Genetic Mapping of Quantitative Trait Loci for Grain Yield under Drought in Rice under Controlled Greenhouse Conditions.

Drought stress is a constant threat to rice production worldwide. Most modern rice cultivars are sensitive to drought, and the effect is severe at the reproductive stage. Conventional breeding for drought resistant (DR) rice varieties is slow and limited due to the quantitative nature of the DR traits.

Transcriptome Profiling of Beach Morning Glory (Ipomoea imperati) under Salinity and Its Comparative Analysis with Sweetpotato.

The response and adaption to salt remains poorly understood for beach morning glory [Ipomoea imperati (Vahl) Griseb], one of a few relatives of sweetpotato, known to thrive under salty and extreme drought conditions. In order to understand the genetic mechanisms underlying salt tolerance of a Convolvulaceae member, a genome-wide transcriptome study was carried out in beach morning glory by 454 pyrosequencing. A total of 286,584 filtered reads from both salt stressed and unstressed (control) root and shoot tissues were assembled into 95,790 unigenes with an average length of 667 base pairs (bp) and N50 of 706 bp.

Transcriptional profiling of sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) roots indicates down-regulation of lignin biosynthesis and up-regulation of starch biosynthesis at an early stage of storage root formation.

Background: The number of fibrous roots that develop into storage roots determines sweetpotato yield. The aim of the present study was to identify the molecular mechanisms involved in the initiation of storage root formation, by performing a detailed transcriptomic analysis of initiating storage roots using next-generation sequencing platforms. A two-step approach was undertaken: (1) generating a database for the sweetpotato root transcriptome using 454-Roche sequencing of a cDNA library created from pooled samples of two root types: fibrous and initiating storage roots; (2) comparing the expression profiles of initiating storage roots and fibrous roots, using the Illumina Genome Analyzer to sequence cDNA libraries of the two root types and map the data onto the root transcriptome database.

A sweet potato gene index established by de novo assembly of pyrosequencing and Sanger sequences and mining for gene-based microsatellite markers.

Background: Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.), a hexaploid outcrossing crop, is an important staple and food security crop in developing countries in Africa and Asia.

Molecular and physiological adaptation to prolonged drought stress in the leaves of two Andean potato genotypes.

Responses to prolonged drought and recovery from drought of two South American potato (Solanum tuberosum L. ssp. andigena (Juz & Buk) Hawkes) landraces, Sullu and Ccompis were compared under field conditions.

Inhibitory effect of a defensin gene from the Andean crop maca (Lepidium meyenii) against Phytophthora infestans.

In this study, we report the isolation of a defensin gene, lm-def, isolated from the Andean crop 'maca' (Lepidium meyenii) with activity against the pathogen Phytophthora infestans responsible of late blight disease of the potato and tomato crops. The lm-def gene has been isolated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using degenerate primers corresponding to conserved regions of 13 plant defensin genes of the Brassicaceae family assuming that defensin genes are highly conserved among cruciferous species. The lm-def gene belongs to a small multigene family of at least 10 members possibly including pseudogenes as assessed by genomic hybridization and nucleotide sequence analyses.