In-silico mining and characterization of MYB family genes in wilt-resistant hybrid guava (Psidium guajava × Psidium molle).

BACKGROUND: The MYB family is one of the most significant groups of transcription factors in plants. However, several MYBs have been linked to secondary metabolism and are important for determining the color of fruit's peel and pulp. Despite being a substantial fruit crop in tropical and subtropical areas of the world, wilt-resistant hybrid guava (Psidium guajava × Psidium molle; PGPM) has not yet been the subject of a thorough examination. This study's goal was to assess the expression of MYB in guava fruit pulp, roots, and seeds to predict its function by in silico analysis of the guava root transcriptome data. RESULTS: In the current study, we have mined the MYBs family of MYB genes from the transcriptome of the PGPM guava root. We have mined 15 distinct MYB transcription factor genes/transcripts viz MYB3, MYB4, MYB23, MYB86, MYB90, MYB308, MYB5, MYB82, MYB114, MYB6, MYB305, MYB44, MYB51, MYB46, and MYB330. From the analyses, it was found that R2-MYB and R3-MYB domains are conserved in all known guava MYB proteins. The expression of six different MYB TFs was examined using semi-quantitative RT-PCR in "Shweta" pulp (white colour pulp), "Lalit" pulp (red color pulp), "Lalit" root, and "Lalit" seed. CONCLUSION: There were 15 MYB family members observed in guava. They were unequally distributed across the chromosomes, most likely as a result of gene duplication. Additionally, the expression patterns of the particular MYBs showed that MYB may be involved in the control of wilt, fruit ripening, seed development, and root development. Our results allow for a more thorough functional characterization of the guava MYB family genes and open the door to additional research into one essential MYB transcription factor family of genes and its involvement in the growth and ripening of guava fruit.

Cone cracks in tissue-mimicking hydrogels during hypodermic needle insertion: the role of water content.

Needle insertion into soft biological tissues is a common process in various surgical procedures. During insertion, soft biological tissues with different water contents undergo large deformation often leading to uncontrollable cracks and tissue damage. Despite the numerous experimental studies and numerical modelling of needle-tissue interaction, the results do not show any consistency mainly due to the heterogeneity of tissue properties and opaqueness. In this context, understanding the fracture behaviour of soft tissues during needle insertion is important for minimally invasive surgeries and other medical procedures. Recently, we showed that the needle insertion into a transparent, tissue-mimicking polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogel causes periodic cone cracks. In this work, we systematically varied the water content of the PAAm hydrogel in the preparation state and performed needle insertion experiments using a hypodermic needle at a constant velocity to study the fracture characteristics of the PAAm hydrogel. The results show that the number of peaks, the magnitudes of the insertion forces, and corresponding cone cracks decrease with increasing water content. Furthermore, we discussed the influence of water on cone crack fracture characteristics, cone angle, periodicity, crack speed and fracture energy release rate. These results provide a better understanding of the fracture processes of soft tissues with different water concentrations such as the lung, liver, and brain during needle insertion and the control of tissue damage during needle insertion involved in medical procedures.

Quantitative Assessment of Hand Dysfunction in Patients with Early Parkinson's Disease and Focal Hand Dystonia.

OBJECTIVE: Motor impairments related to hand function are common symptoms in patients with movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and focal hand dystonia (FHD). However, hand dysfunction has not been quantitatively assessed as a clinical tool for screening patient groups from healthy controls (HCs). The aim of our study was 1) to quantitatively assess hand dysfunction in patients with PD and FHD and its usefulness as a screening tool 2) to grade disease severity in PD and FHD based on hand dysfunction. METHODS: The current case-control study included HCs (n = 50) and patients with known history of PD (n = 25) or FHD (n = 16). Hand function was assessed by a precision grip task while participants lifted objects of 1.3 N and 1.7 N under dry skin conditions, followed by very wet skin conditions (VWSCs). Receiver operating characteristic and summative scoring analyses were performed. RESULTS: In PD, the combination of loading phase duration and lifting phase duration at quantitative cutoffs of 0.36 and 0.74 seconds identified 21/25 patients as diseased and 49/50 subjects as HCs with 1.7 N under VWSCs. In PD, 5/21 was graded as "mild" and 16/21 as "moderate cases." In FHD, slip force at a cutoff of 1.2 N identified 13/16 patients as diseased and 41/50 subjects as HC with 1.7 N under VWSCs, but disease severity could not be graded. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate the use of precision grip task as an important clinical tool in assessment of hand dysfunction in movement disorder patients. Use of quantitative cutoffs may improve diagnostic accuracy and serve as a valuable adjunct to existing clinical assessment methods.