Biological features of high altitude rare medicinal plant species Hedysarum theinum Krasnob. in Western Siberia cultivation

The paper summarizes the results of a long-term introduction study of a rare alpine plant Hedysarum theinum Krasnob., which is widely used in medicine. We found that the species demonstrates sufficiently high seed productivity with adequate agrotechnical care under introduction conditions. Nevertheless, there were cases of a single lack of fruiting, which cannot be considered a reaction to different ecological conditions since these phenomena can also be observed in natural habitats; most likely, this is a feature of the reproductive biology of the species. The phenological characteristics, seed productivity, and seed germination of the species are given, and the range of variation in signs of the vegetative and generative spheres is established. The introduction assessment indicates high plasticity and a high degree of the species adaptation

Phenotypic diversity of bread wheat lines with introgressions from the diploid cereal Aegilops speltoides for technological properties of grain and f lour

The creation of varieties adapted to changing environmental conditions, resistant to various pathogens, and satisfying various grain purposes is impossible without using the genetic diversity of wheat. One of the ways to expand the genetic diversity of wheat is to introduce new variants of genes from the genetic pool of congeners and wild relatives into the genotypes of existing varieties. In this study, we used 10 lines from the Arsenal collection created on the genetic basis of the spring variety ‘Rodina’ and the diploid species Aegilops speltoides in the Federal Research Center “Nemchinovka” in 1994. The lines were previously characterized for the presence of translocations and chromosomal rearrangements cytologically and using molecular markers. Technological analyses were performed on grain obtained in Western Siberia and Moscow region. The aim of this study was to establish the possibilities of expanding the phenotypic diversity for technological properties of grain and flour as a result of such hybridization of bread wheat and the diploid cereal Aegilops speltoides. The variety ‘Rodina’ forms a vitreous grain with a high gluten content in Siberia, but has low physical properties of flour and dough. Five derived lines were found to have significantly higher protein and gluten content in grain. The highest values under both growing conditions were found in lines 73/00i, 82/00i, and 84/00i. Two lines (69/00i and 76/00i) showed a high flour strength and dough elasticity, characterizing the lines as strong and valuable in quality. These lines can be used for baking bread. Line 82/00i inherited from Ae. speltoides a soft-grain endosperm, which indicates the introgression of the Ha-Sp gene, homoeoallelic to the Ha gene of bread wheat, into ‘Rodina’. Flour of this line is suitable for the manufacture of confectionery without the use of technological additives. The lines generally retained their characteristics in different growing conditions. They can be attracted as donors of new alleles of genes that determine the technological properties of grain and resistance to biotic stresses

The development of a new bread wheat genotype carrying two loci for endosperm softness

The technological purpose of grain and flour wheat is largely determined by the grains endosperm structure. Its variability among wheat varieties depends mainly on the multiple allelism for a single Ha locus on chromosome 5D leading to a continuous variation of the trait. The grain endosperm can vary from hard and vitreous suitable for yeast baking to soft and floury favorable for confectionery and technical purposes. Furthermore, these traits, especially vitreousness, are strongly influenced by the growth conditions. Earlier, the Ha-Sp locus was introgessed into chromosome 5A of the bread wheat line 84/98w from Aegilops speltoides Tausch., which reduces endosperm hardness and vitreousness, like the dominant allele of the Ha locus. This paper is the first to describe the obtaining and testing of the supersoft lines combining in their genotype the homoeoallelic loci Ha-Sp of the line 84/98w and Ha of the soft grain cultivar Chinese Spring. The lines were isolated from 6–8 generations of self-pollinated F2 hybrids. They consistently exhibit a greater grain softness than the parental forms under both greenhouse and field conditions. These lines can be used in the breeding of wheat cultivars, the flour of which will not require chemical baking powder in the confectionery industry. It is also possible to use them for technical purposes for the production of bioethanol. In addition, these lines may serve as a genetic model for the study of the functional activity of homoeoallelic genes in the complex polyploid genomes of plants

Solar BaII 4554 A line as Doppler diagnostics: NLTE analysis in 3D hydrodynamical model

The aim of this paper is to analyse the validity of the Dopplergram and lambda-meter techniques for the Doppler diagnostics of solar photospheric velocities using the BaII 4554 A line. Both techniques are evaluated by means of NLTE radiative transfer calculations of the BaII 4554 A line in a three-dimensional hydrodynamical model of solar convection. We consider the cases of spatially unsmeared profiles and the profiles smeared to the resolution of ground-based observations. We find that: (i) Speckle-reconstructed Dopplergram velocities reproduce the ``true'' velocities well at heights around 300 km, except for intergranular lanes with strong downflows where the velocity can be overestimated. (ii) The lambda-meter velocities give a good representation of the ``true'' velocities through the whole photosphere, both under the original and reduced spatial resolutions. The velocities derived from the inner wing of smeared BaII 4554 A line profiles are more reliable than those for the outer wing. Only under high spatial resolution does the inner wing velocities calculated in intergranular regions give an underestimate (or even a sign reversal) compared with the model velocities. (iii) NLTE effects should be taken into account in modelling the BaII 4554 A line profiles. Such effects are more pronounced in intergranular regions. Our analysis supports the opinion that the Dopplergram technique applied to the BaII 4554 A line is a valuable tool for the Doppler diagnostics of the middle photosphere around 300 km. The \lambda-meter technique applied to this line gives us a good opportunity to ``trace'' the non-thermal motions along the whole photosphere up to the temperature minimum and lower chromosphere.Comment: accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic

Biological and economic characteristics of the allotetraploid with genomic formula DDAuAu from the cereal family

The synthesis  of new  allopolyploid  cereal  genotypes is an important task aimed  at involving new  genetic resources in breeding programs. Diploid species of the genera Triticum and Aegilops – bread  wheat  relatives – are an important source of agronomically  valuable traits. A tetraploid synthetic  with genomic formula DDAuAu was obtained by N.A. Navruzbekov through crossing Aegilops tauschii Coss. and Triticum urartu Thum. ex Gandil. The purpose of this work was to study  the  chromosomal composition and  biological  and  commercially  important traits of the  tetraploid. Cytogenetic analysis using fluorescent in situ hybridization  showed the  presence of all chromosomes of the D genome in the chromosomal complement of the synthetic. By means  of stepwise  vernalization, the winter habit was established for the tetraploid synthetic with the optimum vernalization requirement of 45 days. Under greenhouse conditions, two groups of genotypes were found whose flowering dates differed by 6.5 days, which may indicate an allelism at the Vrn-3 locus. The coloring of various organs of the tetraploid plant, such as coleoptile,  stem, anthers,  and glumes  of the spike, was revealed. The coloration  of the aleurone layer of the grain may indicate that the donor species T. urartu is a carrier of the Ba gene that controls its blue color. A new morphotype of leaf pubescence was found. In terms of productivity, the tetraploid is comparable to bread wheat. Grains are characterized by a supersoft structure and high wet gluten  content, from 39–45 to 65 %, in the field and greenhouse conditions, respectively. Thus, the tetraploid can be used to create  new wheat  genotypes as a source  of untapped genetic diversity, as well as a new genetic model  for studying  the patterns of evolution  of polyploid plants

Permitted Oxygen Abundances and the Temperature Scale of Metal-Poor Turn-Off Stars

We use high quality VLT/UVES published data of the permitted OI triplet and FeII lines to determine oxygen and iron abundances in unevolved (dwarfs, turn-off, subgiants) metal-poor halo stars. The calculations have been performed both in LTE and NLTE, employing effective temperatures obtained with the new infrared flux method (IRFM) temperature scale by Ramirez & Melendez, and surface gravities from Hipparcos parallaxes and theoretical isochrones. A new list of accurate transition probabilities for FeII lines, tied to the absolute scale defined by laboratory measurements, has been used. We find a plateau in the oxygen-to-iron ratio over more than two orders of magnitude in iron abundance (-3.2 < [Fe/H] < -0.7), with a mean [O/Fe] = 0.5 dex (sigma = 0.1 dex), independent of metallicity, temperature and surface gravity. According to the new IRFM Teff scale, the temperatures of turn-off halo stars strongly depend on metallicity, a result that is in excellent qualitative and quantitative agreement with stellar evolution calculations, which predict that the Teff of the turn-off at [Fe/H] = -3 is about 600-700 K higher than that at [Fe/H] = -1.Comment: In press, Ap

Oxygen in the Very Early Galaxy

Oxygen abundances in a sample of ultra-metal-poor subdwarfs have been derived from measurements of the oxygen triplet at 7771--5 A and OH lines in the near UV performed in high-resolution and high signal-to-noise spectra obtained with WHT/UES, KeckI/HIRES, and VLT/UVES. Our Fe abundances were derived in LTE and then corrected for NLTE effects following Thevenin and Idiart (1999). The new oxygen abundances confirm previous findings for a progressive linear rise in the oxygen-to-iron ratio with a slope -0.33+-0.02 from solar metallicity to [Fe/H] -3. A slightly higher slope would be obtained if the Fe NLTE corrections were not considered. Below [Fe/H]= -2.5 our stars show [O/Fe] ratios as high as ~ 1.17 (G64-12), which can be interpreted as evidence for oxygen overproduction in the very early epoch of the formation of the halo, possibly associated with supernova events with very massive progenitor stars. We show that the arguments against this linear trend given by Fulbright and Kraft (1999), based on the LTE Fe analysis of two metal-poor stars cannot be sustained when an NLTE analysis is performed. Using 1-D models our analysis of three oxygen indicators available for BD +23 3130 gives consistent abundances within 0.16 dex and average [O/Fe] ratio of 0.91.Comment: 45 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Eclipses observed by LYRA - a sensitive tool to test the models for the solar irradiance

We analyze the light curves of the recent solar eclipses measured by the Herzberg channel (200-220 nm) of the Large Yield RAdiometer (LYRA) onboard PROBA-2. The measurements allow us to accurately retrieve the center- to-limb variations (CLV) of the solar brightness. The formation height of the radiation depends on the observing angle so the examination of the CLV provide information about a broad range of heights in the solar atmosphere. We employ the 1D NLTE radiative transfer COde for Solar Irradiance (COSI) to model the measured light curves and corresponding CLV dependencies. The modeling is used to test and constrain the existing 1D models of the solar atmosphere, e.g. the temperature structure of the photosphere and the treatment of the pseudo- continuum opacities in the Herzberg continuum range. We show that COSI can accurately reproduce not only the irradiance from the entire solar disk, but also the measured CLV. It hence can be used as a reliable tool for modeling the variability of the spectral solar irradiance.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, Solar Physic

Раннее назначение генно-инженерных биологических препаратов при иммуновоспалительных заболеваниях: возможности и перспективы. Позиция экспертов

Psoriasis (Ps), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are characterized by a progressive course and frequently lead to disability; therefore, their early diagnosis with the assessment of a clinical phenotype and unfavorable prognostic factors and the timely initiation of therapy are important tasks. The paper provides the experts agreed opinion on the definition of the early stage of Ps, PsA, and IBDs, the goals of therapy and main unfavorable prognostic factors for the course of these diseases and gives the rationale for the early use of biological agents in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.Псориаз (Пс), псориатический артрит (ПсА) и воспалительные заболевания кишечника (ВЗК) характеризуются прогрессирующим течением и нередко приводят к инвалидизации, поэтому важными задачами являются их ранняя диагностика с оценкой клинического фенотипа и факторов неблагоприятного прогноза и своевременное начало терапии. В статье приводятся согласованная позиция экспертов по определению ранней стадии Пс, ПсА и ВЗК, цели терапии и основные факторы неблагоприятного прогноза течения этих заболеваний, представлено обоснование раннего применения генно-инженерных биологических препаратов у пациентов с иммуновоспалительной патологией