SSR analysis of cultivated groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) germplasm resistant to rust and late leaf spot diseases

Cultivated groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an agronomically and economically important oilseed crop grown extensively throughout the semi-arid tropics of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Rust (Puccinia arachidis) and late leaf spot (LLS, Phaseoisariopsis personata) are among the major diseases causing significant yield loss in groundnut. The development of varieties with high levels of resistance has been constrained by adaptation of disease isolates to resistance sources and incomplete resistance in resistant sources. Despite the wide range of morphological diversity observed in the cultivated groundnut gene pool, molecular marker analyses have thus far been unable to detect a parallel level of genetic diversity. However, the recent development of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers presents new opportunities for molecular diversity analysis of cultivate groundnut. The current study was conducted to identify diverse disease resistant germplasm for the development of mapping populations and for their introduction into breeding programs. Twenty-three SSRs were screened across 22 groundnut genotypes with differing levels of resistance to rust and LLS. Overall, 135 alleles across 23 loci were observed in the 22 genotypes screened. Twelve of the 23 SSRs (52%) showed a high level of polymorphism, with PIC values ≥0.5. This is the first report detecting such high levels of genetic polymorphism in cultivated groundnut. Multi-dimensional scaling and cluster analyses revealed three well-separated groups of genotypes. Locus by locus AMOVA and Kruskal–Wallis one-way ANOVA identified candidate SSR loci that may be valuable for mapping rust and LLS resistance. The molecular diversity analysis presented here provides valuable information for groundnut breeders designing strategies for incorporating and pyramiding rust and late leaf spot resistances and for molecular biologists wishing to create recombinant inbred line populations to map these traits.E.S. Mace and D.T. Phong contributed equally to this work.     

A comparison of the effect of dietary fungal phytase and dicalcium phosphate supplementation on growth performances,feed and phosphorus utilization of tra catfish juveniles (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus Sauvage, 1878)

Six isonitrogenous (320 g kg^?1) and isolipidic (60 g kg^?1) diets were formulated with graded levels (0, 5, 10 and 15 g kg^?1) of dicalcium phosphate (DCP) and fungal phytase (750 and 1500 FTU kg^?1 diet). Tra catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus), 9.6 g, were fed the diets for 12 weeks. Each experimental diet was fed to eight replicates of fish to apparent satiation. At the end of the trial, fish fed the diets containing 15 g kg^?1 DCP, 750 and 1500 FTU kg^?1 phytase had higher growth performances, protein efficiency ratio and phosphorus retention than those fed the control diet, 5 g kg^?1 DCP and 10 g kg^?1 DCP diets (P < 0.05). Whole body ash and phosphorus concentration of fish fed the 10 g kg^?1 DCP and 15 g kg^?1 DCP diets were significantly higher than those of fish fed the control diet. Higher apparent digestibility coefficient of phosphorus was observed in fish fed the phytase supplemented diets. The present results indicate that supplementation of phytase at 750 FTU kg^?1 and 1500 FTU kg^?1 improves growth performances, feed and phosphorus utilization. The supplementation can completely replace dicalcium phosphate or other phosphorus sources in tra catfish feed and reduce the phosphorus discharge into environment.     

Cryopreservation of immature oocytes of the indigeneous Vietnamese Ban Pig

We report the cryopreservation of oocytes from Ban miniature pigs which are endemic in Vietnam. Immature cumulus‐oocyte complexes were collected from antral follicles of 7–8 mo old female cyclic Ban pigs and vitrified in micro‐drops. Oocyte morphology, lipid content, post‐warming survival, nuclear maturation, and embryo development were compared to those of oocytes from commercially slaughtered Landrace × Large white hybrid pigs. The size of oocytes in the two breeds was similar. However, significantly lower amounts of intracellular lipid were detected in Ban oocytes. There was no difference (p > 0.05) between Ban and Landrace × Large white oocytes in percentages of post‐warming survival (93.1 ± 3.4% vs. 70.7 ± 16.7%, respectively) and nuclear maturation after in vitro maturation (80.4 ± 5.1% vs. 90.0 ± 1.3% respectively). Similarly, cleavage (30.8 ± 7.8% vs. 10.3 ± 6.1%, respectively) and blastocyst development rates (9.4 ± 5.0% vs. 0.79 ± 0.79, respectively) were not different (p > 0.05) between vitrified Ban and Landrace × Large white oocytes after in vitro fertilization and embryo culture. In conclusion, high survival and maturation rates were achieved after vitrification of immature Ban oocytes and their cryo‐tolerance was similar to that of Landrace × Large white oocytes, despite the difference in lipid content. We succeeded to generate reasonable rates of blastocysts from vitrified Ban oocytes by in vitro fertilization.     

玉米种质材料遗传多样性的ISSR分析（英文）

【目的】利用ISSR分子标记分析越南北部山区当地玉米种质材料的遗传多样性。【方法】采用ISSR技术和10个引物对从越南和老挝北部山区3个省收集的21份玉米种质材料即12份普通玉米和9份糯玉米的遗传多样性进行分析。【结果】在21份玉米种质材料中可以检测到108个ISSR片段,其多态性为100%。ISSR引物的多态性信息量值为0.10～0.39,每条引物平均为0.24;分辨力为14.29~0.48,平均每条为4.48。除ISSR-T1以外,所有ISSR引物在13份玉米材料中均产生特异性片段。根据聚类分析结果,使用70%的遗传相似性作为切割点,建立了玉米种质材料系统树,21份玉米种质材料被分为3大类。不同玉米材料的相似系数为0.52~0.90.【结论】ISSR标记可提供玉米种质遗传多样性信息,对越南玉米种质材料的收集、保护和育种具有重要作用。     

Salinity effects on reproduction of giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man)

Understanding the role of salinity in breeding and growth has the potential to enhance production of giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii. This study investigated the reproduction of females reared in salinities of 0, 6, 12, and 18 g L^− 1. Mean weight of females decreased with increased salinity (31.40 ± 1.54, 25.14 ± 1.16, 20.80 ± 0.81, and 16.62 ± 1.04 g at 0, 6, 12, and 18 g L^− 1, respectively). Larval production was delayed by 2 months in females reared in 12 g L^− 1 compared to 6 and 0 g L^− 1 and the cumulative number of berried females decreased with increased salinity. The number of larvae produced was positively correlated to weight of female. A larval production not only differed between salinity treatments, but also that larval production per gram of female differed between treatments. Females reared in lower salinity of 0 and 6 g L^− 1 produced larger numbers of larvae (12,155 ± 480 and 6519 ± 323, respectively) compared to 12 and 18 g L^− 1 (3751 ± 256 and 0, respectively). The number of larvae produced per gram of female was inversely related to the salinity levels (Y = − 37.54X + 685.65, n = 339, r² = 0.995, p < 0.05). Survival of larvae from females reared at 0 and 6 g L^− 1 was higher than those from females reared in 12 g L^− 1. This study clearly shows that female broodstock reared in lower salinity was larger, reproduced early, and produced more offspring than at higher salinity and this could significantly impact coastal prawn culture where seasonal fluctuation of salinity in the hatchery is common.     

Development and initial evaluation of diversity array technology for soybean and mungbean

Diversity Array Technology (DArT), a technique for quickly generating large numbers of molecular markers, was established for two legume crops, soybean (Glycine max) and mungbean (Vigna radiata). For each crop, two genomic complexity reduction methods, utilizing PstI/TaqI and PstI/BstNI restriction digests, were selected for DNA clonal library development and for the isolation in each case of 7,680 DArT clones from genomic representations of pooled DNA samples. While the PstI/BstNI method produced more polymorphic clones than PstI/TaqI for the soybean library, there was no significant difference between the two methods for the mungbean library. Polymorphism frequencies in mungbean were around twice those in soybean, reflecting greater diversity in the mungbean samples. Even so, there were still nearly 1,500 unique polymorphic clones identified for soybean. The DArT marker transferability from soybean to mungbean (13.6%) was nearly five times higher than that from mungbean to soybean (3.1%). The percentage of DArT marker transferability between mungbean and several other Vigna species ranged from 3.4 to 20.2%. The genetic similarities among 11 diverse Vigna spp. samples, evaluated using the DArT mungbean library, were consistent with published information on these taxa. The results indicated that for soybean and mungbean, the DArT technique is an effective tool for marker generation in terms of speed and the numbers of markers identified. The transferability of markers between soybean and mungbean indicated that DArT may be useful for comparative genomic studies, while the ability of the mungbean library to discriminate between related Vigna taxa suggested that DArT may also be useful for studies of genetic diversity.     

Isolation and Total Synthesis of Stolonines A–C,Unique Taurine Amides from the Australian Marine Tunicate Cnemidocarpa stolonifera

Cnemidocarpa stolonifera is an underexplored marine tunicate that only occurs on the tropical to subtropical East Coast of Australia, with only two pyridoacridine compounds reported previously. Qualitative analysis of the lead-like enhanced fractions of C. stolonifera by LC-MS dual electrospray ionization coupled with PDA and ELSD detectors led to the identification of three new natural products, stolonines A–C (1–3), belonging to the taurine amide structure class. Structures of the new compounds were determined by NMR and MS analyses and later verified by total synthesis. This is the first time that the conjugates of taurine with 3-indoleglyoxylic acid, quinoline-2-carboxylic acid and β-carboline-3-carboxylic acid present in stolonines A–C (1–3), respectively, have been reported. An immunofluorescence assay on PC3 cells indicated that compounds 1 and 3 increased cell size, induced mitochondrial texture elongation, and caused apoptosis in PC3 cells.     

A method to select for reproductive frost tolerance in field pea (Pisum sativum L.)

This study describes an investigation to test whether genotypic differences for reproductive frost tolerance in field pea (Pisum sativum L.) can be measured in the field. The method involved individually tagging flowers or young pods at particular stages of development within 48 hr after a frost event and assessing pod survival and seed damage at maturity. Four field pea varieties were grown in 2011 in an experiment which measured the loss of pods following a specific frost event. This experiment also tested the impact of trellis and pathways sown with barley on the efficacy of the frost tolerance data. In 2012, an additional genotype was also tested and, in addition to pod loss, data were collected on seed damage in surviving pods. Results from both years showed significant genotypic differences. There was also a significant positive correlation between mean variety pod loss in 2011 and 2012 indicating reliability of this method across seasons.     

Oats (Avena strigosa) as winter forage for dairy cows in Vietnam: an on-farm study

In North Vietnam, during winter, alternative forage resources are needed to balance the feed ration of dairy cows. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of oat forage as a component of traditional winter roughage diets on feed intake, milk production and feeding cost in dairy cows. The study was conducted on-farm using 24 mid-lactation Holstein–Friesian cows. The feeding experiment consisted of two successive periods and two dietary treatments per period. Traditional basal diets included fresh tropical grasses, maize silage and hay. The oat forage had no effect on the dry matter intake of the basal diet, but the total crude protein intake was higher in cows fed with oat diets than in those fed with control diets. The yield of butterfat-corrected milk (FCM) was not significantly different between diets during period 1, but there was a trend (P?=?0.078) of higher FCM yields in cows fed with the oat diet compared to those with control diet during period 2 (17.3 vs. 16.3 kg/day). The decline rate in milk yield was significantly higher (P?<?0.001) in cows fed with control diets than in those fed with oat diets in both experimental periods. The total feeding cost of cows fed with oat diets was on average 12 % lower than those fed with control diets (P?<?0.01). So, the oat forage is an important winter resource for cows in North Vietnam allowing higher milk yield whilst reducing feeding cost, compared to traditional roughage diets.     

Determinants of Vietnam’s wood products trade: application of the gravity model

ABSTRACT

This study applied a gravity model estimation using panel data in order to analyze the impact of the determinants of Vietnam’s wood products trade from 2001 to 2016.The gravity estimates imply the importance of size of the economies, distance, level of openness of the economy, population, forest resource endowments of Vietnam’s trade partners, Vietnam’s logging restrictions policy, common border, free trade agreement, and exchange rates as determinants of Vietnam’s wood products trade. These variables were found to have different effects on the export and import of wood products. Vietnam’s access to the WTO and APEC did not help either its imports or exports in wood products. The results of this study also indicate that the Government of Vietnam needs to implement policies to increase investment in the wood processing industry, develop high quality wood materials from domestic plantations, and take advantage of trade preferences from new free trade agreements in order to promote wood product trade. The results of this study have implications for trade policy, resource-based economic development, and Vietnam’s forest resource conservation.