Recurrent Selection for Improving Quality Characters of Male Sterile Restorer Lines of Brassica napus

[Objective] This study aimed to improve the quality characters of the male sterile restorer lines of Brassica napus by recurrent selection. [Method] The dominant male sterile alleles were used as outcross medium to be transformed with the favourable genes from thirteen materials, and finally excellent restorer materials were bred by recurrent selection. After that, the genetic diversity, genetic gains, fatty acid chain length and unsaturarion ratios of the improved populations were analyzed. [Result] The genetic diversity and genetic gains were obviously improved by the recurrent selection. Nine materials whose oil content exceeding 50% and 14 materials whose protein content exceeding 30% were acquired, and crossed with sterile lines. The comparative experiment showed that there were 11 combinations whose oil content was obviously enhanced compared with the control. [Conclusion] Recurrent selection is an effective way to improve the quality characters of the objective pop- ulations and breed favourable male sterile restorer lines of B. napus.

Development of branchless watermelon near isogenic lines by marker assisted selection

Pruning is time-consuming and laborious in watermelon cultivation,which can not meet the needs for simplified cultivation in the future.The development of branchless lines will provide important germplasms for breeding watermelon varieties and is an important method for genetic improvement.In this study,the watermelon accession,Wu Cha Zao(WCZ)is a branchless inbred line that carries the branchless gene Clbl,which was used as the donor parent to develop branchless near isogenic lines(NILs).To construct the NILs of Clbl,WCZ crossed with the normal branching watermelon inbred line WT20 which was used as the recurrent parent.The co-segregating markers dCAPS10 and Indel1 with Clbl were used for foreground selection,and a total of 108 SSR markers was selected with good polymorphism between two parental lines for background selection which had relatively uniform distribution across 11 chromosomes.Using these markers to select individuals from the BC_(1)F_(1),BC_(2)F_(1),and BC_(2)F_(2) generations,three NILs with a proportion of recurrent parent genome(PRPG)>99%were finally obtained.The lateral branch and plant height phenotypes did not significantly differ between the NILs and WCZ,indicating that the NILs of Clbl under the genetic background of WT20 has been successfully developed.These results provide ideal materials for further in-depth analysis of the genetic mechanisms of lateral branch development and ideal plant architecture breeding in watermelon.

Genetic Variation Assessed with Microsatellites in Mass Selection Lines of the Pacific Oyster (Crassostrea gigas) in China

Abstract Four successive mass selection lines of the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, selected for faster growth in breeding pro- grams in China were examined at ten polymorphic microsatellite loci to assess the level of allelic diversity and estimate the effective population size. These data were compared with those of their base population. The results showed that the genetic variation of the four generations were maintained at high levels with an average allelic richness of 18.8-20.6, and a mean expected heterozygosity of 0.902-0.921. They were not reduced compared with those of their base population. Estimated effective population sizes based on temporal variances in microsatellite frequencies were smaller to that of sex ratio-corrected broodstock count estimates. Using a rela- tively large number ofbroodstock and keeping an equal sex ratio in the broodstock each generation may have contributed to retaining the original genetic diversity and maintaining relatively large effective population size. The results obtained in this study showed that the genetic variation was not affected greatly by mass selection progress and high genetic variation still existed in the mass selection lines, suggesting that there is still potential for increasing the gains in future generations of C. gigas. The present study provided im- portant information for future genetic improvement by selective breeding, and for the design of suitable management guidelines for genetic breeding of C. gigas.

Breeding Rice Restorer Lines with High Resistance to Bacterial Blight by Using Molecular Marker-Assisted Selection

Two bacterial blight （BB） resistance genes, Xa21 and Xa4, from IRBB24 were introduced into hybrid rice restorer line Mianhui 725, which is highly susceptible to BB, by using hybridization and molecular marker-assisted selection technology. Four homologous restorer lines were obtained through testing the R target genes with molecular markers and analyzing parental genetic background. Inoculation of the four lines and their hybrids with the specific strains of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, P1, P6 and seven representative strains of Chinese pathotype, C Ⅰ -CⅦ, showed that all of the four lines and their hybrids were highly resistant and presented broad resistance-spectrum to BB. The hybrids of G46A / R207-2 displayed good agronomic characters and high yield potential, and R207-2 was named Shuhui 207.

Selection Progress of Wannan Native Chicken's Fast and Slow Feathering Lines

[Objective]This experiment aimed to establish fast and slow feathering lines from purified and rejuvenated core breeding flock. [Method] Individual and family selection were used for continuous selection from zero to the second generation. [Result]The results showed that in the fast feathering line,the average weight gain was improved by 108. 34 g per generation in roosters at the age of 20 weeks while a 54. 5 g increase was got per generation in hens. Hen housed egg production was increased from 150 to 170 at the age of 66 weeks,and the healthy rate of chicken flock was raised by 0. 7 percent. In the slow feathering line,the average weight gain was increased by 156. 6g per generation in roosters while a 38. 9 g increase was got per generation in hens,and the hen housed egg production was increased from 158 to 179 at the age of 66 weeks. [Conclusion] This research had a great significance in increasing native chicken＇s production performance and developing its market competitiveness.

Application of Genetic Rules of Quality Traits in the Selection of Watermelon Inbred Lines

On the basis of ascertaining the dominant and recessive relationship and separation ratio of quality traits such as leaf type and peel stripes,the separation of dominant and recessive traits was studied to infer whether the genes of the previous generation were homozygous.Individuals with homozygous recessive traits can be confirmed in F2 generation,and homozygous single lines with dominant traits can be confirmed in F3 generation,which speeds up the breeding process of watermelon inbred lines.

Selection of wide compatible restorer lines and their application in hybrid rice breeding

Since the middle of 1980’s, wide compatibility(WC) rice lines have been screened by ricebreeders in China and applied in hybrid ricebreeding program. Several WC lines such asPecos, T984, Lunhui 422, and 02428 withideal agronomic characters were identified. Weincorporated the WC gene into restorer linesby crossing these japonica WC lines with ob-tained indica lines. Some WC restorer lineswith indica-japonica medium type were ob-tained and their application value in intersub-specific hybrid rice breeding were evaluated. 1. Effect of crossing methods on selectionefficiencies of WC restorer lines

Combined Selection Index for New Yorkshire Dam Line with High Prolificacy

The combined selection index used in the breeding of new Yorkshire dam line with high prolificacy according to breeding objects was formulated as /：2.272E- BVNB-0.056EBVDAYS. After 5 generations breeding, the two main selected traits such as total number of born and age at 100 kg weight was 12.17 piglets/litter and 165.18 d, respectively. The genetic improvements per generates was 0.156 and -2.198, respec- tively. The breeding objects of the new Yorkshire dam line with high prolificacy were basically reached. It indicated that the methods and index could be used in pig breeding.

Mass Selection for Growth Improvement in Black Shell Line of Pacific Oyster Crassostrea gigas

The Pacific oyster,Crassostrea gigas,naturally distributing along the coast of northwest Pacific,is one of the most important bivalve species due to its high economic value and fecundity.In China,we have initiated a selective breeding program on both shell color and growth rate of C.gigas since 2010.A black shell line was obtained through four-generation family selection.In this study,mass selection for growth improvement was conducted in the sixth generation and seventh generation of black shell lines.To assess the progress of potential genetic improvement,the progeny of two generations of black shell lines were selected to evaluate their shell heights via a 450-day farming experiment.As the results,after growing for 450 days,the sixth generation and seventh generation of selected lines were 9.03% and 11.42% larger than the control lines,respectively.During the grow-out stage,the genetic gain of two generations was 8.82%±0.18% and 11.54%±0.43%,respectively;and the corresponding realized heritability was 0.45±0.04 and 0.41±0.04,respectively.These results indicated that the mass selection for shell height achieved steady progress in the two generations of C.gigas.

Cultivar selection can increase yield potential and resource use efficiency of spring maize to adapt to climate change in Northeast China

Northeast China (NEC) is one of the major maize production areas in China.Agro-climatic resources have obviously changed,which will seriously affect crop growth and development in this region.It is important to investigate the contribution of climate change adaptation measures to the yield and resource use efficiency to improve our understanding of how we can effectively ensure high yield and high efficiency in the future.In this study,we divided the study area into five accumulated temperature zones (ATZs) based on growing degree days (GDD).Based on the meteorological data,maize data (from agrometeorological stations) and the validated APSIM-Maize Model,we first investigated the spatial distributions and temporal trends of maize potential yield of actual planted cultivars,and revealed the radiation use efficiency (RUE) and heat resource use efficiency (HUE) from 1981 to 2017.Then according to the potential growing seasons and actual growing seasons,we identified the utilization percentages of radiation (P_R) resource and heat resource (P_H) for each ATZ under potential production from 1981 to 2017.Finally,we quantified the contributions of cultivar changings to yield,P_R and P_H of maize.The results showed that during the past 37 years,the estimated mean potential yield of actual planted cultivars was 13 649 kg ha^(–1),ranged from 11 205 to 15 257 kg ha^(–1),and increased by 140 kg ha^(–1) per decade.For potential production,the mean values of RUE and HUE for the actual planted maize cultivars were 1.22 g MJ^(–1) and 8.58 kg (℃ d)^(–1) ha^(–1).RUE showed an increasing tendency,while HUE showed a decreasing tendency.The lengths of the potential growing season and actual growing season were 158 and 123 d,and increased by 2 and 1 d per decade.P_R and P_H under potential production were 82 and 86%,respectively and showed a decreasing tendency during the past 37 years.This indicates that actual planted cultivars failed to make full use of climate resources.However,results from the adaptation assessments indicate that,adoption of cultivars with growing season increased by 2–11 d among ATZs caused increase in yield,P_R and P_H of 0.6–1.7%,1.1–7.6% and 1.5–8.9%,respectively.Therefore,introduction of cultivars with longer growing season can effectively increase the radiation and heat utilization percentages and potential yield.

Improving Blast Resistance of a Thermo-Sensitive Genic Male Sterile Rice Line GD-8S by Molecular Marker-Assisted Selection

The broad-spectrum blast resistance gene Pi-1, from donor line BL122, was introduced into a thermo-sensitive genic male sterile rice line GD-8S, which possessed good grain quality but high susceptibility to rice blast, by using backcross breeding and molecular marker-assisted selection. Five elite improved male sterile lines, RGD8S-1, RGD8S-2, RGD8S-3, RGD8S-4 and RGD8S-5, were selected based on the results of molecular marker analysis, spikelet sterility, recovery rate of genetic background and agronomic traits. Thirty-three representative blast isolates collected from Guangdong Province, China were used to inoculate the improved lines and the original line GD-8S artificially. The resistance frequencies of the improved lines ranged from 76.47% to 100%, much higher than that of the original line GD-8S （9.09%）. On the agronomic characters, there were no significant differences between the improved lines and GD-8S except for flag leaf length and panicle number per plant. The improved lines could be used for breeding hybrid rice with high blast resistance.

Fault Line Selection Method Considering Grounding Fault Angle for Distribution Network

In the distribution network system with its neutral point grounding via arc suppression coil, when single-phase grounding fault occurred near zero-crossing point of the phase voltage, the inaccuracy of the line selection always existed in existing methods. According to the characteristics that transient current was different between the fault feeder and other faultless feeders, wavelet transformation was performed on data of the transient current within a power frequency cycle after the fault occurred. Based on different fault angles, wavelet energy in corresponding frequency band was chosen to compare. The result was that wavelet energy in fault feeder was the largest of all, and it was larger than sum of those in other faultless feeders, when the bus broke down, the disparity between each wavelet energy was not significant. Fault line could be selected out by the criterion above. The results of MATLAB/simulink simulation experiment indicated that this method had anti-interference capacity and was feasible.

Breeding of R8012,a Rice Restorer Line Resistant to Blast and Bacterial Blight Through Marker-Assisted Selection

Genetic improvement is one of the most effective strategies to prevent rice from blast and bacterial blight （BB） diseases, the two most prevalent diseases jeopardizing rice production. Rice hybrids with dural resistance to blast and BB are needed for sustainable production of food. An incomplete diallele design resulted in 25 crosses between five blast and five BB resistant germplasm accessions. Only one pair of parents, DH146 ×TM487, showed polymorphism for all the markers to identify one blast resistance gene Pi25 and three BB resistance genes, Xa21, xa13 and xa5, thus it was used in the marker-assisted selection （MAS）. F2 individuals of DH146× TM487 were genotyped using flanking markers of RM3330 and sequence tagged site （STS） marker SA7 for Pi25. The resistant F2 plants with Pi25 were used for pyramiding BB resistance genes Xa21, xa13 and xa5 identified by the markers pTA248, RM264 and RM153, respectively in subsequent generations. Finally, after selection for agronomic traits and restoration ability among 12 pyramided lines, we acquired an elite restorer line, R8012 including all four target genes （Pi25＋Xa21＋xa13＋xa5）. Hybrid Zhong 9NR8012 derived from the selected line showed stronger resistance to blast and BB, and higher grain yield than the commercial checks uniformally in experimental plots, 2007 state-wide yield trial and 2008 nation-wide yield trial. This study provides a paradigmatic example to show that MAS is a practically feasible tool in effectively pyramiding multiple resistance genes. The resultant restoring line and its hybrid would play an important role in securing rice production in China.

Breeding of Maintainer Line and Sterile Line Brown Planthopper Resistant Rice Using Marker-assisted Selection

Guangxi common wild rice variety brown planthopper highly resistant introgression line HS204 was taken as antigen donor material,hybridization,backcrossing,and molecular marker-assisted selection methods were adopted,to select maintainer line and sterile line materials,so as to provide excellent material foundation for resistance breeding of hybrid rice. Through the marker-assisted selection,it obtained 4 pieces of homozygous resistance gene maintainer line intermediate materials( 100B,101B,102B and 103B),and 2 pieces of resistant sterile line materials( 100A and 103A). All 10 combinations that have testcross with highly resistant sterile 100A showed higher level of brown planthopper resistance: 100A/R2586,100A/KR838,and 100A/KR527 had high resistance level,the others had low to intermediate resistance;100A/KR527,100A/R2586,100A/Minghui 63,100A/Fuhui 838 and 100A/Gui 99 combinations had yield per plant significantly higher than the control group( Teyou 7118),increasing by 14. 45%-49. 26%. The obtained resistant lines are expected to provide a better gene source for the breeding of resistant sterile lines of hybrid rice and the obtained resistant sterile lines can be directly used in the selection of three-line hybrid rice.

Quick Approach to Construct Constrained Delaunay TIN for Line-Selection Design of Mountain Road

According to the topography of mountains, the discrete data points from map of the whole region are first subdivided into subregions with the points taken from the feature lines of ridge, valley and scarp being inserted into the map point set, and using the feature lines as the boundaries of subregions to build constrained Delaunay TIN. Such an approach has the advantages of ensuring high accuracy and fast speed of line layout.

Cultivar Mixture Cooperation(CMC)of rice varieties(lines) with different blast resistant gene

We studied Cultivar Mixture Cooperation(CMC)of rice varieties(lines)by screening mixture ofrice varieties which possess different genes,1983-1996.

The Application of Satellite Remote-sensing for Railway Line Selection

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Identification of Multiple Alleles at the Wx Locus and Development of Single Segment Substitution Lines for the Alleles in Rice

The microsatellite markers 484/485 and 484/W2R were used to identify the multiple alleles at the Wx locus in rice germplasm. Fifteen alleles were identified in 278 accessions by using microsatellite class and G-T polymorphism. Among these alleles, （CT）12-G, （CT）15-G, （CT）16-G, （CT）17-G, （CT）18-G and （CT）21-G have not been reported. Seventy-two single-segment substitution lines （SSSLs） carrying different alleles at the Wx locus were developed by using Huajingxian 74 with the （CT）11-G allele as a recipient and 20 accessions containing 12 different alleles at the Wx locus as donors. The estimated length of the substituted segments ranged from 2.2 to 77.3 cM with an average of 17.4 cM.

Defensive physiological characters of Pyropia yezoensis resistant lines to the red rot disease

To explore ef fective physiological indexes to distinguish the resistant lines and susceptible lines of Pyt hium porphyrae,the causal agent of red rot disease of Pyropia yezoensis,and establish the disease-resistance breeding strategy,we obtained and analyzed the candidate resistant and susceptible lines by population selection.Gametophytes of the candidate lines were cultured in seawater containing Pyt.porphyrae zoospores.Antioxidase activities,including superoxide dismutase(SOD),peroxidase(POD)and polyphenol oxidase(PPO),were measured and compared between the two lines before and after infection.In the resistant lines,SOD and POD activities increased and then decreased,but PPO activity rose with the prolongation of the infection time.The phenylalanine ammonia lyase(PAL)activities also increased and then decreased after infection,but it had significantly different expression in the two lines without pathogen attack.The synthesis rates ofβ-1,3-glucanase,and cell-wall degrading enzyme were different from each other between the two lines after infection of P yt.porphyrae.Comparison in the contents of malondialdehyde(MDA)and reactive oxygen species(ROS)in the two lines showed that,the two contents varied synchronously in response to the pathogen attack.Changes of these enzymes activities or contents demonstrated that Pyr.yezoensis could resist against the pathogen of P yt.porphyrae with the antioxidant defense capacity.In addition,β-1.3-glucanase content showed extremely significant dif ference between the two lines,and the PAL had consistent expression dif ference.Therefore,phenylalanine ammonia lyase(PAL)andβ-1,3-glucanase can be considered as an ef fective index to distinguish susceptible line and resistant line,with which the workload of the resistant breeding could be reduced in the future.

Nest box selection and reproduction of European Rollers in Central Italy: a 7-year study

Background: Changes and increased mechanisation of agricultural practices have influenced the biodiversity composition of farmland habitats and caused a decline of bird communities in many European countries. The removal of shrubs and large trees rich in natural cavities, has also led to a drastic decrease in nest site availability for cavity-nesting bird species. Nest-boxes are a common conservation tool used to improve nest-site availability, and have helped to reverse declines in many endangered bird populations. Nonetheless to maximize the results of such interventions it is crucial to know where nest-boxes should be sited. The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the nest-box program for the European Roller (Coracias garrulus) population of Lazio region (Central Italy). More specifically, we focused on what landscape features were preferred (or avoided) in the process of nest box selection and how they influenced population’s breeding parameters. Particular attention was paid to identifying potential limitations and to provide management recommendations for future interventions. Methods: Using data from 70 nest boxes sited on power lines monitored over a 7-year period (representing 140 breeding attempts), we developed probability functions to evaluate if nest box location, in terms of distance from habitat resources and habitat composition and structure, had an effect on nest box occupancy and on the main reproductive parameters. Results: Nest boxes were more likely to be occupied if they were located near arable fields and in areas characterized by a higher amount of incoming solar radiation. Higher fledging success was associated with fallow fields and with a moderate/low habitat structural complexity. Higher breeding success was associated with solar radiation and with greater distance from urban areas. Conclusions: Our results highlight the importance of specific habitat variables in influencing nest occupancy, and show which drivers primarily affect species’ reproduction and persistence over time. Siting nest boxes in habitats where occupancy rate and fledging success is higher, such as in arable and fallow fields and on south-facing slopes where solar radiation is maximised, may help to extend the suitable habitat for rollers and facilitate its local expansion.