Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) for Pan-Genomic Evolutionary Studies of Non-Model Organisms

Background: High-throughput tools for pan-genomic study, especially the DNA microarray platform, have sparked a remarkable increase in data production and enabled a shift in the scale at which biological investigation is possible. The use of microarrays to examine evolutionary relationships and processes, however, is predominantly restricted to model or near-model organisms. Methodology/Principal Findings: This study explores the utility of Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) in evolutionary studies of non-model organisms. DArT is a hybridization-based genotyping method that uses microarray technology to identify and type DNA polymorphism. Theoretically applicable to any organism (even one for which no prior genetic data are available), DArT has not yet been explored in exclusively wild sample sets, nor extensively examined in a phylogenetic framework. DArT recovered 1349 markers of largely low copy-number loci in two lineages of seed-free land plants: the diploid fern Asplenium viride and the haploid moss Garovaglia elegans. Direct sequencing of 148 of these DArT markers identified 30 putative loci including four routinely sequenced for evolutionary studies in plants. Phylogenetic analyses of DArT genotypes reveal phylogeographic and substrate specificity patterns in A. viride, a lack of phylogeographic pattern in Australian G. elegans, and additive variation in hybrid or mixed samples. Conclusions/Significance: These results enable methodological recommendations including procedures for detecting and analysing DArT markers tailored specifically to evolutionary investigations and practical factors informing the decision to use DArT, and raise evolutionary hypotheses concerning substrate specificity and biogeographic patterns. Thus DArT is a demonstrably valuable addition to the set of existing molecular approaches used to infer biological phenomena such as adaptive radiations, population dynamics, hybridization, introgression, ecological differentiation and phylogeography

Lipid droplets: a classic organelle with new outfits

Lipid droplets are depots of neutral lipids that exist virtually in any kind of cell. Recent studies have revealed that the lipid droplet is not a mere lipid blob, but a major contributor not only to lipid homeostasis but also to diverse cellular functions. Because of the unique structure as well as the functional importance in relation to obesity, steatosis, and other prevailing diseases, the lipid droplet is now reborn as a brand new organelle, attracting interests from researchers of many disciplines

Economics, Marketing and Performances of U.S. Classical Music: journeyin’ together to de promise land

Since the beginning of the latest financial and real crisis in 2008, USA symphony orchestras and opera houses have revealed adaptation to the turmoil of scarce resources and a very keen competition (Jeannotte, Duxbury, 2015; Turbide, Laurin, Lapierre, Morissette, 2008). Adaptation has had multiple implications: implementation of websites and social media as innovative tools for audience exploration and development (Pierotti, Risaliti, Cestari, 2014; Ravanas, 2008); revenue diversification and performance measurement (Hong, 2014; Besana, 2012;); community engagement together with testing of new segments like tourists (Kemp, Poole, 2016; Guachalla, 2012; Woosnam, McElroy, Van Winkle, 2009; Poon, Lai, 2008). Marketing, and especially social media marketing, has had a crucial new role and enhanced “interactive online world in which participants with different interests, resources and power co-create value” (Kornum, Mühlbacher, 2013). Marketing and fundraising have extracted both willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-donate from audiences, while audiences have been spending more time than ever using social media, and the U.S. classical music has been striving to use social media and to reach, engage, catch and hold the millions of consumers who use it daily, tourists included (Parsons, 2011). Marketing has called for e-commerce of audiences; fundraising has called for s-commerce of philanthropists. After analysing the new marketing scenario and pointing out social media marketing strategies of U.S. classical music, this paper investigates 100 symphony orchestras and 100 opera houses according to their revenues, expenses and gains (or losses) in 2015. Thanks to cluster analysis, three groups will emerge with different performances and prevailing fundraising