Whole-genome duplications are radical evolutionary events that have driven speciation and adaptation in many taxa. Higher-order
polyploids have complex histories often including interspecific hybridization and dynamic genomic changes. This chromosomal
reshuffling is poorly understood for most polyploid species, despite their evolutionary and agricultural importance, due to the
challenge of distinguishing...
Gynodioecy is a sexual system wherein females coexist with hermaphrodites. It is of interest
not only because male-sterile plants are advantageous in plant breeding but also because it can be a crucial
step in the evolutionary transition to entirely separate sexes (dioecy) from a hermaphroditic ancestor. The
gynodioecious diploid wild...
Motivation: The goal of any parentage analysis is to identify as many parent-offspring relationships as possible, while minimizing incorrect assignments. Existing methods can achieve these ends, but require additional information in the form of demographic data, thousands of markers, and/or estimates of genotyping error rates. For many non-model systems, it...
Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) inhabits an expansive range in western North America, and it is a keystone species of subalpine environments. Whitebark is susceptible to multiple threats – climate change, white pine blister rust, mountain pine beetle, and fire exclusion – and it is suffering significant mortality range-wide, prompting the...
Gynodioecy, the coexistence of females and hermaphrodites, occurs in 20% of angiosperm families and often enables transitions between hermaphroditism and dioecy. Clarifying mechanisms of sex determination in gynodioecious species can thus illuminate sexual system evolution. Genetic determination of gynodioecy, however, can be complex and is not fully characterized in any...
Schistosomiasis, a neglected global pandemic, may be curtailed by blocking transmission of the parasite via its intermediate hosts, aquatic snails. Elucidating the genetic basis of snail-schistosome interaction is a key to this strategy. Here we map a natural parasite-resistance polymorphism from a Caribbean population of the snail Biomphalaria glabrata. In...
Background:
New strategies to combat the global scourge of schistosomiasis may be revealed by increased understanding of the mechanisms by which the obligate snail host can resist the schistosome parasite. However, few molecular markers linked to resistance have been identified and characterized in snails.
Methodology/Principal Findings:
Here we test six...
This research examined the potential for using peanut husk as a fiber alternative to wood in the production of melamine-formaldehyde (MF) particleboard. MF resin was used to produce panels with one, three, six, nine or 12 percent resin contents. Modulus of Rupture (MOR), Modulus of Elasticity (MOE), Internal Bond (IB)...
A method for measuring the (dis)charging dynamics of organic semiconductors with single-electron resolution in multiple environments is developed using optical tweezers. A 1μm silica bead was coated with either a pristine organic semiconductor or an electron donor-acceptor blend, trapped using optical tweezers, and driven with an oscillating electrical driving force....
Heat transfer coefficients and frictional pressure drop values are experimentally measured during condensation of R134a and its proposed low global warming potential (GWP) replacement, R450A. R450A is a non-flammable zeotropic mixture of R134a and R1234ze (42/58% by mass). Experiments were conducted in a horizontal tube (ID = 4.7 mm) for...