Uncontrolled transposable element (TE) insertions and excisions can cause chromosome breaks and mutations with dramatic deleterious effects. The PIWI interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway functions as an adaptive TE silencing system during germline development. Several essential piRNA pathway proteins appear to be rapidly evolving, suggesting that TEs and the silencing machinery may be engaged in a c...

The effect that application of nitrogen-phosphorus (NP) rates exerts on some parameters of nitrogen metabolism and on yield in aubergine plants (eggplant, Solanummelongena cv. Bonica) was studied. All plants were grown under controlled conditions in an experimental greenhouse. The treatments consisted of the combination of three rates of N in the form of KNO3 (N1: 15 g m-2, N2: 22.5 g m,-2 and ...

Recent studies in mammals have documented the neural expression and mobility of retrotransposons and have suggested that neural genomes are diverse mosaics. We found that transposition occurs among memory-relevant neurons in the Drosophila brain. Cell type-specific gene expression profiling revealed that transposon expression is more abundant in mushroom body (MB) αβ neurons than in neighboring...

Seedlings of aubergine (Solanum melongena L.) cv. ‘Rima’ were used as scion (R) and control (non-grafted) and rootstock (self-grafted) (RR), while two hybrid tomatoes ‘Heman’ (Lycopersicon hirsutm) and ‘Primavera’ (Lycopersicon esculentum) were used as rootstocks. Grafted and non-grafted plants were grown in the greenhouse and in the open-field. Grafted plants Rima and Heman (RH) were more vigo...

The eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), also known as aubergine or brinjal, has been cultivated for centuries in the Old World and is currently a crop species of global importance. Despite this, hypotheses of eggplant evolution have been fraught with controversy. Previous conclusions have relied solely on morphological characters or have been based on insufficient taxonomic sampling, leading to co...

Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) suppress transposon activity in animal germ cells. In the Drosophila ovary, primary Aubergine (Aub)-bound antisense piRNAs initiate the ping-pong cycle to produce secondary AGO3-bound sense piRNAs. This increases the number of secondary Aub-bound antisense piRNAs that can act to destroy transposon mRNAs. Here we show that Krimper (Krimp), a Tudor-domain protein, d...

Worldwide, several studies have shown that adaptation to different host plants in phytophagous insects can promote speciation. The cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover (Homoptera: Aphididae: Aphidini), is a highly polyphagous species, but its populations increase by parthenogenetic reproduction alone in Indian subcontinent. This study showed that genotypes living in wild plants of taro, Colocasi...