6 research outputs found
Genome-scale compositional comparisons towards drought tolerant genes in rice, date palm, maize and thale cress
Extreme and unpredictable weather has gradually posed a threat to the global production of the world’s staple food crops such as rice, wheat, and maize. For instance, drought had caused significant losses which makes drought-tolerant planting materials increasingly important not only for food security but also for the sustainability of agricultural activities. This could be done by first exploring the genetic materials that are responsible for survival in hot and dry conditions other than solely relying on conventional methods. The availability of various comparative genomics tools has allowed the identification of several potential drought-tolerant genes in plants such as wheat, tomato, maize and others. In this study, potential drought-tolerant genes in rice are predicted by identifying orthologous proteins between four species; Oryza sativa (rice), Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress), Zea mays (maize) and Pheonix dactylifera (date palm) using InParanoid, SonicParanoid and Mauve software tool. From the 9,952 orthologous proteins found among the four species, 8,573 sequences were annotated and assigned to 5,729 GO terms; classified into the biological process category (54%, 2777 sequences), molecular function category (65%, 3223 sequences) and cellular component category (58%, 2539 sequences). Sixty five genes were found to be represented under four drought tolerance GO terms; regulation of response to water deprivation (GO:2000070; 1 gene, 1.54% ); response to water deprivation (GO:0009414, 47 genes, 72.31%); behavioural response to water deprivation (GO:0042630, 11 genes, 16.92%) and; cellular response to water deprivation (GO:0042631, 6 genes, 9.23%). Narrowing down potential drought-stress response genes through this study could contribute to a better understanding and knowledge on the biological and functional analysis of drought-tolerant genes in rice
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Syndromic approach to arboviral diagnostics for global travelers as a basis for infectious disease surveillance
Background
Arboviruses have overlapping geographical distributions and can cause symptoms that coincide with more common infections. Therefore, arbovirus infections are often neglected by travel diagnostics. Here, we assessed the potential of syndrome-based approaches for diagnosis and surveillance of neglected arboviral diseases in returning travelers.
Method
To map the patients high at risk of missed clinical arboviral infections we compared the quantity of all arboviral diagnostic requests by physicians in the Netherlands, from 2009 through 2013, with a literature-based assessment of the travelers’ likely exposure to an arbovirus.
Results
2153 patients, with travel and clinical history were evaluated. The diagnostic assay for dengue virus (DENV) was the most commonly requested (86%). Of travelers returning from Southeast Asia with symptoms compatible with chikungunya virus (CHIKV), only 55% were tested. For travelers in Europe, arbovirus diagnostics were rarely requested. Over all, diagnostics for most arboviruses were requested only on severe clinical presentation.
Conclusion
Travel destination and syndrome were used inconsistently for triage of diagnostics, likely resulting in vast under-diagnosis of arboviral infections of public health significance. This study shows the need for more awareness among physicians and standardization of syndromic diagnostic algorithm