Plants’ responses to drought and shade environments

Water and light are the most important environements for plants’ growth. These environemts are critical factors needed not only for the survival of plants but also their production. When plants are exposed to drought condition, they change in their anatomical, physiological and biochemical properties. Drought affects plants wildly from their cell structure to growth. It causes higher plastoglobuli, lower starch grain, distortion of thylakoids, disrupted grana and swelling of chloroplast. Plants grown under enhanced light, have increased palisade parenchyma, thicker leaf, higher biomass, increased photosynthesis, lower contents of chlorophyll, carotenoid and nitrogen.Keywords: Drought, plant, shade, wate

Low-bias Negative Differential Resistance effect in armchair graphene nanoribbon junctions

Graphene nanoribbons with armchair edges (AGNRs) have bandgaps that can be flexibly tuned via the ribbon width. A junction made of a narrower AGNR sandwiched between two wider AGNR leads was recently reported to possess two perfect transmission channels close to the Fermi level. Here, we report that by using a bias voltage to drive these transmission channels into the gap of the wider AGNR lead, we can obtain a negative differential resistance (NDR) effect. Owing to the intrinsic properties of the AGNR junctions, the on-set bias reaches as low as ~ 0.2 V and the valley current almost vanishes. We further show that such NDR effect is robust against details of the atomic structure of the junction, substrate and whether the junction is made by etching or by hydrogenation.Comment: The following article has been submitted to Applied Physics Letters (http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl). Copyright (2014) Author(s). This article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licens

Rubisco activity and gene expression of tropical tree species under light stress

Tropical rain forests contain an ecologically and physiologically diverse range of vegetation and habitats. Sun-acclimated plants can be divided into two groups, shade-tolerant and shade-intolerant, according to the plant’s physiological and genetic responses. Some tropical species have potential capacity for light damage in a shaded environment as well as shade-tolerance to compensate for the impaired light harvesting complex. In particular, ribulose‐1,5‐bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) is regulated by the Calvin cycle, which participated in protein synthesis. Rubisco plays a role in CO2 fixation, which helps supply the energy to regulate Rubisco for ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) reduction. Light intensity is associated with the photosynthetic rate and genetic response to moderate growth environments.Keywords: Gene expression, growth, light intensity, Rubisco activityAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(20), pp. 2764-276

Synthesis and Characterization of Azole Isoflavone Inhibitors of Aromatase

The synthesis and biological evaluation of a series of 2-azole and 2-thioazole isoflavones as potential aromatase inhibitors are described. Differences in inhibitory activity of triazole and imidazole inhibitors are rationalized with density functional theory to expose a key difference in the electronic structure of these molecules. In addition, difference binding spectra of inhibitors to immunoaffinity-purified aromatase produces classical Type II spectra consistent with coordination of the nitrogen lone pair electrons to the aromatase P450 heme

Synthesis and Characterization of Azole Isoflavone Inhibitors of Aromatase

The synthesis and biological evaluation of a series of 2-azole and 2-thioazole isoflavones as potential aromatase inhibitors are described. Differences in inhibitory activity of triazole and imidazole inhibitors are rationalized with density functional theory to expose a key difference in the electronic structure of these molecules. In addition, difference binding spectra of inhibitors to immunoaffinity-purified aromatase produces classical Type II spectra consistent with coordination of the nitrogen lone pair electrons to the aromatase P450 heme

Insect Fauna of Mt. Jang-san, Yeongwol-gun, Gangwon-do, Korea

AbstractAn entomofauna study of Jangsan Mountain (1,408.8 m) in Yeongwol-gun, Gangwon-do was carried out from April to September, 2010. The distribution of 384 species, 91 families and 12 orders was confirmed from the study area

Analysis of protein binding characteristics among Arabidopsis BBX protein family

Abstract Plants have evolved various mechanisms of adjusting their diurnal and seasonal growth and development in response to variations in day length and light quality. This plasticity is facilitated by intricate regulatory networksthat comprise transcription factors, whose expression is modulated by the activity of photoreceptors. In Arabidopsis, B-box (BBX) transcription factors, which contain one or two Zn-ligating B-box motifs in their N-termini, serve as key mediators of light signaling for photomorphogenesis, shade avoidance, and photoperiodic flowering. While multiple BBX proteins may function as a single regulatory unit, the binding networks that form among members of the BBX family have not been extensively investigated. Here, we have demonstrated that the homodimerization of two B-box motifs containing CONSTANS protein (BBX1), which regulates light signaling and is the most extensively characterized among all BBX proteins, requires at least three B-box motifs. Therefore, the number of B-box motifs may significantly influence heterodimerization among BBX family members. An interactome analysis of all 32 known B-box family members revealed that the binding affinity between group III and V proteins with only one B-box motif is relatively weaker than that observed among other group members. In fact, the group V proteins BBX26 and BBX27 rarely interact with other BBX members. Taken together, the results of this study emphasize the importance of the B-box motif in network formation among BBX proteins and provide insights into investigating the various signaling pathways mediated by these networks

Association between childhood adversities and adulthood depressive symptoms in South Korea: Results from a nationally representative longitudinal study

Objective To examine how childhood adversity (ie, parental death, parental divorce, suspension of school education due to financial strain or being raised in a relative\u27s house due to financial strain) is associated with prevalence and incidence of adulthood depressive symptoms and whether this association differs by gender and by age in South Korea. Design Prospective cohort design. Setting Nationally representative longitudinal survey in South Korea. Participants 11 526 participants in South Korea. Outcome measure Prevalence and incidence of adulthood depressive symptoms were assessed as a dichotomous variable using the Centers for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale in 2006 and 2007. Results In the prevalence analysis, each of the four childhood adversities was significantly associated with a higher prevalence of adulthood depressive symptoms. The higher incidence of depressive symptoms was associated with suspension of school education (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.32 to 1.82) and parental divorce (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.00 to 2.71). In the age-stratified analyses, prevalence of depressive symptoms was associated with all CAs across different adulthoods, except for parental divorce and late adulthood depressive symptoms. After being stratified by gender, the association was significant for parental divorce (OR 3.76, 95% CI 2.34 to 6.03) in the prevalence analysis and for being raised in a relative’s house (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.21 to 2.94) in the incidence analysis only among women. Conclusions This study suggests that childhood adversity may increase prevalence and incidence of adulthood depressive symptoms, and the impact of parental divorce or being raised in a relative\u27s house due to financial strain on adulthood depressive symptoms may differ by gender