Pack-MULEs Carry Functionality

The functional role of pack-MULEs in rice inferred from purifying selection and expression profile.

Gene duplication is an important mechanism for evolution of new genes. In plants, a special group of transposable elements, called Pack-MULEs or transduplicates, is able to duplicate and amplify genes or gene fragments on a large scale. Despite the abundance of Pack-MULEs, the functionality of these duplicates is not clear. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of expression and purifying s...

The unique epigenetic features of Pack-MULEs and their impact on chromosomal base composition and expression spectrum

Acquisition and rearrangement of host genes by transposable elements (TEs) is an important mechanism to increase gene diversity as exemplified by the ∼3000 Pack-Mutator-like TEs in the rice genome which have acquired gene sequences (Pack-MULEs), yet remain enigmatic. To identify signatures of functioning Pack-MULEs and Pack-MULE evolution, we generated transcriptome, translatome, and epigenome ...

Mary Shortridge Mules

Nutrition of Horses and Mules

THE PRINCIPLES of the nutrition of horses and mules ^ fundamentalh^ are not unlike those of other domestic livestock. Thus^ for body building and maintenance, for growth, and for production, the horse and mule have need for protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, and vitamins, much as these essentials are required for similar vital processes by cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry. The relative im...

My pack is cuter than your pack.

Faced with bans on advertising, the tobacco companies are looking to new, more subtle ways of maintaining their brands' profile in the public eye.