Natural variations and geographical distributions of seed carotenoids and chlorophylls in 1167 Chinese soybean accessions

Understanding the composition and contents of carotenoids in various soybean seed accessions is important for their nutritional assessment.This study investigated the variability in the concentrations of carotenoids and chlorophylls and revealed their associations with other nutritional quality traits in a genetically diverse set of Chinese soybean accessions comprised of cultivars and landraces.Genotype,planting year,accession type,seed cotyledon color,and ecoregion of origin significantly influenced the accumulation of carotenoids and chlorophylls.The mean total carotenoid content was in the range of 8.15–14.72μg g–1 across the ecoregions.The total carotenoid content was 1.2-fold higher in the landraces than in the cultivars.Soybeans with green cotyledons had higher contents of carotenoids and chlorophylls than those with yellow cotyledons.Remarkably,lutein was the most abundant carotenoid in all the germplasms,ranging from 1.35–37.44μg g–1.Carotenoids and chlorophylls showed significant correlations with other quality traits,which will help to set breeding strategies for enhancing soybean carotenoids without affecting the other components.Collectively,our results demonstrate that carotenoids are adequately accumulated in soybean seeds,however,they are strongly influenced by genetic factors,accession type,and germplasm origin.We identified novel germplasms with the highest total carotenoid contents across the various ecoregions of China that could serve as the genetic materials for soybean carotenoid breeding programs,and thereby as the raw materials for food sectors,pharmaceuticals,and the cosmetic industry.

Evaluation of Different Radish (Raphanus sativus) Genotypes under Different Saline Regimes

An effective and simple screening technique for identification of salt tolerant and salt sensitive radish genotypes was observed. Sand is used as potting media. Six genotypes of radish were used for screening against four salinity levels (0, 1, 3, 5 and 7 dS/m-1). Twenty days old seedlings of radish were salinized with salt solution (NaCl). Morphological, physiological and ionic parameters were studied. Radish genotypes Laal-Pari and 40 Days executed the best performance in all the measured attributes and categorized as salt tolerant genotype while Green Neck was the poorest in retaining normal functioning at higher salinity levels thus grouped under salt sensitive cultivar.

Profiling of seed fatty acid composition in 1025 Chinese soybean accessions from diverse ecoregions

The stability of soybean(Glycine max L.Merrill)oil is determined mainly by its fatty acid(FA)composition.We evaluated the FA composition of 1025 Chinese soybean accessions collected from diverse ecoregions and grown in multiple locations and years.We observed highly significant differences(P<0.001)between accessions in palmitic acid(PA),stearic acid(SA),oleic acid(OA),linoleic acid(LA),and linolenic acid(LNA)contents.Growth year affected(P<0.001)the abundance of all FAs except PA.The mean PA,SA,OA,LA,and LNA contents were 12.2%,3.8%,21.5%,54.2%,and 8.3%,respectively.The geographical origin of the accession influenced seed FA composition,indicating that accessions originating in each ecoregion tend to have distinct FA composition.We observed significant positive correlations among the three locations and between the two years,suggesting the high heritability and stability of individual accessions across contrasting environments.We also observed a relatively high negative correlation between the contents of OA and both LA and LNA(r=-0.90 and-0.59,respectively,each significant at P<0.001),providing a potential entry point for developing strains producing oil with higher OA and lower LA and LNA levels.These would be appropriate for specialized use in the food industry.Our results will be useful in breeding soybean with improved quality to meet human nutritional and industrial needs.

Teicoplanin is a potential inhibitor of SARS CoV-2 replication enzymes:A docking study

Objective:To explore potential inhibitors of viral enzymes of SARS CoV-2.Methods:The in-silico docked potential of anti-viral,antibiotic,and analgesic drugs were studied for inhibition of the nonstructural protein(NSP)9,NSP3,and NSP15 of SARS CoV-2 using recent structural peculiarities of these enzymes,3 D optimized structures of drugs and algorithm-based ligand inhibitory potential.Results:Teicoplanin,azithromycin,and remdesivir potentially inhibited NSP9(Dock-score 9620,5472 and 6252,respectively),NSP3(Dock-score 9846,5604 and 5548,respectively)and NSP15(Dock-score 10960,6414 and 6002,respectively).Conclusions:Teicoplanin acts as a significant receptor antagonist and potentially inhibits the SARS CoV-2 enzymes.

Characterization of Water Melon (<i>Citrullus lanatus</i>) Genotypes under High Salinity Regime

For horticultural crops and especially for vegetables, salinity is dilemma. It is the most limiting factor for plant growth and development by producing reactive oxygen species and ultimately oxidative stress. In the present study, the screening of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thanb. Mavs.) Cultivars was observed for salt tolerance. Four salinity levels (1.5, 3, 4.5, and 6 dS·m-1 NaCl) and six cultivars (Crimson, Charleston Gray, Anarkali, Chairman, Sugar Baby and Champion) tested for screening. It was observed that all morphological attributes and ionic contents were severely affected. But it was revealed by statistical analysis that Charleston Gray was affected least while Champion was most salt sensitive cultivar due to oxidative stress and ionic toxicity. It is concluded that different genotypes under consideration vary in their ability to tolerate salt stress.

Evaluation of Pear Varieties for Physiochemical Traits Grown under Climatic Conditions of Soon Valley, Pakistan

The study carried out aimed at characterizing the pear cultivars and to explore the specific cultivar most suitable to be commercially grown in Soon valley region. Nine pear varieties (Leconte, Bagugosha, Bartlet pear, Concord, Pear selection-1, Pear Red, Pear White, Kashmiri Nashpati and Kashmiri Nakh) were tested for their physiochemical quality attributes. The observations made during the study revealed that variety Bagugosha scored maximum (7.95, 8.10) in taste and flavor respectively. The same variety produced maximum fruit size (5081 mm2), fruit weight (205 g), soluble solid contents (15%) and total sugars (9.56%). However, fruit yield per plant was maximum (98.80 kg) in Bartlet pear variety and Bagugosha produced fruitweight of 60.20 kg. Titratable acidity was determined maximum (0.44%) in Kashmiri Nakh. Number of seeds were maximum (8.20) in Bartlet Pear as well as in Bgugosha. The exploration of this research study revealed that the Bagugosha is the prime quality cultivar to be suggested for commercial cultivation in Soon valley compared to all nine evaluated varieties.

Autoregressive neural networks with exogenous variables for indoor temperature prediction in buildings

Thermal models of buildings are helpful to forecast their energy use and to enhance the control of their mechanical systems.However,these models are building-specific and require a tedious,error-prone and time-consuming development effort relying on skilled building energy modelers.Compared to white-box and gray-box models,data-driven(black-box)models require less development time and a minimal amount of information about the building characteristics.In this paper,autoregressive neural network models are compared to gray-box and black-box linear models to simulate indoor temperatures.These models are trained,validated and compared to actual experimental data obtained for an existing commercial building in Montreal(QC,Canada)equipped with roof top units for air conditioning.Results show that neural networks mimic more accurately the thermal behavior of the building when limited information is available,compared to gray-box and black-box linear models.The gray-box model does not perform adequately due to its under-parameterized nature,while the linear models cannot capture non-linear phenomena such as radiative heat transfer and occupancy.Therefore,the neural network models outperform the alternative models in the presented application,reaching a coefficient of determination R2 up to 0.824 and a root mean square error down to 1.11℃,including the error propagation over time for a 1-week period with a 5-minute time-step.When considering a 50-hour time horizon,the best neural networks reach a much lower root mean square error of around 0.6℃,which is suitable for applications such as model predictive control.

Recent progress in Arrhenius activation energy for radiative heat transport of cross nanofluid over a melting wedge

A theoretical numerical communication is demonstrated to analyze the impact of Arrhenius activation energy and melting phenomena on chemically reactive Falkner-Skan flow of cross nanofluid over a moving wedge with viscous dissipation and nonlinear radiation impacts.The basic partial differential equations for nanoparticle concentration,energy,momentum and mass conservation are reduced to nonlinear ordinary differential equations with the help of appropriate transforming variables and then solved numerically via bvp4c Matlab solver.It is interesting to notice that nanoparticle concentration and concentration boundary layer thickness are uplifted for enhancing values of activation energy parameter.Additionally,magnitude of heat transfer rate is a growing function of the Eckert number.