Mapping QTL associated with resistance to pv. in kiwifruit ( var. ).

pv. (Psa) is a bacterial pathogen of kiwifruit. This pathogen causes leaf-spotting, cane dieback, wilting, cankers (lesions), and in severe cases, plant death.

Genomic architecture of resistance to latania scale (H. lataniae) in kiwifruit (A. chinensis var. chinensis).

Background: Latania scale (Hemiberlesia lataniae Signoret) is an armoured scale insect known to cause damage to kiwifruit plants and fruit, which ultimately reduces crop values and creates post-harvest export and quarantine issues. Resistance to H. lataniae does exist in some commercial cultivars of kiwifruit.

Polysaccharide Structures in the Outer Mucilage of Seeds Visualized by AFM.

Evidence is presented that the polysaccharide rhamnogalacturonan I (RGI) can be biosynthesized in remarkably organized branched configurations and surprisingly long versions and can self-assemble into a plethora of structures. AFM imaging has been applied to study the outer mucilage obtained from wild-type (WT) and mutant ( and ) seeds. For WT mucilage, ordered, multichain structures of the polysaccharide RGI were observed, with a helical twist visible in favorable circumstances.

Distributions of Mutational Effects and the Estimation of Directional Selection in Divergent Lineages of .

Mutations are crucial to evolution, providing the ultimate source of variation on which natural selection acts. Due to their key role, the distribution of mutational effects on quantitative traits is a key component to any inference regarding historical selection on phenotypic traits. In this paper, we expand on a previously developed test for selection that could be conducted assuming a Gaussian mutation effect distribution by developing approaches to also incorporate any of a family of heavy-tailed Laplace distributions of mutational effects.

Isolation and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite loci in Selliera radicans (Goodeniaceae).

Premise Of The Study: Microsatellite markers were developed for species in the genus Selliera (Goodeniaceae) for future investigations of population genetic structure and interspecific hybridization within the genus.

Methods And Results: Using 454 pyrosequencing, 15 new markers were developed from microsatellite loci isolated from S. radicans.