Identification and functional analyses of drought stress resistance genes by transcriptomics of the Mongolian grassland plant Chloris virgata.

Background: Mongolian grasslands, including the Gobi Desert, have been exposed to drought conditions with few rains. In such harsh environments, plants with highly resistant abilities against drought stress survive over long periods. We hypothesized that these plants could harbor novel and valuable genes for enhancing drought stress resistance.

Exome-wide variation in a diverse barley panel reveals genetic associations with ten agronomic traits in Eastern landraces.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. vulgare) is one of the first crops to be domesticated and is adapted to a wide range of environments. Worldwide barley germplasm collections possess valuable allelic variations that could further improve barley productivity.

Transcriptome Analysis of , Which Shows the Fastest Germination and Growth in the Major Mongolian Grassland Plant.

Plants in Mongolian grasslands are exposed to short, dry summers and long, cold winters. These plants should be prepared for fast germination and growth activity in response to the limited summer rainfall. The wild plant species adapted to the Mongolian grassland environment may allow us to explore useful genes, as a source of unique genetic codes for crop improvement.

LYSINE KETOGLUTARATE REDUCTASE TRANS-SPLICING RELATED 1 is involved in temperature-dependent root growth in rice.

Root length is an important root parameter directly related to the uptake of water and nutrients. However, the molecular mechanisms controlling root length are still not fully understood. Here, we isolated a short-root mutant of rice, dice2 (defective in cell elongation 2).

Genetic Elucidation for Response of Flowering Time to Ambient Temperatures in Asian Rice Cultivars.

Climate resilience of crops is critical for global food security. Understanding the genetic basis of plant responses to ambient environmental changes is key to developing resilient crops. To detect genetic factors that set flowering time according to seasonal temperature conditions, we evaluated differences of flowering time over years by using chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) derived from rice cultivars "Koshihikari" × "Khao Nam Jen", each with different robustness of flowering time to environmental fluctuations.

Phosphate or nitrate imbalance induces stronger molecular responses than combined nutrient deprivation in roots and leaves of chickpea plants.

The negative effects of phosphate (Pi) and/or nitrate (NO ) fertilizers on the environment have raised an urgent need to develop crop varieties with higher Pi and/or nitrogen use efficiencies for cultivation in low-fertility soils. Achieving this goal depends upon research that focuses on the identification of genes involved in plant responses to Pi and/or NO starvation. Although plant responses to individual deficiency in either Pi (-Pi/+NO ) or NO (+Pi/-NO ) have been separately studied, our understanding of plant responses to combined Pi and NO deficiency (-Pi/-NO ) is still very limited.

Life-Course Monitoring of Endogenous Phytohormone Levels under Field Conditions Reveals Diversity of Physiological States among Barley Accessions.

Agronomically important traits often develop during the later stages of crop growth as consequences of various plant-environment interactions. Therefore, the temporal physiological states that change and accumulate during the crop's life course can significantly affect the eventual phenotypic differences in agronomic traits among crop varieties. Thus, to improve productivity, it is important to elucidate the associations between temporal physiological responses during the growth of different crop varieties and their agronomic traits.

One-Step Generation of Chromosomal Rearrangements in Rice.

The combination of the DNA sequence-specific recombination system Cre/LoxP and the DNA transposon system Activator (Ac)/Dissociation (Ds) has been used for insertional and deletional mutagenesis, as well as for the generation of artificial ring chromosomes in model plants such as Arabidopsis and tobacco. However, it takes a long time to complete this process, even in Arabidopsis. To overcome this issue, a new binary vector, pDLHC, has been developed to induce chromosomal rearrangements for a short time in rice.

Calcium signalling mediates self-incompatibility response in the Brassicaceae.

Self-incompatibility in the Brassicaceae is controlled by multiple haplotypes encoding the pollen ligand (S-locus protein 11, SP11, also known as S-locus cysteine-rich protein, SCR) and its stigmatic receptor (S-receptor kinase, SRK). A haplotype-specific interaction between SP11/SCR and SRK triggers the self-incompatibility response that leads to self-pollen rejection, but the signalling pathway remains largely unknown. Here we show that Ca(2+) influx into stigma papilla cells mediates self-incompatibility signalling.

Isolation of centromeric-tandem repetitive DNA sequences by chromatin affinity purification using a HaloTag7-fused centromere-specific histone H3 in tobacco.

The centromere is a multi-functional complex comprising centromeric DNA and a number of proteins. To isolate unidentified centromeric DNA sequences, centromere-specific histone H3 variants (CENH3) and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) have been utilized in some plant species. However, anti-CENH3 antibody for ChIP must be raised in each species because of its species specificity.

Coexistence of NtCENH3 and two retrotransposons in tobacco centromeres.

Although a centromeric DNA fragment of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), Nt2-7, has been reported, the overall structure of the centromeres remains unknown. To characterize the centromeric DNA sequences, we conducted a chromatin immunoprecipitation assay using anti-NtCENH3 antibody and chromatins isolated from two ancestral diploid species (Nicotiana sylvestris and Nicotiana tomentosiformis) of N. tabacum and isolated a 178-pb fragment, Nto1 from N.