190 research outputs found
Absence of increased genomic variants in the cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis exposed to Marsâlike conditions outside the space station
Despite the increasing interest in using microbialâbased technologies to support human space exploration, many unknowns remain not only on bioprocesses but also on microbial survivability and genetic stability under nonâEarth conditions. Here the desert cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis sp. CCMEE 029 was investigated for robustness of the repair capability of DNA lesions accumulated under Marsâlike conditions (UV radiation and atmosphere) simulated in low Earth orbit using the EXPOSEâR2 facility installed outside the International Space Station. Genomic alterations were determined in
a spaceâderivate of Chroococcidiopsis sp. CCMEE 029 obtained upon reactivation on Earth of the spaceâexposed cells. Comparative analysis of wholeâgenome sequences showed no increased variant numbers in the spaceâderivate compared to triplicates of the reference strain maintained on the ground. This result advanced cyanobacteriaâbased technologies to support human space exploration
Two-omics data revealed commonalities and differences between Rpv12- and Rpv3-mediated resistance in grapevine
Plasmopara viticola is the causal agent of grapevine downy mildew (DM). DM resistant varieties deploy effector-triggered immunity (ETI) to inhibit pathogen growth, which is activated by major resistance loci, the most common of which are Rpv3 and Rpv12. We previously showed that a quick metabolome response lies behind the ETI conferred by Rpv3 TIR-NB-LRR genes. Here we used a grape variety operating Rpv12-mediated ETI, which is conferred by an independent locus containing CC-NB-LRR genes, to investigate the defence response using GC/MS, UPLC, UHPLC and RNA-Seq analyses. Eighty-eight metabolites showed significantly different concentration and 432 genes showed differential expression between inoculated resistant leaves and controls. Most metabolite changes in sugars, fatty acids and phenols were similar in timing and direction to those observed in Rpv3-mediated ETI but some of them were stronger or more persistent. Activators, elicitors and signal transducers for the formation of reactive oxygen species were early observed in samples undergoing Rpv12-mediated ETI and were paralleled and followed by the upregulation of genes belonging to ontology categories associated with salicylic acid signalling, signal transduction, WRKY transcription factors and synthesis of PR-1, PR-2, PR-5 pathogenesis-related proteins
Elevated soluble Flt1 mediates an anti-angiogenic state in patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis
International audiencen.
Deterministic polarization chaos from a laser diode
Fifty years after the invention of the laser diode and fourty years after the
report of the butterfly effect - i.e. the unpredictability of deterministic
chaos, it is said that a laser diode behaves like a damped nonlinear
oscillator. Hence no chaos can be generated unless with additional forcing or
parameter modulation. Here we report the first counter-example of a
free-running laser diode generating chaos. The underlying physics is a
nonlinear coupling between two elliptically polarized modes in a
vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. We identify chaos in experimental
time-series and show theoretically the bifurcations leading to single- and
double-scroll attractors with characteristics similar to Lorenz chaos. The
reported polarization chaos resembles at first sight a noise-driven mode
hopping but shows opposite statistical properties. Our findings open up new
research areas that combine the high speed performances of microcavity lasers
with controllable and integrated sources of optical chaos.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure
Notes on Dynamics of an External Cavity Semiconductor Lasers
Dynamics of external cavity semiconductor lasers is known to be a complex and
uncontrollable phenomenon. Due to the lack of experimental studies on the
nature of the external cavity semiconductor lasers, there is a need to
theoretically clarify laser dynamics. The stability of laser dynamics in the
present paper, is analyzed through plotting the Lyapunov exponent spectra,
bifurcation diagrams, phase portrait and electric field intensity time series.
The analysis is preformed with respect to applied feedback phase ,
feedback strength and the pump current of the laser. The main argument
of the paper is to show that the laser dynamics can not be accounted for
through simply a bifurcation diagram and single-control parameter. The
comparison of the obtained results provides a very detailed picture of the
qualitative changes in laser dynamics.Comment: 7 pages, 34 figure
Visualizing the Template of a Chaotic Attractor
Chaotic attractors are solutions of deterministic processes, of which the
topology can be described by templates. We consider templates of chaotic
attractors bounded by a genus-1 torus described by a linking matrix. This
article introduces a novel and unique tool to validate a linking matrix, to
optimize the compactness of the corresponding template and to draw this
template. The article provides a detailed description of the different
validation steps and the extraction of an order of crossings from the linking
matrix leading to a template of minimal height. Finally, the drawing process of
the template corresponding to the matrix is saved in a Scalable Vector Graphics
(SVG) file.Comment: Appears in the Proceedings of the 26th International Symposium on
Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2018
Quantifying the extent to which index event biases influence large genetic association studies
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.As genetic association studies increase in size to 100,000s of individuals, subtle biases may influence conclusions. One possible bias is "index event bias" (IEB) that appears due to the stratification by, or enrichment for, disease status when testing associations between genetic variants and a disease-associated trait. We aimed to test the extent to which IEB influences some known trait associations in a range of study designs and provide a statistical framework for assessing future associations. Analysing data from 113,203 non-diabetic UK Biobank participants, we observed three (near TCF7L2, CDKN2AB and CDKAL1) overestimated (BMI-decreasing) and one (near MTNR1B) underestimated (BMI-increasing) associations among 11 type 2 diabetes risk alleles (at Pââ500,000 if the prevalence of those diseases differs byâ>â10% from the background population. In conclusion, IEB may result in false positive or negative genetic associations in very large studies stratified or strongly enriched for/against disease cases.H.Y., A.R.W. and T.M.F. are supported by the European Research Council grant: 323195; SZ-245 50371-GLUCOSEGENES-FP7-IDEAS-ERC. S.E.J. is funded by the Medical Research Council (grant: MR/M005070/1). M.A.T., M.N.W. and A.M. are supported by the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Award (WT097835MF). R.M.F. is a Sir Henry Dale Fellow (Wellcome Trust and Royal Society grant: 104150/Z/14/Z). R.B. is funded by the Wellcome Trust and Royal Society grant: 104150/Z/14/Z. J.T. is funded by a Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation Fellowship. Z.K. received financial support from the Leenaards Foundation, the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and the Swiss National Science Foundation (31003A-143914) and SystemsX.ch (39). The work of M.P.B was supported by the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award no. T32HL007779. Generation Scotland received core support from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates [CZD/16/6] and the Scottish Funding Council [HR03006]. E.R.P. holds a WT New investigator award 102820/Z/13/Z
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