Laboratory-and Field-Phenotyping for Drought Stress Tolerance and Diversity Study in Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.)

Drought susceptibility and low genetic variability are the major constraints of lentil(Lens culinaris Medik.)production worldwide.Development of an efficient pre-field drought phenotyping technique and identification of diversified drought tolerant lentil genotype(s)are therefore vital and necessary.Two separate experiments were conducted using thirty diverse lentil genotypes to isolate drought tolerant genotype(s)as well as to assess their diversity.In both of the experiments,significant(p≤0.01)variation in genotype(G),treatment(T)and G X T was observed for most of the studied traits.In experiment I,genotypes were examined for drought tolerance at the seedlings stage under hydroponic conditions by assessing root and shoot traits.Among the 30 genotypes studied,BM-1247,BM-1227 and BM-502 were selected as highly tolerant to drought stress as they showed maximum seedling survivability and minimum reduction in growth parameters under drought stress.In experiment II,the genotypes were assayed for diversity and drought stress tolerance based on morphological traits grown under field condition.Drought stress caused a substantial reduction in yield attributing traits,however,the genotypes BM-1247,BM-981,BM-1227 and BM-502 were categorized as drought tolerant genotypes with less than 20%yield reduction.The field screening result of drought stress tolerance was coincided well with the results of laboratory screening.Genetic divergence study reflected the presence of considerable diversity among the genotypes.Considering laboratory and field screening results,the genotypes,BM-1247,BM-1227,BM-981 and BM-502 were selected as the best drought tolerant genotypes.This information can be exploited for further breeding in developing drought tolerance in lentil.

FGFR2 mutation in a Chinese family with unusual Crouzon syndrome

AIM:To describe the clinical characteristics with genetic lesions in a Chinese family with Crouzon syndrome. METHODS: All five patients from this family were included and received comprehensive ophthalmic and systemic examinations.Direct sequencing of the FGFR2 gene was employed for mutation identification.Crystal structure analysis was applied to analyze the structural changes associated with the substitution. RESULTS: All patients presented typical Crouzon features,including short stature,craniosynostosis,mandibular prognathism,shallow orbits with proptosis,and exotropia.Intrafamilial phenotypic diversities were observed.Atrophic optic nerves were exclusively detected in the proband and her son.Cranial magnetic resonance imaging implied a cystic lesion in her sellar and third ventricular regions.A missense mutation,FGFR2 p.Cys342 Trp,was found as disease causative.This substitution would generate conformational changes in the extracellular Ig-III domain of the FGFR-2 protein,thus altering its physical and biological properties.CONCLUSION: We describe the clinical presentations and genotypic lesions in a Chinese family with Crouzon syndrome.The intrafamilial phenotypic varieties in this family suggest that other genetic modifiers may also play a role in the pathogenesis of Crouzon syndrome.

Climate shapes the spatiotemporal variation in color morph diversity and composition across the distribution range of Chrysomela lapponica leaf beetle

Color polymorphism offers rich opportunities for studying the eco-evolutionary mechanisms that drive the adaptations of local populations to heterogeneous and changing environments.We explored the color morph diversity and composition in a Chrysomela lapponica leaf beetle across its entire distribution range to test the hypothesis that environmental and climatic variables shape spatiotemporal variation in the phenotypic structure of a polymorphic species.We obtained information on 13617 specimens of this beetle from museums,private collections,and websites.These specimens(collected from 1830-2020)originated from 959 localities spanning 33°latitude,178°longitude,and 4200 m altitude.We classified the beetles into five color morphs and searched for environmental factors that could explain the variation in the level of polymorphism(quantified by the Shannon diversity index)and in the relative frequencies of individual color morphs.The highest level of polymorphism was found at high latitudes and altitudes.The color morphs differed in their climatic requirements;composition of colour morphs was independent of the geographic distance that separated populations but changed with collection year,longitude,mean July temperature and betweenyear temperature fluctuations.The proportion of melanic beetles,in line with the thermal melanism hypothesis,increased with increasing latitude and altitude and decreased with increasing climate seasonality.Melanic morph frequencies also declined during the past century,but only at high latitudes and altitudes where recent climate warming was especially strong.The observed patterns suggest that color polymorphism is especially advantageous for populations inhabiting unpredictable environments,presumably due to the different climatic requirements of coexisting color morphs.

Functional diversity of small-mammal postcrania is linked to both substrate preference and body size

Selective pressures favor morphologies that are adapted to distinct ecologies,resulting in trait partition!ng among ecomorphotypes.However,the effects of these selective pressures vary across taxa,especially because morphology is also influenced by factors such as phylogeny,body size,and functional trade-offs.In this study,we examine how these factors impact functional diversification in mammals.It has been proposed that trait partitioning among mammalian ecomorphotypes is less pronoun ced at small body sizes due to biomecha nical,energetic,and environ mental factors that favor a"generalist"body plan,whereas larger taxa exhibit more substantial functional adaptations.We title this the Diverge nee Hypothesis(DH)because it predicts greater morphological divergence among ecomorphotypes at larger body sizes.We test DH by using phylogenetic comparative methods to examine the postcranial skeletons of 129 species of taxonomically diverse,small-tomedium-sized(<15 kg)mammals,which we categorize as either"tree-dwellers"or"ground-dwellers."In some analyses,the morphologies of ground-dwellers and tree-dwellers suggest greater between-group differentiation at larger sizes,providing some evidence for DH.However,this trend is n either particularly strong nor supported by all an alyses.In stead,a more pronoun ced patter n emerges that is distinct from the predictions of DH:within-group phenotypic disparity increases with body size in both ground-dwellers and tree-dwellers,driven by morphological outliers among"medium'-sized mammals.Thus,evolutionary increases in body size are more closely linked to increases in within-locomotor-group disparity tha n to in creases in betwee n-group disparity.We discuss biomechanical and ecological factors that may drive these evolutionary patter ns,and we emphasize the significant evolutionary influences of ecology and body size on phenotypic diversity.

The history and advances in cancer immunotherapy:understanding the characteristics of tumor-infiltrating immune cells and their therapeutic implications

Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment and rejuvenated the field of tumor immunology.Several types of immunotherapy,including adoptive cell transfer(ACT)and immune checkpoint inhibitors(ICIs),have obtained durable clinical responses,but their efficacies vary,and only subsets of cancer patients can benefit from them.Immune infiltrates in the tumor microenvironment(TME)have been shown to play a key role in tumor development and will affect the clinical outcomes of cancer patients.Comprehensive profiling of tumor-infiltrating immune cells would shed light on the mechanisms of cancer–immune evasion,thus providing opportunities for the development of novel therapeutic strategies.However,the highly heterogeneous and dynamic nature of the TME impedes the precise dissection of intratumoral immune cells.With recent advances in single-cell technologies such as single-cell RNA sequencing(scRNA-seq)and mass cytometry,systematic interrogation of the TME is feasible and will provide insights into the functional diversities of tumor-infiltrating immune cells.In this review,we outline the recent progress in cancer immunotherapy,particularly by focusing on landmark studies and the recent single-cell characterization of tumor-associated immune cells,and we summarize the phenotypic diversities of intratumoral immune cells and their connections with cancer immunotherapy.We believe such a review could strengthen our understanding of the progress in cancer immunotherapy,facilitate the elucidation of immune cell modulation in tumor progression,and thus guide the development of novel immunotherapies for cancer treatment.