Suppressors of RNAi from plant viruses are subject to episodic positive selection

Viral suppressors of RNAi (VSRs) are proteins that actively inhibit the antiviral RNA interference (RNAi) immune response, providing an immune evasion route for viruses. It has been hypothesized that VSRs are engaged in a molecular ‘arms race’ with RNAi pathway genes. Two lines of evidence support this. First, VSRs from plant viruses display high sequence diversity, and are frequently gained and lost over evolutionary time scales. Second, Drosophila antiviral RNAi genes show high rates of adaptive evolution. Here, we investigate whether VSRs diversify faster than other genes and, if so, whether this is a result of positive selection, as might be expected in an arms race. By analysis of 12 plant RNA viruses, we show that the relative rate of protein evolution is higher for VSRs than for other genes, but that this is not attributable to pervasive positive selection. We argue that, because evolutionary time scales are extremely different for viruses and eukaryotes, it is improbable that viral adaptation (as measured by the ratio of non-synonymous to synonymous change) will be dominated by one-to-one coevolution with eukaryotes. Instead, for plant virus VSRs, we find strong evidence of episodic selection—diversifying selection that acts on a subset of lineages—which might be attributable to frequent shifts between different host genotypes or species

AKMEOLOGICAL ROLE OF HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT FROM THE POSITION OF STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM OF UNIVERSITY

The article considers the modern requirements to the education system, explores of strategic development program of Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University. The authors identify the department as a basic unit of the University and describe the role of the head of the Department in the system of University management.В статье рассматриваются современные требования, предъявляемые к системе образования, исследуется программа стратегического развития Ижевского государственного технического университета имени М. Т. Калашникова. Авторы выделяют кафедру как базовое подразделение вуза и описывают роль заведующего кафедрой в системе управления вузом

DYNAMICS OF SERUM IMMUNOGLOBULINS IN ONCOLOGICAL PATIENTS DURING PERIOPERATIVE PERIOD

The aim of the study was to investigate the dynamics of serum immunoglobulins from oncological patients in the perioperative period. As a result of investigations, it was established that already at the initial stage of the intraoperative period the IgM concentration was elevated in patients' sera, and persisted up to 3 days after surgical intervention, while exceeding the values of the control group by 30—80 %. At the same time, no significant changes were detected in IgA and IgG levels of examined patients in the perioperative period. The obtained data confirm the expediency of carrying out the monitoring of immunoglobulin levels in oncological patients both in intra-, and postoperative periods and can be used for the assessment of patient's immune status and in the choice of immunocorrecting therapy strategy

Современные подходы к хирургическому лечению сочетанной патологии глаукомы и катаракты

Glaucoma is a socially significant disease. It is one of the leading causes of visual impairment and blindness. Along with cataract surgery, glaucoma treatment determines the basic surgical potential of any surgical facility. A high preva-lence, frequent combination of primary open-angle glaucoma and cataract, as well as their negative impact on the visual functions of the eye remain relevant and important problems. In this regard, special attention should be paid to the choice of active management tactics for patients withthis pathology. This review covers different approaches to surgical treatment of combined pathology of glaucoma and cataract. A comparative assessment of their efficacy and safety was carried out, and statistics on postoperative complications and long-term results of surgical treatment was gathered.Глаукома является социально значимым заболеванием и находится на первом месте среди причин нарушения зрения и слепоты. Глаукома с катарактой определяют основной хирургический потенциал любого офтальмологического учреждения. Высокая распространенность, нередкое сочетание первичной открытоугольной глаукомы (ПОУГ) и катаракты, а также их отрицательное влияние на зрительные функции глаза сохраняют актуальность и значимость проблемы. В связи с этим особого внимания заслуживает выбор тактики активного ведения пациентов с данной патологией. В настоящем обзоре представлены различные подходы к хирургическому лечению сочетанной патологии глаукомы и катаракты, сравнительная оценка их эффективности и безопасности, а также приведена статистика послеоперационных осложнений и отдалённых результатов хирургического лечения

(6aS*,6bS*,11R*,11aR*)-6-(2-Furyl­methyl)-5,12-dioxo-5,6,6a,6b,7,11,11a,12-octa­hydro­furo[3′,2′:5,6]isoindolo[2,1-a]quinazoline-11-carb­oxy­lic acid

The title compound, C23H18N2O6, is the product of an intra­molecular thermal cyclo­addition within 1-malein-2-[(E)-2-(2-fur­yl)vin­yl]-4-oxo-3,4-dihydro­quinazoline. The mol­ecule comprises a previously unknown fused penta­cyclic system containing two five-membered rings (2-pyrrolidinone and furan) and three six-membered rings (benzene, 2,3-dihydro-4-pyrimidinone and dihydro­cyclo­hexa­ne). The central five-membered pyrrolidinone ring has the usual envelope conformation. The six-membered dihydro­pyrimidinone and dihydro­cyclo­hexane rings adopt a half-boat and a half-chair conformation, respectively. The dihedral angle between the planes of the terminal benzene and furan rings is 45.99 (7)°. In the crystal, O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into centrosymmetric dimers. Weak C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds consolidate further the crystal packing, which exhibits π–π inter­actions, with a short distance of 3.556 (3) Å between the centroids of benzene rings of neighbouring mol­ecules

The pattern of female genital hormonal disease in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy

Objective: to reveal and investigate hormonal characteristics in women of childbearing age in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME).Patients and methods. The concentrations of sex steroid and tropic hormones were analyzed in 48 women of childbearing age who suffered from JME and received monotherapy or bitherapy with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) for more than a year. For comparison of their values, a control group included 15 healthy women who did not take AEDs. Results and discussion. 66.7% of the patients were found to have ovarian hormonal dysfunction characterized by a significant increase in the level of luteinizing hormone and testosterone in the follicular phase of the cycle and a decrease in that of progesterone in the luteal phase compared with the control group. The hormonal deviations were influenced by disease duration and age-related onset in JME. Generalized tonicclonic seizures concurrent with myoclonic ones, bitherapy, and disease onset before menarche and in the period of the menstrual cycle favored the  development of hormonal deviations to a greater extent than myoclonic seizures only, monotherapy, and disease onset after the establishment of the cycle. Valproates were most commonly used in the therapy of JME; however, there were no significant differences in the hormonal deficiencies when different chemical groups of AEDs were administered

The development of initial material of spring common wheat for breeding for resistance to stem rust (Puccinia graminis Pers. f. sp. tritici), uncluding race Ug99, in Russia

Donors of resistance of common wheat to stem rust race Ug99 (breeding lines GT 96/90, 113/00i-4 and 119/4-06rw) are involved in cross breeding with the use of the step crossing and backcrossing method. While developing hybrids with the spring mode of life, donor of resistance 113/00i-4 (Sr2, Sr36, Sr39, Sr40, Sr44, Sr47) and accession 145/05i, which is resistant to leaf rust under the conditions of the RF Central Region but susceptible to Ug99, were used for backcrossing, 137 individual plants with the homozygotic state of alleles of 2–5 genes of resistance to stem rust were selected from the obtained hybrid families F4–F5 and backcross progeny BC1F3-BC2F2-BC3F2 by means of molecular markers. The progeny of these individual plants was tested in the North Caucasian and West Siberian regions of the RF for natural populations of stem and leaf rust and for powder mildew in the Central Region. The lines resistant to these diseases were estimated as to the other economically valuable features: plant height, number of days before heading, ear productivity, weight of 1,000 grains, protein and gluten content in grain, 71 spring wheat line with multiple resistance to two or three diseases and the development of best agronomic characters were selected for the Central region and 20 lines were selected for West Siberia for further testing of their competitiveness with the best varieties and lines in the breeding nurseries. As a result of the work, original source material was developed with several spring wheat resistance genes to Ug99

Morphophysiological alterations caused by insertional mutagenesis of contactin 5 (Cntn5) gene in transgenic mice

Transgenesis has become a routine for modern biological studies. The most popular method for producing transgenic animals–pronuclear microinjection–frequently leads to host gene disruption due to a random transgene integration. In this paper, we report our analysis of morphophysiological parameters of the transgenic mouse line GM9, in which a transgene designed for milk-specific expression of the human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) gene was integrated into the intron of the Contactin 5 gene (Cntn5). We studied Cntn5 expression with RT-PCR and discovered that its expression in the brain, the primary organ of Cntn5 activity, was unperturbed. However, transgenic animals had less Cntn5 transcripts in other tissues such as the kidney and heart. In addition, we observed a decreased amount of splice variants of Cntn5 exons that flank the transgene integration site. These data suggest that the transgene integration event might affect proper Cntn5 splicing in some tissues. Publications exist that imply that some polymorphisms in the Cntn5 gene are associated with obesity and arterial hypertension in humans. We evaluated core parameters of lipid metabolism and heart activity in mice homozygous and heterozygous for Cntn5 mutation using wild- type animals as control. Our results uncovered that homozygous mutant mice have lower body weight than controls and that it is caused by slower accumulation of fat tissue. Cntn5 mutants also exhibit abnormalities in blood circulation: homozygous Cntn5 mutants are characterized by a higher blood pressure and heart beat rate, as well as faster blood flow in the tail vessels. Heterozygous animals showed intermediate results for all of these parameters

Quantum teleportation using active feed-forward between two Canary Islands

Quantum teleportation [1] is a quintessential prerequisite of many quantum information processing protocols [2-4]. By using quantum teleportation, one can circumvent the no-cloning theorem [5] and faithfully transfer unknown quantum states to a party whose location is even unknown over arbitrary distances. Ever since the first experimental demonstrations of quantum teleportation of independent qubits [6] and of squeezed states [7], researchers have progressively extended the communication distance in teleportation, usually without active feed-forward of the classical Bell-state measurement result which is an essential ingredient in future applications such as communication between quantum computers. Here we report the first long-distance quantum teleportation experiment with active feed-forward in real time. The experiment employed two optical links, quantum and classical, over 143 km free space between the two Canary Islands of La Palma and Tenerife. To achieve this, the experiment had to employ novel techniques such as a frequency-uncorrelated polarization-entangled photon pair source, ultra-low-noise single-photon detectors, and entanglement-assisted clock synchronization. The average teleported state fidelity was well beyond the classical limit of 2/3. Furthermore, we confirmed the quality of the quantum teleportation procedure (without feed-forward) by complete quantum process tomography. Our experiment confirms the maturity and applicability of the involved technologies in real-world scenarios, and is a milestone towards future satellite-based quantum teleportation