PROG1 acts upstream of LAZY1 to regulate rice tiller angle as a repressor

Rice tiller angle,as a component of plant architecture,affects rice grain yield via plant density.However,the molecular mechanism underlying rice tiller angle remains elusive.We report that the key domestication gene PROSTRATE GROWTH 1(PROG1)controls rice tiller angle by regulating shoot gravitropism and LAZY1(LA1)-mediated asymmetric distribution of auxin.Acting as a transcriptional repressor,PROG1 negatively regulates the expression of LA1 in light-grown rice seedlings.Overexpression of LA1 partially rescued the larger tiller angle of the PROG1 complementation transgenic plant(prog1-D).Double-mutant analysis showed that PROG1 acts upstream of LA1 to regulate shoot gravitropism and tiller angle.Mutation of Suppressors of lazy1(SOL1),encoding DWARF3(D3)acting in the strigolactone signal pathway,suppressed the large tiller angle of prog1-D by rescuing the transcription of LA1.The discovery of a light-sensitive PROG1-LA1 transcription regulatory module controlling rice shoot gravitropism and tiller angle sheds light on the genetic control of rice tiller angle.

Automated detection of parasitized Cadra cautella eggs by Trichogramma bourarachae using machine vision

Cadra(Ephestia)cautella(Walker)is a moth that attacks dates from ripening stages while on tree,throughout storage,and until consumption,causing enormous qualitative and quantitative damages,resulting in economic losses.Image-processing algorithms were developed for detecting and differentiating between three Cadra egg categories based on the success of Trichogramma bourarachae(Pintureau and Babaul)parasitization.These categories were parasitized(black and dark red),unparasitized fertile unhatched(yellow),and unparasitized hatched(white)eggs.Color,light intensity,and shape information was used to develop detection algorithms.Two image processing methods were developed based on three randomly selected images and were tested on a larger validation image set of 40 images:(i)segmentation and extractions of color and morphological features followed by Watershed delineation,and is referred to as Algorithm 1(ALGO1),(ii)finding circular objects by Hough Transformation followed by convolution filtering,and is referred to as Algorithm 2(ALGO2).ALGO1 and ALGO2 achieved correct classification rates(CCRs)for parasitized eggs of 92%and 96%,respectively.Their CCRs for unhatched eggs were 48%and 94%,and for hatched eggs were 42%and 73%,respectively.Regarding parasitized eggs,both methods performed satisfactorily,but,in general,ALGO2 outperformed ALGO1.These results ensure automatic evaluation of the efficiency of biological control of Cadra cautella by the egg parasitoid Trichogramma bourarachae by quantifying the rate of parasitization.The developed detection methods can be used by producers of biocontrol agents for online monitoring of Trichogramma and similar insect natural enemies during mass production and before release against crop pests.Moreover,with few adjustments these methods can be used in similar applications such as detecting plant diseases.

MaterialsAtlas.org: a materials informatics web app platform for materials discovery and survey of state-of-the-art

The availability and easy access of large-scale experimental and computational materials data have enabled the emergence of accelerated development of algorithms and models for materials property prediction,structure prediction,and generative design of materials.However,the lack of user-friendly materials informatics web servers has severely constrained the wide adoption of such tools in the daily practice of materials screening,tinkering,and design space exploration by materials scientists.Herein we first survey current materials informatics web apps and then propose and develop MaterialsAtlas.org,a web-based materials informatics toolbox for materials discovery,which includes a variety of routinely needed tools for exploratory materials discovery,including material’s composition and structure validity check (e.g.charge neutrality,electronegativity balance,dynamic stability,Pauling rules),materials property prediction (e.g.band gap,elastic moduli,hardness,and thermal conductivity),search for hypothetical materials,and utility tools.These user-friendly tools can be freely accessed at http://www.materialsatlas.org.We argue that such materials informatics apps should be widely developed by the community to speed up materials discovery processes.