TILLING-by-Sequencing+ to Decipher Oil Biosynthesis Pathway in Soybeans: A New and Effective Platform for High-Throughput Gene Functional Analysis

Reverse genetic approaches have been widely applied to study gene function in crop species; however, these techniques, including gel-based TILLING, present low efficiency to characterize genes in soybeans due to genome complexity, gene duplication, and the presence of multiple gene family members that share high homology in their DNA sequence. Chemical mutagenesis emerges as a genetically modified-free strategy to produce large-scale soybean mutants for economically important traits improvement. The current study uses an optimized high-throughput TILLING by target capture sequencing technology, or TILLING-by-Sequencing⁺ (TbyS⁺), coupled with universal bioinformatic tools to identify population-wide mutations in soybeans. Four ethyl methanesulfonate mutagenized populations (4032 mutant families) have been screened for the presence of induced mutations in targeted genes. The mutation types and effects have been characterized for a total of 138 soybean genes involved in soybean seed composition, disease resistance, and many other quality traits. To test the efficiency of TbyS⁺ in complex genomes, we used soybeans as a model with a focus on three desaturase gene families, GmSACPD, GmFAD2, and GmFAD3, that are involved in the soybean fatty acid biosynthesis pathway. We successfully isolated mutants from all the six gene family members. Unsurprisingly, most of the characterized mutants showed significant changes either in their stearic, oleic, or linolenic acids. By using TbyS⁺, we discovered novel sources of soybean oil traits, including high saturated and monosaturated fatty acids in addition to low polyunsaturated fatty acid contents. This technology provides an unprecedented platform for highly effective screening of polyploid mutant populations and functional gene analysis. The obtained soybean mutants from this study can be used in subsequent soybean breeding programs for improved oil composition traits.     

A Novel Auto-Scaling MPPT Algorithm based on Perturb and Observe Method for Photovoltaic Modules under Partial Shading Conditions

Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) controller is required in a solar photovoltaic (PV) system to deliver the maximum power to load from PV module. This paper proposes a novel stepped MPPT method to realize a simple MPPT controller, which can track the real maximum power point (RMPP) even under partial shading conditions. The proposed algorithm is started by scanning the characteristic curve of the PV modules to detect the global maximum power point and then the algorithm will be switched to the conventional P&O algorithm to track the true maximum power point. The obtained simulation results, using Power electronic simulation software (PSIM), are compared with those found using the P&O method to confirm the performance of our proposed MPPT method even under non-uniform solar irradiation.     

Scalable computation of the extensional and intensional stability of formal concepts

The effective use of the concept lattice in large datasets has been always limited by the large volume of extracted knowledge. The stability measure has been shown to be of valuable help for knowledge selection. In this paper, we introduce the SC-MG algorithm to efficiently compute both types of stability, i.e. extensional and intensional. The guiding idea is to exploit the relationship between stability and minimal generators in order to compute both measures. The performed experiments show the efficiency of the SC-MG algorithm. In addition, it sharply outperforms the pioneering approaches of the literature.     

Markov Chain Mobility Model for Multi-lane Highways

Mobile Networks and Applications - Traffic congestion is one of the biggest challenges around the world, resulting in multiple harmful consequences such as air pollution, road fatalities, and...     

Effect of Silicon Supply Methods on Durum Wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) Response to Drought Stress

Silicon - Drought is a limiting factor of durum wheat production. Silicon (Si) is known by its positives effects on plant growth and development under these conditions. Thus, the current study was...