Neujahr in Nubien

So wie auch die ägyptischen Pharaonen haben die kuschitischen Könige den ägyptischen Kalender für die Krönung, die Datierung ihrer Monumente und religiöse feste genutzt. Das Neujahr ist das Ende einer gefährlichen Periode, den Epagomenen, den fünf "übrigen" tagen zwischen dem alten und dem neuen Jahr im ägyptsichen Kalender. Dies ist eine Zeit der Transformation und Gefahr. Der Artikel untersucht die inschriftliche Evidenz zum Neujahr im Verhältnis zu königlichen Palästen und insbesondere seiner Bedeutung in der materiellen Kultur.Like the Egyptian pharaohs, the Kushite kings used the Egyptian calendar for royal coronations, the dating of their monuments and the celebration of religious festivals. Its ‘New Year’ is the end of the dangerous period, the epagomenal days, the remaining five days between the Old and the New Year in the Egyptian calendar, being a time of transformation and threat. The article investigates the epigraphic evidence of the ‘New Year’, its relation with royal palaces and its meaning in material artifacts

"Nubianess" and the God´s Wives of the 25th Dynasty:Office Holders, the Institution, reception and Reaction

Im 1. Jt. v. Chr. waren zwei regierende und eine designierte Gottesgemahlin nicht Ägypterinnen, sondern Kuschitinnen. In diesem Artikel stehen die Nubischen Frauen im Mittelpunkt sowie ein möglicher Einfluss der "Nubianess" auf die Institution der Gottesgemahlin. Ein Abschnitt beschäftigt sich mit der möglichen Rezeption der Institution in Nubien. Zuletzt wird ein Blick auf die ägyptische Reaktion auf diese "Nubianess" geworfen - wie reagierten die Ägypter darauf, dass manche Gottesgemahlinnen Kuschitinnen waren?In the 1st mill. BC, two of the God’s Wives of Amun (GWAs) who actually reigned and at least one, but perhaps two women designated to hold this office were not Egyptian but rather Kushite. In this paper I focus on these Nubian women as well as on the influence their “Nubinaness” might have exercised on the institution of the GWA. Another section deals with the possible reception of this institution in Nubia itself. The final section deals with the Egyptian reaction to this Nubianess, and how Egyptians coped with the fact that some GWA were Nubian, not Egyptian

Seed conservation in ex situ genebanks - genetic studies on longevity in barley

Recognizing the danger due to a permanent risk of loss of the genetic variability of cultivated plants and their wild relatives in response to changing environmental conditions and cultural practices, plant ex situ genebank collections were created since the beginning of the last century. World-wide more than 6 million accessions have been accumulated of which more than 90% are stored as seeds. Research on seed longevity was performed in barley maintained for up to 34 years in the seed store of the German ex situ genebank of the Leibniz-Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research in Gatersleben. A high intraspecific variation was detected in those natural aged accessions. In addition three doubled haploid barley mapping populations being artificial aged were investigated to study the inheritance of seed longevity. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping was based on a transcript map. Major QTLs were identified on chromosomes 2H, 5H (two) and 7H explaining a phenotypic variation of up to 54%. A sequence homology search was performed to derive the putative function of the genes linked to the QTLs

Variability of alkaloid content in Papaver somniferum L.

A total of 300 accessions of opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L., Papaveraceae) of the IPK genebank collection from nearly all over the world were cultivated under field conditions in Gatersleben for morphological and phytochemical characterisation. Altogether 35 morphological and agronomic characters were collected for all accessions. Determination of chromosome numbers with flow cytometry showed that the accessions of subspecies setigerum are tetraploid whereas all accessions of the other subspecies are diploid. Composition and content of the five main alkaloids (morphine, codeine, thebaine, papaverine and noscapine) were analysed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Total alkaloid content varied between 683.32 and 25,034.84 μg/g dry matter (first year) and 1,799.49 and 25,338.55 μg/g dry matter in the second year of cultivation. There is a highly significant correlation between total content of alkaloids and morphine in both years (r=0.926/P=0.000; r=0.918/P=0.000). In contrast, the other four main alkaloids show less or no correlation with each other or the total alkaloid content. This analysis demonstrated that the amount and composition of the main alkaloids are highly variable. Additionally, there is no important correlation between morphological characters and alkaloid content. So it is not possible to use these characters as a prediction tool of alkaloid content during breeding process

Introduction:in: Prayer and Power

Einführung in den Sammelband. Die einzelnen Beiträge des Bandes beleuchten die Phase der Hochblüte der Institution der Gottesgemahlinnen Ägyptens: von der Dritten Zwischenzeit bis in die frühe Spätzeit. Schwerpunkte liegen u.a. auf der Entwicklung des Priesteramtes, der Verflechtung religiöser und politischer Aspekte, dem kulturellen Hintergrund der Gottesgemahlinnen, aber auch beim Einfluss der Femininität auf das maskulin dominierte ägyptische Königtum.Introduction to the anthology. The contributions to this anthology focus on the heyday of the institution of the God’s Wives of Amun in Egypt during the Third Intermediate Period as well as the early Late Period. They address the influence of individual God’s wives in contrast to the influence of femininity in general. Above all, questions concerning their artistic representation, different religious, political and social aspects of the God’s Wives of Amun and their building activities are discussed in several articles

Uncovering the genetic architecture of spike related traits in bread wheat: a viable alternative to increase yield potential

Non-Peer ReviewedBased on the projected demand, further improvements in wheat grain yield are required. In this sense, exploring the genetic diversity associated with yield related traits is critical to derive superior progenies from crossing and selection. However, the possible presence of trade-off between traits must be considered to determine their relevance for improving yield potential. In this study, we determined the phenotypic and genetic relationships between twelve spike related traits and their genetic basis through an association mapping study using a 15K Infinium SNP array, characterized in a bread wheat panel. To identify potential candidate genes, regions of interest were positioned onto the newly released wheat reference genome sequence by blasting their peaking marker sequences against the IWGSC RefSeq v1.0. From all the analyzed traits, grain number per fertile spikelet (GFS) showed the highest correlation with grain number per spike (GNS), whereas there was no relationship with thousand kernel weight (TKW). As a result, significant increases in grain weight per spike (GWS) associated with higher GFS was observed. Interestingly, GFS was mostly explained by spikelet weight (SW), indicating that improvements in yield potential could be achieved through partition improving within the spike. In addition, the genetic analysis showed independent genetic control between GFS and both, GNS and TKW, suggesting the potential value of GFS as selection criterion to increase yield potential in wheat breeding programs. A total of 54 significant marker-trait associations were detected for spike related traits, including two genomic regions on 1B and 7A linked to GFS and 6 genomic regions located on 1A, 1B, 2B, 3A, 5A and 7B associated to SW. The potential candidate genes for these regions included several sugar transporter and carbohydrate-binding protein. The markers linked to GFS and SW are really promising, especially considering that due to the destructive phenotypic determination, their improvement in early breeding generations can only be made by marker-assisted selection

QTLs for salt tolerance in three different barley mapping populations 2006

Soil salinity is one of the crucial factors limiting crop production. Progression of salinisation of agriculturally arable land is mainly connected with mismanagement of water in irrigation systems, in particular under arid and semiarid climate conditions and global changes of water flow in the landscape. Selection of salt tolerant genotypes is necessary to ensure yield and to reclaim salt affected soils. The development of molecular marker(s) could facilitate the selection process. Phenotyping of mapping populations under salt stress conditions and calculation of QTLs are suitable instruments to detect markers that are responsible for tolerance/sensitivity. However, a quantitative inherited trait like salt tolerance requires a range of adaptations, with a whole host of genes interacting with each other to produce the visible phenotype

Geography of genetic structure in barley wild relative Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum in Jordan

Informed collecting, conservation, monitoring and utilization of genetic diversity requires knowledge of the distribution and structure of the variation occurring in a species. Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum (K. Koch) Thell., a primary wild relative of barley, is an important source of genetic diversity for barley improvement and co-occurs with the domesticate within the center of origin. We studied the current distribution of genetic diversity and population structure in H. vulgare subsp. spontaneum in Jordan and investigated whether it is correlated with either spatial or climatic variation inferred from publically available climate layers commonly used in conservation and ecogeographical studies. The genetic structure of 32 populations collected in 2012 was analyzed with 37 SSRs. Three distinct genetic clusters were identified. Populations were characterized by admixture and high allelic richness, and genetic diversity was concentrated in the northern part of the study area. Genetic structure, spatial location and climate were not correlated. This may point out a limitation in using large scale climatic data layers to predict genetic diversity, especially as it is applied to regional genetic resources collections in H. vulgare subsp. spontaneum

Genetic dissection of grain architecture-related traits in a winter wheat population

Background: The future productivity of wheat (T. aestivum L.) as the most grown crop worldwide is of utmost importance for global food security. Thousand kernel weight (TKW) in wheat is closely associated with grain architecture-related traits, e.g. kernel length (KL), kernel width (KW), kernel area (KA), kernel diameter ratio (KDR), and factor form density (FFD). Discovering the genetic architecture of natural variation in these traits, identifying QTL and candidate genes are the main aims of this study. Therefore, grain architecture-related traits in 261 worldwide winter accessions over three field-year experiments were evaluated. Results: Genome-wide association analysis using 90K SNP array in FarmCPU model revealed several interesting genomic regions including 17 significant SNPs passing false discovery rate threshold and strongly associated with the studied traits. Four of associated SNPs were physically located inside candidate genes within LD interval e.g. BobWhite_c5872_589 (602,710,399 bp) found to be inside TraesCS6A01G383800 (602,699,767–602,711,726 bp). Further analysis reveals the four novel candidate genes potentially involved in more than one grain architecture-related traits with a pleiotropic effects e.g. TraesCS6A01G383800 gene on 6A encoding oxidoreductase activity was associated with TKW and KA. The allelic variation at the associated SNPs showed significant differences betweeen the accessions carying the wild and mutated alleles e.g. accessions carying C allele of BobWhite_c5872_589, TraesCS6A01G383800 had significantly higher TKW than the accessions carying T allele. Interestingly, these genes were highly expressed in the grain-tissues, demonstrating their pivotal role in controlling the grain architecture. Conclusions: These results are valuable for identifying regions associated with kernel weight and dimensions and potentially help breeders in improving kernel weight and architecture-related traits in order to increase wheat yield potential and end-use quality.Fil: Schierenbeck, Matías. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales. Cátedra de Cerealicultura; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research; AlemaniaFil: Alqudah, Ahmad M.. University Aarhus; DinamarcaFil: Lohwasser, Ulrike. Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research; AlemaniaFil: Tarawneh, Rasha A.. Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research; AlemaniaFil: Simon, Maria Rosa. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales. Cátedra de Cerealicultura; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Börner, Andreas. Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research; Alemani

On direct measurement of the W production charge asymmetry at the LHC

The prospects for making a direct measurement of the W production charge asymmetry at the LHC are discussed. A modification to the method used at the Tevatron is proposed for measurements at the LHC. The expected sensitivity for such a measurement to parton distribution functions is compared to that for a measurement of the lepton charge asymmetry. The direct measurement approach is found to be less useful for placing constraints on parton distribution functions at the LHC than a measurement of the lepton charge asymmetry.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, v2: references and keywords updated v3: Additional paragraph discussing inclusion of W asymmetry in global fits adde