Association between adolescents who are victims of bullying and weapon possession.

OBJECTIVE: To verify the association between victims of bullying and weapon possession among school adolescents. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out with 2,296 high school students aged 14-19 years. An instrument containing questions from the validated Youth Risk Behavior Survey questionnaire and the National School Health Survey was used. To describe the profile of interviewees, absolute and relative frequencies were calculated, and the chi-square test was applied to verify the existence of associations. To test the association of bullying with weapon possession, Poisson logistic regression (univariate and multivariate) was used. The significance level used for all analyses was 5%. RESULTS: Among adolescents interviewed, 23.1% reported being victims of bullying. Among victims of bullying, 37.6% (PR = 1.68; 95% CI = 1.30 - 2.17) reported having already carried some type of weapon (knife, revolver, or truncheon) in the last 30 days, while the reported firearm possession was 38% (PR = 1.67; 95% CI = 1.16 - 2.40) and 47.5% of these adolescents carried some type of weapon (knife, revolver or truncheon) in the school environment (PR = 2.10; 95% CI = 1.50 - 2.93). CONCLUSIONS: It could be observed that adolescents who are victims of bullying are twice as likely of carrying some type of weapon (knife, revolver, or truncheon) to the school environment, and are also more likely of carrying a firearm.

Association between adolescents who are victims of bullying and weapon possession

Abstract Objective To verify the association between victims of bullying and weapon possession among school adolescents. Methods This cross-sectional study was carried out with 2,296 high school students aged 14-19 years. An instrument containing questions from the validated Youth Risk Behavior Survey questionnaire and the National School Health Survey was used. To describe the profile of interviewees, absolute and relative frequencies were calculated, and the chi-square test was applied to verify the existence of associations. To test the association of bullying with weapon possession, Poisson logistic regression (univariate and multivariate) was used. The significance level used for all analyses was 5%. Results Among adolescents interviewed, 23.1% reported being victims of bullying. Among victims of bullying, 37.6% (PR = 1.68; 95% CI = 1.30 - 2.17) reported having already carried some type of weapon (knife, revolver, or truncheon) in the last 30 days, while the reported firearm possession was 38% (PR = 1.67; 95% CI = 1.16 - 2.40) and 47.5% of these adolescents carried some type of weapon (knife, revolver or truncheon) in the school environment (PR = 2.10; 95% CI = 1.50 - 2.93). Conclusions It could be observed that adolescents who are victims of bullying are twice as likely of carrying some type of weapon (knife, revolver, or truncheon) to the school environment, and are also more likely of carrying a firearm.

A Tomato Tocopherol-Binding Protein Sheds Light on Intracellular α-Tocopherol Metabolism in Plants.

Tocopherols are non-polar compounds synthesized in the plastids, which function as major antioxidants of the plant cells and are essential in the human diet. Both the intermediates and final products of the tocopherol biosynthetic pathway must cross plastid membranes to reach their sites of action. So far, no protein with tocopherol binding activity has been reported in plants. Here, we demonstrated that the tomato SlTBP protein is targeted to chloroplasts and able to bind α-tocopherol. SlTBP-knockdown tomato plants exhibited reduced levels of tocopherol in both leaves and fruits. Several tocopherol deficiency phenotypes were apparent in the transgenic lines, such as alterations in photosynthetic parameters, dramatic distortion of thylakoid membranes and significant variations in the lipid profile. These results, along with the altered expression of genes related to photosynthesis, and tetrapyrrole, lipid, isoprenoid, inositol/phosphoinositide and redox metabolism, suggest that SlTBP may act in conducting tocopherol (or its biosynthetic intermediates) between the plastid compartments and/or at the interface between chloroplast and endoplasmic reticulum membranes, affecting interorganellar lipid metabolism.

Silencing of the tomato sugar partitioning affecting protein (SPA) modifies sink strength through a shift in leaf sugar metabolism.

Limitations in our understanding about the mechanisms that underlie source-sink assimilate partitioning are increasingly becoming a major hurdle for crop yield enhancement via metabolic engineering. By means of a comprehensive approach, this work reports the functional characterization of a DnaJ chaperone related-protein (named as SPA; sugar partition-affecting) that is involved in assimilate partitioning in tomato plants. SPA protein was found to be targeted to the chloroplast thylakoid membranes. SPA-RNAi tomato plants produced more and heavier fruits compared with controls, thus resulting in a considerable increment in harvest index. The transgenic plants also displayed increased pigment levels and reduced sucrose, glucose and fructose contents in leaves. Detailed metabolic and enzymatic activities analyses showed that sugar phosphate intermediates were increased while the activity of phosphoglucomutase, sugar kinases and invertases was reduced in the photosynthetic organs of the silenced plants. These changes would be anticipated to promote carbon export from foliar tissues. The combined results suggested that the tomato SPA protein plays an important role in plastid metabolism and mediates the source-sink relationships by affecting the rate of carbon translocation to fruits.

Galacturonosyltransferase 4 silencing alters pectin composition and carbon partitioning in tomato.

Pectin is a main component of the plant cell wall and is the most complex family of polysaccharides in nature. Its composition is essential for the normal growth and morphology pattern, as demonstrated by pectin-defective mutant phenotypes. Besides this basic role in plant physiology, in tomato, pectin structure contributes to very important quality traits such as fruit firmness. Sixty-seven different enzymatic activities have been suggested to be required for pectin biosynthesis, but only a few genes have been identified and studied so far. This study characterized the tomato galacturonosyltransferase (GAUT) family and performed a detailed functional study of the GAUT4 gene. The tomato genome harbours all genes orthologous to those described previously in Arabidopsis thaliana, and a transcriptional profile revealed that the GAUT4 gene was expressed at higher levels in developing organs. GAUT4-silenced tomato plants exhibited an increment in vegetative biomass associated with palisade parenchyma enlargement. Silenced fruits showed an altered pectin composition and accumulated less starch along with a reduced amount of pectin, which coincided with an increase in firmness. Moreover, the harvest index was dramatically reduced as a consequence of the reduction in the fruit weight and number. Altogether, these results suggest that, beyond its role in pectin biosynthesis, GAUT4 interferes with carbon metabolism, partitioning, and allocation. Hence, this cell-wall-related gene seems to be key in determining plant growth and fruit production in tomato.

Transcriptional regulation of tocopherol biosynthesis in tomato.

Tocopherols, compounds with vitamin E (VTE) activity, are potent lipid-soluble antioxidants synthesized only by photosynthetic organisms. Their biosynthesis requires the condensation of phytyl-diphosphate and homogentisate, derived from the methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) and shikimate pathways (SK), respectively. These metabolic pathways are central in plant chloroplast metabolism and are involved in the biosynthesis of important molecules such as chlorophyll, carotenoids, aromatic amino-acids and prenylquinones. In the last decade, few studies have provided insights into the regulation of VTE biosynthesis and its accumulation. However, the pathway regulatory mechanism/s at mRNA level remains unclear. We have recently identified a collection of tomato genes involved in tocopherol biosynthesis. In this work, by a dedicated qPCR array platform, the transcript levels of 47 genes, including paralogs, were determined in leaves and across fruit development. Expression data were analyzed for correlation with tocopherol profiles by coregulation network and neural clustering approaches. The results showed that tocopherol biosynthesis is controlled both temporally and spatially however total tocopherol content remains constant. These analyses exposed 18 key genes from MEP, SK, phytol recycling and VTE-core pathways highly associated with VTE content in leaves and fruits. Moreover, genomic analyses of promoter regions suggested that the expression of the tocopherol-core pathway genes is trancriptionally coregulated with specific genes of the upstream pathways. Whilst the transcriptional profiles of the precursor pathway genes would suggest an increase in VTE content across fruit development, the data indicate that in the M82 cultivar phytyl diphosphate supply limits tocopherol biosynthesis in later fruit stages. This is in part due to the decreasing transcript levels of geranylgeranyl reductase (GGDR) which restricts the isoprenoid precursor availability. As a proof of concept, by analyzing a collection of Andean landrace tomato genotypes, the role of the pinpointed genes in determining fruit tocopherol content was confirmed. The results uncovered a finely tuned regulation able to shift the precursor pathways controlling substrate influx for VTE biosynthesis and overcoming endogenous competition for intermediates. The whole set of data allowed to propose that 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase and GGDR encoding genes, which determine phytyl-diphosphate availability, together with enzyme encoding genes involved in chlorophyll-derived phytol metabolism appear as the most plausible targets to be engineered aiming to improve tomato fruit nutritional value.

Functional characterization of sugarcane mustang domesticated transposases and comparative diversity in sugarcane, rice, maize and sorghum.

Transposable elements (TEs) account for a large portion of plant genomes, particularly in grasses, in which they correspond to 50%-80% of the genomic content. TEs have recently been shown to be a source of new genes and new regulatory networks. The most striking contribution of TEs is referred as "molecular domestication", by which the element coding sequence loses its movement capacity and acquires cellular function. Recently, domesticated transposases known as mustang and derived from the Mutator element have been described in sugarcane. In order to improve our understanding of the function of these proteins, we identified mustang genes from Sorghum bicolor and Zea mays and performed a phenetic analysis to assess the diversity and evolutionary history of this gene family. This analysis identified orthologous groups and showed that mustang genes are highly conserved in grass genomes. We also explored the transcriptional activity of sugarcane mustang genes in heterologous and homologous systems. These genes were found to be ubiquitously transcribed, with shoot apical meristem having the highest expression levels, and were downregulated by phytohormones. Together, these findings suggest the possible involvement of mustang proteins in the maintenance of hormonal homeostasis.

Genetic dissection of vitamin E biosynthesis in tomato.

Vegetables are critical for human health as they are a source of multiple vitamins including vitamin E (VTE). In plants, the synthesis of VTE compounds, tocopherol and tocotrienol, derives from precursors of the shikimate and methylerythritol phosphate pathways. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) for α-tocopherol content in ripe fruit have previously been determined in an Solanum pennellii tomato introgression line population. In this work, variations of tocopherol isoforms (α, ß, γ, and δ) in ripe fruits of these lines were studied. In parallel all tomato genes structurally associated with VTE biosynthesis were identified and mapped. Previously identified VTE QTL on chromosomes 6 and 9 were confirmed whilst novel ones were identified on chromosomes 7 and 8. Integrated analysis at the metabolic, genetic and genomic levels allowed us to propose 16 candidate loci putatively affecting tocopherol content in tomato. A comparative analysis revealed polymorphisms at nucleotide and amino acid levels between Solanum lycopersicum and S. pennellii candidate alleles. Moreover, evolutionary analyses showed the presence of codons evolving under both neutral and positive selection, which may explain the phenotypic differences between species. These data represent an important step in understanding the genetic determinants of VTE natural variation in tomato fruit and as such in the ability to improve the content of this important nutriceutical.

Genomic analysis of wild tomato introgressions determining metabolism- and yield-associated traits.

With the aim of determining the genetic basis of metabolic regulation in tomato fruit, we constructed a detailed physical map of genomic regions spanning previously described metabolic quantitative trait loci of a Solanum pennellii introgression line population. Two genomic libraries from S. pennellii were screened with 104 colocated markers from five selected genomic regions, and a total of 614 bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC)/cosmids were identified as seed clones. Integration of sequence data with the genetic and physical maps of Solanum lycopersicum facilitated the anchoring of 374 of these BAC/cosmid clones. The analysis of this information resulted in a genome-wide map of a nondomesticated plant species and covers 10% of the physical distance of the selected regions corresponding to approximately 1% of the wild tomato genome. Comparative analyses revealed that S. pennellii and domesticated tomato genomes can be considered as largely colinear. A total of 1,238,705 bp from both BAC/cosmid ends and nine large insert clones were sequenced, annotated, and functionally categorized. The sequence data allowed the evaluation of the level of polymorphism between the wild and cultivated tomato species. An exhaustive microsynteny analysis allowed us to estimate the divergence date of S. pennellii and S. lycopersicum at 2.7 million years ago. The combined results serve as a reference for comparative studies both at the macrosyntenic and microsyntenic levels. They also provide a valuable tool for fine-mapping of quantitative trait loci in tomato. Furthermore, they will contribute to a deeper understanding of the regulatory factors underpinning metabolism and hence defining crop chemical composition.