Regulon: An overview of plant abiotic stress transcriptional regulatory system and role in transgenic plants

Population growth is increasing rapidly around the world, in these consequences we need to produce more foods to full fill the demand of increased population. The world is facing global warming due to urbanizations and industrialization and in this concerns plants exposed continuously to abiotic stresses which is a major cause of crop hammering every year. Abiotic stresses consist of Drought, Salt, Heat, Cold, Oxidative and Metal toxicity which damage the crop yield continuously. Drought and salinity stress severally affected in similar manner to plant and the leading cause of reduction in crop yield. Plants respond to various stimuli under abiotic or biotic stress condition and express certain genes either structural or regulatory genes which maintain the plant integrity. The regulatory genes primarily the transcription factors that exert their activity by binding to certain cis DNA elements and consequently either up regulated or down regulate to target expression. These transcription factors are known as masters regulators because its single transcript regulate more than one gene, in this context the regulon word is fascinating more in compass of transcription factors. Progress has been made to better understand about effect of regulons (AREB/ABF, DREB, MYB, and NAC) under abiotic stresses and a number of regulons reported for stress responsive and used as a better transgenic tool of Arabidopsis and Rice.

The Limits of “Good Law”: Civil Society Regulation in South Africa and Ethiopia

At the end of apartheid, the South African government adopted laws regulating civil society that are widely seen as “good” laws: laws designed to encourage and facilitate a thriving civil society sector. In 2019 the Ethiopian government repealed the repressive, decade-old Charities and Societies Proclamation and replaced it with a much more open and permissive regulatory system, also aimed at facilitating a thriving civil society sector. This article compares South Africa's post-apartheid civil society organization (CSO) laws with Ethiopia's 2019 law, to examine the different and overlapping ways in which these regimes attempt to advance the interests of CSOs against an historical background of state oppression. In doing so, it examines what “good” regulation of CSOs constitutes in practice and finds that there are significant limits to the effectiveness of regulatory change in addressing the many, complex problems CSOs face, especially in the wake of political and legal oppression.

Epigenetic Mechanisms of Senescence in Plants

Senescence is a major developmental transition in plants that requires a massive reprogramming of gene expression and includes various layers of regulations. Senescence is either an age-dependent or a stress-induced process, and is under the control of complex regulatory networks that interact with each other. It has been shown that besides genetic reprogramming, which is an important aspect of plant senescence, transcription factors and higher-level mechanisms, such as epigenetic and small RNA-mediated regulators, are also key factors of senescence-related genes. Epigenetic mechanisms are an important layer of this multilevel regulatory system that change the activity of transcription factors (TFs) and play an important role in modulating the expression of senescence-related gene. They include chromatin remodeling, DNA methylation, histone modification, and the RNA-mediated control of transcription factors and genes. This review provides an overview of the known epigenetic regulation of plant senescence, which has mostly been studied in the form of leaf senescence, and it also covers what has been reported about whole-plant senescence.

Optimization of an unscented Kalman filter for an embedded platform

The unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is finding increased application in biological fields. While realizing a complex UKF system in a low-power embedded platform offers many potential benefits including wearability, it also poses significant design challenges. Here we present a method for optimizing a UKF system for realization in an embedded platform. The method seeks to minimize both computation time and error in UKF state reconstruction and forecasting. As a case study, we applied the method to a model for the rat sleep-wake regulatory system in which 432 variants of the UKF over six different variables are considered. The optimization method is divided into three stages that assess computation time, state forecast error, and state reconstruction error. We apply a cost function to variants that pass all three stages to identify a variant that computes 27 times faster than the reference variant and maintains required levels of state estimation and forecasting accuracy. We draw the following insights: 1) process noise provides leeway for simplifying the model and its integration in ways that speed computation time while maintaining state forecasting accuracy, 2) the assimilation of observed data during the UKF correction step provides leeway for simplifying the UKF structure in ways that speed computation time while maintaining state reconstruction accuracy, and 3) the optimization process can be accelerated by decoupling variables that directly impact the underlying model from variables that impact the UKF structure.

Four-party evolutionary game analysis of supervision for vaccine quality in major epidemics

During major epidemics, monitoring vaccine quality can ensure the public health and social stability. Considering that social media has become an important way for the public to obtain external information during the epidemic. We developed a dual regulatory system of vaccine quality with the government in the leading role and the participation of We Media, and constructed a four-party evolutionary game model (government regulatory agency, We Media, vaccine industry groups, and the public) and analyzed the stability of each game player’s strategy choice. The system’s possible equilibrium points are identified using Lyapunov’s first law. Then the game trajectory between stakeholders is simulated by MATLAB, the effects of initial intention and parameters on the evolution process and results are analyzed. The results show that to ensure the quality and safety of vaccines and stabilize network public opinion during epidemics, the government should invest in an effective supervision mechanism. By strengthening responsibility, increasing penalties, and reducing supervision costs, the probability of vaccine industry groups providing high-quality vaccines is effectively enhanced. Restricting the behavior of We Media and supervising vaccine industry groups to reduce speculation reduces the cost of government supervision and improves its efficiency.

Acetyl-CoA mediated autoacetylation of fatty acid synthase in de novo lipogenesis

De novo lipogenesis (DNL) is a highly regulated metabolic process, which is known to be activated through transcriptional regulation of lipogenic genes, including fatty acid synthase (FASN). Unexpectedly, we find that the expression of FASN protein remains unchanged during Drosophila larval development when lipogenesis is hyperactive. Instead, acetylation modification of FASN is highly upregulated in fast-growing larvae. We further show that lysine K813 is highly acetylated in developing larvae, and its acetylation is required for upregulated FASN activity, body fat accumulation, and normal development. Intriguingly, K813 is rapidly autoacetylated by acetyl-CoA in a dosage-dependent manner, independent of known acetyltransferases. Furthermore, the autoacetylation of K813 is mediated by a conserved P-loop-like motif (N-xx-G-x-A). In summary, this work uncovers a novel role of acetyl-CoA-mediated autoacetylation of FASN in developmental lipogenesis and reveals a self-regulatory system that controls metabolic homeostasis by linking acetyl-CoA, lysine acetylation, and DNL.

The Establishment of Quantitatively Regulating Expression Cassette with sgRNA Targeting BIRC5 to Elucidate the Synergistic Pathway of Survivin with P-Glycoprotein in Cancer Multi-Drug Resistance

Quantitative analysis and regulating gene expression in cancer cells is an innovative method to study key genes in tumors, which conduces to analyze the biological function of the specific gene. In this study, we found the expression levels of Survivin protein (BIRC5) and P-glycoprotein (MDR1) in MCF-7/doxorubicin (DOX) cells (drug-resistant cells) were significantly higher than MCF-7 cells (wild-type cells). In order to explore the specific functions of BIRC5 gene in multi-drug resistance (MDR), a CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knocking-in tetracycline (Tet)-off regulatory system cell line was established, which enabled us to regulate the expression levels of Survivin quantitatively (clone 8 named MCF-7/Survivin was selected for further studies). Subsequently, the determination results of doxycycline-induced DOX efflux in MCF-7/Survivin cells implied that Survivin expression level was opposite to DOX accumulation in the cells. For example, when Survivin expression was down-regulated, DOX accumulation inside the MCF-7/Survivin cells was up-regulated, inducing strong apoptosis of cells (reversal index 118.07) by weakening the release of intracellular drug from MCF-7/Survivin cells. Also, down-regulation of Survivin resulted in reduced phosphorylation of PI3K, Akt, and mTOR in MCF-7/Survivin cells and significantly decreased P-gp expression. Previous studies had shown that PI3K/Akt/mTOR could regulate P-gp expression. Therefore, we speculated that Survivin might affect the expression of P-gp through PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. In summary, this quantitative method is not only valuable for studying the gene itself, but also can better analyze the biological phenomena related to it.

Preventing Prescription Drug Misuse: A Regulatory Perspective in the United States, Europe, and India

Prescription medicines, such as analgesics, stimulants, steroids, anti-depressants, psychotropics, and certain antibiotics are commonly mishandled in a variety of ways, including overdosing, abuse, diversion, and drug trafficking. Because of the considerable risk to public health, they are subject to strict regulatory oversight. The drugs possess abuse potential at specific dose and hence prone to abuse therefore they are categorized as Controlled substances. Therefore, they are subject to constant vigilance over the pharmaceutical supply chain. The complete clinical data as well as post marketing surveillance study of such drugs are critical to be in place as per the regulatory requirements. The countries have kept up with the times by constantly updating the system with regulatory laws and strategies to prevent cases of misuse. The current review will give a quick summary of how prescription medications and prohibited substances are regulated in the United States, Europe, and India. It will also emphasize current trends in drug usage, as well as the issues that these countries face and the preventive policies implemented to manage and prevent drug misuse. It will also make recommendations for new regulatory initiatives to address the current drug- misuse-related concerns. As a result, a review of the regulatory system in various countries will present current challenges and new lessons for countries around the globe.

A comprehensive synopsis on cognizance of Regulatory Affairs in different sectors of Pharmacy

A pharmaceutical drug regulatory Affairs is mainly involved in registration process parameters of different pharmaceutical products and new drug application. Regulatory affairs (RA) professionals play vital roles in a pharmaceutical field as, it is related to healthcare products. It provides strategic, operational direction and support for working within regulations to expedite the development of pharmaceutical, biological and medical devices. Also, it is principally concern with safety and efficacy, low risk/high benefit and quality assessment of healthcare drug products throughout the world. Regulatory system of each and every country has different regulatory agencies which govern certification and good manufacturing practices. Regulatory Affairs also has a very specific importance within the formulation and marketing of drug product in pharmaceutical industries. Current abstract reports for the first time and emphasizes on studies concerning awareness and knowledge testing in regulatory affair field by the various pharma professionals. This is completely certified online survey of quiz questionnaire based on important concepts in RA and circulated via google form to different social medias to more than 1000 pharma professionals (Academics, Students, Industrials area). The systematic analysis of received responses reveals awareness and knowledge of the participants about RA in selected pharma professionals. It shows that, participants form industrial area having more knowledge than academics and students. This survey comes out with conclusion that, there is more need to raise RA information sources by the inclusion of this subject in syllabus for academics via various courses to fulfill more RA professional demands in future.