基于“双毯法”的植物叶态萎蔫辨识研究

为实现植物生命需水状况的无损检测,通过定量辨识植物叶态萎蔫特征反映植物亏水胁迫状况,基于分形理论双毯法定义了萎蔫指数LDBM,利用基于激光三角原理的三维激光扫描仪获取植物叶片表型点云数据,以西葫芦、秋葵、葫芦、南瓜4种植物为研究对象,结合饱和水汽压差与光合有效辐射2种微环境参数,进行了植物叶态萎蔫定量辨识研究。试验分析了4种植物萎蔫指数LDBM的日变化曲线,证明LDBM用于表征叶态萎蔫状况是合理和可行的;分析了萎蔫指数LDBM与微环境参数的相关性,4种植物LDBM与饱和水汽压差相关系数均大于0.81,与光合有效辐射相关系数均大于0.71,与2种参数都有很强的正相关性;并且与基于离散时域傅里叶变换定义的萎蔫指数L2DFT进行了对比,LDBM与L2DFT呈负相关性,4种植物的相关系数均大于0.82,表明LDBM能够准确地定量表征叶态萎蔫。     

Genetic analysis of mechanisms associated with inheritance of resistance to sheath rot of rice

Understanding genetic mechanisms controlling inheritance of disease resistance traits is essential in breeding investigations targeting development of resistant genotypes. Using North Carolina design II, 32 F₁ hybrids were generated by crossing eight susceptible to four resistant parents and submitted for field evaluation. The analysis of general and specific combining ability (GCA and SCA) indicated involvement of additive and non‐additive gene action controlling inheritance of horizontal resistance to sheath rot of rice. High GCA/SCA ratio and high heritability estimates revealed additive effects and were more predominant than none additive ones. The level of dominance indicated dominant genes was more important than recessive genes. Estimates of GCA and SCA analysis suggested that crop improvement programmes should be directed towards selection of superior parents or good combiners, emphasizing on GCA. As far as source of resistance is concerned, most promising genotypes were Cyicaro, Yunertian and Yunkeng. The predominance of additive genetic effects together with the relevance of dominant genes suggested possibilities of improving the resistance by introgression of resistance genes through recurrent selection coupled with phenotypic selection.     

Analysis of tofu‐related traits by a bench‐scale tofu production method and their relationship with agronomic traits in European soybean

European tofu manufacturers are becoming more and more interested in locally grown soybeans. A prerequisite for the development of European tofu cultivars is to improve our understanding of how the environment and genetics affect soymilk and tofu quality, as well as how quality and agronomic traits are correlated. This study was based on 215 recombinant inbred lines derived from two populations and grown at three locations that were evaluated for tofu traits in a bench‐scale tofu laboratory. The heritabilities of most of the evaluated tofu traits were moderately high with h² > 0.6. We observed significant genotypic variance components, but an even stronger contribution of the location. The network analysis of the evaluated traits was population‐dependent; however, the tofu traits were not associated with any of the agronomic traits. Collectively, our results indicate the potential to improve tofu‐related traits in European soybean. The bench‐scale tofu production method provides a valuable tool to test soybean lines in breeding programmes; however, the method needs to be further improved and automated to minimize errors due to the laboratory staff.     

Genetic inheritance of resistance to cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus in cowpea

Cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus (CABMV) is a major virus disease in Uganda that causes substantial loss of the cowpea crop especially in growth and yield. The mode of gene action conferring resistance to the virus is not well understood. The objective of the study was to determine the genetic inheritance of resistance in cowpea crosses. Three susceptible (S) cowpea landraces that are commonly grown by farmers were crossed with five introduced resistant cowpea varieties in accordance with a North Carolina mating design II scheme. The F₁, F₂ and BC₁F₁ progenies generated were evaluated in the field together with their parents. They were then infected with two infection methods namely: by spreader-rows of S cultivar (Ebelat) and artificial inoculation of virus extracts. The results obtained showed that general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) effects were significant, indicating that both additive and non-additive gene effects controlled virus infection. The results further demonstrated that the GCA effects (59.8?%) were more important than SCA effects (40.2?%) in determining virus resistance in the cowpea varieties. Utilisation of good general combiners of the varieties MU-93, IT82D-516-2, SECOW-2W and IT85F-2841 in hybridisation to improve virus resistance in cowpea crosses would be recommended. The result of this study provided an indication that CABMV resistance was conditioned by more than one recessive gene in eight populations, but also revealed resistance to be conditioned by a single recessive gene in the other seven populations. Observation of continuous distribution of progenies for severity data in the F₂ populations also confirmed significance of quantitative inheritance for CABMV resistance. Therefore, the significance of GCA effects suggests that recurrent selection could be applied to accumulate the additive genes for resistance in F₂ populations.     

The Plabsoft database: a comprehensive database management system for integrating phenotypic and genomic data in academic and commercial plant breeding programs

Besides phenotypic data from field trials and molecular data from lab experiments, modern plant breeding programs generate a wide variety of data, for instance pedigree, randomization, geostatistical or climate data. Due to the lack of an integrated database system, breeders generally exploit only part of these data for selection decisions or retrieve only part of the information present in the data. Most approaches in genomics, however, develop their full power only when they are based on analyses of large numbers of genotypes from multiple crosses and current as well as past generations. We have developed a flexible data management and -analyses system for storage and quality control of plant breeding data. It is implemented using the PostgreSQL database management system and linked to the R software environment for integrated statistical analyses of phenotypic and genomic data. The database structure is capable of managing the following types of data observed in breeding programs of all major crops: (a) germplasm data of any species including pedigree data, (b) phenotypic data of any trait and trait complexity, (c) trial management data for any field and trial design, (d) molecular marker data for all common types of markers, as well as (e) project and study management data.     

SSR markers for marker assisted selection of root-knot nematode (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Meloidogyne incognita</Emphasis>) resistant plants in cotton (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Gossypium hirsutum</Emphasis> L)

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L) cultivars highly resistant to the southern root-knot nematode (RKN) [Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid and White) Chitwood] are not available. Resistant germplasm lines are available; however, the difficulty of selecting true breeding lines has hindered applied breeding and no highly resistant cultivars are available to growers. Recently, molecular markers on chromosomes 11 and 14 have been associated with RKN resistance, thus opening the way for marker assisted selection (MAS) in applied breeding. Our study aimed to determine the utility of these markers for MAS. Cross one was RKN resistant germplasm M240 RNR × the susceptible cultivar, FM966 and is representative of the initial cross a breeder would make to develop a RKN resistant cultivar. Cross two consists of Clevewilt 6 × Mexico Wild (PI563649), which are the two lines originally used to develop the first highly RKN resistant germplasm. Mexico Wild is photoperiodic. We phenotyped the F₂ of cross one for gall index and number of RKN eggs per plant and genotyped each plant for CIR 316 (chromosome 11) and BNL 3661 (chromosome 14). From this, we verified that MAS was effective, and the QTL on chromosome 14 was primarily associated with a dominant RKN resistance gene affecting reproduction. In the first F₂ population of cross two, we used MAS to identify 11 plants homozygous for the markers on chromosomes 11 and 14, and which also flowered in long days. Progeny of these 11 plants were phenotyped for RKN gall index and egg number and confirmed as RKN highly resistant plants. Generally about 7–10 generations of RKN phenotyping and progeny testing were required to develop the original RKN highly resistant germplasms. Our results show that commercial breeders should be able to use the markers in MAS to rapidly develop RKN resistant cultivars.     

Genealogical Identification of Hexaploid Tritordeum by Electrophoretic Separation of Endosperm Storage Proteins

Hexaploid Tritordeum (×Tritordeum Ascherson et Graebner) has been analyzed by SDS-PAGE, to test the efficiency of the method for confirming the parents of different lines, and for unequivocally discriminating between the lines. The results clearly show that endosperm storage proteins from both parents (durum wheat ——Triticum turgidum conv. durum Desf. em. M.K. —— and Hordeum chilense Roem. et Schulz.) are expressed in the endosperm of the amphiploid between them. Although the spectra of proteins from the parental species overlap on the gel, there are sufficient number of bands with distinct electrophoretic mobilities to identify unambiguously their parental origin. Furthermore, in the six lines of tritordeum analyzed, obtained from crosses between three accessions of H. chilense and four cultivars or lines of wheat, there was sufficient polymorphism amongst the parents, particularly amongst the H. chilense accessions, to enable both aims of the project to be met, that is, to confirm the genealogy of each tritordeum, and to discriminate between different lines. This study provides the basis of future investigation on the relationship between bread-making quality in tritordeum and the allelic composition of storage proteins.     

Variability and early selection on the seedling stage for agronomic traits in progenies from olive crosses

Yield per tree, ripening date and oil content components (fruit fresh weight, flesh moisture, flesh/stone ratio both on fresh and dry weight basis, flesh and fruit oil content on dry weight basis) have been studied during 3 years in seedlings from crosses among the olive cultivars ‘Arbequina’, ‘Frantoio’ and ‘Picual’. Genetic and environmental variances and year‐to‐year consistency of data were estimated. Most of the traits evaluated showed a range of variability as large or even larger than either the range observed in a random sample of cultivars from the World Olive Germplasm Bank of Cordoba or the range reported in the evaluation of olive cultivars collections. Between‐years correlation coefficients showed that for a character such as oil content the values obtained in the first year could be reliable indicators of the values obtained in following years. Observations over 2 years may be required for characters such as fruit weight or flesh/stone ratio on a fresh weight basis and even more than 2 years may be required to estimate yield per tree.     

Fungal Endophytes Enhance Agronomically Important Traits in Severely Drought‐Stressed Barley

Crops often face severe and damaging local drought events, and in some regions, these episodes are predicted to become more frequent due to climate change. Some micro‐organisms have been shown to improve drought tolerance and improve yield in crop plants. Here, we show that fungal root endophytes isolated from a wild barley species (Hordeum murinum subsp. murinum) induced significant improvements in agronomic traits for a severely drought‐stressed barley cultivar grown in a controlled environment, including number of tillers, grain yield and shoot biomass. Five endophyte strains were tested, and the trait that showed the greatest significant difference in the drought‐stressed plants was the number of tillers, where all of the endophyte treatments induced a greater number of tillers per plant. However, except in one case, the mean dry root weight for all plants was greater in the control plants, indicating preferential allocation of resources to aboveground parts in the endophyte treatments. Results were not consistent across all endophyte treatments, with some endophytes performing much better than others. As these growth studies were conducted using soil‐based compost, the results may translate to the field and suggest that some of these endophytes have potential as barley inoculants in arid growing conditions.