Harnessing landrace diversity empowers wheat breeding.

Harnessing genetic diversity in major staple crops through the development of new breeding capabilities is essential to ensure food security1. Here we examined the genetic and phenotypic diversity of the A.E. Watkins landrace collection2 of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), a major global cereal, through whole-genome re-sequencing (827 Watkins landraces and 208 modern cultivars) and in-depth field evaluation spanning a decade. We discovered that modern cultivars are derived from just two of the seven ancestral groups of wheat and maintain very long-range haplotype integrity. The remaining five groups represent untapped genetic sources, providing access to landrace-specific alleles and haplotypes for breeding. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) based haplotypes and association genetics analyses link Watkins genomes to the thousands of high-resolution quantitative trait loci (QTL), and significant marker-trait associations identified. Using these structured germplasm, genotyping and informatics resources, we revealed many Watkins-unique beneficial haplotypes that can confer superior traits in modern wheat. Furthermore, we assessed the phenotypic effects of 44,338 Watkins-unique haplotypes, introgressed from 143 prioritised QTL in the context of modern cultivars, bridging the gap between landrace diversity and current breeding. This study establishes a framework for systematically utilising genetic diversity in crop improvement to achieve sustainable food security.

Genome-wide dissection of hybridization for fiber quality- and yield-related traits in upland cotton.

An evaluation of combining ability can facilitate the selection of suitable parents and superior F1 hybrids for hybrid cotton breeding, although the molecular genetic basis of combining ability has not been fully characterized. In the present study, 282 female parents were crossed with four male parents in accordance with the North Carolina II mating scheme to generate 1128 hybrids. The parental lines were genotyped based on restriction site-associated DNA sequencing and 306 814 filtered single nucleotide polymorphisms were used for genome-wide association analysis involving the phenotypes, general combining ability (GCA) values, and specific combining ability values of eight fiber quality- and yield-related traits. The main results were: (i) all parents could be clustered into five subgroups based on population structure analyses and the GCA performance of the female parents had significant differences between subgroups; (ii) 20 accessions with a top 5% GCA value for more than one trait were identified as elite parents for hybrid cotton breeding; (iii) 120 significant single nucleotide polymorphisms, clustered into 66 quantitative trait loci, such as the previously reported Gh_A07G1769 and GhHOX3 genes, were found to be significantly associated with GCA; and (iv) identified quantitative trait loci for GCA had a cumulative effect on GCA of the accessions. Overall, our results suggest that pyramiding the favorable loci for GCA may improve the efficiency of hybrid cotton breeding.

Multi-responses of O-methyltransferase genes to salt stress and fiber development of Gossypium species.

BACKGROUND: O-methyltransferases (OMTs) are an important group of enzymes that catalyze the transfer of a methyl group from S-adenosyl-L-methionine to their acceptor substrates. OMTs are divided into several groups according to their structural features. In Gossypium species, they are involved in phenolics and flavonoid pathways. Phenolics defend the cellulose fiber from dreadful external conditions of biotic and abiotic stresses, promoting strength and growth of plant cell wall. RESULTS: An OMT gene family, containing a total of 192 members, has been identified and characterized in three main Gossypium species, G. hirsutum, G. arboreum and G. raimondii. Cis-regulatory elements analysis suggested important roles of OMT genes in growth, development, and defense against stresses. Transcriptome data of different fiber developmental stages in Chromosome Substitution Segment Lines (CSSLs), Recombination Inbred Lines (RILs) with excellent fiber quality, and standard genetic cotton cultivar TM-1 demonstrate that up-regulation of OMT genes at different fiber developmental stages, and abiotic stress treatments have some significant correlations with fiber quality formation, and with salt stress response. Quantitative RT-PCR results revealed that GhOMT10_Dt and GhOMT70_At genes had a specific expression in response to salt stress while GhOMT49_At, GhOMT49_Dt, and GhOMT48_At in fiber elongation and secondary cell wall stages. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that O-methyltransferase genes have multi-responses to salt stress and fiber development in Gossypium species and that they may contribute to salt tolerance or fiber quality formation in Gossypium.

Spatio-temporal numerical modeling of stochastic predator-prey model.

In this article, the ratio-dependent prey-predator system perturbed with time noise is numerically investigated. It relates to the population densities of the prey and predator in an ecological system. The initial prey-predator models only depend on the time and a couple of the differential equations. We are considering a model where the prey-predator interaction is influenced by both space and time and the need for a coupled nonlinear partial differential equation with the effect of the random behavior of the environment. The existence of the solutions is guaranteed by using Schauder's fixed point theorem. The computation of the underlying model is carried out by two schemes. The proposed stochastic forward Euler scheme is conditionally stable and consistent with the system of the equations. The proposed stochastic non-standard finite difference scheme is unconditionally stable and consistent with the system of the equations. The graphical behavior of a test problem for different values of the parameters is shown which depicts the efficacy of the schemes. Our numerical results will help the researchers to consider the effect of the noise on the prey-predator model.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Oral Hygiene Among Students of a Private University.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice among pre-final and final year students of pharmacy, medicine, biotechnology, and business faculties about oral hygiene. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of students towards oral hygiene at a private university in Malaysia. Validated questionnaires were distributed to a convenient stratified sample of 324 students studying in the different selected faculties, namely pharmacy, medicine, biotechnology, and business, respectively. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 24.0 was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: With regard to knowledge, upon evaluation, it was seen that the students of the Faculty of Pharmacy had the highest percentage of adequate knowledge, which was statistically significant with a P-value of 0.001 and the effect size of 0.246. On the evaluation of attitudes, it was seen that the Faculty of Biotechnology had the highest positive attitudes. According to race, Malay students had the highest positive attitude among all the races that participated in the study, which showed a P-value of 0.037 with the effect size of 0.034. Regarding practice, the Faculty of Pharmacy had the lowest practice compared with the other faculties. This variable had a P-value of 0.001 and showed to have significance against the practice with an effect size of 0.193. CONCLUSION: Overall, a good attitude was seen amongst the students on their oral hygiene. It was also observed that the attitude, knowledge, and practice of the students in a private university increased with an increasing level of education.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice about Mental Health Challenges among Healthcare Students of a Private University.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of healthcare students (Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry) in a private university about mental health challenges (MHC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A research cross-sectional observational was conducted to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of students towards MHC at a private university in Malaysia. A validated questionnaire was distributed to 284 students studying in three different selected faculties, namely the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 24.0 was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Upon evaluation of knowledge, male students were having less-adequate knowledge than females (P = 0.006). Malay students were having adequate knowledge than other races about MHC. Faculty of Medicine was having adequate knowledge than other faculties (P ≤ 0.001). Regarding attitude, the Faculty of Pharmacy students had the highest positive attitudes (P = 0.001). Final year students were having a more positive attitude than pre-final year students. For the evaluation of practice, the Faculty of Dentistry students had the lowest practice compared with other faculties. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, overall, good knowledge was seen among the students of the private medical university about MHC. The medical students had adequate knowledge when compared with other faculties in the university.

Numerical modeling and theoretical analysis of a nonlinear advection-reaction epidemic system.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Epidemic models are used to describe the dynamics of population densities or population sizes under suitable physical conditions. In view that population densities and sizes cannot take on negative values, the positive character of those quantities is an important feature that must be taken into account both analytically and numerically. In particular, susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) models must also take into account the positivity of the solutions. Unfortunately, many existing schemes to study SIR models do not take into account this relevant feature. As a consequence, the numerical solutions for these systems may exhibit the presence of negative population values. Nowadays, positivity (and, ultimately, boundedness) is an important characteristic sought for in numerical techniques to solve partial differential equations describing epidemic models. METHOD: In this work, we will develop and analyze a positivity-preserving nonstandard implicit finite-difference scheme to solve an advection-reaction nonlinear epidemic model. More concretely, this discrete model has been proposed to approximate consistently the solutions of a spatio-temporal nonlinear advective dynamical system arising in many infectious disease phenomena. RESULTS: The proposed scheme is capable of guaranteeing the positivity of the approximations. Moreover, we show that the numerical scheme is consistent, stable and convergent. Additionally, our finite-difference method is capable of preserving the endemic and the disease-free equilibrium points. Moreover, we will establish that our methodology is stable in the sense of von Neumann. CONCLUSION: Comparisons with existing techniques show that the technique proposed in this work is a reliable and efficient structure-preserving numerical model. In summary, the present approach is a structure-preserving and efficient numerical technique which is easy to implement in any scientific language by any scientist with minimal knowledge on scientific programming.

A Review of Pharmacist-led Interventions on Diabetes Outcomes: An Observational Analysis to Explore Diabetes Care Opportunities for Pharmacists.

A strict and adherence treatment is required by the patient with diabetes mellitus and it demands a proper self-medication by the patient. Pharmacists are involved in providing self-management support to the patients. This review evaluates the interventions of pharmacist for patients to improve self-management with diabetes mellitus and also to improve the clinical outcomes of diabetes mellitus. A comprehensive literature search was performed by using different keywords "pharmacist-led intervention," "diabetes," "effect of pharmacist on outcome of diabetes," and "self-management of diabetes" with the help of various electronic databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library from the beginning of the database through September 2018. The primary outcome was glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), whereas the secondary outcomes were blood glucose level, blood pressure (BP) measure, body mass index, lipids, adherence to medication, and quality of life. Twenty-five studies comprising 2997 diabetic patients were included in the analysis. Pharmacist-led intervention was involved in all included studies in the form of education on diabetes and its complications, medication adherence, lifestyle, and education about self-management skills. Pharmacist-led interventions are able to reduce HbA1c levels with a mean of 0.75%. Most studies do not expose the material and methods used in pharmacist-led intervention. The variation in the reduction of HbA1c, fasting blood sugar, BP, and lipid profile was due to the lack of this standardization. The included studies indicated that pharmacist-led interventions in diabetes mellitus can significantly improve the outcomes of diabetes mellitus and its complication later on. Hence, these long-term improvements in outcomes added more value of pharmacists in health-care system of the world.

Diabetic Complications and Insight into Antidiabetic Potentialities of Ethno- Medicinal Plants: A Review.

BACKGROUND: The naturally inspired treatment options for several disease conditions and human-health related disorders such as diabetes mellitus have gained considerable research interest. In this context, naturally occurring plants and herbs with medicinal functionalities have gained special place than ever before in the current medicinal world. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review is to extend the current knowledge in the clinical field related to the diabetic complications. A special focus has also been given to the anti-diabetic potentialities of ethnomedicinal plants. METHOD: Herein, we reviewed and compiled salient information from the authentic bibliographic databases including PubMed, Scopus, Elsevier, Springer, Bentham Science and other scientific databases. The patents were searched and reviewed from http://www.freepatentsonline.com. RESULTS: Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic disorders associated with the endocrine system that resulted in hyperglycemic conditions. Metabolic disorders can cause many complications such as neuropathy, retinopathy, nephropathy, ischemic heart disease, stroke, and microangiopathy. Traditional botanical therapies have been used around the world to treat diabetes. Among several medications and different medicines, various herbs are known to cure and control diabetes; also have no side effects. History has shown that medicinal plants have long been used for traditional healing around the world to treat diabetes. More than 800 plants around the world are shown by ethnobotanical information as traditional remedies for the treatment of diabetes. Several parts of these plants have been evaluated and appreciated for hypoglycemic activity. Medicinal plants have been found to be more effective than conventional drug compounds with no/fewer side effects and relatively inexpensive. In this review paper, we have reviewed plants with anti-diabetic and related beneficial medicinal effects. CONCLUSION: This review may be helpful for researchers, diabetic patient and decision makers in the field of ethnobotanical sciences. These efforts may also provide treatment to everyone and focus on the role of traditional novel medicine plants that have anti-diabetic abilities.

GWAS Analysis and QTL Identification of Fiber Quality Traits and Yield Components in Upland Cotton Using Enriched High-Density SNP Markers.

It is of great importance to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling fiber quality traits and yield components for future marker-assisted selection (MAS) and candidate gene function identifications. In this study, two kinds of traits in 231 F6:8 recombinant inbred lines (RILs), derived from an intraspecific cross between Xinluzao24, a cultivar with elite fiber quality, and Lumianyan28, a cultivar with wide adaptability and high yield potential, were measured in nine environments. This RIL population was genotyped by 122 SSR and 4729 SNP markers, which were also used to construct the genetic map. The map covered 2477.99 cM of hirsutum genome, with an average marker interval of 0.51 cM between adjacent markers. As a result, a total of 134 QTLs for fiber quality traits and 122 QTLs for yield components were detected, with 2.18-24.45 and 1.68-28.27% proportions of the phenotypic variance explained by each QTL, respectively. Among these QTLs, 57 were detected in at least two environments, named stable QTLs. A total of 209 and 139 quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) were associated with fiber quality traits and yield components by four multilocus genome-wide association studies methods, respectively. Among these QTNs, 74 were detected by at least two algorithms or in two environments. The candidate genes harbored by 57 stable QTLs were compared with the ones associated with QTN, and 35 common candidate genes were found. Among these common candidate genes, four were possibly "pleiotropic." This study provided important information for MAS and candidate gene functional studies.

Prediction of Host-Derived miRNAs with the Potential to Target PVY in Potato Plants.

Potato virus Y has emerged as a threatening problem in all potato growing areas around the globe. PVY reduces the yield and quality of potato cultivars. During the last 30 years, significant genetic changes in PVY strains have been observed with an increased incidence associated with crop damage. In the current study, computational approaches were applied to predict Potato derived miRNA targets in the PVY genome. The PVY genome is approximately 9 thousand nucleotides, which transcribes the following 6 genes:CI, NIa, NIb-Pro, HC-Pro, CP, and VPg. A total of 343 mature miRNAs were retrieved from the miRBase database and were examined for their target sequences in PVY genes using the minimum free energy (mfe), minimum folding energy, sequence complementarity and mRNA-miRNA hybridization approaches. The identified potato miRNAs against viral mRNA targets have antiviral activities, leading to translational inhibition by mRNA cleavage and/or mRNA blockage. We found 86 miRNAs targeting the PVY genome at 151 different sites. Moreover, only 36 miRNAs potentially targeted the PVY genome at 101 loci. The CI gene of the PVY genome was targeted by 32 miRNAs followed by the complementarity of 26, 19, 18, 16, and 13 miRNAs. Most importantly, we found 5 miRNAs (miR160a-5p, miR7997b, miR166c-3p, miR399h, and miR5303d) that could target the CI, NIa, NIb-Pro, HC-Pro, CP, and VPg genes of PVY. The predicted miRNAs can be used for the development of PVY-resistant potato crops in the future.

Transformation and Evaluation of Cry1Ac+Cry2A and GTGene in Gossypium hirsutum L.

More than 50 countries around the globe cultivate cotton on a large scale. It is a major cash crop of Pakistan and is considered "white gold" because it is highly important to the economy of Pakistan. In addition to its importance, cotton cultivation faces several problems, such as insect pests, weeds, and viruses. In the past, insects have been controlled by insecticides, but this method caused a severe loss to the economy. However, conventional breeding methods have provided considerable breakthroughs in the improvement of cotton, but it also has several limitations. In comparison with conventional methods, biotechnology has the potential to create genetically modified plants that are environmentally safe and economically viable. In this study, a local cotton variety VH 289 was transformed with two Bt genes (Cry1Ac and Cry2A) and a herbicide resistant gene (cp4 EPSPS) using the Agrobacterium mediated transformation method. The constitutive CaMV 35S promoter was attached to the genes taken from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and to an herbicide resistant gene during cloning, and this promoter was used for the expression of the genes in cotton plants. This construct was used to develop the Glyphosate Tolerance Gene (GTGene) for herbicide tolerance and insecticidal gene (Cry1Ac and Cry2A) for insect tolerance in the cotton variety VH 289. The transgenic cotton variety performed 85% better compared with the non-transgenic variety. The study results suggest that farmers should use the transgenic cotton variety for general cultivation to improve the production of cotton.

Piriformis syndrome: anatomic considerations, a new injection technique, and a review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Piriformis syndrome can be caused by anatomic abnormalities. The treatments of piriformis syndrome include the injection of steroid into the piriformis muscle and near the area of the sciatic nerve. These techniques use either fluoroscopy and muscle electromyography to identify the piriformis muscle or a nerve stimulator to stimulate the sciatic nerve. METHODS: The authors performed a cadaver study and noted anatomic variations of the piriformis muscle and sciatic nerve. To standardize their technique of injection, they also noted the distance from the lower border of the sacroiliac joint (SIJ) to the sciatic nerve. They retrospectively reviewed the charts of 19 patients who had received piriformis muscle injections, noting the site of needle insertion in terms of the distance from the lower border of the SIJ and the depth of needle insertion at which the motor response of the foot was elicited. The authors tabulated the response of the patients to the injection, any associated diagnoses, and previous treatments that these patients had before the injection. Finally, they reviewed the literature on piriformis syndrome, a rare cause of buttock pain and sciatica. RESULTS: In the cadavers, the distance from the lower border of the SIJ to the sciatic nerve was 2.9 +/- 0.6 (1.8-3.7) cm laterally and 0.7 +/- 0.7 (0.0-2.5) cm caudally. In 65 specimens, the sciatic nerve passed anterior and inferior to the piriformis. In one specimen, the muscle was bipartite and the two components of the sciatic nerve were separate, with the tibial nerve passing below the piriformis and the peroneal nerve passing between the two components of the muscle. In the patients who received the injections, the site of needle insertion was 1.5 +/- 0.8 (0.4-3.0) cm lateral and 1.2 +/- 0.6 (0.5-2.0) cm caudal to the lower border of the SIJ as seen on fluoroscopy. The needle was inserted at a depth of 9.2 +/- 1.5 (7.5-13.0) cm to stimulate the sciatic nerve. Patients had comorbid etiologies including herniated disc, failed back surgery syndrome, spinal stenosis, facet syndrome, SIJ dysfunction, and complex regional pain syndrome. Sixteen of the 19 patients responded to the injection, their improvements ranged from a few hours to 3 months. CONCLUSIONS: Anatomic abnormalities causing piriformis syndrome are rare. The technique used in the current study was successful in injecting the medications near the area of the sciatic nerve and into the piriformis muscle.