A goal of developmental genetics is to identify functional interactions that underlie phenotypes caused by mutations. We sought to identify functional interactors of Vsx2, which when mutated, ...disrupts early retinal development. We utilized the Vsx2 loss-of-function mouse, ocular retardation J (orJ), to assess interactions based on principles of positive and negative epistasis as applied to bulk transcriptome data. This was first tested in vivo with Mitf, a target of Vsx2 repression, and then to cultures of orJ retina treated with inhibitors of Retinoid-X Receptors (RXR) to target Rxrg, an up-regulated gene in the orJ retina, and gamma-Secretase, an enzyme required for Notch signaling, a key mediator of retinal proliferation and neurogenesis.
Whereas Mitf exhibited robust positive epistasis with Vsx2, it only partially accounts for the orJ phenotype, suggesting other functional interactors. RXR inhibition yielded minimal evidence for epistasis between Vsx2 and Rxrg. In contrast, gamma-Secretase inhibition caused hundreds of Vsx2-dependent genes associated with proliferation to deviate further from wild-type, providing evidence for convergent negative epistasis with Vsx2 in regulating tissue growth.
Combining in vivo and ex vivo testing with transcriptome analysis revealed quantitative and qualitative characteristics of functional interaction between Vsx2, Mitf, RXR, and gamma-Secretase activities.
Spar, tension leg platform, and semi-submersibles use heave plates to reduce heave response by increasing heave damping and added mass. Conventional practice is to use a linear damping ratio, which ...is typically obtained from free heave decay tests or Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. However, with the addition of heave plates, the system damping becomes nonlinear. Understanding such nonlinear damping behavior of spar with circular heave plates in various configurations could be useful in the design of heave compensation devices. Experimental and numerical investigation on heave damping and added mass of a scaled model of spar with a variety of heave plate configurations have been carried out using free heave decay for a range of initial heave displacements. Applicability of the linear and quadratic damping models have been assessed for all configurations. The effects of parameters such as heave plate diameter, location of heave plate above the keel, and spacing between two plates on damping and added mass have also been studied. Flow fields obtained from numerical simulations are presented, and their implication on damping discussed.
Nanotechnology has gained popularity in recent years owing to its established potential for application and implementation in various sectors such as medical drugs, medicine, catalysis, energy, ...material, and plant science. Nanoparticles (NPs) are smaller in size (1-100 nm) with a larger surface area and have many fruitful applications. The extraordinary functions of NPs are utilized in sustainable agriculture due to nano-enabled products, e.g., nano-insecticides, nano-pesticides, and nano-fertilizers. Nanoparticles have lately been suggested as an alternate method for controlling plant pests such as insects, fungi, and weeds. Several NPs exhibit antimicrobial properties considered in food packaging processes; for example, Ag-NPs are commonly used for such purposes. Apart from their antimicrobial properties, NPs such as Si, Ag, Fe, Cu, Al, Zn, ZnO, TiO
, CeO
, Al
O
, and carbon nanotubes have also been demonstrated to have negative impacts on plant growth and development. This review examines the field-use of nano-enabled products in sustainable agriculture, future perspectives, and growing environmental concerns. The remarkable information on commercialized nano-enabled products used in the agriculture and allied sectors are also provided.
The goal of this study was to map rainfed and irrigated rice-fallow cropland areas across South Asia, using MODIS 250 m time-series data and identify where the farming system may be intensified by ...the inclusion of a short-season crop during the fallow period. Rice-fallow cropland areas are those areas where rice is grown during the kharif growing season (June-October), followed by a fallow during the rabi season (November-February). These cropland areas are not suitable for growing rabi-season rice due to their high water needs, but are suitable for a short -season (≤3 months), low water-consuming grain legumes such as chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), black gram, green gram, and lentils. Intensification (double-cropping) in this manner can improve smallholder farmer's incomes and soil health via rich nitrogen-fixation legume crops as well as address food security challenges of ballooning populations without having to expand croplands. Several grain legumes, primarily chickpea, are increasingly grown across Asia as a source of income for smallholder farmers and at the same time providing rich and cheap source of protein that can improve the nutritional quality of diets in the region. The suitability of rainfed and irrigated rice-fallow croplands for grain legume cultivation across South Asia were defined by these identifiers: (a) rice crop is grown during the primary (kharif) crop growing season or during the north-west monsoon season (June-October); (b) same croplands are left fallow during the second (rabi) season or during the south-east monsoon season (November-February); and (c) ability to support low water-consuming, short-growing season (≤3 months) grain legumes (chickpea, black gram, green gram, and lentils) during rabi season. Existing irrigated or rainfed crops such as rice or wheat that were grown during kharif were not considered suitable for growing during the rabi season, because the moisture/water demand of these crops is too high. The study established cropland classes based on the every 16-day 250 m normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series for one year (June 2010-May 2011) of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, using spectral matching techniques (SMTs), and extensive field knowledge. Map accuracy was evaluated based on independent ground survey data as well as compared with available sub-national level statistics. The producers' and users' accuracies of the cropland fallow classes were between 75% and 82%. The overall accuracy and the kappa coefficient estimated for rice classes were 82% and 0.79, respectively. The analysis estimated approximately 22.3 Mha of suitable rice-fallow areas in South Asia, with 88.3% in India, 0.5% in Pakistan, 1.1% in Sri Lanka, 8.7% in Bangladesh, 1.4% in Nepal, and 0.02% in Bhutan. Decision-makers can target these areas for sustainable intensification of short-duration grain legumes.
Current efforts to repair damaged or diseased mammalian retinas are inefficient and largely incapable of fully restoring vision. Conversely, the zebrafish retina is capable of spontaneous ...regeneration upon damage using Müller glia (MG)-derived progenitors. Understanding how zebrafish MG initiate regeneration may help develop new treatments that prompt mammalian retinas to regenerate. We show that inhibition of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) signaling facilitates initiation of MG proliferation. GABA levels decrease following damage, and MG are positioned to detect decreased ambient levels and undergo dedifferentiation. Using pharmacological and genetic approaches, we demonstrate that GABAA receptor inhibition stimulates regeneration in undamaged retinas while activation inhibits regeneration in damaged retinas.
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•Inhibiting GABA or glutamate signaling causes spontaneous Müller glia proliferation•Activating GABA or glutamate signaling reduces damage-induced proliferation•Müller glia directly respond to extracellular GABA•Inhibition of GABA signaling activates regeneration response
Unlike mammals, zebrafish regenerate following retina damage from a resident adult stem cell (Müller glia). Dissecting the mechanisms that zebrafish use could lead to new therapeutic targets to treat retinal diseases. Patton and colleagues have discovered a mechanism by which decreased GABA levels are sensed by Müller glia to initiate a regenerative response.
Video coding and compression play a key role in efficient transmission and distribution of digital video content with comparatively lower storage and bandwidth requirements. However, the current ...research effort and evolutionary aspects still expect to develop a better solution that can jointly address the time complexity, quality measures, and data transfer rate problem in digital video transmission and distribution. Considering this, the study introduces an optimal video codec model to handle the tradeoff between visual perception and compression issues in video coding by introducing a novel optimized modeling of the intra-frame prediction method. The method's design and development are extensively carried out from the analytical viewpoint, where it also emphasizes reducing the encoding time to a significant extent. The experimental, numerical analysis shows that the proposed modeling of the optimized estimation of intra-frame prediction outperforms the conventional approach in terms of visual perception evaluated concerning Peak Signal-To-Noise Ratio (PSNR), bit rate and encoding time.
White mold commonly known as Sclerotinia sclerotiorum causes stem rot disease and has emerged as one of the major fungal pathogens of oilseed Brassica across the world. In the present study, ...consistently virulent S. sclerotiorum isolate "ESR-01" was sequenced and an assembly size of ~ 41 Mb with 328 scaffolds having N50 of 447,128 was obtained. Additionally, 27,450 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified from 155 scaffolds against S. sclerotiorum 1980 isolate, with an average SNP density of ~ 1.5 per kb genome. 667 repetitive elements were identified and approximately comprised 7% of the total annotated genes. The DDE_1 with 454 in numbers was found to be the most abundant and accounts for 68% of the total predicted repetitive elements. In total, 3844 simple sequence repeats are identified in the 328 scaffolds. A total of 9469 protein-coding genes were predicted from the whole genome assembly with an average gene length of 1587 bp and their distribution as 230.95 genes per Mb in the genome. Out of 9469 predicted protein-coding genes, 529 genes were observed encoding the CAZymes (Carbohydrate-Active enzymes) capable of degradation of the complex polysaccharides. Glycosyltransferase (GT) families were most abundant (49.71%) among the predicted CAZymes and GT2 (23%), GT4 (20%), and glycoside hydrolase (GH) 23% with GH18 (11%) were the prominent cell wall degrading enzyme families in the ESR-01 secretome. Besides this, 156 genes essential for the pathogen-host interactions were also identified. The effector analysis in the whole genome proteomics dataset revealed a total of 57 effector candidates (ECs) and 27 of them were having their analogs whereas the remaining 30 were novel ones. Eleven selected ECs were validated experimentally by analyzing the expression profile of the ESR-01 isolate of S. sclerotiorum. Together, the present investigation offers a better understanding of the S. sclerotiorum genome, secretome, and its effector repertoire which will help in refining the present knowledge on S. sclerotiorum-Brassica interactions and necrotrophic lifestyle of the phytopathogen in general.
The study presents the first to characterize novel Erucastrum canarianse Webb and Berthel (or Can) sterile cytoplasm-based CMS lines in Indian cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L.) and ...investigating their commercial suitability. Eleven Can-based CMS lines were examined for 12 agro-morphological and yield traits,18 floral traits, four seed yield traits together with three each of the Ogura (source: wild Japanese Radish) and Tour (Source: Brassica tournefortii) cytoplasms. All of the recorded floral and seed traits showed significant (P > 0.05) differences between the CMS lines of each group. Agro-morphological and yield traits in CMS lines and their maintainers, however, were non-significantly different. All the Can- and Ogura-based CMS lines showed flowering and appropriate seed formation by natural cross-pollination. Only two Tour cytoplasm-based CMS lines, Tour (DC-41-5) and Tour (DC-67), produced the smallest malformed flowers and stigma. The highest seed yield per plant in CMS lines was in Ogu (DC-98-4) and the lowest in Tour (DC-67). P14 and P15, two polymorphic mtDNA markers, were discovered for the Can CMS system for early detection. Five primers (ITS5a-ITS4, atpF-atpH, P16, rbeL and trnL), along with their maintainers, were sequenced and aligned to detect nucleotide changes including as additions and or deletions at different positions. The newly introduced E. canariense sterile cytoplasm-based CMS system in cauliflower is the subject of the first comprehensive report, which emphasises their potential as a further stable and reliable genetic mechanism for hybrid breeding.
The optic neuroepithelial continuum of vertebrate eye develops into three differentially growing compartments: the retina, the ciliary margin (CM), and the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). ...Neurofibromin 2 (Nf2) is strongly expressed in slowly expanding RPE and CM compartments, and the loss of mouse Nf2 causes hyperplasia in these compartments, replicating the ocular abnormalities seen in human NF2 patients. The hyperplastic ocular phenotypes were largely suppressed by heterozygous deletion of Yap and Taz, key targets of the Nf2-Hippo signaling pathway. We also found that, in addition to feedback transcriptional regulation of Nf2 by Yap/Taz in the CM, activation of Nf2 expression by Mitf in the RPE and suppression by Sox2 in retinal progenitor cells are necessary for the differential growth of the corresponding cell populations. Together, our findings reveal that Nf2 is a key player that orchestrates the differential growth of optic neuroepithelial compartments during vertebrate eye development.
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•Different parts of the eye neuroepithelium vary in proliferation rates•Nf2 is enriched in slowly proliferating optic neuroepithelial compartments•Nf2 expression is regulated differentially in each optic compartment•Nf2 mediates Hippo pathway to inhibit hyperproliferation of optic neuroepithelium
Moon et al. identify a mechanism underlying the differential growth of optic neuroepithelial compartments in the mouse eye. Differential transcriptional regulation of the tumor suppressor neurofibromin 2 (Nf2) in each neuroepithelial compartment is necessary for the differential growth of the tissue.
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