Genomic resources in chickpea

Chickpea has considerably increased the genomic resources in recent years providing highly saturated genetic maps including anonymous or gene-specific markers targeting some agronomic traits of interest. In addition, the publication of the two draft genome sequences of Kabuli and Desi chickpea types opens a new era in genomic tools. Furthering in our understanding of the association between phenotypic traits (Quantitative Trait loci-QTL-or genes) with the transcriptome and gene annotation provided by genome sequencing data will be the future challenge to be able to exploit with success marker-assisted Selection(MAS)

Application Design to Incentivize Medication Adherence for Chronic Care

This research is motivated by the current trend towards utilization of mobile technology in healthcare interventions. Despite academic and practitioner efforts, lack of medication adherence continues to be a leading indicator of poor health outcomes and increased hospitalizations worldwide especially for chronic care patients (McQuaid and Landier 2018; Sweeney et al.and Vanable 2016; Yang and Varshney 2016). Our focus area is on gamification-based mobile applications designed for improvingto incentivize and improve patient medication adherence. We have conducted an initial survey of mobile applications in the medication adherence space and their features. Our analysis of the current research academic literature and review of existing medication adherence applications indicates a research gap and an opportunity to create a significant contribution through the research-based design of an application that provides a solution to the complex practical problem of medication adherence in chronic disease management. We propose the design and evaluation of an application to improve medication adherence for patients with chronic disorders through incentives. Our results provide more information on the feasibility of incentives and mobile applications as ways to positively influence patient behavior. The contribution of this research is a novel design comprising a combination of multiple intervention and incentive types to improve medication adherence. While the initial design and development will adopt a means-end, idiographic approach to the solution design, further iterations will be used to derive nomothetic design knowledge on the design of incentivizing applications. Our practical contribution addresses the problem of medication adherence by applying technology to behavioral incentives in a planned, user-centric way

Translational genomics and molecular breeding for enhancing precision and efficiency in crop improvement programs: Some examples in legumes

Legumes like chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut are protein rich, nutrient-dense, and nitrogen fixing crops. Their importance is increasingly recognized in view of the urgent need to address burgeoning malnutrition problem and to impart sustainability to cropping systems. Breeding programs in these crops have achieved great success. However, consistent improvement in genetic gains demands integration of innovative tools and technologies with crop breeding programs. Genomic resources are of paramount significance in context of improving the efficiency and precision of crop breeding schemes. The last decade has witnessed a remarkable success in generating unprecedented genomic resources in these crops, thus transforming these genomic orphans into genomic resource rich crops. These genomic resources include array-based genotyping platforms, high-resolution genetic linkage maps/HapMaps, comprehensive transcriptome assemblies and gene expression atlas, and whole genome sequences etc. Further progression from the training phase (development) to breeding (deployment) phase is marked with the current availability of a variety of molecular breeding products in these legume crops. In the present review, we discuss how deployment of the modern genomic resources such as next-generation gene discovery techniques and “gold standard experimental designs” is furthering our knowledge about the genetic underpinnings of trait variation. Also, key success stories demonstrating the power of molecular breeding in these legume crops are highlighted. It is opined that the breeding populations constantly improved by sequence-based breeding approach will greatly help improving breeding traits and the genetic gains accruable from crop breeding programs

Humble Machines: Attending to the Underappreciated Costs of Misplaced Distrust

It is curious that AI increasingly outperforms human decision makers, yet much of the public distrusts AI to make decisions affecting their lives. In this paper we explore a novel theory that may explain one reason for this. We propose that public distrust of AI is a moral consequence of designing systems that prioritize reduction of costs of false positives over less tangible costs of false negatives. We show that such systems, which we characterize as 'distrustful', are more likely to miscategorize trustworthy individuals, with cascading consequences to both those individuals and the overall human-AI trust relationship. Ultimately, we argue that public distrust of AI stems from well-founded concern about the potential of being miscategorized. We propose that restoring public trust in AI will require that systems are designed to embody a stance of 'humble trust', whereby the moral costs of the misplaced distrust associated with false negatives is weighted appropriately during development and use

Can a speed breeding approach accelerate genetic gain in pigeonpea?

Pure line breeding is a resource-intensive activity that takes 10 years or more to develop a new cultivar. In some crops, conducting off-season nurseries has significantly reduced the length of the breeding cycle. This approach could not be exploited in pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.], because traditionally it has been a photoperiod-sensitive crop that requires long periods of darkness to induce flowering. However, the recent success of breeding early maturing photoperiod-insensitive genotypes has opened up the possibility of adopting ‘speed breeding’ techniques to enable rapid generation turnover. This paper outlines a speed breeding approach that integrates the use of immature seed germination for rapid generation advancement and a "single pod descent" method of breeding. To accelerate line development, while conserving genetic variability, the approach permits four generations per year and can fast-track field evaluation of resulting homozygous lines. Therefore, the breeding strategy conserves resources and has potential to deliver new early maturing cultivars within a substantially reduced timeframe of 4–5 years

Diagnostics in Plant Breeding

“Diagnostics in Plant Breeding” is systematically organizing cutting-edge research reviews on the development and application of molecular tools for the prediction of plant performance. Given its significance for mankind and the available research resources, medical sciences are leading the area of molecular diagnostics, where DNA-based risk assessments for various diseases and biomarkers to determine their onset become increasingly available. So far, most research in plant genomics has been directed towards understanding the molecular basis of biological processes or phenotypic traits. From a plant breeding perspective, however, the main interest is in predicting optimal genotypes based on molecular information for more time- and cost-efficient breeding schemes. It is anticipated that progress in plant genomics and in particular sequence technology made recently will shift the focus from “explanatory” to “predictive” in crop science. This book assembles chapters on all areas relevant to development and application of predictive molecular tools in plant breeding by leading authorties in the respective areas

Crop genetics research in Asia: improving food security and nutrition

Breakthroughs in genomics research in recent decades have fundamentally changed the landscape of crop science at a number of fronts: (1) High-quality reference genome sequences have become available for most of the crops which have provided the foundation for understanding the genome and for functional genomic studies. (2) Large numbers of genes have been identified and functionally characterized for many important agronomic traits, which have greatly enhanced the understanding of the regulatory mechanisms and the underlying biological processes for the making of the traits. (3) Large-scale resequencing of the diverse germplasms and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have provided assessment about the extent of genome diversity, the genetic architecture, and association between the phenotype and DNA sequence polymorphisms in many crop species. (4) Systems of breeding technologies based on the advance in genomic studies, or genomic breeding, have now been developed including novel goals in response to the evolving demands of the consumers, upgraded definitions of traits to be improved, techniques for whole genome selection, and varietal designs for the implementation

Extraordinary high allelic diversity in a groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) germplasm collection assayed by robust and informative SSR markers

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