Barley TAPETAL DEVELOPMENT and FUNCTION1 (HvTDF1) gene reveals conserved and unique roles in controlling anther tapetum development in dicot and monocot plants

•The anther tapetum helps control microspore release and essential components for pollen wall formation. TAPETAL DEVELOPMENT and FUNCTION1 (TDF1) is an essential R2R3 MYB tapetum transcription factor in Arabidopsis thaliana; however, little is known about pollen development in the temperate monocot barley.•Here, we characterize the barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) TDF1 ortholog using reverse genetics and transcriptomics.•Spatial/temporal expression analysis indicates HvTDF1 has tapetum-specific expression during anther stage 7/8. Homozygous barley hvtdf1 mutants exhibit male sterility with retarded tapetum development, delayed tapetum endomitosis and cell wall degeneration, resulting in enlarged, vacuolated tapetum surrounding collapsing microspores. Transient protein expression and dual-luciferase assays show TDF1 is a nuclear-localized, transcription activator, that directly activates osmotin proteins. Comparison of hvtdf1 transcriptome data revealed several pathways were delayed, endorsing the observed retarded anther morphology. Arabidopsis tdf1 mutant fertility was recovered by HvTDF1, supporting a conserved role for TDF1 in monocots and dicots.•This indicates that tapetum development shares similarity between monocot and dicots; however, barley HvTDF1 appears to uniquely act as a modifier to activate tapetum gene expression pathways, which are subsequently also induced by other factors. Therefore, the absence of HvTDF1 results in delayed developmental progression rather than pathway failure, although inevitably still results in pollen degeneration

Construction of a map-based reference genome sequence for barley, Hordeum vulgare L.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a cereal grass mainly used as animal fodder and raw material for the malting industry. The map-based reference genome sequence of barley cv. `Morex' was constructed by the International Barley Genome Sequencing Consortium (IBSC) using hierarchical shotgun sequencing. Here, we report the experimental and computational procedures to (i) sequence and assemble more than 80,000 bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones along the minimum tiling path of a genome-wide physical map, (ii) find and validate overlaps between adjacent BACs, (iii) construct 4,265 non-redundant sequence scaffolds representing clusters of overlapping BACs, and (iv) order and orient these BAC clusters along the seven barley chromosomes using positional information provided by dense genetic maps, an optical map and chromosome conformation capture sequencing (Hi-C). Integrative access to these sequence and mapping resources is provided by the barley genome explorer (BARLEX).Peer reviewe

A chromosome conformation capture ordered sequence of the barley genome

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Four essays on supply chain management

This thesis, which consists of four separate essays, employs decentralized newsvendor models to address some critical problems in the context of decentralized retail supply chains. Essay 1 examines the effectiveness of returns policies in a decentralized newsvendor model, in which a manufacturer sells a product to an independent retailer facing uncertain demand and the retail price is endogenously determined by the retailer. This model will be referred to as the PD-hewsvendor model. Essay 2 investigates the effect of sequential commitment in the decentralized PD-newsvendor model with buybacks. Sequential commitment allows the self-profit maximizing parties to commit to the contract parameters (e.g., wholesale price, retail price, buyback price and order quantity) sequentially and alternately, and we investigate its effect on the equilibrium profits of the channel and its members. Essay 3 analyzes the effect of price and order postponement in the PD-newsvendor model, possibly with a buyback option. Such postponement strategies can be used by a retailer by delaying his operational decisions (order quantity and retail price) until after demand uncertainty is observed. Essay 4 considers a supply .chain wherein an assembler buys complementary components (or products) from n suppliers, assembles the n components into a final product, and sells it at a fixed retail price over a single selling season. We analyze two contracting systems between the assembler and the suppliers: push and pull. In the push system, the suppliers initiate the process by offering their wholesale prices to the assembler, and the assembler then orders from the suppliers well in advance of the selling season. In the pull system, the assembler first sets the wholesale prices for the different suppliers, and then the suppliers decide how much to produce and bear all of the inventory risk. In both systems, suppliers can form alliances among themselves or act independently.Business, Sauder School ofGraduat

Alliance Formation Among Perfectly Complementary Suppliers in a Price-Sensitive Assembly System

Independent parties that produce perfectly complementary components may form alliances (or coalitions or groups) to better coordinate their pricing decisions when they sell their products to downstream buyers. This paper studies how market demand conditions (i.e., the form of the demand function, demand uncertainty, and price-sensitive demand) drive coalition formation among complementary suppliers. In a deterministic demand model, we show that for an exponential or isoelastic demand function, suppliers always prefer selling in groups; for a linear-power demand function, suppliers may all choose to sell independently in equilibrium. These results are interpreted through the pass-through rate associated with the demand function. In an uncertain demand model, we show that, in general, the introduction of a multiplicative stochastic element in demand has an insignificant impact on stable coalitions and that an endogenous retail price (i.e., demand is price sensitive) increases suppliers' incentives to form alliances relative to the case with a fixed retail price. We also consider the impact of various other factors on stable outcomes in equilibrium, e.g., sequential decision making by coalitions of different sizes, the cost effect due to alliance formation (either cost savings or additional costs), and a system without an assembler.alliance formation, demand curvature, pass-through rate, assembly system

On the effectiveness of returns policies in the price-dependent newsvendor model

We study in this paper the price-dependent (PD) newsvendor model in which a manufacturer sells a product to an independent retailer facing uncertain demand and the retail price is endogenously determined by the retailer. We prove that for a zero salvage value and some expected demand functions, in equilibrium, the manufacturer may elect not to introduce buybacks. On the other hand, if buybacks are introduced in equilibrium, their introduction has an insignificant effect on channel efficiency improvement, but, by contrast, may significantly shift profits from the retailer to the manufacturer. We further demonstrate that the introduction of buybacks increases the wholesale price, retail price, and inventory level, as compared to the wholesale price-only contract, and that the corresponding vertically integrated firm offers the lowest retail price and highest inventory level. (C) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Channel Strategies and Marketing Mix in a Connected World.

This book aims to revisit the “traditional” interaction between channel strategies and the marketing mix in a connected world. In particular, it focuses on the following four dimensions in this context: Consumers, Products, Value Proposition and Sustainability. Keeping in mind the growing digitalization of business processes in the retail world and the move towards omni-channel retailing, the book introduces the state-of-the-art academic and practitioner studies along these dimensions that could enhance the understanding of the potential impact that new technologies and strategies can have on practice in the near future. When launching a new product/service to market, firms usually consider various components of the marketing mix to influence consumers’ purchase behaviors, such as product design, convenience, value proposition, promotions, sustainability initiatives, etc. This mix varies depending on the specific channel and consumer niche that the firm is targeting. But this book shows how channel strategy also influences the effectiveness in utilizing the marketing mix to attract potential customers

Competition and Cooperation in Decentralized Push and Pull Assembly Systems

In this paper, we study a decentralized assembly system consisting of a single assembler who buys complementary components from independent suppliers under two contracting schemes: push and pull. In both schemes, the component suppliers are allowed to freely form coalitions (or alliances) among themselves to better coordinate their pricing or production decisions. We show that the sole driver of the inefficiency in a push system, which is due to horizontal decentralization of suppliers, is the number of alliances that were formed. Specifically, it is shown that in a push system, the assembler's profit, the total profit of all suppliers and the consumers' surplus are all decreasing in the number of coalitions, and are thus maximized when the grand coalition is formed. We further carry out a stability analysis of coalition structures to verify to what extent suppliers can reduce or eliminate the inefficiency due to their decentralization by forming alliances. We show that in a push system with more than two suppliers and a power demand distribution, myopic suppliers would act independently, resulting with a least efficient channel, which makes all channel members, as well as the end consumers, worse off. On the other hand, we prove that farsighted suppliers would form the grand coalition and thus be able to completely eliminate the inefficiency stemming from their decentralization. Finally, it is shown that, in contrast to a push system, in a pull system the suppliers can easily coordinate their production quantities to eliminate the inefficiency due to their decentralization.alliance formation, newsvendor model, stable coalitions, push and pull models