AFLP in Triticum aestivum L.: patterns of genetic diversity and genome distribution

The amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) procedure was applied to a diverse panel of wheat (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell.) accessions and sixty-nine of the recombinant inbred lines (RILs) from the widely used genetic mapping population derived from the cross of Opata 85 and W7984. Most (76.8%) bands were monomorphic among T. aestivum accessions. The majority of bands monomorphic in T. aestivum also were present in the synthetic wheat parent (W7984). Ten primer pairs generated 153 polymorphic AFLP bands, 140 of which could be assigned to a chromosome location and were relatively evenly distributed on the genetic linkage map. AFLP loci in T. aestivum were distributed throughout the genome; they generally have only one detectable sequence variant; and they exhibit monogenic dominant mendelian inheritance. Frequencies of polymorphic bands in the germplasm sampled are in the range that enables informative cluster analyses as well as map-based diversity and association analysis studies. AFLP bands mapped to individual loci in the Opata 85/W7984 RIL population will frequently be polymorphic in other crosses or germplasm, irrespective of whether the band arises from the T. aestivum parent or the synthetic wheat parent. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Free radicals in the stratosphere: a new observational technique

A new approach to in situ observations of trace reactive species in the stratosphere is described. A balloon-borne system, floating 40 kilometers above the earth's surface, successfully lowered and then retracted a cluster of instruments a distance of 12 kilometers on a filament of Kevlar. This instrument cluster is capable of detecting gas-phase free radicals at the part-per-trillion level. The suspended instrument array has excellent stability and has been used to measure atomic oxygen concentrations in the stratosphere.