Overcoming roadblocks for in vitro nurseries in plants: induction of meiosis.

Efforts to increase genetic gains in breeding programs of flowering plants depend on making genetic crosses. Time to flowering, which can take months to decades depending on the species, can be a limiting factor in such breeding programs. It has been proposed that the rate of genetic gain can be increased by reducing the time between generations by circumventing flowering through the in vitro induction of meiosis. In this review, we assess technologies and approaches that may offer a path towards meiosis induction, the largest current bottleneck for in vitro plant breeding. Studies in non-plant, eukaryotic organisms indicate that the in vitro switch from mitotic cell division to meiosis is inefficient and occurs at very low rates. Yet, this has been achieved with mammalian cells by the manipulation of a limited number of genes. Therefore, to experimentally identify factors that switch mitosis to meiosis in plants, it is necessary to develop a high-throughput system to evaluate a large number of candidate genes and treatments, each using large numbers of cells, few of which may gain the ability to induce meiosis.

Noise induced in optical fibers by double Rayleigh scattering of a laser with a 1/fν frequency noise.

We study, theoretically and experimentally, intensity noise induced by double Rayleigh scattering in long optical fibers. The results of the theoretical model are compared to experimental results performed with a high-coherence-length laser with a frequency noise spectrum that is dominated by 1/fν noise. Excellent quantitative agreement between theoretical and experimental RF spectra were obtained for frequencies as low as 10 Hz and for fiber lengths between 4 and 45 km. Strong low-frequency intensity noise that is induced by 1/fν frequency noise of the laser may limit the performance of interferometric fiber optic sensors that require high-coherence-length lasers. The intensity noise due to double Rayleigh backscattering can be suppressed by reducing the coherence length of the laser. Therefore, the intensity noise has a complex and non-monotonic dependence on the 1/fν frequency noise amplitude of the laser. Stimulated Brillouin scattering will add a significant noise for input powers greater than about 7 mW for a 30 km length fiber.