Combined genome-wide association studies and expression quantitative trait locus analysis uncovers a genetic regulatory network of floral organ number in a tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa Andrews) breeding population

Great progress has been made in our understanding of floral organ identity determination and its regulatory network in many species;however,the quantitative genetic basis of floral organ number variation is far less well understood for species-specific traits from the perspective of population variation.Here,using a tree peony(Paeonia suffruticosa Andrews,Paeoniaceae)cultivar population as a model,the phenotypic polymorphism and genetic variation based on genome-wide association studies(GWAS)and expression quantitative trait locus(eQTL)analysis were analyzed.Based on 24 phenotypic traits of 271 representative cultivars,the transcript profiles of 119 cultivars were obtained,which indicated abundant genetic variation in tree peony.In total,86 GWAS-related cis-eQTLs and 3188 trans-eQTL gene pairs were found to be associated with the numbers of petals,stamens,and carpels.In addition,19 floral organ number-related hub genes with 121 cis-eQTLs were obtained by weighted gene co-expression network analysis,among which five hub genes belonging to the ABCE genes of the MADS-box family and their spatial–temporal co-expression and regulatory network were constructed.These results not only help our understanding of the genetic basis of floral organ number variation during domestication,but also pave the way to studying the quantitative genetics and evolution of flower organ number and their regulatory network within populations.

A Straightforward Direct Traction Boundary Integral Method for Two-Dimensional Crack Problems Simulation of Linear Elastic Materials

This paper presents a direct traction boundary integral equation method(DTBIEM)for two-dimensional crack problems of materials.The traction boundary integral equation was collocated on both the external boundary and either side of the crack surfaces.The displacements and tractions were used as unknowns on the external boundary,while the relative crack opening displacement(RCOD)was chosen as unknowns on either side of crack surfaces to keep the single-domain merit.Only one side of the crack surfaces was concerned and needed to be discretized,thus the proposed method resulted in a smaller system of algebraic equations compared with the dual boundary element method(DBEM).A new set of crack-tip shape functions was constructed to represent the strain field singularity exactly,and the SIFs were evaluated by the extrapolation of the RCOD.Numerical examples for both straight and curved cracks are given to validate the accuracy and efficiency of the presented method.

Dynamic depth-width optimization for capsule graph convolutional network

1 Introduction Encouraged by the success of Convolutional Neural Networks(CNNs),many studies[1],known as Graph Convolutional Networks(GCNs),borrowed the idea of convolution and redefined it for graph data.In graph-level classification tasks,Classic GCN methods[2,3]generate graph embeddings based on the learned node embeddings which consider each node’s representation as multiple independent scalar features.However,they neglect the detailed mutual relations among different node features such as position,direction,and connection.Inspired by CapsNet[4]which encodes each feature of an image as a vector(a capsule),CapsGNN[5]extracts multi-scale node features from different convolutional layers in the form of capsules.However,CapsGNN uses a static model structure to conduct training,which inherently restricts its representation ability on different datasets.

Detection of AmpC β-lactamase and drug resistance of Enterobacter cloacae

In order to provide useful information for effective control and clinical therapy of infection,the resistance status and the rate of carrying AmpC β-lactamase of Enterobacter cloacae(E.cloacae)were investigated.By VITEK(Bacterial automatic biochemical analyzer),the isolates of E.cloacae were identified and the drug resistance was measured.The AmpC enzyme was detected by thefive-disk diffusion test.Antibiotic sensitivity test showed that the resistance effects of E.cloacae to cefazolin,cefoxitin and ampicillin were more serious,with resistant rates of 80.5%,75.3%and 70.1%,respectively.However,it was more sensitive to Sulperazone(cefoperazone/sulbactam,13.0%),amikacin(16.9%)and ciprofloxacin(19.5%).Meanwhile,the phenotype detection showed that 35.06%(27/77)isolates of E.cloacae produced AmpCβ-lactamase.Most of E.cloacae are multi-drug resistant strains.Sulperazone(cefoperazone/sulbactam),a kind of componentβ-lactamase,is a more effective antibiotic for treating infection caused by E.cloacae.Unreasonable application of the third generation cephalosporins plays an important role in leading to emergence of high-yield AmpCβ-lactamase strains,so antibiotics should be used wisely.