A selective activity-dependent requirement for dynamin 1 in synaptic vesicle endocytosis

Dynamin 1 is a neuron-specific guanosine triphosphatase thought to be critically required for the fission reaction of synaptic vesicle endocytosis. Unexpectedly, mice lacking dynamin 1 were able to form functional synapses, even though their postnatal viability was limited. However, during spontaneous network activity, branched, tubular plasma membrane invaginations accumulated, capped by clathrin-coated pits, in synapses of dynamin 1-knockout mice. Synaptic vesicle endocytosis was severely impaired during strong exogenous stimulation but resumed efficiently when the stimulus was terminated. Thus, dynamin 1-independent mechanisms can support limited synaptic vesicle endocytosis, but dynamin 1 is needed during high levels of neuronal activity.     

The roles of subsurface carbon and hydrogen in palladium-catalyzed alkyne hydrogenation

Alkynes can be selectively hydrogenated into alkenes on solid palladium catalysts. This process requires a strong modification of the near-surface region of palladium, in which carbon (from fragmented feed molecules) occupies interstitial lattice sites. In situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopic measurements under reaction conditions indicated that much less carbon was dissolved in palladium during unselective, total hydrogenation. Additional studies of hydrogen content using in situ prompt gamma activation analysis, which allowed us to follow the hydrogen content of palladium during catalysis, indicated that unselective hydrogenation proceeds on hydrogen-saturated beta-hydride, whereas selective hydrogenation was only possible after decoupling bulk properties from the surface events. Thus, the population of subsurface sites of palladium, by either hydrogen or carbon, governs the hydrogenation events on the surface.     

An association between the kinship and fertility of human couples

Previous studies have reported that related human couples tend to produce more children than unrelated couples but have been unable to determine whether this difference is biological or stems from socioeconomic variables. Our results, drawn from all known couples of the Icelandic population born between 1800 and 1965, show a significant positive association between kinship and fertility, with the greatest reproductive success observed for couples related at the level of third and fourth cousins. Owing to the relative socioeconomic homogeneity of Icelanders, and the observation of highly significant differences in the fertility of couples separated by very fine intervals of kinship, we conclude that this association is likely to have a biological basis.     

Drought Tolerance and Water‐Use Efficiency of Biogas Crops: A Comparison of Cup Plant,Maize and Lucerne‐Grass

The cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum L.) is discussed as an alternative energy crop for biogas production in Germany due to its ecological benefits over continuously grown maize. Moreover, a certain drought tolerance is assumed because of its intensive root growth and the dew water collection by the leaf cups, formed by fused leaf pairs. Therefore, the aim of this study was to estimate evapotranspiration (ET ), water‐use efficiency (WUE ) and the relevance of the leaf cups for the cup plant's water balance in a 2‐year field experiment. Parallel investigations were conducted for the two reference crops maize (high WUE ) and lucerne‐grass (deep and intensive rooting) under rainfed and irrigated conditions. Root system performance was assessed by measuring water depletion at various soil depths. Transpiration‐use efficiency (TUE ) was estimated using a model approach. Averaged over the 2 years, drought‐related above‐ground dry matter reduction was higher for the cup plant (33 %) than for the maize (18 %) and lucerne‐grass (14 %). The WUE of the cup plant (33 kg ha^?1 mm^?1) was significantly lower than for maize (50 kg ha^?1 mm^?1). The cup plant had a lower water uptake capacity than lucerne‐grass. Cup plant dry matter yields as high as those of maize will only be attainable at sites that are well supplied with water, be it through a large soil water reserve, groundwater connection, high rainfall or supplemental irrigation.     

Exploiting the diversity of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Viviparous-1</Emphasis> gene associated with pre-harvest sprouting tolerance in European wheat varieties

Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) reduces the quality of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and the economic value of the grain. The objective of this study was to evaluate the diversity of the Viviparous-1B (Vp-1B) gene associated with PHS tolerance in a collection of 490 widely grown winter wheat varieties from central and northern Europe. Four alleles of Vp-1B were found in the wheat varieties tested, three of which (Vp-1Ba, Vp-1Bb and Vp-1Bc) had previously been identified in Chinese wheat varieties. The fourth was a new allele which had a 25-bp of deletion in the third intron region compared with the nucleotide sequence of Vp-1Ba, and was designated as Vp-1Bd. The frequencies of different alleles in this set of European wheat germplasm were: Vp-1Ba (54%) > Vp-1Bc (21%) > Vp-1Bd (20%) > Vp-1Ba + c (4%) > Vp-1Bb (1%), with Vp-1Bb being present only in two French varieties, ‘Altria’ and ‘Recital’. In addition, the frequencies of the alleles differed in varieties from different European countries. For example, Vp-1Ba had the highest frequency (76%) in varieties included in the UK National List (NL), but was least frequent in the Recommended List (RL) of Sweden (19%). Similarly, Vp-1Bc was present with the highest frequency (58%) in wheat varieties from Sweden, and the lowest in UK NL varieties (8%) while Vp-1Bd had the highest frequency of 32% in German varieties, and the lowest in Sweden varieties with only 8%. The Vp-1Ba allele was present in over half of the UK wheat varieties tested but the frequency was lower in RL varieties than in NL ones. Furthermore, heterogeneities were found between Vp-1Ba and Vp-1Bc in the varieties from Sweden, Netherlands, Germany and UK.     

Self-oriented regular arrays of carbon nanotubes and their field emission properties

The synthesis of massive arrays of monodispersed carbon nanotubes that are self-oriented on patterned porous silicon and plain silicon substrates is reported. The approach involves chemical vapor deposition, catalytic particle size control by substrate design, nanotube positioning by patterning, and nanotube self-assembly for orientation. The mechanisms of nanotube growth and self-orientation are elucidated. The well-ordered nanotubes can be used as electron field emission arrays. Scaling up of the synthesis process should be entirely compatible with the existing semiconductor processes, and should allow the development of nanotube devices integrated into silicon technology.     

Modification of plant lipid synthesis

Genetic engineering of new storage oils and fats has produced oil crop plants with fatty acid compositions unattainable by plant breeding alone. The combination of classical breeding methods with molecular techniques provides new ways for designing oils for food and nonfood uses. Alterations in the position and number of double bonds, variation in fatty acid chain length, and the introduction of desired functional groups have already been achieved in model systems. Short-term prospects include crops such as rapeseed or soybean engineered to have greater than 70 to 80 percent medium-chain fatty acids by content, greater than 90 percent oleic acid, and high erucic acid content, and engineered to form ricinoleic acid in seed storage tissues.     

Selecting the hologenome to breed for an improved feed efficiency in pigs—A novel selection index

Most traits in animal breeding, including feed efficiency traits in pigs, are affected by many genes with small effect and have a moderately high heritability between 0.1 and 0.5, which enables efficient selection. Since the microbiota composition in the gastrointestinal tract is also partly heritable and was shown to have a substantial effect on feed efficiency, the host genes affect the phenotype not only directly by altering metabolic pathways, but also indirectly by changing the microbiota composition. The effect of the microbiota composition on the breeding value of an animal is the conditional expectation of its breeding value, given the vector with microbiota frequencies, that is The breeding value of an animal can therefore be decomposed into a heritable contribution that arises from an altered microbiota composition and a heritable contribution that arises from altered metabolic pathways within the animal, so Instead of selecting for breeding value , an index comprising the two components and with appropriate weights, that is , can be used. The present study shows how this breeding strategy can be applied in pig genomic selection breeding scheme for two feed efficiency traits and daily gain.