Study of En at the wx-844 allele: modifier of En excision, weak En, and transposition of En

The wx-844 allele contains a fully active and complete En transposable element inserted within the Wx gene. The mutability of this allele is very high and the somatic mutability is seen in the endosperm as dark staining Wx sectors in a background of non-staining wx regions;The very high coarse pattern of waxy mutability is modified into a reduced fine pattern in the presence of the I-102 element located within the A gene in the non-autonomously mutable a-m(r) 102 allele. The modifying effect of the I-102 element on En induced excision has been found to be a general phenomenon in the En-I transposable element system. The mechanism of excision inhibition involves a defective product formation, named tnpR which competitively inhibits the En encoded product responsible for excision. TnpR has no effect on the En encoded S function mediated through tnpA;A weak En element has also been isolated from the wx-m 86246X allele which was derived from the wx-844 allele. This allele contains a deletion derivative of En and is identified as the En2 element. This element has a low M action but a weak and unstable S function. It is able to produce the tnpA product although in a reduced amount. The genetic analysis followed by molecular characterization has aided in the identification of tnpA as the Suppressor function of En;Through the study of the somatic excision events in the endosperm it has been established that the En element is lost in a substantial number of cases after it is excised from the Wx gene. Further characterization of somatic excision events suggests that transposition of En during chromosome replication is the most likely cause of the loss events observed

ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY AND PHYTOCONSTITUENTS SCREENING OF NOXIOUS INVASIVE ALIEN PLANTS, AGERATINA ADENOPHORA AND CHROMOLAENA ODORATA FROM MIZORAM, A PART OF INDO-BURMA BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT IN INDIA

Ageratina adenophora and Chromolaena odorata belonging to the family Asteraceae are the two most noxious invasive alien plant species in the natural forests of Mizoram, a part of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot. These two noxious invasive species should either be controlled by eradication or managed by exploiting them as a resource for bioprospecting like antimicrobial medicines. The present study has explored the two abundantly available invasive species, for bioprospecting and investigating their antimicrobial potential. The obtained results revealed the presence of varying amounts of flavonoids, steroids, tannins, and alkaloids in the polar and non-polar solvent extracts of A. adenophora and C. odorata. The methanol extract of A. adenophora revealed promising antifungal activity against the test plant pathogenic fungi whereas petroleum ether extract of A. adenophora and C. odorata exhibited significant antibacterial potential against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative test bacteria. The results also revealed the solvent extracts of the studied invasive alien plants exhibited almost similar or more effectiveness with that of commonly used synthetic antifungals like Bavistin and broad-spectrum antibiotics like Gentamicin. Investigating the minimum inhibitory concentration of the plant extracts revealed their effectiveness even at minor concentrations. Therefore, the antimicrobial property of these two noxious invasive alien plant species can be recognized as a beneficial resource for medicinal as well as economic purposes for antibacterial and antifungal materials

Identification of Real-Time Maglev Plant using Long-Short Term Memory network based Deep learning Technique

Deep neural network has emerged as one of the most effective networks for modeling of highly non-linear complex real-time systems. The Long-Short Term Memory network (LSTM) which is a one of the variants of Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) has been proposed for the identification of a highly nonlinear Maglev plant. The comparative analysis of its performance is carried out with the Functional Link Artificial Neural Network- Least Mean Square (FLANN-LMS), FLANN-Particle Swarm Optimization (FLANN-PSO), FLANN-Teaching Learning Based Optimization (FLANN-TLBO) and FLANN-Black Widow Optimization (FLANN-BWO) algorithm. The proposed LSTM model is a feed forward neural network trained by a simple iterative method called the ADAM algorithm. The obtained results indicate that the proposed network has better performance than the other competitive networks in terms of the MSE, CPU time and convergence rate. To validate the dominance of the proposed network, a statistical tests, i.e. the Friedman test, is also applied.

Identification of Real-Time Maglev Plant using Long-Short Term Memory Network based Deep Learning Technique

1101-1105Deep neural network has emerged as one of the most effective networks for modeling of highly non-linear complex real-time systems. The long-short term memory network (LSTM) which is a one of the variants of recurrent neural network (RNN) has been proposed for the identification of a highly nonlinear Maglev plant. The comparative analysis of its performance is carried out with the functional link artificial neural network- least mean square (FLANN-LMS), FLANN-particle swarm optimization (FLANN-PSO), FLANN-teaching learning based optimization (FLANN-TLBO) and FLANN-black widow optimization (FLANN-BWO) algorithm. The proposed LSTM model is a feed forward neural network trained by a simple iterative method called the ADAM algorithm. The obtained results indicate that the proposed network has better performance than the other competitive networks in terms of the MSE, CPU time and convergence rate. To validate the dominance of the proposed network, a statistical tests, i.e. the Friedman test, is also applied

Genes and Small RNA Transcripts Exhibit Dosage-Dependent Expression Pattern in Maize Copy-Number Alterations

Copy-number alterations are widespread in animal and plant genomes, but their immediate impact on gene expression is still unclear. In animals, copy-number alterations usually exhibit dosage effects, except for sex chromosomes which tend to be dosage compensated. In plants, genes within small duplications (\u3c100 kb) often exhibit dosage-dependent expression, whereas large duplications (\u3e50 Mb) are more often dosage compensated. However, little or nothing is known about expression in moderately-sized (1–50 Mb) segmental duplications, and about the response of small RNAs to dosage change. Here, we compared maize (Zea mays) plants with two, three, and four doses of a 14.6-Mb segment of chromosome 1 that contains ∼300 genes. Plants containing the duplicated segment exhibit dosage-dependent effects on ear length and flowering time. Transcriptome analyses using GeneChip and RNA-sequencing methods indicate that most expressed genes and unique small RNAs within the duplicated segments exhibit dosage-dependent transcript levels. We conclude that dosage effect is the predominant regulatory response for both genes and unique small RNA transcripts in the segmental dosage series we tested. To our knowledge this is the first analysis of small RNA expression in plant gene dosage variants. Because segmental duplications comprise a significant proportion of eukaryotic genomes, these findings provide important new insight into the regulation of genes and small RNAs in response to dosage changes

Study of En at the wx-844 allele: modifier of En excision, weak En, and transposition of En

The wx-844 allele contains a fully active and complete En transposable element inserted within the Wx gene. The mutability of this allele is very high and the somatic mutability is seen in the endosperm as dark staining Wx sectors in a background of non-staining wx regions;The very high coarse pattern of waxy mutability is modified into a reduced fine pattern in the presence of the I-102 element located within the A gene in the non-autonomously mutable a-m(r) 102 allele. The modifying effect of the I-102 element on En induced excision has been found to be a general phenomenon in the En-I transposable element system. The mechanism of excision inhibition involves a defective product formation, named tnpR which competitively inhibits the En encoded product responsible for excision. TnpR has no effect on the En encoded S function mediated through tnpA;A weak En element has also been isolated from the wx-m 86246X allele which was derived from the wx-844 allele. This allele contains a deletion derivative of En and is identified as the En2 element. This element has a low M action but a weak and unstable S function. It is able to produce the tnpA product although in a reduced amount. The genetic analysis followed by molecular characterization has aided in the identification of tnpA as the Suppressor function of En;Through the study of the somatic excision events in the endosperm it has been established that the En element is lost in a substantial number of cases after it is excised from the Wx gene. Further characterization of somatic excision events suggests that transposition of En during chromosome replication is the most likely cause of the loss events observed.</p

Predicting the Potential Invasion Hotspots of Chromolaena odorata under Current and Future Climate Change Scenarios in Heterogeneous Ecological Landscapes of Mizoram, India

Recent trends in globalization, human mobility surge and global trade aggravated the expansion of alien species introduction leading to invasion by alien plants compounded by climate change. The ability to predict the spread of invasive species within the context of climate change holds significance for accurately identifying vulnerable regions and formulating strategies to contain their wide proliferation and invasion. Anthropogenic activities and recent climate change scenarios increased the risk of Chromolaena odorata invasion and habitat expansion in Mizoram. To forecast its current distribution and habitat suitability amidst climatic alterations in Mizoram, a MaxEnt-driven habitat suitability model was deployed using the default parameters. The resultant model exhibited that the current spatial range of C. odorata occupies 15.37% of geographical areas deemed suitable for varying degrees of invasion. Projections for 2050 and 2070 anticipated an expansion of suitable habitats up to 34.37% of the geographical area of Mizoram, specifically under RCP 2.6 in 2070 in comparison with its present distribution. Currently, the distributional range of C. odorata in Mizoram spans from lower (450 m) to mid elevational ranges up to 1700 meters, with limited presence at higher altitudes. However, the habitat suitability model extrapolates that climate changes will elevate the invasion risk posed by C. odorata across Mizoram, particularly in the North-Western and Central regions. The projection of further territorial expansion and an upward shift in altitudinal range in the future underscores the urgency of instating robust management measures to pre-empt the impact of C. odorata invasion. This study recommends the imperative nature of effective C. odorata management, particularly during the initial stages of invasion

A note on insecticide susceptibility status of Anopheles fluviatilis James (Diptera: Culicidae) in Rayagada District of Odisha, India

Purpose of the Research: The aim of this study was to evaluate the adulticidal activity of DDT (4%) and deltamethrin (0.05%) against Anopheles fluviatilis during September 2013– November 2013 in Rayagada, a malaria endemic district of Odisha state, India and to select the insecticide to be used for routine national malaria control programme based on the results of the susceptibility test.Methods Used: Susceptibility test was done as per the standard WHO susceptibility tests.Results: The results showed that An. fluviatilis is susceptible to both the commonly used insecticides DDT and deltamethrin in the study area.Discussion: An. fluviatilis is the vector species primarily associated with transmission of malaria in the study area, and successful application of DDT and deltamethrin in the district could reduce the vector load