Marker-Assisted Introgression of the Salinity Tolerance Locus Saltol in Temperate Japonica Rice.

Background: Rice is one of the most salt sensitive crops at seedling, early vegetative and reproductive stages. Varieties with salinity tolerance at seedling stage promote an efficient growth at early stages in salt affected soils, leading to healthy vegetative growth that protects crop yield. Saltol major QTL confers capacity to young rice plants growing under salt condition by maintaining a low Na/K molar ratio in the shoots.

Plant Microbiome and Its Link to Plant Health: Host Species, Organs and pv. Infection Shaping Bacterial Phyllosphere Communities of Kiwifruit Plants.

pv. (Psa) is the causal agent of the bacterial canker, the most devastating disease of kiwifruit vines. Before entering the host tissues, this pathogen has an epiphytic growth phase on kiwifruit flowers and leaves, thus the ecological interactions within epiphytic bacterial community may greatly influence the onset of the infection process.

Pathways of flower infection and pollen-mediated dispersion of pv. , the causal agent of kiwifruit bacterial canker.

Flowers can provide a protected and nutrient-rich environment to the epiphytic microflora, thus representing a sensible entry point for pathogens such as pv. (Psa). This bacterium can colonize both male and female flowers, causing flower browning and fall, and systemic invasion of the host plant, eventually leading to its death.

Comparative transcriptome analysis of the interaction between Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis and Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae in absence and presence of acibenzolar-S-methyl.

Background: Since 2007, bacterial canker caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa) has become a pandemic disease leading to important economic losses in every country where kiwifruit is widely cultivated. Options for controlling this disease are very limited and rely primarily on the use of bactericidal compounds, such as copper, and resistance inducers.

Genome-Wide Association Study for Traits Related to Plant and Grain Morphology, and Root Architecture in Temperate Rice Accessions.

Background: In this study we carried out a genome-wide association analysis for plant and grain morphology and root architecture in a unique panel of temperate rice accessions adapted to European pedo-climatic conditions. This is the first study to assess the association of selected phenotypic traits to specific genomic regions in the narrow genetic pool of temperate japonica. A set of 391 rice accessions were GBS-genotyped yielding-after data editing-57000 polymorphic and informative SNPS, among which 54% were in genic regions.

Haplotype variability and identification of new functional alleles at the Rdg2a leaf stripe resistance gene locus.

The barley Rdg2a locus confers resistance to the leaf stripe pathogen Pyrenophora graminea and, in the barley genotype Thibaut, it is composed of a gene family with three highly similar paralogs. Only one member of the gene family (called as Rdg2a) encoding for a CC-NB-LRR protein is able to confer resistance to the leaf stripe isolate Dg2. To study the genome evolution and diversity at the Rdg2a locus, sequences spanning the Rdg2a gene were compared in two barley cultivars, Thibaut and Morex, respectively, resistant and susceptible to leaf stripe.

A Survey of MicroRNA Length Variants Contributing to miRNome Complexity in Peach (Prunus Persica L.).

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNA molecules produced from hairpin structures and involved in gene expression regulation with major roles in plant development and stress response. Although each annotated miRNA in miRBase (www.mirbase.

Identification and mapping of the leaf stripe resistance gene Rdg1a in Hordeum spontaneum.

Leaf stripe of barley, caused by Pyrenophora graminea, is an important seed-borne disease in organically grown as well as in conventionally grown Nordic and Mediterranean barley districts. Two barley segregating populations represented by 103 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of the cross L94 (susceptible) x Vada (resistant) and 194 RILs of the cross Arta (susceptible) x Hordeum spontaneum 41-1 (resistant) were analysed with two highly virulent leaf stripe isolates, Dg2 and Dg5, to identify loci for P. graminea resistance.