Cornell University

About: Cornell University is a education organization based out in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Gene. The organization has 102246 authors who have published 235546 publications receiving 12283673 citations. The organization is also known as: Cornell & CUI.

Genome Sequence of the Pea Aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum

Abstract: Aphids are important agricultural pests and also biological models for studies of insect-plant interactions, symbiosis, virus vectoring, and the developmental causes of extreme phenotypic plasticity. Here we present the 464 Mb draft genome assembly of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum. This first published whole genome sequence of a basal hemimetabolous insect provides an outgroup to the multiple published genomes of holometabolous insects. Pea aphids are host-plant specialists, they can reproduce both sexually and asexually, and they have coevolved with an obligate bacterial symbiont. Here we highlight findings from whole genome analysis that may be related to these unusual biological features. These findings include discovery of extensive gene duplication in more than 2000 gene families as well as loss of evolutionarily conserved genes. Gene family expansions relative to other published genomes include genes involved in chromatin modification, miRNA synthesis, and sugar transport. Gene losses include genes central to the IMD immune pathway, selenoprotein utilization, purine salvage, and the entire urea cycle. The pea aphid genome reveals that only a limited number of genes have been acquired from bacteria; thus the reduced gene count of Buchnera does not reflect gene transfer to the host genome. The inventory of metabolic genes in the pea aphid genome suggests that there is extensive metabolite exchange between the aphid and Buchnera, including sharing of amino acid biosynthesis between the aphid and Buchnera. The pea aphid genome provides a foundation for post-genomic studies of fundamental biological questions and applied agricultural problems.

Existing Knowledge, Knowledge Creation Capability, and the Rate of New Product Introduction in High-Technology Firms

Abstract: A field study of top management teams and knowledge workers from 72 technology firms demonstrated that the rate of new product and service introduction was a function of organization members’ ability to combine and exchange knowledge. We tested the following as bases of that ability: the existing knowledge of employees (their education levels and functional heterogeneity), knowledge from member ego networks (number of direct contacts and strength of ties), and organizational climates for risk taking and teamwork.

A testicular antigen aberrantly expressed in human cancers detected by autologous antibody screening

Abstract: Serological analysis of recombinant cDNA expression libraries (SEREX) using tumor mRNA and autologous patient serum provides a powerful approach to identify immunogenic tumor antigens. We have applied this methodology to a case of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and identified several candidate tumor targets. One of these, NY-ESO-1, showed restricted mRNA expression in normal tissues, with high-level mRNA expression found only in testis and ovary tissues. Reverse transcription–PCR analysis showed NY-ESO-1 mRNA expression in a variable proportion of a wide array of human cancers, including melanoma, breast cancer, bladder cancer, prostate cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma. NY-ESO-1 encodes a putative protein of Mr 17,995 having no homology with any known protein. The pattern of NY-ESO-1 expression indicates that it belongs to an expanding family of immunogenic testicular antigens that are aberrantly expressed in human cancers in a lineage-nonspecific fashion. These antigens, initially detected by either cytotoxic T cells (MAGE, BAGE, GAGE-1) or antibodies [HOM-MEL-40(SSX2), NY-ESO-1], represent a pool of antigenic targets for cancer vaccination.

Statistical Analysis of a Yield Trial

Abstract: Yield trials frequently have both significant main effects and a significant genotype x environment (GE) interaction. Traditional statistical analyses are not always effective with this data structure: the usual analysis of variance (ANOVA), having a merely additive model, identifies the GE interaction as a source but does not analyze it; principal components analysis (PCA), on the other hand is a multiplicative model and hence contains no sources for additive genotype or environment main effects; and linear regression (LR) analysis is able to effectively analyze interaction terms only where the pattern fits a specific regression model. The consequence of fitting inappropriate statistical models to yield trial data is that the interaction may be declared nonsignificant, although a more appropriate analysis would find agronomically important and statistically significant patterns in the interaction. Therefore, agronomists and plant breeders may fail to perceive important interaction effects.