Competências-chave na era digital para coaprendizagem e coinvestigação

Este trabalho visa apresentar uma investigação exploratória em desenvolvimento com resultados preliminares sobre “Competências-chave para educação do século XXI na Era Digital”. Utiliza-se a ciber-etnografia como método de observação assíncrona (fórum e wikis) e síncrona (webconferência) das competências e habilidades desenvolvidas durante o processo de co-investigação e coaprendizagem em dois espaços virtuais. Este estudo envolve pesquisadores do Reino Unido, Brasil, Portugal e Espanha que iniciaram suas interações no portal Encuentro.Educared do “Encontro Internacional de Educação 2012-2013”, realizado pela empresa Telefônica e também no ambiente de investigação weSPOT (Working Environment with Social, Personal and Open Technologies) financiado pela Comissão Européia. Como resultado deste trabalho, observou-se que o portal propiciou o desenvolvimento mais explicíto de literacias digitais, possivelmente por ser uma interface mais simples e familiar (fórum). E no ambiente de investigação, os participantes já com maior facilidade com tecnologias digitais tiveram maiores oportunidades de desenvolver outras competências relacionadas com a Literacia Científica.This paper presents an exploratory investigation in development with preliminary results on "Key Competences for XXI Century Education in the Digital Age." The method applied was cyber-ethnography with asynchronous observation (forum and wiki) and synchronous discussions (webconference) for analysing skills and competences developed during the process of co-inquiry and co-learning in two online areas. This study involves researchers from the UK, Brazil, Portugal and Spain. They initiated their interactions in the portal Encuentro.Educared of the "International Meeting on Education 2012-2013", organized by company Telefónica and also in the inquiry environment weSPOT (Working Environment with Social Personal and Open Technologies) funded by the European Commission. As a result of this study, it was observed that the portal led to the development of more explicit digital literacies, possibly because it was a simpler interface and familiar (forum). And in the inquiry environment, participants familiar with digital technologies had more opportunities to develop other skills related to Critical-Creative Thinking and Socio-Scientific Reasoning.Universidade Aberta; Pavilhão do Conhecimento; LEA

New insights into Capsicum spp relatedness and the diversification process of Capsicum annuum in Spain

The successful exploitation of germplasm banks, harbouring plant genetic resources indispensable for plant breeding, will depend on our ability to characterize their genetic diversity. The Vegetable Germplasm Bank of Zaragoza (BGHZ) (Spain) holds an important Capsicum annuum collection, where most of the Spanish pepper variability is represented, as well as several accessions of other domesticated and non-domesticated Capsicum spp from all over the five continents. In the present work, a total of 51 C. annuum landraces (mainly from Spain) and 51 accessions from nine Capsicum species maintained at the BGHZ were evaluated using 39 microsatellite (SSR) markers spanning the whole genome. The 39 polymorphic markers allowed the detection of 381 alleles, with an average of 9.8 alleles per locus. A sizeable proportion of alleles (41.2%) were recorded as specific alleles and the majority of these were present at very low frequencies (rare alleles). Multivariate and model-based analyses partitioned the collection in seven clusters comprising the ten different Capsicum spp analysed: C. annuum, C. chinense, C. frutescens, C. pubescens, C. bacatum, C. chacoense and C. eximium. The data clearly showed the close relationships between C. chinense and C. frutescens. C. cardenasii and C. eximium were indistinguishable as a single, morphologically variable species. Moreover, C. chacoense was placed between C. baccatum and C. pubescens complexes. The C. annuum group was structured into three main clusters, mostly according to the pepper fruit shape, size and potential pungency. Results suggest that the diversification of C. annuum in Spain may occur from a rather limited gene pool, still represented by few landraces with ancestral traits. This ancient population would suffer from local selection at the distinct geographical regions of Spain, giving way to pungent and elongated fruited peppers in the South and Center, while sweet blocky and triangular types in Northern Spain

Isolation and fine mapping of Rps6: An intermediate host resistance gene in barley to wheat stripe rust

A plant may be considered a nonhost of a pathogen if all known genotypes of a plant species are resistant to all known isolates of a pathogen species. However, if a small number of genotypes are susceptible to some known isolates of a pathogen species this plant maybe considered an intermediate host. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is an intermediate host for Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), the causal agent of wheat stripe rust. We wanted to understand the genetic architecture underlying resistance to Pst and to determine whether any overlap exists with resistance to the host pathogen, Puccinia striiformis f. sp. hordei (Psh). We mapped Pst resistance to chromosome 7H and show that host and intermediate host resistance is genetically uncoupled. Therefore, we designate this resistance locus Rps6. We used phenotypic and genotypic selection on F2:3 families to isolate Rps6 and fine mapped the locus to a 0.1 cM region. Anchoring of the Rps6 locus to the barley physical map placed the region on two adjacent fingerprinted contigs. Efforts are now underway to sequence the minimal tiling path and to delimit the physical region harbouring Rps6. This will facilitate additional marker development and permit identification of candidate genes in the region

Characterisation of barley resistance to rhynchosporium on chromosome 6HS

Key Message: Major resistance gene to rhynchosporium, Rrs18, maps close to the telomere on the short arm of chromosome 6H in barley. Rhynchosporium or barley scald caused by a fungal pathogen Rhynchosporium commune is one of the most destructive and economically important diseases of barley in the world. Testing of Steptoe × Morex and CIho 3515 × Alexis doubled haploid populations has revealed a large effect QTL for resistance to R. commune close to the telomere on the short arm of chromosome 6H, present in both populations. Mapping markers flanking the QTL from both populations onto the 2017 Morex genome assembly revealed a rhynchosporium resistance locus independent of Rrs13 that we named Rrs18. The causal gene was fine mapped to an interval of 660 Kb using Steptoe × Morex backcross 1 S₂ and S₃ lines with molecular markers developed from Steptoe exome capture variant calling. Sequencing RNA from CIho 3515 and Alexis revealed that only 4 genes within the Rrs18 interval were transcribed in leaf tissue with a serine/threonine protein kinase being the most likely candidate for Rrs18.Max Coulter, Bianca Büttner, Kerstin Hofmann, Micha Bayer, Luke Ramsay, Günther Schweizer, Robbie Waugh, Mark E. Looseley, Anna Avrov

Computational models in plant-pathogen interactions: the case of Phytophthora infestans

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Phytophthora infestans </it>is a devastating oomycete pathogen of potato production worldwide. This review explores the use of computational models for studying the molecular interactions between <it>P. infestans </it>and one of its hosts, <it>Solanum tuberosum</it>.</p> <p>Modeling and conclusion</p> <p>Deterministic logistics models have been widely used to study pathogenicity mechanisms since the early 1950s, and have focused on processes at higher biological resolution levels. In recent years, owing to the availability of high throughput biological data and computational resources, interest in stochastic modeling of plant-pathogen interactions has grown. Stochastic models better reflect the behavior of biological systems. Most modern approaches to plant pathology modeling require molecular kinetics information. Unfortunately, this information is not available for many plant pathogens, including <it>P. infestans</it>. Boolean formalism has compensated for the lack of kinetics; this is especially the case where comparative genomics, protein-protein interactions and differential gene expression are the most common data resources.</p

Towards Positional Isolation of Three Quantitative Trait Loci Conferring Resistance to Powdery Mildew in Two Spanish Barley Landraces

10.1371/journal.pone.006733

Resistance to powdery mildew in Spanish barley landraces is controlled by different sets of quantitative trait loci

25 Pag., 2 Tabl., 3 Fig. The definitive version is available at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/0040-5752/Twenty-two landrace-derived inbred lines from the Spanish Barley Core Collection (SBCC) were found to display high levels of resistance to a panel of 27 isolates of the fungus Blumeria graminis that exhibit a wide variety of virulences. Among these lines, SBCC145 showed high overall resistance and a distinctive spectrum of resistance compared with the other lines. Against this background, the main goal of the present work was to investigate the genetic basis underlying such resistance using a doubled haploid population derived from a cross between SBCC145 and the elite spring cultivar Beatrix. The population was genotyped with the 1,536-SNP Illumina GoldenGate Oligonucleotide Pool Assay (Barley OPA-1 or BOPA1 for short), whereas phenotypic analysis was performed using two B. graminis isolates. A major quantitative trait locus (QTL) for resistance to both isolates was identified on the long arm of chromosome 6H (6HL) and accounted for ca. 60% of the phenotypic variance. Depending on the B. graminis isolate tested, three other minor QTLs were detected on chromosomes 2H and 7H, which explained less than 5% of the phenotypic variation each. In all cases, the alleles for resistance derived from the Spanish parent SBCC145. The position, the magnitude of the effect observed and the proportion of phenotypic variation accounted for by the QTL on 6HL suggest this is a newly identified locus for broad-based resistance to powdery mildew.This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (projects GEN2006-28560-E, AGL2007-63625 and Plant-KBBE ExpResBar, EUI2009-04075) and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. CS holds an I3P postdoctoral contract from CSIC. CS was supported by mobility fellowships from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), CSIC, Fundación Caja Inmaculada and COST Action FA0604 (Tritigen).Peer reviewe