Progress toward the production of transgenic grapevines by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation

Grape possesses the basic prerequisites for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation it is a host for Agrobacterium and plant regeneration can be induced from cultured grape explants. Leaf explants were cocultivated with disarmed Agrobacterium vectors carrying kanamycin resistance and GUS genes and cultured on shoot-inducing medium containing kanamycin. After 21 d, intense and sharply-defined blue regions were observed, including some blue organized meristematic structures, consistent with plant-driven GUS gene expression. No GUS activity was detected in control explants. Among single leaf tips excised from over 200 regenerated shoots, one was GUS positive. The recovery of transgenic shoots might be improved by increasing the frequency or modifying the site of transformation and/or regeneration

Effect of post flowering foliar sprays of nutrients on fruit growth of kokum (Garcinia indica Choisy)

A study was undertaken at Dapoli (Maharashtra) to find out the effect of application of postflowering foliar nutrients on growth of kokum (Garcinia indica Choisy) fruits. Various concentrations and combinations of urea 1.0%, potassium nitrate 3.0%, monopotassium phosphate 0.5% and 19 N:19 P:19 K (1.0%) were applied at fruit set and repeated 20 days after fruit (DAF) set. The results indicated that weight of fruit increased consistently up to 90 days of fruit set and decreased slightly at harvest irrespective of treatments. The increase in fruit length and fruit circumference was linear till harvest. All foliar nutrient treatments improved the growth rate over control with respect to fruit weight, fruit length and fruit circumference at all stages of fruit growth. T4 [potassium nitrate 3.0% twice], T5 [potassium nitrate 3.0% + monopotassium phosphate 0.5%] and T6 [19 N: 19 P:19 K (1.0%) twice] were at par with each other and recorded significantly higher yield over control. Among the treatments T2 [Urea 1.0% + potassium nitrate 3.0%] was the best for improvement in fruit weight and fruit circumference of kokum fruit. All foliar nutrient sprays improved the quality of kokum fruit with respect to total soluble solids, acidity, ascorbic acid and sugar content. Among the treatments, T4 and T5 were at par with each other and significantly improved acidity and sugar content. &nbsp

Effect of post flowering foliar sprays of nutrients on fruit growth of kokum (Garcinia indica Choisy)

A study was undertaken at Dapoli (Maharashtra) to find out the effect of application of postflowering foliar nutrients on growth of kokum (Garcinia indica Choisy) fruits. Various concentrations and combinations of urea 1.0%, potassium nitrate 3.0%, monopotassium phosphate 0.5% and 19 N:19 P:19 K (1.0%) were applied at fruit set and repeated 20 days after fruit (DAF) set. The results indicated that weight of fruit increased consistently up to 90 days of fruit set and decreased slightly at harvest irrespective of treatments. The increase in fruit length and fruit circumference was linear till harvest. All foliar nutrient treatments improved the growth rate over control with respect to fruit weight, fruit length and fruit circumference at all stages of fruit growth. T4 [potassium nitrate 3.0% twice], T5 [potassium nitrate 3.0% + monopotassium phosphate 0.5%] and T6 [19 N: 19 P:19 K (1.0%) twice] were at par with each other and recorded significantly higher yield over control. Among the treatments T2 [Urea 1.0% + potassium nitrate 3.0%] was the best for improvement in fruit weight and fruit circumference of kokum fruit. All foliar nutrient sprays improved the quality of kokum fruit with respect to total soluble solids, acidity, ascorbic acid and sugar content. Among the treatments, T4 and T5 were at par with each other and significantly improved acidity and sugar content. &nbsp

Some Uses and Potentials of Qualitative Methods in Planning

Planners use methods borrowed from many disciplines. These are usually modified and adapted to meet planner's needs to acquire and sift through many diverse information sources helpful in dealing with complex problems. The quantitative methods which planners use are well known, well established in practice, and acknowledged by most as tools of the planners' trade. In contrast to this, most planners also use qualitative methods but these are rarely explicitly acknowledged.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68912/2/10.1177_0739456X8600600110.pd

Opinion dynamics: models, extensions and external effects

Recently, social phenomena have received a lot of attention not only from social scientists, but also from physicists, mathematicians and computer scientists, in the emerging interdisciplinary field of complex system science. Opinion dynamics is one of the processes studied, since opinions are the drivers of human behaviour, and play a crucial role in many global challenges that our complex world and societies are facing: global financial crises, global pandemics, growth of cities, urbanisation and migration patterns, and last but not least important, climate change and environmental sustainability and protection. Opinion formation is a complex process affected by the interplay of different elements, including the individual predisposition, the influence of positive and negative peer interaction (social networks playing a crucial role in this respect), the information each individual is exposed to, and many others. Several models inspired from those in use in physics have been developed to encompass many of these elements, and to allow for the identification of the mechanisms involved in the opinion formation process and the understanding of their role, with the practical aim of simulating opinion formation and spreading under various conditions. These modelling schemes range from binary simple models such as the voter model, to multi-dimensional continuous approaches. Here, we provide a review of recent methods, focusing on models employing both peer interaction and external information, and emphasising the role that less studied mechanisms, such as disagreement, has in driving the opinion dynamics. [...]Comment: 42 pages, 6 figure

Global organization of metabolic fluxes in the bacterium, Escherichia coli

Cellular metabolism, the integrated interconversion of thousands of metabolic substrates through enzyme-catalyzed biochemical reactions, is the most investigated complex intercellular web of molecular interactions. While the topological organization of individual reactions into metabolic networks is increasingly well understood, the principles governing their global functional utilization under different growth conditions pose many open questions. We implement a flux balance analysis of the E. coli MG1655 metabolism, finding that the network utilization is highly uneven: while most metabolic reactions have small fluxes, the metabolism's activity is dominated by several reactions with very high fluxes. E. coli responds to changes in growth conditions by reorganizing the rates of selected fluxes predominantly within this high flux backbone. The identified behavior likely represents a universal feature of metabolic activity in all cells, with potential implications to metabolic engineering.Comment: 15 pages 4 figure

Transcription profiling reveals potential mechanisms of dysbiosis in the oral microbiome of rhesus macaques with chronic untreated SIV infection.

A majority of individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have inadequate access to antiretroviral therapy and ultimately develop debilitating oral infections that often correlate with disease progression. Due to the impracticalities of conducting host-microbe systems-based studies in HIV infected patients, we have evaluated the potential of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infected rhesus macaques to serve as a non-human primate model for oral manifestations of HIV disease. We present the first description of the rhesus macaque oral microbiota and show that a mixture of human commensal bacteria and "macaque versions" of human commensals colonize the tongue dorsum and dental plaque. Our findings indicate that SIV infection results in chronic activation of antiviral and inflammatory responses in the tongue mucosa that may collectively lead to repression of epithelial development and impact the microbiome. In addition, we show that dysbiosis of the lingual microbiome in SIV infection is characterized by outgrowth of Gemella morbillorum that may result from impaired macrophage function. Finally, we provide evidence that the increased capacity of opportunistic pathogens (e.g. E. coli) to colonize the microbiome is associated with reduced production of antimicrobial peptides

inGeno – an integrated genome and ortholog viewer for improved genome to genome comparisons

BACKGROUND: Systematic genome comparisons are an important tool to reveal gene functions, pathogenic features, metabolic pathways and genome evolution in the era of post-genomics. Furthermore, such comparisons provide important clues for vaccines and drug development. Existing genome comparison software often lacks accurate information on orthologs, the function of similar genes identified and genome-wide reports and lists on specific functions. All these features and further analyses are provided here in the context of a modular software tool "inGeno" written in Java with Biojava subroutines. RESULTS: InGeno provides a user-friendly interactive visualization platform for sequence comparisons (comprehensive reciprocal protein – protein comparisons) between complete genome sequences and all associated annotations and features. The comparison data can be acquired from several different sequence analysis programs in flexible formats. Automatic dot-plot analysis includes output reduction, filtering, ortholog testing and linear regression, followed by smart clustering (local collinear blocks; LCBs) to reveal similar genome regions. Further, the system provides genome alignment and visualization editor, collinear relationships and strain-specific islands. Specific annotations and functions are parsed, recognized, clustered, logically concatenated and visualized and summarized in reports. CONCLUSION: As shown in this study, inGeno can be applied to study and compare in particular prokaryotic genomes against each other (gram positive and negative as well as close and more distantly related species) and has been proven to be sensitive and accurate. This modular software is user-friendly and easily accommodates new routines to meet specific user-defined requirements