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2014

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Articles 1 - 30 of 144

Full-Text Articles in Biology

Modelling Non-Euclideanmovement And Landscape Connectivity In Highly Structured Ecological Networks, Chris Sutherland, Angela Fuller, J. Royle Dec 2014

Modelling Non-Euclideanmovement And Landscape Connectivity In Highly Structured Ecological Networks, Chris Sutherland, Angela Fuller, J. Royle

Chris Sutherland

1. Movement is influenced by landscape structure, configuration and geometry, but measuring distance as perceived by animals poses technical and logistical challenges. Instead, movement is typically measured using Euclidean distance, irrespective of location or landscape structure, or is based on arbitrary cost surfaces. A
recently proposed extension of spatial capture-recapture (SCR)models resolves this issue using spatial encounter
histories of individuals to calculate least-cost paths (ecological distance: Ecology, 94, 2013, 287) thereby relaxing
the Euclidean assumption. We evaluate the consequences of not accounting for movement heterogeneity when
estimating abundance in highly structured landscapes, and demonstrate the value of this approach for …


Regulation Of Three Nitrogenase Gene Clusters In The Cyanobacterium Anabaena Variabilis Atcc 29413, Teresa Thiel, Brenda S. Pratte Dec 2014

Regulation Of Three Nitrogenase Gene Clusters In The Cyanobacterium Anabaena Variabilis Atcc 29413, Teresa Thiel, Brenda S. Pratte

Teresa Thiel

The filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena variabilis ATCC 29413 fixes nitrogen under aerobic conditions in specialized cells called heterocysts that form in response to an environmental deficiency in combined nitrogen. Nitrogen fixation is mediated by the enzyme nitrogenase, which is very sensitive to oxygen. Heterocysts are microxic cells that allow nitrogenase to function in a filament comprised primarily of vegetative cells that produce oxygen by photosynthesis. A. variabilis is unique among well-characterized cyanobacteria in that it has three nitrogenase gene clusters that encode different nitrogenases, which function under different environmental conditions. The nif1 genes encode a Mo-nitrogenase that functions only in heterocysts, …


Cloning And Expression Analysis Of Drosophila Extracellular Cu Zn Superoxide Dismutase, Michael J. Blackney, Rebecca Cox, David Shepherd, Joel D. Parker Dec 2014

Cloning And Expression Analysis Of Drosophila Extracellular Cu Zn Superoxide Dismutase, Michael J. Blackney, Rebecca Cox, David Shepherd, Joel D. Parker

Joel D Parker

In the present study, we cloned and sequenced the mRNAs of the Sod3 [extracellular Cu Zn SOD (superoxide dismutase)] gene in Drosophila and identified two mRNA products formed by alternative splicing. These products code for a long and short protein derived from the four transcripts found in global expression studies (Flybase numbers Dmel\CG9027, FBgn0033631). Both mRNA process variants contain an extracellular signalling sequence, a region of high homology to the Sod1 (cytoplasmic Cu Zn SOD) including a conserved AUG start, with the longer form also containing a hydrophobic tail. The two fully processed transcripts are homologous to Caenorhabditis elegans Sod3 …


Climate Change Enhances The Negative Effects Of Predation Risk On An Intermediate Consumer, Luke P. Miller, Catherine M. Matassa, Geoffrey C. Trussell Dec 2014

Climate Change Enhances The Negative Effects Of Predation Risk On An Intermediate Consumer, Luke P. Miller, Catherine M. Matassa, Geoffrey C. Trussell

Luke P. Miller

Predators are a major source of stress in natural systems because their prey must balance the benefits of feeding with the risk of being eaten. Although this ‘fear’ of being eaten often drives the organization and dynamics of many natural systems, we know little about how such risk effects will be altered by climate change. Here, we examined the interactive consequences of predator avoidance and projected climate warming in a three-level rocky intertidal food chain. We found that both predation risk and increased air and sea temperatures suppressed the foraging of prey in the middle trophic level, suggesting that warming …


Why Gluten Changed The World, Laura K. Thompson Dr Nov 2014

Why Gluten Changed The World, Laura K. Thompson Dr

Laura K Thompson Dr

This laboratory is one in a series that I use in Biology 401: Applied Plant Science. This course is designed for students who have had at least one introductory Biology course, either for a major or a non-major. The goal in the course is to give the student an appreciation for the importance of plants to human society. Each laboratory session is designed to give the student an appreciation for how plants contribute to society and an experience in original processing of plants for their use. In this laboratory session we look at the importance of gluten in bread making. …


Food Preservation, Laura K. Thompson Dr Nov 2014

Food Preservation, Laura K. Thompson Dr

Laura K Thompson Dr

This laboratory is one in a series that I use in Biology 401: Applied Plant Science. This course is designed for students who have had at least one introductory Biology course, either for a major or a non-major. The goal in the course is to give the student an appreciation for the importance of plants to human society. Each laboratory session is designed to give the student an appreciation for how plants contribute to society and an experience in original processing of plants for their use. In this laboratory session we look at different methods for preserving food, primarily canning …


Working With Plant Fibers, Laura K. Thompson Dr Nov 2014

Working With Plant Fibers, Laura K. Thompson Dr

Laura K Thompson Dr

This laboratory is one in a series that I use in Biology 401: Applied Plant Science. This course is designed for students who have had at least one introductory Biology course, either for a major or a non-major. The goal in the course is to give the student an appreciation for the importance of plants to human society. Each laboratory session is designed to give the student an appreciation for how plants contribute to society and an experience in original processing of plants for their use. In this laboratory session the students get a feel for the processes that are …


Herbal Medicines, Laura K. Thompson Dr Nov 2014

Herbal Medicines, Laura K. Thompson Dr

Laura K Thompson Dr

This laboratory is one in a series that I use in Biology 401: Applied Plant Science. This course is designed for students who have had at least one introductory Biology course, either for a major or a non-major. The goal in the course is to give the student an appreciation for the importance of plants to human society. Each laboratory session is designed to give the student an appreciation for how plants contribute to society and an experience in original processing of plants for their use. A number of lectures in the course deal with the use of plants in …


Mulberry Paper Making, Laura K. Thompson Dr Nov 2014

Mulberry Paper Making, Laura K. Thompson Dr

Laura K Thompson Dr

This laboratory is one in a series that I use in Biology 401: Applied Plant Science. This course is designed for students who have had at least one introductory Biology course, either for a major or a non-major. The goal in the course is to give the student an appreciation for the importance of plants to human society. Each laboratory session is designed to give the student an appreciation for how plants contribute to society and an experience in original processing of plants for their use. This laboratory session allows students to learn about how paper was originally produced. I …


Thermal Stress And Predation Risk Trigger Distinct Transcriptomic Responses In The Intertidal Snail Nucella Lapillus, Nathaniel D. Chu, Luke P. Miller, Stefan T. Kaluziak, Geoffrey C. Trussell, Steven V. Vollmer Nov 2014

Thermal Stress And Predation Risk Trigger Distinct Transcriptomic Responses In The Intertidal Snail Nucella Lapillus, Nathaniel D. Chu, Luke P. Miller, Stefan T. Kaluziak, Geoffrey C. Trussell, Steven V. Vollmer

Luke P. Miller

Thermal stress and predation risk have profound effects on rocky shore organisms, triggering changes in their feeding behaviour, morphology and metabolism. Studies of thermal stress have shown that underpinning such changes in several intertidal species are specific shifts in gene and protein expression (e.g. upregulation of heat-shock proteins). But relatively few studies have examined genetic responses to predation risk. Here, we use next-generation RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to examine the transcriptomic (mRNA) response of the snail Nucella lapillus to thermal stress and predation risk. We found that like other intertidal species, N. lapillus displays a pronounced genetic response to thermal stress …


Neurogenic Stem Cells Have The Capacity To Disperse Widely And Fuse With Host Neurons In Adult Rats, Kerry Thompson, Emily Kimes, Michele Kanemori, Daniella Amri, Ashley Noone, Jerika Barron, Ashley Saito, Omar Cortez-Toledo, Ellie Cortez-Toledo, David Arrizon, Johanna Quist, Yohualli Balderas, Melissa Miranda, Tina Tran, Frances Kim Oct 2014

Neurogenic Stem Cells Have The Capacity To Disperse Widely And Fuse With Host Neurons In Adult Rats, Kerry Thompson, Emily Kimes, Michele Kanemori, Daniella Amri, Ashley Noone, Jerika Barron, Ashley Saito, Omar Cortez-Toledo, Ellie Cortez-Toledo, David Arrizon, Johanna Quist, Yohualli Balderas, Melissa Miranda, Tina Tran, Frances Kim

Kerry Thompson

No abstract provided.


Next-Generation Field Guides, Elizabeth J. Farnsworth, Miyoko Chu, W. John Kress, Amanda K. Neill, Jason H. Best, John Pickering, Robert D. Stevenson, Gregory W. Courtney, John K. Vandyk, Aaron M. Ellison Oct 2014

Next-Generation Field Guides, Elizabeth J. Farnsworth, Miyoko Chu, W. John Kress, Amanda K. Neill, Jason H. Best, John Pickering, Robert D. Stevenson, Gregory W. Courtney, John K. Vandyk, Aaron M. Ellison

John K. VanDyk

To conserve species, we must first identify them. Field researchers, land managers, educators, and citizen scientists need up-to-date and accessible tools to identify organisms, organize data, and share observations. Emerging technologies complement traditional, book-form field guides by providing users with a wealth of multimedia data. We review technical innovations of next-generation field guides, including Web-based and stand-alone applications, interactive multiple-access keys, visual-recognition software adapted to identify organisms, species checklists that can be customized to particular sites, online communities in which people share species observations, and the use of crowdsourced data to refine machine-based identification algorithms. Next-generation field guides are user …


An Rnai-Based Suppressor Screen Identifies Interactors Of The Myt1 Ortholog Of Caenorhabditis Elegans, Anna K. Allen, Jessica E. Nesmith, Andy Golden Sep 2014

An Rnai-Based Suppressor Screen Identifies Interactors Of The Myt1 Ortholog Of Caenorhabditis Elegans, Anna K. Allen, Jessica E. Nesmith, Andy Golden

Anna Allen

Oocyte maturation in all species is controlled by a protein complex termed the maturation promoting factor (MPF). MPF is comprised of a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) and its partner cyclin, and is regulated by dueling regulatory phosphorylation events on the CDK. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the Wee1/Myt1 ortholog WEE-1.3 provides the inhibitory phosphorylations on CDK-1 that keep MPF inactive and halts meiosis. Prior work has shown that depletion of WEE-1.3 in C. elegans results in precocious oocyte maturation in vivo and a highly penetrant infertility phenotype. This study sought to further define the precocious maturation phenotype and to identify novel interactors with …


Maldi-Tof Ms As A Supportive Tool For The Evaluation Of Bacterial Diversity In Soils From Africa And The Americas, Adrian Douglas Allen, Maria Velez-Quinones, Broderick Eribo, Vernon Morris Sep 2014

Maldi-Tof Ms As A Supportive Tool For The Evaluation Of Bacterial Diversity In Soils From Africa And The Americas, Adrian Douglas Allen, Maria Velez-Quinones, Broderick Eribo, Vernon Morris

Broderick Eribo

Identification and characterization of viable-culturable bacteria (VCB) associated with soils from Africa and the Americas is significant for environmental and battlefield security. Such analyses are scarce and their evaluation using traditional microbiological methods do not fully elucidate the structure and chemotaxonomic characteristics of the microbial community. In this study, matrix assisted laser desorption time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) spectrometry in addition to 16S rRNA sequencing, and diversity indices were employed to characterize VCB and their associated biomarkers. Nineteen genera were identified across all sample locations, but only four (Bacillus, Brevibacillus, Paenibacillus and Terribacillus) confirmed by ClustalW2 as being …


Neonatal Nmda Receptor Blockade Disrupts Spike Timing And Glutamatergic Synapses In Fast Spiking Interneurons In A Nmda Receptor Hypofunction Model Of Schizophrenia, Kevin S. Jones, Joshua G. Corbin, Molly M. Huntsman Sep 2014

Neonatal Nmda Receptor Blockade Disrupts Spike Timing And Glutamatergic Synapses In Fast Spiking Interneurons In A Nmda Receptor Hypofunction Model Of Schizophrenia, Kevin S. Jones, Joshua G. Corbin, Molly M. Huntsman

Kevin Jones

The dysfunction of parvalbumin-positive, fast-spiking interneurons (FSI) is considered a primary contributor to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia (SZ), but deficits in FSI physiology have not been explicitly characterized. We show for the first time, that a widely-employed model of schizophrenia minimizes first spike latency and increases GluN2B-mediated current in neocortical FSIs. The reduction in FSI first-spike latency coincides with reduced expression of the Kv1.1 potassium channel subunit which provides a biophysical explanation for the abnormal spiking behavior. Similarly, the increase in NMDA current coincides with enhanced expression of the GluN2B NMDA receptor subunit, specifically in FSIs. In this study mice …


African Philosophy: A Key To African Innovation And Development, George Middendorf Sep 2014

African Philosophy: A Key To African Innovation And Development, George Middendorf

George Middendorf

This essay demonstrates how African philosophy can be a key to African innovation and development. Its first section illustrates how philosophy as a discipline drives innovation in science and technology. The second part proposes a new discipline linking science, engineering and technology to sustainable, ethical development. The third section proposes an ethics core derived from ancient Egyptian and Ethiopian thought. It addresses the fact that non-African principles and personnel have in some measure directed African development, resulting in unsustainable and sometimes destructive outcomes. The conclusion argues that the primary instrument for African development must be a Pan-African curriculum developed through …


Mcnamara 20140911 Bepress Author Utilization Counts Cannot Be Trusted Due To Poor Design And Support, George Mcnamara Sep 2014

Mcnamara 20140911 Bepress Author Utilization Counts Cannot Be Trusted Due To Poor Design And Support, George Mcnamara

George McNamara

McNamara 20140911 Bepress author utilization counts cannot be trusted due to poor design and support

//

20140912 update: bepress support finally 'gets' my problem and should have my author counts fixed soon.

I have left the text below and the original download as is.

//

Email exchange 9/2014 (also available as a PDF download):

Your bepress system “database” is pretty lame if there is no way for your team to correct this ‘bot inflation.

You are serving an academic research community that has a very high expectation in the quality of our scholarship and data. That you cannot correct “bad …


Diversity At 100: Women And Underrepresented Minorities In The Esa: Peer-Reviewed Letter, George Middendorf Aug 2014

Diversity At 100: Women And Underrepresented Minorities In The Esa: Peer-Reviewed Letter, George Middendorf

George Middendorf

No abstract provided.


The Chevrolet Cruze Luv 1.4 Engine, Gabriel Leiner Aug 2014

The Chevrolet Cruze Luv 1.4 Engine, Gabriel Leiner

Gabriel Leiner

In the future, this research suggests that designing highways and cars with features built into the structures of the roads themselves that implicitly influence typical drivers to achieve better fuel economy without making an active effort. These types of “intuitively” fuel efficient highways and cars are proposed, defined and modeled within the scope of this paper.


Cryopreservation Of Hepatocyte (Hepg2) Cell Monolayers: Impact Of Trehalose, Blake Stokich, Quinn Osgood, David Grimm, Shhyam Moorthy, Nilay Chakraborty, Michael A. Menze Aug 2014

Cryopreservation Of Hepatocyte (Hepg2) Cell Monolayers: Impact Of Trehalose, Blake Stokich, Quinn Osgood, David Grimm, Shhyam Moorthy, Nilay Chakraborty, Michael A. Menze

Michael Menze

A simple method to cryogenically preserve hepatocyte monolayers is currently not available but such a technique would facilitate numerous applications in the field of biomedical engineering, cell line development, and drug screening. We investigated the effect of trehalose and dimethyl sulfoxide (Me2SO) in cryopreservation of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells in suspension and monolayer formats. HepG2 cell monolayers were incubated for 24 h at varying concentrations of trehalose (50–150 mM) prior to cryopreservation to identify the optimum concentration for such preincubation. When trehalose alone was used as the cryoprotective agent (CPA), cells in monolayer format did not survive freezing while …


Enhancement Of Chronically Induced Breast Carcinogenesis By Combined Environmental And Dietary Carcinogens And Suppression By Dietary Agents, Lenora A. Pluchino Ph.D. Aug 2014

Enhancement Of Chronically Induced Breast Carcinogenesis By Combined Environmental And Dietary Carcinogens And Suppression By Dietary Agents, Lenora A. Pluchino Ph.D.

Lenora A. Pluchino, Ph.D.

Most breast cancers occur sporadically due to long-term exposure to low-dose carcinogens present in our environment and diet. American lifestyles involve frequent exposures to smoke, polluted air, and high temperature-cooked meats comprising multiple carcinogens, such as 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK), benzo[α[alpha]]pyrene (B[α[alpha]]P), and 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP). To investigate whether these carcinogens may act together to enhance breast cell carcinogenesis, we used our chronically-induced breast cell carcinogenesis model wherein we repeatedly expose non-cancerous human breast epithelial MCF10A cells to physiologically-achievable doses of carcinogens to progressively induce cellular acquisition of cancer-associated properties including reduced dependence on growth factors, anchorage-independent growth, increased cell proliferation, migration and …


Mathematical Structure Of Fuzzy Modeling Of Medical Diagnoses By Using Clustering Models, R.W. W. Hndoosh Aug 2014

Mathematical Structure Of Fuzzy Modeling Of Medical Diagnoses By Using Clustering Models, R.W. W. Hndoosh

R. W. Hndoosh

An Adaptive-Network-based Fuzzy Inference System ANFIS with different techniques of clustering is successfully developed to solve one of the problems of medical diagnoses, because it has the advantage of powerful modeling ability. In this paper, we propose the generation of an adaptive neuro-Fuzzy Inference System model using different clustering models such as a subtractive fuzzy clustering (SFC) model and a fuzzy c-mean clustering (FCM) model in the Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy model for selecting the hidden node centers. An experimental result on datasets of medical diagnoses shows the proposed model with two models of clustering (ANFIS-SFC & ANFIS-FCM) while comparing the …


Global Population-Specific Variation In Mirna Associated With Cancer Risk And Clinical Biomarkers, Renata A. Rawlings-Goss, Michael C. Campbell, Sarah A. Tishkoff Jul 2014

Global Population-Specific Variation In Mirna Associated With Cancer Risk And Clinical Biomarkers, Renata A. Rawlings-Goss, Michael C. Campbell, Sarah A. Tishkoff

Michael C. Campbell

Background: MiRNA expression profiling is being actively investigated as a clinical biomarker and diagnostic tool to detect multiple cancer types and stages as well as other complex diseases. Initial investigations, however, have not comprehensively taken into account genetic variability affecting miRNA expression and/or function in populations of different ethnic backgrounds. Therefore, more complete surveys of miRNA genetic variability are needed to assess global patterns of miRNA variation within and between diverse human populations and their effect on clinically relevant miRNA genes.


An Inverse Association Between West Nile Virus Serostatus And Avian Malaria Infection Status, Robert Ricklefs, Matthew Ci Medeiros, Tavis K. Anderson, Jenni M. Higashiguchi, Uriel D. Kitron, Edward D. Walker, Jeffrey D. Brawn, Bethany L. Krebs, Marilyn O. Ruiz, Tony L. Goldberg, Gabriel L. Hamer Jul 2014

An Inverse Association Between West Nile Virus Serostatus And Avian Malaria Infection Status, Robert Ricklefs, Matthew Ci Medeiros, Tavis K. Anderson, Jenni M. Higashiguchi, Uriel D. Kitron, Edward D. Walker, Jeffrey D. Brawn, Bethany L. Krebs, Marilyn O. Ruiz, Tony L. Goldberg, Gabriel L. Hamer

Robert Ricklefs

Background
Various ecological and physiological mechanisms might influence the probability that two or more pathogens may simultaneously or sequentially infect a host individual. Concurrent infections can have important consequences for host condition and fitness, including elevated mortality risks. In addition, interactions between coinfecting pathogens may have important implications for transmission dynamics.

Methods
Here, we explore patterns of association between two common avian pathogens (West Nile virus and avian malaria parasites) among a suburban bird community in Chicago, IL, USA that share mosquito vectors. We surveyed 1714 individual birds across 13 species for both pathogens through established molecular protocols.

Results
Field …


Cholinergic Transmission During Nicotine Withdrawal Is Influenced By Age And Pre-Exposure To Nicotine: Implications For Teenage Smoking, Laura O'Dell Jul 2014

Cholinergic Transmission During Nicotine Withdrawal Is Influenced By Age And Pre-Exposure To Nicotine: Implications For Teenage Smoking, Laura O'Dell

Laura Elena O'Dell

Adolescence is a unique period of development characterized by enhanced tobacco use and long-term vulnerability to neurochemical changes produced by adolescent nicotine exposure. In order to understand the underlying mechanisms that contribute to developmental differences in tobacco use, this study compared changes in cholinergic transmission produced by exposure to nicotine and withdrawal from nicotine in rats of different ages, some of which had exposure to nicotine as adolescents. The first study compared extracellular levels of acetylcholine (ACh) in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) during nicotine withdrawal in adolescent, adult and adult rats that were exposed to nicotine during adolescence. Adolescent (PND …


Insulin-Resistant Rats Display Enhanced Nicotine Reward Following A High-Fat Diet Regimen., Laura O'Dell Jul 2014

Insulin-Resistant Rats Display Enhanced Nicotine Reward Following A High-Fat Diet Regimen., Laura O'Dell

Laura Elena O'Dell

Tobacco use among persons displaying type II diabetes exponentially increases negative health consequences and mortality rates. Especially troubling, diabetic persons who smoke display reduced rates of tobacco cessation as compared to non-diabetic smokers. Diabetes is a metabolic syndrome that consists of insulin resistance due to disruptions in insulin signaling. Insulin has been shown to modulate mesolimbic reward circuitry in response to drugs of abuse, such as nicotine. This study utilized the conditioned place preference paradigm (CPP) to examine nicotine reward in a rat model of insulin resistance induced by the consumption of a high-fat diet (HFD). Rats were placed on …


What Can We Learn From Confusing Olivella Columellaris And O. Semistriata (Olivellidae, Gastropoda), Two Key Species In Panamic Sandy Beach Ecosystems?, Alison I. Troost, Samantha D. Rupert, Ariel Z. Cyrus, Frank V. Paladino, Benjamin F. Dattilo, Winfried S. Peters Jul 2014

What Can We Learn From Confusing Olivella Columellaris And O. Semistriata (Olivellidae, Gastropoda), Two Key Species In Panamic Sandy Beach Ecosystems?, Alison I. Troost, Samantha D. Rupert, Ariel Z. Cyrus, Frank V. Paladino, Benjamin F. Dattilo, Winfried S. Peters

Benjamin F. Dattilo

Abstract: Olivella columellaris (Sowerby 1825) and O. semistriata (Gray 1839) are suspension-feeding, swash-surfing snails on tropical sandy beaches of the east Pacific. While they often are the numerically dominant macrofaunal element in their habitats, their biology is poorly understood; the two species actually have been confused in all of the few publications that address their ecology. Frequent misidentifications in publications and collections contributed also to an overestimation of the geographic overlap of the two species. To provide a sound taxonomic basis for further functional, ecological, and evolutionary investigations, we evaluated the validity of diagnostic traits in wild populations and museum …


The Fossilized Birth–Death Process For Coherent Calibration Of Divergence-Time Estimates, Tracy A. Heath, John P. Huelsenbeck, Tanja Stadler Jul 2014

The Fossilized Birth–Death Process For Coherent Calibration Of Divergence-Time Estimates, Tracy A. Heath, John P. Huelsenbeck, Tanja Stadler

Tracy Heath

Time-calibrated species phylogenies are critical for addressing a wide range of questions in evolutionary biology, such as those that elucidate historical biogeography or uncover patterns of coevolution and diversification. Because molecular sequence data are not informative on absolute time, external data—most commonly, fossil age estimates—are required to calibrate estimates of species divergence dates. For Bayesian divergence time methods, the common practice for calibration using fossil information involves placing arbitrarily chosen parametric distributions on internal nodes, often disregarding most of the information in the fossil record. We introduce the “fossilized birth–death” (FBD) process—a model for calibrating divergence time estimates in a …


Identification Of Heat Responsive Genes In Brassica Napus Siliques At The Seed-Filling Stage Through Transcriptional Profiling, Xuemin Wang, Erru Yu, Chuchuan Fan, Qingyong Yang, Xiaodong Li, Bingxi Wan, Yanni Dong, Yongming Zhou Jul 2014

Identification Of Heat Responsive Genes In Brassica Napus Siliques At The Seed-Filling Stage Through Transcriptional Profiling, Xuemin Wang, Erru Yu, Chuchuan Fan, Qingyong Yang, Xiaodong Li, Bingxi Wan, Yanni Dong, Yongming Zhou

Xuemin (Sam) Wang

High temperature stress results in yield loss and alterations to seed composition during seed filling in oilseed rape (Brassica napus). However, the mechanism underlying this heat response is poorly understood. In this study, global transcription profiles of 20 d-old siliques of B. napus were analyzed after heat stress using a Brassica 95k EST microarray. The up-regulated genes included many HSF/HSP transcripts and other heat-related marker genes, such as ROF2, DREB2a, MBF1c and Hsa32, reflecting the conservation of key heat resistance factors among plants. Other up-regulated genes were preferentially expressed in heat-stressed silique walls or seeds, including some transcription factors and …


Letters + Numbers = Symbols, Gabriel Leiner Jul 2014

Letters + Numbers = Symbols, Gabriel Leiner

Gabriel Leiner

A philosophical editorial column for magazine publication based on experiences in Queens, New York, gathered through interviews, late night park chess games, and various travels on trains and subways. The column touches upon the ideas of learning and classifying information by quantifying it, versus using emotion, feeling and experience to understand information. As a possible solution, the column suggests symbols and colors as perhaps better, or perhaps more advanced ways of classifying things, communicating and learning.