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1.
《Rice》2011,5(1):1-3

Background

Since whole genome sequences of rice were made publically accessible, the number of articles on new rice genes has increased remarkably. The Committee on Gene Symbolization, Nomenclature and Linkage (CGSNL) of the Rice Genetics Cooperative published the gene nomenclature system for rice and encouraged researchers to follow the rules before publishing their results. The CGSNL provides an on-line registration system for newly identified rice genes to prevent conflicts and/or duplication of gene name in journal articles.

Findings

Recently, the CGSNL surveyed genes in the rice WRKY family in published journal articles and found several duplicated gene names.

Conclusions

To discuss and resolve inconsistencies in WRKY gene nomenclature, the rice WRKY working group was established and redefined the nomenclature. This report announces the conclusion.  相似文献   

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Background

The Magel2 gene is most highly expressed in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus, where its expression cycles in a circadian pattern comparable to that of clock-controlled genes. Mice lacking the Magel2 gene have hypothalamic dysfunction, including circadian defects that include reduced and fragmented total activity, excessive activity during the subjective day, but they have a normal circadian period. Magel2 is a member of the MAGE family of proteins that have various roles in cellular function, but the specific function of Magel2 is unknown.

Methods

We used a variety of cell-based assays to determine whether Magel2 modifies the properties of core circadian rhythm proteins.

Results

Magel2 represses the activity of the Clock:Bmal1 heterodimer in a Per2-luciferase assay. Magel2 interacts with Bmal1 and with Per2 as measured by co-immunoprecipitation in co-transfected cells, and exhibits a subcellular distribution consistent with these interactions when visualized by immunofluorescence. As well, Magel2 induces the redistribution of the subcellular localization of Clock towards the cytoplasm, in contrast to the nucleus-directed effect of Bmal1 on Clock subcellular localization.

Conclusion

Consistent with the blunted circadian rhythm observed in Magel2-null mice, these data suggest that Magel2 normally promotes negative feedback regulation of the cellular circadian cycle, through interactions with key core circadian rhythm proteins.  相似文献   

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Background

Research on the ecological consequences of global climate change has elicited a growing interest in the use of time series analysis to investigate population dynamics in a changing climate. Here, we compare linear and non-linear models describing the contribution of climate to the density fluctuations of the population of wolves on Isle Royale, Michigan from 1959 to 1999.

Results

The non-linear self excitatory threshold autoregressive (SETAR) model revealed that, due to differences in the strength and nature of density dependence, relatively small and large populations may be differentially affected by future changes in climate. Both linear and non-linear models predict a decrease in the population of wolves with predicted changes in climate.

Conclusions

Because specific predictions differed between linear and non-linear models, our study highlights the importance of using non-linear methods that allow the detection of non-linearity in the strength and nature of density dependence. Failure to adopt a non-linear approach to modelling population response to climate change, either exclusively or in addition to linear approaches, may compromise efforts to quantify ecological consequences of future warming.  相似文献   

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Background

Free-ranging narwhals (Monodon monoceros) were instrumented in Admiralty Inlet, Canada with both satellite tags to study migration and stock separation and short-term, high-resolution digital archival tags to explore diving and feeding behaviour. Three narwhals were equipped with an underwater camera pod (Crittercam), another individual was equipped with a digital archival tag (DTAG), and a fifth with both units during August 2003 and 2004.

Results

Crittercam footage indicated that of the combined 286 minutes of recordings, 12% of the time was spent along the bottom. When the bottom was visible in the camera footage, the narwhals were oriented upside-down 80% of the time (range: 61100%). The DTAG data (14.6 hours of recordings) revealed that during time spent below the surface, the two tagged narwhals were supine an average of 13% (range: 9–18%) of the time. Roughly 70% of this time spent in a supine posture occurred during the descent.

Conclusion

Possible reasons for this upside-down swimming behaviour are discussed. No preference for a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction of roll was observed, discounting the possibility that rolling movements contribute to the asymmetric left-handed helical turns of the tusk.  相似文献   

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Background

Carnivores are re-establishing in many human-populated areas, where their presence is often contentious. Reaching consensus on management decisions is often hampered by a dispute over the size of the local carnivore population. Understanding the reproductive dynamics and individual movements of the carnivores can provide support for management decisions, but individual-level information can be difficult to obtain from elusive, wide-ranging species. Non-invasive genetic sampling can yield such information, but makes subsequent reconstruction of population history challenging due to incomplete population coverage and error-prone data. Here, we combine a collaborative, volunteer-based sampling scheme with Bayesian pedigree reconstruction to describe the pack dynamics of an establishing grey wolf (Canis lupus) population in south-west Finland, where wolf breeding was recorded in 2006 for the first time in over a century.

Results

Using DNA extracted mainly from faeces collected since 2008, we identified 81 individual wolves and assigned credible full parentages to 70 of these and partial parentages to a further 9, revealing 7 breeding pairs. Individuals used a range of strategies to obtain breeding opportunities, including dispersal to established or new packs, long-distance migration and inheriting breeding roles. Gene flow occurred between all packs but inbreeding events were rare.

Conclusions

These findings demonstrate that characterizing ongoing pack dynamics can provide detailed, locally-relevant insight into the ecology of contentious species such as the wolf. Involving various stakeholders in data collection makes these results more likely to be accepted as unbiased and hence reliable grounds for management decisions.
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Background

The pollen wall, which protects male gametophyte against various stresses and facilitates pollination, is essential for successful reproduction in flowering plants. The pollen wall consists of gametophyte-derived intine and sporophyte-derived exine. From outside to inside of exine are tectum, bacula, nexine I and nexine II layers. How these structural layers are formed has been under extensive studies, but the molecular mechanisms remain obscure.

Results

Here we identified two osabcg3 allelic mutants and demonstrated that OsABCG3 was required for pollen development in rice. OsABCG3 encodes a half-size ABCG transporter localized on the plasma membrane. It was mainly expressed in anther when exine started to form. Loss-function of OsABCG3 caused abnormal degradation of the tapetum. The mutant pollen lacked the nexine II and intine layers, and shriveled without cytoplasm. The expression of some genes required for pollen wall formation was examined in osabcg3 mutants. The mutation did not alter the expression of the regulatory genes and lipid metabolism genes, but altered the expression of lipid transport genes.

Conclusions

Base on the genetic and cytological analyses, OsABCG3 was proposed to transport the tapetum-produced materials essential for pollen wall formation. This study provided a new perspective to the genetic regulation of pollen wall development.
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15.
Mechanisms for coping with submergence and waterlogging in rice   总被引:4,自引:0,他引:4  

Background

Oligopeptide transporters (OPTs) play important roles in the mobilization of organic nitrogenous compounds and usually associate with tissues that show signs of rapid protein hydrolysis, such as germinating seeds and senescing leaves. This study is to investigate rice OPT genes.

Results

A total of sixteen OsOPT genes (Os for Oryza sative L.) were identified in the rice genome, which were then classified into six sections that belong to two subfamilies (the PT and YSL subfamily). The major mechanisms for evolutionary expansion of the sixteen genes during the rice genome evolution include segmental and tandem duplication. Calculation of the duplication event dates indicated that the sixteen genes originated from nine original OsOPT genes, and the duplication events could be classified into three evolutionary stages. The first evolutionary stage occurred approximately 50 million years ago (Mya) and involved the evolution of four new genes. The second evolutionary stage was approximately 20 Mya and was marked by the appearance of two new genes, and the third evolutionary stage was approximately 9 Mya when two new genes evolved. Mining of the expression database and RT-PCR analysis indicated that the expression of most duplicated OsOPT genes showed high tissue specificities. Diverse expression patterns for the sixteen genes were evaluated using both semi-quantitative RT-PCR and the MPSS data. Expression levels of some OsOPT genes were regulated by abiotic and biotic stresses suggesting the potential involvement of these gene products in rice stress adaptation. Five OsOPT gene mutants showed abnormal development and growth, the primary analysis of five OsOPT gene mutants suggested that they may be necessary for rice development.

Conclusions

These results suggested that rice-specific OsOPT genes might be potentially useful in improving rice.  相似文献   

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Background

Efficient division of reproductive labor is a crucial characteristic of social insects and underlies their ecological and evolutionary success. Despite of the harmonious appearance of insect societies, nestmates may have different interests concerning the partitioning of reproduction among group members. This may lead to conflict about reproductive rights. As yet, few studies have investigated the allocation of reproduction among queens in multi - queen societies ("reproductive skew"). In the ant Leptothorax acervorum, reproductive skew varies considerably among populations. While reproduction is quite equally shared among nestmate queens in most populations from boreal Eurasia (low skew), colonies from populations at the edge of the species' range are characterized by "functional monogyny," i.e., high skew. The proximate mechanisms underlying high skew, in particular how workers influence which queen lays eggs, are not well understood. We investigated the behavior of queens and workers in functionally monogynous colonies of L. acervorum from two mountain ranges in central Spain.

Results

We provide evidence for both queen and worker influence on the outcome of conflict over reproduction in colonies of L. acervorum from Spain. The patterns of queen - queen aggression and worker - queen grooming and feeding after hibernation allowed predicting, which queen later began to lay eggs. In contrast, worker aggression towards queens was not clearly associated with a queen's future reproductive success. Queen - queen and worker - queen aggression differed in quality: queens typically engaged in ritualized dominance behavior, such as antennal boxing, while workers also attacked queens by biting and prolonged pulling on their legs and antennae. In several cases, overt worker aggression led to the expulsion of queens from the nest or their death.

Conclusion

We conclude that queens of L. acervorum from Spain establish rank orders by ritualized dominance interactions, such as antennal boxing. Workers may reinforce these hierarchies by preferentially feeding and grooming high ranking queens and attacking lower ranking queens. Aggressive worker policing may thus stabilize functional monogyny. Optimal skew models predict that high skew in ants is associated with high dispersal costs. In central Spain, L. acervorum is restricted to small patches at higher elevations, which presumably makes dispersal and colony founding difficult. Because of the ecological requirements of L. acervorum and the predicted large impact of global change on central Spain, the functionally monogynous populations of this ant must be considered as threatened.  相似文献   

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Background:

Overexpression of lectin-like low density lipoprotein (LOX-1) receptor plays an important role in hyperglycemia-induced vascular complications such as atherosclerosis. Based on the beneficial effects of exercise on preventing cardiovascular complications of diabetes, we aimed to examine the protective effects of aerobic exercise on expression of LOX-1 receptor and production of free radicals in the heart of diabetic rats.

Methods:

Four groups of rats were used: (n = 5 per group): sedentary normal, trained normal, sedentary diabetes and trained diabetes. Diabetes was induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (50 mg/kg). The exercise protocol was consisted of swimming 30 min/day, 5 days/week for eight weeks. Plasma glucose was evaluated at initiation, weeks 4 and 8 of experiment. At the end of experiment, rats were sacrificed and the heart was removed for determination of nitrate, malondialdehyde, and LOX-1 gene expression.

Results:

In normal non-diabetic rats, the blood glucose level was <150 mg/dl; however, the induction of diabetes resulted in levels more than >400 mg/dl. Gene expression of LOX-1 was increased in the heart of diabetic rats. Exercise reduced the gene expression of this protein in diabetic states without reducing the blood glucose. Finally, swimming exercise decreased the malondialdehyde and nitrate levels in heart tissue both in control and diabetic rats.

Conclusion:

Swimming exercise reduces heart expression of the LOX-1 receptor in accompany with reduction of free radicals production. Since these parameters are important in generation of diabetic complications, swimming exercise is a good candidate for reducing these complications. Key Words: Hyperglycemia, Diabetic complications, LOX-1 receptor, Exercise, Free radicals  相似文献   

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Background

In the androdioecious nematode Caenorhabditis elegans virtually all progeny produced by hermaphrodite self-fertilization is hermaphrodite while 50% of the progeny that results from cross-fertilization by a male is male. In the standard laboratory wild type strain N2 males disappear rapidly from populations. This is not the case in some other wild type isolates of C. elegans, among them the Hawaiian strain CB4856.

Results

We determined the kinetics of the loss of males over time for multiple population sizes and wild isolates and found significant differences. We performed systematic inter- and intra-strain crosses with N2 and CB4856 and show that the males and the hermaphrodites contribute to the difference in male maintenance between these two strains. In particular, CB4856 males obtained a higher number of successful copulations than N2 males and sired correspondingly more cross-progeny. On the other hand, N2 hermaphrodites produced a higher number of self-progeny, both when singly mated and when not mated.

Conclusion

These two differences have the potential to explain the observed variation in male persistence, since they should lead to a predominance of self-progeny (and thus hermaphrodites) in N2 and, at the same time, a high proportion of cross-progeny (and thus the presence of males as well as hermaphrodites) in CB4856.  相似文献   

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Background

Efficient production of carbon-neutral biofuels is key to resolving global warming and exhaustion of fossil fuels. Cellulose, which is the most abundant biomass, is physically strong and biochemically stable, and these characteristics lead to difficulty of efficient saccharification of cellulosic compounds for production of fermentable glucose and other sugars.

Results

We transformed rice with overexpressing constructs of rice genes encoding each of three classes of cellulases. The exo-glucanase overexpressing plants showed various abnormalities in leaf such as division of leaf blade, crack on leaf surface, excess lacunae in midrib structure and necrotic colour change. The overexpressing plants also showed sterility. Noticeably, these plants showed enhanced saccharification of stems after maturation. These results indicate that overexpression of the exo-glucanase gene brought about various developmental defects associated with modification of cell wall and enhanced saccharification in rice. On the other hand, endo-glucanase-overexpressing plants could not be obtained, and overexpression of β-glucosidase brought about no effect on plant growth and development.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that genetic engineering of cellulosic biomass plants by overexpressing cellulase genes will be one of the approaches to confer enhanced saccharification ability for efficient production of cellulosic biofuels such as ethanol.  相似文献   

20.

Background

The Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, is a widespread invasive ant species that has successfully established in nearly all continents across the globe. Argentine ants are characterised by a social structure known as unicoloniality, where territorial boundaries between nests are absent and intraspecific aggression is rare. This is particularly pronounced in introduced populations and results in the formation of large and spatially expansive supercolonies. Although it is amongst the most well studied of invasive ants, very little work has been done on this ant in South Africa. In this first study, we investigate the population structure of Argentine ants in South Africa. We use behavioural (aggression tests) and chemical (CHC) approaches to investigate the population structure of Argentine ants within the Western Cape, identify the number of supercolonies and infer number of introductions.

Results

Both the aggression assays and chemical data revealed that the Western Cape Argentine ant population can be divided into two behaviourally and chemically distinct supercolonies. Intraspecific aggression was evident between the two supercolonies of Argentine ants with ants able to discriminate among conspecific non-nestmates. This discrimination is linked to the divergence in cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of ants originating from the two supercolonies.

Conclusions

The presence of these two distinct supercolonies is suggestive of at least two independent introductions of this ant within the Western Cape. Moreover, the pattern of colonisation observed in this study, with the two colonies interspersed, is in agreement with global patterns of Argentine ant invasions. Our findings are of interest because recent studies show that Argentine ants from South Africa are different from those identified in other introduced ranges and therefore provide an opportunity to further understand factors that determine the distributional and spread patterns of Argentine ant supercolonies.  相似文献   

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