Development of a transgenic early flowering pear (Pyrus communis L.) genotype by RNAi silencing of PcTFL1-1 and PcTFL1-2

Trees require a long maturation period, known as juvenile phase, before they can reproduce, complicating their genetic improvement as compared to annual plants. ‘Spadona’, one of the most important European pear (Pyrus communis L.) cultivars grown in Israel, has a very long juvenile period, up to 14 years, making breeding programs extremely slow. Progress in understanding the molecular basis of the transition to flowering has revealed genes that accelerate reproductive development when ectopically expressed in transgenic plants. A transgenic line of ‘Spadona’, named Early Flowering-Spadona (EF-Spa), was produced using a MdTFL1 RNAi cassette targeting the native pear genes PcTFL1-1 and PcTFL1-2. The transgenic line had three T-DNA insertions, one assigned to chromosome 2 and two to chromosome 14 PcTFL1-1 and PcTFL1-2 were completely silenced, and EF-Spa displayed an early flowering phenotype: flowers developed already in tissue culture and on most rooted plants 1–8 months after transfer to the greenhouse. EF-Spa developed solitary flowers from apical or lateral buds, reducing vegetative growth vigor. Pollination of EF-Spa trees generated normal-shaped fruits with viable F1 seeds. The greenhouse-grown transgenic F1 seedlings formed shoots and produced flowers 1–33 months after germination. Sequence analyses, of the non-transgenic F1 seedlings, demonstrated that this approach can be used to recover seedlings that have no trace of the T-DNA. Thus, the early flowering transgenic line EF-Spa obtained by PcTFL1 silencing provides an interesting tool to accelerate pear breeding

25th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting: CNS-2016

Abstracts of the 25th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting: CNS-2016 Seogwipo City, Jeju-do, South Korea. 2–7 July 201

25th annual computational neuroscience meeting: CNS-2016

The same neuron may play different functional roles in the neural circuits to which it belongs. For example, neurons in the Tritonia pedal ganglia may participate in variable phases of the swim motor rhythms [1]. While such neuronal functional variability is likely to play a major role the delivery of the functionality of neural systems, it is difficult to study it in most nervous systems. We work on the pyloric rhythm network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) [2]. Typically network models of the STG treat neurons of the same functional type as a single model neuron (e.g. PD neurons), assuming the same conductance parameters for these neurons and implying their synchronous firing [3, 4]. However, simultaneous recording of PD neurons shows differences between the timings of spikes of these neurons. This may indicate functional variability of these neurons. Here we modelled separately the two PD neurons of the STG in a multi-neuron model of the pyloric network. Our neuron models comply with known correlations between conductance parameters of ionic currents. Our results reproduce the experimental finding of increasing spike time distance between spikes originating from the two model PD neurons during their synchronised burst phase. The PD neuron with the larger calcium conductance generates its spikes before the other PD neuron. Larger potassium conductance values in the follower neuron imply longer delays between spikes, see Fig. 17.Neuromodulators change the conductance parameters of neurons and maintain the ratios of these parameters [5]. Our results show that such changes may shift the individual contribution of two PD neurons to the PD-phase of the pyloric rhythm altering their functionality within this rhythm. Our work paves the way towards an accessible experimental and computational framework for the analysis of the mechanisms and impact of functional variability of neurons within the neural circuits to which they belong

SYMMETRY-BREAKING BIFURCATION IN NONLINEAR SCHRODINGER/GROSS-PITAEVSKII EQUATIONS

We consider a class of nonlinear Schrödinger/Gross–Pitaeveskii (NLS-GP) equations, i.e., NLS with a linear potential. NLS-GP plays an important role in the mathematical modeling of nonlinear optical as well as macroscopic quantum phenomena (BEC). We obtain conditions for a symmetry-breaking bifurcation in a symmetric family of states as ${\cal N}$, the squared $L^2$ norm (particle number, optical power), is increased. The bifurcating asymmetric state is a “mixed mode” which, near the bifurcation point, is approximately a superposition of symmetric and antisymmetric modes. In the special case where the linear potential is a double well with well-separation $L$, we estimate ${\cal N}_{cr}(L)$, the symmetry breaking threshold. Along the “lowest energy” symmetric branch, there is an exchange of stability from the symmetric to the asymmetric branch as ${\cal N}$ is increased beyond ${\cal N}_{cr}$

SYMMETRY-BREAKING BIFURCATION IN NONLINEAR SCHRODINGER/GROSS-PITAEVSKII EQUATIONS

We consider a class of nonlinear Schrödinger/Gross–Pitaeveskii (NLS-GP) equations, i.e., NLS with a linear potential. NLS-GP plays an important role in the mathematical modeling of nonlinear optical as well as macroscopic quantum phenomena (BEC). We obtain conditions for a symmetry-breaking bifurcation in a symmetric family of states as ${\cal N}$, the squared $L^2$ norm (particle number, optical power), is increased. The bifurcating asymmetric state is a “mixed mode” which, near the bifurcation point, is approximately a superposition of symmetric and antisymmetric modes. In the special case where the linear potential is a double well with well-separation $L$, we estimate ${\cal N}_{cr}(L)$, the symmetry breaking threshold. Along the “lowest energy” symmetric branch, there is an exchange of stability from the symmetric to the asymmetric branch as ${\cal N}$ is increased beyond ${\cal N}_{cr}$