Identification of Putative Quantitative Trait Loci for Improved Seed Oil Quality in Peanuts.

Improving seed oil quality in peanut (Arachis hypogaea) has long been an aim of breeding programs worldwide. The genetic resources to achieve this goal are limited. We used an advanced recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from JH5 × KX01-6 to explore quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting peanut oil quality and their additive effects, epistatic effects, and QTL × environment interactions. Gas chromatography (GC) analysis suggested seven fatty acids components were obviously detected in both parents and analyzed in a follow-up QTL analysis. The major components, palmitic acid (C16:0), oleic acid (C18:1), and linoleic acid (C18:2), exhibited considerable phenotypic variation and fit the two major gene and minor gene mixed-inheritance model. Seventeen QTL explained 2.57-38.72% of the phenotypic variation in these major components, with LOD values of 4.12-37.56 in six environments, and thirty-five QTL explained 0.94-32.21% of the phenotypic variation, with LOD values of 5.99-150.38 in multiple environments. Sixteen of these QTL were detected in both individual and multiple environments. Among these, qFA_08_1 was a novel QTL with stable, valuable and major effect. Two other major-effect QTL, qFA_09_2 and qFA_19_3, share the same physical position as FAD2A and FAD2B, respectively. Eleven stable epistatic QTL involving nine loci explained 1.30-34.97% of the phenotypic variation, with epistatic effects ranging from 0.09 to 6.13. These QTL could be valuable for breeding varieties with improved oil quality.

Adjusting morphological properties of organic electrode material for efficient Sodium-ion batteries by isomers strategy.

In this work, two isomers are mixed in different proportions and then alkalized as the organic anode material for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). The mixed material, denoted as PN, shows distinct morphology and electrochemical properties, compared to the single-component Na-CPP and Na-CPN. The Initial Coulombic Efficiency (ICE) value obtained by using the mixed PN as anode is higher than that using the single component. And the capacity retention rate of the mixed PN electrode is 92% after 1200 cycles under 935 mA g-1 high current density. This is mainly due to the superior morphology of the mixed PN electrode (the optimal ratio is CPP: CPN = 3: 1, the mass ratio (or molar ratio)), which exhibits more uniform spherical particles, thus increasing the contact area with the electrolyte and ensuring close contact with the conductive carbon. As a result, the ICE and cycle performance is improved because of the reduced irreversible side reactions. As far as we know, this is the first example of mixing two isomers as organic anode materials in traditional SIBs, and this strategy may provide new insights into future development of organic electrode materials.

Distribution of tetraether lipids in sulfide chimneys at the Deyin hydrothermal field, southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge: Implication to chimney growing stage.

This study presents analysis of four chimney samples in terms of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether lipids (GDGTs), representing different growing stages of sulfide chimneys at the Deyin hydrothermal field, the southern mid-Atlantic ridge. The modified Bligh-Dyer method was used for lipid extraction and purification. GDGTs were analyzed with an Agilent 1200 series liquid chromatograph and 6460A triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Our results showed that the intact polar GDGTs were more abundant than the core GDGTs in the 4 samples. The intact polar isoprenoidal GDGT-0 was the dominant composition (>70% of isoprenoidal GDGTs), indicating input of thermophilic Euryarchaeota. Most branched GDGTs were likely originated from the in situ thermophilic bacteria. However, the intact polar GDGTs in the sample at the late growing stage was similar to that in normal marine sediments, suggesting that the archaea mainly came from the planktonic Thaumarchaeota input. Our results suggested that the ratio of H-GDGTs to iGDGTs could be considered as a proxy to differentiated growing stages of a chimney. This study shed light on how to assess hydrothermal venting and sulfide chimneys in deep marine environments with a biomarker method in terms of different groups of GDGTs.

Autophagy is involved in the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune neuritis in rats.

Recent studies have shown that autophagy is involved in peripheral nervous system disease. However, the role of autophagy in the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune neuritis (EAN) remains unclear. Therefore, EAN was induced by a subcutaneous injection into both hind footpads of synthetic neuritogenic P2(57-81) peptide in male Lewis rats. The clinical evaluation was completed using a 10-point scale method. The histological alteration of sciatic nerves was analyzed by hematoxylin and eosin and luxol fast blue staining. The ultrastructure of sciatic nerves was analyzed by transmission electron microscopy. Expressions of beclin-1 and microtubule-associated protein light chain-3 (LC3) and p62/SQSTM1 were determined by western blot. 3-Methyladenine, the inhibitor of autophagy, was used in this research. Results showed that the clinical scores were significantly increased from day 6 to day 16 after immunization compared with the control group. Compared with the control group, the number of inflammatory cells and the histological score of sciatic nerves were significantly increased, expressions of beclin-1 and LC3-II and the ratio of LC3-II/LC3-I in the sciatic nerve were significantly increased, and the expression of p62 was significantly decreased in the EAN model group. Considerable double-membrane autophagosomes in axons and myelin sheaths of sciatic nerves were observed and the number of autophagosomes in axons and myelin sheaths of sciatic nerves in the EAN model group was obviously increased compared with the control group. 3-Methyladenine ameliorated the neurologic severity of EAN. Our results suggest that autophagy activity in nerve tissue of EAN rats is increased, which may be associated with the pathogenesis of EAN.

[Research of classification about BCI based on the signals energy].

Aiming at the issue of motor imagery electroencephalography (EEG) pattern recognition in the research of brain-computer interface (BCI), a power feature method based on discrete wavelet packet decomposition is proposed for the channels C3 and C4. Firstly, a six-border Butterworth filter is used to denoise the two-channel EEG signals. Secondly, two-channel EEG signals are decomposed to five levels using Daubechies wavelet and the fourth level and the fifth level are chosen to reconstruct the signals and compute its power feature. Finally, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is utilized to classify the feature and the Kappa value is utilized to measure the accuracy of the classifier. This method is applied to the standard dataset BCICIV_2b-gdf of BCI Competition 2008, and experimental results show that this method reflect the feature of event-related synchronization and event-related desynchronization obviously and it is an effective way to classify the EEG patterns in the research of BCI.