Resistance to Aspergillus flavus in maize and peanut:Molecular biology, breeding, environmental stress,and future perspectives

The colonization of maize(Zea mays L.) and peanut(Arachis hypogaea L.) by the fungal pathogen Aspergillus flavus results in the contamination of kernels with carcinogenic mycotoxins known as aflatoxins leading to economic losses and potential health threats to humans. The regulation of aflatoxin biosynthesis in various Aspergillus spp. has been extensively studied, and has been shown to be related to oxidative stress responses. Given that environmental stresses such as drought and heat stress result in the accumulation of reactive oxygen species(ROS) within host plant tissues, host-derived ROS may play an important role in cross-kingdom communication between host plants and A. flavus. Recent technological advances in plant breeding have provided the tools necessary to study and apply knowledge derived from metabolomic, proteomic, and transcriptomic studies in the context of productive breeding populations. Here, we review the current understanding of the potential roles of environmental stress, ROS, and aflatoxin in the interaction between A.flavus and its host plants, and the current status in molecular breeding and marker discovery for resistance to A. flavus colonization and aflatoxin contamination in maize and peanut. We will also propose future directions and a working model for continuing research efforts linking environmental stress tolerance and aflatoxin contamination resistance in maize and peanut.

Evaluation of maize inbred lines for resistance to pre-harvest aflatoxin and fumonisin contamination in the field

Two important mycotoxins, aflatoxin and fumonisin, are among the most potent naturally occurring carcinogens, contaminating maize(Zea mays) and affecting crop yield and quality.Resistance of maize to pre-harvest mycotoxin contamination, specifically aflatoxin produced by Aspergillus flavus and fumonisin produced by Fusarium verticillioides, is a goal in breeding programs that screen for these important traits with the aim of developing resistant commercial hybrids. We conducted two years of field evaluations on 87 inbred lines originating primarily in China and Mexico and not previously screened for resistance.The objectives of our study were to identify resistant germplasm for breeding purposes and to examine possible relationships between resistances to the two mycotoxins. Aflatoxin and fumonisin were present in samples harvested from all lines in both years.Concentrations of total aflatoxin ranged from 52.00 ± 20.00 to 1524.00 ± 396.00 μg kg^(-1),while those of fumonisin ranged from 0.60 ± 0.06 to 124.00 ± 19.50 mg kg^(-1). The inbred lines TUN15, TUN61, TUN37, CY2, and TUN49 showed the lowest aflatoxin accumulation and CN1, GT601, TUN09, TUN61, and MP717 the lowest fumonisin accumulation. TUN61 showed the lowest accumulation of both mycotoxins. This study confirmed previous observations that high levels of aflatoxin can coexist with fumonisin, with 55 maize lines showing a positive correlation coefficient between the concentrations of aflatoxin and fumonisin and 32 lines showing a negative correlation coefficient. These selected lines,particularly TUN61, may provide sources of resistance to mycotoxin contamination in breeding programs. However, the mechanism of resistance in this germplasm remains to be identified. Future research should also address factors that influence the fungus–plant interaction, such as herbivory and environmental stress.

Stability analysis for an Euler-Bernoulli beam under local internal control and boundary observation

An Euler-Bernoulli beam system under the local internal distributed control and boundary point observation is studied. An infinite-dimensional observer for the open-loop system is designed. The closed-loop system that is non- dissipative is obtained by the estimated state feedback. By a detailed spectral analysis, it is shown that there is a set of generalized eigenfunctions, which forms a Riesz basis for the state space. Consequently, both the spectrum-determined growth condition and exponential stability are concluded.

Maxi mumprinciple for the optimal control of an ablation-transpiration cooling system with free final time and phase constraints

This paper is concerned with an optimal control problem of an abhtion-transpiration cooling control system with Stefan-Signorini boundary condition. As the continuation of the authors＇previous paper, the Dubovits Rii-Milyutin fimctional approach is again adopted in investigation of the Pontryagin＇ s maximun principle of the system. The necessary optimality condition is presented for the problem with free final horizon and phase constraints.

Evaluation of maize inbred lines and topcross progeny for resistance to pre-harvest aflatoxin contamination

Pre-harvest aflatoxin contamination occurs in maize following kernel colonization by Aspergillus flavus. Aflatoxin contamination resistance is a highly desired trait in maize breeding programs.The identification of novel sources of resistance to pre-harvest aflatoxin contamination is a major focus in germplasm screening efforts. Here, we performed a field evaluation of 64 inbred lines over two years for pre-harvest aflatoxin contamination. Topcrosses were also performed with two testers, B73 and Mo17, to generate 128 F1 hybrids which were also evaluated over two years. Hybrid performance was used to calculate both general combining ability(GCA) of the inbreds, and observed heterosis for aflatoxin resistance. Over both years of the study, aflatoxin concentrations ranged from 80 ± 47 to 17,617 ± 8816 μg kg^(-1) for inbreds, and from 58 ± 39 to 2771 ± 780 μg kg^(-1) for hybrids with significant variation between years and lines. The inbred lines CML52, CML69, CML247, GT-603, GEMS-0005, Hi63, Hp301, and M37 W showed <1000 μg kg^(-1) of aflatoxin accumulation in both years of the study and less than the resistant check, Mp313 E, in at least one season. Among these, CML52, GT-603, and Hi63 also showed significant GCA with the testers in hybrid progeny. CML52, GT-603, and M37 W also showed heterotic effects of-13.64%,-12.47%, and-24.50%, respectively, with B73 resulting in reduced aflatoxin contamination. GT-603 also showed a similar heterotic effect for aflatoxin contamination,-13.11%, with Mo17 indicating that this line may serve as a versatile source of aflatoxin contamination resistance in breeding programs.

带有黏性阻尼的波动方程的一致指数镇定和状态重构

通过有限时间的输出观测信息,以向前-向后观测器为基础的时间反转法可以用于无穷维能量守恒系统的状态重构.本文利用Lyapunov函数法将上述结果推广到具有一般黏性和边界观测的一维波动方程,给出上述方法的数值逼近格式和收敛于初值的迭代序列.对于任何初始猜想值,迭代序列都强收敛到初值,进而实现状态重构的数值逼近.其中在状态重构的数值逼近的时间反转法中,离散系统和向前观测系统的误差系统的一致指数稳定性(关于离散步长)具有重要作用,因而先讨论相关系统的一致指数稳定性.本文通过将port-Hamilton理论和有限差分格式相结合,得到一种降阶型差分格式,利用与连续系统同样的验证方法得到离散系统的一致指数稳定性.

Drought Stress and Preharvest Aflatoxin Contamination in Agricultural Commodity: Genetics, Genomics and Proteomics

Throughout the world, aflatoxin contamination is considered one of the most serious food safety issues concerning health. Chronic problems with preharvest afiatoxin contamination occur in the southern US, and are particularly troublesome in corn, peanut, cottonseed, and tree nuts. Drought stress is a major factor to contribute to preharvest afiatoxin contamination. Recent studies have demonstrated higher concentration of defense or stress-related proteins in corn kerners of resistant genotypes compared with susceptible genotypes, suggesting that preharvest field condition （drought or not drought） influences gene expression differently in different genotypes resulting in different levels of ＂end products＂： PR（pathogenesis-related） proteins in the mature kernels. Because of the complexity of Aspergillus-plant interactions, better understanding of the mechanisms of genetic resistance will be needed using genomics and proteomics for crop improvement. Genetic improvement of crop resistance to drought stress is one component and will provide a good perspective on the efficacy of control strategy. Proteomic comparisons of corn kernel proteins between resistant or susceptible genotypes to Aspergillus flavus infection have identified stress-related proteins along with antifungal proteins as associated with kernel resistance. Gene expression studies in developing corn kernels are in agreement with the proteomic studies that defense-related genes could be upregulated or downregulated by abiotic stresses.

Identification of ExpIdentification of Expressed Resistance Gene Analogs from Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Expressed Sequence Tags

Low genetic diversity makes peanut （Arachis hypogaea L.） very vulnerable to plant pathogens, causing severe yield loss and reduced seed quality. Several hundred partial genomic DNA sequences as nucleotide-binding-site leucine-rich repeat （NBS-LRR） resistance genes （R） have been identified, but a small portion with expressed transcripts has been found. We aimed to identify resistance gene analogs （RGAs） from peanut expressed sequence tags （ESTs） and to develop polymorphic markers. The protein sequences of 54 known R genes were used to identify homologs from peanut ESTs from public databases. A total of 1,053 ESTs corresponding to six different classes of known R genes were recovered, and assembled 156 contigs and 229 singletons as peanut-expressed RGAs. There were 69 that encoded for NBS-LRR proteins, 191 that encoded for protein kinases, 82 that encoded for LRR-PK/transmembrane proteins, 28 that encoded for Toxin reductases, 11 that encoded for LRR-domain containing proteins and four that encoded for TM-domain containing proteins. Twenty-eight simple sequence repeats （SSRs） were identified from 25 peanut expressed RGAs. One SSR polymorphic marker （RGA121） was identified. Two polymerase chain reaction-based markers （Ahsw-1 and Ahsw-2） developed from RGA013 were homologous to the Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus （TSWV） resistance gene. All three markers were mapped on the same linkage group AhIV. These expressed RGAs are the source for RGA-tagged marker development and identification of peanut resistance genes.

Analysis of genetic diversity and population structure of peanut cultivars and breeding lines from China,India and the US using simple sequence repeat markers

Cultivated peanut is grown worldwide as rich- source of oil and protein. A broad genetic base is needed for cultivar improvement. The objectives of this study were to develop highly informative simple sequence repeat （SSR） markers and to assess the genetic diversity and popuJation structure of peanut cultivars and breeding lines from different breeding programs in China, India and the US. A total of 111 SSR markers were selected for this study, resulting in a total of 472 alleles. The mean values of gene diversity and polymorphic information content （PIC） were 0.480 and o.429, respectively. Country-wise analysis revealed that alleles per locus in three countries were similar. The mean gene diversity in the US, China and India was 0.363, o.489 and 0.47 with an average PIC of 0.323, 0.43 and o.412, respectively. Genetic analysis using the STRUCTURE divided these peanut lines into two populations （P1, P2）, which was consistent with the dendro- gram based on genetic distance （G1, G2） and the clustering of principal component analysis. The groupings were related to peanut market types and the geographic origin with a few admixtures. The results could be used by breeding programs to assess the genetic diversity of breeding materials to broaden the genetic base and for molecular genetics studies.

Extended state observer for uncertain lower triangular nonlinear systems subject to stochastic disturbance

The extended state observer （ESO） is the most important part of an emerging control technology known as active disturbance rejection control to this day, aiming at estimating ＂total disturbance＂ from observable measured output. In this paper, we construct a nonlinear ESO for a class of uncertain lower triangular nonlinear systems with stochastic disturbance and show its convergence, where the total disturbance includes internal uncertain nonlinear part and external stochastic disturbance. The numerical experiments are carried out to illustrate effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Monitoring the Expression of Maize Genes in Developing Kernels under Droug ht Stress usingOligo-microarray

Preharvest aflatoxin contamination of grain grown on the US southeastern Coast Plain is provoked and aggravated by abiotic stress. The primary abiotic stress is drought along with high temperatures. The objectives of the present study were to monitor gene expression in developing kernels in response to drought stress and to identify drought-responsive genes for possible use in germplasm assessment. The maize breeding line Tex6 was used, and gene expression profiles were analyzed in developing kernels under drought stress verses well-watered conditions at the stages of 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 d after pollination （DAP） using the 70 mer maize oligo-arrays. A total of 9 573 positive array spots were detected with unique gene IDs, and 7 988 were common in both stressed and well-watered samples. Expression patterns of some genes in several stress response-associated pathways, including abscisic acid, jasmonic acid and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, were examined, and these specific genes were responsive to drought stress positively. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction validated microarray expression data. The comparison between Tex6 and B73 revealed that there were significant differences in specific gene expression, patterns and levels. Several defense-related genes had been downregulated, even though some defense-related or drought responsive genes were upregulated at the later stages.

AN ALGORITHM FOR DETERMINATION OF AGE-SPECIFIC FERTILITY RATE FROM INITIAL AGE STRUCTURE AND TOTAL POPULATION

Age-specific fertility rate and total fertility rate of females are the most important parame- ters in population dynamics. This paper proposes an algorithm to get these parameters from the initial age distribution and the total population the years followed. The idea is natural in the sense that the total population is easily to be obtained in a closed society. The authors use a discrete population model to formulate this problem into an inverse problem, which is ill-posed generally. A necessary and sufficient condition for the identifiability is established. An algorithm for reconstruction of age-specific fertility rate is developed.