Performing parentage analysis for polysomic inheritances based on allelic phenotypes.

Polyploidy poses several problems for parentage analysis. We present a new polysomic inheritance model for parentage analysis based on genotypes or allelic phenotypes to solve these problems. The effects of five factors are simultaneously accommodated in this model: (1) double-reduction, (2) null alleles, (3) negative amplification, (4) genotyping errors and (5) self-fertilization. To solve genotyping ambiguity (unknown allele dosage), we developed a new method to establish the likelihood formulas for allelic phenotype data and to simultaneously include the effects of our five chosen factors. We then evaluated and compared the performance of our new method with three established methods by using both simulated data and empirical data from the cultivated blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum). We also developed and compared the performance of two additional estimators to estimate the genotyping error rate and the sample rate. We make our new methods freely available in the software package polygene, at http://github.com/huangkang1987/polygene.

Ultra-sonication-assisted solvent extraction of quercetin glycosides from 'Idared' apple peels.

Quercetin and quercetin glycosides are physiologically active flavonol molecules that have been attributed numerous health benefits. Recovery of such molecules from plant matrices depends on a variety of factors including polarity of the extraction solvent. Among the solvents of a wide range of dielectric constants, methanol recovered the most quercetin and its glycosides from dehydrated 'Idared' apple peels. When ultra-sonication was employed to facilitate the extraction, exposure of 15 min of ultrasound wavelengths of dehydrated apple peel powder in 80% to 100% (v/v) methanol in 1:50 (w:v) solid to solvent ratio provided the optimum extraction conditions for quercetin and its glycosides. Acidification of extraction solvent with 0.1% (v/v) or higher concentrations of HCl led to hydrolysis of naturally occurring quercetin glycosides into the aglycone as an extraction artifact.