Thesis (M.Sc. (Crop science)) --University of Limpopo, 2007 / Vernonia (Vernonia galamensis) is a new potential industrial oilseed crop. The seeds of this crop contain unusual naturally epoxidised fatty acids which are used in the production of various industrial products. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity of selected vernonia lines in Limpopo Province through morphological, seed oil content and RAPD DNA markers. Significant differences were observed for days to 50 % flowering (93 - 140 days), plant height (141.80 - 166.33 cm), number of productive primary heads (29 - 60 head/plant), number of productive secondary heads (12 - 30 head/plant), thousand seed weight (1.85 - 3.52 g) and seed yield (454.44 - 786.85 kg/ha) between lines. Further results from oil analysis showed differences in the contents of seed oil (22.4 - 29.05%), vernolic acid (73.09 - 76.83%), linoleic acid (13.02 - 14.05%), oleic acid (3.77 - 5.28%), palmitic acid (2.48 - 2.98%) and stearic acid (2.26 - 2.75%). Among 13 RAPD DNA primers screened, primer OPA10 amplified DNA samples and resulted in four distinct groupings among tested lines. Four promising lines were selected viz. Vge-16, Vge-20, Vge-27 and Vge-32 displaying greater seed yield, increased vernolic acid content and reduced number of days to 50 % flowering. / National Research Foundataion

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A fundamental problem in developmental and evolutionary biology is understanding the developmental genetic basis of morphological diversity. The current paradigm holds that a genetic and developmental program, or developmental genetic "toolkit", conserved across hundreds of millions of years patterns development in all metazoans. However, outside of a few well-characterized signal transduction pathways and developmental processes, overly broad strokes have been used to paint this "toolkit" metaphor as a hypothesis. Arthropoda, one of the largest groups of metazoans, represent the most morphologically diverse groups of metazoans, making them of particular interest for studies of morphological diversity and its evolution. Arthropoda is also home to one of the most well-understood model systems for developmental and genetic studies, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. However, Drosophila is highly derived among arthropods with respect to the molecular genetic mechanisms that function during its development. As it is expected that all arthropods have access to the same development "toolkit", some changes are expected based on the observable differences in morphology, making arthropods extremely powerful tools for comparative genomic and molecular genetic studies. In this dissertation I characterize how modifications to the developmental "toolkit" contribute to the evolution of morphological diversity using emerging model arthropod systems. First, as part of a collaboration, I show that several genes expected to be conserved in all arthropods, belonging to the Hox family of transcription factors, have been lost from the genome of a phylogenetically basal arthropod, the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae. Second, I perform a genomic survey and find an overall reduction in the conservation of Drosophila orthologs from several major signal transduction pathways in the Tetranychus genome in comparison with findings from previous insect surveys. Third, I show that arthropod Hox genes, expected to be found in a tightly linked genomic cluster in most arthropod genomes, are not as tightly clustered as previously thought. Fourth, I show that changes in the genomic arrangement of Tetranychus Hox genes correspond with shifts in their expression and morphological change. Finally, I show the terminal Hox gene Abdominal-B is required for proper axial elongation and segment formation (both segment identity and number) during embryogenesis and metamorphosis in the red-flour beetle Tribolium castaneum. Taken together, these findings advance our knowledge of the evolution of morphological change, with a primary focus on Hox genes and their contribution to axial patterning during development.

Cette thèse porte sur le problème de Séparation Aveugle de Sources (SAS) en présence de données aberrantes. La plupart des méthodes de SAS sont faussées par la présence de déviations structurées par rapport au modèle de mélange linéaire classique: des évènements physiques inattendus ou des dysfonctionnements de capteurs en sont des exemples fréquents.Nous proposons un nouveau modèle prenant en compte explicitement les données aberrantes. Le problème de séparation en résultant, mal posé, est adressé grâce à la parcimonie. L'utilisation de cette dernière est particulièrement intéressante en SAS robuste car elle permet simultanément de démélanger les sources et de séparer les différentes contributions. Ces travaux sont étendus pour l'estimation de variabilité spectrale pour l'imagerie hyperspectrale terrestre.Des comparaisons avec des méthodes de l'état-de-l'art montrent la robustesse et la fiabilité des algorithmes associés pour un large éventail de configurations, incluant le cas déterminé. / This manuscript addresses the Blind Source Separation (BSS) problem in the presence of outliers. Most BSS techniques are hampered by the presence of structured deviations from the standard linear mixing model, such as unexpected physical events or malfunctions of sensors. We propose a new data model taking explicitly into account the deviations. The resulting joint estimation of the components is an ill-posed problem, tackled using sparse modeling. The latter is particularly efficient for solving robust BSS since it allows for a robust unmixing of the sources jointly with a precise separation of the components. These works are then extended for the estimation of spectral variability in the framework of terrestrial hyperspectral imaging. Numerical experiments highlight the robustness and reliability of the proposed algorithms in a wide range of settings, including the full-rank regime.