Journal of Genetics

Laccases (LACs) are versatile enzymes that catalyze oxidation of a wide range of substrates, thereby functioning in regulation of plant developmental processes and stress responses. However, with a few exceptions, the function of most LACs remains unclear in plants. In this study, we newly identified 4, 12, 22, 26, 27, 28 and 49 LAC genes for Physcomitrella patens, Amborella trichopoda, Zea mays, Ricinus communis, Vitis vinifera, Triticum aestivum and Glycine max, on the basis of exhaustive homologous sequence searches. In these plants, LACs differ greatly in sequence length and physical properties, such as molecular weight and theoretical isoelectric point (pI), but majority of them contain a signal peptide at their N-terminus. The originality of LACs could be traced back to as early as the emergence of moss. Plant LACs are clearly divided into seven distinct classes, where six ancient LACs should be present prior to the divergence of gymnosperms and angiosperms. Functional divergence analysis reveal that functional differentiation should occur among different groups of LACs because of altered selective constraints working on some critical amino acid sites (CAASs) within conserved laccase domains during evolution. Soybean and maize LACs have significantly different exon frequency (6.08 vs 4.82), and they are unevenly distributed and tend to form gene clusters on some chromosomes. Further analysis shows that the expansion of LAC gene family would be due to extensive tandem and chromosomal segmental duplications in the two plant species. Interestingly, ~81.6% and 36.4% of soybean and maize LACs are potential targets of miRNAs, such as miR397a/b, miR408d, or miR528a/b etc. Both soybean and maize LACs are tissue-specifically and developmental-specifically expressed, and are in response to different external abiotic and biotic stressors. These results suggest a diversity of functions of plant LAC genes, which will broaden our understanding and lay solid foundation for further investigating their biological functions in plants.

Heterodistyly inOldenlandia scopulorum Bull., a member of the Rubiaceae, is described. The species is characterised by two floral forms, the pin with long style and short anthers and thrum with short style and long anthers. Further the pin has small pollen grains and long stigmatic papillae while the thrum has large pollen grains and short stingmatic papillae. Pollination experiments with pin and thrum forms in compatible and incompatible crosses are reported. Pin self is compatible while thrum self incompatible. The cross pin x thrum is more fertile than thrum x pin.

Study of temporal trajectory of gene expression is important. RNA sequencing is popular in genome-scale studies of transcription. Because of high expenses involved, many time-course RNA sequencing studies are challenged by inadequacy of sample sizes. This poses difficulties in conducting formal statistical tests of significance of null hypotheses. We propose a bootstrap algorithm to identify ‘cognizable’ ‘time-trends’ of gene expression. Properties of the proposed algorithm are derived using a simulation study. The proposed algorithm captured known ‘time-trends’ in the simulated data with a high probability of success, even when sample sizes were small (n<10). The proposed statistical method is efficient and robust to capture ‘cognizable’ ‘time-trends’ in RNA sequencing data.

The parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis reproduces by haplodiploidy; males are haploid and females are diploid. Sex determination in Nasonia is not governed by complementary alleles at one or more sex loci. As in most other insects, the sex-determining pathway consists of the basal switch doublesex that is sex-specifically regulated by transformer. Analysis of a polyploid and a mutant gynandromorphic strain, suggested a parent-specific effect (imprinting) on sex determination in Nasonia. Zygotic activity of transformer is autoregulated and depends on a combination of maternal provision of tra mRNA and a paternal genome set. This constitutes a novel way of transformer control in insect sex determination implying maternal imprinting. The nature of the maternal imprint is not yet known and it remains to be determined how broadly the Nasonia sex-determining mechanism applies to other haplodiploids.

The Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) model states that allele and genotype frequencies in a population will remain constant for generations in the absence of evolutionary effects. A goodness-of-fit test can be used to test if a population is significantly different from the expectations of HWE. Pearson statistics are commonly used in goodness-of-fit tests for testing the HWE. In this paper, a simulation study is carried out to evaluate the performance of power divergence statistics under different sample sizes, effect sizes and minor allele frequencies. A real genotype dataset is also analysed to compare the results of several power divergence test statistics.

There is no ‘one’ procedure for extracting DNA from the whole blood of both mammals and birds, since each species has a unique property that require different methods to release its own DNA. Therefore, to obtain genomic DNA, a universal, rapid, and noncostly method was developed. A very simple biological basis is followed in this procedure, in which, when the blood is placed in water, it rapidly enters the RBCs by osmosis and causes cells to burst by hemolysis. The validity of extracting genomic DNA was confirmed by several molecular biological experiments. It was found that this method provides an efficient and versatile alternative for extracting bulk amounts of highly-qualified DNA from the blood of a wide range of species. This is the first manuscript that describes use of distilled water as the only eliminator of RBCs among all other known DNA extraction techniques.

Statistical calculations are made of the distribution numbers of mutants in a culture of bacteria in which the number of mutants increases on account both of new mutations and of division of old mutants. In this way the largely qualitative conclusions of Luria and Delbruck are extended and placed on a firm quantitative basis. The results of these calculations, which enable the mutation rate to be inferred from experiments with parallel cultures, are presented in the form of tables. Statistically efficient methods of using these tables are discussed.