A PCR-based method for discriminating between high molecular weight glutenin subunits Bx7 and Bx7* in Triticum aestivum L

The correct assignment of high molecular weight glutenin subunit variants is a key task in wheat breeding. However, the traditional analysis by protein electrophoresis is sometimes difficult and not very precise. This work describes a novel DNA marker for the accurate discrimination between the Glu-B1 locus subunits Bx7 and Bx7*. The analysis of one hundred and forty two bread wheat cultivars from different countries has highlighted a great number of misclassifications in the literature that could lead to wrong conclusions in studies of the relationship between glutenin composition and wheat quality.

Failure locus of polypropylene nonwoven fabrics under in-plane biaxial deformation

The failure locus, the characteristics of the stress–strain curve and the damage localization patterns were analyzed in a polypropylene nonwoven fabric under in-plane biaxial deformation. The analysis was carried out by means of a homogenization model developed within the context of the finite element method. It provides the constitutive response for a mesodomain of the fabric corresponding to the area associated to a finite element and takes into account the main deformation and damage mechanisms experimentally observed. It was found that the failure locus in the stress space was accurately predicted by the Von Mises criterion and failure took place by the localization of damage into a crack perpendicular to the main loading axis.

Variance and covariance of actual relationship between relatives at one locus.

The relationship between pairs of individuals is an important topic in many areas of population and quantitative genetics. It is usually measured as the proportion of thegenome identical by descent shared by the pair and it can be inferred from pedigree information. But there is a variance in actual relationships as a consequence of Mendelian sampling, whose general formula has not been developed. The goal of this work is to develop this general formula for the one-locus situation,. We provide simple expressions for the variances and covariances of all actual relationships in an arbitrary complex pedigree. The proposed method relies on the use of the nine identity coefficients and the generalized relationship coefficients; formulas have been checked by computer simulation. Finally two examples for a short pedigree of dogs and a long pedigree of sheep are given.