Ectopic expression of a rice triketone dioxygenase gene confers mesotrione tolerance in soybean.

BACKGROUND: Herbicide-resistant weeds pose a challenge to agriculture and food production. New herbicide tolerance traits in crops will provide farmers with more options to effectively manage weeds. Mesotrione, a selective pre- and post-emergent triketone herbicide used in corn production, controls broadleaf and some annual grass weeds via hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD) inhibition. Recently, the rice HIS1 gene, responsible for native tolerance to the selective triketone herbicide benzobicyclon, was identified. Expression of HIS1 also confers a modest level of mesotrione resistance in rice. Here we report the use of the HIS1 gene to develop a mesotrione tolerance trait in soybean. RESULTS: Conventional soybean is highly sensitive to mesotrione. Ectopic expression of a codon-optimized version of the rice HIS1 gene (TDO) in soybean confers a commercial level of mesotrione tolerance. In TDO transgenic soybean plants, mesotrione is rapidly and locally oxidized into noninhibitory metabolites in leaf tissues directly exposed to the herbicide. These metabolites are further converted into compounds similar to known classes of plant secondary metabolites. This rapid metabolism prevents movement of mesotrione from treated leaves into vulnerable emerging leaves. Minimizing the accumulation of the herbicide in vulnerable emerging leaves protects the function of HPPD and carotenoid biosynthesis more generally while providing tolerance to mesotrione. CONCLUSIONS: Mesotrione has a favorable environmental and toxicological profile. The TDO-mediated soybean mesotrione tolerance trait described here provides farmers with a new option to effectively manage difficult-to-control weeds using familiar herbicide chemistry. This trait can also be adapted to other mesotrione-sensitive crops (e.g. cotton) for effective weed management. © 2022 Bayer Crop Science. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

SCHOOL UNIFORMS AND STUDENT BEHAVIOR: IS THERE A LINK?

Whether or not schoolchildren exhibit better behavior in the context of wearing uniforms has been a long-standing area of debate in education. Nonetheless, there has been little empirical inquiry into the benefits or drawbacks of school uniform policies. To contribute new insights to the dialogue, the present investigation used nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 2011 (n = 6,320) to examine students' social-behavioral and engagement outcomes across the elementary school years as a function of school uniform policies. In general, students in schools that required school uniforms did not demonstrate better social skills, internalizing and externalizing behavior, or school attendance as compared with students in schools without school uniforms. These associations were true across both public and private schools. There was, however, some indication that low-income students in schools that required uniforms demonstrated better school attendance than low-income students in schools that did not.

Environmental fate studies with 14C-polyoxyethylene tallow amine (POE-T) to characterize environmental exposure and inform environmental risk assessments.

Polyoxyethylene tallow amine (POE-T) is a member of the polyoxyethylene alkylamine (POEA) class of nonionic surfactants and is a component of some glyphosate-based formulations. The presence of POE-T improves foliar uptake of glyphosate in weeds, thereby reducing the amount of glyphosate needed for weed control. To further characterize the environmental fate of POE-T, aerobic soil degradation, hydrolysis, adsorption/desorption, and aerobic aquatic degradation studies were conducted according to U.S. EPA and OECD pesticide regulatory testing guidelines. POE-T labeled with carbon-14 was used in the studies to aid in analysis, assess mineralization to CO2, and allow for mass balance determinations. The aerobic soil half-lives (DT50) for POE-T ranged from 20 to 166 days with DT50 values increasing with increasing soil percent organic carbon (OC). POE-T was hydrolytically stable at pH 4-9. POE-T adsorbed strongly to soil (KFocads = 17,600-114,000) with sorption generally increasing as soil percent OC increased. The aerobic aquatic (water-sediment) system DT50s for POE-T were 14-29 days, with POE-T dissipating from the water column with DT50s of 0.10-0.12 days through metabolism and adsorption to sediment. Based on these results, aquatic organisms are unlikely to be exposed to POE -T in the water column for more than a few hours following waterborne exposure and sediment is a significant sink for POE-T in aquatic systems. However, bioavailability of POE-T in sediment and soil is predicted to be low based on strong adsorption and it is not readily desorbed.

Identification of the Sensory Dependent Locations of the Shoulder Joint to Optimize Surgical Approaches and Reduce Postoperative Pain: A Systematic Review.

INTRODUCTION: Treatment of post-surgical pain is predicated by an understanding of pain generators. The purpose of this review is to identify sensory dependent areas of the shoulder and discuss their correlation in treating postoperative pain. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews were searched (key terms: "Nociception" or "sensory pain receptors" or "pain map" or "neuroanatomy and shoulder" or "rotator cuff") to identify studies in the current literature (1966-2018) regarding sensory innervation of the shoulder and rotator cuff. The search was limited to the English language, human studies, and publication types to reviews and clinical studies. Articles written in other languages besides English, animal studies, abstracts, and conference notes were excluded. Each search result was investigated for relevant physiological information of the nerve endings and nociceptors as well as pertinent information and figures that illustrated the location of the identified receptors. RESULTS: A total of 12 articles were identified that addressed the sensory innervation of the shoulder. The shoulder capsule has the highest sensory nerve density. The attachment sites between the labrum and the capsule and glenoid rim were also found to be highly sensory dependent, in contrast to the peri-core zone at the capsulolabral junction, which was found to be less concentrated with fascicles and sensory nerve endings. The subacromial bursa is also a highly sensory dependent structure, with a more concentrated neural network on the coracoacromial side compared to other quadrants of the bursa. Cutaneous locations of sensory fibers on the shoulder are best defined by mapping the pressure pain threshold (PPT) of various locations on the shoulder. The most sensory dependent locations of the shoulder were found to be the posterior border of the acromion, the glenohumeral joint, the anterior deltoid, and the upper trapezius. CONCLUSION: This review examined the origin of pain in the shoulder, the location of cutaneous pain receptors, and receptors in each major part of the shoulder. Providing analgesia to these densely innervated areas of the shoulder can potentially reduce pain associated with surgical trauma. In addition, knowledge of the sensory dependent areas of the shoulder may elicit consideration of alternative incision sites and surgical protocols to decrease the insult to nociceptors in these locations. These changes could possibly decrease the narcotic requirement in the postoperative period.

The Shale Boom and Family Structure: Oil and Gas Employment Growth's Relationship to Marriage, Divorce, and Cohabitation.

Shale oil and gas extraction technology has caused a large shift in the United States energy landscape over the last decade. This has had a wide range of impacts on the mostly rural communities in which oil and gas extraction occurs. While many studies have focused on the economic and environmental impact of shale development, researchers have only begun to study the social changes brought on by shale resource extraction. We examine the influence of shale oil and gas employment as a share of overall county employment on county marriage, divorce, and cohabitation rates. We find evidence that oil and gas employment growth is associated with decreased marriage rates and increased divorce rates from 2009-2014. We test several channels through which oil and gas development may influence marriage behaviors and find that changes in female labor force participation, county sex ratios, and median household incomes are associated with oil and gas development. We also test for differences across the rural/urban continuum and find that our results are driven largely by nonmetro counties.

Monitoring Postoperative Opioid Use Following Simple Arthroscopic Meniscectomy: A Performance-Improvement Strategy for Prescribing Recommendations and Community Safety.

BACKGROUND: Orthopaedic surgeons are confronted with a difficult dilemma: managing acute pain postoperatively and balancing the risk of prescription opioid use. To our knowledge, a prospective performance-improvement project providing opioid-prescription recommendations based on the actual amounts of usual and customary medication consumed following simple knee meniscectomy has not been described. METHODS: One hundred and two patients undergoing arthroscopic knee meniscectomy prospectively recorded postoperative pain medications in a pain journal. Arthroscopic procedures were performed at 2 centers by 9 fellowship-trained senior surgeons. Various usual and customary prescribing protocols were observed, and the amount of medication consumed was recorded. Prescription and over-the-counter pain medication, quantity, frequency, and visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores were collected. RESULTS: One hundred and two patients filled a prescription opioid medication and were included in the study. A total of 3,765 pills were prescribed, and a total of 573.5 were consumed. For the 102 patients who filled a prescription, the average time consuming opioid medication was 2 ± 2 days (range, 0 to 13 days) postoperatively. No cases of persistent use were recorded. Of the 102 patients who filled a prescription, 29.4% did not take any prescription opioids postoperatively. A total of 3,191.5 pills (or 22,183.75 morphine milligram equivalents [MME]) were unused and were potentially available to the community. CONCLUSIONS: Following simple knee arthroscopy, the amount of prescribed opioid medication exceeds the need for postoperative pain management. In general, 68% of patients require a maximum of 13 pills postoperatively for 6 days. Surgeons should adjust prescribing standards accordingly to limit the amount of prescription opioids available to the community. Furthermore, a comprehensive response to include increased patient screening and monitoring as well as opioid use and disposal education is recommended.

Integrating metabolomics and transcriptomics data to discover a biocatalyst that can generate the amine precursors for alkamide biosynthesis.

The Echinacea genus is exemplary of over 30 plant families that produce a set of bioactive amides, called alkamides. The Echinacea alkamides may be assembled from two distinct moieties, a branched-chain amine that is acylated with a novel polyunsaturated fatty acid. In this study we identified the potential enzymological source of the amine moiety as a pyridoxal phosphate-dependent decarboxylating enzyme that uses branched-chain amino acids as substrate. This identification was based on a correlative analysis of the transcriptomes and metabolomes of 36 different E. purpurea tissues and organs, which expressed distinct alkamide profiles. Although no correlation was found between the accumulation patterns of the alkamides and their putative metabolic precursors (i.e., fatty acids and branched-chain amino acids), isotope labeling analyses supported the transformation of valine and isoleucine to isobutylamine and 2-methylbutylamine as reactions of alkamide biosynthesis. Sequence homology identified the pyridoxal phosphate-dependent decarboxylase-like proteins in the translated proteome of E. purpurea. These sequences were prioritized for direct characterization by correlating their transcript levels with alkamide accumulation patterns in different organs and tissues, and this multi-pronged approach led to the identification and characterization of a branched-chain amino acid decarboxylase, which would appear to be responsible for generating the amine moieties of naturally occurring alkamides.

Functional diversity in fungal fatty acid synthesis: the first acetylenase from the Pacific golden chanterelle, Cantharellus formosus.

Acetylenic specialized metabolites containing one or more carbon-carbon triple bonds are widespread, being found in fungi, vascular and lower plants, marine sponges and algae, and insects. Plants, moss, and most recently, insects, have been shown to employ an energetically difficult, sequential dehydrogenation mechanism for acetylenic bond formation. Here, we describe the cloning and heterologous expression in yeast of a linoleoyl 12-desaturase (acetylenase) and a bifunctional desaturase with Delta(12)-/Delta(14)-regiospecificity from the Pacific golden chanterelle. The acetylenase gene, which is the first identified from a fungus, is phylogenetically distinct from known plant and fungal desaturases. Together, the bifunctional desaturase and the acetylenase provide the enzymatic activities required to drive oleate through linoleate to crepenynate and the conjugated enyne (14Z)-dehydrocrepenynate, the branchpoint precursors to a major class of acetylenic natural products.

Regulation of the angiopoietin-Tie ligand-receptor system with a novel splice variant of Tie1 reduces the severity of murine arthritis.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the function of the angiopoietin (Ang)-Tie ligand-receptor system, and to assess the effect of Tie1-751, a naturally occurring extracellular domain of the Tie1 receptor derived by alternative splicing, in an in vivo model of RA. METHODS: In the murine CIA model, expression of endogenous Ang1, Ang2, Tie1 and Tie2 in whole paws was analysed by quantitative RT-PCR. To assess the effect of inhibition of the Ang-Tie axis, Tie1-751 was expressed and fused to the Fc fragment of human IgG1. The effect of Tie1-751-Fc on human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) cytoprotection and migration in response to Ang1, either alone or in combination with VEGF, was investigated. Furthermore, an in vitro angiogenesis assay was used to determine the effect of Tie1-751-Fc on Ang1-mediated angiogenesis. Finally, Tie1-751-Fc was administered in CIA, and the effects on clinical disease and joint architecture of hind foot specimens were determined. RESULTS: Gene expression levels of Ang1, Ang2, and receptors Tie1 and Tie2 in whole paws were significantly increased during the progression of arthritis. Tie1-751-Fc significantly inhibited HUVEC cytoprotection and migration in response to Ang1 alone, or Ang1 in combination with VEGF. Tie1-751-Fc also significantly inhibited angiogenesis induced by a combination of Ang1 plus VEGF. Finally, Tie1-751-Fc, when administered intra-peritoneally to arthritic mice, reduced clinical signs of arthritis, damage to joint architecture and infiltration of blood vessels into the synovium. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that the Ang-Tie ligand-receptor system is dysregulated in CIA. Tie1-751, a novel splice variant of the Tie1 receptor, inhibits Ang1/VEGF signalling, suggesting that Ang inhibition may be of therapeutic benefit in inflammatory arthritis.

Differences in the ultimate strength of the biceps anchor and the generation of type II superior labral anterior posterior lesions in a cadaveric model.

BACKGROUND: The pathogenesis of superior labral anterior posterior lesions remains controversial. HYPOTHESIS: The biceps anchor is more vulnerable to loading with a posterior vector as opposed to an in-line pull. STUDY DESIGN: Controlled laboratory study. METHODS: Eight pairs of cadaveric shoulders were dissected, and the biceps tendon was loaded to failure in 1 of 2 loading patterns. Loading pattern A was meant to simulate the eccentric load of the biceps in the deceleration phase of throwing; loading pattern B was meant to simulate the posterior biceps load of the late cocking phase. RESULTS: The biceps anchor demonstrated significantly increased ultimate strength with in-line loading (group A, 508 N) as opposed to posterior loading (group B, 262 N, P < .001). All group B specimens failed at the biceps anchor, resulting in a type II superior labral anterior posterior lesion. Specimens in group A did not create a superior labral anterior posterior lesion. CONCLUSIONS: Direction of biceps loading resulted in significant differences in the ultimate strength of the biceps anchor and the generation of superior labral anterior posterior lesions. The biceps anchor was significantly weaker when loaded with a posterior vector. RELEVANCE: The superior labrum may be most vulnerable to injury in late cocking. The reproducible generation of type II superior labral anterior posterior lesions may have applications as a biomechanical model.

Effects of polyaxial pedicle screws on lumbar construct rigidity.

Pedicle screw constructs have been shown to increase fusion rates in the lumbar spine. Manufacturers have created pedicle screws with one or two degrees of freedom built into the screw head to allow for easier incorporation of the interlocking rod, but the effects of these screws on construct stiffness has not been tested. The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast the stiffness of lumbar pedicle screw constructs with and without the use of polyaxial pedicle screws. Nontapered, self-taping pedicle screws (6.0-mm diameter x 30-mm length, titanium) were used in the fixation of porcine spines from L3-L5. Group 1 (n = 5) contained six standard pedicle screws from one manufacturer. Group 2 (n = 5) contained six standard pedicle screws from a second manufacturer. Group 3 (n = 5) contained four standard pedicle screws placed at L3 and L5, as well as two polyaxial screws placed at L4. Group 4 (n = 5) contained six polyaxial pedicle screws. A rotational variable differential transformer was used to record angular displacement between vertebrae in the construct as it is loaded in flexion, extension, right bend, left bend, clockwise torque, and counterclockwise torque. Stiffness curves were linear throughout the range of applied force. The average r2 value for the generated stiffness graphs was 0.94 (SD = 0.06). No construct failure occurred during any of the testing. There were no significant differences (p < 0.05, two-way analysis of variance) in moment versus angle noted in any of the four groups tested. For torque tests, the all-polyaxial screw constructs showed significantly increased stiffness compared with the other groups. The current study has shown that the incorporation of polyaxial screws in pedicle screw constructs did not significantly decrease the construct stiffness. There is a suggestion that the use of all polyaxial screws may increase the resistance to torque by allowing better purchase of intervertebral rods.

Enhancement of pedicle screw fixation through washers.

This study examined the effect of washer usage on initial pedicle screw fixation and on the salvage of replaced pedicle screws, and the effect of minor adjustments of pedicle screws on insertional torque. Titanium, nontapered pedicle screws (6.5-mm in diameter and 35-mm in length) from one manufacturer and custom-made 5-mm washers were used in the fixation of porcine lumbar spines. Insertional torque was measured with an electronic torque screwdriver and failure strength was determined by straight pullout of the screws using an MTS machine. Initial insertional torque values were significantly greater in pedicle screws placed with washers compared with screws placed without washers. When the screw placed without a washer was salvaged with the addition of a washer, a significant increase in insertional torque resulted. Pullout testing failed to show a significant difference between the screws that were placed with washers and the screws that were placed without washers. In the second part of the experiment, there was a significant decrease in insertional torque after backing out the screw as little as 90 degrees. This current study showed that (1) washers significantly increase the insertional torque of pedicle screws; (2) screws placed without a washer can be salvaged and replaced with a washer, which results in significantly increased insertional torque; and (3) backing out a pedicle screw 90 degrees significantly decreases its insertional torque. Washers can be used with pedicle screws to enhance the initial stability of the screw constructs, and to maximize insertional torque when screws need to be replaced, revised, or adjusted (backed out).

The clinical significance of anterior horn meniscal tears diagnosed on magnetic resonance images.

We assessed the accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging in detecting clinically significant lesions of the anterior horn of the meniscus by reviewing 947 consecutive knee magnetic resonance imaging reports. Of these, 76 (8%) indicated a tear of the anterior horn of the medial or lateral meniscus. Thirty-one of these 76 patients underwent a subsequent arthroscopic examination, and their operative reports were reviewed. The 45 patients who were not examined arthroscopically were contacted and interviewed for clinical follow-up. Among the 31 patients who underwent arthroscopic examination, 8 anterior horn tears were noted in the predicted area (26% true-positive results), 23 patients had intact anterior horns (74% false-positive results), and 18 had normal intact menisci in all zones. Of the 45 patients who did not undergo arthroscopic surgery, 6 had isolated anterior horn tears reported on magnetic resonance imaging, and 5 of the 6 were asymptomatic at follow-up. The other 39 patients had multiple pathologic conditions noted on the magnetic resonance imaging report and continued to report knee pain at the follow-up interview. Increased signal intensity at the anterior horn of the meniscus seen on magnetic resonance imaging commonly does not represent a clinically significant lesion. We recommend correlation with the physical examination when interpreting this "positive" finding on knee magnetic resonance imaging examinations.