Stem carbohydrate dynamics during post anthesis period in diverse wheat genotypes under different environments

The contribution of stem water soluble carbohydrates (SWSCs) to grain biomass of wheat ranges from 10 to 20% under irrigated condition and 40 to 60% under stresses such as terminal heat and drought. Genetic variation in SWSC and its mobilization can be useful to increase the grain yield of wheat under harsh environments. Hence, a set of 16 genotypes varying in spike morphology and grain yield was grown in field under timely sown, late sown and terminal drought stress conditions. The anthrone method was used to measure the SWSC concentration in the dried peduncle and penultimate internodes in three replicates at 3 growth stages starting from anthesis. The effect of delay in sowing and terminal drought on the SWSC concentration was significant from anthesis to 14 days after anthesis. Significant genetic variation was observed in the rate of post anthesis change in SWSC during the early grain filling period under the three conditions which partially contributed to the variation in grain yield per spike among the genotypes. Due to sterile florets and/or shorter grain filling duration, all the genotypes did not have a correlation between grain weight per spike and rate of decrease of SWSCs. Thus, our experiments reconfirm the significance of SWSC in present cultivars of wheat and also the scope for exploiting the genetic variation in this trait

Simple Unbalanced Ranked Set Sampling for Mean Estimation of Response Variable of Developmental Programs

An unbalanced ranked set sampling (RSS) procedure on the skewed survey variable is proposed to estimate the population mean of a response variable from the area of developmental programs which are generally implemented under different phases. It is based on the unbalanced RSS under linear impacts of the program and is compared with the estimators based on simple random sampling (SRS) and balanced RSS. It is shown that the relative precision of the proposed estimator is higher than those of the estimators based on SRS and balanced RSS for three chosen skewed distributions of survey variables

Molecular investigations on grain filling rate under terminal heat stress in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Grain yield under post anthesis high temperature stress is largely influenced by grain filling rate (GFR). To investigate molecular basis of this trait, a set of 111 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from Raj 4014, a heat sensitive genotype and WH 730, heat tolerant cultivar was phenotyped during 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 crop seasons, under field conditions. The difference in GFR (dGFR) between the timely and late sown conditions was used as a phenotypic parameter to find association with molecular markers, as parental lines exhibited significant difference for this trait. The mapping population showed clear-cut segregation pattern for differences in GFR between timely and late sown conditions. About 75% of the progenies showed no difference while 25% showed significant difference in GFR under high temperature stress created by late sown condition. To study the association of this trait with the markers, the parental lines were screened with 300 simple sequence repeat (SSR) microsatellite markers out of which 15% (45) were polymorphic between parental lines. These polymorphic markers were utilized for genotyping a subset, comprising of 43 RILs that had clear contrasting variation for dGFR. Regression analysis revealed significant association of dGFR of RILs with two markers viz., Xbarc04 and Xgwm314 with coefficients of determination (R2) values of 0.10 and 0.06, respectively.Keywords: Grain filling rate (GFR), simple sequence repeat (SSR), heat tolerance, wheatAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(28), pp. 4439-444

Rayleigh's Problem in Magnetohydrodynamics with Suction

The extension of Reyleigh's problem to magnetohynamics with suction is considered when the P'ate is non-magnetic and non-conducting. The suction velocity is assumed to be varying as (time)-1/2. Series solutions for velocity and skin-friction are obtained under the assumption that the hydromagnetic parameter K is small. It is seen that the skin-friction increases with the magnetic field

Foliar application of Zn at flowering stage improves plant’s performance, yield and yield attributes of black gram

548-555Black gram plants subjected to varying levels of Zn supply (0.01 to 10 µM Zn) showed optimum growth and dry matter yield in plants receiving 1 µM Zn. The dry matter yield of plants decreased in plants receiving 0.01 and 0.1 µM Zn (deficient) and excess levels of Zn (2 and 10 µM Zn). The plants grown with Zn deficient supply showed delayed flowering, premature bud abscission, reduced size of anthers, pollen producing capacity, pollen viability and stigma receptivity resulting in poor pod formation and seed yield. Providing Zn as a foliar spray at pre-flowering stage minimized the severity of Zn deficiency on reproductive structure development and enhanced the seed nutritional status by enhancing seed Zn density, seed carbohydrate (sugar and starch content) and storage proteins (albumins, globulins, glutenins, and prolamines)

Human satellite-III non-coding RNAs modulate heat-shock-induced transcriptional repression

The heat shock response is a conserved defense mechanism that protects cells from physiological stress, including the thermal stress. Besides the activation of heat shock protein genes, the heat shock response is also known to bring about global suppression of transcription, the mechanism for which however is poorly understood. One of the intriguing aspects of the heat shock response in human cells is the transcription of Satellite-III (Sat3) long-noncoding RNAs and their association with nuclear stress bodies (nSBs) of unknown function. Besides the Sat3 transcript, the nSBs are also known to recruit transcription factors HSF1, and CREBBP, and several RNA binding proteins, including the splicing factor SRSF1. We demonstrate here that the recruitment of CREBBP and SRSF1 to nSBs is Sat3-dependent, and that loss of Sat3 transcripts relieves the heat shock-induced transcriptional repression of a few target genes. Conversely, forced expression of Sat3 transcripts results in the formation of nSBs and the transcriptional repression even without a heat shock. Our results thus provide a novel insight into the regulatory role for the Sat3 transcripts in the heat shock-dependent transcriptional repression

Dislocation density based constitutive model for ultrasonic assisted deformation

The mechanical-behaviour of metallic materials subjected to plastic deformation is altered with the superposition of ultrasonic vibrations. A significant effect is the reduction of flow stress or acoustic softening. This phenomenon is utilized in metal forming and other deformation based manufacturing processes. Experimental investigations on ultrasonic assisted tensile tests focus on the effect of ultrasonic vibrations along the longitudinal axis of the specimen, whereas the manufacturing processes employs in transverse directions. In the present work, transverse ultrasonic vibrations are imposed during a uniaxial tensile test using an aluminium alloy. The trend of acoustic softening due to transverse direction vibrations is similar to that along longitudinal direction. A dislocation density based constitutive model is extended to model the softening due to ultrasonic effect. The predicted results agree well with the experimental observations. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved