•A high level of original socioeconomic status can be beneficial to the transformational leader behavior at the workplace.•Leaders with high original socioeconomic status possess greater ...psychological capital, which promotes their transformational leadership.•Psychological capital is developable and its relationship with original socioeconomic status is influenced by current socioeconomic status.•The positive effect of original socioeconomic status on transformational leadership via psychological capital is contingent on the current socioeconomic status.
Leadership development has been characterized as an ongoing process that continues throughout a lifetime. From a long-lens perspective, this study aims to investigate how leaders’ early family socioeconomic environment influences their later transformational leadership. According to the social cognitive theory of social class, we propose that parental socioeconomic status (SES) promotes transformational leader behaviors via a positive psychological state. In the current study with 171 leaders and 684 matched subordinates, results indicated that high parental SES boosted leaders’ transformational behaviors by increasing their psychological capital, but this relationship was assuaged for leaders with high current SES. These findings contribute to the literature on transformational leadership, emphasize the importance of early life factors in leader emergence and development, and have implications for leadership development and future research.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Unequal first cleavage is characteristic of a diverse group of protostome animals. In the nematode
Caenorhabditis elegans, unequal first cleavage is achieved through the interaction of an apparently ...symmetric mitotic spindle apparatus with a clearly polarized cell cortex. In the clitellate annelid
Tubifex tubifex, by contrast, the spindle is monastral and contains only one gamma-tubulin-reactive centrosome; this monastral spindle is inherently asymmetric throughout mitosis. Here, we have used immunostaining for beta- and gamma-tubulin to follow spindle dynamics during the unequal first cleavage in another clitellate annelid, the leech
Helobdella robusta. We find that the mitotic spindle is diastral and symmetric through early metaphase, then becomes asymmetric following the transient down-regulation of one centrosome, as judged by gamma-tubulin immunofluorescence. Low levels of drugs that affect microtubule dynamics can symmetrize the first cleavage without affecting the gamma-tubulin dynamics. Our results provide a striking example of the evolvability of cellular mechanisms underlying an unambiguously homologous developmental process.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
(meningococcus) can cause meningococcal disease, a rapidly progressing and often fatal disease that can occur in previously healthy children. Meningococci are found in healthy carriers, where they ...reside in the nasopharynx as commensals. While carriage is relatively common, invasive disease, associated with hypervirulent strains, is a comparatively rare event. The basis of increased virulence in some strains is not well understood. New Zealand suffered a protracted meningococcal disease epidemic, from 1991 to 2008. During this time, a household carriage study was carried out in Auckland: household contacts of index meningococcal disease patients were swabbed for isolation of carriage strains. In many households, healthy carriers harbored strains identical, as determined by laboratory typing, to the ones infecting the associated patient. We carried out more-detailed analyses of carriage and disease isolates from a select number of households. We found that isolates, although indistinguishable by laboratory typing methods and likely closely related, had many differences. We identified multiple genome variants and transcriptional differences between isolates. These studies enabled the identification of two new phase-variable genes. We also found that several carriage strains had lost their type IV pili and that this loss correlated with reduced tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) expression when cultured with epithelial cells. While nonpiliated meningococcal isolates have been previously found in carriage strains, this is the first evidence of an association between type IV pili from meningococci and a proinflammatory epithelial response. We also identified potentially important metabolic differences between carriage and disease isolates, including the sulfate assimilation pathway.
causes meningococcal disease but is frequently carried in the throats of healthy individuals; the factors that determine whether invasive disease develops are not completely understood. We carried out detailed studies of isolates, collected from patients and their household contacts, to identify differences between commensal throat isolates and those that caused invasive disease. Though isolates were identical by laboratory typing methods, we uncovered many differences in their genomes, in gene expression, and in their interactions with host cells. In particular, we found that several carriage isolates had lost their type IV pili, a surprising finding since pili are often described as essential for colonization. However, loss of type IV pili correlated with reduced secretion of a proinflammatory cytokine, TNF-α, when meningococci were cocultured with human bronchial epithelial cells; hence, the loss of pili could provide an advantage to meningococci, by resulting in a dampened localized host immune response.
Relatively high levels of clove essential oil (CEO) necessary for in vivo inhibition of postharvest pathogens imply that its antifungal activity should be reinforced. Hence, this study aimed to ...determine whether microencapsulation technology enhances the antifungal activity of CEO against Penicillium digitatum, the causal agent of citrus green mould, in vitro and on Navel oranges. Microencapsulation of CEO resulted in a respective reduction of minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum fungicidal concentration from 500 μg/ml to 125 μg/ml and 250 μg/ml, indicating the enhancement of fungistatic and fungicidal activity with respect to that of the pure oil. CEO microcapsules had the best control of lesion diameter and decay development (0.79 mm, 8.64%) in Navel oranges after 5 days' storage at 25°C, followed by pure oil treatment (4.2 mm, 55.56%). In the vapour phase, CEO microcapsules also exhibited the highest ability to control green mould of Navel oranges. Furthermore, CEO microcapsules showed stronger suppressive activity of spore germination and germ tube elongation of P. digitatum than pure oil. These results indicate that the antifungal activity of CEO was considerably enhanced when it was converted into a microcapsule.
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BFBNIB, GIS, IJS, KISLJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
Summary
Phytochrome‐interacting factors (PIFs) play major roles in regulating plant growth and development, but their roles in drought stress remain elusive. Here, we cloned and characterized a maize ...(Zea mays) PIF transcription factor, ZmPIF1. The expression level of ZmPIF1 was significantly induced by independent drought and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments. The ZmPIF1 transgenic rice and Arabidopsis displayed water saving and drought resistance, which were associated with reduced a stomatal aperture and transpiration rate. Moreover, the ZmPIF1 transgenic rice were hypersensitive to exogenous ABA, while the endogenous ABA level was not significantly changed, suggesting that ZmPIF1 was a positive regulator of the ABA signalling pathway. Digital gene expression (DGE) results further indicated that ZmPIF1 participated in ABA signalling pathway and regulated the stomatal aperture in rice. In addition, grain yield and agronomic traits analysis over 4 years showed that ZmPIF1 was able to increase the grain yield through an increase in tiller and panicle numbers in transgenic rice. Overall, ZmPIF1 plays an important role in the ABA‐mediated regulation of stomatal closure to control water loss. ZmPIF1 can enhance water saving and drought resistance and improve the crop yield in rice, illustrating the capacity of ZmPIF1 for crop improvement.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The most common ladybird beetle, Coccinella septempunctata L., is an excellent predator of crop pests such as aphids and white flies, and it shows a wide range of adaptability, a large appetite and a ...high reproductive ability. Diapause research plays an important role in the artificial propagation and shelf-life extension of insect products. Although this lady beetle's regulatory, physiological and biochemical characteristics in the diapause period are well understood, the molecular mechanism of diapause remains unknown. Therefore, we collected female adults in three different states, i.e., non-diapause, diapause and diapause termination, for transcriptome sequencing.
After transcriptome sequencing using the Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform with pretreatment, a total of 417.6 million clean reads from nine samples were filtered using the program FASTX (version 0.0). Additionally, 106,262 contigs were assembled into 82,820 unigenes with an average length of 921 bp and an N50 of 1,241 bp. All of the unigenes were annotated through BLASTX alignment against the Nr or UniProt database, and 37,872 unigenes were matched. We performed further analysis of these unigenes using the Clusters of Orthologous Groups of proteins (COG), Gene Ontology (GO), and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases. Through pairwise comparisons of the non-diapause (ND), diapause (D), and diapause-terminated (DT) groups, 3,501 and 1,427 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between D and ND and between DT and D, respectively. Moreover, 443 of the DEGs were specifically expressed during the diapause period (i.e., DEGs that were expressed at the highest or lowest levels during diapause compared with the other stages). GO function and KEGG pathway enrichment were performed on all DEGs and showed that RNA-directed DNA polymerase activity and fatty acid metabolism were significantly affected. Furthermore, eight specific expressed genes were selected for validation using qRT-PCR. Among these eight genes, seven genes were up-regulated, and one gene was down-regulated; the change trends of the eight genes were the same between the qRT-PCR and RNA-seq analysis results.
In this study, a new method for collecting and identifying diapause insects was described. We generated a vast quantity of transcriptome data from C. septempunctata L., providing a resource for gene function research. The diapause-associated genes that we identified establish a foundation for future studies on the molecular mechanisms of diapause.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Clove essential oil (CEO) is a promising alternative to chemical fungicides for postharvest decay control. However, relatively high concentrations required for in vivo microbial growth inhibition ...limit its application. Hence, this study aimed to strengthen the antifungal activity of CEO by loading it in microemulsion system. Two CEO microemulsions (ME-1, CEO/ethanol/Tween 80 = 1:2:7; ME-2, CEO/ethanol/Tween 80 = 1:3:6) were evaluated their antifungal activity against Penicillium digitatum in vitro and in navel oranges. Microemulsification of CEO caused a reduction of MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) from 0.50 μl/ml to 0.25 μl/ml, while the MFC (minimum fungicidal concentration) remained unchanged at 0.50 μl/ml, indicating enhancement of only fungistatic activity. The decay incidence of navel oranges treated with ME-1 and ME-2 was significantly (p < 0.05) reduced by 34.51% and 20.93%, respectively, in comparison to that of pure oil treatment after 5 days' storage at 25 °C. In the vapor phase, CEO microemulsions had the best control of lesion diameter and decay development. Additionally, the improved antifungal activity of CEO microemulsions may be related to their stronger ability to suppress spore germination and germ tube elongation of P. digitatum. The enhanced control of postharvest green mold of navel oranges by CEO after microemulsification can broaden its application in food industry.
•Two clove essential oil (CEO) microemulsions were formulated.•Microemulsions showed enhanced fungistatic activity against P. digitatum.•Microemulsion and its vapor controlled postharvest green mould of navel oranges.•Microemulsions decreased spore germination and germ tube elongation of P. digitatum.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Astyanax mexicanus consists of two different populations: a sighted surface-dwelling form (surface fish) and a blind cave-dwelling form (cavefish). In the cavefish, embryonic expression of sonic ...hedgehog a (shha) in the prechordal plate is expanded towards the anterior midline, which has been shown to contribute to cavefish specific traits such as eye degeneration, enhanced feeding apparatus, and specialized brain anatomy. However, it is not clear how this expanded expression is achieved and which signaling pathways are involved.
Nodal signaling has a crucial role for expression of shh and formation of the prechordal plate. In this study, we report increased expression of prechordal plate marker genes, nodal-related 2 (ndr2) and goosecoid (gsc) in cavefish embryos at the tailbud stage. To investigate whether Nodal signaling is responsible for the anterior expansion of the prechordal plate, we used an inhibitor of Nodal signaling and showed a decreased anterior expansion of the prechordal plate and increased pax6 expression in the anterior midline in treated cavefish embryos. Later in development, the lens and optic cup of treated embryos were significantly larger than untreated embryos. Conversely, increasing Nodal signaling in the surface fish embryo resulted in the expansion of anterior prechordal plate and reduction of pax6 expression in the anterior neural plate together with the formation of small lenses and optic cups later in development. These results confirmed that Nodal signaling has a crucial role for the anterior expansion of the prechordal plate and plays a significant role in cavefish eye development. We showed that the anterior expansion of the prechordal plate was not due to increased total cell number, suggesting the expansion is achieved by changes in cellular distribution in the prechordal plate. In addition, the distribution of presumptive prechordal plate cells in Spemann's organiser was also altered in the cavefish. These results suggested that changes in the cellular arrangement of Spemann's organiser in early gastrulae could have an essential role in the anterior expansion of the prechordal plate contributing to eye degeneration in the cavefish.
•Cavefish have an expanded prechordal plate with no change in overall cell number when compared to the surface fish.•Modifying Nodal signaling resulted in increased or decreased eye size in cave and surface embryos, respectively.•There is an antagonistic relationship between the anterior expansion of the prechordal plate and the expression of pax6.•The antagonistic relationship controls the ratio between the retina and non-retinal tissues (optic stalk or forebrain).•The cellular distribution of presumptive prechordal plate cells in Spemann’s organiser is altered in cavefish.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Henan Province is an important ecological barrier in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. It is of great significance to study its ecosystem quality and the driving mechanisms behind ...this in order to realize ecological conservation and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin. In this study, from the perspective of physical elements, socioeconomic elements, and policy adjustments, multi-source data on land use, population density, forestry engineering, and other indicators were selected to construct an index system of the driving factors of ecosystem quality in Henan Province. The characteristics of spatio-temporal change and the formation mechanism of ecosystem quality in Henan Province from 2010 to 2020 were analyzed by comprehensively using the gravity center analysis method and a geo-detector tool. The results showed the following: (1) The ecosystem quality of Henan Province in 2020 has increased by 27.7% compared with that in 2010, and the center of gravity of ecosystem quality continued to move to the northwest of Henan Province. The quality of ecosystems in the hilly region of Western Henan, Tongbai, and Nanyang was better than that in the northern Loess Platform Hilly Area and the Yellow River Plain, and it presented a spatial pattern in which the quality of the south was higher than that of the north, while the east and west were equal; (2) From 2010 to 2020, the average GDP and population density in Henan Province were the most important factors affecting the quality of its ecosystem. The effect of land-use diversity on ecosystem quality in the hilly region of Henan Province was stronger than that in the central and eastern plains; and (3) The interactions among the driving factors were mainly nonlinear enhancement and double factor enhancement, in which the interaction between socio-economic elements and natural environmental elements was the dominant interaction mode and could enhance the impact on the quality of the regional ecological environment. The results of this study indicate that attention should be paid to generating targeted industrial economy layout and land use policies in different natural domains. Moreover, forestry protection engineering policies should be further strengthened to improve the resilience of ecosystem quality to human activities.
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