An evaluation of seed and seedling drought tolerance screening tests in wheat

Summary A series of experiments was performed in order to evaluate the significance of seed germination and seedling growth in osmotic media as screening methods for drought tolerance.Ten spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L. em Thell.) and one durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) were tested under controlled environments, using polyethylene glycol-6000 (PEG) solutions as the moisture stress inducing media.Tolerance in the rate of endosperm utilization, under stress, prior to the onset of germination varied among cultivars.Germination rate or injury to germination at various concentrations of PEG differed significantly among cultivars. Cultivar rating with respect to injury to germination changed with stress levels. Injury to germination did not correlate with endosperm utilization rate in PEG or in water.Germinating seedlings were tolerant to extreme desiccation up to the stage of emergence of the first leaf from the coleoptile.Growth of photosynthesizing seedlings was monitored as they were carried through an increasing concentration gradient of PEG solutions, ranging from –5.9 to –11.3 bars of water potential. Cultivars significantly differed in seedling growth tolerance to increasing levels of water stress. Seedling growth tolerance across cultivars was not correlated with their germination responses under srress.It is concluded that tolerance to water stress in growing seedlings can be screened for by using PEG-containing nutrient solutions. It can not be predicted from germination tests in osmotica.Work was done under a US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) Grant no. 1654/78.Contribution from Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel, No. 192-E, 1979 series.     

Comparison of food selection and growth performance of koi carp, Cyprinus carpio L., and goldfish, Carassius auratus (L.) in mono- and polyculture rearing in tropical ponds

To compare the effect of polyculture against conventional monoculture on ornamental carp production, investigations on food selection and growth performance of koi carp (K), Cyprinus carpio L. and goldfish (G), Carassius auratus (L.) were conducted in a 11‐week rearing experiment in two monoculture (100% K and 100% G) and five polyculture (90% K–10% G, 70% K–30% G, 50% K–50% G, 30% K–70% G and 10% K–90% G) conditions in tropical ponds. There were three replicates for each treatment. Environmental conditions and food availability were similar in all the treatments. Ivlev's electivity index showed that both fish species avoided phytoplankton and preferred cladocerans to other zooplankton groups (copepods and rotifers) in monotypic conditions. However, in the polyculture treatments, the positive electivity of goldfish towards cladocerans reduced significantly (P<0.05), while the percentage of copepods, rotifers and phytoplankton in the gut content increased. No significant differences in weight gain, specific growth rate and deformities were recorded at harvest for koi carp between the different treatments (P>0.05). Even the survival rate of koi carp recorded above 90% in all the treatments. However, the goldfish recorded significantly better weight gain, specific growth rate and survival in monoculture (100% G), compared with the polyculture treatments (P<0.05). Goldfish deformities were lowest (P<0.05) in the monoculture treatment (2.42%). The number of marketable fish above a set size limit of 4 g total weight was significantly higher in the two monoculture treatments, compared with the five polyculture treatments (P<0.05). Keeping in view of the dietary similarities of koi carp and goldfish, and the aggressive nature of koi carp in polyculture, it is suggested to refrain from polyculture of goldfish and koi carp until further documentations relating to optimum stocking density and management of polyculture of ornamental carps are available.     

Should only females of giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii be selected in genetic improvement programmes?

Sexual dimorphism is widely observed in almost all farmed aquatic animal species but giant freshwater pawn (GFP) is unique, with males characterized by three main morphotypes (blue claw, orange claw and small males) and females by different reproduction status (ovary, berried egg and already‐spawned females). There has been reported evidence that the effect of male morphotype may have masked genetic variation in growth‐related traits, as a result the heritability for male body weight was lower than that estimated in female. A pending question has arisen whether selection should be made in female only. To answer this question, we used an 8‐year data set from a long‐term selection programme (2008–2015) for high growth in this species comprising 106,756 individuals that were offspring of 515 sires and 810 dams. The body weight data of female and male GFP or of each morphotype was treated as a separate trait and a multi‐trait approach was used to estimate genetic correlations for homologous traits between sexes and between morphotypes. Our analysis showed that there were little differences in the heritability estimates between female and male. In female, mature ovary individual displayed higher heritability than berried egg and already‐spawned females. For male, the heritability for blue claw, orange claw and small males were 0.11, 0.06 and 0.00 respectively. Between‐sex genetic correlation was moderate (0.55 ± 0.11) for body weight, suggesting that the trait expressions in female and male may be genetically different. In female, the genetic correlations for body weight among three female types were close to one (0.91–0.94). In contrast, the genetic correlations for body weight between male morphotypes especially between blue claw or orange claw and small males were low (0.15–0.25). Furthermore, we estimated genetic gain as the difference in least square means (LSM) or estimated breeding values (EBV) between the selection line and control group. The genetic gain in body weight was smaller in females than in males. It is concluded that there is no need to run separate breeding programme for female and male GFP. A combined selection using both female and male data can achieve selection response for body weight as demonstrated in the present study.     

特种稻种资源的利用及其系列产品的开发

这是一篇科研成果的综合报告，该项目发表系列研究论文１３篇，选育了特种稻品种２个，研制出３个黑系列产品，取得了较显著的经济与社会效益。     

YW-S血缘玉米自交系昌7-2的选育及应用

YW-S血缘玉米自交系昌7-2是运用相同雄亲交叉巢式遗传设计的选育技术，导入亚热带玉米种质，经安阳市农业科学研究所内、海南连续7个世代交替培育而成，目前国内育种单位利用该自交系已育成10多个通过国家审定、省审定的优良新杂交种。在全国推广应用面积达700万hm^2。获得了显著的经济效益和社会效益。     

Early Generation Selection for Grain Yield in Narrow-Leaf Lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.)

Experiments were conducted with early segregating generations of a selected narrow-leaf lupin cross to determine the effectiveness of selection for yield based on alternative criteria. F2 plants were selected on the basis of seed yield and several other yield-related characters to generate separate F3 populations. Randomly selected plants from each population were grown over the summer (off-season) in a glasshouse to generate F4 populations. Analyses of relationships between F2 plant measurements and F3 progeny mean yields revealed significant correlations only for those characters with the highest heritabilities - flowering time, 100 seed weight and harvest index. However, selection for the earliest flowering F2 plants followed by selection within this group of plants with the highest number of pod bearing branches would result in the greatest increase in F3 mean yield. The F2-derived F4 populations with the highest seed yields were those obtained by selection for total plant dry weight, number of pod bearing branches and number of pods per plant. Improvement in commercial crop yield should therefore be obtained through selection in early generations for those characters contributing to the greatest number of pods per unit area. A scheme involving selection for early flowering and high number of pod bearing branches in the F2 combined with replicated yield tests in the F4 is proposed.     

清水江鲤基于微卫星标记和形态指标的遗传分析

利用12个微卫星标记对鲤(Cyprinus carpio)的4个野生群体 [清水江鲤、太湖鲤、黄河鲤(C.carpio haematopterus)和黑龙江鲤(C.carpio amurensis)] 和2个选育群体 [福瑞鲤(C.carpio var. FFRC)和松浦镜鲤(C. carpio var. specularis 'Song-pu')] 共208尾个体进行遗传分析。结果显示,12个位点共检测到341个等位基因,平均等位基因数为28.67,其中1个位点(HLJ1127)检测到正向选择压力;选育群体的遗传多样性参数普遍低于野生群体,其中松浦镜鲤群体的各项参数均值最低(N_a=6.82,H_o=0.54,PIC=0.50),清水江鲤群体的各项参数均值最高(N_a=21.25,H_o=0.80,PIC=0.91);分子方差分析显示,整体遗传变异主要来自群体内,但群体间呈极显著遗传分化(P<0.01);基于群体Nei's遗传距离的UPGMA聚类树和PCoA分析表明,鲤4个野生群体间遗传距离较近,而与2个人工选育群体间遗传距离较远;基于个体遗传结构及PCoA分析显示部分野生个体遗传结构比较混杂,而选育个体的遗传结构则相对单一。研究表明,中国鲤野生资源具有较高的遗传多态性,而人工选育群体维持着较纯的遗传种质。     

海氏桨角蚜小蜂的多次交配行为及繁殖效益

海氏桨角蚜小蜂Eretmocerus hayati是烟粉虱Bemisia tabaci的优势寄生蜂,了解寄生蜂的交配行为有利于完善其规模化繁殖技术。通过对海氏桨角蚜小蜂的首次交配及再次交配、配偶选择等行为学观察,以及多次交配对雌蜂繁殖量影响的生物学试验,明确了该蜂的交配过程包括求偶、交尾前期、交尾和交尾后期;雌蜂在整个生活史中未观察到再次交配;雄蜂可在首次交配后迅速进行再次交配,首次交配后1 h内的再次交配率为83.3%,62.5%的个体可在2 h内完成第3次交配,再次交配的行为持续时间显著低于首次交配;雄蜂的交配次数对自身寿命及其配偶的寄生量无显著影响;此外,在配偶选择中,处女蜂倾向于接受有交配经历的雄蜂,多头雄蜂间存在竞争行为进而干扰交配成功率。     

小麦粒重主效QTL近等基因系的构建和效应评价

粒重是影响小麦产量的主要因素之一。QGw.nau-5A是一个从我国小麦骨干亲本南大2419中鉴定的粒重主效QTL。为评价该QTL不同等位基因对粒重的效应及在育种中的应用潜力,利用分子标记辅助选择技术,分别将南大2419和早洋麦的QGw.nau-5A区段导入望水白和川麦42,构建了不同背景的近等基因系,并比较了不同背景下粒重QTL的效应。结果表明,QGw.nau-5A能在不同背景下显著提高小麦粒重,与轮回亲本相比,近等基因系的百粒重显著增加0.2~0.6g。QGw.nau-5A等位变异对粒重的贡献存在差异,与川麦42的等位变异相比,南大2419和早洋麦的等位变异均能增加粒重,但后者效应更大。