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The article focuses on the research conducted under the RootsPlus project, funded by the European Union, which aims to develop more resilient varieties of roses and apples using bacterial genes to enhance their ability to withstand drought conditions. It states that this involves the integration of bacterial DNA from Rhizobium rhizogenes into plant genomes, resulting in the formation of "hairy roots" that facilitate improved water uptake and stronger resistance to diseases and drought.

A small fern called Tmesipteris oblanceolata, found on Pacific islands, has the largest known genome of any organism. Each cell of the fern contains 321 billion letters of DNA, which is 50 times larger than the human genome. The fern's genome size is likely due to a failure to control the growth of DNA bits called transposons. Having a large genome is a disadvantage because it takes longer for cells to replicate the DNA. The fern may survive because competition is less intense on small islands. [Extracted from the article]

The National Science Foundation is accepting applications for the Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology Program. This program aims to support early-career scientists in their research efforts and provide training beyond their graduate education. The program offers opportunities for collaboration with established scientists and aims to broaden scientific horizons. The deadline for applications is November 7, 2024, and a total of $17 million is available for awards starting at $270,000. The program is open to qualified individuals and offers fellowships in three areas: broadening participation of underrepresented groups in biology, integrative research on the rules of life, and plant genome research. More information can be found on the grants.gov website. [Extracted from the article]

The article highlights that strides have been made to sequence the genomes of crops to increase disease resistance, yield and drought tolerance, for example. In South Africa, efforts to unlock the secrets of wheat genetics are showing promise for better wheat harvests, and increased food security. It discusses that the nature of the mutations inflicted by the chemical treatment is that of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), or single base-pair changes within a DNA sequence.

Corteva Agriscience is a beta testing site for PacBio's short-read sequencing system Onso, and is interested in using the platform for applications such as gene editing specificity analysis. Agrigenomics involves the genome sequencing of plants and their microbiomes to provide a foundation of genetic resources to produce higher yielding, more nutritious, pest and disease-resistant foods faster than traditional breeding. Long-reads enable researchers to build reference pangenomes for crops of interest -- collections of 20-30 whole genomes that give insight into the genetic diversity of a population. [Extracted from the article]

Down with turtles The fabled dominance of the hare by the tortoise has an underground counterpart of sorts in a look at turtles and elephants in times gone by. But turtles hog all the attention in a new report called "100 million years of turtle paleoniche dynamics enable the prediction of latitudinal range shifts in a warming world". The elephants came out on top in a 2014 study called "Between the feet of elephants: Turtles as a common element of the associated fauna of proboscideans". [Extracted from the article]

Despite ferns' unique physiology and their relationship to seed plants, however, these strange genomes have been largely neglected by researchers. The new analysis suggests that more than 100 million years ago, an ancestor of this fern duplicated its whole genome - a replication error that is common in plants, Li says. Until recently, only two (relatively small) fern genomes were fully sequenced, compared with more than 200 flowering plant genomes. [Extracted from the article]

The National Science Foundation is accepting applications for the Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP), which aims to support genome-scale research that addresses important biological, societal, and economic questions. The program has a total of $30 million in funds available for up to 20 awards. Eligible applicants include colleges, universities, and nonprofit organizations. There are two funding tracks available: the Research-PRG Track for genome-scale plant research and the TRTech-PGR Track for tools, resources, and technology breakthroughs in functional plant genomics. The deadline for proposals is ongoing, and more information can be found on the grants.gov website. [Extracted from the article]

A recent study from the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics in Barcelona, Spain, explores the impact of interspecific hybridization on transposable elements (TEs) in plants. TEs are components of plant genomes that can change their position or create new copies of themselves, potentially causing gene disruption and genomic alterations. The study investigates the hypothesis that interspecific hybridization inhibits the control mechanisms of TEs, leading to their mobilization. The research reviews current knowledge on this topic and examines the implications of changes in epigenetic mechanisms. [Extracted from the article]

The article reports that plant biologists need to expand personal research while understanding the communication networks within plants to keep food production systems secure in a changing climate. Topics include how the chloroplast communicates with the genes to bring about changes to deal with the sun and shade, drought and heat where chloroplast acts as an environmental sensor for plant; and Sequencing the genomes of plants to train researchers to build new capabilities for agriculture.

The article focuses on the Threatened Species Initiative to create a national library of genomic data to understand and protect the threatened species in Australia. It highlights the plan of the initiative's science leader Doctor Carolyn Hogg to sequence the genomes of the most endangered species in the country including the eastern bristlebird, Hastings River mouse, and two species of barred bandicoot.

The article offers information on Genomics for Australian Plants consortium are sequencing the genomes of the Queen of Sheba orchid and Hoary Sunray daisy. Topics include the researchers began sequencing the entire genomes of species, the genome sequenced belonged to the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae, and the scientific advances as diverse as producing vaccines, calculating the lifespans of marine turtles and conserving plants.

In the postgenome era, many problems in bioinformatics have arisen due to the generation of large amounts of imbalanced data. In particular, the computational classification of precursor microRNA (pre-miRNA) involves a high imbalance in the classes. For this task, a classifier is trained to identify RNA sequences having the highest chance of being miRNA precursors. The big issue is that well-known pre-miRNAs are usually just a few in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of candidate sequences in a genome, which results in highly imbalanced data. This imbalance has a strong influence on most standard classifiers and, if not properly addressed, the classifier is not able to work properly in a real-life scenario. This work provides a comparative assessment of recent deep neural architectures for dealing with the large imbalanced data issue in the classification of pre-miRNAs. We present and analyze recent architectures in a benchmark framework with genomes of animals and plants, with increasing imbalance ratios up to 1:2000. We also propose a new graphical way for comparing classifiers performance in the context of high-class imbalance. The comparative results obtained show that, at a very high imbalance, deep belief neural networks can provide the best performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the possibility of a new agricultural revolution in light of the climate change in the 21st century. He mentions the resiliency of the monarchy which emerged during the domestication of plants and animals. The effects of climate change on farming include water scarcity and rising temperatures that threaten crop yields. He emphasizes the necessity for the regulation of technology companies producing gene edited food.

The article focuses on the significance of law reforms affecting field trials of crops gene-edited for environmental and nutritional benefits in England in 2021. Topics discussed include the legislation plan of the British government that will treat gene-edited crops and livestock mimicking natural breeding differently than genetically modified (GM) crops, brief information on gene editing, and removal of the licensing impediments facing laboratories in the field trial of gene-edited crops.

Chinese researchers have successfully created the first pangenome map of the tea plant and completed the pan-genome sequencing of 22 different cultivars. This breakthrough will aid in the genomics-assisted breeding of tea crops, which are some of the oldest crops in the world and are used to produce a variety of flavored beverages. The research, published in the Nature Plants journal, identified correlations between genetic variants and flavor-related chemistries, as well as key genes related to agronomic traits such as leaf color and tea aroma. These findings enhance our understanding of the genetic basis of tea quality and provide valuable genomic resources for future breeding efforts. [Extracted from the article]

Genes can transfer between grasses without any need for inheritance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acer is a large and important genus of woody plants most commonly encountered as small to large trees in urban landscapes. Considerable investigation has been devoted to addressing the taxonomy of maples, but little is known about genome sizes across the genus. Relatively more work has been conducted to determine chromosome numbers and ploidy of more species, but much could be gained by expanding knowledge of genome sizes in combination with traditional cytology. Furthermore, base pair (bp) composition may have implications for a species' adaptability and also impacts nucleic acid stability at high temperatures. Our objectives were to determine the genome size of 195 accessions of maples, assign ploidy to each using inference as well as cytology, and determine base composition of a subset of 48 accessions. Most species had small genome sizes (1.4-3.5 pg) with the exception of section Rubra, which contains many polyploids. Holoploid genome sizes ranged from 1.39 to 6.10 pg, with the latter being interpreted as 9x. The mean monoploid genome sizes (1Cx) ranged from 0.43 pg in A. carpinifolium (section Indivisa) to 1.66 pg in A. caudatifolium (section Macrantha); mean monoploid genome sizes were significantly different among sections. Forty-four of the 48 accessions measured using both fluorochromes had greater estimates with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) than propidium iodide (PI). The proportion of the genome composed of guanosine and cytosine (GC%) among the taxa evaluated in this study ranged from just 38.61% to 43.96% and did not appear to be related to ecological adaptability or urban tolerance among these taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B Areas: b NSF said eligible areas include (1) Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology, (2) Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes, and (3) Plant Genome Postdoctoral Research Fellowships. B Scope: b The National Science Foundation seeks applications for the Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB) announcement for research and training in selected areas supported by Directorate for Biological Sciences and with special goals for human resource development in biology. [Extracted from the article]

"Prymnesium genomes are large, being the size of many plant or animal genomes", Wisecaver said. At first, Wisecaver thought her group could sequence just one genome for Prymnesium parvum to act as a reference. Keywords: Ecology; Genetics; Purdue University EN Ecology Genetics Purdue University 2076 2076 1 08/28/23 20230901 NES 230901 2023 SEP 1 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Week -- WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A microscopic species of algae is causing toxic algal blooms around the world, affecting two dozen states in the U.S., especially Texas. [Extracted from the article]

Our news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Northwest University: "Our analyses revealed that gene transfer in spore plants was characterized by shorter motifs than that of seed plants. Here we investigated transferred cytoplasmic motifs in green plants including spore-bearing plants and seed-bearing plants (hereafter termed spore plants and seed plants)." Keywords: Botany; Drugs and Therapies; Genetics EN Botany Drugs and Therapies Genetics 1365 1365 1 07/31/23 20230804 NES 230804 2023 AUG 4 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Drug Week -- Researchers detail new data in botany. [Extracted from the article]

ASIA-PACIFIC – Genome of Orchid species mapped to advance molecular breeding. ASIA-PACIFIC – Nerve cells found to control appetite in mice, and possibly humans. ASIA-PACIFIC – Protein might be key to speeding up development of regenerative medicine. ASIA-PACIFIC – Interneuron diversity sheds light on neural cell death control. REST OF THE WORLD – VTT develops piglet vaccination to reduce antibiotics use. REST OF THE WORLD – Articaine proven as safe as lidocaine for dental procedures. REST OF THE WORLD – Prostate cancer drug byproduct can fuel cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple sequence repeat (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were evaluated in an effort to reliably DNA fingerprint sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) cultivars and advanced selections from the breeding program at the Summerland Research and Development Center (Summerland, BC, Canada). SSR markers were found that differentiated the 35 cultivars and selections tested. However, groups of cultivars closely related to the parental cultivars, Lapins and Sweetheart, were differentiated by only a few SSR markers each. These last few markers were discovered by specifically screening within these small groups of cultivars and the resulting markers had lower discriminating power (Dj) statistics within the full set of 35 cultivars and selections. To further characterize the differences in one of these closely related groups, SNP markers were identified in the cultivar Sweetheart and an analysis was made of how these markers segregated into three of its open-pollinated progeny. Large blocks of the 'Sweetheart' genome (34%) did not contain informative SNP markers, which was consistent with its ancestry where the cultivar Van is both a parent and grandparent. The three progeny cultivars differed from 'Sweetheart' at 14%, 31%, and 29% of the 3011 SNP positions tested. These were located in blocks of linked haplotypes covering from 2.5 to 20 million bps each and were distinct for the three cultivars. The cultivar Staccato, which required the most effort for SSR marker discrimination, also had the lowest number of SNP position differences from 'Sweetheart' (14%). These informative SNP markers were located in only five small regions of the sweet cherry genome, which also contained the discriminating SSR markers and provides an explanation for the difficulty of locating SSR markers for this cultivar. In addition to clearly differentiating these cultivars, this SNP analysis shows the level of variation expected within this closely related group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brassica rapa var. rapa (turnip) is considered a main source of food for the inhabitants of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) and its adjacent highlands when other crops are scarce. The QTP ranges from lat. 25.59°N to 39.49°N and from long. 73.298E to 104.408E, whereas the Yunnan Plateau ranges from lat. 20.00°N to 29.16°N and from long. 96.008E to 110.198E. A comparison between the turnip landraces of two different plateau environments can provide a mechanistic insight into plant adaptation in highlands. The aim of this investigation was to understand the patterns in variation in genome size (GS) between the turnip landraces of two plateau environments. We used a wellestablished protocol to count chromosome number and performed propidium iodide flow cytometry to measure GS. No polyploidy was detected among the turnip landraces tested, and 15.5% variation in GS was observed between the landraces. No consistent pattern pertaining to GS variation emerged after the environmental variables were considered. Thus, we propose that such pattern may reflect the indirect effect of selection, random process, genetic drift, or some other factors on GS through interaction of life-form and phenotypic traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BRI1-EMS-suppressor 1 (BES1) is a transcription factor (TF) that functions as a master regulator of brassinosteroid (BR)-regulated gene expression. Here, we provide a complete overview of Solanum lycopersicum BES1 (SLB) genes, including phylogeny, gene structure, protein motifs, chromosome locations and expression characteristics. Through bioinformatic analysis, we compared the sequences of SLB genes, arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) genes, and chinese cabbage (Brassica pekinensis) genes. All of the gene sequences were divided into three groups by cluster analysis. SLB genes were mapped to the eight tomato (S. lycopersicum) chromosomes. Bioinformatic analysis showed that SLB genes shares similarities with the proteins from other plants, though different species exhibit specific features. The expression patterns of SLB genes in various tissues and under different abiotic conditions were analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. SLB genes were found to be induced by multiple stresses, particularly salt stress, indicating that SLB genes may have important roles in the response to unfavorable environmental changes. This study provides insight into the evolution of SLB genes and may aid in the further functional identification of BES1 proteins and the response of tomato plants to different stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The appropriate timing of bolting and flowering is one of the keys to the reproductive success of Isatis indigotica. Several flowering regulatory pathways have been reported in plant species, but we know little about flowering regulatory in I. indigotica. In the present study, we performed RNA-seq and annotated I. indigotica transcriptome using RNA from five tissues (leaves, roots, flowers, fruit, and stems). Illumina sequencing generated 149,907,857 high-quality clean reads and 124,508 unigenes were assembled from the sequenced reads. Of these unigenes, 88,064 were functionally annotated by BLAST searches against the public protein databases. Functional classification and annotation assigned 55,991 and 23,072 unigenes to 52 gene ontology (GO) terms and 25 clusters of orthologous group (COG) categories, respectively. A total of 19,927 unigenes were assigned to 124 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways, and 80 candidate genes related to plant circadian rhythm were identified. We also identified a number of differentially expressed genes (DEG) and 91 potential bolting and flowering-related genes from the RNA-seq data. This study is the first to identify bolting and flowering-related genes based on transcriptome sequencing and assembly in I. indigotica. The results provide foundations for the exploration of flowering pathways in I. indigotica and investigations of the molecular mechanisms of bolting and flowering in Brassicaceae plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genome size variation can be used to investigate biodiversity, genome evolution, and taxonomic relationships among related taxa. Plant breeders use genome size variation to identify parents useful for breeding sterile or improved ornamentals. Lilacs (Syringa) are deciduous trees and shrubs valued for their fragrant spring and summer flowers. The genus is divided into six series: Syringa (Vulgares), Pinnatifoliae, Ligustrae, Ligustrina, Pubescentes, and Villosae. Reports conflict on genome evolution, base chromosome number, and polyploidy in lilac. The purpose of this study was to investigate genome size and ploidy variation across a diverse collection. Flow cytometry was used to estimate monoploid (lCx) and holoploid (2C) genome sizes in series, species, cultivars, and seedlings from parents with three ploidy combinations: 2x x 2.v, 2.v x 3x, and 3.v x 2x. Pollen diameter was measured to investigate the frequency of unreduced gametes in diploid and triploid Syringa vulgaris cultivars. Three triploids of S. vulgaris were observed: 'Aucubaefolia', 'Agincourt Beauty', and 'President Grevy'. Across taxa, significant variations in lCx genome size were discovered. The smallest and largest values were found in the interspecific hybrids S. xlaciniata (1.32 ± 0.04 pg) and S. xhyacinthiflora 'Old Glory' (1.78 ± 0.05), both of which are in series Syringa. Series Syringa (1.68 ± 0.02 pg) had a significantly larger lCx genome size than the other series. No significant differences were found within series Pubescentes (1.47 ± 0.01 pg), Villosae (1.55 ± 0.02 pg), Ligustrina (1.49 ± 0.05 pg), and Pinnatifoliae (1.52 ± 0.02 pg). For S. vulgaris crosses, no significant variation in 2C genome size was discovered in 2x x 2x crosses. Interploid crosses between 'Blue Skies' (2.v) and 'President Grevy' (3x) produced an aneuploid population with variable 2C genome sizes ranging from 3.41 ± 0.03 to 4.35 ± 0.03 pg. Only one viable seedling was recovered from a cross combination between 'President Grevy' (3x) and 'Sensation' (2x). This seedling had a larger 2C genome size (5.65 ± 0.02 pg) than either parent and the largest 2C genome size currently reported in lilac. 'Sensation' produced 8.5% unreduced pollen, which we inferred was responsible for the increased genome size. No unreduced pollen was discovered in the other diploids examined. Increased ploidy may provide a mechanism for recovering progeny from incompatible taxa in lilac breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phlox is an important genus of herbaceous ornamental plants previously targeted for germplasm development, characterization, and enhancement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Plant Germplasm System. Among Phlox in cultivation, Phlox paniculata is the most widely grown and intensively bred species, but little is known about variation in genome size and ploidy of this species or of related taxa that may be used for germplasm enhancement. The objective of this study was to assess cytotype variation in a diverse collection of cultivars and wild germplasm of P. paniculata (subsection Paniculatae) and of related taxa in subsections Paniculatae and Phlox. The collection included 138 accessions from seven species and two interspecific hybrids. Flow cytometry was used to estimate holoploid (2C) genome sizes and to infer ploidy levels. Chromosome counts were made to calibrate ploidy with genome size for a subset of taxa. Most cultivars were diploid (2n = 2x = 14) and had mean genome sizes that did not vary between subsections Paniculatae (14.33 pg) and Phlox (14.23 pg) although size variation was greater among cultivars within subsection Phlox. Triploid cultivars of P. paniculata, with a mean genome size of 21.36 pg and mitotic chromosome counts of 2n = 3x = 21, were identified. Such triploids suggests previous interploid hybridization within this taxon. Five tetraploid (2n = 4x = 28) cultivars were found in subsection Phlox; all were selections of P. glaberrima ssp. triflora, and had a mean genome size of 25.44 pg; chromosome counts in one of these confirmed they were tetraploid. The putative hybrid Phlox Suffruticosa Group 'Miss Lingard' showed an intermediate genome size of 21.21 pg supporting a triploid, hybrid origin of this taxon. Mean 2C genome sizes among wild-collected accessions were similar to values reported for cultivars (Paniculatae = 14.59 pg, Phlox = 14.23 pg), but taxa in subsection Phlox exhibited greater variation that included two tetraploids identified among wild-collected accessions; one, of P. pulchra, had a mean genome size of 26.17 pg, representing the first report of polyploidy in the taxon. This is the first report on genome size for the majority of species in the study. Although genome size could not be used to differentiate taxa in subsections Paniculatae and Phlox, the data provide further insights into cytotype variation of Phlox germplasm useful for plant breeders and systematists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classification of microarray data has always been a challenging task because of the enormous number of genes. In this study, a clustering method by integrating plant stress response gene expression data with biological knowledge is presented. Clustering is one of the promising tools for attribute reduction, but gene clusters are biologically uninformative. So we integrated biological knowledge into genomic analysis to help to improve the interpretation of the results. Biological similarity based on gene ontology (GO) semantic similarity was combined with gene expression data to find out biologically meaningful clusters. Affinity propagation clustering algorithm was chosen to analyze the impact of the biological similarity on the results. Based on clustering result, neighborhood rough set was used to select representative genes for each cluster. The prediction accuracy of classifiers built on reduced gene subsets indicated that our approach outperformed other classical methods. The information fusion was proven to be effective through quantitative analysis, as it could select gene subsets with high biological significance and select significant genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex expression is an important trait in watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), in which monoecious, andromonoe-cious, and trimonoecious forms are present. The andromonoecious trait is highly undesirable in watermelon breeding programs because it would require emasculation during hybrid development. In contrast to other cucurbits such as melon (Cucumis meto) and cucumber (Cucumis sativus) in which the genes involved in sex expression are well described and have been cloned, only the inheritance of the a gene associated with the andromonoecious trait has been described in watermelon. We used an intersubspecific C. lanatus var. lanatus x C. lanatus var. citroides F2 population to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with percent male (%M), percent female (%F), percent hermaphrodite (%HM), and percent female of pistillate [%F/P (female + hermaphrodite)] flowers. Four chromosomal regions were identified that were associated with sex expression in watermelon. Major QTL for %F, %HM, and %F/P were colocalized on linkage group IIA and explained 31.3% to 37.7% of the phenotypic variation observed for the three traits. These QTL are suggested to be the location of the a gene in watermelon. Markers linked to two of the four QTL identified were located within 1 Mb of a 1-aminocyclopropane-l-carboxylic acid synthase (ACS) gene on the watermelon draft genome. ACS genes play a key role in sex expression in melon and cucumber and these genes are therefore candidate genes for further studies to elucidate this trait in another economically important cucurbit crop. The QTL and candidate genes identified in the present study lay the foundation for marker-assisted selection for sex expression traits in watermelon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which assessed the general features of the cotton genome. The study explores the characteristics of different varieties of cotton genome including G. hirsutum and G. barbadense. It also analyzes the computational approaches that could be used to identify the genes of G. raimondii. According to the author, it is important to perform seed cataloging after implementing a gold-standard reference sequence to look at the different genetic potential of the genus to offer intrinsic low-cost genetic solutions.

The article discusses the revolution of plant systematics due to scientific advances which include technology. It includes access plant genomes, the development of theory and mathematical techniques allowing systematists to hypothesize phylogeny and the use of computers to perform these analyses. However, the shifting affinities of plant orders does not change the names of the plants but results in shifts that change names based on reading the genome.

The article reports on the genomic sequencing made by Medicinal Genomics cannabis genomes to identify its therapeutic benefits. Medicinal Genomics scientific operations head Kevin McKernan considers cannabis as one of the most difficult genomes to be sequenced and mentions the potential of some of its non-toxic compounds to treat health conditions including cancer. Moreover, the genome directed breeding for canabis may reduce the plant's psychoactive effects and improve its medicinal aspects.

Bonamia ostreae is a protozoan parasite that infects the European flat oyster Ostrea edulis, causing systemic infections and resulting in massive mortalities in populations of this valuable bivalve species. In this work, we have characterized B. ostreae actin genes and used their sequences for a phylogenetic analysis. Design of different primer sets was necessary to amplify the central coding region of actin genes of B. ostreae. Characterization of the sequences and their amplification in different samples demonstrated the presence of 2 intragenomic actin genes in B. ostreae, without any intron. The phylogenetic analysis placed B. ostreae in a clade with Minchinia tapetis, Minchinia teredinis and Haplosporidium costale as its closest relatives, and demonstrated that the paralogous actin genes found in Bonamia resulted from a duplication of the original actin gene after the Bonamia origin. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Progress of Crop Functional Genomics Program in Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are limited numbers of pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) cultivars in the world and their phenotypic appearance and productivity are variable. Understanding such variation would facilitate their use in cultivar breeding programs. Therefore, in this study, 69 pistachio cultivars and genotypes originating from seven countries were characterized by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR), and amplified fragment-length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. The results showed that all three marker systems were able to reveal variability between pistachio cultivars and genotypes. The correlation coefficients for genetic distances were statistically significant among all three molecular marker types. The correlation between RAPD and AFLP data was the highest (r = 0.73) and the value between RAPD and ISSR data was the lowest (r = 0.58). AFLP proved to be the best technique among them. ISSR and AFLP assays were reliable and produced reproducible bands. ISSR was preferred over RAPD, especially when financial investment and technical knowledge are limited. The constructed unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) dendrogram obtained from combined data separated the genotypes into two main clusters: one cluster (‘Iranian’) included genotypes originating from Iran and the second cluster (‘Mediterranean’) contained most other genotypes. The ‘Mediterranean’ cluster further divided into three subclusters: one (‘Siirt’) consisted of the cultivars Siirt and Hacireso with a few other selections; the second subcluster (‘Turkish’) included Turkish cultivars; and the third subcluster contained Syrian, Italian, and the remaining cultivars. The closeness of the clusters was ‘Iranian’ - ‘Siirt’ - ‘Turkish’/‘Syrian.’ These findings reveal a new understanding in the diffusion of pistachio cultivation from its center of origin, the Iranian-Caspian region, via southeastern Turkey to Syria, the Mediterranean region of Europe, and northern Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultivated strawberry, Fragaria xananassa Duchesne ex Rozier, originated via hybridization between octoploids F. chiloensis (L.) Mill. and F. virginiana Mill. These three octoploid species are thought to share a putative genome composition of AAA′A′BBB′B′. Diploid F. vesca L., is considered to have donated the A genome. Current attention to the development of a diploid model system for strawberry genomics warrants the assessment of simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker transferability between the octoploid and diploid species in Fragaria L. In the present study, 23 SSR primer pairs derived from F. ×ananassa ‘Earliglow’ by genomic library screening were evaluated for their utility in six diploid Fragaria species, including eight representatives of F. vesca, four of F. viridis Weston, and one each of F. nubicola (Hook. f.) Lindl. ex Lacaita, F. mandshurica Staudt, F. iinumae Makino, and F. nilgerrensis Schltdl. ex J. Gay. SSR primer pair functionality, as measured by amplification success rate (= 100% - failure rate) in each species, was ranked (from highest to lowest) as follows: F. vesca (98.4%) > F. iinumae (93.8%) = F. nubicola (93.8%) > F. mandshurica (87.5%) > F. nilgerrensis (75%) > F. viridis (73.4%). The extent to which these octoploid-derived SSR primer pairs generated markers that could be added to the F. vesca linkage map also was assessed. Of the 13 F. ×ananassa SSR markers that segregated codominantly in the F. vesca mapping population, 11 were assigned to linkage groups based upon close linkages to previously mapped loci. These markers were distributed over six of the seven F. vesca linkage groups, and can serve as anchor loci defining these six groups for purposes of comparative mapping between F. vesca and F. ×ananassa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the design of microarray chips in a floral genome research project. Gene expression was conducted to perform the microarray chips design. One of the methods used in constructing microarray chips is the extraction of complementary DNA (cDNA) from the cDNA library and spotted on a glass slide using a robotic printer. The microarray chips were first tested on genes similar to known Arabidopsis genes.

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) has been cultivated by asexual propagation since time immemorial. The discovery of male-fertile garlic accessions has opened a venue for genetic studies and improvement through sexual recombination. An S1 family of 84 plants was generated from a single male-fertile heterozygous plant from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Plant Introduction 540316 and used to identify the first genetic linkages in garlic based on single nucleotide polymorphisms, simple sequence repeats, and randomly amplified polymorphic DNAs. Thirty-seven markers formed nine linkage groups covering 415 centimorgans (cM) with average distance of 15 cM between loci; other 16 loci remained unlinked. A male fertility locus was placed on the map. This first genetic map of garlic is a seminal step toward the genetic improvement of garlic and eventual marker-assisted breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the team led by Professor Markus Pfenninger from the LOEWE Center for Translational Bio - diversity genomics and the Senckenberg biodiversity and has climate research center Damaged and healthy beeches in Hessen examined and Areas in their genome identified that are responsible for drought resistance . It mentions tat analysis of genome data was the test with molecular Markers for the drought resistance genes developed.

The article discusses research which investigated the genome and growth of Wolffia or duckweed, conducted by Todd Michael of Salk Institute for Biological Studies and colleagues, published in an issue of "Genome Research" journal.