IDENTIFICATION OF CDNA FRAGMENT TIGHTLY LINKED TO NV AND TM-2 LOCI IN TOMATO

Tm-2 is a resistance gene in tomato to Tomato Mosaic Virus (ToMV), located in heterochromatic region of chromosome nine. Since map based cloning difficult to perform for identify the gene on that region, we apply differential display approach by using two near-isogenic tomato lines (NILs), one without Tm-2 and the other with Tm-2 to identify cDNAs of the transcripts from the region surrounding the Tm-2 locus. Among the 150 combinations of three anchor primers and fifty arbitrary primers, 10 combinations generated cDNA polymorphic bands. Out of them, only one combination of CA6, exhibited polymorphic band under southern blot analysis, subsequently a genetic experiment showed that the CA6 locus tightly linked to the Tm-2 locus. The CA6 fragment also hybridized to genomic DNA fragments from a tomato line carrying Tm-2a, a line of L. peruvianum from which Tm-2a originated, and a tomato line carrying another Tm-2-like gene. A northern hybridization blotting result suggested that the gene corresponding to CA6 fragment was constitutively transcribed.

Eugenia e suas implicações: Peter Singer em defesa do princípio de igualdade. Considerações a partir da análise do filme Gattaca

A partir da temática abordada no filme Gattaca - a experiência genética, que trata de uma sociedade adepta da eugenia; mostraremos quais são as implicações morais que essa prática pode ocasionar em uma sociedade, bem como as diversas discriminações. Em contra-argumento a essa prática, abordaremos a teoria de Peter Singer em prol do princípio da igual consideração de interesses, demonstrando que dessa maneira teríamos sociedades menos discriminatórias. Enfim, queremos mostrar que caso não nos alertemos para as questões abordadas por Singer, nós, agentes morais, faremos emergir uma sociedade preconceituosa, tal como vemos no filme Gattaca.Abstract: From selected themes in the movie Gattaca - A genetic experiment that describes a eugenics society, we will show what are the moral implications of the eugenic practice to the society as well as its several kinds of discrimination. We will argue against such practice by appropriating Peter Singer’s theory on behalf of the principle of equal consideration of interests by showing that societies based on it would be less discriminatory. Finally, we show that if we do not consider the issues raised by Singer we, moral agents, will make emerge a prejudiced society similar to that narrated by the movie Gattaca. Key words: Moral, Equality, Eugenie, discrimination.

CotE Binds to CotC and CotU and Mediates Their Interaction during Spore Coat Formation in Bacillus subtilis

ABSTRACT CotE is a morphogenic protein that controls the assembly of the coat, the proteinaceous structure that surrounds and protects the spore of Bacillus subtilis. CotE has long been thought to interact with several outer coat components, but such interactions were hypothesized from genetic experiment results and have never been directly demonstrated. To study the interaction of CotE with other coat components, we focused our attention on CotC and CotU, two outer coat proteins known to be under CotE control and to form a heterodimer. We report here the results of pull-down experiments that provide the first direct evidence that CotE contacts other coat components. In addition, coexpression experiments demonstrate that CotE is needed and sufficient to allow formation of the CotC-CotU heterodimer in a heterologous host.

VIII - Genetical and taxonomic investigations in the Genus Oenothera

The present study is the result of combining genetics with taxonomy in the investigation of a polymorphic group of wild plants. It shows a degree of multiformity which was hitherto unsuspected in the genus. All the early genetical work on Oenothera was done with species which had been naturalized in Europe and whose North American home was unknown. Later, de vries (1913) introduced various American forms into cultivation and used them in genetic experiment, but without full taxonomic descriptions. Bartlett was mainly concerned in describing about twenty-five new species from wild plants of eastern North America brought into cultivation, and the present writer has previously described five, all but one of them from Eastern Canada. Professional taxonomists have paid little attention to the Onagra section of the genus except for the occasional description of a new species from western North America, and the whole number of species now recognized and described is about 70, not counting the 17 new species and 15 new varieties described in the present paper. The reason for the neglect of the taxonomists, even after the mutation work concentrated a great deal of attention on the genus, was no doubt the difficulty that many of the characters are not well shown in ordinary herbarium material. Indeed, cultures are necessary in order to study adequately the characters of these forms ; but, on the other hand, species once clearly delimited in this way can be recognized in the field, at least when well-developed plants are available, and frequently from the rosette stage alone.