Proteomic and genetic approaches to identifying defence-related proteins in rice challenged with the fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani

Sheath blight, caused by the fungus Rhizoctonia solani, is a major disease of rice world-wide, but little is known about the host response to infection. The objective of this study was to identify proteins and DNA markers in resistant and susceptible rice associated with response to infection by R. solani. Replicated two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis experiments were conducted to detect proteins differentially expressed under inoculated and non-inoculated conditions. Tandem mass spectra analysis using electrospray ionization quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry (ESI Q-TOF MS) was carried out for protein identification with the NCBI non-redundant protein database. Seven proteins were increased after inoculation in both susceptible and resistant plants. Six of the seven proteins were identified with presumed antifungal, photosynthetic and proteolytic activities. An additional 14 proteins were detected in the response of the resistant line. Eleven of the 14 proteins were identified with presumed functions relating to antifungal activity, signal transduction, energy metabolism, photosynthesis, molecular chaperone, proteolysis and antioxidation. The induction of 3-β- hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/isomerase was detected for the first time in resistant rice plants after pathogen challenge, suggesting a defensive role of this enzyme in rice against attack by R. solani. The chromosomal locations of four induced proteins were found to be in close physical proximity to genetic markers for sheath blight resistance in two genetic mapping populations. The proteomic and genetic results from this study indicate a complex response of rice to challenge by R. solani that involves simultaneous induction of proteins from multiple defence pathways. © 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Precision Measurement of the Proton and Deuteron Spin Structure Functions g2 and Asymmetries A2

We have measured the spin structure functions g2p and g2d and the virtual photon asymmetries A2p and A2d over the kinematic range 0.02 < x < 0.8 and 0.7 < Q^2 < 20 GeV^2 by scattering 29.1 and 32.3 GeV longitudinally polarized electrons from transversely polarized NH3 and 6LiD targets. Our measured g2 approximately follows the twist-2 Wandzura-Wilczek calculation. The twist-3 reduced matrix elements d2p and d2n are less than two standard deviations from zero. The data are inconsistent with the Burkhardt-Cottingham sum rule if there is no pathological behavior as x->0. The Efremov-Leader-Teryaev integral is consistent with zero within our measured kinematic range. The absolute value of A2 is significantly smaller than the sqrt[R(1+A1)/2] limit.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events

The $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of 23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives $\Delta m_d = 0.493 \pm 0.012{(stat)}\pm 0.009{(syst)}$ ps$^{-1}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) Conceptual Design Report Volume 2: The Physics Program for DUNE at LBNF

The Physics Program for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) at the Fermilab Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) is described