Association mapping of malting quality traits in UK spring and winter barley cultivar collections

Key Message: Historical malting quality data was collated from UK national and recommended list trial data and used in a GWAS. 25 QTL were identified, with the majority from spring barley cultivar sets. Abstract: In Europe, the most economically significant use of barley is the production of malt for use in the brewing and distilling industries. As such, selection for traits related to malting quality is of great commercial interest. In order to study the genetic basis of variation for malting quality traits in UK cultivars, a historical set of trial data was collated from national and recommended list trials from the period 1988 to 2016. This data was used to estimate variety means for 20 quality related traits in 451 spring barley cultivars, and 407 winter cultivars. Genotypes for these cultivars were generated using iSelect 9k and 50k genotyping platforms, and a genome wide association scan performed to identify malting quality quantitative trait loci (QTL). 24 QTL were identified in spring barley cultivars, and 2 from the winter set. A number of these correspond to known malting quality related genes but the remainder represents novel genetic variation that is accessible to breeders for the genetic improvement of new cultivars.Mark E. Looseley, Luke Ramsay, Hazel Bull, J. Stuart Swanston, Paul D. Shaw, Malcolm Macaulay, Allan Booth, Joanne R. Russell, Robbie Waugh, on behalf of the IMPROMALT Consortium, William T.B. Thoma

Genetic basis of control of Rhynchosporium secalis infection and symptom expression in barley

The genetic basis of several different components of resistance to Rhynchosporium secalis in barley was investigated in a mapping population derived from a cross between winter and spring barley types. Both the severity of visual disease symptoms and amount of R. secalis DNA in leaf tissues were assessed in field trials in Scotland in the 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 growing seasons. Relative expression of symptoms was defined as the residual values from a linear regression of amount of R. secalis DNA against visual plot disease score at GS 50. Amount of R. secalis DNA and visual disease score were highly correlated traits and identified nearly identical QTL. The genetic control of relative expression of symptoms was less clear. However, a QTL on chromosome 7H was identified as having a significant effect on the expression of visual disease symptoms relative to overall amount of R. secalis colonisationPeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Characterisation of barley resistance to rhynchosporium on chromosome 6HS

Key Message: Major resistance gene to rhynchosporium, Rrs18, maps close to the telomere on the short arm of chromosome 6H in barley. Rhynchosporium or barley scald caused by a fungal pathogen Rhynchosporium commune is one of the most destructive and economically important diseases of barley in the world. Testing of Steptoe × Morex and CIho 3515 × Alexis doubled haploid populations has revealed a large effect QTL for resistance to R. commune close to the telomere on the short arm of chromosome 6H, present in both populations. Mapping markers flanking the QTL from both populations onto the 2017 Morex genome assembly revealed a rhynchosporium resistance locus independent of Rrs13 that we named Rrs18. The causal gene was fine mapped to an interval of 660 Kb using Steptoe × Morex backcross 1 S₂ and S₃ lines with molecular markers developed from Steptoe exome capture variant calling. Sequencing RNA from CIho 3515 and Alexis revealed that only 4 genes within the Rrs18 interval were transcribed in leaf tissue with a serine/threonine protein kinase being the most likely candidate for Rrs18.Max Coulter, Bianca Büttner, Kerstin Hofmann, Micha Bayer, Luke Ramsay, Günther Schweizer, Robbie Waugh, Mark E. Looseley, Anna Avrov

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

Exile and integration A study of the theatre of Armand Salacrou

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D41967/82 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Roundtable: cultural studies and modern languages today

About this workshop: The project of defining Cultural Studies in a Modern Languages context derives from a specific institutional moment at Leeds (also mentioned by Diana Holmes in her introduction). CS at Leeds developed in the early 1980s when academics interested in a CS approach – including Griselda Pollock, Max Silverman and Janet Wolff – set up a Centre for CS, which also involved other local institutions. The Centre had seminars and workshops, an MA and doctoral students. The MA included a course on cultural theory which reflected the intellectual underpinning of the centre itself: the British school (Williams, Hoggart, Hall) and the continentals (Barthes, Gramsci, Althusser, Lacan, French feminism). The conceptual trinity of the Centre was class-race-gender, and it conceived itself in oppositional terms as challenging dominant culture. It was also intended as a means to facilitate interdisciplinary work in a highly departmentalized institutional structure

Genetic mapping of resistance to Rhynchosporium commune and characterisation of early infection in a winter barley mapping population

The genetic basis of resistance to Rhynchosporium commune was investigated in a winter barley mapping population derived from a cross between cultivars Saffron (moderately susceptible) and Retriever (moderately resistant). Resistance was assessed in field trials through total infection (measured using qPCR), and visible disease symptoms. Phenotypic correlations between both methods of assessing disease severity were high. QTL mapping from three years of field trials identified five significant QTL effects. One QTL effect on chromosome 2H confirms a previously reported resistance from a population derived from the spring cultivar Cocktail and a winter parent derived from the cultivars Pearl and Cocktail. Another QTL effect on 3H corresponds to the reported position of major resistance gene Rrs1. An effect was detected at the mapped position of the semi-dwarfing gene sdw-1 despite the fact that neither parent has the semi-dwarf phenotype. Of the remaining two QTL effects, one on 6H may represent a previously reported rhynchosporium resistance (QTL(Triton)Rrs6H(271)), whilst the final QTL, represents a novel resistance. In addition, interactions during early infection stages in the parental lines were studied by confocal microscopy of detached leaves inoculated with a GFP-expressing R. commune isolate. This approach identified a number of major differences in fungal growth morphology between the resistant and susceptible parent.</p

Are governmental culture departments important? : an empirical investigation

There are many claims that the involvement of national governments with the cultural policy sector tends to err towards being undertaken reluctantly and with relatively low levels of practical support (Gray, 2009; McCall, 2009; Mulcahy, 2006; Rindzeviciute, 2008; Wyszomirski, 1999). Such a position for national governments can be explained as being a consequence of political choices to avoid accusations of state censorship or manipulation, or a lack of political significance being attached to the policy sector in comparison with such matters as the economy, foreign affairs, health, education or trade (Gray, 2002). Despite such claims, however, there is no doubt that national governments have become increasingly active in the field of cultural policy since the late-1950s/early-1960s (see, for example, Duelund, 2003 on Scandinavia; Craik, 2007 on Australia; and Looseley, 1995 on France) with the creation of new government departments with responsibility for culture, or the re-naming of existing departments to incorporate an explicit reference to 'culture' as part of their remit (see Gray, 2000 on Britain; the Finnish Ministry of Education will be re-titled the Ministry of Education and Culture in early 2010)

The importance of asymptomatic infection in sustainable crop protection

Scald or Rhynchosporium, caused by the fungus Rhynchosporium commune, is difficult to control with fungicides and severe epidemics may appear suddenly. Its epidemiology is not well understood as it is based on disease symptoms rather than the presence of the pathogen. Quantitative PCR enables detection and quantification of pathogen DNA in barley plants in both presymptomatic phases of infection and where they remain asymptomatic throughout their life cycle. Seed-borne inoculum was identified as a significant source for early infection of barley crops, with substantial amounts of R. commune DNA found in crops from infected seed but severity of seed infection correlated poorly with amounts of pathogen DNA (leaves), disease severity (leaves) and yield loss later in the cropping season. R. commune can colonise barley crops extensively throughout the cropping season (from seed to seed) in the absence of visual symptoms which has implications for the use of fungicides, breeding programmes and national variety recommended lists. The genetic basis of several different components of resistance to R. Commune in barley was investigated in a mapping population derived from a winter x spring barley cross. Relative expression of symptoms quantified using the residual values from a linear regression of amount of R. Commune DNA against visual plot disease score and was generally highly correlated. A QTL on chromosome 7H was identified as having a significant effect on the expression of visual disease symptoms relative to overall amount of R. commune colonisation.Non peer reviewe