Parallel plumage colour evolution and introgressive hybridization in wheatears

Genetic and phenotypic mosaics, in which various phenotypes and different genomic regions show discordant patterns of species or population divergence, offer unique opportunities to study the role of ancestral and introgressed genetic variation in phenotypic evolution. Here, we investigated the evolution of discordant phenotypic and genetic divergence in a monophyletic clade of four songbird taxa—pied wheatear (O. pleschanka), Cyprus wheatear (Oenanthe cypriaca), and western and eastern subspecies of black‐eared wheatear (O. h. hispanica and O. h. melanoleuca). Phenotypically, black back and neck sides distinguish pied and Cyprus wheatears from the white‐backed/necked black‐eared wheatears. Meanwhile, mitochondrial variation only distinguishes western black‐eared wheatear. In the absence of nuclear genetic data, and given frequent hybridization among eastern black‐eared and pied wheatear, it remains unclear whether introgression is responsible for discordance between mitochondrial divergence patterns and phenotypic similarities, or whether plumage coloration evolved in parallel. Multispecies coalescent analyses of about 20,000 SNPs obtained from RAD data mapped to a draft genome assembly resolve the species tree, provide evidence for the parallel evolution of colour phenotypes and establish western and eastern black‐eared wheatears as independent taxa that should be recognized as full species. The presence of the entire admixture spectrum in the Iranian hybrid zone and the detection of footprints of introgression from pied into eastern black‐eared wheatear beyond the hybrid zone despite strong geographic structure of ancestry proportions furthermore suggest a potential role for introgression in parallel plumage colour evolution. Our results support the importance of standing heterospecific and/or ancestral variation in phenotypic evolution.     

Phylogenetic relationships of Puccinia horiana and other rust pathogens of Chrysanthemum × morifolium based on rDNA ITS sequence analysis

Isolates of the most important Puccinia species that have been reported on Chrysanthemum × morifolium were collected and the sequences of their ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacers ITS1 and ITS2 were determined and used as phylogenetic markers. The focus of this study was on Puccinia horiana, due to its quarantine status and its impact in commercial chrysanthemum production. Three technical adjustments were needed to reliably obtain the nucleotide sequences starting from fresh or dried samples. The complete rDNA ITS nucleotide sequences of P. horiana, Puccinia chrysanthemi, and Puccinia tanaceti isolates of varying age and geographic origin were determined. We also identified an as yet undescribed Puccinia species on six old herbarium samples from chrysanthemum. This new species is morphologically similar to P. chrysanthemi and near identical to recent rust samples from Artemisia tridentata. P. tanaceti could not be confirmed as a pathogen of chrysanthemum. Different rDNA ITS sequences were present in P. horiana, with intra-isolate and inter-isolate variability in the length of three nucleotide repeat regions in the different rDNA tandem copies. We also identified three ITS types within P. horiana, with the rarer types displaying up to 67 bp nucleotide sequence differences. These rarer ITS types were detected at low copy number in all isolates. In general, very little rDNA ITS sequence variation was observed between P. horiana isolates from 1903 and 2003, and among isolates from different continents. Phylogenetic analyses using distance, Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian methods confirmed P. horiana, P. chrysanthemi, and the new Puccinia sp. as well-resolved groups, with P. horiana clustering in the clade where the economically important rust species of the Poaceae are located, and P. chrysanthemi and the new Puccinia sp. clustering in the clade where the majority of the rust fungi with hosts in the Asteraceae is located.     

Radiation treatment decreases bone cancer pain, osteolysis and tumor size

Radiotherapy is the cornerstone of palliative treatment for primary bone cancer in animals and metastatic bone cancer in humans. However, the mechanism(s) responsible for pain relief after irradiation is unknown. To identify the mechanism through which radiation treatment decreases bone cancer pain, the effect of radiation on mice with painful bone cancer was studied. Analysis of the effects of a 20-Gy treatment on localized sites of painful bone cancers was performed through assessments of animal behavior, radiographs and histological analysis. The findings indicated that radiation treatment reduced bone pain and supported reduced cancer burden and reduced osteolysis as mechanisms through which radiation reduces bone cancer pain.     

Subwavelength Micro-Antenna for Achieving Slow Light at Microwave Wavelengths via Electromagnetically Induced Transparency in 2D Metamaterials

In this paper, a tunable slow light 2D metamaterial is presented and investigated. The metamaterial unit cell is composed of three metallic strips as radiative and non-radiative modes. Once introducing asymmetry, a transparency window induced by coupling between the dark and bright modes is observed. The transmission characteristics and the slow light properties of the metamaterial are verified by numerical simulation, which is in a good agreement with theoretical predictions. The impact of asymmetric parameter on transparency window is also investigated. Simulation results show the spectral properties and the group index of the proposed 2D metamaterial can be tunned by adjusting asymmetric structure parameter, temperature and also the metal used in the metamaterial. Furthermore, the electromagnetic field distributions, excited surface currents, induced electric dipole and quadruples, and slow light properties of the metamaterial are investigated in details as well as transmission spectral responses. The outstanding result is that, the 2D-metamaterial is in a high decrease of the group velocity and therefore slow light applications, because in the best state, the group velocity in our structure decreases by a factor of 221 at T=100 K using copper as metal in optimization asymmetric case.     

Dynamic economic thresholds for the management of vegetable leafminer on glasshouse cucumber estimated by simulated defoliation

Defoliation by the vegetable leafminer, Liriomyza sativae Blanchard (Diptera: Agromyzidae), was simulated by removing known amounts of leaf area with a hole punch in a glasshouse experiment that evaluated 21 combinations of defoliation intensity, timing and duration on cucumber yields. Defoliation was quantified in cm²-days (leaf area removed x no. days), and linear regression was used to correlate yield losses to simulated damage. The probability of erroneous decisions associated with different intensities of sequential sampling was explored. Spatial heterogeneity in leafminer infestation and the cumulative impact of defoliation over time were both considered, and the economic costs associated with wrong decisions were also assessed. Significant yield loss was observed beyond 10,000 cm²-days of defoliation, whereas lower defoliation levels were tolerated by plants. The economic injury level (EIL) rose at an increasing rate as the onset of defoliation moved later in the season. An algorithm was used to estimate monthly EILs that farmers can use to guide leafminer management decisions in cucumber and minimize their economic risk.     

Thermal inactivation and conformational lock of bovine carbonic anhydrase

The kinetics of thermal inactivation of bovine carbonic anhydrase (BCA) was studied in a 50 mM Tris-HCl buffer, pH 7.8 using p-nitrophenyl acetate as substrate in absorbance of 400 nm by UV-VIS spectrophotometry. The number of conformational locks and inter-subunit amino acid residues of BCA were obtained by thermal inactivation analysis. The cleavage bonds between dimers of BCA during thermal dissociation and type of interactions between specific amino acid residues were also detected. The thermal inactivation curves were plotted in temperatures ranging between 40-70°C. It was shown several phases for inactivation of BCA at 65°C. Analyses of the curves were done by the conformational lock theory. The subunits are dissociated and several intermediates appear during inactivation through increasing the temperature in comparison with native state. Dynamic light scattering measurements was done to study the changes in hydrodynamic radius during thermal inactivation. Three distinct zones were shown in DLS data. Biochemical computation using ligplot is performed to find the inter-subunit amino acid residues for BCA.     

Effects of angiotensin II and captopril on rewarding properties of morphine

The effects of captopril and Ang II on morphine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) and morphine self-administration in male Wistar rat were investigated. In CPP experiment, injection of captopril before test significantly decreased the difference of the time spent in compartment A between pre- and post-conditioning compared to morphine group. In self- administration experiment number of active lever pressing was significantly greater than passive in morphine group. In captopril group number of active lever pressing was significantly lower than morphine group however, there was not significant difference between active and passive lever pressed number. The results showed that captopril significantly decreased morphine-induced conditional place preference and morphine self-administration but the effect of Ang II was not significant. It can be concluded that RAS may have a role in rewarding properties of morphine.