Effect of foliar application of bio-stimulants on growth, yield and nutritional quality of broccoli.

Broccoli is one of important cole crop grown all over the world due to its unique nutritional profile consumed fresh as well as processed. It contains a wide range of nutrients, vitamins, minerals and specific anti-cancer compounds such as glucosinolates. Broccoli cultivation in Pakistan is increasing rapidly, however, till now there is no standardized cropping technology for broccoli cultivation under local climate.

Triacontanol regulates morphological traits and enzymatic activities of salinity affected hot pepper plants.

Potential role of triacontanol applied as a foliar treatment to ameliorate the adverse effects of salinity on hot pepper plants was evaluated. In this pot experiment, hot pepper plants under 75 mM NaCl stress environment were subjected to foliar application of 25, 50, and 75 µM triacontanol treatments; whereas, untreated plants were taken as control. Salt stress had a significant impact on morphological characteristics, photosynthetic pigments, gas exchange attributes, MDA content, antioxidants activities, electrolytes leakage, vitamin C, soluble protein, and proline contents.

spn-A/rad51 mutant exhibits enhanced genomic damage, cell death and low temperature sensitivity in somatic tissues.

Homologous recombination (HR) is one of the key pathways to repair double-strand breaks (DSBs). Rad51 serves an important function of catalysing strand exchange between two homologous sequences in the HR pathway. In higher organisms, rad51 function is indispensable with its absence leading to early embryonic lethality, thus precluding any mechanistic probing of the system.

Loss of mitochondrial SIRT4 shortens lifespan and leads to a decline in physical activity.

Mitochondrial mechanisms and pathways have recently emerged as critical determinants of organismal aging. While nuclear sirtuins have been shown to regulate aging, whether mitochondrial sirtuins do so is still unclear. Here, we report that mitochondrial dSirt4 mediates organismal aging.

The initiator caspase Dronc plays a non-apoptotic role in promoting DNA damage signalling in .

The phosphorylation of the variant histone H2Ax (denoted γH2Ax; γH2Av in flies) constitutes an important signalling event in DNA damage sensing, ensuring effective repair by recruiting DNA repair machinery. In contrast, the γH2Av response has also been reported in dying cells, where it requires activation of caspase-activated DNases (CADs). Moreover, caspases are known to be required downstream of DNA damage for cell death execution.

Central metabolic sensing remotely controls nutrient-sensitive endocrine response in via Sir2/Sirt1-upd2-IIS axis.

Endocrine signaling is central in coupling organismal nutrient status with maintenance of systemic metabolic homeostasis. While local nutrient sensing within the insulinogenic tissue is well studied, distant mechanisms that relay organismal nutrient status in controlling metabolic-endocrine signaling are less well understood. Here, we report a novel mechanism underlying the distant regulation of the metabolic endocrine response in We show that the communication between the fat body and insulin-producing cells (IPCs), important for the secretion of insulin-like peptides (dILPs), is regulated by the master metabolic sensor Sir2/Sirt1.

Morpho-physiological evaluation of tomato genotypes under high temperature stress conditions.

Background: Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is an important but heat-sensitive vegetable crop. The losses in tomato production associated with heat stress are aggravating further under a global warming scenario.

Reduction of Cullin-2 in somatic cells disrupts differentiation of germline stem cells in the Drosophila ovary.

Signaling from a niche consisting of somatic cells is essential for maintenance of germline stem cells (GSCs) in the ovary of Drosophila. Decapentaplegic (Dpp), a type of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signal, emanating from the niche, is the most important signal for this process. Cullin proteins constitute the core of a multiprotein E3-ligase important for their functions viz.

dSir2 in the adult fat body, but not in muscles, regulates life span in a diet-dependent manner.

Sir2, an evolutionarily conserved NAD(+)-dependent deacetylase, has been implicated as a key factor in mediating organismal life span. However, recent contradictory findings have brought into question the role of Sir2 and its orthologs in regulating organismal longevity. In this study, we report that Drosophila Sir2 (dSir2) in the adult fat body regulates longevity in a diet-dependent manner.

Fat body dSir2 regulates muscle mitochondrial physiology and energy homeostasis nonautonomously and mimics the autonomous functions of dSir2 in muscles.

Sir2 is an evolutionarily conserved NAD(+)-dependent deacetylase which has been shown to play a critical role in glucose and fat metabolism. In this study, we have perturbed Drosophila Sir2 (dSir2) expression, bidirectionally, in muscles and the fat body. We report that dSir2 plays a critical role in insulin signaling, glucose homeostasis, and mitochondrial functions.

dSir2 deficiency in the fatbody, but not muscles, affects systemic insulin signaling, fat mobilization and starvation survival in flies.

Sir2 is an evolutionarily conserved NAD+ dependent protein. Although, SIRT1 has been implicated to be a key regulator of fat and glucose metabolism in mammals, the role of Sir2 in regulating organismal physiology, in invertebrates, is unclear. Drosophila has been used to study evolutionarily conserved nutrient sensing mechanisms, however, the molecular and metabolic pathways downstream to Sir2 (dSir2) are poorly understood.

Cullin-5 and cullin-2 play a role in the development of neuromuscular junction and the female germ line of Drosophila.

Cullins confer substrate specificity to E3-ligases which are multi-protein complexes involved in ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation or modification. There are six cullin genes in Drosophila melanogaster. We have raised an antibody against Cul-5 and demonstrated that it expresses in neuronal and non-neuronal cells throughout development.

Central synaptic mechanisms underlie short-term olfactory habituation in Drosophila larvae.

Naive Drosophila larvae show vigorous chemotaxis toward many odorants including ethyl acetate (EA). Chemotaxis toward EA is substantially reduced after a 5-min pre-exposure to the odorant and recovers with a half-time of ∼20 min. An analogous behavioral decrement can be induced without odorant-receptor activation through channelrhodopsin-based, direct photoexcitation of odorant sensory neurons (OSNs).

Isogenic autosomes to be applied in optimal screening for novel mutants with viable phenotypes in Drosophila melanogaster.

Most insertional mutagenesis screens of Drosophila performed to date have not used target chromosomes that have been checked for their suitability for phenotypic screens for viable phenotypes. To address this, we have generated a selection of stocks carrying either isogenized second chromosomes or isogenized third chromosomes, in a genetic background derived from a Canton-S wild-type strain. We have tested these stocks for a range of behavioral and other viable phenotypes.

Cullin-5 plays multiple roles in cell fate specification and synapse formation during Drosophila development.

We describe a developmental analysis of Drosophila Cullin-5 (Cul-5) identified from the genome sequence on the basis of its high degree of homology to vertebrate and worm sequences. The gene is expressed in a restricted manner in ectodermal cells throughout development suggesting pleiotropic functions. We decided to examine the phenotypes of Cul-5 aberrations in two well-studied developmental systems: the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) and the developing sensory organ.

Genetic interactions provide evidence for the role of integrins in specifying normal olfactory behavior in Drosophila melanogaster.

In a previous paper, we showed that weak hypomorphic alleles at the myospheroid (mys) locus, which encodes the beta-subunit of integrin, possess defects in olfactory behavior in both adult and larva. In this paper, we show that another olfactory gene, olfE, exhibits haploinsufficient interactions with recessive alleles at the mys locus. olfE has recently been shown to be an allele of swisscheese and is now designated as sws(olfE).

Genetic analysis of olfC demonstrates a role for the position-specific integrins in the olfactory system of Drosophila melanogaster.

Genetic analysis of olfC provides evidence for a role for integrins in the development and/or function of the olfactory system of Drosophila. The olfC gene was identified on the basis of mutations that result in specific defects in behavioural responses to acetate esters, and has been mapped to the cytogenetic interval 7D1;D5-6 on the X chromosome. The myospheroid (mys) gene maps to this region and encodes a beta subunit of integrins.

A neurofilament-associated kinase phosphorylates only a subset of sites in the tail of chicken midsize neurofilament protein.

Although neurofilaments are among the most highly phosphorylated proteins extant, relatively little is known about the kinases involved in their phosphorylation. The majority of the phosphates present on the two higher-molecular-mass neurofilament subunits are added to multiply repeated sequence motifs in the tail. We have examined the specificity of a neurofilament-associated kinase (NFAK) partially purified from chicken spinal cord that selectively phosphorylates the middle-molecular-mass neurofilament subunit, NF-M.

A molecular dissection of the carboxyterminal tails of the major neurofilament subunits NF-M and NF-H.

We have initiated a multidisciplinary project that aims to dissect and ultimately define the functions of the long and unusual C-terminal "tail" sequences of the two high molecular weight neurofilament subunits, NF-M and NF-H. A series of recombinant fusion proteins containing selected NF-M and NF-H tail sequences were constructed using appropriate cDNAs. These fusion proteins were used to further define the epitopes for a variety of widely used neurofilament antibodies, including NN18 and N52, which are now available commercially from several companies.

Genetics of olfactory behavior in Drosophila melanogaster.

We have used a behavioral genetic approach to identify six X-linked loci which specify olfaction in Drosophila melanogaster. Mutations in five of these genes lead to partial anosmias affecting responses either to aldehydes (olfA, olfB, olfE and olfF) or to acetate esters (olfC). Only one of the mutants obtained in our screening (olfD) resulted in a insensitivity to several different odorants.