Evaluation of Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.)] Reference Genes in Various Tissues and under Abiotic Stress Conditions for Quantitative Real-Time PCR Data Normalization

Accurate and reliable gene expression data from qPCR depends on stable reference gene expression for potential gene functional analyses. In this study, 15 reference genes were selected and analyzed in various sample sets including abiotic stress treatments (salt, cold, water stress, heat, and abscisic acid) and tissues (leaves, roots, seedlings, panicle, and mature seeds). Statistical tools, including geNorm, NormFinder and RefFinder, were utilized to assess the suitability of reference genes based on their stability rankings for various sample groups. For abiotic stress, PP2A and CYP were identified as the most stable genes. In contrast, EIF4α was the most stable in the tissue sample set, followed by PP2A; PP2A was the most stable in all the sample set, followed by EIF4α. GAPDH, and UBC1 were the least stably expressed in the tissue and all the sample sets. These results also indicated that the use of two candidate reference genes would be sufficient for the optimization of normalization studies. To further verify the suitability of these genes for use as reference genes, SbHSF5 and SbHSF13 gene expression levels were normalized using the most and least stable sorghum reference genes in root and water stressed-leaf tissues of five sorghum varieties. This is the first systematic study of the selection of the most stable reference genes for qPCR-related assays in Sorghum bicolor that will potentially benefit future gene expression studies in sorghum and other closely related species

Lessons from Innovative Institutions in the Marketing of Fish and Fishery Products in India §

Abstract This study has been conducted with the objective of understanding the process of innovative marketing models in the fisheries sector and to draw lessons from the success stories to upscale and replicate in a similar socio-politico-economic scenario in other parts of the country. It has been conducted to provide a better understanding of fish marketing by self-help groups (SHGs), producer associations, fisheries development corporations, fisherman cooperatives and private institutions in the southern states of India, namely Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh with the hypothesis that the institutional arrangements in the marketing of fish and fishery products reduce the transaction cost and improve the market access and its efficiency. The study has reported the primary activities of those institutions in the efficient fish marketing, such as inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales promotion and support activities like infrastructural facilities, technological backstopping, price information and procurement. Through these advantages, the fishermen have been found to achieve economies of scale, technological innovations, capacity development, linkage among activities, degree of vertical integration, timing of market entry, product differentiation, market access, credit access, etc. The study has suggested replication of such successful innovative institutions in marketing the fish and fishery products through appropriate policies and programmes. It has also suggested to promote institutions like SHGs, producer / fishermen associations, cooperatives, etc. and allow the entry of private agencies with appropriate regulatory mechanism to improve the efficiency of fish marketing in the country

Phenotypic and genetic dissection of water stress adaptations in pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum)

Pearl millet is an important staple food for farming communities across semi-arid tropical systems of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa where production suffers uncertain precipitation. This work is undertaken under the premise that maximizing grain yield under water-limited conditions depends on both maximizing water use and ensuring water availability for the grain filling period. Here we discuss the phenotyping methods targeting the variability in plant water use strategies which determine the crop production success in water-limited environments. A fine-mapping population of pearl millet, segregating within the previously identified drought tolerance quantitative trait locus (QTL) on chromosome 2 (LG02), was tested across different experimental environments (pot culture, high-throughput phenotyping platform (LeasyScan), Lysimeter, and Field). Recombinants were then analyzed for traits at different levels of plant organization, ranging from water-use traits (transpiration rate, leaf area, plant organ dry weights, etc.) to crop production and agronomic traits (grain yield, tiller number, harvest index, etc.) The linkages between traits across the experimental systems were analyzed, using principal component analysis (PCA) and QTL co-localization approach. The functional relevance of the phenotyping systems was traced by PCA analysis. Furthermore, we found four regions within the LG02-QTL underlying substantial co-mapping of water-use related and agronomic traits. These regions were identified across the experimental systems and justified linkages between water- use traits were phenotyped at lower level of plant organization to the agronomic traits assessed in the field. Therefore, the phenotyping systems at ICRISAT are validated and well set to accelerate crop breeding for drought adaptations

Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for water use and crop production traits co-locate with major QTL for tolerance to water deficit in a fine-mapping population of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L. R.Br.)

Key message Four genetic regions associated with water use traits, measured at different levels of plant organization, and with agronomic traits were identified within a previously reported region for terminal water deficit adaptation on linkage group 2. Close linkages between these traits showed the value of phenotyping both for agronomic and secondary traits to better understand plant productive processes. Abstract Water saving traits are critical for water stress adaptation of pearl millet, whereas maximizing water use is key to the absence of stress. This research aimed at demonstrating the close relationship between traits measured at different levels of plant organization, some putatively involved in water stress adaptation, and those responsible for agronomic performance. A fine-mapping population of pearl millet, segregating for a previously identified quantitative trait locus (QTL) for adaptation to terminal drought stress on LG02, was phenotyped for traits at different levels of plant organization in different experimental environments (pot culture, high-throughput phenotyping platform, lysimeters, and field). The linkages among traits across the experimental systems were analysed using principal component analysis and QTL co-localization approach. Four regions within the LG02-QTL were found and revealed substantial co-mapping of water use and agronomic traits. These regions, identified across experimental systems, provided genetic evidence of the tight linkages between traits phenotyped at a lower level of plant organization and agronomic traits assessed in the field, therefore deepening our understanding of complex traits and then benefiting both geneticists and breeders. In short: (1) under no/mild stress conditions, increasing biomass and tiller production increased water use and eventually yield; (2) under severe stress conditions, water savings at vegetative stage, from lower plant vigour and fewer tillers in that population, led to more water available during grain filling, expression of stay-green phenotypes, and higher yield

Plant vigour QTLs co-map with an earlier reported QTL hotspot for drought tolerance while water saving QTLs map in other regions of the chickpea genome

Background Terminal drought stress leads to substantial annual yield losses in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Adaptation to water limitation is a matter of matching water supply to water demand by the crop. Therefore, harnessing the genetics of traits contributing to plant water use, i.e. transpiration rate and canopy development dynamics, is important to design crop ideotypes suited to a varying range of water limited environments. With an aim of identifying genomic regions for plant vigour (growth and canopy size) and canopy conductance traits, 232 recombinant inbred lines derived from a cross between ICC 4958 and ICC 1882, were phenotyped at vegetative stage under well-watered conditions using a high throughput phenotyping platform (LeasyScan). Results Twenty one major quantitative trait loci (M-QTLs) were identified for plant vigour and canopy conductance traits using an ultra-high density bin map. Plant vigour traits had 13 M-QTLs on CaLG04, with favourable alleles from high vigour parent ICC 4958. Most of them co-mapped with a previously fine mapped major drought tolerance “QTL-hotspot” region on CaLG04. One M-QTL was found for canopy conductance on CaLG03 with the ultra-high density bin map. Comparative analysis of the QTLs found across different density genetic maps revealed that QTL size reduced considerably and % of phenotypic variation increased as marker density increased. Conclusion Earlier reported drought tolerance hotspot is a vigour locus. The fact that canopy conductance traits, i.e. the other important determinant of plant water use, mapped on CaLG03 provides an opportunity to manipulate these loci to tailor recombinants having low/high transpiration rate and plant vigour, fitted to specific drought stress scenarios in chickpea

Predicting Academic Performance: A Systematic Literature Review

The ability to predict student performance in a course or program creates opportunities to improve educational outcomes. With effective performance prediction approaches, instructors can allocate resources and instruction more accurately. Research in this area seeks to identify features that can be used to make predictions, to identify algorithms that can improve predictions, and to quantify aspects of student performance. Moreover, research in predicting student performance seeks to determine interrelated features and to identify the underlying reasons why certain features work better than others. This working group report presents a systematic literature review of work in the area of predicting student performance. Our analysis shows a clearly increasing amount of research in this area, as well as an increasing variety of techniques used. At the same time, the review uncovered a number of issues with research quality that drives a need for the community to provide more detailed reporting of methods and results and to increase efforts to validate and replicate work.Peer reviewe

Multimedia Computational Offloading for 5G Mobile Edge Computing

Abstract Due to the tremendous growth of smartphone users with their massive usage of faster response, delay sensitive applications lead to high traffic demands, still not yet been met by current researchers. Thus, the ever-increasing computational demands are managed through computational offloading, which offload intensive workloads to the small cells having functionality similar to the resource-rich providers namely edge server. With the use of edge server, the heavily loaded computations get executed outside of the mobile device which results in minimization of mobile energy consumption and latency. Mobile edge computing is an emerging paradigm of commercial infrastructure for computational offloading, which enhances the power of smart mobile devices. Generally, edge provides cloud services and resources to the nearest proximity of users with radio access in fifth-generation (5G) networks for low latency, prompt response, and filtering. But, the frequent network failure automatically degrades the performance. Hence in this paper, we integrate the functionalities of Edge Server with Pico cells (ESP) for efficient traffic management and also propose a distributed Multi hop Mesh Middle layer (MMM) architecture for seamless communication with high resilience, minimal latency, and reduction of energy consumption. Generally, a pico cell is a distributed antenna system, an alternative to a repeater used to extend wireless services to 100 users. We developed an Ant Social based Vector (ASV) optimization algorithm for an intelligent offload decision, which paves the way for backhaul routing conflicts. Simulation results of Cloud Sim show that offloading tiny devices integrated with significant additional computational capabilities would satisfy all the demands from each network within a 15ms delay.</jats:p