NECK LEAF 1, a GATA type transcription factor, modulates organogenesis by regulating the expression of multiple regulatory genes during reproductive development in rice

In the monocot rice species Oryza sativa L., one of the most striking morphological processes during reproductive development is the concurrence of panicle development with the sequential elongation of upper internodes （UPIs）. To elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms, we cloned the rice gene NECK LEAF 1 （NL1）, which when mutated results in delays in flowering time, smaller panicles with overgrown bracts and abnormal UPI elongation patterns. The NL1 gene encodes a GATA-type transcription factor with a single zinc finger domain, and its transcripts are de- tected predominantly in the bract primordia, which normally degenerate in the wild-type plants. Overexpression of NL1 in transgenic plants often gives rise to severe growth retardation, less vegetative phytomers and smaller leaves, suggesting that NL1 plays an important role in organ differentiation. A novel mutant allele of PLASTOCHRON1 （PLAD, a gene known to play a key role in regulating leaf initiation, was identified in this study. Genetic analysis demonstrated an interaction between nil and plal, with NL1 acting upstream of PLA1. The expression level and spatial pattern of PLA1 were found to be altered in the nil mutant. Furthermore, the expression of two regulators of flowering, Hd3a and OsMADS1, was also affected in the nil mutant. On the basis of these findings, we propose that NL1 is an intrinsic factor that modulates and coordinates organogenesis through regulating the expression of PLA1 and other regulatory genes during reproductive development in rice.

Functional Diversity of CYCLOIDEA-like TCP Genes in the Control of Zygomorphic Flower Development in Lotus japonicus

CYCLOIDEA （CYC）-like TCP genes play key roles in dorsoventral differentiation of zygomorphic flowers in Papilionoideae legumes. In this study, we analyzed the kew mutants whose flowers lost lateral identity, and investigated the diverse functions of three LjCYC genes during zygomorphic flower development in the model legume Lotus japonicus. We showed that kew1 and kew3 are allelic mutants of LjCYC3, a CYC-like TCP gene. Through transgenic experiments, it was shown that LjCYC1 possesses dorsal activity similar to LjCYC2, and that LjCYC3 alone is sufficient to confer lateral activity, and an epistatic effect between dorsal and lateral activities was identified. Sequence analysis revealed a striking alteration at the 3 end of the LjCYC3 open reading frame （ORF） in comparison with those of LjCYC1 and LjCYC2 ORFs. Furthermore, it was found that LjCYC proteins could interact with each other and possess different activities by means of a transcriptional activity assay. Our data demonstrate that the sequence variation and the subsequent alteration of protein property play important roles in the functional diversity of different LjCYC genes in controlling zygomorphic flower development in Lotus japonicus.

Multiple Components are Integrated to Determine Leaf Complexity in Lotus japonicus

Transcription factors and phytohormones have been reported to play crucial roles to regulate leaf complexity among plant species. Using the compound-leafed species Lotus japonicus, a model legume plant with five visible leaflets, we characterized four independent mutants with reduced leaf complexity, proliferating floral meristem （pfm）, proliferating floral organ-2 （pfo-2）, fused leaflets1 （ful1） and umbrella leaflets （uml）, which were further identified as loss-of-function mutants of Arabidopsis orthologs LEAFY （LFY ）, UNUSUAL FLORAL ORGANS （UFO）, CUP-SHAPED COTYLEDON 2 （CUC2） and PIN-FORMED 1 （PIN1）, respectively. Comparing the leaf development of wild-type and mutants by a scanning electron microscopy approach, leaflet initiation and/or dissection were found to be affected in these mutants. Expression and phenotype analysis indicated that PFM/LjLFY and PFO/LjUFO determined the basipetal leaflet initiation manner in L. japonicus. Genetic analysis of ful1 and uml mutants and their double mutants revealed that the CUC2-like gene and auxin pathway also participated in leaflet dissection in L. japonicus, and their functions might influence cytokinin biogenesis directly or indirectly. Our results here suggest that multiple genes were interplayed and played conserved functions in controlling leaf complexity during compound leaf development in L. japonicus.

Trident: Efficient and Practical Software Network Monitoring

Network monitoring is receiving more attention than ever with the need for a self-driving network to tackle increasingly severe network management challenges. Advanced management applications rely on traffic data analyses, which require network monitoring to flexibly provide comprehensive traffic characteristics. Moreover, in virtualized environments, software network monitoring is constrained by available resources and requirements of cloud operators. In this paper, Trident, a policy-based network monitoring system at the host, is proposed. Trident is a novel monitoring approach, off-path configurable streaming, which offers remote analyzers a fine-grained holistic view of the network traffic. A novel fast path packet classification algorithm and a corresponding cached flow form are also proposed to improve monitoring efficiency. Evaluated in a practical deployment, Trident demonstrates negligible interference with forwarding and requires no additional software dependencies. Trident has been deployed in production networks of several Tier-IV datacenters.

Transcriptional and Post-transcriptional Modulation of SQU and KEW Activities in the Control of Dorsal-Ventral Asymmetric Flower Development in Lotus japonicus

In Papilionoideae legume, Lotusjaponicus, the development of dorsal-ventral （DV） asymmetric flowers is mainly controlled by two TB1/CYCLOIDEA/PCF （TCP） genes, SQUARED STANDARD （SQU） and KEELED WINGS IN LOTUS （KEW）, which determine dorsal and lateral identities, respectively. However, the molecular basis of how these two highly homologous genes orchestrate their diverse functions remains unclear. Here, we analyzed their expression levels, and investigated the transcriptional activities of SQUand KEW. We demonstrated that SQU possesses both activation and repression activities, while KEW acts only as an activator. They form homo- and heterodimers, and then collaboraUvely regulate their expression at the transcription level. Furthermore, we identified two types of post-transcriptional modifications, phosphor- ylation and ATP/GTP binding, both of which could affect their transcriptional activities. Mutations in ATP/ GTP binding motifs of SQU and KEW lead to failure of phosphorylation, and transgenic plants bearing the mutant proteins display defective DV asymmetric flower development, indicating that the two conjugate modifications are essential for their diverse functions. Altogether, SQU and KEW activities are precisely modulated at both transcription and post-transcription levels, which might link DV asymmetric flower development to different physiological status and/or signaling pathways.

PHOSPHATIDYLSERINE SYNTHASE1 is Required for Inflorescence Meristem and Organ Development in Arabidopsis

Phosphatidylserine （PS）, a quantitatively minor membrane phospholipid, is involved in many biological processes besides its role in membrane structure. One PS synthesis gene, PHOSPHATIDYLSERINE SYNTHASE1 （PSSl）, has been discovered to be required for microspore development in Arabidopsis thaliana L. but how PSS1 affects postembryonic development is still largely unknown. Here, we show that PSSl is also required for inflorescence meristem and organ development in Arabidopsis. Disruption of PSSI causes severe dwarfism, smaller lateral organs and reduced size of inflorescence meristem. Morphological and molecular studies suggest that both cell division and cell elongation are affected in the pssl-1 mutant. RNA in situ hybridization and promoter GUS analysis show that expression of both WUSCHEL （WUS） and CLA VA TA3 （CL V3） depend on PSS1. Moreover, the defect in meristem maintenance is recovered and the expression of WUS and CLV3 are restored in the pssl-1 clvl-1 double mutant. Both SHOOTSTEMLESS （STM） and BREVIPEDICELLUS （BP） are upregulated, and auxin distribution is disrupted in rosette leaves of pssl-1. However, expression of BP, which is also a regulator of internode development, is lost in the pssl-1 inflorescence stem. Our data suggest that PSS1 plays essential roles in inflorescence meristem maintenance through the WUS-CLV pathway, and in leaf and internode development by differentially regulating the class I KNOX genes.

Petal Development in Lotus japonicus

Previous studies have demonstrated that petal shape and size in legume flowers are determined by two separate mechanisms, dorsoventral （DV） and organ internal （IN） asymmetric mechanisms, respectively. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms controlling petal development in legumes. To address this question, we investigated petal development along the floral DV axis in Lotus japonicus with respect to cell and developmental biology by comparing wild-type legumes to mutants. Based on morphological markers, the entire course of petal development, from initiation to maturity, was grouped to define 3 phases or 13 stages. In terms of epidermal micromorphology from adaxial surface, mature petals were divided into several distinct domains, and characteristic epidermal cells of each petal differentiated at stage 9, while epidermal cells of all domains were observed until stage 12. TCP and MIXTA-like genes were found to be differentially expressed in various domains of petals at stages 9 and 12. Our results suggest that DV and IN mechanisms interplay at different stages of petal development, and their interaction at the cellular and molecular level guides the elaboration of domains within petals to achieve their ideal shape, and further suggest that TCP genes determine petal identity along the DV axis by regulatincl MIXTA-like clene expression.

HBD:Towards Efficient Reactive Rule Dispatching in Software-Defined Networks

Most types of Software-Defined Networking （SDN） architectures employ reactive rule dispatching to enhance real-time network control. The rule dispatcher, as one of the key components of the network controller, generates and dispatches the cache rules with response for the packet-in messages from the forwarding devices. It is important not only for ensuring semantic integrity between the control plane and the data plane, but also for preserving the performance and efficiency of the forwarding devices. In theory, generating the optimal cache rules on demands is a knotty problem due to its high theoretical complexity. In practice, however, the characteristics lying in real-life traffic and rule sets demonstrate that temporal and spacial localities can be leveraged by the rule dispatcher to significantly reduce computational overhead. In this paper, we take a deep-dive into the reactive rule dispatching problem through modeling and complexity analysis, and then we propose a set of algorithms named Hierarchy-Based Dispatching （HBD）, which exploits the nesting hierarchy of rules to simplify the theoretical model of the problem, and trade the strict coverage optimality off for a more practical but still superior rule generation result. Experimental result shows that HBD achieves performance gain in terms of rule cache capability and rule storage efficiency against the existing approaches.

MN-SLA： A Modular Networking SLA Framework for Cloud Management System

With the proliferation of cloud services and development of fine-grained virtualization techniques, the Cloud Management System （CMS） is required to manage multiple resources efficiently for the large-scale, highdensity computing units. Specifically, providing guaranteed networking Service Level Agreement （SLA） has become a challenge. This paper proposes MN-SLA （Modular Networking SLA）, a framework to provide networking SLA and to enable its seamless integration with existing CMSes. Targeting at a modular, general, robust, and efficient design, MN-SLA abstracts general interacting Application Programming Interfaces （APIs） between CMS and SLA subsystem, and it is able to accomplish the integration with minor modifications to CMS. The evaluations based on large scale simulation show that the proposed networking SLA scheduling is promising in terms of resource utilization, being able to accommodate at least 1.4x the number of instances of its competitors.

BTO/P(VDF-TrFE) Nanofiber-based Artificial Lateral Line Sensor with Drag Enhancement Structures

A flexible Artificial Lateral Line(ALL)sensor is presented in this paper,featuring a barium titanate/polyvinylidene fluoride?trifluoroethylene[BTO/P(VDF?TrFE)]nanofiber mat,a hydrogel cupula,and a constriction structure in the canal..The excellent piezoelectric performance of the BTO/P(VDF-TrFE)nanofiber,superior to that of a pristine P(VDF-TrFE)nanofiber,helps improve the sensitivity of the ALL sensor.The hydrogel cupula imitating the cupula in a fish lateral line system enhances the ALL sensitivity through a material-induced drag enhancement mechanism.The constriction mimics the diminution structure found in fish canal lateral line systems,endowing the canal ALL sensor with enhanced sensitivity through a structure-induced drag enhancement mechanism.The contributions of the hydrogel cupula and constriction structure in offering an enhanced sensing performance are studied experimentally,in comparison with conventional ALL sensors.The constriction structure in the canal helps modify the frequency response of the canal ALL sensor,i.e.,attenuating low frequencies while amplifying high frequencies.The proposed biomimetic flow sensor is expected to aid in the development of smart skins for underwater robotics applications.

A member of the ALOG gene family has a novel role in regulating nodulation in Lotus japonicus

Legumes can control the number of symbiotic nodules that form on their roots, thus balancing nitrogen assimilation and energy consumption. Two major pathways participate in nodulation: the Nod factor(NF)signaling pathway which involves recognition of rhizobial bacteria by root cells and promotion of nodulation, and the autoregulation of nodulation(AON) pathway which involves long-distance negative feedback between roots and shoots. Although a handful of genes have a clear role in the maintenance of nodule number, additional unknown factors may also be involved in this process. Here, we identify a novel function for a Lotus japonicus ALOG(Arabidopsis LSH1 and Oryza G1) family member, LjALOG1,involved in positively regulating nodulation. LjALOG1 expression increased substantially after inoculation with rhizobia, with high levels of expression in whole nodule primordia and in the base of developing nodules. The ljalog1 mutants, which have an insertion of the LORE1 retroelement in LjALOG1, had significantly fewer nodules compared with wild type, along with increased expression of LjCLE-RS1(L. japonicus CLE Root Signal 1), which encodes a nodulation suppressor in the AON pathway. In summary,our findings identified a novel factor that participates in controlling nodulation, possibly by suppressing the AON pathway.