Research Notes: Identification of male sterile soybean plants by pollen examination

The male sterile maintainer line, N69-2774, segregates 1:1 for fertility and sterility (Brim and Young, 1972). The fertile and sterile siblings are indistinguishable, except for pollen grain morphology, until the onset of maturity. For controlled hybridization the phenotypic similarity is an obstacle

Research Notes: Characterization of cytoplasmic diversity in soybeans

Soybean cultivars which occupy a majority of the U.S. acreage trace to only a few maternal parents. According to a recent report (1972) by the National Academy of Sciences, the maternal ancestors and their combined frequency of occurrence in the parentage among Northern and Southern varieties are: \u27Mandarin\u27 51 %, \u27Illini\u27 23%, \u27Tokyo\u27 11 %, \u27Dunfield\u27 8%, \u27Mukden\u27 4%, and \u27Roanoke\u27 4%. Four of these parents are introductions from Manchuria, one from Japan, and one is of unknown origin

Research Notes: Recurrent selection for yield in soybeans

Recurrent selection procedures have had limited application in soybean improvement (Kenworthy, 1976). Despite the procedural difficulties, theoretical considerations suggest an advantage for recurrent selection in supplementing standard breeding procedures. We present here a preliminary report of the yield response realized from several cycles of selection

Research Notes: Selecting homozygous male fertile lines from an intermating soybean population

The synthesis of random-mating soybean populations and their use in recurrent selection programs was enhanced by the discovery of the male sterile genotype, ms 1 ms 1 (Brim and Young, 1971; Brim and Stuber, 1973). At some point in such a recurrent selection program, a plant breeder usually wishes to select lines for testing from one or more of the improved populations . There is a difficulty in this, however, because the progeny of every fertile plant selected from a random mating population will segregate for male sterility

Research Notes: Techniques developed for screening soybeans for Mexican bean beetle resistance

The lack of uniform infestations of Mexican bean beetle (Epilachna varivestis Mulsant) in field plantings can make selection for resistance in segregating soybean populations very difficult . For this reason, the results from screening F2 plants in the field have been inconsistent. An alternative is to advance F2 plants to the F3 to provide replication at more than one location

Saffron and its major ingredients’ effect on colon cancer cells with mismatch repair deficiency and microsatellite instability

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. One of its subtypes is associated with defective mismatch repair (dMMR) genes. Saffron has many potentially protective roles against colon malignancy. However, these roles in the context of dMMR tumors have not been explored. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of saffron and its constituents in CRC cell lines with dMMR. Methods: Saffron crude extracts and specific compounds (safranal and crocin) were used in the human colorectal cancer cell lines HCT116, HCT116+3 (inserted MLH1), HCT116+5 (inserted MSH3), and HCT116+3+5 (inserted MLH1 and MSH3). CDC25b, p-H2AX, TPDP1, and GAPDH were analyzed by Western blot. Proliferation and cytotoxicity were analyzed by MTT. The scratch wound assay was also performed. Results: Saffron crude extracts restricted (up to 70%) the proliferation in colon cells with deficient MMR (HCT116) compared to proficient MMR. The wound healing assay indicates that deficient MMR cells are doing better (up to 90%) than proficient MMR cells when treated with saffron. CDC25b and TDP1 downregulated (up to 20-fold) in proficient MMR cells compared to deficient MMR cells, while p.H2AX was significantly upregulated in both cell types, particularly at >10 mg/mL saffron in a concentration-dependent manner. The reduction in cellular proliferation was accompanied with upregulation of caspase 3 and 7. The major active saffron compounds, safranal and crocin reproduced most of the saffron crude extracts' effects. Conclusions: Saffron's anti-proliferative effect is significant in cells with deficient MMR. This novel effect may have therapeutic implications and benefits for MSI CRC patients who are generally not recommended for the 5-fluorouracil-based treatment

Process algebra modelling styles for biomolecular processes

We investigate how biomolecular processes are modelled in process algebras, focussing on chemical reactions. We consider various modelling styles and how design decisions made in the definition of the process algebra have an impact on how a modelling style can be applied. Our goal is to highlight the often implicit choices that modellers make in choosing a formalism, and illustrate, through the use of examples, how this can affect expressability as well as the type and complexity of the analysis that can be performed

Non-Zero Sum Games for Reactive Synthesis

In this invited contribution, we summarize new solution concepts useful for the synthesis of reactive systems that we have introduced in several recent publications. These solution concepts are developed in the context of non-zero sum games played on graphs. They are part of the contributions obtained in the inVEST project funded by the European Research Council.Comment: LATA'16 invited pape

Stratified Abstraction of Access Control Policies

The shift to cloud-based APIs has made application security critically depend on understanding and reasoning about policies that regulate access to cloud resources. We present stratified predicate abstraction, a new approach that summarizes complex security policies into a compact set of positive and declarative statements that precisely state who has access to a resource. We have implemented stratified abstraction and deployed it as the engine powering AWS’s IAM Access Analyzer service, and hence, demonstrate how formal methods and SMT can be used for security policy explanation