Comparative genomics of two jute species and insight into fibre biogenesis

Jute (Corchorus sp.) is one of the most important sources of natural fibre, covering ∼80% of global bast fibre production1. Only Corchorus olitorius and Corchorus capsularis are commercially cultivated, though there are more than 100 Corchorus species2 in the Malvaceae family. Here we describe high-quality draft genomes of these two species and their comparisons at the functional genomics level to support tailor-designed breeding. The assemblies cover 91.6% and 82.2% of the estimated genome sizes for C. olitorius and C. capsularis, respectively. In total, 37,031 C. olitorius and 30,096 C. capsularis genes are identified, and most of the genes are validated by cDNA and RNA-seq data. Analyses of clustered gene families and gene collinearity show that jute underwent shared whole-genome duplication ∼18.66 million years (Myr) ago prior to speciation. RNA expression analysis from isolated fibre cells reveals the key regulatory and structural genes involved in fibre formation. This work expands our understanding of the molecular basis of fibre formation laying the foundation for the genetic improvement of jute. Bast (phloem) fibres are obtained from the stem of the plants such as jute, flax, hemp, ramie and kenaf. The annual global production of jute generates a farm value of ∼US$2.3 billion1. The cultivated species of jute, C. olitorius and C. capsularis, are morphologically and physiologically distinct (Supplementary Fig. 1), and a combination of useful traits from these species into a single genotype is highly desirable3. However, interspecific hybridization is limited because of their cross-incompatibility4,5. To facilitate comparative functional genomics and to understand the molecular basis of bast fibre biogenesis, genomes of two popular jute cultivars C. olitorius var. O-4 and C. capsularis var. CVL-1 are sequenced and analysed

Social referencing and child anxiety: the evolutionary based role of fathers' versus mothers' signals

Children use signals from others to guide their behavior when confronted with potentially dangerous situations, so called social referencing. Due to evolutionary based different expertise of fathers and mothers, parents might be different social references for their children. The present study tested the influence of paternal and maternal social referencing signals on child anxiety. We expected that (1) children would show different social reference processing towards fathers’ and mothers’ signals; (2) in male-specific situations children would be more influenced by paternal signals, and in female-specific situations by maternal signals; (3) boys would respond with more anxiety to female-specific situations, and girls to male-specific situations; (4) high anxious children would be more susceptible to parental, and specifically paternal, social referencing signals than low anxious children. Children aged 8-13 read scripts of ambiguous situations in which the mother/father signaled anxious/confident behavior, and indicated how anxious they would feel. Experiment 1 (n = 129) concerned non-social situations, and Experiment 2 (n = 124) social situations. As expected, children responded with more anxiety to scripts in which their parent acted anxious than to scripts in which their parent acted confident. Children, also high-anxious children, were not differently affected by signals of fathers and mothers. Girls responded with more anxiety than boys in male-typical non-social situations. Congruence between the parent signaling and his/her evolutionary expertise did in general not affect social referencing. In conclusion, independent from parental evolutionary based expertise or from children’s level of anxiety, fathers’ signals have as much influence on their children’s anxiety as mothers’