The interaction between miR160 and miR165/166 in the control of leaf development and drought tolerance in Arabidopsis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs that play important roles in plant development and abiotic stresses. To date, studies have mainly focused on the roles of individual miRNAs, however, a few have addressed the interactions among multiple miRNAs. In this study, we investigated the interplay and regulatory circuit between miR160 and miR165/166 and its effect on leaf development and drought tolerance in Arabidopsis using Short Tandem Target Mimic (STTM). By crossing STTM160 Arabidopsis with STTM165/166, we successfully generated a double mutant of miR160 and miR165/166. The double mutant plants exhibited a series of compromised phenotypes in leaf development and drought tolerance in comparison to phenotypic alterations in the single STTM lines. RNA-seq and qRT-PCR analyses suggested that the expression levels of auxin and ABA signaling genes in the STTM-directed double mutant were compromised compared to the two single mutants. Our results also suggested that miR160-directed regulation of auxin response factors (ARFs) contribute to leaf development via auxin signaling genes, whereas miR165/166- mediated HD-ZIP IIIs regulation confers drought tolerance through ABA signaling. Our studies further indicated that ARFs and HD-ZIP IIIs may play opposite roles in the regulation of leaf development and drought tolerance that can be further applied to other crops for agronomic traits improvement

The interaction between miR160 and miR165/166 in the control of leaf development and drought tolerance in Arabidopsis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs that play important roles in plant development and abiotic stresses. To date, studies have mainly focused on the roles of individual miRNAs, however, a few have addressed the interactions among multiple miRNAs. In this study, we investigated the interplay and regulatory circuit between miR160 and miR165/166 and its effect on leaf development and drought tolerance in Arabidopsis using Short Tandem Target Mimic (STTM). By crossing STTM160 Arabidopsis with STTM165/166, we successfully generated a double mutant of miR160 and miR165/166. The double mutant plants exhibited a series of compromised phenotypes in leaf development and drought tolerance in comparison to phenotypic alterations in the single STTM lines. RNA-seq and qRT-PCR analyses suggested that the expression levels of auxin and ABA signaling genes in the STTM-directed double mutant were compromised compared to the two single mutants. Our results also suggested that miR160-directed regulation of auxin response factors (ARFs) contribute to leaf development via auxin signaling genes, whereas miR165/166- mediated HD-ZIP IIIs regulation confers drought tolerance through ABA signaling. Our studies further indicated that ARFs and HD-ZIP IIIs may play opposite roles in the regulation of leaf development and drought tolerance that can be further applied to other crops for agronomic traits improvement

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Simulation and Analysis of Accident Condition and Coping Operations of The Dian Zhong Water Diversion Project

In this paper, according to the characteristics of Dian Zhong Water Diversion Project, as big flow, small cross section, and insufficient escaping capacity, a numerical model of the project is developed. In addition, with analysis, a worst accident condition and operations dealing with it are developed and simulated by the numerical model. With the simulation results, a checking condition is suggested to the structure design

Simulation and Analysis of Accident Condition and Coping Operations of The Dian Zhong Water Diversion Project

In this paper, according to the characteristics of Dian Zhong Water Diversion Project, as big flow, small cross section, and insufficient escaping capacity, a numerical model of the project is developed. In addition, with analysis, a worst accident condition and operations dealing with it are developed and simulated by the numerical model. With the simulation results, a checking condition is suggested to the structure design

Impact on operation of the Middle Route Project of South-to-North Water Diversion

The inter-basin water transfer project is one of the most important means to solve the uneven distribution of water resources in time and space, rationally allocate water resources, and promote the construction of water ecological civilization. Research on the operation impact and channel hydraulic response is meaning for the safe operation of long-distance water conveyance canals. Taking the Middle Route Project (MRP) of South-to-North Water Diversion (SNWD) as example, this paper built the onedimensional steady and unsteady flow model and investigated the impact of roughness change, emergency rescue technology and equipment, and sluice control failure. Results showed that increased roughness decreased the water diversion efficiency of MRP to some degree. The emergency rescue technology and equipment occupied the channel section and declined flow capacity. The occurrence of sluice control failure relatively played an increasing impact on upstream water level and a decreasing impact downstream water level and flow discharge. The impact of the above scenarios on the scheduling operation can be reduced to a certain extent by regular cleaning and maintenance, development of rational water emergency rescue project, development of staff skill, etc. This research can provide support for safe operation and regulation of the MRP of SNWD

Drought Risk Assessment based on PDSI in the Daqinghe Watershed, North China

Drought is a worldwide natural disaster and has become an obstacle to the socio-economic development of the Daqinghe watershed in North China, the drought risk of which is analyzed in this study. PDSI is established and validated by the SPI, SRI, SMI, and agriculture drought-affect area in Baoding, a city in Daqinghe watershed. The result shows that PDSI performs well in describing the drought evolution, especially in the monthly scale. Then, the drought risk is assessed combining the drought hazard derived from PDSI with the exposed vulnerabilities consisting of the population, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), cropland area, and vegetation area. It indicates that the subwatersheds with high drought risk mainly concentrate in the downstream plain area

Impact on operation of the Middle Route Project of South-to-North Water Diversion

The inter-basin water transfer project is one of the most important means to solve the uneven distribution of water resources in time and space, rationally allocate water resources, and promote the construction of water ecological civilization. Research on the operation impact and channel hydraulic response is meaning for the safe operation of long-distance water conveyance canals. Taking the Middle Route Project (MRP) of South-to-North Water Diversion (SNWD) as example, this paper built the onedimensional steady and unsteady flow model and investigated the impact of roughness change, emergency rescue technology and equipment, and sluice control failure. Results showed that increased roughness decreased the water diversion efficiency of MRP to some degree. The emergency rescue technology and equipment occupied the channel section and declined flow capacity. The occurrence of sluice control failure relatively played an increasing impact on upstream water level and a decreasing impact downstream water level and flow discharge. The impact of the above scenarios on the scheduling operation can be reduced to a certain extent by regular cleaning and maintenance, development of rational water emergency rescue project, development of staff skill, etc. This research can provide support for safe operation and regulation of the MRP of SNWD

Drought Risk Assessment based on PDSI in the Daqinghe Watershed, North China

Drought is a worldwide natural disaster and has become an obstacle to the socio-economic development of the Daqinghe watershed in North China, the drought risk of which is analyzed in this study. PDSI is established and validated by the SPI, SRI, SMI, and agriculture drought-affect area in Baoding, a city in Daqinghe watershed. The result shows that PDSI performs well in describing the drought evolution, especially in the monthly scale. Then, the drought risk is assessed combining the drought hazard derived from PDSI with the exposed vulnerabilities consisting of the population, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), cropland area, and vegetation area. It indicates that the subwatersheds with high drought risk mainly concentrate in the downstream plain area

Integration of eQTL and machine learning to dissect causal genes with pleiotropic effects in genetic regulation networks of seed cotton yield

Summary: The dissection of a gene regulatory network (GRN) that complements the genome-wide association study (GWAS) locus and the crosstalk underlying multiple agronomical traits remains a major challenge. In this study, we generate 558 transcriptional profiles of lint-bearing ovules at one day post-anthesis from a selective core cotton germplasm, from which 12,207 expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) are identified. Sixty-six known phenotypic GWAS loci are colocalized with 1,090 eQTLs, forming 38 functional GRNs associated predominantly with seed yield. Of the eGenes, 34 exhibit pleiotropic effects. Combining the eQTLs within the seed yield GRNs significantly increases the portion of narrow-sense heritability. The extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) machine learning approach is applied to predict seed cotton yield phenotypes on the basis of gene expression. Top-ranking eGenes (NF-YB3, FLA2, and GRDP1) derived with pleiotropic effects on yield traits are validated, along with their potential roles by correlation analysis, domestication selection analysis, and transgenic plants