Identification and utilization of resistance to sorghum midge, Contarinia sorghicola (Coquillet), in India

Sorghum midge, Contarinia sorghicola (Coquillet), is a most important and widespread pest of grain sorghum. Over 15 000 germplasm accessions and several thousand breeding lines have been screened for resistance to sorghum midge under field infestation and no-choice headcage conditions in India. Twenty-seven germplasm accessions showing resistance across seasons and locations have been identified, of which TAM 2566, AF 28, DJ 6514, IS 3461, IS 8918, IS 10712, IS 21871 and IS 27103 are diverse sources of resistance to sorghum midge. Substantial progress has been made in developing improved midge-resistant breeding lines with reasonable yield and grain quality. Forty-four lines improved for plant type and grain yield have been developed. ICSV 197, ICSV 745, ICSV 843, ICSV 88013 and ICSV 88032 have high levels of midge resistance and their yield potential is comparable to that of commercial cultivars. PM 7068, ICSV 690, ICSV 563, and ICSV 388 have been identified as non-restorers. ICSV 563 and PM 7068 have been converted into male-sterile hybrid parents. Sorghum lines with midge resistance are genetically and morphologically diverse, and can be adapted per se or used in sorghum improvement in different sorghum-growing regions

Cephalopod fisheries at selected centres in India

The cephalopod fisheries at eleven selected centres, Waltair, Kakinada, Madras, Portonovo, Mandapam, Rameswaram and Kilakarai on the east coast and Vizhinjam, Cochin, Mangalore and Bombay on the west coast have been studied and the annual and seasonal trends of the total cephalopod catches, species composition and CPUE investigated. Cephalopods were obtained in appreciable quantities in trawl nets in most of the areas studied. There is an organized fishery with hooks and lines for cuttlefish and squids at Vizhinjam. (Trivandrum)

Some aspects of the biology of cuttlefishes

The biological aspects namely, sexuality, sex composition, size at first maturity, spawning, age and growth, distribution of adults, food and distribution of juveniles of six species of cuttlefishes Sepia pharaonis, S. aculeata, S. elliptica, S. brevimam, S. prashadi and S. inermis are discussed here. Sepia pharaonis showed differential growth and the rate of growth of females was higher than that of males. By contrast growth rate of Sepia aculeata was almost similar in both sexes

Sensory theories of developmental dyslexia: three challenges for research.

Recent years have seen the publication of a range of new theories suggesting that the basis of dyslexia might be sensory dysfunction. In this Opinion article, the evidence for and against several prominent sensory theories of dyslexia is closely scrutinized. Contrary to the causal claims being made, my analysis suggests that many proposed sensory deficits might result from the effects of reduced reading experience on the dyslexic brain. I therefore suggest that longitudinal studies of sensory processing, beginning in infancy, are required to successfully identify the neural basis of developmental dyslexia. Such studies could have a powerful impact on remediation.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from NPG at http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v16/n1/abs/nrn3836.html

Zinc Sensing Receptor Signaling, Mediated by GPR39, Reduces Butyrate-Induced Cell Death in HT29 Colonocytes via Upregulation of Clusterin

Zinc enhances epithelial proliferation, protects the digestive epithelial layer and has profound antiulcerative and antidiarrheal roles in the colon. Despite the clinical significance of this ion, the mechanisms linking zinc to these cellular processes are poorly understood. We have previously identified an extracellular Zn2+ sensing G-protein coupled receptor (ZnR) that activates Ca2+ signaling in colonocytes, but its molecular identity as well as its effects on colonocytes' survival remained elusive. Here, we show that Zn2+, by activation of the ZnR, protects HT29 colonocytes from butyrate induced cell death. Silencing of the G-protein coupled receptor GPR39 expression abolished ZnR-dependent Ca2+ release and Zn2+-dependent survival of butyrate-treated colonocytes. Importantly, GPR39 also mediated ZnR-dependent upregulation of Na+/H+ exchange activity as this activity was found in native colon tissue but not in tissue obtained from GPR39 knock-out mice. Although ZnR-dependent upregulation of Na+/H+ exchange reduced the cellular acid load induced by butyrate, it did not rescue HT29 cells from butyrate induced cell death. ZnR/GPR39 activation however, increased the expression of the anti-apoptotic protein clusterin in butyrate-treated cells. Furthermore, silencing of clusterin abolished the Zn2+-dependent survival of HT29 cells. Altogether, our results demonstrate that extracellular Zn2+, acting through ZnR, regulates intracellular pH and clusterin expression thereby enhancing survival of HT29 colonocytes. Moreover, we identify GPR39 as the molecular moiety of ZnR in HT29 and native colonocytes

Atypical Balance between Occipital and Fronto-Parietal Activation for Visual Shape Extraction in Dyslexia

Reading requires the extraction of letter shapes from a complex background of text, and an impairment in visual shape extraction would cause difficulty in reading. To investigate the neural mechanisms of visual shape extraction in dyslexia, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine brain activation while adults with or without dyslexia responded to the change of an arrow’s direction in a complex, relative to a simple, visual background. In comparison to adults with typical reading ability, adults with dyslexia exhibited opposite patterns of atypical activation: decreased activation in occipital visual areas associated with visual perception, and increased activation in frontal and parietal regions associated with visual attention. These findings indicate that dyslexia involves atypical brain organization for fundamental processes of visual shape extraction even when reading is not involved. Overengagement in higher-order association cortices, required to compensate for underengagment in lower-order visual cortices, may result in competition for top-down attentional resources helpful for fluent reading.Ellison Medical FoundationMartin Richmond Memorial FundNational Institutes of Health (U.S.). (Grant UL1RR025758)National Institutes of Health (U.S.). (Grant F32EY014750-01)MIT Class of 1976 (Funds for Dyslexia Research