Despite the likely increasing co-occurrence of drought and heat stress, not least in equatorial regions, due to climate change, little is known about the combinational effect of these stresses on rice productivity and quality. This study evaluated the impact of simultaneous drought and temperature stress on growth, grain yield, and quality characteristics of seven rice cultivars from Rwanda, grown in climate chambers. Two temperature ranges—23/26 °C night/day and 27/30 °C night/day—together with single or repeated drought treatments, were applied during various plant developmental stages. Plant development and yield were highly influenced by drought, while genotype impacted the quality characteristics. The combination of a high temperature with drought at the seedling and tillering stages resulted in zero panicles for all evaluated cultivars. The cultivar ‘Intsindagirabigega’ was most tolerant to drought, while ‘Zong geng’ was the most sensitive. A “stress memory” was recorded for ‘Mpembuke’ and ‘Ndamirabahinzi’, and these cultivars also had a high content of bioactive compounds, while ’Jyambere’ showed a high total protein content. Thus, climate change may severely impact rice production. The exploitation of genetic diversity to breed novel rice cultivars that combine drought and heat stress tolerance with high nutritional values is a must to maintain food security.
Autoimmune murine disease models are vital tools for identifying novel targets and finding better treatments for human diseases. Complete Freund’s adjuvant is commonly used to induce disease in autoimmune models, and the quality of the adjuvant/autoantigen emulsion is of critical importance in determining reproducibility. We have established an emulsification method using a standard homogenizer and specially designed receptacle. Emulsions are easy to prepare, form stable and uniform water-in-oil particles, are faster to make than the traditional syringe method, use less material and are designed to fill syringes with ease. In the present study, we have validated the emulsions for induction of experimental autoimmune encephalitis, collagen II induced arthritis, antigen induced arthritis, and delayed type hypersensitivity models. These models were induced consistently and reproducibly and, in some cases, the new method outperformed the traditional method. The method described herein is simple, cost-effective and will reduce variability, thereby requiring fewer animals for in vivo research involving animal models of autoimmune disease and in vaccine development.
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