Search for methylation-sensitive amplification polymorphisms in mutant figs

Fig (Ficus carica) breeding programs that use conventional approaches to develop new cultivars are rare, owing to limited genetic variability and the difficulty in obtaining plants via gamete fusion. Cytosine methylation in plants leads to gene repression, thereby affecting transcription without changing the DNA sequence. Previous studies using random amplification of polymorphic DNA and amplified fragment length polymorphism markers revealed no polymorphisms among select fig mutants that originated from gamma-irradiated buds. Therefore, we conducted methylation-sensitive amplified polymorphism analysis to verify the existence of variability due to epigenetic DNA methylation among these mutant selections compared to the main cultivar 'Roxo-de-Valinhos'. Samples of genomic DNA were double-digested with either HpaII (methylation sensitive) or MspI (methylation insensitive) and with EcoRI. Fourteen primer combinations were tested, and on an average, non-methylated CCGG, symmetrically methylated CmCGG, and hemimethylated hmCCGG sites accounted for 87.9, 10.1, and 2.0%, respectively. MSAP analysis was effective in detecting differentially methylated sites in the genomic DNA of fig mutants, and methylation may be responsible for the phenotypic variation between treatments. Further analyses such as polymorphic DNA sequencing are necessary to validate these differences, standardize the regions of methylation, and analyze reads using bioinformatic tools. © FUNPEC-RP.

Are the preference and selection patterns of hermit crabs for gastropod shells species- or site-specific?

Experimental analyses of hermit crabs and their preferences for shells are essential to understand the intrinsic relationship of the crabs' dependence on shells, and may be useful to explain their shell use pattern in nature. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of crab species and site on the pattern of shell use, selection, and preference in the south-western Atlantic hermit crabs Pagurus brevidactylus and Pagurus criniticornis, comparing sympatric and allopatric populations. Differently from the traditional approach to evaluate shell preference by simply determining the shell selection pattern (i.e., the number of shells of each type selected), preference was defined (according to [Liszka, D., Underwood, AJ., 1990. An experimental design to determine preferences for gastropod shells by a hermit-crab. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol., 137(1), 47-62]) by the comparison of the number of crabs changing for a particular shell type when three options were given (Cerithium atratum, Morula nodulosa, and Tegula viridula) with the number of crabs changing for this same type when only this type was offered. The effect of crab species was tested at Cabelo Gordo Beach, where P. brevidacrylus was found occupying shells of C. atratum, M. nodulosa, and T viridula in similar frequencies, whereas P. criniticornis occupied predominantly shells of C atratum. In laboratory experiments the selection patterns of the two hermit-crab species for these three gastropods were different, with P criniticornis selecting mainly shells of C atratum, and R brevidactylus selecting more shells of M. nodulosa. The shell preference was also dependent on crab species, with P. criniticornis showing a clear preference for shells of C atratum, whereas P. brevidactylus did not show a preference for any of the tested shells. The effect of site was tested for the two species comparing data from Cabelo Gordo to Preta (P brevidactylus) and Araca beaches (P. criniticornis). The pattern of shell use, selection, and preference was demonstrated to be dependent on site only for P. brevidactylus. The results also showed that the shell use pattern of P criniticornis can be explained by its preference at both sites, whereas for P. brevidactylus it occurred only at Cabelo Gordo, where the absence of preference was correlated with the similar use of the three gastropod species studied. Finally, the results showed that the shell selection pattern cannot be considered as a measure of shell preference, since it overestimates crab selectivity. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Exfoliative cytology of the oral mucosa in type II diabetic patients: morphology and cytomorphometry

Background: In recent years, important advances have occurred in the determination of diagnostic criteria for the disease diabetes mellitus and in new strategies for its treatment. The purpose of this research was to develop a new method for diabetes diagnosis by microscopic and cytomorphometric analyses of the oral epithelium. Methods: the smears were obtained from three distinct oral sites: buccal mucosa (cheek), tongue dorsum, and floor of the mouth in 10 control individuals and 10 type II diabetic patients. The oral smears were stained with Papanicolaou EA-36 solution. The nuclear (NA) and cytoplasmic (CA) areas were evaluated from 50 integral cells predominant in each oral site by the use of the KS 300(TM) image analysis system (Carl Zeiss, Germany), by which the cytoplasmic/nuclear ratio (C/N) was calculated. Results: the results showed that: (i) the epithelial cells of the diabetic group exhibited figures of binucleation and occasional karyorrhexis in all layers; (ii) the NA was markedly higher (P<0.05) in the diabetic group; (iii) the CA did not exhibit a statistically significant difference (P>0.05) between these two groups; and (iv) the C/N mean was 37.4% lower in the type II diabetic group. Conclusions: These results associated with clinical observations suggest that diabetes mellitus can produce alterations in oral epithelial cells, detectable by microscopy and cytomorphometry, which can be used in the diagnosis of this disease.

Development of site-specific sediment quality guidelines for North and South Atlantic littoral zones: Comparison against national and international sediment quality benchmarks

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Crossover between macroscopic and mesoscopic regimes of vortex interactions in type-II superconductors

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Absence of transforming growth factor-beta type II receptor is associated with poorer prognosis in HER2-negative breast tumours

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Protective effects of carvedilol on systemic vascular damage induced by angiotensin II: Organ-specific effects independent of antihypertensive effects

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Genotypic characterization of Toxoplasma gondii in sheep from Brazilian slaughterhouses: New atypical genotypes and the clonal type II strain identified

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Neutrino masses through a type II seesaw mechanism at TeV scale

In this work we show that we can generate neutrino masses through the type II seesaw mechanism working at TeV scale in the context of a 331 model. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier B.V. B.V.

Consistency of superspace low energy equations of motion of 4D Type II superstring with Type II sigma model at tree-level

We derive the torsion constraints and show the consistency of equations of motion of four-dimensional Type II supergravity in superspace. with Type II sigma model. This is achieved by coupling the four-dimensional compactified Type II Berkovits' superstring to an N = 2 curved background and requiring that the sigma-model has superconformal invariance at tree-level. We compute this in a manifestly 4D N = 2 supersymmetric way. The constraints break the target conformal and SU(2) invariances and the dilaton will be a conformal, SU(2) x U(1) compensator. For Type II superstring in four dimensions, worldsheet supersymmetry requires two different compensators. One type is described by chiral and anti-chiral superfields. This compensator can be identified with a vector multiplet. The other Type II compensator is described by twist-chiral and twist-anti-chiral superfields and can be identified with a tensor hypermultiplet. Also, the superconformal invariance at tree-level selects a particular gauge, where the matter is fixed, but not the compensators. After imposing the reality conditions, we show that the Type II sigma model at tree-level is consistent with the equations of motion for Type II supergravity in the string gauge. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Type-II Backlund transformations via gauge transformations

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Inverse scattering approach for massive Thirring models with integrable type-II defects

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Surface effects on vortex dynamics in thin type-II superconducting stripes with random pinning

We analyze the dynamics of a driven vortex lattice moving in a thin Superconducting stripe. The two dimensional stripe is assumed to be finite in the longitudinal direction, where we take into account the Surface effects, and infinite in the transversal direction. The numerical simulations are performed using the Langevin dynamics, including the vortex-vortex interaction, interaction of vortices with the surface current, vortex images, transport current and randomly distributed pinning centers. We show results for the differential resistivity and the vortex trajectories as a function of the external force. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Site-specific concentrations of carotenoids in adipose tissue: relations with dietary and serum carotenoid concentrations in healthy adults

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Quantization of the type II superstring in a curved six-dimensional background

A sigma model action with N = 2 D = 6 superspace variables is constructed for the Type II superstring compactified to six curved dimensions with Ramond - Ramond flux. The action can be quantized since the sigma model is linear when the six-dimensional space-time is flat. When the six-dimensional space-time is AdS 3 × S 3, the action reduces to one found earlier with Vafa and Witten. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.