Spanish National Research Council

About: Spanish National Research Council is a government organization based out in Madrid, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Galaxy. The organization has 79563 authors who have published 220470 publications receiving 7698991 citations. The organization is also known as: CSIC & Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.

Cyclin-dependent kinase 2 is essential for meiosis but not for mitotic cell division in mice

Abstract: We targeted the locus encoding the cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) by homologous recombination in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. Embryonic fibroblasts lacking CDK2 proliferate normally and become immortal after continuous passage in culture. Elimination of a conditional Cdk2 allele in immortal cells does not have a significant effect on proliferation. Cdk2-/- mice are viable and survive for up to two years, indicating that CDK2 is also dispensable for proliferation and survival of most cell types. But CDK2 is essential for completion of prophase I during meiotic cell division in male and female germ cells, an unforeseen role for this cell cycle kinase.

Personalized copy number and segmental duplication maps using next-generation sequencing

Abstract: Despite their importance in gene innovation and phenotypic variation, duplicated regions have remained largely intractable owing to difficulties in accurately resolving their structure, copy number and sequence content. We present an algorithm (mrFAST) to comprehensively map next-generation sequence reads, which allows for the prediction of absolute copy-number variation of duplicated segments and genes. We examine three human genomes and experimentally validate genome-wide copy number differences. We estimate that, on average, 73-87 genes vary in copy number between any two individuals and find that these genic differences overwhelmingly correspond to segmental duplications (odds ratio = 135; P < 2.2 x 10(-16)). Our method can distinguish between different copies of highly identical genes, providing a more accurate assessment of gene content and insight into functional constraint without the limitations of array-based technology.

AquaCrop — The FAO Crop Model to Simulate Yield Response to Water: II. Main Algorithms and Software Description

Abstract: The AquaCrop model was developed to replace the former FAO I&D Paper 33 procedures for the estimation of crop productivity in relation to water supply and agronomic management in a framework based on current plant physiological and soil water budgeting concepts This paper presents the software of AquaCrop for which the concepts and underlying principles are described in the companion paper (Steduto et al, 2009) Input consists of weather data, crop characteristics, and soil and management characteristics that define the environment in which the crop will develop Algorithms and calculation procedures modeling the infiltration of water, the drainage out of the root zone, the canopy and root zone development, the evaporation and transpiration rate, the biomass production, and the yield formation are presented The mechanisms of crop response to cope with water shortage are described by only a few parameters, making the underlying processes more transparent to the user AquaCrop is a menu-driven program with a well-developed user interface With the help of graphs which are updated each time step (1 d) during the simulation run, the user can track changes in soil water content, and the corresponding changes in crop development, soil evaporation and transpiration rate, biomass production, and yield development One can halt the simulation at each time step, to study the effect of changes in water related inputs, making the model particularly suitable for developing deficit irrigation strategies and scenario analysis