotropic and microstructural characteristics of ball milled nanocrystalline iron

Prior studies on synthesis of nanocrystalline elements have discussed the effect of ball milling on lattice parameter, crystallite size, and micro-strain. For elemental milled powders, the anisotropic peak broadening does not change with increasing milling time. However, the effect of alloying addition on the anisotropic behavior of ball milled nanocrystalline powders remains an unexplored area. Here we report the effect of chromium and aluminum addition on the anisotropic behavior of iron in nanocrystalline Fe-20Cr-5Al (wt%) alloy powders synthesized by ball milling. The experimental results show that the anisotropic behavior of iron changes towards isotropic with milling. This change was also correlated to the theoretically calculated anisotropic factor from the change in elastic constant of iron due to milling. Addition of alloying elements exhibited a monotonic rise in the lattice parameter with crystallite size, which was attributed to the excess grain boundary interfacial energy and excess free volume at grain boundaries. Transmission electron microscopy image confirmed the crystallite size and nature of dislocation obtained using modified Williamson-Hall method. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Structural Evolution during Milling, Annealing, and Rapid Consolidation of Nanocrystalline Fe-10Cr-3Al Powder

Structural changes during the deformation-induced synthesis of nanocrystalline Fe-10Cr-3Al alloy powder via high-energy ball milling followed by annealing and rapid consolidation by spark plasma sintering were investigated. Reduction in crystallite size was observed during the synthesis, which was associated with the lattice expansion and rise in dislocation density, reflecting the generation of the excess grain boundary interfacial energy and the excess free volume. Subsequent annealing led to the exponential growth of the crystallites with a concomitant drop in the dislocation density. The rapid consolidation of the as-synthesized nanocrystalline alloy powder by the spark plasma sintering, on the other hand, showed only a limited grain growth due to the reduction of processing time for the consolidation by about 95% when compared to annealing at the same temperature