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Abstract The evolutionarily conserved microspherule protein 1 (MCRS1) has diverse functions, ranging from transcriptional regulation to stabilization of microtubule minus ends in acentrosomal spindles in mammals. A previous study suggested that in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, inactivation of an MCRS1 homolog gene led to aborted embryogenesis. To test whether this lethality was caused solely by sporophytic defects, we used the heterozygous emb1967-1/mcrs1-1 mutant for reciprocal crosses with the wild-type plant and found that the MCRS1 gene was dispensable for the development of both male and female gametophytes. An MCRS1–GFP fusion protein was expressed in the mcrs1 mutant and suppressed the mutation as evidenced by restored growth. This functional fusion protein exclusively localized to interphase nuclei and became unnoticeable during mitosis before reappearing in the reforming daughter nuclei. Affinity purification of the MCRS1–GFP protein specifically recovered the Myb-like transcription factor DRMY1 (Development Regulated Myb-like 1) but not microtubule-associated factors. Direct MCRS1–DRMY1 interaction was also demonstrated by a localization-based assay in living cells. Thus, we hypothesized that MCRS1’s function was perhaps linked to transcription factors like DRMY1 and its paralog DP1 for regulation of gene expression during sporophyte development. 

Abstract Wave‐particle duality, intertwining two inherently contradictory properties of quantum systems, remains one of the most conceptually profound aspects of quantum mechanics. By using the concept of energy capacity, the ability of a quantum system to store and extract energy, a device‐independent uncertainty relation is derived for wave‐particle duality. This relation is shown to be independent of both the representation space and the measurement basis of the quantum system. Furthermore, it is experimentally validated that this wave‐particle duality relation using a photon‐based platform. 

Abstract Aegilops tauschii is the donor of the D subgenome of hexaploid wheat and a valuable genetic resource for wheat improvement. Several reference-quality genome sequences have been reported for A. tauschii accession AL8/78. A new genome sequence assembly (Aet v6.0) built from long Pacific Biosciences HiFi reads and employing an optical genome map constructed with a new technology is reported here for this accession. The N50 contig length of 31.81 Mb greatly exceeded that of the previous AL8/78 genome sequence assembly (Aet v5.0). Of 1,254 super-scaffolds, 92, comprising 98% of the total super-scaffold length, were anchored on a high-resolution genetic map, and pseudomolecules were assembled. The number of gaps in the pseudomolecules was reduced from 52,910 in Aet v5.0 to 351 in Aet v6.0. Gene models were transferred from the Aet v5.0 assembly into the Aet v6.0 assembly. A total of 40,447 putative orthologous gene pairs were identified between the Aet v6.0 and Chinese Spring wheat IWGSC RefSer v2.1 D-subgenome pseudomolecules. Orthologous gene pairs were used to compare the structure of the A. tauschii and wheat D-subgenome pseudomolecules. A total of 223 structural differences were identified. They included 44 large differences in sequence orientation and 25 differences in sequence location. A technique for discriminating between assembly errors and real structural variation between closely related genomes is suggested.