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.     

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.     

Phenotypic and marker‐assisted pyramiding of genes for resistance to zucchini yellow mosaic virus in oilseed pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo)

We report on the identification of phenotypic and molecular markers for genes introgressed into oilseed pumpkin Cucurbita pepo from C. moschata germplasm originating in Nigeria, Portugal and Puerto Rico, which provide resistance against zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) and on pyramiding these genes for improved and long‐lasting field protection of oilseed pumpkins. One SCAR and two SSR markers have been found for three dominant resistance genes, Zym‐0, Zym‐1 and Zym‐2. Characteristic reactions to ZYMV inoculation of plants carrying the recessive genes for resistance zym‐4* and zym‐6 have been defined. Described are procedures and results of pyramiding various combinations of these genes in oilseed pumpkin using the three markers and the specific phenotypic reactions to infection of some of these genes. The putative combination of all six resistance genes in one genotype resulted in a resistance that appeared to be at least as strong as or even stronger than that of the resistance source germplasm in C. moschata.     

Surface energy balance model of transpiration from variable canopy cover and evaporation from residue-covered or bare soil systems: model evaluation

A surface energy balance model (SEB) was extended by Lagos et al. Irrig Sci 28:51–64 (2009) to estimate evapotranspiration (ET) from variable canopy cover and evaporation from residue-covered or bare soil systems. The model estimates latent, sensible, and soil heat fluxes and provides a method to partition evapotranspiration into soil/residue evaporation and plant transpiration. The objective of this work was to perform a sensitivity analysis of model parameters and evaluate the performance of the proposed model to estimate ET during the growing and non-growing season of maize (Zea Mays L.) and soybeans (Glycine max) in eastern Nebraska. Results were compared with measured data from three eddy covariance systems under irrigated and rain-fed conditions. Sensitivity analysis of model parameters showed that simulated ET was most sensitive to changes in surface canopy resistance, soil surface resistance, and residue surface resistance. Comparison between hourly estimated ET and measurements made in soybean and maize fields provided support for the validity of the surface energy balance model. For growing season’s estimates, Nash–Sutcliffe coefficients ranged from 0.81 to 0.92 and the root mean square error (RMSE) varied from 33.0 to 48.3 W m^?2. After canopy closure (i.e., after leaf area index (LAI = 4) until harvest), Nash–Sutcliffe coefficients ranged from 0.86 to 0.95 and RMSE varied from 22.6 to 40.5 W m^?2. Performance prior to canopy closure was less accurate. Overall, the evaluation of the SEB model during this study was satisfactory.     

Effect of two-week heat stress during grain filling on stem reserves,senescence, and grain yield of European winter wheat cultivars

To examine the extent to which heat stress during grain filling impacts on the development and yield of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), a 3-year field experiment was conducted on a loess soil with high water holding capacity in the North German Plain. Thirty-two mostly European winter wheat cultivars were exposed to heat stress in a mobile foil tunnel with maximum air temperatures of 45.7, 45.4, and 47.2°C in 2015, 2016, and 2017, respectively. The 14-day post-anthesis heat stress treatment caused an average 57.3% grain yield reduction compared to a close-by non-stressed control. The proportion of green crop area after the heat stress phase varied from 7% to 98% in 2016 and from 37% to 94% in 2017. The green crop area percentage did not significantly correlate with grain yield, indicating that the delayed senescence of stay-green phenotypes offers no yield advantage under terminal heat stress. The water soluble carbohydrate (WSC) concentration of the stems at crop maturity varied between 6 and 92 g/kg dry matter, showing that the genotypes differed in their efficiency at using the stem carbohydrate reserves for grain filling under heat stress. The stem WSC concentration correlated positively with the beginning of anthesis (r = 0.704; p < .001) but negatively with the grain yield (r = −0.431; p < .05). For heat tolerance breeding, the stem reserve strategy, i. e. the rapid and full exhaustion of the temporary carbohydrate storage therefore seems more promising than the stay-green strategy.     

High-frequency transgenic plant regeneration and plumbagin production through methyl jasmonate elicitation from hairy roots of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Plumbago indica</Emphasis> L.

High-frequency transgenic plant regeneration and production of plumbagin were accomplished from hairy roots induced by Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain A₄M70GUS on Plumbago indica L. Of the two types of hairy roots developed on Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium, Type I was long and thick with lesser branches and root hairs, and Type II was highly-branched short and slender with tufts of root hairs. Of the different lines grown in half-strength MS liquid basal media, root line 5 (R5) of the Type I yielded the highest plumbagin (0.92% DW) and was significantly different to that of the in vitro control. R5 showed a stable production of plumbagin (1.09% DW) in subsequent cultures. Elicitation of R5 with 50 μM methyl jasmonate for 48 h increased the yield of plumbagin to 5.0% DW, and was superior to 100 μM acetylsalicylic acid (3.8% DW). Plumbagin yield was five times that of twoyear-old ex vitro roots. Histochemical assay and PCR analysis using the primers of uidA coding region confirmed the transformation. Hairy root segments cultured on MS medium containing 8.8 μM benzyladenine and 2.5 μM indole-3-butyric acid induced a mean of 9.1 shoots. Subsequent culture of the isolated shoots developed more than 50 normal shoots per culture. The root-free shoots were rooted on half-strength MS basal medium. The plantlets transferred in field conditions grew normally and exhibited 90% survival. Transgenic plant regeneration and hairy root induction in P. indica serves as reliable source of plumbagin which in turn cut off the mass destruction of the plant species.     

A self-fertile trigeneric hybrid in the Triticeae involving Triticum,Hordeum, and Secale

Summary A self-fertile trigeneric hybrid in the Triticeae involving species from the Hordeum, Triticum and Secale genera has been produced. The trigeneric hybrid was obtained by crossing octoploid triticale (x Triticosecale Wittmack) with octoploid tritordeum (H. chilense × T. aestivum amphiploid). The trigeneric hybrid presented a genome constitution AABBDDRH^ch and 2n=8X=56 chromosomes. The cytogenetical analyses showed no chromosome instability nor homeologous pairing between Hordeum and Secale chromosomes. In the F₂ generation the chromosome number ranged from 42 to 52. Within this range, the plants with smaller numbers of chromosomes were more frequent. A preferential transmission of rye chromosomes could be inferred.     

Modeling the impact of global change on regional agricultural land use through an activity-based non-linear programming approach

Assessing the impact of climate change on agriculture is a new challenge for quantitative model-based policy analysis. The impact of climate change will vary strongly across regions depending on pre-existing climatic, agronomic, and political conditions. Most of the present modeling approaches, which aim to analyze the impact of global change on agriculture, deliver aggregated results both with regard to content and spatial resolution. To deliver results with a higher spatial resolution and to produce a more detailed picture of agricultural production, the county-based agro-economic model known as ACRE-Danube was developed. The German and Austrian part of the Upper Danube basin, a study area with great diversity in agricultural landscapes and climatic conditions, was chosen for study. For the analysis, two scenarios of climatic and socio-economic change were derived. The first and more economically and globally oriented scenario, termed “Full Liberalization,” included significant temperature increases. The second and more environmentally and regionally oriented “Full Protection” scenario included a moderate temperature increase. Both scenarios produce different results regarding agricultural income and land use. While the developments in the Full Protection scenario are small, the Full Liberalization scenario yields extreme regional changes in agricultural income, an increase in cereal production and extensive grassland farming.     

Soil organic‐matter stocks and characteristics along an Alpine elevation gradient

Mountain regions are known to be especially vulnerable to climatic changes; however, information on the climate sensitivity of alpine ecosystems is still scarce to date. In this study, we investigate the impacts of climate and vegetation composition on soil organic‐matter (SOM) stocks and characteristics along an elevation gradient (900 to 1900 m asl) in the Austrian Limestone Alps. The soils classified as Leptic Histosols, i.e., organic soils directly overlying the calcareous bedrock. Soil organic‐carbon stocks (SOC; mean ± standard deviation) to bedrock increased in the low‐elevation forest sites from 19 ± 3 kg m^–2 (900 m asl) to 31 ± 3 kg m^–2 (1300 m asl), reached a maximum (38 ± 5 kg m^–2) in the shrubland at 1500 m asl, but decreased again in the high‐elevation grassland sites (26 ± 3 kg m^–2 at 1700 m asl and 13 ± 3 kg m^–2 at 1900 m asl). Thermogravimetic measurements and Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) suggest that the upper soil layers were dominated by more labile organic compounds, whereas more persistent materials increased with depth. Along the studied climosequence, the aliphatic FTIR band (2920 cm^–1) was lower in the low‐elevation forest sites compared to the high‐elevation grassland sites. Most other FTIR bands did not change with altitude, but were related to specific site conditions, such as vegetation composition and associated differences in soil pH. Our results demonstrate that differences in SOM stocks and characteristics are not consistently related to variations in climatic conditions along the studied elevation gradient, but are strongly affected by the vegetation composition, their C input and litter quality. This, in turn, is expected to shift in response to climate change.     

Smart spatial incentives for market-based conservation

Market-based instruments such as payments, auctions or tradable permits have been proposed as flexible and cost-effective instruments for biodiversity conservation on private lands. Trading the service of conservation requires one to define a metric that determines the extent to which a conserved site adds to the regional conservation objective. Yet, while markets for conservation are widely discussed and increasingly applied, little research has been conducted on explicitly accounting for spatial ecological processes in the trading. In this paper, we use a coupled ecological-economic simulation model to examine how spatial connectivity may be considered in the financial incentives created by a market-based conservation scheme. Land use decisions, driven by changing conservation costs and the conservation market, are simulated by an agent-based model of land users. On top of that, a metapopulation model evaluates the conservational success of the market. We find that optimal spatial incentives for agents correlate with species characteristics such as the dispersal distance, but they also depend on the spatio-temporal distribution of conservation costs. We conclude that a combined analysis of ecological and socio-economic conditions should be applied when designing market instruments to protect biodiversity.