Frequently, optimal environmental conditions favour production of more costly

CH structures whilst economical and reliable CL structures are produced under less favourable conditions. In this study we explore (1) the effect of light and water on the reproductive phenology and (2) the effect of pollen supplementation on resource allocation to seeds in selleck compound the cleistogamous weed Ruellia nudiflora.\n\nMethods Split-plot field experiments were carried out to assess the effect of shade (two levels: ambient light vs. a reduction of 50 %) and watering (two levels: non-watered vs. watered) on the onset, end and duration of the production of three reproductive structures: CH flowers, CH fruit and CL fruit. We also looked at the effect of these environmental factors on biomass allocation to seeds (seed weight) from obligately self-pollinated flowers (CL), open-pollinated

CH flowers and pollen-supplemented CH flowers.\n\nKey Results CH structures were produced for a briefer period and ended earlier under shaded conditions. These conditions also resulted in an earlier production of CL fruit. Shaded conditions also produced greater biomass allocation to CH seeds receiving extra pollen.\n\nConclusions Sub-optimal (shaded) conditions resulted in a briefer production period of CH structures whilst these same conditions resulted in an earlier production of CL structures. However, under sub-optimal conditions, plants

also allocated more resources to seeds sired from CH flowers receiving large pollen loads. Earlier production of reproductive Anti-infection inhibitor structures and relatively larger seed might improve subsequent success of CL and pollen-supplemented CH seeds, respectively.”
“Background: The dose-response relationship is a fundamental pharmacological parameter necessary to determine therapeutic thresholds. Epi-allelic hypomorphic analysis using RNA interference (RNAi) can similarly correlate target gene dosage with cellular phenotypes. This however requires a set of RNAi triggers empirically determined to attenuate target gene expression to different levels. Results: In order to improve our ability to incorporate epi-allelic analysis into target validation studies, we developed a novel flow cytometry-based A-1210477 solubility dmso functional screening approach (CellSelectRNAi) to achieve unbiased selection of shRNAs from high-coverage libraries that knockdown target gene expression to predetermined levels. Employing a Gaussian probability model we calculated that knockdown efficiency is inferred from shRNA sequence frequency profiles derived from sorted hypomorphic cell populations. We used this approach to generate a hypomorphic epi-allelic cell series of shRNAs to reveal a functional threshold for the tumor suppressor p53 in normal and transformed cells.