Cadmium transport and tolerance in rice: perspectives for reducing grain cadmium accumulation

Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic heavy metal which harms human health. In Japan, a major source of human Cd-intake is rice grains and contamination of paddy soils by Cd and accumulation of Cd in rice grains are the serious agricultural issues. There also exist Cd contamination of rice and its toxicity in several populations in countries including China and Thailand. Understanding the Cd transport mechanisms in rice can be a basis for regulating rice Cd transport and accumulation by molecular engineering and marker-assisted breeding. Recently, a number of studies have revealed the behavior of Cd in rice, genetic diversity of Cd accumulation, quantitative trait loci controlling Cd accumulation and transporter molecules regulating Cd accumulation and distribution in rice. In this article, we summarize recent advances in the field and discuss perspectives to reduce grain Cd contents.     

Cadmium transport and tolerance in rice: perspectives for reducing grain cadmium accumulation

In recent decades, numerous studies have attempted to project the impact of hypothesised anthropogenic climate change on rice production. In this study, we offer a comprehensive review of our current understanding related to temperature, CO₂, and water-demand parameters in rice growth models. As to future rice yield, night time temperature should be focused in the models as well as day time temperature owing to the contribution of temperature on the night time respiration. Furthermore, although CO₂-enhanced photosynthesis is critical for the accurate prediction of rice production in a higher CO₂ atmosphere, we found that recent well-developed photosynthesis-stomatal model cannot realize the variation of CO₂ stomatal sensitivity with humidity conditions. To estimate water stress under projected climate-change conditions, rice growth model should be required to link with water resource model, which includes natural processes and anthropogenic regulations. The understanding of abilities and limitations in the models is important not only to improve the schemes that models employ, but to also critically review the simulated results.     

Genome-wide association study identifies novel loci and candidate genes for drought stress tolerance in rapeseed

Rapeseed(Brassica napus)is one of the most important oil crops worldwide;however,drought seriously curtails its growth and productivity.Identifying drought-tolerant germplasm is an efficient strategy for addressing water shortages.Here,we phenotyped a panel of 264 B.napus accessions at full-bloom stage using water loss ratio(WLR)as drought-tolerant index.It identified 8 low-WLR and 6 high-WLR accessions,regarded as droughttolerant and drought-sensitive,respectively.Comparing with drought-sensitive accessions at the seedling stage,drought-tolerant accessions had shown better performance in maintaining fresh and dry weights,and performed the higher expression of drought-induced marker genes under drought stress.Subsequently,a total of 139 SNPs(single nucleotide polymorphisms)were identified associated with the WLR using a genome-wide association study(GWAS)among 264 B.napus accessions,with the largest number SNPs at chromosome A10,and 13 SNPs significantly were associated with the WLR(-log₁₀(p-value)>6).Furthermore,4 putative candidate genes(BnaC09.RPS6,BnaC09.MATE,BnaA10.PPD5 and BnaC09.Histone)were screened involving in drought tolerance in B.napus.Together,our results highlight the WLR's importance in drought tolerance and establish the foundation for improving WLR-associated drought tolerance in rapeseed.     

Rapid prediction of head rice yield and grain shape for genome-wide association study in indica rice

Rice milling and appearance qualities are the main determinants of market price of the milled rice, so great breeding efforts have been directed to improve the milling and appearance quality. The success of breeding efforts depends on the accurate and rapid phenotyping of the quality traits in early generations. This study was conducted to first validate the effectiveness of the PaddyCheck to measure head rice yield (HRY) and paddy grain length of 40 indica rice cultivars. The results indicated that the PaddyCheck data had positively correlated with the lab methods of HRY (r = 0.81**) and grain length (r = 0.97**). An association panel including 281 indica rice accessions was phenotyped with the PaddyCheck and the data were used for genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify quantitative trait locus (QTL) for milling and appearance quality. A total of nine QTLs were identified, among which the major genes GS3 and qSW5 were identified for grain length and width, respectively. Furthermore, a novel QTL on short arm of chromosome 6 was identified for HRY. Our study indicated that PaddyCheck measurement was accurate and effective, and could be applied in rice breeding for improvement of grain shape and milling quality. The nine QTLs identified in indica rice could be used in marker assisted selection in rice breeding programs.     

Genome-wide association mapping for root cone angle in rice

Background

Plant root systems play a major role in anchoring and in water and nutrient uptake from the soil. The root cone angle is an important parameter of the root system architecture because, combined with root depth, it helps to determine the volume of soil explored by the plant. Two genes, DRO1 and SOR1, and several QTLs for root cone angle have been discovered in the last 5 years.

Results

To find other QTLs linked to root cone angle, a genome-wide association mapping study was conducted on two panels of 162 indica and 169 japonica rice accessions genotyped with two sets of SNP markers (genotyping-by-sequencing set with approximately 16,000 markers and high-density-rice-array set with approximately 300,000 markers). The root cone angle of all accessions was measured using a screen protractor on images taken after 1 month of plant growth in the Rhizoscope phenotyping system. The distribution of the root cone angle in the indica panel was Gaussian, but several accessions of the japonica panel (all the bulus from Indonesia and three temperate japonicas from Nepal or India) appeared as outliers with a very wide root cone angle. The data were submitted to association mapping using a mixed model with control of structure and kinship. A total of 15 QTLs for the indica panel and 40 QTLs for the japonica panel were detected. Genes underlying these QTLs (+/?50 kb from the significant markers) were analyzed. We focused our analysis on auxin-related genes, kinases, and genes involved in root developmental processes and identified 8 particularly interesting genes.

Conclusions

The present study identifies new sources of wide root cone angle in rice, proposes ways to bypass some drawbacks of association mapping to further understand the genetics of the trait and identifies candidate genes deserving further investigation.

     

Identification of a candidate elongation related gene in rice induced by GA

We identified a gibberellin-induced gene frag- ment in rice elongation by using differentialdisplay(DD)of mRNA.The rice seedlingscarried the eui(elongated)gene,named Zhen- chang A,were used,which were sensitive toGA_3 and elongated rapidly after application ofGA_3. The total RNA were extracted fromseedlings treated for 0,3,8,16,and 24 hwith GA_3(20mg/L),and the RNA of 8 hwere used to conduct mRNA DD assay.A to-tal of 44 DD cDNA fragments were obtained,which were induced or inhibited by GAs from100 combinations of anchor and arbitraryprimers in DD-PCR display(Fig 1).Of the 44DD fragments,GA15b cDNA fragment in- duced by GA_3 was cloned and sequenced.Thisfragment was 673bp in length and was accept-ed by GenBank with the accession number ofAF038894.GA15b gene encodes homology ofextension-like protein,a class of structural by-droxyproline rich glycoprotein of the plant ex-     

土壤有毒重金属镉毒害及镉低积累型水稻筛选与改良

土壤中镉及对动植物的毒害作用据有关资料,1980年全国工业“三废”污染农田266．7万hm^2,1988年增加到666．7万hm^2,而1992年全国遭受不同程度污染的农田面积已达1000万hm^2,目前我国污灌总面积的45％土壤受到污染,每年损失粮食120亿kg。而镉、汞、铅、砷、铬这些重金属对人类和动植物具有强毒害作用,在某些     

Path analysis for grain yield and its components in rice

Rice yield, its components and their relations are one of the most important research objects for genetics, cultivation, and breeding. This study was to investigate the genetic relationships between yield and yield components by using the methods of correlation analysis and path analysis with a set of 241 RIL population of Shanyou 63.     

陆地棉自然群体纤维强度性状的全基因组关联分析

纤维强度是衡量棉花纤维品质的重要指标之一。了解棉纤维强度形成的遗传基础对棉花纤维品质的遗传改良具有重要的指导意义。本研究利用83份纤维强度差异显著的陆地棉材料,采用广义线性模型（General linear model, GLM）,对5个环境的纤维强度及最佳线性无偏估计值（Best linear unbiased prediction,BLUP）进行全基因组关联分析（Genome-wide association study,GWAS）。结果表明,各环境纤维强度基本符合正态分布,且存在丰富的变异,变异系数为5.55%～8.44%,广义遗传力达到88.67%。GWAS共检测到19个稳定的显著关联SNP位点,分布在A01、A06、D05、D08、D10、D11和D13等7条染色体上,合并为9个数量性状位点（Quantitative trait locus, QTL）区间,其中4个QTL区间与前人定位的QTL区间重叠,其它5个QTL区间是本研究新发现的控制纤维强度性状的稳定位点。根据区间内基因的表达模式及功能注释,共筛选出4个可能与纤维强度相关的候选基因。本研究通过对棉花纤维强度进行全基因组关联分析,为棉花纤维品质性状的分子遗传改良奠定了基础。     

多环境下大豆子粒大小性状的全基因组关联分析

为探究多环境下大豆子粒大小性状的分子遗传基础,挖掘与子粒大小性状相关的SNP位点和候选基因,利用150份大豆种质资源在2019年和2020年6个环境条件下对大豆子粒粒长、粒宽、粒厚和百粒重性状进行表型测定,并进行全基因组关联分析。结果表明：在CMLM（压缩混合线性）模型下,在6个环境条件下检测到896个与子粒大小性状显著关联的SNP位点,分布于20条染色体。不同性状检测到72个重叠的SNP位点。检测到39个稳定遗传的SNP位点,贡献率为10.68%~24.93%。通过稳定性与重叠性分析,获得35个稳定表达的SNP位点,贡献率为10.92%~23.16%。在粒宽、粒厚及百粒重性状中同时检测到显著关联的SNP位点最多,位点rs16533609的贡献率最高（16.51%）。根据稳定表达的SNP筛选候选基因,推测Glyma.03G006600、Glyma.04G077100、Glyma.08G203600、Glyma.12G195400、Glyma.17G039800、Glyma.18G202100和Glyma.20G215700等7个基因对大豆子粒大小性状有调控作用。     

Nucleotide polymorphisms in OsAGP genes and their possible association with grain weight of rice

ADP-Glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase) is a rate-limiting enzyme participating in starch biosynthesis, which may be responsible for the filling rate and starch accumulation in the developing rice kernel. However, it is still unknown whether the naturally occurring variation in the sequence of ADP-Glucose pyrophosphorylase of rice (OsAGP) is related to the grain weight (GW). In this study, we discovered a total of 38 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertions/deletions (InDels) in the partial sequences of six OsAGP isoform genes from 30 rice accessions with diverse agronomic traits. We then developed ten cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) and derived CAPS (dCAPS) markers for genotyping the SNPs and InDels for an association mapping population consisting of 416 rice accessions. Candidate gene association study indicated that an InDel of OsAGPL4 was associated with GW in two environments and an SNP of OsAGPL2 was associated with GW in one environment. Each gene marker only explained 1% of the variation of GW, thus it could be concluded that both genes contributed little to GW of rice. However, the markers identified in this study could be used for tagging other traits of interests and in molecular breeding.     

甘蓝型油菜SERK基因家族的鉴定与系统进化分析

体细胞胚胎发生类受体激酶（somatic embryogenesis receptor-like kinase,SERK）与植物体细胞胚发生,尤其是与植物非生物逆境胁迫响应有关。为鉴定甘蓝型油菜中BnaSERK基因家族成员、揭示其进化关系及其与油菜盐/旱胁迫的响应,利用生物信息学方法对甘蓝型油菜品种中双11的SERK家族成员、基因结构、进化关系、选择压力等进行系统分析,并初步分析了部分BnaSERK基因在盐/旱胁迫下的表达响应模式。结果表明：在甘蓝型油菜基因组共鉴定到24个BnaSERK基因,它们不均等地分布在15条染色体上,可分为3个亚族,具有相对保守的基因结构和保守基序,且含多种与激素和非生物胁迫响应相关的顺式作用元件。共线性分析表明,甘蓝型油菜和拟南芥、白菜、甘蓝分别有14对、44对和32对基因表现出共线性。基于比较基因组学研究,甘蓝型油菜BnaSERK基因在经历多倍体化之后,出现了不同程度的丢失现象。分析表明,BnaSERK基因家族在芸薹属物种间的进化相对保守。盐/旱胁迫下的5个BnaSERK基因在叶片中的表达模式分析结果显示,BnaA07g29610D、BnaC01g43240D、BnaCnng07810D基因在盐胁迫下表达量上调,而BnaA01g23070D、BnaA07g23390D基因则表现为下调;BnaA07g23390D、BnaA07g29610D基因在干旱胁迫下表现为上调表达,而BnaC01g43240D、BnaCnng07810D、BnaA01g23070D基因呈下调趋势。表明BnaSERK基因可能在油菜响应盐/旱胁迫的调控机制中发挥着重要作用。     

甘蓝型油菜BnFUL基因家族全基因组鉴定与表达分析

甘蓝型油菜(Brassica napus L.)成熟后期角果易开裂,导致减产并严重阻碍机械化收割进程.为挖掘油菜角果抗裂角基因资源,解析抗裂分子机制,采用生物信息学方法,研究MADS-box类转录因子基因FUL在油菜抗裂角性状中的作用,在品种中双11号(ZS11)中鉴定到5个BnFUL基因,分布于A02、A03、C02...     

甘蓝型油菜光敏色素(PHY)家族基因的鉴定及表达分析

光敏色素(phytochrome,PHY)作为植物体内感受红光和远红光的受体,在植物的避荫反应及生物、非生物胁迫响应中起重要的调节作用.鉴定甘蓝型油菜中PHY家族基因并解析其分子机理,有助于提高油菜光能利用率,培育抗逆性强、适合密植直播和机收的油菜品种.为了研究PHY基因在甘蓝型油菜(Brassica napus L....