Extensive Structural Variations Between Mitochondrial Genomes of CMS and Normal Peppers (Capsicum Annuum L.) Revealed by Complete Nucleotide Sequencing

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is an inability to produce functional pollen that is caused by mutation of the mitochondrial genome. Comparative analyses of mitochondrial genomes of lines with and without CMS in several species have revealed structural differences between genomes, including extensive rearrangements caused by recombination. However, the mitochondrial genome structure and the DNA rearrangements that may be related to CMS have not been characterized in Capsicum spp. Results: We obtained the complete mitochondrial genome sequences of the pepper CMS line FS4401 (507,452 bp) and the fertile line Jeju (511,530 bp). Comparative analysis between mitochondrial genomes of peppers and tobacco that are included in Solanaceae revealed extensive DNA rearrangements and poor conservation in non-coding DNA. In comparison between pepper lines, FS4401 and Jeju mitochondrial DNAs contained the same complement of protein coding genes except for one additional copy of an atp6 gene (psi atp6-2) in FS4401. In terms of genome structure, we found eighteen syntenic blocks in the two mitochondrial genomes, which have been rearranged in each genome. By contrast, sequences between syntenic blocks, which were specific to each line, accounted for 30,380 and 17,847 bp in FS4401 and Jeju, respectively. The previously-reported CMS candidate genes, orf507 and psi atp6-2, were located on the edges of the largest sequence segments that were specific to FS4401. In this region, large number of small sequence segments which were absent or found on different locations in Jeju mitochondrial genome were combined together. The incorporation of repeats and overlapping of connected sequence segments by a few nucleotides implied that extensive rearrangements by homologous recombination might be involved in evolution of this region. Further analysis using mtDNA pairs from other plant species revealed common features of DNA regions around CMS-associated genes. Conclusions: Although large portion of sequence context was shared by mitochondrial genomes of CMS and male-fertile pepper lines, extensive genome rearrangements were detected. CMS candidate genes located on the edges of highly-rearranged CMS-specific DNA regions and near to repeat sequences. These characteristics were detected among CMS-associated genes in other species, implying a common mechanism might be involved in the evolution of CMS-associated genes.Golden Seed ProjectMinistry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA)Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF)Rural Development Administration (RDA)Korea Forest Service (KFS)Vegetable Breeding Research Center through the R&D Convergence Center Support Program, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) Republic of Korea 710001-07Molecular Bioscience

Separation of Phosvitin from Egg Yolk without Using Organic Solvents

The objective of this study was to develop a new method to separate phosvitin from egg yolk without using organic solvents. Phosvitin was extracted from yolk granules using 10% NaCl or 10% (NH4)2SO4 (final concentration) and then treated with heat to precipitate the lipoproteins from the extracted solution. The optimal pH for the phosvitin extraction from yolk granules was determined, and the iron-binding ability of the extracted phosvitin (final product) was tested. Adding 10% (NH4)2SO4 disrupted the granules, and the subsequent thermal treatment at 90°C for 1 h precipitated low density and high density lipoproteins, which enabled separation of phosvitin by centrifugation. The phosvitin concentration in the extract was significantly higher when the pH of the solution was adjusted to pH ≥9. The purity and recovery rate of phosvitin at the end of the separation process were approximately 78% and 56%, respectively. The separated phosvitin was confirmed to have ferrous and ferric iron binding ability. The advantages of this new method compared with the traditional methods include no organic solvents and high-priced equipment are needed for the separation. Also, this method is more environment and consumer friendly than that of the traditional methods

Electrochemical Investigation of High-Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Molybdenum for Preparation of Counter Electrode

In order to improve the photocurrent conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), we studied an alternative conductor for the counter electrode and focused on molybdenum (Mo) instead of conventional fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO). Because Mo has a similar work function to FTO for band alignment, better formability of platinum (Pt), and a low electric resistance, using a counter electrode made of Mo instead of FTO lead to the enhancement of the catalytic reaction of the redox couple, reduce the interior resistance of the DSSCs, and prevent energy-barrier formation. Using electrical measurements under a 1-sun condition (100 mW/cm(2), AM 1.5), we determined that the fill factor (FF) and photocurrent conversion efficiency (eta) of DSSCs with a Mo electrode were respectively improved by 7.75% and 5.59% with respect to those of DSSCs with an FTO electrode. Moreover, we have investigated the origin of the improved performance through surface morphology analyses such as scanning electron microscopy and electrochemical analyses including cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy

Serially Connected Micro Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells for Compact High-Voltage Sources

We demonstrate a compact amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar module to be used as high-voltage power supply. In comparison with the organic solar module, the main advantages of the a-Si solar module are its compatibility with photolithography techniques and relatively high power conversion efficiency. The open circuit voltage of a-Si solar cells can be easily controlled by serially interconnecting a-Si solar cells. Moreover, the a-Si solar module can be easily patterned by photolithography in any desired shapes with high areal densities. Using the photolithographic technique, we fabricate a compact a-Si solar module with noticeable photovoltaic characteristics as compared with the reported values for high-voltage power supplies

Generalized Guidance Scheme for Low-Thrust Orbit Transfer

The authors present an orbital guidance scheme for the satellite with an electrical propulsion system using a Lyapunov feedback control. The construction of a Lyapunov candidate is based on orbital elements, which consist of angular momentum and eccentricity vectors. This approach performs orbit transfers between any two arbitrary elliptic or circular orbits without any singularity issues. These orbital elements uniquely describe a non degenerate Keplerian orbit. The authors improve the reliability of the existing Lyapunov orbital guidance scheme by considering the energy term. Additional improvement is achieved by adding the penalty function. Furthermore, it is shown that the final suggested approach is suitable for the satellite passing the earth’s shadow area

Meat Products Manufactured with Olive Oil

Consumer perception of processed meat products is a critical issue for the meat industry. In recent years consumers are increasingly conscious about healthy diet. However, most of the processed meat products contain high amounts of fat, which are related to chronic diseases such as obesity and cardiovascular heart diseases. Health organizations have suggested to reduce the intake of total dietary fat, particularly saturated fatty acids and cholesterol, as a mean to prevent cardiovascular heart diseases (NCEP, 1988). Consumers now want low or reduced-animal fat products with high palatability and nutritional quality (Pietrasik & Duda, 2000)

Bound for Gaussian-state Quantum illumination using direct photon measurement

We present bound for quantum illumination with Gaussian state when using on-off detector or photon number resolving detector, where its performance is evaluated with signal-to-noise ratio. First, in the case of coincidence counting, the best performance is given by two-mode squeezed vacuum (TMSV) state which outperforms coherent state and classically correlated thermal (CCT) state. However coherent state can beat the TMSV state with increasing signal mean photon number when using the on-off detector. Second, the performance is enhanced by taking Fisher information approach of all counting probabilities including non-detection events. In the Fisher information approach, the TMSV state still presents the best performance but the CCT state can beat the TMSV state with increasing signal mean photon number when using the on-off detector. We also show that displaced squeezed state exhibits the best performance in the single-mode Gaussian state.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, comments welcom

AoA-based Position and Orientation Estimation Using Lens MIMO in Cooperative Vehicle-to-Vehicle Systems

Positioning accuracy is a critical requirement for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) use cases. Therefore, this paper derives the theoretical limits of estimation for the position and orientation of vehicles in a cooperative vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) scenario, using a lens-based multiple-input multiple-output (lens-MIMO) system. Following this, we analyze the Cram$\acute{\text{e}}$r-Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) of the position and orientation estimation and explore a received signal model of a lens-MIMO for the particular angle of arrival (AoA) estimation with a V2V geometric model. Further, we propose a lower complexity AoA estimation technique exploiting the unique characteristics of the lens-MIMO for a single target vehicle; as a result, its estimation scheme is effectively extended by the successive interference cancellation (SIC) method for multiple target vehicles. Given these AoAs, we investigate the lens-MIMO estimation capability for the positions and orientations of vehicles. Subsequently, we prove that the lens-MIMO outperforms a conventional uniform linear array (ULA) in a certain configuration of a lens's structure. Finally, we confirm that the proposed localization algorithm is superior to ULA's CRLB as the resolution of the lens increases in spite of the lower complexity.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figure