Pontin and Reptin are essential eukaryotic AAA+ ATPases that work together in several multiprotein complexes, contributing to chromatin remodeling and TARGET OF RAPAMCYIN (TOR) kinase complex assembly, among other functions. Null alleles of pontin or reptin are gametophyte lethal in plants, which has hindered studies of their crucial roles in plant biology. Here, we used virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) to interrogate the functions of Pontin and Reptin in plant growth and physiology, focusing on Nicotiana benthamiana, a model species for the agriculturally significant Solanaceae family. Silencing either Pontin or Reptin caused pleiotropic developmental and physiological reprogramming, including aberrant leaf shape, reduced apical growth, delayed flowering, increased branching, chlorosis, and decreased spread of the RNA viruses Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and Potato virus X (PVX). To dissect these pleiotropic phenotypes, we took a comparative approach and silenced expression of key genes that encode subunits of each of the major Pontin/Reptin-associated chromatin remodeling or TOR complexes (INO80, SWR-C/PIE1, TIP60, TOR, and TELO2). We found that many of the pontin/reptin phenotypes could be attributed specifically to disruption of one of these complexes, with tip60 and tor knockdown plants each phenocopying a large subset of pontin/reptin phenotypes. We conclude that Pontin/Reptin complexes are crucial for proper plant development, physiology, and stress responses, highlighting the multifaceted roles these conserved enzymes have evolved in eukaryotic cells.

This article describes the experience of supplementing conventional Learning Management Systems (LMS) with Social Networking Service (SNS) aiming at analysis of historical memory of the Soviet past using the method of Oral History by Paul Thompson (1935). Opportunities of the Russian social network, VKontakte, were used for execution of research and education project: Family Memory of the Soviet Past (2014-2020) for students specializing in Culturology at Russian State Social University on the basis of Memory Studies and Oral History theories. This article presents the main educational and scientific results of the project. Using the SNS, the practical component of humanitarian education was implemented; the VKontakte project activity allowed involving student groups in researching; transcripts and photos were collected in digital archive, analysis and discussion were performed. The VKontakte network group demonstrated opportunities of international student research in post-Soviet countries, allowed students to master practical skills of acquisition and analysis of empirical data, as well as became an identification factor of a student group as a part of scientific community.

The object of the research is Internet memes as a product of modern mass culture and art. The subject of the study is the iconological interpretation of an Internet meme as an art object. Internet memes dedicated to the lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic - "quarantine" from the collection of social cartoons of the Center for Socio-Political History of the State Public Historical Library, which was collected during the lockdown of 2020, and also relevant Internet materials were selected for interpretation. The purpose of the article is to conduct an iconological interpretation of selected Internet memes from the collection of social cartoons of the Center for Socio–Political History of the State Public Historical Library. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time an Internet meme was considered as an art object, and the possibilities of iconological interpretation of this phenomenon of modern culture and art were investigated using the example of several "quarantine" sites. The article shows that the construction of "quarantines" went both along the path of creating new memes and by transforming old memes based on recontextualization – using well-known plots, images, heroes to discuss new realities. The iconological interpretation of the "quarantines" made it possible to identify the features of the reflection of the pandemic in the public consciousness (the feeling of the "inversion" of the world, the catastrophic nature of changes, new security conditions) and to deepen knowledge about the nature of artistic self-help of society in conditions of social extremum (the use of the healing effects of the tragicomic).