Treculia africana Decne is an important multipurpose indigenous tree species in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. The species is best known for the edible seeds and oil it produces. In addition, it has numerous environmental, socioeconomic , traditional and industrial uses. However, the species is declining at an alarming rate and thus, needs priority conservation. This decline is due to a number of factors of which are high rate of deforestation, increased population pressure, non-improvement and non-cultivation of the species. Urgent conservation measures are required to save the species. The conservation strategies could include; mass propagation and plantation establishment of the species, development of earlymaturing and dwarf varieties as well as introduction of 'Ukwa' trade fair.

18Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause persistent pathological alteration of neurons. This may lead to 19 cognitive dysfunctions, depression, and even increased susceptibility to life threatening diseases, such 20as epilepsy and Alzheimer's Disease. To investigate the underlying genetic and molecular basis of TBI, 21Wasserman and colleagues developed an inexpensive and reproducible model for simulating TBI in 22Drosophila melanogaster (Fruit Fly). Using a modified version of this high impact trauma (HIT) device, 23we subjected w 1118 fruit flies to mild closed head trauma. To determine the transcriptomic changes that 24 contribute to survival post TBI, we collected fly heads from the survivors at 2 time points; 4 hours and 25 24 hours' post-trauma. Mild TBI had limited impact on the steady state RNA levels but showed large 26 perturbations in alternative splicing (AS) 24 hours' post-trauma. Classification of these AS changes 27showed selective retention (RI) of long introns (>81bps), with a mean size of ~3000bps. Some of these 28RI genes also showed a significant reduction in transcript abundance and were specifically enriched in 29 genes involved in mitochondrial metabolism. The RI are enriched in ACACACA motifs known to bind to 30Smooth (SM), an hnRNPL class of splicing factor. Mutating SM (sm 4 /Df) resulted in reversal of RI 31 observed 24 hours' post-trauma, and in some cases, elimination of basal levels of RI in long introns. 32This observation suggests that SM is critical regulator of RI and that this process is enhanced by TBI. 33Interestingly, chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by deep sequencing (ChIP-seq) for histone 3 34 lysine 36 trimethylation (H3K36me3) revealed increased levels of this histone modification in retained 35introns post-trauma. Consistent with this observation, mutations in lysine specific demethylase 4A 36 (KDM4A), which de-methylate H3K36me3, increased RI in many of the same long introns affected by 37 TBI. Additionally, higher H3K36me3 levels are observed around intronic SM-binding motifs post-38trauma, suggesting interaction between H3K36me3 and SM binding to intronic splicing suppressor sites 39 might be responsible for increasing RI of metabolic genes as a novel mechanism to improve survival 40 after TBI. 41 Keywords; Traumatic brain injury, alternative splicing, intron retention, histone modification, Histone 3 42 lysine 36 trimethylation, lysine (K)-specific demethylase 4A (KDM4A), Smooth, hnRNP-L. 43 44 Results 94 Increase in number of strikes result in progressive decrease in long-term survival. 95We simulated CHI is Drosophila using a similar experimental set-up, as described by the Wassarman 96lab (Katzenberger et al. 2013). Briefly, 0-5 days-old w 1118 flies were collected in sturdy vials and TBI 97was inflicted using an in-house HIT (high impact trauma) device. Instead of using a 90 o spring 98 deflection, we used a 45 o spring deflection to attenuate the impact ( Fig 1A). We performed survival 99 estimation, after 1 or 2 strikes, using 20 w 1118 flies per vial and...