Search results for "EXPANSION"
showing 10 items of 630 documents
Water recycling in leaves of Lithops (Aizoaceae)
2016
Lithops plants consist of a pair of succulent leaves inserted on a short stem; each growing season young leaves develop in a cavity formed between the older pair. Young leaves can take up water from the older pair allowing the plant to maintain growth and leaf expansion even without external supply of water. Recycling water between vegetative organs is one of the possible adaptation strategies of plants under drought stress, but it had never been demonstrated experimentally in Lithops. The methodology used to verify the existence of water redistribution from old leaves to young leaves was fluorescence microscopy, using two dyes to follow the water pathway inside the plant: Sulforhodamine G …
Fruit Growth Stage Transitions in Two Mango Cultivars Grown in a Mediterranean Environment
2021
Studying mango (Mangifera 
Fossorial but widespread: the phylogeography of the common spadefoot toad (Pelobates fuscus), and the role of the Po Valley as a major source of gene…
2007
International audience; Pelobates fuscus is a fossorial amphibian that inhabits much of the European plain areas. To unveil traces of expansion and contraction events of the species' range, we sequenced 702 bp of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. To infer the population history we applied phylogeographical methods, such as nested clade phylogeographical analysis (NCPA), and used summary statistics to analyse population structure under a neutral model of evolution. Populations were assigned to different drainage systems and we tested hypotheses of explicit refugial models using information from analysis of molecular variance, nucleotide diversity, effective population size estimation, NCP…
Species interactions, environmental gradients and body size shape population niche width
2021
1. Competition for shared resources is commonly assumed to restrict population-level niche width of coexisting species. However, the identity and abundance of coexisting species, the prevailing environmental conditions, and the individual body size may shape the effects of interspecific interactions on species’ niche width. 2. Here we study the effects of interspecific and intraspecific interactions, lake area and altitude, and fish body size on the trophic niche width and resource use of a generalist predator, the littoral-dwelling large, sparsely rakered morph of European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus; hereafter LSR whitefish). We use stable isotope, diet and survey fishing data from 14 …
Outlook from the soil perspective of urban expansion and food security
2021
The use of soil as support for built-up areas represents only one of its several functions. Farmlands at the fringe of conurbations have more chance of being converted into built-up areas due to the favourable topography and the accessibility to existing infrastructure, being in the vicinity of urban areas. We analysed the global land-take during the period 2000–2014. The data are based on a global dataset describing the spatial evolution of human settlements using the Global Human Settlement Layer, which was derived from Landsat images collected in 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2014. Although the global land-take represents roughly 0.1% of the global terrestrial Earth, it affects 1% of the naturall…
Daunorubicin reduces MBNL1 titration by expanded CUG repeat RNA and rescues cardiac dysfunctions in a Drosophila model of myotonic dystrophy
2018
International audience; Myotonic dystrophy (DM) is a dominantly inherited neuromuscular disorder caused by expression of mutant DMPK transcripts containing expanded CUG repeats. Pathogenic RNA sequesters the muscleblind-like (MBNL) proteins, causing alterations of RNA metabolism. Cardiac dysfunction represents the second most common cause of death in DM1 patients. However, the contribution of MBNL titration in DM1 cardiac dysfunction is unclear. We overexpressed Muscleblind (Mbl), Drosophila MBNL orthologue, in cardiomyocytes of DM1 model flies and observed a rescue of heart dysfunctions, which are characteristic of these model flies and resemble cardiac defects observed in patients. We als…
Modeling of Myotonic Dystrophy Cardiac Phenotypes in Drosophila
2018
After respiratory distress, cardiac dysfunction is the second most common cause of fatality associated with the myotonic dystrophy (DM) disease. Despite the prevalance of heart failure in DM, physiopathological studies on heart symptoms have been relatively scarce because few murine models faithfully reproduce the cardiac disease. Consequently, only a small number of candidate compounds have been evaluated in this specific phenotype. To help cover this gap Drosophila combines the amenability of its invertebrate genetics with the possibility of quickly acquiring physiological parameters suitable for meaningful comparisons with vertebrate animal models and humans. Here we review available des…
Wharton's Jelly Mesenchymal Stromal Cells as a Feeder Layer for the Ex Vivo Expansion of Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells: a Review
2016
In recent years, umbilical cord blood (UCB) has been widely used as an alternative source to bone marrow (BM) for transplantation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) in a variety of hematological and non-hematological disorders. Nevertheless, the insufficient number of UCB-HSPCs for graft represents a major challenge. HSPCs ex vivo expansion prior to transplantation is a valid strategy to overcome this limit. Several attempts to optimize the expansion conditions have been reported, including the use of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) as feeder layer. Wharton's Jelly (WJ), the main component of umbilical cord (UC) matrix, is especially rich in MSCs, which are considered ideal…
Autosomal-Recessive Mutations in AP3B2, Adaptor-Related Protein Complex 3 Beta 2 Subunit, Cause an Early-Onset Epileptic Encephalopathy with Optic At…
2016
International audience; Early-onset epileptic encephalopathy (EOEE) represents a heterogeneous group of severe disorders characterized by seizures, interictal epileptiform activity with a disorganized electroencephalography background, developmental regression or retardation, and onset before 1 year of age. Among a cohort of 57 individuals with epileptic encephalopathy, we ascertained two unrelated affected individuals with EOEE associated with developmental impairment and autosomal-recessive variants in AP3B2 by means of whole-exome sequencing. The targeted sequencing of AP3B2 in 86 unrelated individuals with EOEE led to the identification of an additional family. We gathered five addition…
Tissue expansion of lung bronchi due to tissue processing for histology – A comparative analysis of paraffin versus frozen sections in a pig model
2019
Tissue shrinking due to fixation and processing is well known. However, the degree of shrinking varies significantly with the tissue type as well as the processing method and is not well studied in various tissues. In daily pathological routine workflow, histological specimens from frozen and paraffin sections are performed from the same tissue. In the present study we compared the thickness of bronchus walls obtained from paraffin and frozen sections.Pig lungs were frozen in ventilated condition in liquid nitrogen and 36 bronchi were isolated after dissection. Frozen sections of 5 μm thickness were performed and the remaining tissue was fixed and embedded in paraffin after fixation in 4% f…