Eavesdropping the pivotal defensive representatives of plant-thrips interaction.

The substantial economic impact of thrips on crop yield and productivity enthused us to review comprehensive research findings associated with plant-thrips interaction. An attempt has been made to summarize a broad spectrum of knowledge on thrips infestation in different crops regarding defensive traits including plant morphological features, biochemical alterations and transcriptional profiling of defensive genes along with effective thrips management strategies. Thrips feeding mechanism involves puncturing the outer (epidermal) layer of host tissue and evoking the plant defence mechanism.

The structural basis of Cdc7-Dbf4 kinase dependent targeting and phosphorylation of the MCM2-7 double hexamer.

The controlled assembly of replication forks is critical for genome stability. The Dbf4-dependent Cdc7 kinase (DDK) initiates replisome assembly by phosphorylating the MCM2-7 replicative helicase at the N-terminal tails of Mcm2, Mcm4 and Mcm6. At present, it remains poorly understood how DDK docks onto the helicase and how the kinase targets distal Mcm subunits for phosphorylation.

Conserved and divergent chaperoning effects of Hsp60/10 chaperonins on protein folding landscapes.

The GroEL/ES chaperonin cavity surface charge properties, especially the negative charges, play an important role in its capacity to assist intracavity protein folding. Remarkably, the larger fraction of GroEL/ES negative charges are not conserved among different bacterial species, resulting in a large variation in negative-charge density in the GroEL/ES cavity across prokaryotes. Intriguingly, eukaryotic GroEL/ES homologs have the lowest negative-charge density in the chaperonin cavity.

Elucidating the Structural Features of ABCA1 in its Heterogeneous Membrane Environment.

ATP Binding Cassette Transporter A1 (ABCA1) plays an integral part in Reverse Cholesterol Transport (RCT) and is critical for maintaining lipid homeostasis. One theory of lipid efflux by the transporter (alternating access) proposes that ABCA1 harbours two different conformations that provide alternating access for lipid binding and release. This is followed by sequestration a direct interaction between ABCA1 and its partner, ApoA1.

Designing a bed-side system for predicting length of stay in a neonatal intensive care unit.

Increased length of stay (LOS) in intensive care units is directly associated with the financial burden, anxiety, and increased mortality risks. In the current study, we have incorporated the association of day-to-day nutrition and medication data of the patient during its stay in hospital with its predicted LOS. To demonstrate the same, we developed a model to predict the LOS using risk factors (a) perinatal and antenatal details, (b) deviation of nutrition and medication dosage from guidelines, and (c) clinical diagnoses encountered during NICU stay.