Leaf Morphological Plasticity of Tree Species from Two Developmental Stages in Araucaria Forest

This study compared the morphological and anatomical variations of the leaves of four shade-tolerant tree species Allophylus edulis (St.-Hil.) Radlk (Sapindaceae), Casearia sylvestris Sw. (Salicaceae), Cupania vernalis Cambess. (Sapindaceae) and Luehea divaricata Mart. (Malvaceae) from a fragment of Araucaria forest in two developmental stages. Morphological and anatomical traits, such as leaf and tissue thickness, leaf area, leaf dry mass, specific leaf area, leaf density and stomata density were measured from 30 leaves of each developmental stage. The phenotypic plasticity index was also calculated for each quantitative trait. The results showed that the four species presented higher mean values ​​for specific leaf area and spongy/palisade parenchyma ratio at young stage, and higher mean values ​​for stomata density, total and palisade parenchyma thickness in the adult stage. The plasticity index demonstrated that L. divricata presented highest plasticity for both the morphological and anatomical traits while A. edulis displayed the lowest plasticity index. The results of this study indicated that the leaves of these species exhibited distinct morphological traits at each stage of development to cope with acting environmental factors.

Molecular Evaluation of Developmental Competence of Oocytes Collected In Vivo from Buffalo and Bovine Heifers during Winter and Summer

Buffaloes and bovines are polyestrous and seasonal or annual livestock, respectively, that show reduced fertility during heat stress. To investigate whether reduced fertility is related to oocyte competence in both species, immature oocytes from buffalo and bovine heifers were collected during winter and summer and subjected to molecular analyses. In each season, heifers of both species had their follicular wave emergence synchronized with a standard protocol (Ferreira et al., 2011). Before being subjected to ovum pick up (OPU), cutaneous (CT; degrees C) and rectal (RT; degrees C) temperatures and respiratory rate (RR; breaths/min) were measured. Oocytes' RNA was extracted to evaluate the expression of target genes related to mtDNA replication/transcription (PPARGC1A, TFAM and MT-CO1), apoptosis (BAX and BCL2) and HS (HSP90AA1 and HSPA1AB). ACTB, HIST1H2AG and GAPDH were initially chosen as housekeeping genes. In buffaloes, CT (35.0 +/- 0.4 vs 23.8 +/- 0.5), RT (38.7 +/- 0.1 vs 38.0 +/- 0) and RR (21.3 +/- 1.2 vs 15.4 +/- 1.1) were higher during summer than winter. However, in bovine heifers, RT (38.7 +/- 0.1 vs 38.6 +/- 0.1) and RR (44.8 +/- 1.5 vs 40.6 +/- 1.5) were similar in both seasons, while CT (31.6 +/- 0.3 vs 30.2 +/- 0.3) was increased during summer. Reduced expression of ACTB, HIST1H2AG and GAPDH was evidenced during summer, disqualifying them as housekeeping genes. Similarly, the expression of all target genes was reduced during summer in oocytes of both species. In summary, physiological responses to heat stress seem to be more intense in buffalo than bovine heifers. However, in both species, negative effects of heat stress upon oocyte quality occur at the molecular level and affects genes related to several biological functions.

A genetic linkage study in Brazil identifies a new locus for persistent developmental stuttering on chromosome 10

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Emergence and stability of interlimb coordination patterns in children with developmental coordination disorder

The purpose of this study was to investigate the emergence and stability of coordination patterns in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) when performing a rhythmic interlimb coordination task on rigid (floor) and elastic (mini-trampoline) surfaces. Twelve typically developing (TD) children and 12 children with DCD were required to clap while jumping under different conditions: in a chosen pattern Free; when the feet touched the surface - Clapping-surface; when the body reached the maximum jumping height, Clapping-jump; and when the feet touched the surface and the body reached the maximum jumping height - Clapping-both. The results showed that the coordination pattern of children with DCD was more variable in the Free, Clapping-surface, and Clapping-jumping conditions and more variable on the mini-trampoline than on the floor under the Free condition when compared with the TD children. Clapping-jumping was more difficult to perform than Clapping-surface for both groups. These findings suggest that the children with DCD were less capable of rhythmically coordinating the jumping-clapping task because they used a type of exploratory strategy regarding the physical properties of the surfaces, whereas the TD children used a type of adaptive strategy displaying behavior that was more consistent across the tasks/environmental demands. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A study of the role of the FOXP2 and CNTNAP2 genes in persistent developmental stuttering

A number of speech disorders including stuttering have been shown to have important genetic contributions, as indicated by high heritability estimates from twin and other studies. We studied the potential contribution to stuttering from variants in the FOXP2 gene, which have previously been associated with developmental verbal dyspraxia, and from variants in the CNTNAP2 gene, which have been associated with specific language impairment (SLI). DNA sequence analysis of these two genes in a group of 602 unrelated cases, all with familial persistent developmental stuttering, revealed no excess of potentially deleterious coding sequence variants in the cases compared to a matched group of 487 well characterized neurologically normal controls. This was compared to the distribution of variants in the GNPTAB, GNPTG, and NAGPA genes which have previously been associated with persistent stuttering. Using an expanded subject data set, we again found that NAGPA showed significantly different mutation frequencies in North Americans of European descent (p = 0.0091) and a significant difference existed in the mutation frequency of GNPTAB in Brazilians (p = 0.00050). No significant differences in mutation frequency in the FOXP2 and CNTNAP2 genes were observed between cases and controls. To examine the pattern of expression of these five genes in the human brain, real time quantitative reverse transcription PCR was performed on RNA purified from 27 different human brain regions. The expression patterns of FOXP2 and CNTNAP2 were generally different from those of GNPTAB, GNPTG and NAPGA in terms of relatively lower expression in the cerebellum. This study provides an improved estimate of the contribution of mutations in GNPTAB, GNPTG and NAGPA to persistent stuttering, and suggests that variants in FOXP2 and CNTNAP2 are not involved in the genesis of familial persistent stuttering. This, together with the different brain expression patterns of GNPTAB, GNPTG, and NAGPA compared to that of FOXP2 and CNTNAP2, suggests that the genetic neuropathological origins of stuttering differ from those of verbal dyspraxia and SLI. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The phonological and visual basis of developmental dyslexia in Brazilian Portuguese reading children

Evidence from opaque languages suggests that visual attention processing abilities in addition to phonological skills may act as cognitive underpinnings of developmental dyslexia. We explored the role of these two cognitive abilities on reading fluency in Brazilian Portuguese, a more transparent orthography than French or English. Sixty-six children with developmental dyslexia and normal Brazilian Portuguese children participated. They were administered three tasks of phonological skills (phoneme identification, phoneme, and syllable blending) and three visual tasks (a letter global report task and two non-verbal tasks of visual closure and visual constancy). Results show that Brazilian Portuguese children with developmental dyslexia are impaired not only in phonological processing but further in visual processing. The phonological and visual processing abilities significantly and independently contribute to reading fluency in the whole population. Last, different cognitively homogeneous subtypes can be identified in the Brazilian Portuguese population of children with developmental dyslexia. Two subsets of children with developmental dyslexia were identified as having a single cognitive disorder, phonological or visual; another group exhibited a double deficit and a few children showed no visual or phonological disorder. Thus the current findings extend previous data from more opaque orthographies as French and English, in showing the importance of investigating visual processing skills in addition to phonological skills in children with developmental dyslexia whatever their language orthography transparency.

Developmental aspects of early pregnancy in mares

In mares, the embryo migrates to the uterus between days 5 and 6 postovulation beginning its mobility through all uterine segments, which is essential for the maternal recognition of pregnancy. During the mobility phase, the embryonic vesicle shows a linear growth rate until its fixation between days 15 and 17, when the orientation phenomenon occurs. From fixation to day 28 of pregnancy, the embryonic growth is less evident (plateau) by cross-section ultrasound examination. After this period the linear growth rate is reestablished until day 46. This plateau is attributed to the increased uterine tone that compresses the vesicle and to volume expansion, making it difficult to detect the conceptus growth only by the cross-section diameter. Around day 20, the embryo proper is visualized as an echogenic spot in the ventral aspect of the vesicle. Additionally, development of allantoic sac, embryonic heartbeat, yolk sac regression and posterior umbilical cord formation also can be visualized from days 20 to 40. An intimate interaction between uterus and conceptus is essential for the normal pregnancy development. Color-and spectral-Doppler ultrasonography can be useful for the evaluation of this interface. A gradual increase on uterine vascularity during the early pregnancy and transient changes in endometrial vascularity accompanying the vesicle location during the mobility phase have been described. Around day 38 of gestation, the formation of the endometrial cups begins and, consequently, the synthesis of the equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) induces the formation and development of supplementary corpora lutea, which are important to secrete progesterone and to maintain pregnancy until around day 120.

Gynoecial ontogeny of Anthurium: contributions for floral developmental studies in Araceae (Alismatales)

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

Color masking of developmental enamel defects: a case series

Developmental defects involving color alteration of enamel frequently compromise the esthetic appearance of the tooth. The resin infiltration technique represents an alternative treatment for color masking of these lesions and uniformization of tooth color. This technique is considered relatively simple and microinvasive, since only a minimal portion of enamel is removed. This article illustrates the color-masking effect with resin infiltration of fluorosis and traumatic hypomineralization lesions with a case series. The final esthetic outcomes demonstrated the ability of the resin infiltrant to mask the color of white developmental defect lesions, resulting in satisfactory clinical esthetic improvements. However, in more severe cases, the color-masking effect was not complete.

Developmental Morphology of a Dimorphic Grass Inflorescence: The Brazilian Bamboo Eremitis (Poaceae)

Premise of research.The highly specialized grass inflorescence varies with respect to phyllotaxis, with the reproductive meristem forming primary lateral branches that are either spirally arranged or distichous. The Brazilian bamboo Eremitis is highly unusual in that it has a dimorphic inflorescence, typically composed of an apical gynecandrous whorl of both male and female spikelets and basal whorls of male spikelets. Although not closely related to them, Eremitis shares some structural similarities with some early-divergent grasses.Methodology.We use SEM and LM to describe the development of the reproductive structures of Eremitis to clarify our understanding of the highly specialized grass inflorescence and flower.Pivotal results.Developmental studies show that the inflorescence of Eremitis is actually partially whorled and partially distichous. The apical whorl is abortive. The female spikelet is not terminal on the axis, in contrast with the majority of grasses. All the male spikelets are distichously attached to the inflorescence axis and separated into groups. There is a hollow style with two vascular bundles.Conclusions.The strong morphological similarities between Eremitis and some early-divergent grasses are here supplemented by several anatomical similarities, perhaps due to a shared pollination syndrome.