Can money heal all wounds? Social exchange norm modulates the preference for monetary versus social compensation

Compensation is a kind of pro-social behavior that can restore a social relationship jeopardized by interpersonal transgression. The effectiveness of a certain compensation strategy (e.g., repaying money, sharing loss, etc.) may vary as a function of the social norm/relationship. Previous studies have shown that two types of norms (or relationships), monetary/exchange and social/communal, differentially characterize people’s appraisal of and response to social exchanges. In this study, we investigated how individual differences in preference for these norms affect individuals’ perception of others’ as well as the selection of their own reciprocal behaviors. In a two-phase experiment with interpersonal transgression, we asked the participant to perform a dot-estimation task with two partners who occasionally and unintentionally inflict noise stimulation upon the participant (first phase). As compensation one partner give money to the participant 80% of the time (the monetary partner) and the other bear the noise for the participant 80% of the time (the social partner). Results showed that the individuals’ preference for compensation (repaying money versus bearing harm) affected their relationship (exchange versus communal) with the partners adopting different compensation strategies: participants tended to form communal relationships and felt closer to the partner whose compensation strategy matched their own preference. The participants could be differentiated into a social group, who tended to form communal relationship with the social partner, and a monetary group, who tended to form communal relationship with the monetary partner. In the second phase of the experiment, when the participants became transgressors and were asked to compensate for their transgression with money, the social group offered more compensation to the social partners than to the monetary partners, while the monetary group compensated less than the social group in general and showed no difference in their offers to the monetary and social partners. These findings demonstrate that the effectiveness of compensation varies as a function of individuals’ preference for communal versus monetary norm and that monetary compensation alone does not heal all wounds

Distinct physiological responses of tomato and cucumber plants in silicon-mediated alleviation of cadmium stress

The alleviative effects of silicon (Si) on cadmium (Cd) toxicity were investigated in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) grown hydroponically. The growth of both plant species was inhibited by 100 μM Cd, but Si application counteracted the adverse effects on growth. Si application significantly decreased the Cd concentrations in shoots of both species and roots of cucumber. The root-to-shoot transport of Cd was depressed by added Si in tomato whereas it was increased by added Si in cucumber. The total content of organic acids decreased in tomato leaves but increased in cucumber roots and leaves under Cd stress. Si application also increased the cell wall polysaccharide levels in the roots of both species under Cd toxicity. Si-mediated changes in levels of organic acids and cell wall polysaccharides might contribute to the differences in Cd transport in the two species. In addition, Si application also mitigated Cd-induced oxidative damage in both species. The results indicate that there were different mechanisms for Si-mediated decrease in shoot Cd accumulation: in tomato, Si supply decreased root-to-shoot Cd transport; whereas in cucumber, Si supply reduced the Cd uptake by roots. It is suggested that Si-mediated Cd tolerance is associated with different physiological responses in tomato and cucumber plants

Sequencing, de novo assembly and comparative analysis of Raphanus sativus transcriptome

Raphanus sativus is an important Brassicaceae plant and also an edible vegetable with great economic value. However, currently there is not enough transcriptome information of R. sativus tissues, which impedes further functional genomics research on R. sativus. In this study, RNA-seq technology was employed to characterize the transcriptome of leaf tissues. Approximately 70 million clean pair-end reads were obtained and used for de novo assembly by Trinity program, which generated 68,086 unigenes with an average length of 576 bp. All the unigenes were annotated against GO and KEGG databases. In the meanwhile, we merged leaf sequencing data with existing root sequencing data and obtained better de novo assembly of R.sativus using Oases program. Accordingly, potential simple sequence repeats (SSRs), transcription factors (TFs) and enzyme codes were identified in R.sativus. Additionally, we detected a total of 3,563 significantly differentially expressed genes (DEGs, P≤0.05) and tissue-specific biological processes between leaf and root tissues. Furthermore, a TFs-based regulation network was constructed using Cytoscape software. Taken together, these results not only provide a comprehensive genomic resource of R. sativus but also shed light on functional genomic and proteomic research on R. sativus in the future