Establishing Functional Communication Board Use for Nonverbal Aphasic Subjects

TB

Multiomics approach unravels fertility transition in a pigeonpea line for a two‐line hybrid system

Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] is a pulse crop cultivated in the semi-arid regions of Asia and Africa. It is a rich source of protein and capable of alleviating malnutrition, improving soil health and the livelihoods of small-holder farmers. Hybrid breeding has provided remarkable improvements for pigeonpea productivity, but owing to a tedious and costly seed production system, an alternative two-line hybrid technology is being explored. In this regard, an environmentsensitive male sterile line has been characterized as a thermosensitive male sterile line in pigeonpea precisely responding to day temperature. The male sterile and fertile anthers from five developmental stages were studied by integrating transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics supported by precise phenotyping and scanning electron microscopic study. Spatio-temporal analysis of anther\ud transcriptome and proteome revealed 17 repressed DEGs/DEPs in sterile anthers that play a critical role in normal cell wall morphogenesis and tapetal cell development. The male fertility to sterility transitionwasmainly due to a perturbation in auxin homeostasis, leading to impaired cellwallmodification and sugar transport. Limited nutrient utilization thus leads to microspore starvation in response to moderately elevated day temperature which could be restored with auxin-treatment in the male sterile line. Our findings outline a molecular mechanism that underpins fertility transition responses thereby providing a process-oriented two-line hybrid breeding framework for pigeonpea

Effects of Black Leaf Streak Disease and Sigatoka Disease on fruit quality and maturation process of bananas produced in the subtropical conditions of southern Brazil

Banana fruits are harvested at the green-mature stage (pre-climacteric) in order to allow sufficient time for transport and marketing. The time between the harvest and the initiation of the natural ripening process is called green life (GL), which is closely correlated to physiological age. Sigatoka Disease (SD: also called yellow Sigatoka) and Black Leaf Streak Disease (BLSD; also called black Sigatoka) are the main foliar diseases affecting banana production. The aim of this work was to investigate the influence of these diseases on banana GL and postharvest behavior in subtropical conditions (southeastern Brazil). The results showed that both diseases shortened the banana's GL when compared to control bananas of the same physiological age. Moreover, fruits from infested plots showed higher values of CO2 (+100% for SD and +300% for BLSD) and C2H4 production (+30% for SD and +60% for BLSD) at the climacteric peak. BLSD caused 40% reduction in fruit weight. Fruits from plants with a high degree of SD or BLSD undergo an altered maturation process. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.MA

Differential Expression of Iron Acquisition Genes by Brucella melitensis and Brucella canis during Macrophage Infection

Brucella spp. cause chronic zoonotic disease often affecting individuals and animals in impoverished economic or public health conditions; however, these bacteria do not have obvious virulence factors. Restriction of iron availability to pathogens is an effective strategy of host defense. For brucellae, virulence depends on the ability to survive and replicate within the host cell where iron is an essential nutrient for the growth and survival of both mammalian and bacterial cells. Iron is a particularly scarce nutrient for bacteria with an intracellular lifestyle. Brucella melitensis and Brucella canis share ∼99% of their genomes but differ in intracellular lifestyles. To identify differences, gene transcription of these two pathogens was examined during infection of murine macrophages and compared to broth grown bacteria. Transcriptome analysis of B. melitensis and B. canis revealed differences of genes involved in iron transport. Gene transcription of the TonB, enterobactin, and ferric anguibactin transport systems was increased in B. canis but not B. melitensis during infection of macrophages. The data suggest differences in iron requirements that may contribute to differences observed in the lifestyles of these closely related pathogens. The initial importance of iron for B. canis but not for B. melitensis helps elucidate differing intracellular survival strategies for two closely related bacteria and provides insight for controlling these pathogens

Evaluation of the effects of erythritol on gene expression in Brucella abortus

Bacteria of the genus Brucella have the unusual capability to catabolize erythritol and this property has been associated with their virulence mainly because of the presence of erythritol in bovine foetal tissues and because the attenuated S19 vaccine strain is the only Brucella strain unable to oxydize erythritol. In this work we have analyzed the transcriptional changes produced in Brucella by erythritol by means of two high throughput approaches: RNA hybridization against a microarray containing most of Brucella ORF's constructed from the Brucella ORFeome and next generation sequencing of Brucella mRNA in an Illumina GAIIx platform. The results obtained showed the overexpression of a group of genes, many of them in a single cluster around the ery operon, able to co-ordinately mediate the transport and degradation of erythritol into three carbon atoms intermediates that will be then converted into fructose-6P (F6P) by gluconeogenesis. Other induced genes participating in the nonoxidative branch of the pentose phosphate shunt and the TCA may collaborate with the ery genes to conform an efficient degradation of sugars by this route. On the other hand, several routes of amino acid and nucleotide biosynthesis are up-regulated whilst amino acid transport and catabolism genes are down-regulated. These results corroborate previous descriptions indicating that in the presence of erythritol, this sugar was used preferentially over other compounds and provides a neat explanation of the the reported stimulation of growth induced by erythritol

Genome Sequence of Brucella abortus Vaccine Strain S19 Compared to Virulent Strains Yields Candidate Virulence Genes

The Brucella abortus strain S19, a spontaneously attenuated strain, has been used as a vaccine strain in vaccination of cattle against brucellosis for six decades. Despite many studies, the physiological and molecular mechanisms causing the attenuation are not known. We have applied pyrosequencing technology together with conventional sequencing to rapidly and comprehensively determine the complete genome sequence of the attenuated Brucella abortus vaccine strain S19. The main goal of this study is to identify candidate virulence genes by systematic comparative analysis of the attenuated strain with the published genome sequences of two virulent and closely related strains of B. abortus, 9–941 and 2308. The two S19 chromosomes are 2,122,487 and 1,161,449 bp in length. A total of 3062 genes were identified and annotated. Pairwise and reciprocal genome comparisons resulted in a total of 263 genes that were non-identical between the S19 genome and any of the two virulent strains. Amongst these, 45 genes were consistently different between the attenuated strain and the two virulent strains but were identical amongst the virulent strains, which included only two of the 236 genes that have been implicated as virulence factors in literature. The functional analyses of the differences have revealed a total of 24 genes that may be associated with the loss of virulence in S19. Of particular relevance are four genes with more than 60bp consistent difference in S19 compared to both the virulent strains, which, in the virulent strains, encode an outer membrane protein and three proteins involved in erythritol uptake or metabolism

pSNOWPACK: a forecasting tool for avalanche warning services

Abstract. Avalanche danger is often estimated based on snow cover stratigraphy and snow stability data. In Canada, single forecasting regions are very large (&gt;50 000 km2) and snow cover data are often not available. To provide additional information on the snow cover and its seasonal evolution the Swiss snow cover model SNOWPACK was therefore coupled with a regional weather forecasting model GEM15. We assess the capability of this model chain (pSNOWPACK) to forecast three key factors of snow cover instability at a single point: new snow amounts, surface hoar formation and crust formation. The output of GEM15 was compared to meteorological data from Mt. Fidelity, British Columbia, Canada, for five winters between 2005 and 2010. Forecasted precipitation amounts were generally over-estimated. The forecasted data were therefore filtered and used as input for the snow cover model. Comparison between the model output and manual observations showed that after pre-processing the input data the snow depth, new snow events and amounts were well modelled. Relevant critical layers, i.e. melt-freeze crusts and surface hoar layers were reproduced. Overall, the model chain pSNOWPACK shows promising potential as a forecasting tool for avalanche warning services in Canadian data sparse areas and could thus well be applied to similarly large regions elsewhere. </jats:p