Understanding the molecular basis of plant growth promotional effect of Pseudomonas fluorescens on rice through protein profiling

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR), <it>Pseudomonas fluorescens </it>strain KH-1 was found to exhibit plant growth promotional activity in rice under both <it>in-vitro </it>and <it>in-vivo </it>conditions. But the mechanism underlying such promotional activity of <it>P. fluorescens </it>is not yet understood clearly. In this study, efforts were made to elucidate the molecular responses of rice plants to <it>P. fluorescens </it>treatment through protein profiling. Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis strategy was adopted to identify the PGPR responsive proteins and the differentially expressed proteins were analyzed by mass spectrometry.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Priming of <it>P. fluorescens</it>, 23 different proteins found to be differentially expressed in rice leaf sheaths and MS analysis revealed the differential expression of some important proteins namely putative p23 co-chaperone, Thioredoxin h- rice, Ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase large chain precursor, Nucleotide diPhosphate kinase, Proteosome sub unit protein and putative glutathione S-transferase protein.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Functional analyses of the differential proteins were reported to be directly or indirectly involved in growth promotion in plants. Thus, this study confirms the primary role of PGPR strain KH-1 in rice plant growth promotion.</p

Metastasis-associated protein 1 short form stimulates Wnt1 pathway in mammary epithelial and cancer cells

Although Wnt1 downstream signaling components as well as cytoplasmic level of metastatic tumor antigen 1 short-form (MTA1s) have been shown to be elevated in human breast cancer, it remains unknown whether a regulatory cross-talk exists between these two pathways. Here we provide evidence of a remarkable correlation between the levels of MTA1s and stimulation of the Wnt1 signaling components, leading to increased stabilization of β-catenin, and stimulation of Wnt1 target genes in the murine mammary epithelial and human breast cancer cells. We found that MTA1s influences Wnt1 pathway via ERK signaling as selective silencing of the endogenous MTA1s or ERK or its target GSK-3β resulted in a substantial decrease in β-catenin expression, leading to inhibition of Wnt1-target genes. Furthermore, downregulation of β-catenin in cells with elevated MTA1s level was accompanied by a corresponding decrease in the expression of Wnt1 target genes, establishing a mechanistic role for the ERK/GSK-3β/ β-catenin pathway in the stimulation of the Wnt1 target genes by MTA1s in mammary epithelial cells. In addition, mammary glands from the virgin MTA1s transgenic mice mimicked the phenotypic changes found in the Wnt1 transgenic mice and exhibited an overall hyperactivation of the Wnt1 signaling pathway, leading to increased stabilization and nuclear accumulation of β-catenin. Mammary glands from the virgin MTA1s-TG mice revealed ductal hyperplasia and ductal carcinoma in situ, and low incidence of palpable tumors. These findings reveal a previously unrecognized role for MTA1s as an important modifier of the Wnt1 signaling in mammary epithelial and cancer cells

EMPIRICAL STUDY: LEADERSHIP, ORGANIZATION CULTURE, EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT ADOPTION: Received: 10th May 2023; Revised: 26th September 2023, 25th October 2023; Accepted: 01st November 2023

Continuous Improvements (CI) is well-known for its significance in driving and facilitating process and products improvements in organizations. For decades, large organizations used CI to improve and streamline process and workforce. CI thinking and adoption is critical for IT functions to improve aspects such as innovation, team productivity, service reliability, and cost optimization. The role of organization culture, leadership, employee engagement become key for adoption of CI to ensure stability, scalability, and sustainability to business functions through right tools, technologies, and services. There is need for research on the influence of trio on adoption of CI in the context of IT. The trio are interrelated components that play a crucial role in the success and sustainability of any organization. The aim of this study is to evaluate these three factors, its influence on adoption of CI by IT function using a quantitative approach. This study engages IT stakeholders from ITES, global companies which have their global IT development centres in India to ascertain their views. The finding of the study shows organization culture has a strong influence on adoption of CI in IT. This study can provide critical insights to management in streamlining IT practice, design organization mechanisms for better adoption of CI in IT

Submitted by Team CajunBot Towards requirements for the DARPA Urban Challenge

CajunBot-II is a 2004 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon equipped with an INS/GPS for localization. It has is equipped with a variety of environment sensors, including SICK LMS LIDAR sensors, Alasca XT LIDAR sensors from Ibeo, stereo vision, and radars. The software system is decomposed into a collection of programs communicating via a blackboard supported by a layer of middleware. Localization from the GPS and INS is improved by a Kalman filter based algorithm using a SICK LIDAR, and vehicle commands. Environment sensor data is fused using probabilities derived from the operating context. The mission is mapped into a series of maneuvers using the mission, vehicle state, and environmental information. A maneuver is applicable only on a path with a certain geometry. Execution of a maneuver takes into account the dynamic driving conditions. Human driving experiences are used to catalogue the maneuvers needed to satisfy the UC requirements. The team uses a 3-D physics based simulator for virtual testing. By using an RNDF file to create a world, the simulator provides a seamless way to perform the same tests in the field and in the lab. This compresses the debugging effort because scenarios observed in the field can be recreated in the lab. 2

Functional regulation of oestrogen receptor pathway by the dynein light chain 1

Overexpression and phosphorylation of dynein light chain 1 (DLC1) have been shown to promote the growth of breast cancer cells. However, the role of DLC1 in the action of the oestrogen receptor (ER) remains unknown. Here, we found that oestrogen induces the transcription and expression of DLC1. DLC1 facilitated oestrogen-induced ER transactivation and anchorage-independent growth of breast cancer cells. We show that DLC1 interacts with ER, and such interaction is required for the transactivation-promoting activity of DLC1. Further, DLC1 expression led to enhanced recruitment of the DLC1–ER complex to the ER-target gene chromatin. Conversely, DLC1 downregulation compromised the ER-transactivation activity and also its nuclear accumulation, suggesting a potential chaperone-like activity of DLC1 in the nuclear translocation of ER. Together, these data define an unexpected upregulation of DLC1 by oestrogen and a previously unrecognized DLC1–ER interaction in supporting and amplifying ER-initiated cellular responses in breast cancer cells