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Europe is highly dependent on soybean meal imports and anticipates an increase of domestic plant protein production. Ongoing climate change resulted in northward shift of plant hardiness zones, enabling spring-sowing of freezing-sensitive crops, including soybean. However, it requires efficient reselection of germplasm adapted to relatively short growing season and long-day photoperiod. In the present study, a PCR array has been implemented, targeting early maturity (E1–E4, E7, E9, and E10), pod shattering (qPHD1), and growth determination (Dt1) genes. This array was optimized for routine screening of soybean diversity panel (204 accessions), subjected to the 2018–2020 survey of phenology, morphology, and yield-related traits in a potential cultivation region in Poland. High broad-sense heritability (0.84–0.88) was observed for plant height, thousand grain weight, maturity date, and the first pod height. Significant positive correlations were identified between the number of seeds and pods per plant, between these two traits and seed yield per plant as well as between flowering, maturity, plant height, and first pod height. PCR array genotyping revealed high genetic diversity, yielding 98 allelic combinations. The most remarkable correlations were identified between flowering and E7or E1, between maturity and E4or E7and between plant height and Dt1or E4. The study demonstrated high applicability of this PCR array for molecular selection of soybean towards adaptation to Central Europe, designating recessive qPHD1and dominant Dt1, E3, and E4alleles as major targets to align soybean growth season requirements with the length of the frost-free period, improve plant performance, and increase yield.

Background and Objectives: Probability of target attainment (PTA) curves are commonly used to support dose recommendations of antibiotics for different patient groups. In this study we propose PTA analysis to optimize sugammadex dosing in children. Methods: This study involved data from an observational cohort study of 30 American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Physical Status I and II children undergoing surgery requiring muscle relaxation. All patients received 0.6 mg/kg rocuronium, with sugammadex administered at the end of surgery in three different doses (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mg/kg) to reverse the neuromuscular blockade. Results: The data were analyzed using a population Bayesian-based approach. The developed model was used to simulate pharmacokinetic–pharmacodynamic profiles for different patient groups and dosing regimens before the PTA analysis was performed to translate these simulations into a clinically useful measure. The target was defined as neuromuscular blockade reversal measured by Train-of-Four (TOF ratio > 90%) at 1.5, 3, and 5 min post sugammadex dose. The sugammadex doses leading to 90% PTA were determined for different patients’ body weights, rocuronium doses, and time gaps between rocuronium and sugammadex administration assuming the model, priors, and gathered data. For comparison, PTA curves for a range of clinical scenarios are provided to illustrate the usefulness of PTA analysis in selecting the appropriate dose for a given patient. Conclusions: The proposed PTA analysis is useful to support the sugammadex dose selection in different clinical scenarios. Trial Registration: The study was registered by ClinicalTrials.gov under number NCT04851574 on 21 April 2021.

White lupin (Lupinus albusL.) is a legume grain crop cultivated since ancient Greece and Egypt. Modern white lupin cultivars are appreciated as a source of protein with positive nutraceutical impact. However, white lupins produce anti-nutritional compounds, quinolizidine alkaloids, which provide bitter taste and have a negative influence on human health. During domestication of this species, several recessive alleles at unlinked loci controlling low alkaloid content were selected. One of these loci, pauper, was exploited worldwide providing numerous low-alkaloid cultivars. However, molecular tracking of pauperhas been hampered due to the lack of diagnostic markers. In the present study, the synteny-based approach was harnessed to target pauperlocus. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms flanking pauperlocus on white lupin linkage map as well as candidate gene sequences elucidated from the narrow-leafed lupin (L. angustifoliusL.) chromosome segment syntenic to the pauperlinkage group region were transformed to PCR-based molecular markers. These markers were analyzed both in the mapping population and world germplasm collection. From fourteen markers screened, eleven were localized at a distance below 1.5 cM from this locus, including five co-segregating with pauper. The linkage of these markers was confirmed by high LOD values (up to 58.4). Validation performed in the set of 127 bitter and 23 sweet accessions evidenced high applicability of one marker, LAGI01_35805_F1_R1, for pauperlocus selection, highlighted by the low ratio of false-positive scores (2.5%). LAGI01_35805 represents a homolog of L. angustifoliusacyltransferase-like (LaAT) gene which might hypothetically participate in the alkaloid biosynthesis process in lupins.

Ongoing climate change has considerably reduced the seasonal window for crop vernalization, concurrently expanding cultivation area into northern latitudes with long-day photoperiod. To address these changes, cool season legume breeders need to understand molecular control of vernalization and photoperiod. A key floral transition gene integrating signals from these pathways is the Flowering locus T(FT). Here, a recently domesticated grain legume, yellow lupin (Lupinus luteusL.), was explored for potential involvement of FThomologues in abolition of vernalization and photoperiod requirements. Two FTa(LlutFTa1aand LlutFTa1b) and FTc(LlutFTc1and LlutFTc2) homologues were identified and sequenced for two contrasting parents of a reference recombinant inbred line (RIL) population, an early-flowering cultivar Wodjil and a late-flowering wild-type P28213. Large deletions were detected in the 5′ promoter regions of three FThomologues. Quantitative trait loci were identified for flowering time and vernalization response in the RIL population and in a diverse panel of wild and domesticated accessions. A 2227 bp deletion found in the LlutFTc1promoter was linked with early phenology and vernalization independence, whereas LlutFTa1aand LlutFTc2indels with photoperiod responsiveness. Comparative mapping highlighted convergence of FTc1indel evolution in two Old World lupin species, addressing both artificial selection during domestication and natural adaptation to short season environmental conditions. We concluded that rapid flowering in yellow lupin is associated with the de-repression of the LlutFTc1homologue from the juvenile phase, putatively due to the elimination of all binding sites in the promoter region for the AGAMOUS-like 15 transcription factor.