The C2H2 transcription factor SsZFH1 regulates the size, number and development of apothecia in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a notorious phytopathogenic, Ascomycota fungus with a host range of over 600 plant species worldwide. This homothallic, Leotiomycetes species reproduces sexually through a multicellular apothecium which produces and releases ascospores. These ascospores serve as the primary inoculum source for disease initiation in the majority of S. sclerotiorum disease cycles. The regulation of apothecium development for this pathogen and other apothecium-producing fungi remains largely unknown. Here, we report that a C2H2 transcription factor SsZFH1 (zinc finger homologous protein) is necessary for the proper development and maturation of sclerotia and apothecia in S. sclerotiorum and is required for the normal growth rate of hyphae. Furthermore, ΔSszfh1 strains exhibit decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in hyphae, increased melanin deposition and enhanced tolerance to H2O2 in the process of vegetative growth and sclerotia formation. Infection assays on common bean leaves, with thin cuticles, and soybean and tomato leaves, with thick cuticles, suggest that the deletion of Sszfh1 slows the mycelial growth rate, which in turn affect the expansion of leaf lesions. Collectively, our results provide novel insights into the fungal factor mediating maturation of apothecia with additional effects on hyphae and sclerotia development.

Can differences in publisher size account for the relatively low prices of the journals available to master’s universities through commercial publishers’ databases? The importance of price discrimination and substitution effects

Using price quotes and invoices for thousands of full-text databases and single-journal subscriptions, this study confirms that for a typical master’s university, the journals acquired through commercial publishers’ databases cost substantially less than those acquired through the databases of scholarly societies, universities, and other nonprofits. Moreover, the lower prices of commercial publishers’ journals cannot be readily attributed to publisher size (number of journals published) or to any of several other explanatory variables. There is a weak, direct association between publisher size and price among the for-profit journals but a stronger, inverse relationship between publisher size and price among the nonprofit journals. These findings, along with the results of previous research, suggest that resource providers may have incentives to keep prices low due to the collection development strategies adopted by many teaching-oriented colleges and universities. If the library’s goal is to hold a sufficient number of high-quality journals rather than to provide immediate access to every wanted journal, particular journals and databases may be regarded as substitutes even when each product provides unique content. Many U.S. bachelor’s and master’s institutions have goals different from those of the major research universities, and commercial publishers (along with some of the larger nonprofits) seem to recognize this when setting and negotiating prices.

Scanning electron microscopy of cuticular sensory structures on the legs of Micronecta haliploides (Horvath, 1904) and Hydrometra greeni (Kirkaldy, 1898) (Hemiptera: Heteroptera)

Structures on the legs of two hemipteran bugs, Micronecta haliploides (Horvath, 1904) and Hydrometra greeni (Kirkaldy, 1898), belonging to family Micronectidae and Hydrometridae of two infra orders Nepomorpha and Gerromorpha, respectively were investigated using scanning electron microscopy. Both species have a distinctive leg structure bearing specialised cuticular sensory structures. In the study, the sensilla were classified into five basic types: sensilla trichoidea, sensilla basiconidea, sensilla placoidea, porous circular sensilla and sensilla bell mouthed. These sensilla were further differentiated on the basis of shape, size, number, flexibility and type of socket attached. A total of 26 types of sensilla in the legs of these two species were observed. M. haliploides showed 18 types of sensory structures and H. greeni 8 types. A specific morphological structure of the porous circular sensilla was observed and found to be unique.

Females restrict the position of domatia and suffer more herbivory than hermaphrodites in Myriocarpa longipes, a neotropical facultative myrmecophyte

Domatia are hollow structures in plants occupied by ant colonies, in turn ants provide protection against herbivores. In plants, competition for resources has driven sex-related changes in the patterns of resource allocation to life-history traits and defence traits. The resource-competition hypothesis (RCH) proposes that female plants due to their higher investment in reproduction will allocate fewer resources to defence production, showing greater herbivore damage than other sexual forms. We hypothesise the existence of sex-related differences in defensive traits of domatia-bearing plants, being female plants less defended due to differences in domatia traits, such as size, number of domatia and their position, exhibiting more herbivore damage than hermaphrodite plants of Myriocarpa longipes, a facultative neotropical myrmecophyte. We found eight species of ants inhabiting domatia; some species co-inhabited the same plant, even the same branch. Our results are consistent with the predictions of RCH, as female plants had ant-inhabited domatia restricted to the middle position of their branches and exhibited greater herbivore damage in leaves than hermaphrodites. However, we did not find differences in domatia size and leaf area between sexual forms. Our study provides evidence for intersexual differences in domatia position and herbivory in a facultative ant–plant mutualism in M. longipes. We highlight the importance of considering the plant sex in ant–plant interactions. Differences in resource allocation related to sexual reproduction could influence the outcome of ant–plant interactions.

​Advances in Breeding of Jackfruit Crop: A Review

The improvement of jackfruit is required to make it amenable for intensive cultivation and make it suitable for a variety of value-added products. There is a significant variation for various traits such as plant phenology, leaf shape, leaf size, fruit shape, fruit size, number of fruits per plant, flake colour, number of flakes per fruit etc. The jackfruit crop has long juvenility, high clonal heterozygosity, recalcitrant type of seeds make it difficult to improvement of jackfruit varieties or hybrids, but on the other hand ease of vegetative propagation of hybrids or varieties is advantageous for the jackfruit breeder. The development of jackfruit is again based on the selection of clones especially for small-sized quality fruits, dwarf, less gum type, disease and pest resistance etc. The detailed knowledge on phenology, inheritance pattern and advanced techniques for hybrid/variety development will be useful to overcome the problems of jackfruit breeding viz fruit size, gummier fruits, susceptibility to disease and pests etc. The development of genetic markers has further reduced the uncertainty in the breeding of jackfruit and maintains the hybrid/varietal populations with desirable characteristics.

Diurnal differences in tropical maritime anvil cloud evolution

Satellite observations of tropical maritime convection indicate an afternoon maximum in anvil cloud fraction that cannot be explained by the diurnal cycle of deep convection peaking at night. We use idealized cloud-resolving model simulations of single anvil cloud evolution pathways, initialized at different times of the day, to show that tropical anvil clouds formed during the day are more widespread and longer lasting than those formed at night. This diurnal difference is caused by shortwave radiative heating, which lofts and spreads anvil clouds via a mesoscale circulation that is largely absent at night, when a different, longwave-driven circulation dominates. The nighttime circulation entrains dry environmental air that erodes cloud top and shortens anvil lifetime. Increased ice nucleation in more turbulent nighttime conditions supported by the longwave cloud top cooling and cloud base heating dipole cannot overcompensate for the effect of diurnal shortwave radiative heating. Radiative-convective equilibrium simulations with a realistic diurnal cycle of insolation confirm the crucial role of shortwave heating in lofting and sustaining anvil clouds. The shortwave-driven mesoscale ascent leads to daytime anvils with larger ice crystal size, number concentration, and water content at cloud top than their nighttime counterparts.

Protein length distribution is remarkably consistent across Life

In every living species, the function of a protein depends on its organisation of structural domains, and the length of a protein is a direct reflection of this. Because every species evolved under different evolutionary pressures, the protein length distribution, much like other genomic features, is expected to vary across species. Here we evaluated this diversity by comparing protein length distribution across 2,326 species (1,688 bacteria, 153 archaea and 485 eukaryotes). We found that proteins tend to be on average slightly longer in eukaryotes than in bacteria or archaea, but that the variation of length distribution across species is low, especially compared to the variation of other genomic features (genome size, number of proteins, gene length, GC content, isoelectric points of proteins). Moreover, most cases of atypical protein length distribution appear to be due to artifactual gene annotation, suggesting the actual variation of protein length distribution across species is even smaller. These results open the way for developing a genome annotation quality metric based on protein length distribution to complement conventional quality measures. Overall, our findings show that protein length distribution between living species is more consistent than previously thought, and provide evidence for a universal purifying selection on protein length, whose mechanism and fitness effect remain intriguing open questions.

Effects of Air Holes in the Cladding of Photonic Crystal Fibers on Dispersion and Confinement Loss of Orbital Angular Momentum Modes

In the development of orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode division multiplexing (MDM), the capacity of optical fiber communication must be improved. However, owing to dispersion and confinement loss, many OAM modes do not propagate stably over a long distance in optical fibers. In this work, the effects of the size, number, shape, number of layers, and layer spacing of air holes in the cladding of the fiber on the dispersion and confinement loss are analyzed based on a simple structure. The trends are studied and summarized to facilitate the design of optical fibers to achieve stable transmission of OAM modes over a long distance.

Effect of Spinning Triangle and Production Speed of Hollow-Spindle System on the Bouclé Yarn Structure

This study aims to show the impact of both the width of the base of the spinning triangle and the production speeds of hollow-spindle spinning machines on the structure of ultimate multiple-thread-structure bouclé yarns and similar fancy yarns. A hollow-spindle spinning machine was used and bouclé yarns were made of a core thread, an effect thread and a (multifilament) binder. Initially, five bouclé yarns were made by setting the widths of the base of the spinning triangle at five levels, i.e. 4.5 mm, 7.5 mm, 10 mm, 13 mm and 16 mm. A further six bouclé yarns were made to show the changes that occur to the spinning triangle at various production speeds. The resulting fancy bouclé yarns were assessed by measuring the size, number and circularity ratio of bouclé profiles. It was found that at low production speeds, i.e. at start-up, that the spinning triangle was unstable, which adversely affected the structure of the final bouclé yarns. However, at production speeds higher than 17 m/min, the spinning triangle became stable, though such a stable spinning triangle had no impact on the structure of the resulting fancy bouclé yarns. The results of this study may help fancy yarn manufacturers to avoid making defective fancy yarns.

Quantification of multi-oocyte follicles in ovaries of bitches

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to quantify the number and frequency of monocyte (MnOF) and multi-oocyte (MtOF) follicles in ovaries of bitches subjected to ovary salpingohysterectomy (OSH). Right and left ovaries of 38 bitches were collected after OSH, prepared, and a histological analysis was carried out. The ovaries were subjected to surface and deep histological cuts; the follicles were classified, and the number of follicles and cumulus oophorus complexes (COC) per follicle were quantified for each histological cut. MnOF and MtOF were found in all ovaries, at different developmental stages; primary follicles were grouped in the ovarian cortex, and follicles at other follicular stages presented a random distribution. MtOF containing two, three, four, or more COC were found in the ovaries of bitches, with a decreasing frequency trend, according to the number of COC in the MtOF. The effect of the age, number of estrus, estrus interval, and number of progenies per delivery was not significant for the number and frequency of MtOF in the ovaries of the bitches, whereas the size, number of pregnancies, use and number of contraceptive applications had some effect on the number and frequency of MtOF in the ovaries of the bitches.