Microarray analysis of salt-responsive genes in common wheat

Dissertação apresentada à Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra no âmbito do 2º Ciclo de Estudos em Direito, área de especialização em Ciências Jurídico-Políticas, Direito Internacional Público e Europeu

Comparative gene expression analysis of susceptible and resistant near-isogenic lines in common wheat infected by Puccinia triticina

Gene expression after leaf rust infection was compared in near-isogenic wheat lines differing in the Lr10 leaf rust resistance gene. RNA from susceptible and resistant plants was used for cDNA library construction. In total, 55 008 ESTs were sequenced from the two libraries, then combined and assembled into 14 268 unigenes for further analysis. Of these ESTs, 89% encoded proteins similar to (E value of < or =10(-5)) characterized or annotated proteins from the NCBI non-redundant database representing diverse molecular functions, cellular localization and biological processes based on gene ontology classification. Further, the unigenes were classified into susceptible and resistant classes based on the EST members assembled from the respective libraries. Several genes from the resistant sample (14-3-3 protein, wali5 protein, actin-depolymerization factor and ADP-ribosylation factor) and the susceptible sample (brown plant hopper resistance protein, caffeic acid O-methyltransferase, pathogenesis-related protein and senescence-associated protein) were selected and their differential expression in the resistant and susceptible samples collected at different time points after leaf rust infection was confirmed by RT-PCR analysis. The molecular pathogenicity of leaf rust in wheat was studied and the EST data generated made a foundation for future studies

Lifecycle, culture, and maintenance of the emerging cephalopod models Euprymna berryi and Euprymna morsei

Cephalopod research remains limited by the inability to culture species under laboratory conditions for multiple generations to provide continuous access to animals at all stages of the life cycle. Here, we describe a multi-generational laboratory culture system for two emerging cephalopod models: the hummingbird or Berry’s bobtail squid, Euprymna berryi Sasaki, 1929, and Morse’s bobtail squid, Euprymna morsei Verrill, 1881, which are primarily found off mainland Japan. E. berryi wild adults were spawned and raised to the third filial generation, and E. morsei wild adults were spawned and raised to the second filial generation in a closed system at 20°C. We report growth and survivorship data for a cohort of 30 individuals across the first generation raised in captivity. E. berryi and E. morsei grew exponentially during the first 90 and 60 days post-hatching, respectively. Survivorship at the first spawning event for E. berryi and E. morsei was 90% and 77%. E. berryi and E. morsei females spawned after days 112 and 71 days post-hatching, respectively. We describe the life history of each species and how to distinguish sexes. We discuss the challenges of cephalopod culture and how culturing these species address those problems

Comprehensive Functional Analyses of Expressed Sequence Tags in Common Wheat (Triticum aestivum)

About 1 million expressed sequence tag (EST) sequences comprising 125.3 Mb nucleotides were accreted from 51 cDNA libraries constructed from a variety of tissues and organs under a range of conditions, including abiotic stresses and pathogen challenges in common wheat (Triticum aestivum). Expressed sequence tags were assembled with stringent parameters after processing with inbuild scripts, resulting in 37 138 contigs and 215 199 singlets. In the assembled sequences, 10.6% presented no matches with existing sequences in public databases. Functional characterization of wheat unigenes by gene ontology annotation, mining transcription factors, full-length cDNA, and miRNA targeting sites were carried out. A bioinformatics strategy was developed to discover single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within our large EST resource and reported the SNPs between and within (homoeologous) cultivars. Digital gene expression was performed to find the tissue-specific gene expression, and correspondence analysis was executed to identify common and specific gene expression by selecting four biotic stress-related libraries. The assembly and associated information cater a framework for future investigation in functional genomics

Initial report on polar mesospheric cloud observations by Himawari-8

We provide an initial report on polar mesospheric cloud (PMC) observations by the Japanese Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) meteorological satellite Himawari-8. Heights of the observed PMCs were estimated to be 80–82&thinsp;km. Observed PMCs were active only during summertime in both the northern and southern polar regions. These observations are consistent with known PMC behavior. From its almost fixed location relative to the Earth, Himawari-8 is capable of continuously monitoring PMC every 10&thinsp;min with three visible bands: blue (0.47&thinsp;µm), green (0.51&thinsp;µm), and red (0.64&thinsp;µm). Thus, Himawari-8 can contribute to PMC research in the near future.</p