CRISPR/Cas9 editing of endogenous banana streak virus in the B genome of Musa spp. overcomes a major challenge in banana breeding

Open Access Journal; Published online: 31 Jan 2019Presence of the integrated endogenous banana streak virus (eBSV) in the B genome of plantain (AAB) is a major challenge for breeding and dissemination of hybrids. As the eBSV activates into infectious viral particles under stress, the progenitor Musa balbisiana and its derivants, having at least one B genome, cannot be used as parents for crop improvement. Here, we report a strategy to inactivate the eBSV by editing the virus sequences. The regenerated genome-edited events of Gonja Manjaya showed mutations in the targeted sites with the potential to prevent proper transcription or/and translational into functional viral proteins. Seventy-five percent of the edited events remained asymptomatic in comparison to the non-edited control plants under water stress conditions, confirming inactivation of eBSV into infectious viral particles. This study paves the way for the improvement of B genome germplasm and its use in breeding programs to produce hybrids that can be globally disseminated

Efficiency bounds for estimating linear functionals of nonparametric regression models with endogenous regressors

The main objective of this paper is to derive the efficiency bounds for estimating certain linear functionals of an unknown structural function when the latter is not itself a conditional expectation.

Active Region Moss: Doppler Shifts from Hinode/EIS Observations

Studying the Doppler shifts and the temperature dependence of Doppler shifts in moss regions can help us understand the heating processes in the core of the active regions. In this paper we have used an active region observation recorded by the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) onboard Hinode on 12-Dec-2007 to measure the Doppler shifts in the moss regions. We have distinguished the moss regions from the rest of the active region by defining a low density cut-off as derived by Tripathi et al. (2010). We have carried out a very careful analysis of the EIS wavelength calibration based on the method described in Young et al. (2012). For spectral lines having maximum sensitivity between log T = 5.85 and log T = 6.25 K, we find that the velocity distribution peaks at around 0 km/s with an estimated error of 4-5 km/s. The width of the distribution decreases with temperature. The mean of the distribution shows a blue shift which increases with increasing temperature and the distribution also shows asymmetries towards blue-shift. Comparing these results with observables predicted from different coronal heating models, we find that these results are consistent with both steady and impulsive heating scenarios. However, the fact that there are a significant number of pixels showing velocity amplitudes that exceed the uncertainty of 5 km s$^{-1}$ is suggestive of impulsive heating. Clearly, further observational constraints are needed to distinguish between these two heating scenarios.Comment: 21 pages (single column), 7 figures, Accepted for Publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Magnetic impurities in the honeycomb Kitaev model

We study the effect of coupling magnetic impurities to the honeycomb lattice spin-1/2 Kitaev model in its spin liquid phase. We show that a spin-S impurity coupled to the Kitaev model is associated with an unusual Kondo effect with an intermediate coupling unstable fixed point K_c J/S separating topologically distinct sectors of the Kitaev model. We also show that the massless spinons in the spin liquid mediate an interaction of the form S_{i\alpha}^{2}S_{j\beta}^{2}/R_{ij}^{3} between distant impurities unlike the usual dipolar RKKY interaction S_{i\alpha}S_{j\alpha}/R_{ij}^{3} noted in various 2D impurity problems with a pseudogapped density of states of the spin bath. Furthermore, this long-range interaction is possible only if the impurities (a) couple to more than one neighboring spin on the host lattice and (b) the impurity spin is not a spin-1/2.$Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Published versio

Large amplitude oscillation of an erupting filament as seen in EUV, H-alpha and microwave observations

We present multiwavelength observations of a large-amplitude oscillation of a polar-crown filament on 15 October 2002, which has been reported by Isobe and Tripathi (Astron. Astrophys. 449, L17, 2006). The oscillation occurred during the slow rise (≈1 km s−1) of the filament. It completed three cycles before sudden acceleration and eruption. The oscillation and following eruption were clearly seen in observations recorded by the Extreme-Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The oscillation was seen only in a part of the filament, and it appears to be a standing oscillation rather than a propagating wave. The amplitudes of velocity and spatial displacement of the oscillation in the plane of the sky were about 5 km s−1 and 15 000 km, respectively. The period of oscillation was about two hours and did not change significantly during the oscillation. The oscillation was also observed in Hα by the Flare Monitoring Telescope at the Hida Observatory. We determine the three-dimensional motion of the oscillation from the Hα wing images. The maximum line-of-sight velocity was estimated to be a few tens of kilometers per second, although the uncertainty is large owing to the lack of line-profile information. Furthermore, we also identified the spatial displacement of the oscillation in 17-GHz microwave images from Nobeyama Radio Heliograph (NoRH). The filament oscillation seems to be triggered by magnetic reconnection between a filament barb and nearby emerging magnetic flux as was evident from the MDI magnetogram observations. No flare was observed to be associated with the onset of the oscillation. We also discuss possible implications of the oscillation as a diagnostic tool for the eruption mechanisms. We suggest that in the early phase of eruption a part of the filament lost its equilibrium first, while the remaining part was still in an equilibrium and oscillated

Modified 2D Proca Theory: Revisited Under BRST and (Anti-)Chiral Superfield Formalisms

Within the framework of Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) approach, we discuss mainly the fermionic (i.e. off-shell nilpotent) (anti-)BRST, (anti-)co-BRST and some discrete dual-symmetries of the appropriate Lagrangian densities for a two (1+1)-dimensional (2D) modified Proca (i.e. a massive Abelian 1-form) theory without any interaction with matter fields. One of the novel observations of our present investigation is the existence of some kinds of restrictions in the case of our present St\"{u}ckelberg-modified version of the 2D Proca theory which is not like the standard Curci-Ferrari (CF)-condition of a non-Abelian 1-form gauge theory. Some kinds of similarities and a few differences between them have been pointed out in our present investigation. To establish the sanctity of the above off-shell nilpotent (anti-)BRST and (anti-)co-BRST symmetries, we derive them by using our newly proposed (anti-)chiral superfield formalism where a few specific and appropriate sets of invariant quantities play a decisive role. We express the (anti-)BRST and (anti-)co-BRST conserved charges in terms of the superfields that are obtained after the applications of (anti-)BRST and (anti-)co-BRST invariant restrictions and prove their off-shell nilpotency and absolute anticommutativity properties, too. Finally, we make some comments on (i) the novelty of our restrictions/obstructions, and (ii) the physics behind the negative kinetic term associated with the pseudo-scalar field of our present theory.Comment: LaTeX file, 58 pages, Journal reference give