MCA1 and MCA2 Are Involved in the Response to Hypergravity in Arabidopsis Hypocotyls.

Plants respond to and resist gravitational acceleration, but the mechanism of signal perception in the response is unknown. We studied the role of MCA (mid1-complementing activity) proteins in gravity perception by analyzing the expression of the MCA1 and MCA2 genes, and the growth of hypocotyls of mca mutants, under hypergravity conditions in the dark. An MCA1 promoter::GUS fusion reporter gene construct (MCA1p::GUS) and MCA2p::GUS were expressed almost universally in etiolated seedlings.

Primitive red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae accumulates storage glucan and triacylglycerol under nitrogen depletion.

Most microalgae accumulate neutral lipids, including triacylglycerol (TAG), into spherical structures called lipid bodies (LBs) under environmental stress conditions such as nutrient depletion. In green algae, starch accumulation precedes TAG accumulation, and the starch is thought to be a substrate for TAG synthesis. However, the relationship between TAG synthesis and the starch content in red algae, as well as how TAG accumulation is regulated, is unclear.

Evolutionary dynamics in finite populations with zealots.

We investigate evolutionary dynamics of two-strategy matrix games with zealots in finite populations. Zealots are assumed to take either strategy regardless of the fitness. When the strategy selected by the zealots is the same, the fixation of the strategy selected by the zealots is a trivial outcome.