Localizing Gravitational Wave Sources with Single-Baseline Atom Interferometers

Localizing sources on the sky is crucial for realizing the full potential of gravitational waves for astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology. We show that the mid-frequency band, roughly 0.03 to 10 Hz, has significant potential for angular localization. The angular location is measured through the changing Doppler shift as the detector orbits the Sun. This band maximizes the effect since these are the highest frequencies in which sources live several months. Atom interferometer detectors can observe in the mid-frequency band, and even with just a single baseline can exploit this effect for sensitive angular localization. The single baseline orbits around the Earth and the Sun, causing it to reorient and change position significantly during the lifetime of the source, and making it similar to having multiple baselines/detectors. For example, atomic detectors could predict the location of upcoming black hole or neutron star merger events with sufficient accuracy to allow optical and other electromagnetic telescopes to observe these events simultaneously. Thus, mid-band atomic detectors are complementary to other gravitational wave detectors and will help complete the observation of a broad range of the gravitational spectrum.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, 2 table

A Multiprotein Complex Regulates Interference-Sensitive Crossover Formation in Rice

In most eukaryotes, a set of conserved proteins that are collectively termed ZMM proteins (named for molecular zipper 1 [ZIP1], ZIP2, ZIP3, and ZIP4, MutS homologue 4 [MSH4] and MSH5, meiotic recombination 3, and sporulation 16 [SPO16] in yeast [Saccharomyces cerevisiae]) are essential for the formation of the majority of meiotic crossovers (COs). Recent reports indicated that ZIP2 acts together with SPO16 and ZIP4 to control CO formation through recognizing and stabilizing early recombination intermediates in budding yeast. However, whether this mechanism is conserved in plants is not clear. Here, we characterized the functions of SHORTAGE OF CHIASMATA 1 (OsSHOC1; ZIP2 ortholog) and PARTING DANCERS (OsPTD; SPO16 ortholog) and their interactions with other ZMM proteins in rice (Oryza sativa). We demonstrated that disruption of OsSHOC1 caused a reduction of CO numbers to ∼83% of wild-type CO numbers, whereas synapsis and early meiotic recombination steps were not affected. Furthermore, OsSHOC1 interacts with OsPTD, which is responsible for the same set of CO formations as OsSHOC1. In addition, OsSHOC1 and OsPTD are required for the normal loading of other ZMM proteins, and conversely, the localizations of OsSHOC1 and OsPTD were also affected by the absence of OsZIP4 and human enhancer of invasion 10 in rice (OsHEI10). OsSHOC1 interacts with OsZIP4 and OsMSH5, and OsPTD interacts with OsHEI10. Furthermore, bimolecular fluorescence complementation and yeast-three hybrid assays demonstrated that OsSHOC1, OsPTD, OsHEI10, and OsZIP4 were able to form various combinations of heterotrimers. Moreover, statistical and genetic analysis indicated that OsSHOC1 and OsPTD are epistatic to OsHEI10 and OsZIP4 in meiotic CO formation. Taken together, we propose that OsSHOC1, OsPTD, OsHEI10, and OsZIP4 form multiple protein complexes that have conserved functions in promoting class I CO formation

Additional file 5: Table S5. of Updated Rice Kinase Database RKD 2.0: enabling transcriptome and functional analysis of rice kinase genes

Rice kinases with hormone responses. (XLSX 25 kb

Additional file 2: of Genome-wide analyses of late pollen-preferred genes conserved in various rice cultivars and functional identification of a gene involved in the key processes of late pollen development

Figure S1. a. Order of developmental stages for anatomical samples. ACF, formation of archesporial cells; BG, bi-cellular gametophyte; Fl, flowering; Me, meiosis; Me1, meiotic leptotene; Me2, meiotic zygotene-pachytene; Me3, meiotic diplotene-tetrad; MP, mature pollen; PMe, pre-meiosis; GP, germinating pollen; TG, tri-cellular pollen; UG, uni-cellular gametophyte. Red bar, sample containing late pollen. b. Expression graph of 36 clusters after KMC analysis with 57,382 probes. Clusters 2 and 35 exhibited mature pollen-preferential patterns of expression and are marked with red boxes. Figure S2. Schematic representation of 3 promoter trap lines for T-DNA insertions. a. T-DNA was inserted into 17th intron of SacI homology domain-containing protein (LOC_Os11g20384) in Line 1A-13,819 (mtd1–1). b. Line 3A-05916 has T-DNA insertion in B12D protein (LOC_Os07g17310). BL, left T-DNA border; RB, right T-DNA border; Gray boxes, exons; lines, introns. Figure S3. Expression graph after KMC analysis of meta-expression data from Arabidopsis. Clusters marked with red box showed late pollen-preferred patterns. Figure S4. Heatmap for expression profiles of late pollen-preferred genes in Arabidopsis. Figure S5. Heatmap of genes involved in GA biosynthesis and signaling. CPS, GA3ox1, KAO, GA20ox3, and KO2 showed late pollen-preferred expression patterns and are outlined with red boxes. (DOCX 227 kb

Additional file 1: of Genome-wide analyses of late pollen-preferred genes conserved in various rice cultivars and functional identification of a gene involved in the key processes of late pollen development

Table S1. Six series of microarray data comprising 64 slides (GPL2025) associated with anthers/pollen in rice. Table S2. Locus IDs and putative functions of late pollen-preferred genes from rice. Table S3. Locus IDs and promoter regions of genes used for promoter analysis with GUS reporter. Table S4. Classification of GO terms for biological processes associated with late pollen-preferred genes. Table S5. MapMan classification of late pollen-preferred genes. Table S6. Genes related to hormone metabolism term in MapMan. Table S7. Late pollen-preferred genes in Arabidopsis. Table S8. Assignment of rice orthologs to Arabidopsis late pollen-preferred genes. Locus numbers are shown in by red. Table S9. Assignment of Arabidopsis orthologs to rice late pollen-preferred genes. Locus numbers are shown in red. Table S10. MapMan terms related to cell wall organization and modifications in rice and Arabidopsis. Table S11. Primer sequences used in genotyping and real-time PCR. (DOCX 1980 kb

Table_4_Lack of a Cytoplasmic RLK, Required for ROS Homeostasis, Induces Strong Resistance to Bacterial Leaf Blight in Rice.DOCX

<p>Many scientific findings have been reported on the beneficial function of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in various cellular processes, showing that they are not just toxic byproducts. The double-edged role of ROS shows the importance of the regulation of ROS level. We report a gene, rrsRLK (required for ROS-scavenging receptor-like kinase), that encodes a cytoplasmic RLK belonging to the non-RD kinase family. The gene was identified by screening rice RLK mutant lines infected with Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), an agent of bacterial leaf blight of rice. The mutant (ΔrrsRLK) lacking the Os01g02290 gene was strongly resistant to many Xoo strains, but not to the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe grisea. ΔrrsRLK showed significantly higher expression of OsPR1a, OsPR1b, OsLOX, RBBTI4, and jasmonic acid-related genes than wild type. We showed that rrsRLK protein interacts with OsVOZ1 (vascular one zinc-finger 1) and OsPEX11 (peroxisomal biogenesis factor 11). In the further experiments, abnormal biogenesis of peroxisomes, hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) accumulation, and reduction of activity of ROS-scavenging enzymes were investigated in ΔrrsRLK. These results suggest that the enhanced resistance in ΔrrsRLK is due to H₂O₂ accumulation caused by irregular ROS-scavenging mechanism, and rrsRLK is most likely a key regulator required for ROS homeostasis in rice.</p

Table_2_Lack of a Cytoplasmic RLK, Required for ROS Homeostasis, Induces Strong Resistance to Bacterial Leaf Blight in Rice.DOCX

<p>Many scientific findings have been reported on the beneficial function of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in various cellular processes, showing that they are not just toxic byproducts. The double-edged role of ROS shows the importance of the regulation of ROS level. We report a gene, rrsRLK (required for ROS-scavenging receptor-like kinase), that encodes a cytoplasmic RLK belonging to the non-RD kinase family. The gene was identified by screening rice RLK mutant lines infected with Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), an agent of bacterial leaf blight of rice. The mutant (ΔrrsRLK) lacking the Os01g02290 gene was strongly resistant to many Xoo strains, but not to the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe grisea. ΔrrsRLK showed significantly higher expression of OsPR1a, OsPR1b, OsLOX, RBBTI4, and jasmonic acid-related genes than wild type. We showed that rrsRLK protein interacts with OsVOZ1 (vascular one zinc-finger 1) and OsPEX11 (peroxisomal biogenesis factor 11). In the further experiments, abnormal biogenesis of peroxisomes, hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) accumulation, and reduction of activity of ROS-scavenging enzymes were investigated in ΔrrsRLK. These results suggest that the enhanced resistance in ΔrrsRLK is due to H₂O₂ accumulation caused by irregular ROS-scavenging mechanism, and rrsRLK is most likely a key regulator required for ROS homeostasis in rice.</p

Cross-Family Translational Genomics of Abiotic Stress-Responsive Genes between Arabidopsis and <i>Medicago truncatula</i>

<div><p>Cross-species translation of genomic information may play a pivotal role in applying biological knowledge gained from relatively simple model system to other less studied, but related, genomes. The information of abiotic stress (ABS)-responsive genes in Arabidopsis was identified and translated into the legume model system, <i>Medicago truncatula</i>. Various data resources, such as TAIR/AtGI DB, expression profiles and literatures, were used to build a genome-wide list of ABS genes. tBlastX/BlastP similarity search tools and manual inspection of alignments were used to identify orthologous genes between the two genomes. A total of 1,377 genes were finally collected and classified into 18 functional criteria of gene ontology (GO). The data analysis according to the expression cues showed that there was substantial level of interaction among three major types (i.e., drought, salinity and cold stress) of abiotic stresses. In an attempt to translate the ABS genes between these two species, genomic locations for each gene were mapped using an in-house-developed comparative analysis platform. The comparative analysis revealed that fragmental colinearity, represented by only 37 synteny blocks, existed between Arabidopsis and <i>M. truncatula</i>. Based on the combination of E-value and alignment remarks, estimated translation rate was 60.2% for this cross-family translation. As a prelude of the functional comparative genomic approaches, in-silico gene network/interactome analyses were conducted to predict key components in the ABS responses, and one of the sub-networks was integrated with corresponding comparative map. The results demonstrated that core members of the sub-network were well aligned with previously reported ABS regulatory networks. Taken together, the results indicate that network-based integrative approaches of comparative and functional genomics are important to interpret and translate genomic information for complex traits such as abiotic stresses.</p></div

Sexual life in Parkinson's disease

The diploma thesis deal with the topic of sexual life of people suffering from the Parkinson's disease (PD). The theoretical part contains basic information about PD and the results of researches on sexuality of people with this illness, focusing on the agents that infl uence PD. The empirical part comprises of a research project implemented on a set of 103 people with PD. In order to describe the specifi cs of the patients' sexual lives, two sets of questions were designed (separate for men and women), containing a questionnaire on sociodemographic features, psychological (BDI-II, STAI) and sexuological questionnaires. The acquired data was statistically elaborated by means of the programme SPSS. Results of the sexuological questionnaires (GRISS, FSFI, SFŽ3, SFM, IIEF) show a decrease in sexual functions and a presence of sexual dysfunctions connected with PD. With the help of regressive models, it was elicited that in case of men with this illness, the most infl uential agent on their sexual life is depression and subjectively scoring the illness, in case of women the agent of depression and anxiety

Table_3_Lack of a Cytoplasmic RLK, Required for ROS Homeostasis, Induces Strong Resistance to Bacterial Leaf Blight in Rice.DOCX

<p>Many scientific findings have been reported on the beneficial function of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in various cellular processes, showing that they are not just toxic byproducts. The double-edged role of ROS shows the importance of the regulation of ROS level. We report a gene, rrsRLK (required for ROS-scavenging receptor-like kinase), that encodes a cytoplasmic RLK belonging to the non-RD kinase family. The gene was identified by screening rice RLK mutant lines infected with Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), an agent of bacterial leaf blight of rice. The mutant (ΔrrsRLK) lacking the Os01g02290 gene was strongly resistant to many Xoo strains, but not to the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe grisea. ΔrrsRLK showed significantly higher expression of OsPR1a, OsPR1b, OsLOX, RBBTI4, and jasmonic acid-related genes than wild type. We showed that rrsRLK protein interacts with OsVOZ1 (vascular one zinc-finger 1) and OsPEX11 (peroxisomal biogenesis factor 11). In the further experiments, abnormal biogenesis of peroxisomes, hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) accumulation, and reduction of activity of ROS-scavenging enzymes were investigated in ΔrrsRLK. These results suggest that the enhanced resistance in ΔrrsRLK is due to H₂O₂ accumulation caused by irregular ROS-scavenging mechanism, and rrsRLK is most likely a key regulator required for ROS homeostasis in rice.</p