Efficiency of Numerical Images Analysis in Selection of Durum Wheat [Triticum turgidum (L.) ssp. durum (Desf.) Husn.] Genotypes Growing under Semi-arid Conditions in Algeria

Background: This study was conducted during the 2020/2021 cropping season at Setif Agricultural Experimental Station, it aims to assess the efficiency of using numerical image analysis (NIA) in the selection of durum wheat genotypes in semi-arid areas. Methods: The genetic materials used in this study consist of 11 advanced lines and 4 genotypes of which 3 are local landraces used as control to evaluate their performance, the genotypes tested were sown in a randomized block design (RDB) with three replications. each plot consisted of 6 lines of 10 m long spaced of 0.2 m witdth makes 12 m2 as plot area. Result: Analysis of variance showed that all the parameters measured numerically (senescence and total reflectance) had a very high genotypic significance. The chlorophyll content at full heading showed a very highly significant genotypic effect. Thousand kernels weight, number of spikes per meter square, number of days to heading and plant height had a significant genotypic effect. The correlation study showed that all senescence parameters were significantly correlated. A significant and negative correlation was observed between chlorophyll contents; average of velocity and total reflectance. Grain yield was highly and significantly correlated with thousand kernels weight and number of spikes per meter square. Number of spikes per meter square was significantly and positively correlated with average of velocity and negatively correlated with sum of temperatures at mid-senescence. Number of days to heading was significantly and negatively correlated with senescence average and maximum of senescence average. A significant correlation was observed between plant height and sum of temperatures at mid-senescence.

Screening of oat cultivars developed in omsk for conditions of the southern foreststeppe in Western Siberia

Spring oats are one of the most important crops among grain crops, and they are well adapted to the conditions of Western Siberia. To realize qualitative and quantitative characteristics of yield and increase productivity, new varieties should be characterized by responsiveness to changing environmental factors (adaptability) with sufficient potential productivity and ability to realize it even in the stressful conditions of this region. The aim of the research was to determine adaptive properties of spring oat cultivars developed in Omsk Agrarian Scientific Center. The experiments were carried out on the experimental fields of the Omsk Agrarian Scientific Center, located in the southern forest-steppe zone of Western Siberia, in 2011-2019. The st following adaptability parameters were calculated: stress tolerance Kst (according to A.V. Bykov), homeostaticity Hom (V.V. Khangildin), breeding value of cultivar Sc (according to N.A. Orlyansky), genotypic effect Ɛi (B.P. Guriev), coefficient of variation V and coefficient of uniformity B (B.A. Dospekhov), resilience of stability index У (R.A. Udachin and P.A. Golovchenko), rate of reaction of varieties to the environmental conditions Re (V.V. Novokhatin), equivalent plasticity Wi (C. Wricke). Using a significant number of indicators to obtain a final assessment of adaptability, a ranking of cultivars was carried out. Among hulled oat cultivars, Orion (control), Irtysh 13 and Irtysh 21 had increased adaptability (the sum of the ranks was 23, 35 and 36, respectively). In naked oat cultivars, Progress was more stable (the sum of the ranks was 79). These cultivars are recommended for cultivation in conditions of the southern forest-steppe of Western Siberia.

Photosynthetic heat tolerance in wheat: Evidence for genotype-by-environment interactions

High temperature stress inhibits wheat photosynthetic processes and threatens wheat production. Photosynthetic heat tolerance (commonly measured as T – the critical temperature at which incipient damage to photosystem II occurs) in wheat genotypes could be improved by exploiting genetic variation and genotype-by-environment interaction (GEI) for this trait. Flag leaf T of a total of 54 wheat genotypes were evaluated in 12 thermal environments over three years in Australia using linear mixed models for assessing GEI effects. Nine of the 12 environments had significant genotypic effect and highly variable broad-sense heritability (H ranged from 0.15 to 0.75). T GEI was variable, with 55.6% of the genetic variance across environments accounted for by the factor analytic model. Mean daily growth temperature preceding anthesis was the most influential environmental driver of T GEI, suggesting varied scales of biochemical, physiological, and structural adaptations to temperature requiring different durations to manifest at the thylakoid membrane and leaf levels. These changes help protect or repair photosystem II upon exposure to heat stress. To support current wheat breeding, we identified genotypes superior to commercial cultivars commonly grown by farmers, and showed that there is potential for developing genotypes with greater photosynthetic heat tolerance.

Environmental trial of pea breeding acessions

The aim of the study was to determine the information content and adequacy of the ecological testing points of the pea breeding material and to identify the "ideal" genotype. Materials and methods. The breeding material in the experiments was represented by cultivars bred at the PPI nd.a. V.Ya. Yuriev (Tsarevych, Oplot, Otaman, Metsenat, Korvet, Haiduk, and Malakhit) and ten breeding lines (SL 11-129, SL 11-213, SL 11-55, SL 11-58, SL 10-37, SL 11-32, SL 10-132, SL 09-118, SL 11-166, and SL 11-176). In addition there was one cultivar (Svit) bred at the Plant Breeding and Genetics Institute. All the cultivars are leafless, semi-dwarf, mid-ripening, except for Tsarevych (mid-early). The field experiments were carried out in accordance with the methods of field experimentation, using the conventional pea growing technology. The seeding rate was 1.2 million germinable seeds/ha; the plot area was 10 m2. To evaluate the accessions for the variability in different environments, we used a regression model developed by S.A. Eberhart and W.A. Russel, where the regression coefficient is an indicator of the genotype-environment interaction. This model is included in "Guidelines for Environmental Trials of Corn". Results and discussion. Thus, comparing the regression coefficient in pea cultivars Oplot, Tsarevych, Haiduk, Korvet, and Metsenat, we could conclude that these accessions were highly intensive in the OSES conditions and extensive in the PPI NAAS conditions (except for Metsenat). Regarding the regression coefficient in the breeding lines, none of them had a regression coefficient of 1.0. Over the study period, the regression coefficient was 1.4 only in line SL 11-58 (PPI NAAS) and 1.2 (OSES), characterizing this line as intensive regardless of the place of cultivation. Taking into account that the regression coefficient values of <1 are intrinsic to extensive accessions, lines SL 10-132 (RC = 0.4) and SL 11-176 (RC = 0.8) are preferred. Because these accessions also have a high genotypic effect. In addition, the regression coefficient in breeding line SL 09-118 was 0.9, with a genotypic effect of 0.07. Such combination of the indicators characterizes the line as relatively stable, with sufficient potential performance, and this breeding line will not be demanding to growing conditions similar to the OSES ones. Conclusions. Thus, the evaluation of both cultivars and breeding lines in the environmental trial showed that the pea breeding at the Plant Production Institute named after VYa Yuryev had a significant potential to create cultivars that would be well-adapted to both eastern and southern conditions, and that environmental trials remained an effective tool for assessing breeding material and selecting accessions with the maximum fulfillment of the genetic potential

Association with Longevity of Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Regulatory Subunit 1 Gene Variants Stems from Protection against Mortality Risk in Men with Cardiovascular Disease

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Genetic variation in the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase reregulatory subunit 1 gene (<i>PIK3R1</i>) is associated with longevity. <b><i>Objective:</i></b> The aim of the study was to determine whether cardiovascular disease (CVD) affects this association. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We performed a longitudinal study of longevity-associated <i>PIK3R1</i> single-nucleotide polymorphism <i>rs7709243</i> genotype by CVD status in 3,584 elderly American men of Japanese ancestry. <b><i>Results:</i></b> At baseline (1991–1993), 2,254 subjects had CVD and 1,314 did not. The follow-up until Dec 31, 2019 found that overall, men with a CVD had higher mortality than men without a CVD (<i>p</i> = 1.7 × 10⁻⁵). However, survival curves of CVD subjects differed according to <i>PIK3R1</i> genotype. Those with longevity-associated <i>PIK3R1 TT</i>/<i>CC</i> had survival curves similar to those of subjects without a CVD (<i>p</i> = 0.11 for <i>TT</i>/<i>CC</i>, and <i>p</i> = 0.054 for <i>TC</i>), whereas survival curves for CVD subjects with the <i>CT</i> genotype were significantly attenuated compared with survival curves of subjects without a CVD (<i>p</i> = 0.0000012 compared with <i>TT</i>/<i>CC</i>, and <i>p</i> = 0.0000028 compared with <i>TC</i>). Men without CVD showed no association of longevity-associated genotype with life span (<i>p</i> = 0.58). Compared to subjects without any CVD, hazard ratios for mortality risk were 1.26 (95% CI, 1.14–1.39; <i>p</i> = 0.0000043) for <i>CT</i> subject with CVD and 1.07 (95% CI 0.99–1.17; <i>p</i> = 0.097) for <i>CC</i>/<i>TT</i> subjects with CVD. There was no genotypic effect on life span for 1,007 subjects with diabetes and 486 with cancer. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Our study provides novel insights into the basis for <i>PIK3R1</i> as a longevity gene. We suggest that the <i>PIK3R1</i> longevity genotype attenuates mortality risk in at-risk individuals by protection against cellular stress caused by CVD.

Performance and Stability of Pearl Millet Varieties for Grain Yield and Micronutrients in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions of India

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is grown under both arid and semi-arid conditions in India, where other cereals are hard to grow. Pearl millet cultivars, hybrids, and OPVs (open pollinated varieties) are tested and released by the All India Coordinated Research Project on Pearl Millet (AICRP-PM) across three zones (A1, A, and B) that are classified based on rainfall pattern. Except in locations with extreme weather conditions, hybrids dominate pearl millet growing areas, which can be attributed to hybrid vigor and the active role of the private sector. The importance of OPVs cannot be ruled out, owing to wider adaptation, lower input cost, and timely seed availability to subsidiary farmers cultivating this crop. This study was conducted to scrutinize the presently used test locations for evaluation of pearl millet OPVs across India, identify the best OPVs across locations, and determine the variation in grain Fe and Zn contents across locations in these regions. Six varieties were evaluated across 20 locations in A1 and A (pooled as A) and B zones along with three common checks and additional three zonal adapted checks in the respective zones during the 2019 rainy season. Recorded data on yield and quality traits were analyzed using genotype main effects and genotype × environment interaction biplot method. The genotype × environment (G × E) interaction was found to be highly significant for all the grain yield and agronomic traits and for both micronutrients (iron and zinc). However, genotypic effect (G) was four (productive tillers) to 49 (grain Fe content) times that of G × E interaction effect for various traits across zones that show the flexibility of OPVs. Ananthapuramu is the ideal test site for selecting pearl millet cultivars effectively for adaptation across India, while Ananthapuramu, Perumallapalle, and Gurugram can also be used as initial testing locations. OPVs MP 599 and MP 600 are identified as ideal genotypes, because they showed higher grain and fodder yields and stability compared with other cultivars. Iron and zinc concentration showed highly significant positive correlation (across environment = 0.83; p &lt; 0.01), indicating possibility of simultaneous effective selection for both traits. Three common checks were found to be significantly low yielders than the test entries or zonal checks in individual zones and across India, indicating the potential of genetic improvement through OPVs.

eQTLHap: a tool for comprehensive eQTL analysis considering haplotypic and genotypic effects

Motivation The high accuracy of recent haplotype phasing tools is enabling the integration of haplotype (or phase) information more widely in genetic investigations. One such possibility is phase-aware expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis, where haplotype-based analysis has the potential to detect associations that may otherwise be missed by standard SNP-based approaches. Results We present eQTLHap, a novel method to investigate associations between gene expression and genetic variants, considering their haplotypic and genotypic effect. Using multiple simulations based on real data, we demonstrate that phase-aware eQTL analysis significantly outperforms typical SNP-based methods when the causal genetic architecture involves multiple SNPs. We show that phase-aware eQTL analysis is robust to phasing errors, showing only a minor impact ($&lt;4\%$) on sensitivity. Applying eQTLHap to real GEUVADIS and GTEx datasets detects numerous novel eQTLs undetected by a single-SNP approach, with 22 eQTLs replicating across studies or tissue types, highlighting the utility of phase-aware eQTL analysis. Availability and implementation https://github.com/ziadbkh/eQTLHap. Contact [email protected] Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Briefings in Bioinformatics online.

Dispersal syndromes affect ecosystem functioning in ciliate microcosms

Dispersal is a key process mediating ecological and evolutionary dynamics. Its effects on metapopulations dynamics, population genetics or species range distribution can depend on phenotypic differences between dispersing and non-dispersing individuals (i.e., dispersal syndromes). However, scaling up to the importance of dispersal syndromes for meta-ecosystems have rarely been considered, despite intraspecific phenotypic variability is now recognised as an important factor mediating ecosystem functioning. In this study, we characterised the intraspecific variability of dispersal syndromes in twenty isolated genotypes of the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila to test their consequences for biomass productivity in communities composed of five Tetrahymena species. To do so, dispersers and residents of each genotype were introduced, each separately, in ciliate communities composed of four other competing species of the genus Tetrahymena to investigate the effects of dispersal syndromes. We found that introducing dispersers led to a lower biomass compared to introducing residents. This effect was highly consistent across the twenty T. thermophila genotypes despite their marked differences of dispersal syndromes. Finally, we found a strong genotypic effect on biomass production, confirming that intraspecific variability in general affected ecosystem functions in our system. Our study shows that intraspecific variability and the existence of dispersal syndromes can impact the functioning of spatially structured ecosystems in a consistent and therefore predictable way.

Environmental plasticity of sunflower lines for valuable economic traits

Our aim was to study the environmental plasticity of female sunflower lines for valuable economic traits, to select lines for heterosis breeding - sources of valuable economic traits with different categories of environmental plasticity. Results and Discussion. Expression of economically valuable traits and their environmental plasticity were studied in female maternal sunflower lines, including lines bred at NAAS institutions. Analyses of variance and regression showed that the lines were ranked according to the genotypic effect and the regression coefficient of these traits. Sunflower lines, which give relatively high yields and demonstrate optimal responses to the year conditions, are recommended to use in breeding for adaptability: short-season line Skh 1006 A (1.48 t/ha), early ripening line Skh 503 A (1.56 t/ha) and mid-early line Od 1042 A (1.60 t/ha). Early ripening line Skh 1002 A (50.4%) and mid-early line Od 1024 A (50.1%) are recommended to use in breeding programs as sources of high oil content and optimal expression of this trait across the years. Line Skh 51 A with a consistently high 1000-achene weight is a valuable source of large seeds. Mid-early line Od 1024 A is noticeable for a stable 1000-achene weight across the years and can serve as a valuable source in breeding programs to achieve a desirable level of this trait. A stable diameter of head was noted in early ripening lines Skh 1010 A and Skh 503 A and in mid-early line Skh 1012 A, which can be used as sources of this trait. Conclusions. The levels and environmental plasticity of the valuable economic traits were evaluated in the female sunflower lines. The lines were grouped in ranks according to the genotypic effect and the regression coefficient of the traits. Short-season, early ripening and mid-early sunflower lines have been identified as sources of valuable traits with different categories of response to the year conditions. The sunflower lines combining relatively high yield, oil content, 1000-achene weight and head diameter with an optimal response to the year conditions are recommended to use in breeding for adaptability.