Genetic factors associated with favourable pollinator traits in the wheat cultivar Piko.

Hybrid breeding in wheat has the potential to boost yields. An efficient hybrid seed production system requires elite pollinators; however, such germplasm is limited among modern cultivars. Piko, a winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar, has been identified as a superior pollinator and has been used in Europe. Piko has favourable pollinator traits for anther extrusion, anther length, pollen mass and hybrid seed set. However, the genetic factors responsible for Piko's favourable traits are largely unknown. Here, we report on the genetic analysis of a Piko-derived F2 mapping population. We confirmed that Piko's Rht-D1a allele for tall stature is associated with large anthers and high anther extrusion. However, Rht-D1 was not found to be associated with anther filament length, confirmed by near isogenic lines. Piko's photoperiod sensitive Ppd-B1b allele shows an association with increased spike length, more spikelets and spike architecture traits, while the insensitive Ppd-B1a allele is linked with high anther extrusion and larger anthers. We identified an anther extrusion quantitative trait locus (QTL) on chromosome 6A that showed significantly biased transmission of the favourable Piko allele amongst F2 progenies. The Piko allele is completely absent in the distal 6AS region and the central 6A region revealed a significantly lower ratio (<8%) of F2 with homozygous Piko alleles. Our study provided further evidence for the effects of Rht-D1 and Ppd-B1 loci on multiple pollinator traits and a novel anther extrusion QTL that exhibits segregation distortion.

Electronic based reported anthropometry-A useful tool for interim monitoring of obesity prevalence in developing states.

BACKGROUND: Wide participation in electronic surveys and reliable reporting of anthropometry can serve to reduce costs associated with monitoring of obesity among adolescents where resources are limited. We conducted a single school pilot study among Caribbean adolescents to assess use of electronic surveys and whether face to face encouragement could promote enrollment. In addition, we assessed students' ability to reliably report simple anthropometry. METHODS: Students were provided with access to an electronic survey on anthropometry and food preferences regarding school-based food offerings. Responses to survey questions were presented as percentages. A sample of students also had their heights and weights measured after reporting these measures from memory. Intra-class correlation coefficients were used to assess reliability among measurers and Bland-Altman plots, consistency between student reported and recorded anthropometric measures and Support Vector Machine to assess robustness of anthropometry prediction models. RESULTS: Response rate to the electronic survey was low (9%). Students were able to interpret questions; open-ended options were inappropriately used 13% of the time. Post survey qualitative responses indicated displeasure with use of school-associated e-mail addresses. Concerns with confidentiality were expressed as well as preference for completion of surveys during school time. Students reliably reported anthropometry most measures fell within the 95% CI of Bland-Altman plots. SVM classified with a prediction accuracy of 95%. Estimates of overweight from recorded and reported measures were similar. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents are able to report simple anthropometry, and this can be used to help with monitoring of growth and overweight. Although they are capable of competently completing electronic surveys, school-based email is an ineffective contact tool. In-person school-based contact and administration of surveys are preferred. Adolescents can reliably report simple anthropometry that can be utilized for estimation of overweight/obesity prevalence. This method can be widely applied.

Wheat ms5 male-sterility is induced by recessive homoeologous A and D genome non-specific lipid transfer proteins.

Nuclear male-sterile mutants with non-conditional, recessive and strictly monogenic inheritance are useful for both hybrid and conventional breeding systems, and have long been a research focus for many crops. In allohexaploid wheat, however, genic redundancy results in rarity of such mutants, with the ethyl methanesulfonate-induced mutant ms5 among the few reported to date. Here, we identify TaMs5 as a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored lipid transfer protein required for normal pollen exine development, and by transgenic complementation demonstrate that TaMs5-A restores fertility to ms5. We show ms5 locates to a centromere-proximal interval and has a sterility inheritance pattern modulated by TaMs5-D but not TaMs5-B. We describe two allelic forms of TaMs5-D, one of which is non-functional and confers mono-factorial inheritance of sterility. The second form is functional but shows incomplete dominance. Consistent with reduced functionality, transcript abundance in developing anthers was found to be lower for TaMs5-D than TaMs5-A. At the 3B homoeolocus, we found only non-functional alleles among 178 diverse hexaploid and tetraploid wheats that include landraces and Triticum dicoccoides. Apparent ubiquity of non-functional TaMs5-B alleles suggests loss-of-function arose early in wheat evolution and, therefore, at most knockout of two homoeoloci is required for sterility. This work provides genetic information, resources and tools required for successful implementation of ms5 sterility in breeding systems for bread and durum wheats.

Effects of Rht-B1 and Ppd-D1 loci on pollinator traits in wheat.

KEY MESSAGE: Elite wheat pollinators are critical for successful hybrid breeding. We identified Rht-B1 and Ppd-D1 loci affecting multiple pollinator traits and therefore represent major targets for improving hybrid seed production. Hybrid breeding has a great potential to significantly boost wheat yields. Ideal male pollinators would be taller in stature, contain many spikelets well-spaced along the spike and exhibit high extrusion of large anthers. Most importantly, flowering time would match with that of the female parent. Available genetic resources for developing an elite wheat pollinator are limited, and the genetic basis for many of these traits is largely unknown. Here, we report on the genetic analysis of pollinator traits using biparental mapping populations. We identified two anther extrusion QTLs of medium effect, one on chromosome 1BL and the other on 4BS coinciding with the semi-dwarfing Rht-B1 locus. The effect of Rht-B1 alleles on anther extrusion is genotype dependent, while tall plant Rht-B1a allele is consistently associated with large anthers. Multiple QTLs were identified at the Ppd-D1 locus for anther length, spikelet number and spike length, with the photoperiod-sensitive Ppd-D1b allele associated with favourable pollinator traits in the populations studied. We also demonstrated that homeoloci, Rht-D1 and Ppd-B1, influence anther length among other traits. These results suggest that combinations of Rht-B1 and Ppd-D1 alleles control multiple pollinator traits and should be major targets of hybrid wheat breeding programs.

Unexpected mixed-mode transmission and moderate genetic regulation of Symbiodinium communities in a brooding coral.

Determining the extent to which Symbiodinium communities in corals are inherited versus environmentally acquired is fundamental to understanding coral resilience and to predicting coral responses to stressors like warming oceans that disrupt this critical endosymbiosis. We examined the fidelity with which Symbiodinium communities in the brooding coral Seriatopora hystrix are vertically transmitted and the extent to which communities are genetically regulated, by genotyping the symbiont communities within 60 larvae and their parents (9 maternal and 45 paternal colonies) using high-throughput sequencing of the ITS2 locus. Unexpectedly, Symbiodinium communities associated with brooded larvae were distinct from those within parent colonies, including the presence of types not detected in adults. Bayesian heritability (h2) analysis revealed that 33% of variability in larval Symbiodinium communities was genetically controlled. Results highlight flexibility in the establishment of larval symbiont communities and demonstrate that symbiont transmission is not exclusively vertical in brooding corals. Instead, we show that Symbiodinium transmission in S. hystrix involves a mixed-mode strategy, similar to many terrestrial invertebrate symbioses. Also, variation in the abundances of common Symbiodinium types among adult corals suggests that microhabitat differences influence the structure of in hospite Symbiodinium communities. Partial genetic regulation coupled with flexibility in the environmentally acquired component of Symbiodinium communities implies that corals with vertical transmission, like S. hystrix, may be more resilient to environmental change than previously thought.

Unfertilized ovary pushes wheat flower open for cross-pollination.

Bread wheat is strongly autogamous; however, an opportunity for outcrossing occurs when self-pollination fails and florets open. The first phase of floret opening at anthesis is short and induced by lodicule turgidity. Some wheat florets re-open post-anthesis for several days, known as the 'second opening', for which the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. We performed detailed physiological, anatomical, and histological investigations to understand the biological basis of the flower opening process. Wheat florets were observed open when the ovary was unfertilized. Unfertilized ovaries significantly increased in radial size post-anthesis, pushing the lemma and palea apart to open the florets. The absence of fertile pollen was not directly linked to this, but anther filament elongation coincided with initiation of ovary swelling. The pericarp of unfertilized ovaries did not undergo degeneration as normally seen in developing grains, instead pericarp cells remained intact and enlarged, leading to increased ovary radial size. This is a novel role for the ovary pericarp in wheat flower opening, and the knowledge is useful for facilitating cross-pollination in hybrid breeding. Ovary swelling may represent a survival mechanism in autogamous cereals such as wheat and barley, ensuring seed set in the absence of self-fertilization and increasing genetic diversity through cross-pollination.

Sperm dispersal distances estimated by parentage analysis in a brooding scleractinian coral.

Within populations of brooding sessile corals, sperm dispersal constitutes the mechanism by which gametes interact and mating occurs, and forms the first link in the network of processes that determine specieswide connectivity patterns. However, almost nothing is known about sperm dispersal for any internally fertilizing coral. In this study, we conducted a parentage analysis on coral larvae collected from an area of mapped colonies, to measure the distance sperm disperses for the first time in a reef-building coral and estimated the mating system characteristics of a recently identified putative cryptic species within the Seriatopora hystrix complex (ShA; Warner et al. 2015). We defined consensus criteria among several replicated methods (COLONY 2.0, CERVUS 3.0, MLTR v3.2) to maximize accuracy in paternity assignments. Thirteen progeny arrays indicated that this putative species produces exclusively sexually derived, primarily outcrossed larvae (mean t(m) = 0.999) in multiple paternity broods (mean r(p) = 0.119). Self-fertilization was directly detected at low frequency for all broods combined (2.8%), but comprised 23% of matings in one brood. Although over 82% of mating occurred between colonies within 10 m of each other (mean sperm dispersal = 5.5 m ± 4.37 SD), we found no evidence of inbreeding in the established population. Restricted dispersal of sperm compared to slightly greater larval dispersal appears to limit inbreeding among close relatives in this cryptic species. Our findings establish a good basis for further work on sperm dispersal in brooding corals and provide the first information about the mating system of a newly identified and abundant cryptic species.

Unexpected cryptic species diversity in the widespread coral Seriatopora hystrix masks spatial-genetic patterns of connectivity.

Mounting evidence of cryptic species in a wide range of taxa highlights the need for careful analyses of population genetic data sets to unravel within-species diversity from potential interspecies relationships. Here, we use microsatellite loci and hierarchical clustering analysis to investigate cryptic diversity in sympatric and allopatric (separated by 450 km) populations of the widespread coral Seriatopora hystrix on the Great Barrier Reef. Structure analyses delimited unique genetic clusters that were confirmed by phylogenetic and extensive population-level analyses. Each of four sympatric yet distinct genetic clusters detected within S. hystrix demonstrated greater genetic cohesion across regional scales than between genetic clusters within regions (<10 km). Moreover, the magnitude of genetic differentiation between different clusters (>0.620 G"ST ) was similar to the difference between S. hystrix clusters and the congener S. caliendrum (mean G"ST 0.720). Multiple lines of evidence, including differences in habitat specificity, mitochondrial identity, Symbiodinium associations and morphology, corroborate the nuclear genetic evidence that these distinct clusters constitute different species. Hierarchical clustering analysis combined with more traditional population genetic methods provides a powerful approach for delimiting species and should be regularly applied to ensure that ecological and evolutionary patterns interpreted for single species are not confounded by the presence of cryptic species.

Building a sustainable comprehensive Women's Health Program: the Michigan model.

The Women's Health Program at the University of Michigan was established in 1993 and has developed into a successful, federally supported program that links clinical research and education activities across the University. It has focused on human resource capacity building, sustainable financial support and infrastructure, and adaptability to change and opportunities. Widely accepted standards, demonstrated value, committed leaders/champions, and participatory culture have contributed to its success and are important to its future.