Sorghum early vigor increases grain size, striga resistance and has linkages with some stay-green phenotype

Promising agronomic crop traits could be more accessible to breeding if we understood their underlying plant processes and knew their genetics determinacy. Here, we attempt to progress understanding of the functional linkages between traits using PCA and quantitative trait loci (QTL) co-localization approach. A recombinant inbred lines (RIL; 181 progenies) population derived from a cross between senescent (N13) and stay-green(E36-1) parental lines was selected. This population was previously shown to segregate for stay-green expression and Striga resistance in the field. Here it was phenotyped for: (i) grain size variability under optimal field conditions; (ii) traits related to early-vigor (canopy size and growth rate) in a high-throughput phenotyping platform. Most traits had high heritability (>60%). Linkage map was constructed (271 molecular markers) and QTL analysis (Cartographer 2.5) performed using composite interval mapping function. Two major QTLs influencing canopy size were found on SBI04 and SBI05. The SBI05 QTL harboring canopy size co-localized with the grain size QTL and with the genetic region of stg-4 (stay green) QTL (responsible for leaf size distribution). This links the vigor traits to the variability in grain size and leaf development (i.e. stay-green mechanism) the latter possibly explaining the variability in grain size. Since grain size partially regulates grain nutrients profile, such linkage calls for further exploration in breeding. The SBI-04 QTL for canopy size co-localized with QTLs for Striga resistance, strengthening the hypothesis that plant vigor enhances Striga resistance. Vigor appears to explain several traits and could be rapidly screened at the LeasyScan facility

Sorghum mitigates climate variability and change on crop yield and quality

Climate change effects immensely disturb the global agricultural systems by reducing crop production. Changes in extreme weather and climate events such as high-temperature episodes and extreme rainfalls events, droughts, flooding adversely affect the production of staple food crops, posing threat to ecosystem resilience. The resulting crop losses lead to food insecurity and poverty and question the sustainable livelihoods of small farmer communities, particularly in developing countries. In view of this, it is essential to focus and adapt climate-resilient food crops which need lower inputs and produce sustainable yields through various biotic and abiotic stress-tolerant traits. Sorghum, “the camel of cereals”, is one such climate-resilient food crop that is less sensitive to climate change vulnerabilities and also an important staple food in many parts of Asia and Africa. It is a rainfed crop and provides many essential nutrients. Understanding sorghum’s sensitivity to climate change provides scope for improvement of the crop both in terms of quantity and quality and alleviates food and feed security in future climate change scenarios. Thus, the current review focused on understanding the sensitivity of sorghum crop to various stress events due to climate change and throws light on different crop improvement strategies available to pave the way for climate-smart agriculture

Calibration of a continuous hydrologic simulation model in the urban Gowrie Creek catchment in Toowoomba, Australia

Study region: Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia Study focus: In this study we derive loss model parameters suitable for use in the dynamic loss Australian Representative Basin Model (ARBM) through the calibration of a continuous simulation hydrologic model. We compare the derived parameters to those published in the literature, and our results highlight the need to develop a database of calibrated loss parameters for urban catchments. New hydrological insights: The development of design storms for flood modelling commonly uses the initial loss/continuous loss model to estimate the conversion of rainfall to runoff. This loss model, when applied to pervious areas, uses parameters that have been calibrated for gauged rural catchments. These same parameters are often applied to the pervious component of ungauged urban catchments with minimal understanding of the resulting impact on runoff. This research uses a continuous simulation modelling approach to calibrate parameters suitable for use in the ARBM loss model built into the hydrological modelling software XPRAFTS. Through a two-stage calibration approach, the model offered a satisfactory fit (Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency > 0.5) for 9 of the 11 selected storm events, with seven events exceeding a Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency of 0.75. Events used in the calibration/validation included peak flows as low as 9 m3/s and as high as 600 m3/s. Developing these loss model parameters offers new insights into the suitability of a dynamic loss model approach in an urban catchment in regional Australia and provides an alternative to the parameters already available in the literature which were found to overestimate the peak flow in frequent events

Measurement of transpiration restriction under high vapor pressure deficit for sorghum mapping population parents

Limiting transpiration rate under high vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and/or progressive soil drying conditions are soil water conservation mechanisms that can play an important drought-adaptive role if water is limiting to support crops at its full potential. In this study, these two important physiological mechanisms were measured on parental pairs of existing Recombinant Inbred Lines (RILs) of sorghum mapping populations; both in experiments run in the glasshouse and growth chambers, and outdoors. In controlled environmental conditions, the RIL1, RIL2, RIL6 and RIL8 showed contrasting transpiration response to increasing VPD. The difference in the soil moisture fractions of transpirable soil water threshold where transpiration initiated a decline were high in RIL1, RIL3 and RIL8 respectively. The exploration of the variation of the evapotranspiration response to VPD was also carried out in a high throughput phenotyping facility in which plants were grown similar to field density conditions. Under high VPD conditions, the RIL parental pairs showed usual transpiration peak during the midday period. At this time period, genotypic differences within parental pairs were observed in RIL1, RIL2, RIL6 and RIL8. The donor parent had lower transpiration than the recurrent parents during the midday/high VPD period. Also, we found variation among parental pairs in leaf area normalized with received radiation and measured plant architecture traits. Across studied genotypes, RIL1, RIL2 and RIL8 showed differences in the plant canopy architecture and the transpiration response to an increasing VPD. Collectively, these results open the opportunity to phenotype the RIL progenies of contrasting parents and genetically map the traits controlling plant water use. In turn, this can act as an important genetic resource for identification and incorporation of terminal drought tolerance components in marker-assisted breeding

Diabetes and heart failure associations in women and men: results from the MORGAM consortium

Background: Diabetes and its cardiovascular complications are a growing concern worldwide. Recently, some studies have demonstrated that relative risk of heart failure (HF) is higher in women with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) than in men. This study aims to validate these findings in cohorts representing five countries across Europe. Methods: This study includes 88,559 (51.8% women) participants, 3,281 (46.3% women) of whom had diabetes at baseline. Survival analysis was performed with the outcomes of interest being death and HF with a follow-up time of 12 years. Sub-group analysis according to sex and type of diabetes was also performed for the HF outcome. Results: 6,460 deaths were recorded, of which 567 were amongst those with diabetes. Additionally, HF was diagnosed in 2,772 individuals (446 with diabetes). A multivariable Cox proportional hazard analysis showed that there was an increased risk of death and HF (hazard ratio (HR) of 1.73 [1.58–1.89] and 2.12 [1.91–2.36], respectively) when comparing those with diabetes and those without. The HR for HF was 6.72 [2.75–16.41] for women with T1DM vs. 5.80 [2.72–12.37] for men with T1DM, but the interaction term for sex differences was insignificant (p for interaction 0.45). There was no significant difference in the relative risk of HF between men and women when both types of diabetes were combined (HR 2.22 [1.93–2.54] vs. 1.99 [1.67–2.38] respectively, p for interaction 0.80). Conclusion: Diabetes is associated with increased risks of death and heart failure, and there was no difference in relative risk according to sex

Simulating Potential Impacts of Future Climate Change on Post-Rainy Season Sorghum Yields in India

Given the wide use of the multi-climate model mean (MMM) for impact assessment studies, this work examines the fidelity of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) in simulating the features of Indian summer monsoons as well as the post-rainy seasons for assessing the possible impacts of climate change on post-rainy season sorghum crop yields across India. The MMM simulations captured the spatial patterns and annual cycles of rainfall and surface air temperatures. However, bias was observed in the precipitation amounts and daily rainfall intensity. The trends in the simulations of MMM for both precipitation and temperatures were less satisfactory than the observed climate means. The Crop Environment Resource Synthesis (CERES)-sorghum model was used to estimate the potential impacts of future climate change on post-rainy season sorghum yield values. On average, post-rainy season sorghum yields are projected to vary betwee