Improving Drought Tolerance of Rice by Designed QTL Pyramiding

Drought is the most important factor limiting rice yields in the rainfed areas of Asia. To overcome the problem, we developed a new strategy ＇designed QTL pyramiding＇ to more efficiently develop drought tolerant （DT） rice cultivars. In the first phase of this strategy, we developed large numbers of introgression lines （ILs） in elite backgrounds using backcross （BC） breeding, each of which carries multiple genomic segments for improved DT from a known donor. Then, we genotyped all ILs with SSR markers to track the genomewide pattern of introgression in the DT ILs of 16 BC populations derived from crosses between 2 recipients （IR64 and Teqing） and four different donors. X^2 tests and linkage disequilibrium analyses of introgression in the DT ILs revealed significant frequency shifts at many loci across the genome and non-random associations at the multilocus level as a result of selection for DT in the ILs, which led us to the discovery of putative genetic networks underlying DT in the ILs. The networks each containing all DT loci detected in ILs from a BC population showed some interesting features.     

Cloning and Sequence Analysis of Lipoxygenase Gene cDNA from Cucumber Fruit （Cucumis sativus L.）

Lipoxygenases are nonheme-iron-containing dioxygenases that catalyze the hydroperoxidation of unsatrated fatty acids containing a cis, cis-1,4-pentadiene structure producing hydroperoxy acids with conjugated dienes. LOX activity has been found in a wide range of plants. Typical substrates for LOX in plants are linoleic acid and linilenic acid fatty acids. The function of various LOXs in plants is unknown, but their participation in all stages of plant growth and development has been suggested （Hildebrand, 1989; Siedow, 1991）. Some of the physiological processes in whicn lipoxygenses have been implicated include wounding （Saravitz and Siedow, 1996）, pathogen attack （Melan et al., 1993）, seed germination （Kato et al., 1992）, fruit ripening （Ferrie et al., 1994）, plant senescence （Paliyath and Droillard, 1992）. The study on the role of lipoxygenase in ripening and senescence fruit focused on tomato and strawberry. Cloning LOX gene of cucumber fruit will make us further understand the molecularaction mode of this enzyme during fxuit ripening and senescence. In this paper we isolated the partial nucleotide sequences of cucumber fiuit lipoxygenase gene and discuss the characterization of it.     

TILLING and Ecotilling the Plant Kingdom

The modem crop scientist has a large amount of available nucleotide sequence information to identify genes of potential agronomic importance. Using reverse genetic approaches, specific genes can be disrupted, and hypotheses regarding gene function directly tested in vivo. Although a number of reverse genetic methods have been introduced, many are limited in application because they are organism-specific, expensive, transgenic, or only transiently disrupt gene function. However, traditional mutagenesis using chemical mutagens has been widely used as a forward genetics strategy to create many new crop plant varieties at relatively low cost. Mutagens such as ethyl methanesulphonate （EMS） cause stable point mutations and thus produce an allelic series of truncation and missense changes that can provide a range of phenotypes （Greene et al., 2003）. TILLING （targeting induced local lesions IN genomes） is a high-throughput reverse genetic strategy that combines traditional mutagenesis and SNP discovery methods （Colbert et al., 2001; McCallum et al., 2000）. To identify mutations, target regions of-l.5 kb are amplified with fluorescently labeled gene specific primers. Heteroduplexes are then formed between wild-type and mutant strands, mismatches are cleaved by incubation with a single-strand specific nuclease,     

Mapping QTLs for Yield Stability in Durum Wheat Grown under Different Water Regimes

Among the most important Mediterranean annual crops, durum wheat is widely grown in drought-prone areas. Therefore, improving water-use efficiency （WUE） of durum wheat represents a major breeding goal. IDu-WUE （Improving Durum wheat for Water Use Efficiency and yield stability through physiological and molecular approaches） is a collaborative project among public and private research centres in Italy, Spain and WANA （West Asia and North Africa） countries （Morocco, Tunisia, Syria and Lebanon） funded by the European Union aimed at investigating the genetic variation for WUE and yield stability in durum wheat grown in Mediterranean droughtprone areas. During the first year of the project, a number of morpho-physiological traits （e.g. early vigour, flowering time, leaf rolling, number of fertile tillers, etc.）, WUE, WUE-related traits （e.g. carbon isotope discrimination, canopy temperature, chlorophyll fluorescence, etc.）, yield and its components have been investigated in a RIL population （249 lines） and a collection of ca. 190 durum wheat accessions characterized by a high level of linkage disequilibrium （Maccaferri et al., 2005）,     

Microsatellite Marker Based Assessment of Genetic Diversity among Cultivars, Landraces and Wild Relatives in Rice

India being the primary center of origin for rice had a very large treasure of local land races, most of which are out of cultivation today. The exact genetic potential and their differences from commercial varieties and the magnitude of heterogeneity still present in them are not well catalogued. Hence the need to characterize the available land races has become imminent in the modem day concept of crop improvement （Rezai and Frey, 1990）. The present study addresses the utility of SSR markers in divulging the genetic relationships at molecular level among the major component factions office gennplasm viz., local cultivars, land races and wild species collected from a wide range of agro-geographical regions of Indian subcontinent.     

Genetic Diversity of Peanut Core Collection from US Using Simple Sequence Repeats

Groundnut is a member of genus Arachis and the crop is divided into two subspecies and six botanical varieties based on morphological characteristics （Krapovickas and Gregory, 1994）. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics （ICRISAT） holds more than 14 000 groundnut accessions from which a core collection of 1 704 have been developed （Upadhyaya et al., 2003）. Holdbrook et al. （1993） developed a groundnut core collection of 831 accessions from a total of 7 432 US groundnut accessions based on morphological characteristics. The large number and variability of accessions in GenBanks create problems in knowing which germplasm to select for breeding purpose. Only a few established cultivars and elite breeding lines have been utilised in breeding programmes. A core collection is a fraction of accessions from the entire collection which represent most of the available genetic diversity of the species. A core collection can extensively be evaluated and information derived from them can be applied to the whole collection. Identification of DNA markers associated with the botanical varieties of groundnut would be useful in genotyping, germplasm management and evolutionary studies.     

海南不同季节对水稻新品种DUS测试性状表达的效应分析

为了探究海南不同季节对水稻新品种特异性、一致性和稳定性（简称DUS）测试性状表达的影响效应,为优化海南水稻DUS测试的操作规程提供参考,为海南水稻新品种DUS测试技术的完善提供实践经验与理论支撑,根据水稻植物新品种DUS测试指南,按照相关原理和技术规则,通过对4份水稻材料进行4个独立的生长周期的测试,研究其相关性状的表达与季节及年度间的效应,结果表明：除穗芒外,不同季节的4个独立测试周期中,质量性状观测结果稳定一致;14个假质量性状的表达结果不影响对申请品种的DUS判定;10个量测性数量性状在方差分析中出现显著性差异,但是申请品种与近似品种的变化和差异保持相对不变,不影响其DUS的判定结论;17个目测数量性状的表达无显著差异。因此,在海南进行不同季节的水稻测试对其DUS的判定无显著影响,可考虑多点多季节测试,加快水稻实质审查的进程。     

Construction of Genetic Linkage Map of Bread Wheat （Triticum aestivum L.） Using an Intervarietal Cross and QTL Map for Spike Related Traits

Most often a genetic linkage map is prepared using populations obtained from two highly diverse genotypes. However, the markers from such a map may not be useful in a breeding program as these markers may not be polymorphic among the varieties used in breeding. For the past nine years, intraspecific maps have been gaining importance and such maps based on Swiss （PaiUard et al., 2003）, Japanese （Suenaga et al., 2005）, Australian （Chaimcrs et al., 2001） wheat varieties arc available. A map based on Indian wheat varieties however has not been reported. We constructed a genetic linkage map based on a cross between two Indian bread wheat （Triticum aestivum L.） varieties, Sonalika and Kalyansona. One hundred and fifty F2 individuals were analyzed for arbitrarilyprimed polymerase Chain reaction （AP-PCR）, random amplified polymorphic DNA （RAPD）, inter simple sequence repeats （ISSR）, Sequence Tagged Microsatelhte Sites （STMS）, Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism （AFLP） markers, seed storage proteins and known genes. A linkage map was constructed consisting of 236 markers and spanning a distance of 3 639 cM with 1 211.2 cM for A genome, 1 669.2 cM for B genome, 192.4 cM for D genome and 566.2 cM for unassigned groups,     

小波分析在宜昌地区降水变化中的

区域降水量是重要的气候变量,研究其对气候变化的影响具有十分重要的意义。利用宜昌地区1960～2006年近50年的汛期和年降水作为观测资料,采用墨西哥帽函数（MHF）作为小波函数,分析了汛期降水和年降水的多时间尺度变化特征。结果表明,在较小时间尺度上,汛期降水与年降水在时域上的分布具有很大的相似性;在较大时间尺度上,年降水的演变略滞后汛期降水。并且推测宜昌地区在未来几年内降水将偏少,这为短期气候的预测提供了一定的参考。     

适应山区需求 完善补贴制度——关于英山农机补贴实施情况的调研和建议

英山县位于鄂东北边境,大别山南麓,北与安徽省金寨、霍山两县交界;东与岳西、太湖两县毗连;南与本省蕲春、浠水县接壤;西与罗田县相邻。国土总面积1449km^2,耕地面积17．11千hm^2,其中水田14．5千hm^2,旱地2．61千hm^2,辖3乡8镇,309个行政村,总人口40．63万人,其中农业人口34．49万人。2008年全县粮油产量33．64万t,茶叶种植面积12千hm^2,茶叶产量18万t,药材产量2万t,蚕茧产量0．14万t,农业机械总动力21．8万kW。