Genotyping by multiplexed sequencing (GMS): A customizable platform for genomic selection.

As genotyping technologies continue to evolve, so have their throughput and multiplexing capabilities. In this study, we demonstrate a new PCR-based genotyping technology that multiplexes thousands of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers with high-throughput capabilities in a simple protocol using a two-step PCR approach. The bioinformatic pipeline is user friendly and yields results that are intuitive to interpret. This method was tested on two recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations that had previous genotyping data from the Illumina Infinium assay for Triticum aestivum L. and the two data sets were found to be 100% in agreement. The genotyping by multiplexed sequencing (GMS) protocol multiplexes 1,656 wheat SNP markers, 207 syntenic barley SNP markers, and 49 known informative markers, which generate a possible 2,433 data points (including homoeoalleles and paralogs). This genotyping approach has the flexibility of being sequenced on either the Ion Torrent or Illumina next generation sequencing (NGS) platforms. Products are the result of direct sequencing and are therefore more reliable than scatter plot analysis which is the output of other genotyping methods such as the Illumina Infinium assay, komeptitive allele specific PCR and other like technologies

Law in the Anthropocene Epoch

Humans and the effects of their activities now substantially influence the entire planet, including its oceans, climate, atmosphere, and lands. Human influence has become so large that earth scientists have debated whether to identify a new geologic time period: the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene will surely have substantial effects on society and economies, and law will be no exception. The Anthropocene is the product of the aggregation of billions of individual human actions, the impact of which is exponentially increasing because of growing technological advances and population. Humans will inevitably respond to the Anthropocene, if only to adapt to the significant changes in oceans, climate, biodiversity, and other critical functions upon which society depends. These responses will ineluctably lead to greater government involvement in a wide range of human activities and the constant updating of government laws and regulations to respond to new challenges. The result will put pressure on a wide range of legal doctrines in public and private law, including torts, property, constitutional, administrative, and criminal law. These changes will parallel similar revolutionary legal changes associated with industrialization and the development of a national economy in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Just as with those legal changes, the legal changes of the Anthropocene will put pressure on normative commitments at the heart of American law, including the classical liberal paradigm that government intrusion into individual action should be the exception, rather than the norm. Managing the impacts of these legal changes will be a key challenge for the legal system in the next century