Search results for "Investigations"
showing 10 items of 85 documents
Due note etimologiche circostanziali circa il Ms.II.D.54 (BNN) attribuito a Baffi
2019
Within the investigations on the attribution of some manuscripts to the famous philologist P. Baffi and now kept at the National Library of Naples (BNN), this brief contribution investigates in detail some of the passages contained in Ms.II.D.54 (f. 234r et f. 325r), in order to understand its meaning and to evaluate and validate its attributing hypotheses.
Genetic Basis of Body Color and Spotting Pattern in Redheaded Pine Sawfly Larvae (Neodiprion lecontei)
2018
Abstract Pigmentation has emerged as a premier model for understanding the genetic basis of phenotypic evolution, and a growing catalog of color loci is starting to reveal biases in the mutations, genes, and genetic architectures underlying color variation in the wild. However, existing studies have sampled a limited subset of taxa, color traits, and developmental stages. To expand the existing sample of color loci, we performed QTL mapping analyses on two types of larval pigmentation traits that vary among populations of the redheaded pine sawfly (Neodiprion lecontei): carotenoid-based yellow body color and melanin-based spotting pattern. For both traits, our QTL models explained a substan…
Testing soil water repellency in a Sicilian area two years after a fire
2019
The water drop penetration time (WDPT) technique was applied in 2018 to check persistence of soil water repellency (SWR) in a Sicilian mountain area affected by a wildfire on June 2016. A total of four sites, that were severely water repellent immediately after burning, were sampled. Depending on the site, wettable soil conditions, less SWR and maintenance of a noticeable SWR were detected two years later. At the site showing a near-constant SWR, WDPTs were particularly high in the top soil layer (0-0.03 m) and they appreciably decreased more in depth. Signs of decreasing SWR in drier soil conditions and in association with coarser soil particles were also detected at this site. High gradie…
Preparing for Winter: The Transcriptomic Response Associated with Different Day Lengths in Drosophila montana
2016
The work has been supported by a Natural Environment Research Council studentship to D.J.P. and an Academy of Finland grant to M.K. (project 268214). At northern latitudes, the most robust cue for assessing the onset of winter is the shortening of day lengths. Many species use day length as a cue to increase their cold tolerance and/or enter into diapause, but little is known about changes in gene expression that occur under different day lengths. We investigate the gene expression changes associated with differences in light/dark cycles in Drosophila montana, a northerly distributed species with a strong adult photoperiodic reproductive diapause. To examine gene expression changes induced …
The Phenotypic Plasticity of Duplicated Genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the Origin of Adaptations
2016
Gene and genome duplication are the major sources of biological innovations in plants and animals. Functional and transcriptional divergence between the copies after gene duplication has been considered the main driver of innovations . However, here we show that increased phenotypic plasticity after duplication plays a more major role than thought before in the origin of adaptations. We perform an exhaustive analysis of the transcriptional alterations of duplicated genes in the unicellular eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisiae when challenged with five different environmental stresses. Analysis of the transcriptomes of yeast shows that gene duplication increases the transcriptional response to…
Analysis of Plasminogen Genetic Variants in Multiple Sclerosis Patients.
2016
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a prevalent neurological disease of complex etiology. Here, we describe the characterization of a multi-incident MS family that nominated a rare missense variant (p.G420D) in plasminogen (PLG) as a putative genetic risk factor for MS. Genotyping of PLG p.G420D (rs139071351) in 2160 MS patients, and 886 controls from Canada, identified 10 additional probands, two sporadic patients and one control with the variant. Segregation in families harboring the rs139071351 variant, identified p.G420D in 26 out of 30 family members diagnosed with MS, 14 unaffected parents, and 12 out of 30 family members not diagnosed with disease. Despite considerably reduced penetrance, lin…
Epigenetic Control of Phenotypic Plasticity in the Filamentous Fungus Neurospora crassa
2016
Abstract Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of a genotype to produce different phenotypes under different environmental or developmental conditions. Phenotypic plasticity is a ubiquitous feature of living organisms, and is typically based on variable patterns of gene expression. However, the mechanisms by which gene expression is influenced and regulated during plastic responses are poorly understood in most organisms. While modifications to DNA and histone proteins have been implicated as likely candidates for generating and regulating phenotypic plasticity, specific details of each modification and its mode of operation have remained largely unknown. In this study, we investigated how e…
One-Cell Doubling Evaluation by Living Arrays of Yeast, ODELAY!
2016
Abstract Cell growth is a complex phenotype widely used in systems biology to gauge the impact of genetic and environmental perturbations. Due to the magnitude of genome-wide studies, resolution is often sacrificed in favor of throughput, creating a demand for scalable, time-resolved, quantitative methods of growth assessment. We present ODELAY (One-cell Doubling Evaluation by Living Arrays of Yeast), an automated and scalable growth analysis platform. High measurement density and single-cell resolution provide a powerful tool for large-scale multiparameter growth analysis based on the modeling of microcolony expansion on solid media. Pioneered in yeast but applicable to other colony formin…
The soluble form of pan-RTK inhibitor and tumor suppressor LRIG1 mediates downregulation of AXL through direct protein–protein interaction in gliobla…
2019
Abstract Background Targeted approaches for inhibiting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and other receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) in glioblastoma (GBM) have led to therapeutic resistance and little clinical benefit, raising the need for the development of alternative strategies. Endogenous LRIG1 (Leucine-rich Repeats and ImmunoGlobulin-like domains protein 1) is an RTK inhibitory protein required for stem cell maintenance, and we previously demonstrated the soluble ectodomain of LRIG1 (sLRIG1) to potently inhibit GBM growth in vitro and in vivo. Methods Here, we generated a recombinant protein of the ectodomain of LRIG1 (sLRIG1) and determined its activity in various cellular GBM mo…
Ethnobotanical uses of wild taxa as galactagogues in Sicily (Italy)
2018
<p>Breastfeeding furnishes optimal nutrition, immune support, and a multitude of health benefits to mothers and newborns. Since ancient times plants have been employed as galactagogues in the folk medicine of many human cultures. In Sicily, a region with great floristic diversity in the Mediterranean area, where a conspicuous pool of species is traditionally used for food and aromatic, cosmetic, handicraft, agricultural, forestry, and medicinal purposes, some people recognize the galactagogue properties of some spontaneous plants.</p><p>The goal of this study was to identify wild plants with galactagogue properties and vegetable-food remedies traditionally used by women du…