Heterosis Increases Fertility, Fecundity and Survival of Laboratory-Produced F1 Hybrid Males of the Malaria Mosquito Anopheles coluzzii

The success of vector control strategies aiming to decrease disease transmission via the release of sterile or genetically-modified male mosquitoes critically depends on mating between laboratory-reared males and wild females. Unfortunately, mosquito colonization, laboratory rearing, and genetic manipulations can all negatively affect male competitiveness. Heterosis is commonly used to produce domestic animals with enhanced vigor and homogenous genetic background and could therefore potentially improve the mating performance of mass-reared male mosquitoes. Here, we produced enhanced hybrid males of the malaria mosquito Anopheles coluzzii by crossing two strains colonized 35+ and 8 years ago. We compared the amount of sperm and mating plug proteins they transferred to females, as well as their insemination rate, reproductive success and longevity under various experimental conditions. Across experiments widespread adaptations to laboratory mating were detected in the older strain. In large-group mating experiments, no overall hybrid advantage in insemination rates and the amount of sperm and accessory gland proteins transferred to females was detected. Despite higher sperm activity, hybrid males did not appear more fecund. However, individual-male mating and laboratory-swarm experiments revealed that hybrid males, while inseminating fewer females than older inbred males, were significantly more fertile, producing larger mating plugs and drastically increasing female fecundity. Heterotic males also showed increased longevity. These results validate the use of heterosis for creating hybrid males with improved fitness from long-established inbred laboratory strains. Therefore, this simple approach could facilitate disease control strategies based on male mosquito releases with important ultimate benefits to human health

High-quality draft genome sequence of Rhizobium mesoamericanum strain STM6155, a Mimosa pudica microsymbiont from New Caledonia.

Rhizobium mesoamericanum STM6155 (INSCD?=?ATYY01000000) is an aerobic, motile, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming rod that can exist as a soil saprophyte or as an effective nitrogen fixing microsymbiont of the legume Mimosa pudica L.. STM6155 was isolated in 2009 from a nodule of the trap host M. pudica grown in nickel-rich soil collected near Mont Dore, New Caledonia. R. mesoamericanum STM6155 was selected as part of the DOE Joint Genome Institute 2010 Genomic Encyclopedia for Bacteria and Archaea-Root Nodule Bacteria (GEBA-RNB) genome sequencing project. Here we describe the symbiotic properties of R. mesoamericanum STM6155, together with its genome sequence information and annotation. The 6,927,906 bp high-quality draft genome is arranged into 147 scaffolds of 152 contigs containing 6855 protein-coding genes and 71 RNA-only encoding genes. Strain STM6155 forms an ANI clique (ID 2435) with the sequenced R. mesoamericanum strain STM3625, and the nodulation genes are highly conserved in these strains and the type strain of Rhizobium grahamii CCGE501(T). Within the STM6155 genome, we have identified a chr chromate efflux gene cluster of six genes arranged into two putative operons and we postulate that this cluster is important for the survival of STM6155 in ultramafic soils containing high concentrations of chromate

A split-mouth randomized controlled trial to compare the rate of canine retraction after a soft tissue procedure compared against a corticotomy procedure for accelerated tooth movement

Background and Aim: Various methods to accelerate the orthodontic tooth movement have been used, among which corticotomy is considered to be the most common one. The suggested reasoning for such acceleration was the regional acceleratory phenomenon (RAP). Since the RAP is a property of both the hard and soft tissues, we designed a soft tissue flap procedure to compare the effects with the conventional corticotomy procedure. A split-mouth study was conducted where the two procedures were assessed in a single participant. Patients and Methods: The total sample size was calculated to be 40 with 20 participants in each group. The rate of tooth movement was the primary outcome measure, and the secondary outcomes were dentoalveolar changes, which were studied in both the conventional corticotomy and the flap-only procedure based on a cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) wherein the alveolar bone density (BD) around canines, tipping, and rotational changes in canines, premolars, and molars were assessed. Results: Corticotomy resulted in greater canine angulation, lesser canine rotation and premolar rotation, and greater molar rotation compared with flap elevation, but these differences were statistically insignificant. Conclusion: Though the corticotomy resulted in higher BD, the differences were statistically insignificant. There was no significant difference in the rate of space closure assessed by the two techniques compared

Comparative metagenomics approaches to characterize the soil fungal communities of western coastal region, Saudi Arabia

A total of 145007 reads were obtained from pyrosequencing for all the 4 samples. The total count ranged from 11,301,014 (Mecca old road) to 23,503,512 bp (Thuwal). A total of 460 fungal species belonging to 133 genera, 58 families, 33 orders, 13 classes and 4 phyla was identified across the four sites. The most abundant phylum at all four sites was Ascomycota followed by Basidiomycota. Four phyla (Ascomycota-99.31%, Basidiomycota-0.59%, Chytridiomycota-0.04%, Glomeromycota-0.03%) were detected in Khulais. Except for Glomeromycota, all phyla were detected at Mecca old road (Ascomycota-74.26%, Basidiomycota-25.71%, Chytridiomycota-0.01%) and Thuwal (Ascomycota-99.59%, Basidiomycota-0.40%, Chytridiomycota-0.002%); while only Ascomycota-90.98% and Basidiomycota-9.01% were detected in Asfan road. At the class level, Sordariomycetes was predominantly observed at Asfan road-59.88%, Khulais-68.26% and Thuwal-94.84%; while Pezizomycetes was dominant at Mecca old road-56.01%, was absent at Asfan road. Agaricomycetes was present only at Mecca old road-25.73%; while Tremellomycetes-5.77%, Malasseizomycetes-2.13% and Microbotryomycetes-1.10% were found only at Asfan road. The phylogenetic trees revealed that clear genus level differences are visible across all the four sites, with an overall predominance of Thielavia followed by Madurella, Aspergillus, and Gelasinospora. Chaetomium sp., Aspergillus caespitosus and Aspergillus sp. were found in moderate (Mecca old road and Thuwal) to abundant (Asfan road and Khulais) quantities. Thielavia sp., Thielavia hyalocarpa and Madurella sp. are found in moderate quantities at Khulais and Mecca old road, while in abundant levels at Asfan road and Thuwal. Fusarium equisati and F. oxysporum were detected at Thuwal and Khulais. Sordaria araneosa was present at Khulais, while Malasseiza globosa species was detected in moderate quantities across all sites except Khulais

Відтік та лояльність споживачів у галузі телекомунікацій

Nowadays the telecommunications sector is becoming very complex Because of the panoply of high-speed technological services. Customers are abandoning the services offered by telecommunications operators because of their dissatisfaction with the services they offer. «Churn» or the migration of customers from one telecommunications operator to another is the main problem facing the telecommunications industries worldwide. Business managers consider the quality of service to be paramount. As a consequence, they have devised reliable criteria to assess the flow of customers within the market and check and evaluate whether customers are satisfied with the services they are offered. This, in turn, helps to establish customer loyalty and provide a healthy and sustainable trading agreement. Service quality control assessment is pivotal to identify the leverage and evaluate the internal and external competition in the industry. Although this concept is not foreign, rather it is an essential business management tool. The goal of this study is to determine the significant criteria for the cause migration of a Tunisie Telecom customer to another operator. Telecommunication is an essential lifelong component that contributes to the comfortability of our daily lives. The various means of telephone communication play a significant role in improving the effectiveness of communication industry. Every telecommunication operator is aware today that it is cheaper to retain an existing customer than to seek to recruit a new one. Indeed, we noticed that the telecommunications market is characterized by intense competition, where a change in the quality of service or a negative interaction perceived by the customer could risk losing them. As a result, the majority of operators introduce studies and action plans to retain customers and keep them as long as possible. The notion of keeping customers and building loyalty is probably one of the biggest challenges that operators around the world face in global competition. In order to achieve the goals set by telecom operators and to achieve maximum profitability, operators must effectively analyze market data and adopt a most effective targeted communications strategy for their customers.Сьогодні діяльність у галузі телекомунікацій стає дедалі більш складною через виникнення великої кількості різноманітних технологічних послуг. Клієнти відмовляються від послуг, пропонованих операторами зв'язку, через своє незадоволення послугами, які вони пропонують. Відтік або міграція клієнтів від одного оператора зв'язку до іншого є основною проблемою, з якою стикаються телекомунікаційні галузі у всьому світі. Керівники бізнесу вважають, що якість обслуговування є найважливішим параметром, що впливає на формування лояльності клієнтів. Як наслідок, розроблені надійні критерії для аналізу потоку клієнтів на ринку та перевірки та оцінювання задоволеності клієнтів послугами, які вони отримують від операторів ринку телекомунікацій. Це, у свою чергу, допомагає встановити чинники, які впливають на формування лояльності клієнтів, а також дає можливість сформувати доцільні умови клієнтських договорів. Оцінювання та контроль якості послуг має вирішальне значення для виявлення важелів впливу на споживачів та при оцінюванні внутрішньої та зовнішньої конкуренції в галузі. Ця концепція є важливим інструментом управління бізнесом. Мета статті полягає у визначенні найбільш істотних факторів, що впливають на міграцію клієнтів оператора ринку телекомунікацій «Tunisie Telecom» до інших операторів. У рамках дослідження зроблено висновок, що ринок телекомунікацій характеризується напруженою конкуренцією, коли зміна якості послуг або негативна взаємодія, сприйнята замовником, може призвести до втрати споживача. Як результат, більшість операторів впроваджують дослідження та плани дій щодо утримання клієнтів та збереження їх якомога довше. Поняття збереження клієнтів та формування лояльності виявляється однією з найбільших проблем, з якою стикаються оператори в усьому світі. Для досягнення цілей, встановлених операторами зв'язку, та досягнення максимальної прибутковості, оператори повинні ефективно аналізувати ринкові дані та розробляти на основі них ефективні цільові комунікаційні стратегії взаємодії з клієнтами

Differential effects of inbreeding and selection on male reproductive phenotype associated with the colonization and laboratory maintenance of Anopheles gambiae.

BACKGROUND: Effective mating between laboratory-reared males and wild females is paramount to the success of vector control strategies aiming to decrease disease transmission via the release of sterile or genetically modified male mosquitoes. However mosquito colonization and laboratory maintenance have the potential to negatively affect male genotypic and phenotypic quality through inbreeding and selection, which in turn can decrease male mating competitiveness in the field. To date, very little is known about the impact of those evolutionary forces on the reproductive biology of mosquito colonies and how they ultimately affect male reproductive fitness. METHODS: Here several male reproductive physiological traits likely to be affected by inbreeding and selection following colonization and laboratory rearing were examined. Sperm length, and accessory gland and testes size were compared in male progeny from field-collected females and laboratory strains of Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto colonized from one to over 25 years ago. These traits were also compared in the parental and sequentially derived, genetically modified strains produced using a two-phase genetic transformation system. Finally, genetic crosses were performed between strains in order to distinguish the effects of inbreeding and selection on reproductive traits. RESULTS: Sperm length was found to steadily decrease with the age of mosquito colonies but was recovered in refreshed strains and crosses between inbred strains therefore incriminating inbreeding costs. In contrast, testes size progressively increased with colony age, whilst accessory gland size quickly decreased in males from colonies of all ages. The lack of heterosis in response to crossing and strain refreshing in the latter two reproductive traits suggests selection for insectary conditions. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that inbreeding and selection differentially affect reproductive traits in laboratory strains overtime and that heterotic 'supermales' could be used to rescue some male reproductive characteristics. Further experiments are needed to establish the exact relationship between sperm length, accessory gland and testes size, and male reproductive success in the laboratory and field settings

The temporal foliar transcriptome of the perennial C3 desert plant Rhazya stricta in its natural environment

BACKGROUND: The perennial species Rhazya stricta (R. stricta) grows in arid zones and carries out typical C(3) photosynthesis under daily extremes of heat, light intensity and low humidity. In order to identify processes attributable to its adaptation to this harsh environment, we profiled the foliar transcriptome of apical and mature leaves harvested from the field at three time periods of the same day. RESULTS: Next generation sequencing was used to reconstruct the transcriptome and quantify gene expression. 28018 full length transcript sequences were recovered and 45.4% were differentially expressed (DE) throughout the day. We compared our dataset with microarray experiments in Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) and other desert species to identify trends in circadian and stress response profiles between species. 34% of the DE genes were homologous to Arabidopsis circadian-regulated genes. Independent of circadian control, significant overlaps with Arabidopsis genes were observed only with heat and salinity/high light stress-responsive genes. Also, groups of DE genes common to other desert plants species were identified. We identified protein families specific to R. stricta which were found to have diverged from their homologs in other species and which were over -expressed at midday. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that temporal profiling is essential to assess the significance of genes apparently responsive to abiotic stress. This revealed that in R. stricta, the circadian clock is a major regulator of DE genes, even of those annotated as stress-responsive in other species. This may be an important feature of the adaptation of R. stricta to its extreme but predictable environment. However, the majority of DE genes were not circadian-regulated. Of these, some were common to other desert species and others were distinct to R. stricta, suggesting that they are important for the adaptation of such plants to arid environments

Differential Control of Growth, Apoptotic Activity, and Gene Expression in Human Breast Cancer Cells by Extracts Derived from Medicinal Herbs Zingiber officinale

The present study aimed to examine the antiproliferative potentiality of an extract derived from the medicinal plant ginger (Zingiber officinale) on growth of breast cancer cells. Ginger treatment suppressed the proliferation and colony formation in breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231. Meanwhile, it did not significantly affect viability of nontumorigenic normal mammary epithelial cell line (MCF-10A). Treatment of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 with ginger resulted in sequences of events marked by apoptosis, accompanied by loss of cell viability, chromatin condensation, DNA fragmentation, activation of caspase 3, and cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase. At the molecular level, the apoptotic cell death mediated by ginger could be attributed in part to upregulation of Bax and downregulation of Bcl-2 proteins. Ginger treatment downregulated expression of prosurvival genes, such as NF-κB, Bcl-X, Mcl-1, and Survivin, and cell cycle-regulating proteins, including cyclin D1 and cyclin-dependent kinase-4 (CDK-4). On the other hand, it increased expression of CDK inhibitor, p21. It also inhibited the expression of the two prominent molecular targets of cancer, c-Myc and the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT). These findings suggested that the ginger may be a promising candidate for the treatment of breast carcinomas