The insecticidal activity of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) is due to synergistic interactions among its four major proteins (Cry4Aa, Cry4Ba, Cry11Aa, Cyt1Aa), while the activity of Lysinibacillus sphaericus (Ls) is due to a binary toxin (Bin) consisting of a toxin domain, BinA, and a midgut receptor-binding domain, BinB. Although used commercially for almost three decades, reports of mosquito resistance to Bti have been rare. However, levels of resistance greater than 10,000-fold to Bin have been reported where Ls has been used intensively for mosquito control. Cyt1Aa is a lipophilic protein, and in previous studies we showed it delays the evolution of resistance to the Cry proteins of Bti, and can overcome high levels of resistance Bin. In a previous study, we fused Cyt1Aa to BinA, using the lipophile as a broad-spectrum binding domain and showed that the Cyt1Aa-BinA chimera was remarkably toxic to five major vector species of mosquitoes, Anopheles gambiae, An. stephensi, An. quadrimaculatus, Bin-sensitive and Bin-resistant strains of Culex quinquifasciatus, and Aedes aegypti, the latter not normally sensitive to Ls. However, toxicity against Aedes aegypti was not as high as against other mosquito species. Here we show that introducing another highly mosquitocidal protein, Cry11B from B. thuringiensis subsp. jegathesan, enhances the chimera’s toxicity against Ae. aegypti significantly but not against Cx. quinquefasciatus.

We present the analysis of KMT-2016-BLG-0212, a low flux-variation (Iflux−var ∼ 20 mag) microlensing event, which is in a high-cadence (Γ = 4hr −1) field of the three-telescope Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) survey. The event shows a short anomaly that is incompletely covered due to the brief visibility intervals that characterize the early microlensing season when the anomaly occurred. We show that the data are consistent with two classes of solutions, characterized respectively by low-mass brown-dwarf (q = 0.037) and sub-Neptune (q < 10−4) companions. Future high-resolution imaging should easily distinguish between these solutions.

The pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, requires the nutritional endosymbiont, Buchnera, for the production of essential amino acids. However, it is unclear if host plant diet that varies in essential amino acids influences aphid regulation of its nutritional symbioses. We hypothesized that aphid genes respond to host plant diet when aphids feed on their specialized (alfalfa) compared to universal host plant diet (fava), which vary in essential amino acid concentrations. Using RNA-Seq and whole genome bisulfite sequencing, we compared the gene expression profiles and DNA methylation distributions of specialized aphid cells that harbor Buchnera (bacteriocytes) when aphids feed on their specialized compared to their universal host plant diets. Our results show that bacteriocyte transcription and methylation patterns differ between host plant diets. When aphids feed on their specialized host plant, they significantly up-regulate and/or hypo-methylate key aphid genes in bacteriocytes related to the amino acid metabolism, including glutamine synthetase (GS) and the glutamine transporter ApGLNT1. Moreover, regardless of which host plant aphids feed on, we observed significant up-regulation and differential methylation of the key genes in the amino acid metabolism and the glycine/serine metabolism in aphid bacteriocytes. We suggest that the regulatory response of key symbiosis genes in bacteriocytes allows aphids to feed on a specialized host plant diet with suboptimal nitrogen concentrations.

In this research, we investigate the dynamics of one market cycle of Indian art through its various phases of development from early growth to peak and then through a decline. Using the entire online market data for Modern Indian art, we examine how the internal dynamics of the price formation process during auctions changed during the course of this market’s evolution. Our results show that the structure of the price formation process varies systematically over the course of the cycle and the impact of the brand (artist), the product (painting), market information (pre-auction estimates), demand (competition), and consumer (bidder) characteristics changed across the stages of market evolution. Specifically, the revenue, price per square inch, and the number of lots sold (items) from established artists closely followed the overall trend in the market. On the other hand, the number of lots and revenue from emerging artists had a minimal increase during the growth phase of the market. However, these artists maintained their value even when the market was declining. Furthermore, 80% of the lots by established artists beat the preauction estimates during the growth period, compared to only 40% for emerging artists. In contrast, during the decline stage, more lots from emerging artists (8%) beat the preauction estimates than lots from established artists (2%). We also find that bidders entered the auction much earlier during the growth phase of the market than during the maturity and decline stages. These findings have implications for multiple stakeholders in the online art auction market including, sellers, buyers, artists, and auction houses.

We carry out a study of Sub-Millimeter Galaxies (SMGs) in the AKARI NEP-Deep field using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) SCUBA-2 850 μm source catalog, released as part of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey (S2CLS) program. The SCUBA-2 850 μm map has a root mean square (rms) noise of 1.2 mJy beam−1 and covers an area of 0.60 degree2. We find four SMGs which have counterparts to Herschel sources with spectroscopic redshifts in the literature. In addition, three dust obscured galaxies (DOGs) detected in Herschel bands are selected as a comparison sample. We derive IR luminosities of SMGs using the CIGALE code, which are similar to those of high redshift SMGs from previous studies. The contribution of AGN to the total IR luminosity in SMGs (2%–11%) is smaller than the lower limit for the one in DOGs (19%–35%), which is consistent with the expectation from the evolutionary scenario of massive galaxies. We search for SMGs in overdense regions as protocluster candidates and investigate four regions, including candidates around three DOGs. Finally, we argue that follow-up spectroscopic observation for the NEP-Deep field will provide crucial information to understand the role of SMGs in the evolution of massive galaxies.