Atmospheric humidity and genotype are key determinants of the diurnal stomatal conductance pattern

Great understanding of the genotypic difference in diurnal stomatal conductance (g_s) pattern and the key determinants of the pattern is important for saving water by adopting cultivars appropriately. Fifteen wheat genotypes were studied under different soil conditions and various meteorological conditions with pot cultivation in rain shelter for two years. Genotype and air humidity were found to be key determinants of diurnal g_s pattern. All genotypes under low relative humidity (LRH) and most genotypes under high relative humidity (HRH) displayed a gradual decline pattern from morning through the afternoon. Under moderate relative humidity (MRH), all genotypes present a single-peak curve pattern, but they differed in peak time, which may lead to unreliable g_s comparison between genotypes and get ostensible contrasting materials. The stomatal conductance was significantly different among genotypes under LRH and the increased g_s magnitude is also significantly different when it was compared between LRH and HRH. The present results provide new thinking for selecting and adopting appropriate cultivars with specific stomata traits for the area with various meteorological conditions.     

Acquired Thermo‐Tolerance and Trans‐Generational Heat Stress Response at Flowering in Rice

In rice, pre‐exposure to sublethal treatment followed by harsh lethal treatment is known to improve tolerance of different abiotic stresses at the vegetative stage within and across generations. Our major aim was to test the phenomenon of thermo‐tolerance at flowering across (trans)‐generations and within generation using rice cultivars contrasting for heat stress tolerance at flowering. To test trans‐generational response, plants were exposed to higher temperature at flowering stage and seeds obtained from previous generations were exposed to heat stress during flowering, which recorded significantly lower fertility when exposed to the same degree of stress in their subsequent generations. A pre‐acclimation to moderately high acclimating temperatures imposed over three different durations during the vegetative and initial reproductive stage showed positive response in the tolerant N22, particularly under severe heat stress (40 °C). This finding indicates the possibility of acquiring ameliorative thermo‐tolerant mechanisms at anthesis, restricted to tolerant genetic backgrounds to combat subsequent harsh conditions within the same generation. However, trans‐generational memory was ineffective in mitigating spikelet sterility losses in both tolerant and susceptible backgrounds. Rice is extremely sensitive to heat stress during flowering; hence, similar exercise across other crops of interest needs to be carried out before generalizing conclusions.     

胡萝卜根中主要类胡萝卜素含量相关QTL的精细定位

以白色的野生胡萝卜‘松滋野生’(Ws)和橘色的栽培胡萝卜品种‘Amsterdam’(Af)为亲本构建的回交重组自交系(BIL)为试材,基于低倍重测序技术开发SNP标记,构建了由1 976个Bin标记组成,包含29 435个SNP标记的遗传图谱。图谱总距离834.28 c M,平均图距0.42 c M。通过对胡萝卜肉质根中类胡萝卜素含量相关QTL分析,在连锁群LG04和LG08中检测到调控α–胡萝卜素、β–胡萝卜素、ζ–胡萝卜素、叶黄素、玉米黄质和总类胡萝卜素含量的主效QTL(M-QTL)2、2、3、2、2和2个,表型贡献率为11.47%~19.18%;另检测到调控α–胡萝卜素、β–胡萝卜素、ζ–胡萝卜素、玉米黄质和总类胡萝卜素含量的上位性QTL(E-QTL)1、1、2、1和1个,表型贡献率为2.50%~3.66%。在M-QTL显著区间内共检索到36个有功能注释的预测基因,其中Dck018297为ζ–胡萝卜素脱氢酶2基因,与调控β–胡萝卜素合成和总类胡萝卜素含量有关;Dck008006为乙烯响应因子2.2的同源基因,与调控α–胡萝卜素、ζ–胡萝卜素合成有关;Dck029898为转录因子b HLH135的同源基因,与调控玉米黄质合成有关。     

Analysis on Genetic Diversity and Phyletic Evolution of mtDNA Cytb Gene in Zhongdian Yak

In order to investigate the genetic diversity and the origin of evolutionary relationship of Zhongdian yak,we analyzed the complete sequence of 15 individuals Cytb gene,its sequence polymorphism was analyzed,and the phylogenetic tree was constructed.The results showed that the length of the nucleotide sequence were 1 140 bp,with nucleotide frequencies of 26.3%,31.8%,13.1% and 28.8% for T,A,G and C,respectively.Three haplotypes were identified of 15 individuals,with 3 polymorphic sites,including two conversions,one transversion,haplotype diversity was 0.2571 and nucleotide diversity was 0.00035.Phylogenetic analysis suggested that Zhongdian yak and Bos mutusc clustered firstly,then gathered with Bison bison,which indicated that there were high genetic similarity and closer genetic relationship,genetic similarity with other cattle genus was relatively low.Combining with the proof of molecular biology and paleontology,the result supported the point that Bos grunniens and Bos mutus were classified as an alone genus in Bovinae.     

Over 40% of 450 registered wheat cultivars (Triticum aestivum) worldwide are composed of multiple biotypes

Many of 450 common wheat cultivars bred and registered during the twentieth century in 12 countries were proved, due to seed-by-seed analysis, to be composed of two or more biotypes differing in their alleles at the gliadin (Gli) loci. These multiple biotypes may be regarded as authentic progeny of the respective parent lines, as evidenced by the gliadin composition of the respective parents. Therefore, the official claim for each cultivar to be uniform is commonly not maintained in practice. The most frequent was a non-uniform cultivar composed of two biotypes differing at one Gli locus, but there were cultivars represented by a large set of related genotypes differing at several Gli loci. The proportion of the multi-biotype cultivars was never less than 15% for a country collection, exceeding 50% in other countries. This proportion differed significantly between neighbouring countries. In Australia, all multi-biotype cultivars were found in eastern states; in the state of Victoria, their frequency was statistically higher than in the rest of the country. The proportion of multi-biotype cultivars among newly-released cultivars decreased with time in Australia and the UK. Thus, the non-uniformity of registered cultivars represents a general and important phenomenon of common wheat as a crop.     

甘蓝型油菜耐低温生长生理生化响应机制

为提高甘蓝型油菜耐寒育种过程中的筛选效率，研究甘蓝型油菜耐低温机理，以8个不同抗寒性的甘蓝型油菜为材料，对低温条件下各材料的生物量、叶绿素、脯氨酸和相对电导率进行测定，发现在室外平均气温2.75℃时，抗性材料的生物量、叶绿素和脯氨酸的累积量都显著高于敏感材料，相对电导率没有显著差异；当平均气温7.52℃回升至12.39℃，抗性材料和敏感材料生物量的累积量无显著差异；在恒定低温10℃/4℃处理下抗性材料和敏感材料在处理前3周生物量均持续累积，但从第4周开始敏感材料新叶出现白斑，生物量减少，抗性材料老叶出现白斑，生物量维持不变。结果表明，耐低温材料在低温条件下叶绿素含量受到的影响较小，脯氨酸的积累量持续上升，具有较强的快速适应能力，在低温下具有显著的持续生长优势。