Worldwide phylogeography and history of wheat genetic diversity

Since its domestication in the Fertile Crescent ~8000 to 10,000 years ago, wheat has undergone a complex history of spread, adaptation, and selection. To get better insights into the wheat phylogeography and genetic diversity, we describe allele distribution through time using a set of 4506 landraces and cultivars originating from 105 different countries genotyped with a high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism array. Although the genetic structure of landraces is collinear to ancient human migration roads, we observe a reshuffling through time, related to breeding programs, with the appearance of new alleles enriched with structural variations that may be the signature of introgressions from wild relatives after 1960

Physical mapping integrated with syntenic analysis to characterize the gene space of the long arm of wheat chromosome 1A

Background: Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the most important crops worldwide and its production faces pressing challenges, the solution of which demands genome information. However, the large, highly repetitive hexaploid wheat genome has been considered intractable to standard sequencing approaches. Therefore the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) proposes to map and sequence the genome on a chromosome-by-chromosome basis. Methodology/Principal Findings: We have constructed a physical map of the long arm of bread wheat chromosome 1A using chromosome-specific BAC libraries by High Information Content Fingerprinting (HICF). Two alternative methods (FPC and LTC) were used to assemble the fingerprints into a high-resolution physical map of the chromosome arm. A total of 365 molecular markers were added to the map, in addition to 1122 putative unique transcripts that were identified by microarray hybridization. The final map consists of 1180 FPC based or 583 LTC based contigs. Conclusions/Significance: The physical map presented here marks an important step forward in mapping of hexaploid bread wheat. The map is orders of magnitude more detailed than previously available maps of this chromosome, and the assignment of over a thousand putative expressed gene sequences to specific map locations will greatly assist future functional studies. This map will be an essential tool for future sequencing of and positional cloning within chromosome 1A

High-resolution radiation hybrid mapping in wheat: an essential tool for the construction of the wheat physical maps

ArtigoO poema épico da época moderna nasce na literatura portuguesa como oceânico logo a partir da sua gestação. Este estudo enquadra a sua génese num contexto europeu.Università di Roma, La Sapienz

Contact metamorphic reactions and fluid–rock interactions related to magmatic sill intrusion in the Guaymas Basin

Igneous basaltic intrusions into young organic-rich sedimentary basins have a major impact not only on the carbon cycle but also on major and trace element transfers between deep and superficial geological reservoirs. The actively rifting Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California, which was drilled by the International Ocean Discovery Program during Expedition 385, represents the nascent stage of an ocean characterized by siliceous organic-rich sediments (diatom ooze) intruded by a very dense network of basaltic sills. This study focuses on Site U1546 where the relatively high geothermal gradient (over 200 ∘C km−1) induces early diagenetic transformations in both pore waters and sediments, involving sulfide, carbonate and silica. Geochemical and mineralogical characterizations of the sediment at sill contacts indicate that sulfides and silica polymorphs are the main phases impacted by contact metamorphism, being evident by a transition from opal-CT to quartz and pyrite to pyrrhotite, respectively. Mass balance calculations have been used to estimate mass transfers in metamorphic aureoles. In the top contact aureole, predominantly isochemical metamorphism is reflected by the presence of authigenic quartz and disseminated 20–50 µm sized pyrrhotite crystals, filling primary interstitial space, and partial dissolution of detrital feldspar grains. In the bottom contact aureole, quartz and euhedral pyrrhotite crystals occur, which are up to 4 times larger than those at the top contact. Significant metamorphism of sediments is observed in the lower contact aureole, where plagioclase recrystallizes around the detrital feldspars and locally euhedral pyroxenes are included in patches of carbonate cement; this suggests precipitation from carbon-rich fluids at temperatures (T) higher than 300 ∘C. The lower contact aureole also is more enriched in CaO, Na2O, Fe2O3 and trace elements (Cu, As, Zn, etc.) compared to the upper contact. Based on these petrological investigations, a conceptual model of magma–sediment–fluid interaction is proposed distinguishing top and bottom contact processes. Initial contact metamorphism due to sill emplacement is characterized by dehydration reactions in sediments and crystallization of new minerals. It was followed by carbonate precipitation from the released fluids. At a final stage, the temperature re-equilibrated with the geothermal gradient and the rocks were further altered by hydrothermal fluids.</p