Use of genetic markers for the detection of off-types for DUS phenotypic traits in the inbreeding crop, barley

Detection of crop off-types is of interest for multiple uses, including the assessment of uniformity for new plant variety applications during distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS) testing for the awarding of plant breeders’ rights (PBR). Here, we investigate whether genetic markers, in this case Kompetitive Allele-Specific PCR (KASP), can be used for the identification off-types for phenotypes assessed for DUS in the inbreeding cereal crop, barley (Hordeum vulgare). To demonstrate proof of principle, KASP markers diagnostic for phenotypic expression of nine DUS phenotypes, and DNA from two barley varieties (‘Pelican’ and ‘Felicie’) carrying contrasting alleles at each marker were used. We found that for the majority of markers, it was possible to robustly call alleles down to template DNA concentrations of 2 ng, but not ≤ 0.2 ng. When used in mixtures of DNA consisting of ‘Felicie’ DNA spiked with different concentrations of ‘Pelican’ DNA, robust allele calling was possible in DNA mixtures down to 18 ng:2 ng. Collectively, this demonstrates that where diagnostic markers are available, molecular identification of a single off-type for a given DUS trait within a bulk of ten individuals should be possible. We validated this assumption, with all of the diagnostic genetic markers investigated found to robustly detect DUS off-types at a frequency of 10% in DNA extracted from tissue collected from pools of 10 individuals. Ultimately, this work demonstrates that, where diagnostic polymorphisms are known for DUS traits, KASP markers should be able to robustly detect off-types or cross-contamination within DNA samples from a diploid inbred species down to 10%. While just two varieties that contrasted for the eight DUS targeted were investigated in this study, as the markers used are diagnostic for their relevant phenotype (or a proportion of the variation observed for that phenotype), in theory the approach should be valid for any variety studied— although the introduction of novel alleles via spontaneous mutation or more exotic germplasm pools may mean that marker sets would need to be periodically added to or updated. However, we nevertheless demonstrate the principle that, for a subset of DUS traits, molecular markers can now be robustly used as a tool towards determining all three components of the DUS testing process in barley. These results are relevant for the assessment of varietal uniformity by crop breeders, crop testing authorities and germplasm maintenance, as well as highlighting the potential use of bulk samples rather than individual plant samples for assessment of distinctness by molecular methods

Electronic literature's contemporary moment: Breeze and Campbell's "All the Delicate Duplicates"

A review of All the Delicate Duplicates by Mez Breeze and Andy Campbell

Computing differences in language between male and female authors

A number of studies have looked at differences in language between genders in literature, but what can computers really tell us about this

"The Dream of an Island": Dear Esther and the Digital Sublime

Kant remarks that beauty “is what pleases in the mere judgment (and there not by the medium of sensation in accordance with a concept of understanding),” and the sublime “pleases immediately through its opposition to the interest of sense”. Lyotard’s position is such that the sublime, as construed by Burke and Kant, “outlined a world of possibilities for artistic experiments in which the avant-gardes would later trace out their paths”. It is within this framework—the established connection between the sublime and the avant-garde—that I will situate my argument that electronic literature and literary games avail of an aesthetic of the sublime. Updated 7.17.18 to correct file and page numbers

Introduction: Digital humanities as dissonant

The Digital Humanities Summer Institute gives students and scholars a chance to broaden their knowledge of the Digital Humanities within a feasible timeframe. The DHSI Colloquium was first founded by Diane Jakacki and Cara Leitch to act as a means of supporting graduates who wanted to be a part of such a gathering. The Colloquium has grown in recent years, to the point where it is now seen as an important part of the field’s conference calendar for emerging and established scholars alike, but it remains a non-threatening space in which students, scholars, and practitioners can share their ideas. This issue is testament to that diversity, as well as the strength of the research being presented at the Colloquium. It includes Scott B. Weingart and Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara, Mary Borgo, William B. Kurtz, and John Barber. “What’s Under the Big Tent?: A Study of ADHO Conference Abstracts,” which portrays the discipline as one which is dominated by specific groups and practices. Using the Victorian Women Writers Project as a case-study, Mary Borgo treats models for the sustainable growth of TEI-based digital resources. William B. Kurtz details his experiences working on a digital initiative, in this instance, Founders Online: Early Access, and engages with the need for such projects to hold broader public appeal. John Barber’s “Radio Nouspace: Sound, Radio, Digital Humanities,” describes the curation of sound within the context of radio, and how such activity connects to creative digital scholarship. Together, these articles represent the purpose of facilitating a community comprised of divergent interests and perspectives, a community which can often be positively dissonant

Time and technology in Orlando

Technologies of time are central to Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, symbolism that is equally present in Sally Potter’s film adaptation of the novel. Both Woolf and Potter advance narratives that detail a journey through time, achieved through an exploration of external devices, all of which serve to embody the self, and resolve it with the surrounding environment. In this paper, the concept of external devices, specifically in relation to technologies of time, as examined in both Woolf’s novel and Potter’s adaptation, will be analysed thematically. This paper will begin with a delineation of social and cultural theories relevant to this discourse, before offering theoretically-informed criticism of the aforementioned works

Good literature can come in digital forms – just look to the world of video games

Developed by British game studio The Chinese Room, Dear Esther belongs to a contemporary genre of games known as “walking simulators”. These titles involve little more than travelling from one point to another, sometimes interacting with the occasional object while leisurely taking in the surrounds

Cormac McCarthy’s cold pastoral: the overturning of a national allegory

This dissertation will argue that the novels of Cormac McCarthy represent a sustained attack on American literature’s abiding fixation with pastoral. It further argues that such a fixation is very much a national allegory, one that, paradoxically, cannot help but produce a sense of doubt lurking beneath the numerous assertions of individual and national confidence. Cormac McCarthy very much engages with the antinomies of this national allegory. His use of pastoral allegory comes in the form of a broken allegory: a strategy that is very much in keeping with Walter Benjamin’s vision of allegorical fragmentation resulting from permanent historical crisis. This crisis, as McCarthy shows, reaches tipping-point in the modern era: the pastoral’s dream of ‘pure-utility’ is shown to be completely incompatible with the predominance of exchange value and commoditized social relations. The study is in four parts. The first section divides the first four novels in order to explore how they shatter the South’s notion of uniqueness through a depiction of a desecrated pastoral. The second section considers the novel Blood Meridian on its own in order to demonstrate how the novel’s absurdist renunciation of pastoral and the western mythos helps set up the late novels themes of generic and cultural termination. The third looks at the Border Trilogy, and discusses how recourse to the more open wildernesses of the south-west curiously introduces a countervailing theme of disenchantment and pastoral attenuation. The fourth and final section groups together No Country for Old Men and The Road, in order to argue that these late novels elicit a final rejection of pastoral as it collides headlong with the imaginary of late-capitalism