China Project “973”-Molecular Improvement of Cotton Fiber

Cotton is the main cash crop in China,and plays a very important and irreplaceable role in the national economy. With only 3% of total crop plant area,China accounts for over 10%

Cotton Molecular Improvement in China

Cotton production plays a very important and irreplaceable role in the national economy of China,which has over 10% output value of cotton industry worldwide,with only 3% of total crop plant area.

Molecular Markers in Improvement of Fiber Quality Traits in Cotton

Cotton is the worlds leading natural fiber crop,and it is the cornerstone of textile industries worldwide.The cotton industry is confronted with problems in cost of production and

QSRR Study on the Components of Styrax Japonicus Sieb Flowers Using Improved Molecular Electronegativity-distance Vector (I-MEDV)

Atoms in most organic molecules are often carbon,oxygen,nitrogen,sulfur,halogens,etc. Based on the three-dimensional structure of a molecule,a molecular structural characterization（MSC） method called improved molecular electronegativity-distance vector（I-MEDV） was developed. It was used to describe the structures of 37 compounds of styrax japonicus sieb flowers. Through multiple linear regression（MLR）,a QSRR model was built up. The correlation coefficient（R1） of the model was 0.980. Then,4 vectors were selected to build another model through the method of stepwise multiple regression（SMR） ,and the correlation coefficient（R2） of the model was 0.975. Moreover,all the two models were evaluated by performing the crossvalidation with the leave-one-out（LOO） procedure and the correlation coefficients（Rcv） were 0.948 and 0.968,respectively. The results show that the I-MEDV could successfully describe the structures of organic compounds. The stability and predictability of the models were good.

A genetic diversity assessment of starch quality traits in rice landraces from the Taihu basin,China

There are nearly 1 000 rice landrace varieties in the Taihu basin, China. To assess the genetic diversity of the rice, 24 intragenic molecular markers（representing 17 starch synthesis-related genes） were investigated in 115 Taihu basin rice landraces and 87 improved cultivars simultaneously. The results show that the average genetic diversity and polymorphism information content values of the landraces were higher than those of improved cultivars. In total, 41 and 39 allele combinations（of the 17 genes） were derived from the landraces and improved cultivars, respectively; only two identical allele combinations were found bet ween the two rice variety sources. Cluster analysis, based on the molecular markers, revealed that the rice varieties could be subdivided into five groups and, within these, the japonica improved rice and japonica landrace rice varieties were in two separate groups. According to the quality reference criteria to classify the rice into grades, some of the landraces were found to perform we ll, in terms of starch quality. For example, according to NY /T595-2002 criteria from the Ministry of Agriculture of China, 25 and 33 landraces reached grade 1, in terms of their apparent amylose content and gel consistency. Th e varieties that had outstanding quality could be used as breeding materials for rice quality breeding programs in the future. Our study is useful for future applications, such as genetic diversity studies, the protection of rice variety and improvment of rice quality in breeding programs.

Shaping Taste: The Molecular Discovery of Rice Genes Improving Grain Size, Shape and Quality

Modern-day human life is absolutely dependent upon the food that we derive from our crop plants. We eat grains, fruits, roots, tubers and other structures, all of which are constructed via coordinated organ growth. Whilst plant organ identity is first established in apical meristems （vegetative and floral shoot meristems and root meristems）, and in other meristematic regions, the final size and shape of organs are defined by subsequent coordination of organ expansion in longitudinal and transverse axes.

The rational design of multiple molecular module-based assemblies for simultaneously improving rice yield and grain quality

Rice is one of the most important staple food for over half of the world＇s population,and a substantial increase in productivity and quality of rice grain will be required to feed a growing human population.Grain size and shape are the two important components contributing to grain yield and quality,because they impact both yield potential and end-use quality.

Orientation dichroism effect of proton scattering on deformed nuclei

Proton-induced scattering of 238U nuclei,with spheroidal deformations at beam energies above 100 MeV,is simulated using an improved quantum molecular dynamics model.The angular distribution of the deflected protons is highly sensitive to the orientation of the symmetrical long axis of the target nuclei with respect to the beam direction.As a result,in reverse kinematic reactions,an orientation dichroism effect is predicted,implying that the absorption rate of the 238U beam by a proton target discerns between the parallel and perpendicular orientations of the deformed 238U nuclei.