Universities, knowledge networks and regional policy

As knowledge becomes an increasingly important part of regional innovation and development processes, the role of universities has come to the fore of regional innovation and economic development policy The objective of this paper is to critically review and assess the structure and function of knowledge networks and modes of engagement between universities and the business community in regional settings and contexts. It is argued that while regional knowledge networks and modes of engagement between universities and the business community are becoming increasingly prevalent, it is often difficult to ascribe investments in knowledge-based infrastructure to improved regional competitiveness. It is concluded that in a globalised knowledge environment the engagement between universities and regional business communities must be based on a mutual understanding of the role of both network and market-based knowledge interactions

Concurrent Sexual Partnerships and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Risk Among South African Youth

To estimate the prevalence of concurrency (more than 1 sex partner overlapping in time), the attitudes/behaviors of those engaged in concurrency, length of relationship overlap, and the association between concurrency and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among South Africans aged 15 to 24 years

Registration of ‘Rasmusson’ barley

‘Rasmusson’ (Reg. No. CV-345, PI 658495) is a spring, six-rowed, malting barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) released by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station in January 2008. It was named after Donald Rasmusson, who worked as a barley breeder at the University of Minnesota from 1958 to 2000. Rasmusson has the pedigree M95/‘Lacey’ and is the product of advanced cycle breeding derived from crosses among elite breeding lines within the University of Minnesota breeding program. Rasmusson was released based on its superior yield performance across the Upper Midwest of the United States and surrounding regions in Canada and favorable malting quality, in particular, high malt extract. Rasmusson is resistant to spot blotch [caused by Cochliobolus sativus (Ito and Kuribayashi) Drechs. ex Dastur] and the prevalent races of stem rust (caused by Puccinia graminis Pers.: Pers. f. sp. tritici Erikss. & E. Henn)

Registration of ‘Quest’ spring malting barley with improved resistance to Fusarium head blight

‘Quest’ (Reg No. CV-348, PI 663183) is a spring, six-rowed, malting barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) released by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station in January 2010 on the basis of its improved resistance to Fusarium head blight [FHB; caused by Fusarium graminearum Schwabe; teleomorph Gibberella zeae (Schwein) Petch]. Quest was developed over three breeding cycles of selection for yield, malting quality, and FHB resistance. Disease resistance traces to the Midwest cultivar MNBrite and the two-rowed accession from China Zhedar1. Quest has about half the level of disease and about 40% less of the associated mycotoxin, deoxynivalenol, compared to the historically important cultivar in the region ‘Robust’. Quest is similar in yield to the current dominant varieties in the region and was approved as a malting variety by the American Malting Barley Association

The evolutionary patterns of barley pericentromeric chromosome regions, as shaped by linkage disequilibrium and domestication

The distribution of recombination events along large cereal chromosomes is uneven and is generally restricted to gene-rich telomeric ends. To understand how the lack of recombination affects diversity in the large pericentromeric regions, we analysed deep exome capture data from a final panel of 815 Hordeum vulgare (barley) cultivars, landraces and wild barleys, sampled from across their eco-geographical ranges. We defined and compared variant data across the pericentromeric and non-pericentromeric regions, observing a clear partitioning of diversity both within and between chromosomes and germplasm groups. Dramatically reduced diversity was found in the pericentromeres of both cultivars and landraces when compared with wild barley. We observed a mixture of completely and partially differentiated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) between domesticated and wild gene pools, suggesting that domesticated gene pools were derived from multiple wild ancestors. Patterns of genome-wide linkage disequilibrium, haplotype block size and number, and variant frequency within blocks showed clear contrasts among individual chromosomes and between cultivars and wild barleys. Although most cultivar chromosomes shared a single major pericentromeric haplotype, chromosome 7H clearly differentiated the two-row and six-row types associated with different geographical origins. Within the pericentromeric regions we identified 22 387 non-synonymous SNPs, 92 of which were fixed for alternative alleles in cultivar versus wild accessions. Surprisingly, only 29 SNPs found exclusively in the cultivars were predicted to be 'highly deleterious'. Overall, our data reveal an unconventional pericentromeric genetic landscape among distinct barley gene pools, with different evolutionary processes driving domestication and diversification.</p

Quantitative and Qualitative Stem Rust Resistance Factors in Barley Are Associated with Transcriptional Suppression of Defense Regulons

Stem rust (Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici; Pgt) is a devastating fungal disease of wheat and barley. Pgt race TTKSK (isolate Ug99) is a serious threat to these Triticeae grain crops because resistance is rare. In barley, the complex Rpg-TTKSK locus on chromosome 5H is presently the only known source of qualitative resistance to this aggressive Pgt race. Segregation for resistance observed on seedlings of the Q21861 × SM89010 (QSM) doubled-haploid (DH) population was found to be predominantly qualitative, with little of the remaining variance explained by loci other than Rpg-TTKSK. In contrast, analysis of adult QSM DH plants infected by field inoculum of Pgt race TTKSK in Njoro, Kenya, revealed several additional quantitative trait loci that contribute to resistance. To molecularly characterize these loci, Barley1 GeneChips were used to measure the expression of 22,792 genes in the QSM population after inoculation with Pgt race TTKSK or mock-inoculation. Comparison of expression Quantitative Trait Loci (eQTL) between treatments revealed an inoculation-dependent expression polymorphism implicating Actin depolymerizing factor3 (within the Rpg-TTKSK locus) as a candidate susceptibility gene. In parallel, we identified a chromosome 2H trans-eQTL hotspot that co-segregates with an enhancer of Rpg-TTKSK-mediated, adult plant resistance discovered through the Njoro field trials. Our genome-wide eQTL studies demonstrate that transcript accumulation of 25% of barley genes is altered following challenge by Pgt race TTKSK, but that few of these genes are regulated by the qualitative Rpg-TTKSK on chromosome 5H. It is instead the chromosome 2H trans-eQTL hotspot that orchestrates the largest inoculation-specific responses, where enhanced resistance is associated with transcriptional suppression of hundreds of genes scattered throughout the genome. Hence, the present study associates the early suppression of genes expressed in this host–pathogen interaction with enhancement of R-gene mediated resistance

Association mapping of spot blotch resistance in wild barley

Spot blotch, caused by Cochliobolus sativus, is an important foliar disease of barley. The disease has been controlled for over 40 years through the deployment of cultivars with durable resistance derived from the line NDB112. Pathotypes of C. sativus with virulence for the NDB112 resistance have been detected in Canada; thus, many commercial cultivars are vulnerable to spot blotch epidemics. To increase the diversity of spot blotch resistance in cultivated barley, we evaluated 318 diverse wild barley accessions comprising the Wild Barley Diversity Collection (WBDC) for reaction to C. sativus at the seedling stage and utilized an association mapping (AM) approach to identify and map resistance loci. A high frequency of resistance was found in the WBDC as 95% (302/318) of the accessions exhibited low infection responses. The WBDC was genotyped with 558 Diversity Array Technology (DArT®) and 2,878 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers and subjected to structure analysis before running the AM procedure. Thirteen QTL for spot blotch resistance were identified with DArT and SNP markers. These QTL were found on chromosomes 1H, 2H, 3H, 5H, and 7H and explained from 2.3 to 3.9% of the phenotypic variance. Nearly half of the identified QTL mapped to chromosome bins where spot blotch resistance loci were previously reported, offering some validation for the AM approach. The other QTL mapped to unique genomic regions and may represent new spot blotch resistance loci. This study demonstrates that AM is an effective technique for identifying and mapping QTL for disease resistance in a wild crop progenitor