Genome-Wide Identification of R2R3-MYB Genes and Expression Analyses During Abiotic Stress in

The R2R3-MYB is one of the largest families of transcription factors, which have been implicated in multiple biological processes. There is great diversity in the number of R2R3-MYB genes in different plants. However, there is no report on genome-wide characterization of this gene family in cotton. In the present study, a total of 205 putative R2R3-MYB genes were identified in cotton D genome (Gossypium raimondii), that are much larger than that found in other cash crops with fully sequenced genomes. These GrMYBs were classified into 13 groups with the R2R3-MYB genes from Arabidopsis and rice. The amino acid motifs and phylogenetic tree were predicted and analyzed. The sequences of GrMYBs were distributed across 13 chromosomes at various densities. The results showed that the expansion of the G. Raimondii R2R3-MYB family was mainly attributable to whole genome duplication and segmental duplication. Moreover, the expression pattern of 52 selected GrMYBs and 46 GaMYBs were tested in roots and leaves under different abiotic stress conditions. The results revealed that the MYB genes in cotton were differentially expressed under salt and drought stress treatment. Our results will be useful for determining the precise role of the MYB genes during stress responses with crop improvement

A Water Cherenkov Test Beam Experiment for Hyper-Kamiokande and Future Large-scale Water-based Detectors

Water Cherenkov and water-based particle detector technologies are used to realize multi-kiloton scale experiments such as the currently operating Super-Kamiokande experiment, the planned Hyper-Kamiokande experiment and the proposed THEIA detector and ESSnuSB detectors. These experiments are operated or proposed to study a broad range of physics including neutrino oscillations, nucleon decay, dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay. The neutrino oscillations program will also include kiloton scale near or intermediate detectors used to study neutrino production and interactions in the absence of neutrino oscillations, such as the Hyper-K Intermediate Water Cherenkov Detector (IWCD). Realization of these physics programs will require new detector technologies and percent level calibration of detector responses and models of physics processes within the detector. Here we describe our intent to propose a 50~ton scale Water Cherenkov test experiment (WCTE) to be deployed in a North or East test beam experimental area. The experiment will include a secondary target located just upstream of the experiment in order to produce very low energy particle fluxes, including charged pions. The WCTE program will be carried out with the following objectives: - Operate and understand the performance of new detector technologies such as multi-PMTs, dichroicon wavelength-separating cones and water-based liquid scintillator in a fully integrated detector. - Study the performance of a <1 kiloton scale water Cherenkov detector with known particle fluxes, and test and develop calibration systems necessary for accurate modeling of a detector of this size. - Measure important physics processes for the modeling of water Cherenkov detector responses, including high-angle Cherenkov light production, pion scattering and absorption, and secondary neutron production in hadron scattering. We aim to start operation of the water Cherenkov test experiment in 2021-2022