Forest Research Institute

About: Forest Research Institute is a facility organization based out in Dehra Dūn, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Forest management. The organization has 5320 authors who have published 7625 publications receiving 185876 citations.

Cross-species transferability and mapping of genomic and cDNA SSRs in pines

Abstract: Two unigene datasets of Pinus taeda and Pinus pinaster were screened to detect di-, tri- and tetranucleotide repeated motifs using the SSRIT script. A total of 419 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified, from which only 12.8% overlapped between the two sets. The position of the SSRs within their coding sequences were predicted using FrameD. Trinucleotides appeared to be the most abundant repeated motif (63 and 51% in P. taeda and P. pinaster, respectively) and tended to be found within translated regions (76% in both species), whereas dinucleotide repeats were preferentially found within the 5′- and 3′-untranslated regions (75 and 65%, respectively). Fifty-three primer pairs amplifying a single PCR fragment in the source species (mainly P. taeda), were tested for amplification in six other pine species. The amplification rate with other pine species was high and corresponded with the phylogenetic distance between species, varying from 64.6% in P. canariensis to 94.2% in P. radiata. Genomic SSRs were found to be less transferable; 58 of the 107 primer pairs (i.e., 54%) derived from P. radiata amplified a single fragment in P. pinaster. Nine cDNA-SSRs were located to their chromosomes in two P. pinaster linkage maps. The level of polymorphism of these cDNA-SSRs was compared to that of previously and newly developed genomic-SSRs. Overall, genomic SSRs tend to perform better in terms of heterozygosity and number of alleles. This study suggests that useful SSR markers can be developed from pine ESTs.

Dominant particle support mechanisms in debris flows at Mt Thomas, New Zealand, and implications for flow mobility

Abstract: Within zones of little or no deformation by internal shearing in debris flows at Mt Thomas, about two-thirds of the weight of large particles is supported by buoyancy and about one-third by static grain to-grain contact. In boundary shear zones of low velocity flows and in high velocity, turbulent debris flow, grain-to grain contact is replaced by turbulence and dispersive pressure. Cohesive strength of the clay + silt + water interstitial fluid provides less than 2 % of the force keeping particles larger than 1 cm gravel in suspension. Excess pore pressure is generated in the interstitial fluid by the weight of coarse particles suspended in the slurry. According to Coulomb strength theory, pore pressures measured in these debris-flow slurries reduce the shear strength of the material to less than 10 % of what it is in the unsaturated state. The excess pore pressures are slow to dissipate because of the small connections between pore spaces that result from the extremely poor sorting of the debris and the presence of silt and clay in the pore fluid. Maintenance of sufficient pore space to trap fluid and facilitate flow on low-gradient slopes may be accomplished by dilatancy and subsequent partial liquefaction of the debris during shear.

Chemical Composition, Morphological Characteristics, and Cell Wall Structure of Malaysian Oil Palm Fibers

Abstract: This article deals with the determination of chemical composition and the study of morphological and cell wall structure of oil palm fibers. Cellulose is the main constituent in oil palm fibers, and oil palm trunk (OPT) fiber exhibited the highest content of extractives and lignin. Fiber morphological determination also showed that OPT fibers have the highest fiber length, diameter, and cell wall thickness. Observations of fiber cell wall layers using transmisson electron microscopy at ultrastructure level confirmed that cell wall layers of oil palm fiber have a structure similar to that of wood cell wall. Analysis also focused on the determination of lignin distribution within the cell wall layers using toluidine blue. In all fiber samples, the middle lamella appeared to demonstrate a higher level of lignification compared to that of other cells.