Half-sib progeny evaluation and selection of potatoes resistant to the US8 genotype of Phytophthora infestans from crosses between resistant and susceptible parents

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the use of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) late blight (Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary) resistant parents in cultivar development and identify superior clones possessing moderate to high late blight resistance combined with acceptable maturity and tuber quality. Ninety-five crosses were made between eight unadapted parents with reported late blight resistance (B0718-3, Bertita, Bzura, Greta, Libertas, Stobrawa, Tollocan and Zarevo) and susceptible parents (cultivars or advanced breeding clones) adapted to North American growing conditions. A total of 408 field selected clones were assessed for late blight resistance in the greenhouse and in the field using a mixture of US8 P. infestans isolates (A2 mating type, metalaxyl resistant) that overcame all known R-genes except R8 and R9. Clones with ≤ 10% infected foliar area in the greenhouse test or ≤ 0.30 RAUDPC (relative area under the disease progress curve) value in the field in 1998 were re-tested in 1999. A total of 118 (29% of 408) putative late blight resistant clones were selected. The eight late blight resistant parents differed in both the ability to transmit late blight resistance and in the level of resistance transmitted to the progeny. The Tollocan and B0718-3 families (half-sib progeny) had the greatest degree of resistance and frequency of resistant clones. Scott-Knott cluster analysis ranked 79 clones (67% of 118) in the high and moderate late blight resistant groups. Among these 79 clones, 19 clones had vine maturity equal to or earlier than mid-season combined with acceptable tuber quality. Further selection in 2000 resulted in eight advanced selected clones (six from Tollocan and two from B0718-3 families) with the same level of resistance as the parent combined with vine maturity and tuber quality equivalent to Atlantic, a standard cultivar for chip processing in North America. The results indicate that this breeding approach can be used to select parents for late blight resistance breeding and to identify superior clones with high levels of late blight resistance and marketable vine maturity and tuber quality. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Estimates of genetic variability and heritability for vegetative and reproductive characters of kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa)

The results of this study indicated a great deal of genetic variation in a number of characters of horticultural interest in kiwifruit seedling populations, and therefore, a potential to improve kiwifruit by vine selection. High narrow sense heritability was shown for pedicel length(0.62) and flowering duration (0.50) in male vines, and pedicel length (0.67),floral shoot percentage (0.54), leaf length-width ratio (0.64), fruit elongation (0.64) and fruit weight (0.52) in female vines. For these traits, selection of superior seedlings should lead to rapid genetic improvement in these populations. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Selection for cold chipping genotypes from three early generations in a potato breeding program

Chipping potatoes are an important market for the processing industry. Of the traits influencing chip quality,chip color is market limiting since other traits have diminished value without light chip color. Cold (4 ^°C) storage can reduce storage losses and cultivars producing light colored chips directly from cold storage are needed for this reason. Selection for cold chipping cultivars is traditionally practiced by visual evaluation of progeny the first few years in the field, followed by selection for cold chipping in years 4–5. Early generation selection for cold chipping may reduce cultivar development time by identifying good chipping progeny, families and parents earlier in the breeding cycle. Progeny from 175 4x × 4x families were evaluated from three early generations. They were greenhouse grown tubers (GGT) evaluated after6 mo. storage using randomly selected progeny, and field grown single hills propagated from either seedling transplants (FTR), or from greenhouse grown tubers (FGT). Progeny from field grown generations were selected first by visual evaluation, and then by random selection and chipped after6 mo. (visual selections) or 3 and 6 mo. storage (random selections). Cold chipping progenies were found in all three early generations. The earliest generations for selection are GGT or FTR, but may be less efficient than FGT. Correlations suggest that reliable parent and family selection is possible using GGT data. Visual selection eliminated 4/5 of the good chipping progeny, while identifying 8 of 11,714 genotypes combining visual merit and cold chipping potential. Increased genetic variation and sexual polyploidization are possible strategies for increasing the number of desirable genotypes. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

陆地棉和野生斯特提棉种间异源六倍体的合成与性状鉴定

陆地棉(Gossypiumhirsutum)是世界上重要的栽培棉种,野生斯特提棉(G.sturtianum)含有陆地棉所缺乏的许多优质基因。本研究通过陆地棉和斯特提棉的远缘杂交和染色体加倍,获得了自交可育的后代植株,对其进行流式细胞倍性检测和花粉母细胞减数分裂观察,筛选出2株染色体组完整的异源六倍体植株。统计鉴定表明,六倍体和亲本及三倍体比较,叶形介于双亲之间,叶面积增大,保卫细胞中叶绿体数明显增多;远缘杂种与亲本在花的表型性状方面差异明显,六倍体的花粉粒直径大于亲本和三倍体;六倍体棉纤维为白色,长度小于母本陆地棉,父本斯特提棉的种子腺体延缓发育性状在异源六倍体中得到表达。这些结果证明通过远缘杂交和加倍成功获得了陆地棉与斯特提棉间可育的异源六倍体新种质,为棉花遗传育种研究提供了有价值的材料。     

Development of colchicine‐induced tetraploid St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum) lines

St. Augustinegrass is well suited for lawns and commercial landscapes. While many genotypes are cross‐fertile, all cultivars are propagated vegetatively in sod production. To ensure varietal purity, development of sterile triploid hybrids by crossing tetraploid and diploid genotypes has been successfully used in other warm‐season turfgrasses. Applying this model in St. Augustinegrass would be beneficial to sod producers and turf managers who require purity for certification and uniformity for performance, respectively. This study was conducted to develop colchicine‐induced tetraploid lines of St. Augustinegrass. Seeds of cultivar ‘Raleigh’ were treated with four colchicine concentrations at four exposure times. A non‐treated control was included among the treatments. Seedlings that germinated were screened for genome size changes using flow cytometry. Line DSA 13005 and two progeny lines derived through selfing, DSA 16001 and DSA 16016, were corroborated as tetraploids (2n = 4x = 36) through chromosome counts. These lines will be used in future breeding efforts to attempt development of sterile triploid cultivars of St. Augustinegrass.     

Development and Application of Cotton InDel Markers Based on High Throughput Sequencing

[Objective] Dimorphic InDel markers can be used for cotton variety identification and purity detection, to improve the accuracy and efficiency of cotton seed testing, and to play a role in molecular breeding of cotton. [Method] Based on the whole genome sequencing of 121 cotton varieties from different sources, the InDel markers with high polymorphism were developed according to polymorphism information content(PIC) and were applied in the genetic distance analysis and cluster analysis by using 66 cotton varieties in China. [Result] Totally 10 967 InDel were identified based on the next generation sequencing data of 121 cotton varieties. Among the 85 pairs of InDel primers synthesized, 64 were selected including 35 from At group and 29 from Dt group. The minimum average allelic frequency(MAF) of At and Dt chromosomes were 0.45 and 0.32, respectively, while the PIC were 0.49 and 0.40, respectively. The genetic distances of the 66 cotton varieties ranged from 0.04 to 0.65 centimorgan (cM), with an average of 0.39 cM. The two varieties with the largest genetic distance were Simian 3 and CCRI 36, and the two varieties with the smallest genetic distance were Xumian 18 and Xuza 3. [Conclusion] The 64 cotton dimorphic InDel markers can effectively reveal the relationships among varieties based on the genetic distance, and distinguish cotton varieties from different sources, which has certain theoretical significance and application value.     

The Identification of QTL Associated with Cotton Fruit Branch Length Suitable for Mechanized Harvest Utilizing BSA-seq

[Objective] This study aims to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with cotton fruit branch length by using the combination of bulked-segregant analysis (BSA) and next-generation sequencing (NGS) method. [Method] In this study, the cotton F₂ segregating population was developed with the short branch line Sujimian 125 and long-branch variety Sikang 1 as cross parents. According to the average internode length of fruit branches in middle, extreme individuals in F₂ population were divided into two groups to generate the bulked DNA samples. The whole-genome resequencing of two DNA bulks was applied to analyze the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and insertion-deletion (InDel) between two groups, and the fruit branch internode length related QTLs were detected using Euclidean distance (ED). [Result] With SNP data obtained from sequencing, a 0.8 Mbp range associated region on chromosome A3 was identified; with InDel data obtained from sequencing, a 1.09 Mbp range associated region on chromosome A3 was identified. Two regions overlapped, and the overlapped range was 0.77 Mbp. [Conclusion] This result suggested that the difference between I-type fruit branch and zero-type was due to different genetic locus and pattern rather than dosage effect of the same gene.     

近代江浙蚕种育种技术改良研究

为了对当代的农业技术改良提供借鉴。以汲取近代江浙地区蚕种育种技术改良及推广过程中的经验为目标,通过对近代江浙地区蚕种育种技术从传统到现代、蚕种先进育种技术的传播及改良蚕种在农村的推广等方面的历史考察,认识到改良技术要受到社会因素的制约。     

Interactions between plant and aphid genotypes in resistance of lettuce to Myzus persicae and Macrosiphum euphorbiae

Summary Six lettuce lines, representing two types of resistance to the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae, and a control line with high susceptibility to M. persicae were tested for resistance to six different clones of Myzus persicae and two clones of the potato aphid, Macrosiphum euphorbiae.The clones of M. persicae showed very different levels of aggressiveness on lettuce: two had a high level of reproduction, two had an intermediate level and two were poorly adapted to lettuce as a host. Differences between lettuce lines in aphid reproduction increased with increasing aggressiveness of the aphid clone, which means that aggressive clones are most effective for selection purposes. No evidence was found for clone-specific plant genotype reactions, meaning that lines resistant to one clone will also be resistant to other clones of M. persicae, allthough not neccessarily at the same level. The lettuce lines selected for partial resistance to the aggressive clone WMp1 were completely or almost completely resistant to less aggresive clones.No differences in level of reproduction were found between the two clones of M. euphorbiae and no relation was observed between resistance to M. persicae and M. euphorbiae, indicating the species-specific character of resistance to leaf aphids in lettuce.     

Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of wheat gliadins: the use of a moving boundary for improved resolution

Summary The process of the separation of gliadin proteins of wheat, using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, was studied in detail. It was shown that electrophoresis is a dynamic process during which the pH of the gel changes together with the potassium ion concentration. The most positive effect on the separation of the gliadins was generated by a moving front, which is a boundary between regions with a low concentration of K⁺ ions and a low pH, and region with a high concentration of K⁺ ions and a high pH, after optimization of the concentrations of the cations and anions in the electrode solutions. The finding was exploited for the development of an extremely simple electrophoresis system, in which buffers were not needed for obtaining a high resolution. The system was further improved by applying a stacking gel. The advantages of this system are discussed. This new approach may be useful for improving electrophoresis systems for other applications.