Flax Culture in South Dakota

Summary 1. South Dakota ranks fourth among the states in flax production.2. The total production for this state is rapidly decreasing and the industry will soon be lost if measures are not taken to prevent it. 3. Careful attention to the essentials, such as variety, rotations, soil preparation, selection and treatment of seed, time, rate and depth of seeding, weed prevention and disease prevention will make it possible to produce flax permanently and profitably. 4. Flax commonly grown in South Dakota is all of the small seeded, blue flowered European type. Several pedigreed varieties have been· selected by the North Dakota and Minnesota experiment stations. Of these, North Dakota Resistant No. 52 (S. D. 29) has yielded best at Highmore and Select Russian N. D. 1215 (S. D. 686) has yielded highest at Newell.5. Clean plump seed is necessary. This can be had by setting off a portion of the field for seed purposes and removing any weeds by hand and by thorough cleaning of seed.\u3c6\u3e6. Common diseases of flax are wilt, rust and canker. Rust can be avoided by early seeding. Wilt and canker can be combated by treating seed and sowing on new land or land where flax has not been grown for several years.\u3c7\u3e. Long rotations are desirable. The flax crop should follow pasture, meadow or clean cultivated crop.*\u3e Flax requires a firm seed bed. This helps insure even germination and even maturity.9. Flax should be sown as early as convenient. April seeding has given best average yields at Cottonwood, Eureka and Highmore.10. Two pecks per acre or a little less is probably the best rate of seeding. Experiments have not been conducted long enough to settle this point definitely.11. Shallow seeding, about one inch deep, is best as deeper seeding may not come up.12. Flax is a good crop for irrigated lands, but care should be taken not to over-irrigate or irrigate too late.13. Flax can be harvested with a· header if thoroughly ripe and dry, but a binder is usually preferable so that the bundles can be set up in small shocks to dry thoroughly before threshing.14. Flax must be dry when threshed as damp flax will not thresh cleanly and the seed is liable to heat damage in the bin.15. Flaxseed is used mainly for the manufacture of linseed oil and oil cake. The straw is a valuable byproduct which can be used for making tow, paper and paper products

Crystallization of the C-terminal domain of the mouse brain cytosolic long-chain acyl-CoA thioesterase

The mammalian long-chain acyl-CoA thioesterase, the enzyme that catalyses the hydrolysis of acyl-CoAs to free fatty acids, contains two fused 4HBT (4-hydroxybenzoyl-CoA thioesterase) motifs. The C-terminal domain of the mouse long-chain acyl-CoA thioesterase (Acot7) has been expressed in bacteria and crystallized. The crystals were obtained by vapour diffusion using PEG 2000 MME as precipitant at pH 7.0 and 290 K. The crystals have the symmetry of space group R32 ( unit-cell parameters a = b = 136.83, c = 99.82 angstrom, gamma = 120 degrees). Two molecules are expected in the asymmetric unit. The crystals diffract to 2.4 angstrom resolution using the laboratory X-ray source and are suitable for crystal structure determination

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction studies of mammalian purple acid phosphatase

The oxidized form of purple acid phosphatase from pig allantoic fluid has been crystallized in the presence of phosphate using the hanging-drop technique. The crystals belong to the space group P2(1)2(1)2(1) and have unit-cell parameters a = 66.8, b = 70.3, c = 78.7 Angstrom. Diffraction data collected from a cryocooled crystal using a conventional X-ray source extend to 1.55 Angstrom resolution. A knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of mammalian purple acid phosphatase will aid in understanding the substrate specificity of the enzyme and will be important in the rational design of inhibitors, with potential in the treatment of bone diseases

Extreme mobility of the world’s largest flying mammals creates key challenges for management and conservation

Effective conservation management of highly mobile species depends upon detailed knowledge of movements of individuals across their range; yet, data are rarely available at appropriate spatiotemporal scales. Flying-foxes (Pteropus spp.) are large bats that forage by night on floral resources and rest by day in arboreal roosts that may contain colonies of many thousands of individuals. They are the largest mammals capable of powered flight, and are highly mobile, which makes them key seed and pollen dispersers in forest ecosystems. However, their mobility also facilitates transmission of zoonotic diseases and brings them in conflict with humans, and so they require a precarious balancing of conservation and management concerns throughout their Old World range. Here, we analyze the Australia-wide movements of 201 satellite-tracked individuals, providing unprecedented detail on the inter-roost movements of three flying-fox species: Pteropus alecto, P. poliocephalus, and P. scapulatus across jurisdictions over up to 5 years

The relationship between extreme inter-individual variation in macrophage gene expression and genetic susceptibility to inflammatory bowel disease

The differentiation of resident intestinal macrophages from blood monocytes depends upon signals from the macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor (CSF1R). Analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) indicates that dysregulation of macrophage differentiation and response to microorganisms contributes to susceptibility to chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Here, we analyzed transcriptomic variation in monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) from affected and unaffected sib pairs/trios from 22 IBD families and 6 healthy controls. Transcriptional network analysis of the data revealed no overall or inter-sib distinction between affected and unaffected individuals in basal gene expression or the temporal response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS). However, the basal or LPS-inducible expression of individual genes varied independently by as much as 100-fold between subjects. Extreme independent variation in the expression of pairs of HLA-associated transcripts (HLA-B/C, HLA-A/F and HLA-DRB1/DRB5) in macrophages was associated with HLA genotype. Correlation analysis indicated the downstream impacts of variation in the immediate early response to LPS. For example, variation in early expression of IL1B was significantly associated with local SNV genotype and with subsequent peak expression of target genes including IL23A, CXCL1, CXCL3, CXCL8 and NLRP3. Similarly, variation in early IFNB1 expression was correlated with subsequent expression of IFN target genes. Our results support the view that gene-specific dysregulation in macrophage adaptation to the intestinal milieu is associated with genetic susceptibility to IBD.</p

The Histone Variant H2A.W Defines Heterochromatin and Promotes Chromatin Condensation in Arabidopsis

SummaryHistone variants play crucial roles in gene expression, genome integrity, and chromosome segregation. We report that the four H2A variants in Arabidopsis define different genomic features, contributing to overall genomic organization. The histone variant H2A.W marks heterochromatin specifically and acts in synergy with heterochromatic marks H3K9me2 and DNA methylation to maintain transposon silencing. In vitro, H2A.W enhances chromatin condensation by promoting fiber-to-fiber interactions via its conserved C-terminal motif. In vivo, H2A.W is required for heterochromatin condensation, demonstrating that H2A.W plays critical roles in heterochromatin organization. Similarities in conserved motifs between H2A.W and another H2A variant in metazoans suggest that plants and animals share common mechanisms for heterochromatin condensation