Search results for "ERF"
showing 10 items of 12942 documents
How many scales on the wings? A case study based on Colias crocea (Geoffroy, 1785) (Hexapoda: Lepidoptera, Pieridae)
2019
Abstract The covering by scales of the wings of Lepidoptera contributes to multiple functions that are critical for their survival and reproduction. In order to gain a better understanding about their distribution, we have exhaustively studied 4 specimens of Colias crocea (Geoffroy, 1785). We have quantified the sources of variability affecting scale density. The results indicate that the scale covering of butterfly wings may be remarkably heterogeneous, and that the importance of the sources of variability differs between forewings and hindwings. Thus, in forewing the greatest variability occurs between sectors, while in the hindwings it occurs between sides, with a higher density of scale…
Enhancing heterologous protein expression and secretion in HEK293 cells by means of combination of CMV promoter and IFNα2 signal peptide
2016
Efficient production and secretion of recombinant proteins in mammalian cell lines relies in a combination of genetic, metabolic and culture strategy factors. The present work assesses the influence of two key genetic components of expression vectors (promoter and signal peptide) on protein production and secretion effciency in HEK293 cells expressing eGFP as a reporter protein. Firstly, the strength of 3 different promoters was evaluated using transient expression methods. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that the highest level of intracellular protein expression was found when eGFP was under the control of CMV promoter, being 3-times higher in comparison to the rest of the promoters teste…
RNA uridylation and decay in plants
2018
RNA uridylation consists of the untemplated addition of uridines at the 3′ extremity of an RNA molecule. RNA uridylation is catalysed by terminal uridylyltransferases (TUTases), which form a subgroup of the terminal nucleotidyltransferase family, to which poly(A) polymerases also belong. The key role of RNA uridylation is to regulate RNA degradation in a variety of eukaryotes, including fission yeast, plants and animals. In plants, RNA uridylation has been mostly studied in two model species, the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana . Plant TUTases target a variety of RNA substrates, differing in size and function. These RNA substrates include …
Thermal variability during ectotherm egg incubation: A synthesis and framework.
2020
Natural populations of ectothermic oviparous vertebrates typically experience thermal variability in their incubation environment. Yet an overwhelming number of laboratory studies incubate animals under constant thermal conditions that cannot capture natural thermal variability. Here, we systematically searched for studies that incubated eggs of ectothermic vertebrates, including both fishes and herpetofauna, under thermally variable regimes. We ultimately developed a compendium of 66 studies that used thermally variable conditions for egg incubation. In this review, we qualitatively discuss key findings from literature in the compendium, including the phenotypic effects resulting from diff…
Re-examining the rare and the lost : a review of fossil Tortricidae (Lepidoptera)
2018
We re-evaluate eleven fossils that have previously been assigned to the family Tortricidae, describe one additional fossil, and assess whether observable morphological features warrant confident assignment of these specimens to this family. We provide an overview of the age and origin of the fossils and comment on their contribution towards understanding the phylogeny of the Lepidoptera. Our results show that only one specimen, Antiquatortia histuroides Brown & Baixeras gen. and sp. nov., shows a character considered synapomorphic for the family. Six other fossils ( Electresia zalesskii Kusnezov, 1941; Tortricidrosis inclusa Skalski, 1973; Tortricites skalskii Kozlov, 1988; Tortricibaltia d…
Symbiotic polydnavirus and venom reveal parasitoid to its hyperparasitoids
2018
Symbiotic relationships benefit organisms in utilization of new niches. In parasitoid wasps, symbiotic viruses and venom that are injected together with wasp eggs into the host caterpillar suppress immune responses of the host and enhance parasitoid survival. We found that the virus also has negative effects on offspring survival when placing these interactions in a community context. The virus and venom drive a chain of interactions that includes the herbivore and its food plant and attracts the hyperparasitoid enemies of the parasitoid. Our results shed new light on the importance of symbionts associated with their host in driving ecological interactions and highlight the intricacy of how…
Diminishing returns of inoculum size on the rate of a plant RNA virus evolution
2017
[EN] Understanding how genetic drift, mutation and selection interplay in determining the evolutionary fate of populations is one of the central themes of Evolutionary Biology. Theory predicts that by increasing the number of coexisting beneficial alleles in a population beyond some point does not necessarily translates into an acceleration in the rate of evolution. This diminishing-returns effect of beneficial genetic variability in microbial asexual populations is known as clonal interference. Clonal interference has been shown to operate in experimental populations of animal RNA viruses replicating in cell cultures. Here we carried out experiments to test whether a similar diminishing-re…
Broad thermal tolerance is negatively correlated with virulence in an opportunistic bacterial pathogen
2018
Predicting the effects of global increase in temperatures on disease virulence is challenging, especially for environmental opportunistic bacteria, because pathogen fitness may be differentially affected by temperature within and outside host environment. So far, there is very little empirical evidence on the connections between optimal temperature range and virulence in environmentally growing pathogens. Here, we explored whether the virulence of an environmentally growing opportunistic fish pathogen, Flavobacterium columnare, is malleable to evolutionary changes via correlated selection on thermal tolerance. To this end, we experimentally quantified the thermal performance curves (TPCs) f…