Publications by authors named "Qiufang Shen"

Calmodulin, a highly conserved calcium-binding protein, plays a crucial role in response to salt stress. Previous studies investigated sequence and function of calmodulin members in some plants, but their roles in rice have not been fully elucidated. Three OsCaM1 genes namely OsCaM1-1/2/3 encode the same OsCaM1 protein.

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Drought is an important abiotic factor constricting crop production globally. Although the roles of JAZ proteins in regulating jasmonic acid signalling and plant responses to environmental stress are well documented, their specific functions and underlying mechanisms remain little known. In this study, JAZ proteins in barley were thoroughly analyzed, revealing a total of 11 members classified into three phylogenetic subgroups.

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Citrate is a common primary metabolite which often characterizes fruit flavour. The key regulators of citrate accumulation in fruit and vegetables are poorly understood. We systematically analysed the dynamic profiles of organic acid components during the development of kiwifruit (Actinidia spp.

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Obtaining homozygous lines from transgenic plants is an important step for phenotypic evaluations, but the selection of homozygous plants is time-consuming and laborious. The process would be significantly shortened if anther or microspore culture could be completed in one generation. In this study, we obtained 24 homozygous doubled haploid (DH) transgenic plants entirely by microspore culture from one T transgenic plant overexpressing the gene (pathogenesis-related-1).

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The tribe Triticeae provides important staple cereal crops and contains elite wild species with wide genetic diversity and high tolerance to abiotic stresses. Sea barleygrass (Hordeum marinum Huds.), a wild Triticeae species, thrives in saline marshlands and is well known for its high tolerance to salinity and waterlogging.

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Sucrose non-fermenting 1 (SNF1)-related protein kinase (SnRK) is a large family of protein kinases that play a significant role in plant stress responses. Although intensive studies have been conducted on members in some crops, little is known about the in barley. Using phylogenetic and conserved motif analyses, we discovered 46 SnRK members scattered across barley's 7 chromosomes and classified them into 3 sub-families.

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Article Synopsis
  • Gene editing with CRISPR/Cas technology has transformed biotechnology, especially in medicine and life sciences, but its application to miRNAs in plants has been underexplored.
  • This review discusses the development, creation, structure, and interactions of miRNAs, including how they regulate gene expression and techniques to predict their target genes.
  • The integration of CRISPR/Cas with miRNAs in plant research will enhance our understanding of their functions and promote more sustainable and acceptable crop genetic engineering practices.
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Plants are frequently exposed to various abiotic stresses, including aluminum, cadmium and salinity stress. Barley () displays wide genetic diversity in its tolerance to various abiotic stresses. In this study, small RNA and degradome libraries from the roots of a barley cultivar, Golden Promise, treated with aluminum, cadmium and salt or controls were constructed to understand the molecular mechanisms of microRNAs in regulating tolerance to these stresses.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers studied a barley gene, HVP10, which plays a key role in managing salt stress by regulating Na+ accumulation in plant roots through proton pumping.
  • Knockdown and knockout of HVP10 led to stunted growth and increased Na+ levels in barley, suggesting its critical role in Na+ sequestration.
  • Transgenic rice plants overexpressing HVP10 demonstrated improved salt tolerance and higher yields, highlighting its potential for enhancing crop resilience to salinity.
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Cadmium (Cd) pollutants restrict crop yield and food security in long-term agricultural activities. Crops have evolved adaptive strategies under Cd condition, however, the transcriptional regulatory mechanism of Cd-tolerant genes remains to be largely illustrated. In this study, barley roots were exposed to 5 µM CdCl for physiological response and transcriptome-wide m6A methylation profile.

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Salt stress is one of the major environmental restricts for crop production and food safety. Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is the most salt-tolerant cereal crop, which could be the pioneer for shifting agricultural crop production to marginal saline lands.

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At the microsite "Evolution Slope", Tabigha, Israel, wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum) populations adapted to dry Terra Rossa soil, and its derivative abutting wild barley population adapted to moist and fungi-rich Basalt soil. However, the mechanisms underlying the edaphic adaptation remain elusive. Accordingly, whole genome bisulfite sequencing, RNA-sequencing, and metabolome analysis are performed on ten wild barley accessions inhabiting Terra Rossa and Basalt soil.

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Nitrogen (N) availability and form have a dramatic effect on N uptake and assimilation in plants, affecting growth and development. In the previous studies, we found great differences in low-N tolerance between Tibetan wild barley accessions and cultivated barley varieties. We hypothesized that there are different responses to N forms between the two kinds of barleys.

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Aluminum (Al) toxicity is a major abiotic stress that restricts crop production in acid soils. Plants have evolved internal and external mechanisms of tolerance, and among them it is well known that AtSTOP1 and OsART1 are key transcription factors involved in tolerance through regulation of multiple downstream genes. Here, we identified the closest homolog of these two proteins in barley, namely HvATF1, Al-tolerance Transcription Factor 1, and determined its potential function in Al stress.

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Calcium (Ca) signaling modulates sodium (Na) transport in plants; however, the role of the Ca sensor calmodulin (CaM) in salt tolerance is elusive. We previously identified a salt-responsive calmodulin (HvCaM1) in a proteome study of barley () roots. Here, we employed bioinformatic, physiological, molecular, and biochemical approaches to determine the role of HvCaM1 in barley salt tolerance.

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Maintaining low intracellular Na concentrations is an essential physiological strategy in salt stress tolerance in most cereal crops. Here, we characterized a member of the high-affinity K transporter (HKT) family in barley (), HvHKT1;5, which negatively regulates salt tolerance and has different functions from its homology in other cereal crops. ; encodes a plasma membrane protein localized to root stele cells, particularly in xylem parenchyma cells adjacent to the xylem vessels.

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Tillering or branching is an important agronomic trait in plants, especially cereal crops. Previously, in barley () 'Vlamingh', we identified the () mutant from a γ-ray-treated segregating population. exhibited more tillers per plant, narrower leaves, and reduced plant height compared with the wild-type parent.

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Background: Barley is relatively sensitive to Aluminum (Al) toxicity among cereal crops, but shows a wide genotypic difference in Al tolerance. The well-known Al-tolerant mechanism in barley is related to Al exclusion mediated by a citrate transporter HvAACT1 (Al-activated citrate transporter 1). A 1-kb insertion in the promoter region of HvAACT1 gene results in a dramatic increase of its expression level, which only occurs in some Al-tolerant cultivars.

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Barley (Hordeum vulgare) and rice (Oryza sativa) differ greatly in their salt tolerance, although both species belong to the Poaceae family. To understand the mechanisms in the difference of salt tolerance between the two species, the responses of ionome, metabolome and gene expression of Na and K transporters to the different salt treatments were analyzed using 4 barley and 4 rice genotypes differing in salt tolerance. In comparison with 4 rice genotypes, four barley genotypes showed better plant growth, lower shoot Na concentration and higher K concentration at the 9 day after salt treatments.

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In our previous study, Tibetan wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum L.) has been found to be rich in the elite accessions with strong abiotic stress tolerance, including salt stress tolerance. However, the molecular mechanism of salt tolerance underlying the wild barley remains to be elucidated.

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Background: Tibetan wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum L.) has been confirmed to contain elite accessions in tolerance to abiotic stresses, including salinity. However, molecular mechanisms underlying genotypic difference of salt tolerance in wild barley are unknown.

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Identification and characterization of proteins involved in salt tolerance are imperative for revealing its genetic mechanisms. In this study, ionic and proteomic responses of a Tibetan wild barley XZ16 and a well-known salt-tolerant barley cv. CM72 were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer, 2DE, and MALDI-TOF/TOF MS techniques to determine salt-induced differences in element and protein profiles between the two genotypes.

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A thorough understanding of ionic detoxification and homeostasis is imperative for improvement of salt tolerance in crops. However, the homeostasis of elements and their relationship to metabolites under salt stress have not been fully elucidated in plants. In this study, Tibetan wild barley accessions, XZ16 and XZ169, differing in salt tolerance, and a salt-tolerant cultivar CM72 were used to investigate ionomic profile changes in tissues in response to 150 and 300 mM NaCl at the germination and seedling stages.

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