An ancestral NB-LRR with duplicated 3'UTRs confers stripe rust resistance in wheat and barley.

Wheat stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is a global threat to wheat production. Aegilops tauschii, one of the wheat progenitors, carries the YrAS2388 locus for resistance to Pst on chromosome 4DS. We reveal that YrAS2388 encodes a typical nucleotide oligomerization domain-like receptor (NLR). The Pst-resistant allele YrAS2388R has duplicated 3' untranslated regions and is characterized by alternative splicing in the nucleotide-binding domain. Mutation of the YrAS2388R allele disrupts its resistance to Pst in synthetic hexaploid wheat; transgenic plants with YrAS2388R show resistance to eleven Pst races in common wheat and one race of P. striiformis f. sp. hordei in barley. The YrAS2388R allele occurs only in Ae. tauschii and the Ae. tauschii-derived synthetic wheat; it is absent in 100% (n = 461) of common wheat lines tested. The cloning of YrAS2388R will facilitate breeding for stripe rust resistance in wheat and other Triticeae species

Evaluating the Driving Risk of Near-Crash Events Using a Mixed-Ordered Logit Model

With the considerable increase in ownership of motor vehicles, traffic crashes have become a challenge. This paper presents a study of naturalistic driving conducted to collect driving data. The experiments were performed on different road types in the city of Wuhan in China. The collected driving data were used to develop a near-crash database, which covers driving behavior, near-crash factors, driving environment, time, demographics, and experience. A new definition of near-crash events is also proposed. The new definition considers potential risks in driving behavior, such as braking pressure, time headway, and deceleration. A clustering analysis was carried out through a K-means algorithm to classify near-crash events based on their risk level. In addition, a mixed-ordered logit model was used to examine the contributing factors associated with the driving risk of near-crash events. The results indicate that ten factors significantly affect the driving risk of near-crash events: deceleration average, vehicle kinetic energy, near-crash causes, congestion on roads, time of day, driving miles, road types, weekend, age, and experience. The findings may be used by transportation planners to understand the factors that influence driving risk and may provide valuable insights and helpful suggestions for improving transportation rules and reducing traffic collisions thus making roads safer

Clostridium autoethanogenum protein substitution and bile acids addition altered intestinal health and transcriptome profiles of hepatopancreas in Litopenaeus vannamei

Dietary Clostridium autoethanogenum protein (CAP) has the potential to replace fishmeal (FM), but excessive CAP substitutions will affect gut health. Bile acids (BAs) have multiple benefits, but little information is available on the effects of BAs on Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) fed a CAP diet (CAP replacing FM). An 8-week feeding trial were used to investigate the impacts of CAP substitution and BAs addition on structural changes of intestine, apoptosis, inflammatory cytokine and NFκB pathway of intestine, and transcriptomic profiles of hepatopancreas in Pacific white shrimp. Compared to PC (control) treatment, the NC (CAP50, CAP replacing 50% FM) treatment significantly decreased the fold height (FH) and villus length (VL) of midgut, and impaired the mitochondrial cristae. Compared to NC group, the FH was increased in BA1 (CAP50 with 0.03% BAs) and BA2 (CAP50 with 0.06% BAs) groups, the muscle layer thickness (MT) was decreased in BA2 and BA3 (CAP50 with 0.09% BAs) groups, the VL was increased in BA1 group, and the mitochondrial cristae was normal and well-defined in BA1 and BA2 groups (all p < 0.05). The NC increased the genes expression of apoptosis and NFκB signalling pathway, while the BA2 decreased the genes expression of apoptosis, inflammatory cytokine and NFκB signalling pathway. In transcriptomics analysis, a total of 171 differential expression genes (DEGs) were identified in NC group and 50 DEGs in BA2 group. There was 13 DEGs was observed both in NC and BA2 groups. The 5 KEGG pathways were statistically enriched in all treatments, including “Carbon metabolism”, “One carbon pool by folate”, “Glycine, serine and threonine metabolism”, “Amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism”, and “PPAR signaling pathway”. In conclusion, CAP50 substitution impaired the intestinal health and 0.06% BAs addition improved it, both treatments altered the transcriptomics profiles of hepatopancreas in Pacific white shrimp

Evaluation of ratios of fish-to-soybean oils on growth, lipid and cholesterol metabolism and muscle metabolites of Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) fed low fishmeal diets containing Clostridium autoethanogenum protein

The present study aims to investigate the effects of ratios of fish-to-soybean oils in a low fishmeal diet containing Clostridium autoethanogenum protein (CAP) on the growth and metabolism of Litopenaeus vannamei. Four diet groups were designed and the basal diet (FM, 44% crude protein, 8.66% crude lipid, fish-to-soybean oil: 1.5:2.5) contained 25% fishmeal. After 40% of fishmeal protein was replaced by CAP, three different fish-to-soybean oil ratios (4:1, 1:1, and 1:4) were set to formulate three experimental diets, and referred as HF (high fish oil), MF (medium fish oil), and LF (low fish oil), respectively. Shrimp were distributed to four groups of three replicates, each with 40 shrimp in a 300-L tank and they were fed four times daily for 7 weeks before sampling. Results showed that the growth performance of shrimp fed the MF diet was significantly lower than those fed the FM diet, while the shrimp fed the LF diet showed better growth than the HF group. The reduction of the crude lipid content of the whole body, hemolymph total cholesterol (T-CHO), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) contents indicated an alteration in the lipid and cholesterol metabolism of shrimp. Compared to the FM group, the mRNA levels of fas in shrimp fed the HF diet were significantly downregulated, while the mRNA levels of delta-24-sr in the HF group were significantly upregulated. In addition, the mRNA levels of hmgcr and scp in shrimp fed the LF diet significantly upregulated compared to the FM group. Metabolomic results showed that multiple metabolic pathways were affected by diet factors, including several amino acid metabolisms, purine metabolism, energy metabolism, and glycerophospholipid metabolism. In conclusion, the reduction of the ratios of fish-to-soybean oils in the low fishmeal diet containing CAP can not only reduce the usage of fish oil and the cost of feed but also maintain the growth performance of shrimp

Mutations in the miRNA165/166 binding site of the HB2 gene result in pleiotropic effects on morphological traits in wheat

Leaf, spike, stem, and root morphologies are key factors that determine crop growth, development, and productivity. Multiple genes that control these morphological traits have been identified in Arabidopsis, rice, maize, and other plant species. However, little is known about the genomic regions and genes associated with morphological traits in wheat. Here, we identified the ethyl methanesulfonate-derived mutant wheat line M133 that displays multiple morphological changes that include upward-curled leaves, paired spikelets, dwarfism, and delayed heading. Using bulked segregant RNA sequencing (BSR-seq) and a high-resolution genetic map, we identified TraesCS1D02G155200 (HB-D2) as a potential candidate gene. HB-D2 encodes a class III homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-ZIP III) transcription factor, and the mutation was located in the miRNA165/166 complementary site, resulting in a resistant allele designated rHb-D2. The relative expression of rHb2 in the mutant plants was significantly higher (P < 0.01) than in plants homozygous for the WT allele. Independent resistant mutations that disrupt the miRNA165/166 complementary sites in the A- (rHb-A2) and B-genome (rHb-B2) homoeologs showed similar phenotypic alterations, but the relative intensity of the effects was different. Transgenic plants expressing rHb-D2 gene driven by the maize UBIQUITIN (UBI) promoter showed similar phenotypes to the rHb-D2 mutant. These results confirmed that HB-D2 is the causal gene responsible for the mutant phenotypes. Finally, a survey of 1397 wheat accessions showed that the complementary sites for miRNA165/166 in all three HB2 homoeologs are highly conserved. Our results suggest that HB2 plays an important role in regulating growth and development in wheat