Produção de plantas transgênicas de café resistentes ao herbicida glufosinato de amônio

Plantas transgênicas de Coffea canephora P. resistentes ao herbicida glufosinato de amônio foram regeneradas a partir de explantes foliares cocultivados com Agrobacterium tumefaciens EHA105 contendo o plasmídio pCAMBIA3301, que contém os genes bar e uidA ambos sob controle do promotor 35S ou pIBI3 (3300 contendo o gene da ACC oxidase, antisenso) ou ainda bombardeados com o plasmídio pCAMBIA3301. Embriogênese somática direta foi induzida no meio contendo ¼ dos macros e metade dos micronutrientes do meio MS, constituintes orgânicos do meio B5 e 30 g.L 1 de sacarose, suplementado com 5mM N 6 ? (2isopentenil) adenina (2iP) e 10 mM de glufosinato de amônio para seleção de embriões transgênicos putativos. A presença e a integração do gene bar foram confirmados pelas análises de PCR e Southern blot. As plantas transgênicas pulverizadas com 1600 mg.L 1 do herbicida Finale que contém glufosinato como ingrediente ativo, não apresentaram sintomas de toxidez, mantiveram a coloração e continuaram crescendo normalmente na aclimatação ex vitro

Heat-induced masculinization in domesticated zebrafish is family-specific and yields a set of different gonadal transcriptomes

Understanding environmental influences on sex ratios is important for the study of the evolution of sex-determining mechanisms and for evaluating the effects of global warming and chemical pollution. Fishes exhibit sexual plasticity, but the underlying mechanisms of environmental effects on their reproduction are unclear even in the well-established teleost research model, the zebrafish. Here we established the conditions to study the effects of elevated temperature on zebrafish sex. We showed that sex ratio response to elevated temperature is family-specific and typically leads to masculinization (female-to-male sex reversal), resulting in neomales. These results uncovered genotype-by-environment interactions that support a polygenic sex determination system in domesticated (laboratory) zebrafish. We found that some heat-treated fish had gene expression profiles similar to untreated controls of the same sex, indicating that they were resistant to thermal effects. Further, most neomales had gonadal transcriptomes similar to that of regular males. Strikingly, we discovered heat-treated females that displayed a normal ovarian phenotype but with a “male-like” gonadal transcriptome. Such major transcriptomic reprogramming with preserved organ structure has never been reported. Juveniles were also found to have a male-like transcriptome shortly after exposure to heat. These findings were validated by analyzing the expression of genes and signaling pathways associated with sex differentiation. Our results revealed a lasting thermal effect on zebrafish gonads, suggesting new avenues for detection of functional consequences of elevated temperature in natural fish populations in a global warming scenario

Overview of methods used to evaluate the adequacy of nutrient intakes for individuals and populations

The objective of the present paper is to review the methods of measuring micronutrient intake adequacy for individuals and for populations in order to ascertain best practice. A systematic review was conducted to locate studies on the methodological aspects of measuring nutrient adequacy. The results showed that for individuals, qualitative methods (to find probability of adequacy) and quantitative methods (to find confidence of adequacy) have been proposed for micronutrients where there is enough data to set an average nutrient requirement (ANR). If micronutrients do not have ANR, an adequate intake (AI) is often defined and can be used to assess adequacy, provided the distribution of daily intake over a number of days is known. The probability of an individual's intake being excessive can also be compared with the upper level of safe intake and the confidence of this estimate determined in a similar way. At the population level, adequacy can be judged from the ANR using the probability approach or its short cut – the estimated average requirement cut-point method. If the micronutrient does not have an ANR, adequacy cannot be determined from the average intake and must be expressed differently. The upper level of safe intake can be used for populations in a similar way to that of individuals. All of the methodological studies reviewed were from the American continent and all used the methodology described in the Institute of Medicine publications. The present methodology should now be adapted for use in Europe

The Distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud from the Eclipsing Binary HV2274

The distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is crucial for the calibration of the Cosmic Distance Scale. We derive a distance to the LMC based on an analysis of ground-based photometry and HST-based spectroscopy and spectrophotometry of the LMC eclipsing binary system HV2274. Analysis of the optical light curve and HST/GHRS radial velocity curve provides the masses and radii of the binary components. Analysis of the HST/FOS UV/optical spectrophotometry provides the temperatures of the component stars and the interstellar extinction of the system. When combined, these data yield a distance to the binary system. After correcting for the location of HV2274 with respect to the center of the LMC, we find d(LMC) = 45.7 +/- 1.6 kpc or DM(LMC) = 18.30 +/- 0.07 mag. This result, which is immune to the metallicity-induced zero point uncertainties that have plagued other techniques, lends strong support to the ``short'' LMC distance scale as derived from a number of independent methods.Comment: 6 pages, including 2 pages of figures. Newly available optical (B and V) photometry has revealed -- and allowed the elimination of -- a systematic error in the previously reported determination of E(B-V) for HV2274. The new result is E(B-V) = 0.12 mag (as compared to the value of 0.083 reported in the original submission) and produces a DECREASE in the distance modulus of HV2274 by 0.12 mag. ApJ Letters, in pres

Thidiazuron como indutor de embriogênese somática em café (Coffea canephora Pierre).

Os efeitos de thidiazuron (TDZ) na indução de embriogênese somática em Coffea canephora foi investigado. Explantes foliares de C. canephora foram cultivados em um meio de cultura suplementado com diferentes concentrações de TDZ. Embriões somáticos foram observados nas concentrações de 0,25 até 2 mM, após dois meses em cultivo. Dentre os tratamentos testados, TDZ a 1 mM mostrou a mais alta freqüência de explantes com regeneração e maior número de embriões por explante. Entretanto, a indução de embriogênese somática ocorreu de forma não-sincronizada com todos os tratamentos investigados apresentando embriões em diferentes estádios de desenvolvimento

Cosmological model with non-minimally coupled fermionic field

A model for the Universe is proposed whose constituents are: (a) a dark energy field modeled by a fermionic field non-minimally coupled with the gravitational field, (b) a matter field which consists of pressureless baryonic and dark matter fields and (c) a field which represents the radiation and the neutrinos. The coupled system of Dirac's equations and Einstein field equations is solved numerically by considering a spatially flat homogeneous and isotropic Universe. It is shown that the proposed model can reproduce the expected red-shift behaviors of the deceleration parameter, of the density parameters of each constituent and of the luminosity distance. Furthermore, for small values of the red-shift the constant which couples the fermionic and gravitational fields has a remarkable influence on the density and deceleration parameters.Comment: Accepted for publication in Europhysics Letter

Desempenho agronômico e produção de matéria seca digestível de híbridos de sorgo com capim sudão, normais e mutantes BMR (portadores de nervura marrom).

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar as características agronômicas e a produção de matéria seca digestível de híbridos de sorgo com capim sudão mutantes BMR (portadores de nervura marrom) em comparação a híbridos normais. Os vinte e cinco híbridos foram avaliados quanto à altura de plantas, número de plantas por hectare, produção de matéria verde por hectare, produção de matéria seca por hectare e produção de matéria seca digestível por hectare. Os valores médios observados foram: 1,42 metros, 187 mil plantaslha, 39,62 tonlha, 3,73 tonlha e 2,65 tonlha, respectivamente para os seguintes parâmetros avaliados: altura de planta, stand de planta, produção de matéria verde, produção de matéria seca e produção de matéria seca digestíveI. De acordo com os resultados apresentados, a mutação com gene BMR expressam de forma desuniforme entre os diferentes cultivares. Em alguns cruzamentos, a inclusão do gene BMR não deprimiu significativamente as características agronômicas avaliadas. A produção de matéria seca digestível não diferiu significativamente entre os materiais avaliados devido à maior digestibilidade da matéria seca observada nos híbridos mutantes BMR