MicroRNAs transcriptionally regulate promoter activity in Arabidopsis thaliana

Micro RNAs(mi RNAs) are vital regulators that repress gene expression in the cytoplasm in two main ways: m RNA degradation and translational inhibition. Several animal studies have shown that mi RNAs also target promoters, thereby activating expression.Whether this mi RNA action also occurs in plants is unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that several mi RNAs regulate target promoters in Arabidopsis thaliana. For example, mi R5658 was predominantly present in the nucleus and activated the expression of AT3 G25290 directly by binding to its promoter. Our observations suggest that this mode of action may be a general feature of plant mi RNAs, and thus provide insight into the vital roles of plant mi RNAs in the nucleus.     

Psychometric properties of Youth Self-Rating Insomnia Scale (YSIS) in Chinese adolescents

Sleep and Biological Rhythms - Insomnia is prevalent in adolescents. Although several insomnia scales/questionnaires are available to assess insomnia symptoms and severity for adults, no insomnia...     

Mechanics of Undulatory Swimming in a Frictional Fluid

The sandfish lizard (Scincus scincus) swims within granular media (sand) using axial body undulations to propel itself without the use of limbs. In previous work we predicted average swimming speed by developing a numerical simulation that incorporated experimentally measured biological kinematics into a multibody sandfish model. The model was coupled to an experimentally validated soft sphere discrete element method simulation of the granular medium. In this paper, we use the simulation to study the detailed mechanics of undulatory swimming in a “granular frictional fluid” and compare the predictions to our previously developed resistive force theory (RFT) which models sand-swimming using empirically determined granular drag laws. The simulation reveals that the forward speed of the center of mass (CoM) oscillates about its average speed in antiphase with head drag. The coupling between overall body motion and body deformation results in a non-trivial pattern in the magnitude of lateral displacement of the segments along the body. The actuator torque and segment power are maximal near the center of the body and decrease to zero toward the head and the tail. Approximately 30% of the net swimming power is dissipated in head drag. The power consumption is proportional to the frequency in the biologically relevant range, which confirms that frictional forces dominate during sand-swimming by the sandfish. Comparison of the segmental forces measured in simulation with the force on a laterally oscillating rod reveals that a granular hysteresis effect causes the overestimation of the body thrust forces in the RFT. Our models provide detailed testable predictions for biological locomotion in a granular environment.     

Identification and Fine Mapping of a Major QTL,TT1-2, That Plays Significant Roles in Regulating Heat Tolerance in Rice

Plant Molecular Biology Reporter - Global warming threatens many aspects of human life, including a reduction in crop yields, and breeding heat-tolerant crops is a fundamental way to help address...     

Cranial Suture Regeneration Mitigates Skull and Neurocognitive Defects in Craniosynostosis

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