Meta-analysis identifies pleiotropic loci controlling phenotypic trade-offs in sorghum

Community association populations are composed of phenotypically and genetically diverse accessions. Once these populations are genotyped, the resulting marker data can be reused by different groups investigating the genetic basis of different traits. Because the same genotypes are observed and scored for a wide range of traits in different environments, these populations represent a unique resource to investigate pleiotropy. Here, we assembled a set of 234 separate trait datasets for the Sorghum Association Panel, a group of 406 sorghum genotypes widely employed by the sorghum genetics community. Comparison of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) conducted with two independently generated marker sets for this population demonstrate that existing genetic marker sets do not saturate the genome and likely capture only 35–43% of potentially detectable loci controlling variation for traits scored in this population. While limited evidence for pleiotropy was apparent in cross-GWAS comparisons, a multivariate adaptive shrinkage approach recovered both known pleiotropic effects of existing loci and new pleiotropic effects, particularly significant impacts of known dwarfing genes on root architecture. In addition, we identified new loci with pleiotropic effects consistent with known trade-offs in sorghum development. These results demonstrate the potential for mining existing trait datasets from widely used community association populations to enable new discoveries from existing trait datasets as new, denser genetic marker datasets are generated for existing community association populations.     

青海可可西里地区鱼类资源及其保护的初步研究

青海可可西里地区是世界上最少研究的地区之一。通过多次零星的鱼类调查（１９７３－１９８６）和１９９０年５至８月间对本区进行的全面水生生物和鱼类考察。本文首次报道其有关的浮游植物、浮游动物和鱼类种类分布及生物学特性等问题。诸如浮游动、植物的水平分布、优势和群和生物量及鱼类食性、年龄、生长、繁殖等。     

Bambusicolous fungi in Japan (1): four <Emphasis Type="Italic">Phaeosphaeria</Emphasis> species

Four Phaeosphaeria species on bamboos are reported. Leptosphaeria lelebae on culms of Bambusa multiplex is synonymized with P. oryzae. A Phaeosphaeria sp. on leaves of Sasa kurilensis is noted to have some similarities to Leptosphaeria sasae. Cultural characteristics of P. brevispora collected from culms of Sasa sp. are first recorded. Phaeosphaeria bambusae on leaves of Pleioblastus simoni is redescribed. In addition, the history of taxonomic studies on bambusicolous fungi in Japan is briefly reviewed.     

Plant cryopreservation: Progress and prospects

Summary Cryopreservation (liquid nitrogen, −196°C) represents the only safe and cost-effective option for long-term conservation of germplasm of non-orthodox seed species, vegetatively propagated species, and of biotechnology products. Classical cryopreservation techniques, which are based on freeze-induced dehydration, are mainly employed for freezing undifferentiated cultures and apices of cold-tolerant species. New cryopreservation techniques, which are based on vitrification of internal solutes, are successfully employed with all explant types, including cells suspensions and calluses, apices, and somatic and zygotic embryos of temperate and tropical species. The development of cryopreservation protocols is significantly more advanced for vegetatively propagated species than for recalcitrant seed species. Even though its routine use is still limited, there are a growing number of examples where cryopreservation is employed on a large scale for different types of materials, including seeds with orthodox and intermediate storage behaviour, dormant buds, pollen, biotechnology products, and apices sampled from in vitro plantlets of vegetatively propagated species. Cryopreservation can also be employed for uses other than germplasm conservation, such as cryoselection, i.e., the selection through freezing of samples with special properties, or cryotherapy, i.e., the elimination of viruses from infected plants through apex cryopreservation. Because of its high potential, it is expected that cryopreservation will become more frequently employed for long-term conservation of plant genetic resources.     

Pelagic food webs: Responses to environmental processes and effects on the environment

Changes in both the environment and environmental research have led to the development of new protocols and approaches. These new approaches consider both the effects of changes in the global environment on living organisms (i.e. the responses of ecosystems to environmental processes) and the feedback responses of these organisms and ecosystems (i.e. the effects of living organisms on the environment). The present paper focuses on pelagic food webs in aquatic ecosystems. We examine three major effects of global environmental changes on aquatic organisms: (i) the release of pollutants and biological agents in lakes and nearshore marine waters; (ii) the loss of biodiversity and the collapse of commercially exploited resources that were heretofore renewable. We develop detailed examples of the effects of human activities on marine organisms (i.e. the effects of nutrient supply on the structure of pelagic food webs in marine systems. Finally, we examine (iii) the food-web-controlled exchanges of CO₂ between the atmosphere and the ocean, as a feedback effect of pelagic ecosystems on the global environment with respect to the ongoing climate change.     

中国汉族人群(西安)STR基因扫描与遗传结构

选择9种STR基因位点和Amelogenin基因位点,以测序为基础,研究我国汉族人群STR遗传结构.采用基因自动测序仪建立了10个位点基因分析方法,通过对汉族群体的基因扫描、基因分型和遗传结构分析,获得了STR基因传递特征的大量基因遗传数据,在汉族人群DP为1.05×10-0,EPP为0.9998,为建立我国不同民族STR基因数据库、基因资源研究与保护奠定了基础,为生物考古、基因诊断、性别鉴定、个人识别,司法审判、侦察破案提供有力的科学依据.     

What do mammalogists want to save? Ten years of mammalian conservation biology

Recent upsurge of interest in biological diversity requests that resources for conservation be allocated to taxonomic groups and geographic areas of greater priority, independent of the attractiveness of individual species. The aim of this paper is to assess if contributed papers on four of the most important international conservation journals in the last ten years reflect our increasing concern for threatened mammals. Our results show that some orders receive disproportionally more attention than predicted by their absolute number and percentage of threatened species. The Nearctic and Palearctic Regions are far more studied than other like, for instance, the Oriental Region, which are badly neglected considering their higher rates of endangered and endemic mammals. Furthermore, it was found that among many orders most of the species covered in contributed papers are not presently considered threatened by IUCN. Our work highlights the need of assessing conservation priorities at least at continental level and of devoting more resources to research in tropical countries.     

森林旅游资源评价中的空气负离子研究

空气负离子被喻为空气维生素或生长素,对人体健康有利。自英国学者威尔逊与法国学者埃尔斯特和格特尔证实空气负离子的存在,人们对空气负离子的研究经历了近百年的发展、应用阶段１）。在我国,解放区战地医院曾采用了空气雾疗法,５０年代有关文献中出现了空气负离子的...