Individual Cotton Boll Weight as Influenced by Different Production Eco-Regions and Meteorological Factors

In order to explore systematically the physiological mechanism of high yield cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.) in Xinjiang, and further improve yield, the yield components were compared between three ecological regions. Boll number per plant was lower in South and North Xinjiang, but the harvested plant population were nearly 1.5 times higher than that in Nangong, so total boll numbers per unit area were greater in South and North Xinjiang. Weight per boll in south and north of Xinjiang was 5.896.50 g and 5.43 6.12 g respectively, 24 to 51% heavier than that in Nangong. The diurnal temperature difference between day and night was relatively greater in Xinjiang than in Nangong, benefitting the accumulation of photosynthetic product in bolls. The temperature difference and total hours of sunshine in boll period are the main reasons for cottons higher boll weight and yield in Xinjiang than in Nangong.

A dCAPS marker developed from a stress associated protein gene TaSAP7-B governing grain size and plant height in wheat

Stress associated proteins（SAPs） are the A20/AN1 zinc-finger proteins which confer to abiotic stresses in plants. In this study, TaSAP7-B, including two AN1 domains, was isolated from B genome of wheat（Triticum aestivum L.）. Sequencing analysis on TaSAP7-B illustrated one In Del（insertion-deletion） and one SNP（single nucleotide polymorphism） in the promoter region while no diversity was observed in the coding region. On the basis of SNP in the promoter region（–260 bp）, a dCAPS（derived cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences） marker SNP-260 was developed for TaSAP7-B. Using a natural population consisting of 262 wheat accessions, significant associations were detected between the marker SNP-260 and agronomic traits, such as plant height（PH）, peduncle length（PL）, length of penultimate internode（LPI）, number of spike per plant（NSP）, and 1 000-grain weight（TGW）. Two genotypes were identified using marker SNP-260 in the natural population. Among them, the genotypes possessing C allele exhibited a higher TGW and shorter PH than the T genotypes. Hence, base C was considered as the superior allele. The dCAPS marker of TaSAP7-B can be instrumental for marker-assisted selection for high grain size and short plant height.

Orbit determination using incremental phase and TDOA of X-ray pulsar

X-ray pulsars offer stable, periodic X-ray pulse sequences that can be used in spacecraft positioning systems. A method using X-ray pulsars to determine the initial orbit of a satellite is presented in this paper. This method suggests only one detector to be equipped on the satellite and assumes that the detector observes three pulsars in turn. To improve the performance, the use of incremental phase in one observation duration is proposed, and the incremental phase is combined with the time difference of arrival(TDOA). Then, a weighted least squares(WLS) algorithm is formulated to calculate the initial orbit. Numerical simulations are performed to assess the proposed orbit determination method.