Metformin reduces SARS-CoV-2 in a Phase 3 Randomized Placebo Controlled Clinical Trial.

Current antiviral treatment options for SARS-CoV-2 infections are not available globally, cannot be used with many medications, and are limited to virus-specific targets. Biophysical modeling of SARS-CoV-2 replication predicted that protein translation is an especially attractive target for antiviral therapy. Literature review identified metformin, widely known as a treatment for diabetes, as a potential suppressor of protein translation via targeting of the host mTor pathway.

A rapid, cost-effective tailed amplicon method for sequencing SARS-CoV-2.

Background: The global COVID-19 pandemic has led to an urgent need for scalable methods for clinical diagnostics and viral tracking. Next generation sequencing technologies have enabled large-scale genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 as thousands of isolates are being sequenced around the world and deposited in public data repositories. A number of methods using both short- and long-read technologies are currently being applied for SARS-CoV-2 sequencing, including amplicon approaches, metagenomic methods, and sequence capture or enrichment methods.

Ancient DNA reveals the timing and persistence of organellar genetic bottlenecks over 3,000 years of sunflower domestication and improvement.

Here, we report a comprehensive paleogenomic study of archaeological and ethnographic sunflower remains that provides significant new insights into the process of domestication of this important crop. DNA from both ancient and historic contexts yielded high proportions of endogenous DNA, and although archaeological DNA was found to be highly degraded, it still provided sufficient coverage to analyze genetic changes over time. Shotgun sequencing data from specimens from the Eden's Bluff archaeological site in Arkansas yielded organellar DNA sequence from specimens up to 3,100 years old.

Response to joint selection on germination and flowering phenology depends on the direction of selection.

Flowering and germination time are components of phenology, a complex phenotype that incorporates a number of traits. In natural populations, selection is likely to occur on multiple components of phenology at once. However, we have little knowledge of how joint selection on several phenological traits influences evolutionary response.

Transitions in photoperiodic flowering are common and involve few loci in wild sunflowers (Helianthus; Asteraceae).

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Premise Of The Study: Evolutionary changes in how flowering time responds to photoperiod cues have been instrumental in expanding the geographic range of agricultural production for many crop species. Locally adaptive natural variation in photoperiod response present in wild relatives of crop plants could be leveraged to further improve the present and future climatic ranges of cultivation or to increase region-specific yields. Previous work has demonstrated ample variability in photoperiod response among wild populations of the common sunflower, Helianthus annuus.