Influences of the disease resistance conferred by the individual transgenes, Pi-d2, Pi-d3 and Xa21, on the transgenic rice plants in yield and grain quality

To research possible influences of the disease resistance conferred by different trans-resistance genes on the transgenic rice plants in their yields and grain quality, three transgenic rice lines, including two with the resistance genes Pi-d2 and Pi-d3, respectively, for rice blast, and one with the resistance gene Xa21 for rice bacterial blight, which all showed the highest resistance to their respective pathogen races, were used to analyze and measure their respective characters in yield and grain quality as compared to those of the transgenic control line with the empty vector that was used to transfer Pi-d2, Pi-d3 and Xa21, respectively. Both yield and grain quality of all three transgenic materials with the respective trans-resistance genes decreased significantly. Grain weight per plant of Pi-d2, Pi-d3 and Xa21 transgenic individuals decreased by 7.7%, 29.6 and 44.4%, respectively, compared to the control. Grain quality of Pi-d2 and Pi-d3 transgenic plants were both the third class according to the Industrial Standard, ‘Grain Quality of Edible Rice Variety’ and one class worse than that of the control, but the third class still belongs to edible grains. However, grain quality of Xa21 transgenic plants was too bad to be edible

LES-RANS of installed ultra-high-bypass-ratio coaxial jet aeroacoustics with flight stream

EPSRC EP/L000261/1; EU-funded project “JERONIMO” (ACP2-GA-2012-314692-JERONIMO

Towards robust unstructured turbomachinery large eddy simulation

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compfluid.2015.06.017Industrial legacy codes usually have had long pedigrees within companies, and are deeply embedded into design processes. As the affordability and availability of computing power has increased, these codes have found themselves pushed into service as large eddy simulation solvers. The approximate Riemann solver of Roe, which is frequently used as the core method in such legacy codes, is shown to need much user care when adopted as the discretisation scheme for large eddy simulation. A kinetic energy preserving (KEP) scheme—which retains the same advantageous stencil and communications halo as the original Roe scheme—is instead implemented and tested. The adaptations of code required to switch between the two schemes were found to be extremely straightforward. As the KEP scheme intrinsically bounds the growth of the kinetic energy, it is significantly more stable than the classical non-dissipative schemes. This means that the expensive smoothing terms of the Roe scheme are not always necessary. Instead, an explicit subgrid scale turbulence model can be sensibly applied. As such, a range of mixed linear–non-linear turbulence models are tested. The performance of the KEP scheme is then tested against that of the Roe for canonical flows and engine-realistic turbine blade cutback trailing edge cases. The new KEP scheme is found to perform better than the original in all cases. A range of mesh topologies: hexahedral; prismatic; and tetrahedral; are also tested with both schemes, and the KEP scheme is again found to perform significantly better on all mesh types for these flows.This work was supported by an iCASE studentship from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, via Rolls-Royce plc. The funding from both organisations is gratefully acknowledged

Transcriptome pathways unique to dehydration tolerant relatives of modern wheat

Among abiotic stressors, drought is a major factor responsible for dramatic yield loss in agriculture. In order to reveal differences in global expression profiles of drought tolerant and sensitive wild emmer wheat genotypes, a previously deployed shock-like dehydration process was utilized to compare transcriptomes at two time points in root and leaf tissues using the Affymetrix GeneChip(R) Wheat Genome Array hybridization. The comparison of transcriptomes reveal several unique genes or expression patterns such as differential usage of IP(3)-dependent signal transduction pathways, ethylene- and abscisic acid (ABA)-dependent signaling, and preferential or faster induction of ABA-dependent transcription factors by the tolerant genotype that distinguish contrasting genotypes indicative of distinctive stress response pathways. The data also show that wild emmer wheat is capable of engaging known drought stress responsive mechanisms. The global comparison of transcriptomes in the absence of and after dehydration underlined the gene networks especially in root tissues that may have been lost in the selection processes generating modern bread wheats

Phenotypic and genotypic monitoring of Schistosoma mansoni in Tanzanian schoolchildren five years into a preventative chemotherapy national control programme

We conducted combined in vitro PZQ efficacy testing with population genetic analyses of S. mansoni collected from children from two schools in 2010, five years after the introduction of a National Control Programme. Children at one school had received four annual PZQ treatments and the other school had received two mass treatments in total. We compared genetic differentiation, indices of genetic diversity, and estimated adult worm burden from parasites collected in 2010 with samples collected in 2005 (before the control programme began) and in 2006 (six months after the first PZQ treatment). Using 2010 larval samples, we also compared the genetic similarity of those with high and low in vitro sensitivity to PZQ

Seasonal variations in carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations and C:N:P stoichiometry in different organs of a Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr. plantation in the Qinling Mountains, China

Understanding how concentrations of elements and their stoichiometry change with plant growth and age is critical for predicting plant community responses to environmental change. Weusedlong-term field experiments to explore how the leaf, stem and root carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) concentrations and their stoichiometry changed with growth and stand age in a L.principis-rupprechtii Mayr. plantation from 2012–2015 in the Qinling Mountains, China. Our results showed that the C, N and P concentrations and stoichiometric ratios in different tissues of larch stands were affected by stand age, organ type andsampling month and displayed multiple correlations with increased stand age in different growing seasons. Generally, leaf C and N concentrations were greatest in the fast-growing season, but leaf P concentrations were greatest in the early growing season. However, no clear seasonal tendencies in the stem and root C, N and P concentrations were observed with growth. In contrast to N and P, few differences were found in organ-specific C concentrations. Leaf N:P was greatest in the fast-growing season, while C:N and C:P were greatest in the late-growing season. No clear variations were observed in stem and root C:N, C:P andN:Pthroughout the entire growing season, but leaf N:P was less than 14, suggesting that the growth of larch stands was limited by N in our study region. Compared to global plant element concentrations and stoichiometry, the leaves of larch stands had higher C, P, C:NandC:PbutlowerNandN:P,andtherootshadgreater PandC:NbutlowerN,C:Pand N:P. Our study provides baseline information for describing the changes in nutritional elements with plant growth, which will facilitates plantation forest management and restoration, and makes avaluable contribution to the global data pool on leaf nutrition and stoichiometry

Information transmission in oscillatory neural activity

Periodic neural activity not locked to the stimulus or to motor responses is usually ignored. Here, we present new tools for modeling and quantifying the information transmission based on periodic neural activity that occurs with quasi-random phase relative to the stimulus. We propose a model to reproduce characteristic features of oscillatory spike trains, such as histograms of inter-spike intervals and phase locking of spikes to an oscillatory influence. The proposed model is based on an inhomogeneous Gamma process governed by a density function that is a product of the usual stimulus-dependent rate and a quasi-periodic function. Further, we present an analysis method generalizing the direct method (Rieke et al, 1999; Brenner et al, 2000) to assess the information content in such data. We demonstrate these tools on recordings from relay cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus of the cat.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Biological Cybernetic

Pyrimidine biosynthesis is not an essential function for trypanosoma brucei bloodstream forms

<p>Background: African trypanosomes are capable of both pyrimidine biosynthesis and salvage of preformed pyrimidines from the host, but it is unknown whether either process is essential to the parasite.</p> <p>Methodology/Principal Findings: Pyrimidine requirements for growth were investigated using strictly pyrimidine-free media, with or without single added pyrimidine sources. Growth rates of wild-type bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei brucei were unchanged in pyrimidine-free medium. The essentiality of the de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis pathway was studied by knocking out the PYR6-5 locus that produces a fusion product of orotate phosphoribosyltransferase (OPRT) and Orotidine Monophosphate Decarboxylase (OMPDCase). The pyrimidine auxotroph was dependent on a suitable extracellular pyrimidine source. Pyrimidine starvation was rapidly lethal and non-reversible, causing incomplete DNA content in new cells. The phenotype could be rescued by addition of uracil; supplementation with uridine, 2′deoxyuridine, and cytidine allowed a diminished growth rate and density. PYR6-5−/− trypanosomes were more sensitive to pyrimidine antimetabolites and displayed increased uracil transport rates and uridine phosphorylase activity. Pyrimidine auxotrophs were able to infect mice although the infection developed much more slowly than infection with the parental, prototrophic trypanosome line.</p> <p>Conclusions/Significance: Pyrimidine salvage was not an essential function for bloodstream T. b. brucei. However, trypanosomes lacking de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis are completely dependent on an extracellular pyrimidine source, strongly preferring uracil, and display reduced infectivity. As T. brucei are able to salvage sufficient pyrimidines from the host environment, the pyrimidine biosynthesis pathway is not a viable drug target, although any interruption of pyrimidine supply was lethal.</p&gt