Detection of Sad genes in various species of Neurospora

Abstract only availableNeurospora crassa is a haploid fungus that reproduces asexually during vegetative growth. However, in a nitrogen deficient environment, the two mating-type cells, A and a, can fuse together and enter the sexual cycle. During this transient diploid stage, a post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) mechanism silences the expression of any unpaired gene. This mechanism is called meiotic silencing by unpaired DNA (MSUD) (Shiu, et al., 2001; Cell 107: 905-916). MSUD occurs when a gene is not paired with a homologue during meiosis. The unpaired DNA segment generates a sequence-specific signal, causing any paired or unpaired copies of that gene to be silenced. Two required genes for meiotic silencing have been identified; sad-1 encodes an RNA-directed RNA polymerase while sad-2 encodes a novel protein. Interspecific crosses between N. crassa and other related species are known to be infertile. This infertility may be due rearrangements caused by inversion and/or translocation. These could disrupt the pairings of genes needed for meiosis and ascus development, causing these genes to be silenced, resulting in sterility. This hypothesis is validated by observing that interspecific crosses within the genus Neurospora become much more fertile when the N. crassa parent contains a Sad-1 mutation. If MSUD is in other Neurospora species, it may represent another mechanism for speciation. This research project focuses to determine whether sad-1 and sad-2 are conserved in related species of Neurospora. Homologues of the sad genes were amplified in several fungal isolates by PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), using primers designed for those sequences. We have discovered that sad-1 and sad-2 can be found in several different Neurospora species; sad-1 is present in N. sitophila, N. tetrasperma, N. dodgei, N. galapagosensis, and N. africana, while sad-2 is found in N. sitophila, N. tetrasperma, and N. intermedia. The presence of sad genes in these species suggests MSUD may contribute to their reproductive isolation.Life Sciences Fellowships/Meyerhoff Scholars Progra

LeanAI: A method for AEC practitioners to effectively plan AI implementations

Recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) provide unprecedented automation opportunities in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. However, despite the enthusiasm regarding the use of AI, 85% of current big data projects fail. One of the main reasons for AI project failures in the AEC industry is the disconnect between those who plan or decide to use AI and those who implement it. AEC practitioners often lack a clear understanding of the capabilities and limitations of AI, leading to a failure to distinguish between what AI should solve, what it can solve, and what it will solve, treating these categories as if they are interchangeable. This lack of understanding results in the disconnect between AI planning and implementation because the planning is based on a vision of what AI should solve without considering if it can or will solve it. To address this challenge, this work introduces the LeanAI method. The method has been developed using data from several ongoing longitudinal studies analyzing AI implementations in the AEC industry, which involved 50+ hours of interview data. The LeanAI method delineates what AI should solve, what it can solve, and what it will solve, forcing practitioners to clearly articulate these components early in the planning process itself by involving the relevant stakeholders. By utilizing the method, practitioners can effectively plan AI implementations, thus increasing the likelihood of success and ultimately speeding up the adoption of AI. A case example illustrates the usefulness of the method.Comment: 40th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2023

Molecular imaging phenotyping for selecting and monitoring radioligand therapy of neuroendocrine neoplasms

Neuroendocrine neoplasia (NEN) is an umbrella term that includes a widely heterogeneous disease group including well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumours (NETs), and aggressive neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs). The site of origin of the NENs is linked to the intrinsic tumour biology and is predictive of the disease course. It is understood that NENs demonstrate significant biologic heterogeneity which ultimately translates to widely varying clinical presentations, disease course and prognosis. Thus, significant emphasis is laid on the pre-therapy evaluation of markers that can help predict tumour behavior and dynamically monitors the response during and after treatment. Most well-differentiated NENs express somatostatin receptors (SSTRs) which make them appropriate for peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT). However, the treatment outcomes of PRRT depend heavily on the adequacy of patient selection by molecular imaging phenotyping not only utilizing pre-treatment SSTR PET bu

Tool wear and surface integrity analysis of machined heat treated selective laser melted Ti-6Al-4V

In this study, the tool wear and surface integrity during machining of wrought and Selective LaserMelted (SLM) titanium alloy (after heat treatment) are studied. Face turning trails were carried out onboth the materials at different cutting speeds of 60,120 and 180 m/min. Cutting tools and machinedspecimens collected are characterized using scanning electron microscope, surface profiler and opticalmicroscope to study the tool wear, machined surface quality and machining induced microstructuralalterations. It was found that high cutting speeds lead to rapid tool wear during machining of SLMTi-6Al-4V materials. Rapid tool wear observed at high cutting speeds in machining SLM Ti-6Al-4Vresulted in damaging the surface integrity by 1) Deposition of chip/work material on the machinedsurface giving rise to higher surface roughness and 2) Increasing the depth of plastic deformationon the machined sub surface

Characterization and In Silico Analysis of Pregnancy-Associated Glycoprotein-1 Gene of Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

Pregnancy-Associated Glycoproteins (PAGs) are trophoblastic proteins belonging to the Aspartic proteinase family secreted by different placental cells of many mammalian species. They play a pivotal role in placentogenesis, foetomaternal unit remodeling, and implantation. The identification of the genes encoding those proteins will be helpful to unravel the intricate embryogenomic functions during pregnancy establishment. Considering importance of these proteins, the present study was undertaken to characterize the pregnancy associated glycoprotein-1 gene of buffalo. An 1181 base pairs buffalo Pregnancy-Associated Glycoprotein PAG-1 gene was PCR amplified from the RNA obtained from the fetal cotyledons. BLAST analysis of the buffalo PAG-1 sequence retrieved a total of 20 cattle, 5 goat, and 4 sheep PAG sequences, exhibiting more than 80% similarity. Buffalo PAG-1 gene contained an uninterrupted open reading frame of 1140 base pairs encoding 380 amino acids that possess a 15 amino acid signal peptide and mature peptide of 365 amino acids. The phylogenetic study of the buffalo PAG-1 gene revealed buffalo PAG-1 is more related to cattle, goat, and sheep PAG-1 sequences. By this study characterization of buffalo PAG-1 gene and its evolutionary relationship was deduced for the first time