Publications by authors named "May S Aung"

Background And Objective: The continuum of care (CoC) is an important approach that should be prioritized for improving maternal health. The World Health Organization recommends working with individuals, families, and communities to ensure continuous care throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of an intervention on the awareness of the CoC among main caregivers and the completion of CoC among pregnant women.

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Iron (Fe) is an essential nutrient for almost all organisms. However, free Fe within cells can lead to damage to macromolecules and oxidative stress, making Fe concentrations tightly controlled. In plants, Fe deficiency is a common problem, especially in well-aerated, calcareous soils.

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Iron (Fe) excess is a major constraint on crop production in flooded acidic soils, particularly in rice cultivation. Under Fe excess, plants activate a complex mechanism and network regulating Fe exclusion by roots and isolation in various tissues. In rice, the transcription factors and -regulatory elements (CREs) that regulate Fe excess response mechanisms remain largely elusive.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Iron is crucial for plant growth but is often unavailable in alkaline soils, which negatively affects crop yields.
  • - Researchers initially used a synthetic form of 2'-deoxymugineic acid to address iron deficiency in rice, but its high cost and instability limited agricultural applications.
  • - A new, more stable, and cheaper version called proline-2'-deoxymugineic acid was developed, successfully promoting rice growth in alkaline soils by enhancing iron availability.
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Iron (Fe) is an essential nutrient for all living organisms but can lead to cytotoxicity when present in excess. Fe toxicity often occurs in rice grown in submerged paddy fields with low pH, leading dramatical increases in ferrous ion concentration, disrupting cell homeostasis and impairing growth and yield. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of Fe toxicity response and tolerance in plants are not well characterized yet.

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Iron (Fe) is an essential micronutrient for plants. Plants encounter Fe deficiency when grown in calcareous soil with low Fe availability, leading to reduced crop yield and agricultural problem. Rice acquires Fe from the soil Strategy I-related system (ferrous ion uptake by OsIRT1) and Strategy II system (ferric ion uptake by chelation).

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Iron (Fe) toxicity in plants causes tissue damage and cellular homeostasis disorders, thereby affecting plant growth and development. Nicotianamine (NA) is a ubiquitous chelator of metal cations and is responsible for metal homeostasis. Rice has three NA synthase () genes, of which the expression of and but not of is strongly induced in response to Fe deficiency.

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Article Synopsis
  • Iron is vital for organisms but can be toxic in excess; plants manage iron levels by adjusting specific genes for uptake and transport.
  • Transgenic rice with repressed OsHRZ1 and OsHRZ2 genes can thrive in low iron but struggle with high iron, showing growth issues and increased iron accumulation.
  • The findings suggest that HRZ ubiquitin ligases act as internal sensors for iron, helping balance plant responses to both iron deficiency and toxicity, which may aid in developing more resilient crops.
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Rice OsYSL9 is a novel transporter for Fe(II)-nicotianamine and Fe(III)-deoxymugineic acid that is responsible for internal iron transport, especially from endosperm to embryo in developing seeds. Metal chelators are essential for safe and efficient metal translocation in plants. Graminaceous plants utilize specific ferric iron chelators, mugineic acid family phytosiderophores, to take up sparingly soluble iron from the soil.

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Iron (Fe) deficiency is a critical agricultural problem, especially in calcareous soil, which is distributed worldwide. Rice plants take up Fe(II) from soil through a OsIRT1 transporter (Strategy I-related system) and also take up Fe(III) via a phytosiderophore-based system (Strategy II system). However, rice plants are susceptible to low-Fe conditions because they have low Fe(III) reduction activity and low-level phytosiderophore secretion.

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More than 2 billion people suffer from iron (Fe) deficiency, and developing crop cultivars with an increased concentration of micronutrients (biofortification) can address this problem. In this review, we describe seven transgenic approaches, and combinations thereof, that can be used to increase the concentration of Fe in rice seeds. The first approach is to enhance the Fe storage capacity of grains through expression of the Fe storage protein ferritin under the control of endosperm-specific promoters.

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Iron (Fe) deficiency elevates human mortality rates, especially in developing countries. In Myanmar, the prevalence of Fe-deficient anemia in children and pregnant women are 75 and 71%, respectively. Myanmar people have one of the highest per capita rice consumption rates globally.

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Iron deficiency is a serious problem around the world, especially in developing countries. The production of iron-biofortified rice will help ameliorate this problem. Previously, expression of the iron storage protein, ferritin, in rice using an endosperm-specific promoter resulted in a two-fold increase in iron concentration in the resultant transgenic seeds.

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To address the problem of iron-deficiency anemia, one of the most prevalent human micronutrient deficiencies globally, iron-biofortified rice was produced using three transgenic approaches: by enhancing iron storage in grains via expression of the iron storage protein ferritin using endosperm-specific promoters, enhancing iron translocation through overproduction of the natural metal chelator nicotianamine, and enhancing iron flux into the endosperm by means of iron(II)-nicotianamine transporter OsYSL2 expression under the control of an endosperm-specific promoter and sucrose transporter promoter. Our results indicate that the iron concentration in greenhouse-grown T(2) polished seeds was sixfold higher and that in paddy field-grown T(3) polished seeds was 4.4-fold higher than that in non-transgenic seeds, with no defect in yield.

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Article Synopsis
  • Iron is vital for organisms, and the rice transcription factor IDEF1 is key in managing iron deficiency-related genes.
  • Analysis revealed that IDEF1 and its barley counterpart, HvIDEF1, can bind to several divalent metals like iron and nickel.
  • Removing specific metal-binding regions in IDEF1 hindered its ability to affect seedling growth and gene expression related to iron deficiency, indicating these regions are essential for sensing and responding to iron availability.
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Iron (Fe) deficiency, a worldwide agricultural problem on calcareous soil with low Fe availability, is also a major human nutritional deficit. Plants induce Fe acquisition systems under conditions of low Fe availability. Previously, we reported that an Fe-deficiency-inducible basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor, OsIRO2, is responsible for regulation of the genes involved in Fe homeostasis in rice.

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Article Synopsis
  • IDEF1 and IDEF2 are key regulatory proteins in rice that help the plant respond to low iron availability by affecting gene expression related to iron uptake and utilization.
  • Their expression patterns show consistent high levels in specific parts of the plant, such as lateral roots and vascular tissues, regardless of iron availability, indicating a strong role in iron metabolism.
  • The study reveals that these factors maintain similar regulatory roles and expression patterns during both vegetative and reproductive stages, suggesting they are crucial for rice growth under varying iron conditions.
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