Genome-wide association study in accessions of the mini-core collection of mungbean (Vigna radiata) from the World Vegetable Gene Bank (Taiwan)

Background: Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek, or green gram) is important tropical and sub-tropical legume and a rich source of dietary protein and micronutrients. In this study we employ GWAS to examine the genetic basis of variation in several important traits in mungbean, using the mini-core collection established by the World Vegetable Center, which includes 296 accessions that represent the major market classes. This collection has been grown in a common field plot in southern European part of Russia in 2018. Results: We used 5041 SNPs in 293 accessions that passed strict filtering for genetic diversity, linkage disequilibrium, population structure and GWAS analysis. Polymorphisms were distributed among all chromosomes, but with variable density. Linkage disequilibrium decayed in approximately 105 kb. Four distinct subgroups were identified within 293 accessions with 70% of accessions attributed to one of the four populations. By performing GWAS on the mini-core collection we have found several loci significantly associated with two important agronomical traits. Four SNPs associated with possibility of maturation in Kuban territory of Southern Russia in 2018 were identified within a region of strong linkage which contains genes encoding zinc finger A20 and an AN1 domain stress-associated protein. Conclusions: The core collection of mungbean established by the World Vegetable Center is a valuable resource for mungbean breeding. The collection has been grown in southern European part of Russia in 2018 under incidental stresses caused by abnormally hot weather and different photoperiod. We have found several loci significantly associated with color of hypocotyl and possibility of maturation under these stressful conditions. SNPs associated with possibility of maturation localize to a region on chromosome 2 with strong linkage, in which genes encoding zinc finger A20 and AN1 domain stress associated protein (SAP) are located. Phenotyping of WorldVeg collection for maturation traits in temperate climatic locations is important as phenology remains a critical breeding target for mungbean. As demand rises for mungbean, production in temperate regions with shorter growing seasons becomes crucial to keep up with needs. Uncovering SNPs for phenology traits will speed breeding efforts

Новые сорта вигны (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis (L.) Verdc.) овощного использования, перспективные для возделывания в южных регионах России

Relevance. Currently, there is an interest in this country in vegetable varieties of Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis (L.) Verdc. However, a small number of varieties adapted to different cultivation conditions prevents a wider distribution of this crop. The present work was aimed at creating new vegetable cowpea varieties adapted to the climatic conditions of southern regions of Russia.Materials and methods. The study was carried out in 1998-2018 in the Astrakhan Province (Astrakhan Experiment Station) and in 2012-2018 in Primorsky Territory (Far East Experiment Station). Vegetable cowpea accessions from the global VIR collection were studied.Results. Many years of breeding have resulted in creation of such varieties as ‘Astrakhanskaya krasavitsa’, ‘Kaspiyskaya zarya’, ‘Zhemchyuzhina Kaspiya’ and ‘Lyanchihe’, which were included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements in 2019. All varieties are characterized by earliness, high productivity, excellent quality of vegetable pods, high protein content in pods in the technical ripeness phase (29.5-33.5%), and by low demand to the soil fertility. ‘Zhemchyuzhina Kaspiya’, ‘Astrakhanskaya krasavitsa’ and ‘Kaspiyskaya zarya’ are tolerant to high temperatures, air drought and soil salinity. The growing season for these varieties lasts 62-68 days in the Astrakhan Province under irrigation, while technical ripeness of pods occurs in 46-50 days. The green pod yield is 16.1–28.2 t/ha and the seed yield is 1.91-2.71 t/ha. The ‘Lyanchihe’ variety tolerates humidity well; its growing season in southern Primorsky Territory is 97-110 days, and pods reach technical ripeness in 61-70 days. The green pod yield is 21.0-24.0 t/ha, and that of seeds is 2.38-2.64 t/ha. The released varieties will broaden the range of vegetable crops cultivated in this country and improve the quality of nutrition of the population.Актуальность. В настоящее время в нашей стране возник интерес к овощным сортам Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis (L.) Verdc. Однако небольшое число сортов, приспособленных к различным условиям культивирования, сдерживает ее более широкое распространение. Цель работы – создать новые сорта вигны овощного направления использования, адаптивные к климатическим условиям южных регионов России.Материал и методы. Исследования проводили с 1998 по 2018 годы на селекционных полях Астраханской ОС филиал ВИР (Астраханская обл.) и с 2012 по 2018 годы на Дальневосточной ОС филиал ВИР (Приморский край). Изучали образцы овощной вигны из мировой коллекции ВИР.Результаты. В результате многолетней селекционной работы созданы 4 сорта вигны овощного направления использования (Астраханская красавица, Каспийская заря, Жемчужина Каспия и Лянчихе), включенные в 2019 году в Государственный реестр селекционных достижений РФ. Все сорта отличаются скороспелостью, продуктивностью, отличным качеством овощных бобов, высоким содержанием белка в бобах в фазу технической спелости (29,533,5%), нетребовательны к плодородию почвы. Жемчужина Каспия, Астраханская красавица, Каспийская заря устойчивы к высоким температурам, воздушной засухе, засолению почвы. В Астраханской обл. в условиях орошения длина вегетационного периода (в.п.) у этих сортов равна 62-68 дням, до технической спелости бобов – 46-50 дней, урожайность бобов в стадии технической спелости – 16,1–28,2 т/га, семян – 1,91–2,71 т/га. Сорт Лянчихе хорошо выносит переувлажнение, на юге Приморского края имеет длину в.п. 97-110 дней, до технической спелости бобов – 61-70 дней, урожайность бобов в стадии технической спелости – 21,0–24,0 т/га, семян – 2,38–2,64 т/га. Выведенные сорта позволяют расширить ассортимент овощных культур, выращиваемых в нашей стране, и улучшить качество питания населения

INDEPENDENT MONITORING OF EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES AND QUALITY OF EDUCATION IN THE PRACTICE OF PEDAGOGICAL COLLEGE

The article analyzes and summarizes the experience of pedagogical college for the development of tools for evaluation of students' knowledge. The paper dwells on the introduction of independent monitoring of educational outcomes and the education quality technology

Composition of Primary and Secondary Metabolite Compounds in Seeds and Pods of Asparagus Bean (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) from China

Asparagus bean immature pods and seeds are popular as food products for healthy and functional nutrition. Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry was used to compare metabolomic profiles of seeds and pods yielded by old Chinese landraces and the modern cultivars ‘Yunanskaya’ and ‘Sibirskiy razmer’. About 120 compounds were identified. The content of a majority among groups of compounds was higher in pods than in seeds. The amount of free amino acids in pods was 47 times higher, polyols and phytosterols 5 times higher, phenolics 4 times higher, and organic acids and saponins 3 times higher than in seeds. Differences were found in the relative content of compounds. Among phenolic compounds, the dominant one for seeds was protocatechuic acid, and for pods 4-hydroxycinnamic acid. Only polyols were identified in seeds, but pods additionally contained ethanolamine, phytol, and phytosphingosine. The ratio for nonsaturated/saturated fatty acids was 2.2 in seeds and 1.4 in pods. Seeds contained more stigmasterol, and pods more β-sitosterol. Aglycones of saponins were identified: cycloartenol in seeds, α- and β-amyrins in pods. Oligosaccharides dominated in both seeds and pods. Landraces manifested higher protein content in pods, while modern cultivars had pods with higher contents of organic acids, polyols, monosaccharides, and fatty acids. The results obtained confirm the high nutritional value of asparagus bean seeds and pods, and the prospects of their use in various diets

Digital competencies of higher education’s scientific and pedagogical staff in Russia: The practice of empirical research

The article presents the results of theoretical generalization and empirical verification of the developed model of digital competencies of scientific and pedagogical staff of the Russian universities. A brief review of publications confirmed the relevance of the research and showed the main vectors of scientific search. The analysis of digital competencies of scientific and pedagogical staff of higher education was carried out by the method of an expert survey using a Google Form on the basis of the universities of Stavropol Krai (Russia). A total of 297 people took part in the survey. In the questionnaire of the expert survey, information modules were presented. They characterize the digital competencies of scientific and pedagogical staff of the university: information literacy, communication and cooperation, digital content design, security and responsible use of the online environment, organization of training in a digital environment. The results of the study allow us to update the model of digital competencies of scientific and pedagogical staff of higher education in Russia. It helps to describe their structural components: possession of the technological component of digital processes in educational activities; accessible and understandable positioning of the teacher and the subject area in the digital space, ensuring effective interaction in the “mentor – student” system; comprehensive digital security of educational activities. The empirical results obtained make it possible to develop additional educational programs for scientific and pedagogical staff, taking into account the actual need for the development of knowledge, skills and abilities in the subject area

New varieties of vegetable cowpea (<i>Vigna unguiculata</i> subsp. <i>sesquipedalis </i>(L.) Verdc.) and prospects of their cultivation in southern Russia

Relevance. Currently, there is an interest in this country in vegetable varieties of Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis (L.) Verdc. However, a small number of varieties adapted to different cultivation conditions prevents a wider distribution of this crop. The present work was aimed at creating new vegetable cowpea varieties adapted to the climatic conditions of southern regions of Russia.Materials and methods. The study was carried out in 1998-2018 in the Astrakhan Province (Astrakhan Experiment Station) and in 2012-2018 in Primorsky Territory (Far East Experiment Station). Vegetable cowpea accessions from the global VIR collection were studied.Results. Many years of breeding have resulted in creation of such varieties as ‘Astrakhanskaya krasavitsa’, ‘Kaspiyskaya zarya’, ‘Zhemchyuzhina Kaspiya’ and ‘Lyanchihe’, which were included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements in 2019. All varieties are characterized by earliness, high productivity, excellent quality of vegetable pods, high protein content in pods in the technical ripeness phase (29.5-33.5%), and by low demand to the soil fertility. ‘Zhemchyuzhina Kaspiya’, ‘Astrakhanskaya krasavitsa’ and ‘Kaspiyskaya zarya’ are tolerant to high temperatures, air drought and soil salinity. The growing season for these varieties lasts 62-68 days in the Astrakhan Province under irrigation, while technical ripeness of pods occurs in 46-50 days. The green pod yield is 16.1–28.2 t/ha and the seed yield is 1.91-2.71 t/ha. The ‘Lyanchihe’ variety tolerates humidity well; its growing season in southern Primorsky Territory is 97-110 days, and pods reach technical ripeness in 61-70 days. The green pod yield is 21.0-24.0 t/ha, and that of seeds is 2.38-2.64 t/ha. The released varieties will broaden the range of vegetable crops cultivated in this country and improve the quality of nutrition of the population

Genetic diversity of grasspea and its relative species revealed by SSR markers.

The study of genetic diversity between Lathyrus sativus L. and its relative species may yield fundamental insights into evolutionary history and provide options to meet the challenge of climate changes. 30 SSR loci were employed to assess the genetic diversity and population structure of 283 individuals from wild and domesticated populations from Africa, Europe, Asia and ICARDA. The allele number per loci ranged from 3 to 14. The average gene diversity index and average polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.5340 and 0.4817, respectively. A model based population structure analysis divided the germplasm resources into three subgroups: the relative species, the grasspea from Asia, and the grasspea from Europe and Africa. The UPGMA dendrogram and PCA cluster also demonstrated that Asian group was convincingly separated from the other group. The AMOVA result showed that the cultivated species was quite distinct from its relative species, however a low level of differentiation was revealed among their geographic origins. In all, these results provided a molecular basis for understanding genetic diversity of L. sativus and its relatives

Identification and Spatial Distribution of Bioactive Compounds in Seeds Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. by Laser Microscopy and Tandem Mass Spectrometry

The research presents a comparative metabolomic study of extracts of Vigna unguiculata seed samples from the collection of the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources. Analyzed samples related to different areas of use in agricultural production, belonging to different cultivar groups sesquipedalis (vegetable accessions) and unguiculata (grain accessions). Metabolome analysis was performed by liquid chromatography combined with ion trap mass spectrometry. Substances were localized in seeds using confocal and laser microscopy. As a result, 49 bioactive compounds were identified: flavonols, flavones, flavan-3-ols, anthocyanidin, phenolic acids, amino acids, monocarboxylic acids, aminobenzoic acids, fatty acids, lignans, carotenoid, sapogenins, steroids, etc. Steroidal alkaloids were identified in V. unguiculata seeds for the first time. The seed coat (palisade epidermis and parenchyma) is the richest in phenolic compounds. Comparison of seeds of varieties of different directions of use in terms of the number of bioactive substances identified revealed a significant superiority of vegetable accessions over grain ones in this indicator, 36 compounds were found in samples from cultivar group sesquipedalis, and 24 in unguiculata. The greatest variety of bioactive compounds was found in the vegetable accession k-640 from China

An RNA Sequencing Transcriptome Analysis of Grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.) and Development of SSR and KASP Markers

Grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L., 2n = 14) has great agronomic potential because of its ability to survive under extreme conditions, such as drought and flood. However, this legume is less investigated because of its sparse genomic resources and very slow breeding process. In this study, 570 million quality-filtered and trimmed cDNA sequence reads with total length of over 82 billion bp were obtained using the Illumina NextSeqTM 500 platform. Approximately two million contigs and 142,053 transcripts were assembled from our RNA-Seq data, which resulted in 27,431 unigenes with an average length of 1,250 bp and maximum length of 48,515 bp. The unigenes were of high-quality. For example, the stay-green (SGR) gene of grasspea was aligned with the SGR gene of pea with high similarity. Among these unigenes, 3,204 EST-SSR primers were designed, 284 of which were randomly chosen for validation. Of these validated unigenes, 87 (30.6%) EST-SSR primers produced polymorphic amplicons among 43 grasspea accessions selected from different geographical locations. Meanwhile, 146,406 SNPs were screened and 50 SNP loci were randomly chosen for the kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) validation. Over 80% (42) SNP loci were successfully transformed to KASP markers. Comparison of the dendrograms according to the SSR and KASP markers showed that the different marker systems are partially consistent with the dendrogram constructed in our study