London, Sept 29 (ANI): A research team led by Penn State Distinguished Professor of Biology Hong Ma has found a new gene in rice, called GIF1, which may prove beneficial for breeding high-yield rice.

The researchers believed that the identification of GIF1 gene, responsible for the size and weight of rice grains, may benefit the vast number of people who rely on this staple food for survival.

"Our work shows that it is possible to increase rice's yield by enhancing the expression of a particular gene," Nature magazine quoted Ma as saying.

The scientists have revealed that they first discovered mutant strains of rice that exhibited underweight grains.

"We found a particular mutant that is defective in its ability to produce normal-sized grains," said Zuhua He, a biology professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the leader of the team.

The team then examined the mutant, and found that it carried a mutation within the GIF1 gene.

"The GIF1 gene is responsible for controlling the activity of the enzyme invertase, which is located in the cell wall and converts sucrose to substances that then are used to create starch. Invertase is important in the formation of starch within developing grains of rice. If invertase is not active, the rice plant cannot produce edible grains," said He.

In order to test the ability of the GIF1 gene to control the production of invertase, the team measured the activity of invertase within a normal strain of rice, in which the GIF1 gene lacked any mutations.

The researchers did the same within a mutant strain of rice, in which the GIF1 gene contained a mutation that caused a defect in the invertase activity.

Invertase activity in the mutant strain was found to be only 17 per cent of the activity that was observed in the normal strain, which indicated that the GIF1 gene does, indeed, control invertase activity.

After that, the researchers created transgenic lines of rice, in which the GIF1 gene was over expressed. It was found that the transgenic rice had larger and heavier grains, as compared to normal strains.

The researchers were surprised to find that the GIF1 gene was so specialized in controlling invertase activity in a particular part of the grain -- the vascular tissue, which transports nutrients, including sugars generated by invertase, to the developing grain.

"The expression pattern was not expected, in part, because invertase is a general enzyme that is used by many cell types. In fact, the corresponding gene in wild rice is not expressed specifically," said Ma.

The researchers also discovered that the GIF1 gene was one of the genes selected during the domestication of rice.

"By selectively growing only those strains of rice with heavier grains, humans for thousands of years unknowingly have been increasing the frequency of rice populations that had modifications in the GIF1 gene," said Ma. "This process has caused GIF1 to be expressed specifically in the vascular tissue and, thus, to produce larger rice grains," said Ma.

The researchers believe that their findings may help others in creating hybrid varieties of rice that produce even larger grains.

They are planning to conduct further research that will help them understand how other genes might be involved in the process of improving rice yield.

"The goal is to understand what controls grain weight and other factors, and to look for ways to increase yield," said Ma. (ANI)

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London, Sept 29 (ANI): The James Bond factor has helped Aston Martin retain its position as the 'The Coolest Brand In Britain'.

For the third year running, the company took first place in CoolBrands' annual list of the most iconic brands.

"Aston Martin is indelibly linked with Bond because of the films," the Sun quoted Stephen Cheliotis, chief executive of The Centre for Brand Analysis and chairman of the Cool Brands council, as saying.

"007 sums up a lot of what it means to be smooth, stylish and cool," he added.

Aston Martin chief executive Dr Ulrich Bez said: "It's a cool brand because it has cool cars, cool people and a hot soul."

Second on list was iPhone, with Apple third, Bang and Olufsen fourth and YouTube fifth.

The top 20 'Coolest Brands In Britain' are:

1. Aston Martin

2. iPhone

3. Apple

4. Bang and Olufsen

5. YouTube

6. Google

7. Nintendo

8. Agent Provocateur

9. Rolex

10. Tate Modern

11. Dom Perignon

12. Virgin Atlantic

13. Ferrari

14. Ducati

15. PlayStation

16. Sony

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17. Nike

18. Bose

19. Facebook

20. Lamborghini (ANI)

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Washington, September 29 (ANI): Archaeologists in Sardinia have claimed to have found the port of the Phoenician city of Tharros, held by some to be the ancient people's most important colony in the Mediterranean after Carthage.

Researchers from the University of Cagliari and Sassari found the submerged port in the Mistras Lagoon, several kilometers from the city ruins.

Excavations have long been going on at the site of the city itself, on a peninsula overlooking the Bay of Oristano in western Sardinia, but this is the first time its waterfront has been located despite almost two centuries of hunting.

As well as an impressive sandstone wall 100 metres in length and four metres in width, the archaeologists discovered a basin carved in the rock, similar to Carthage's man-made, protected inner harbour.

A rectilinear waterfront stretches for 225 metres with a 190-metre jetty and there is a 50-metre-long approach canal for ships, according to the researchers.

The city of Tharros was founded in the eighth century BC.

The Phoenicians were an ancient maritime trading people who formed a massive commercial empire across the Mediterranean from their bases along the coast of modern-day Lebanon, Syria and Israel.

The city was later populated by the Romans before being destroyed by Saracen raiders in the tenth century AD.

Among the Italian cities the Phoenicians founded is today's capital of Sardinia, Cagliari, and the Sicilian capital Palermo. (ANI)

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Canberra, September 29 (ANI): Australian and US scientists have found that a 'secondary' method of measuring the distance to nearby galaxies is more robust than previously thought.

According to a report by ABC News, astrophysicists Professor Jeremy Mould from the University of Melbourne and Dr Shoko Sakai from the University of California, Los Angeles, tested the reliability of using stars from the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) to calculate distance.

They found these stars to be just as good, if not better than Cepheids.

Astronomers measure distance in space using various methods depending on how far away the stars are.

For nearby distances, Cepheid variables - bright stars that expand and contract by 10 percent - have long been the primary 'standard candles' used.

This is because the relationship between how long a Cepheid takes to shrink and grow, and its brightness is well known.

By comparing the actual observed brightness with its intrinsic brightness, astronomers can determine the star's distance from earth.

But, some astronomers have recently cast suspicion on the capacity of Cepheids as standard candles, according to Mould.

"The question has been whether the relationship is more complicated than we think. Things like the composition of the star may make a difference," said Mould.

The researchers trawled through archival Hubble Space Telescope images, examining 14 galaxies that contain TRGBs.

Towards the end of their life, red giants produce a flash as they exhaust their outer hydrogen shell and begin to burn helium from their core.

The luminosity of the flash is well understood and therefore the stars make good standard candles.

But unlike the Cepheid variables, the red giant flash isn't influenced by the star's age or composition, the researchers said.

"It looks like this alternative standard candle is immune to things like differences in the chemical composition of stars," said Mould. "It confirms the Cepheid variable scale using a completely independent technique," he added.

According to Dr Scott Croom of the University of Sydney, the TRGB technique, which is a well understood idea, is potentially more robust that the Cepheid variable technique.

"It's an independent method which confirms that we've done a pretty good job of getting the distance scale right," he said. (ANI)

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