Maize Plants Chimeric for an Autoactive Resistance Gene Display a Cell-Autonomous Hypersensitive Response but Non-Cell Autonomous Defense Signaling.

The maize gene is a mutant form of the gene that confers resistance to common rust. triggers a spontaneous defense response that occurs in the absence of the pathogen and includes a programed cell death called the hypersensitive response (HR). Eleven plants heterozygous for in four different genetic backgrounds, were identified that had chimeric leaves with lesioned sectors showing HR abutting green nonlesioned sectors lacking HR.

Genotypic and phenotypic characterization of a large, diverse population of maize near-isogenic lines.

Genome-wide association (GWA) studies can identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) putatively underlying traits of interest, and nested association mapping (NAM) can further assess allelic series. Near-isogenic lines (NILs) can be used to characterize, dissect and validate QTL, but the development of NILs is costly. Previous studies have utilized limited numbers of NILs and introgression donors.

Genetic and Physiological Characterization of a Calcium Deficiency Phenotype in Maize.

Calcium (Ca) is an essential plant nutrient, required for signaling, cell wall fortification and growth and development. Calcium deficiency (Ca-deficiency) in maize causes leaf tip rot and a so-called "bull-whipping" or "buggy-whipping" phenotype. Seedlings of the maize line B73 displayed these Ca-deficiency-like symptoms when grown in the greenhouse with excess fertilizer during the winter months, while seedlings of the Mo17 maize line did not display these symptoms under the same conditions.

Large Scale Field Inoculation and Scoring of Maize Southern LeafBlight and Other Maize Foliar Fungal Diseases.

Field-grown maize is inoculated with , causal agent of southern leaf blight disease, by dropping sorghum grains infested with the fungus into the whorl of each maize plant at an early stage of growth. The initial lesions produce secondary inoculum that is dispersed by wind and rain, causing multiple cycles of infection that assures a high uniform disease pressure over the entire field by the time of disease scoring, which occurs after anthesis. This method, with slight modifications, can also be used to study the maize fungal diseases northern leaf blight (caused by ) and gray leaf spot ().

Temperature influences the ability of tall fescue to control transpiration in response to atmospheric vapour pressure deficit.

Water availability for turfgrass systems is often limited and is likely to become more so in the future. Here, we conducted experiments that examined the ability of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) to control transpiration with increasing vapour pressure deficit (VPD) and determined whether control was influenced by temperature.

Temperature interactions with transpiration response to vapor pressure deficit among cultivated and wild soybean genotypes.

A key strategy in soybean drought research is increased stomatal sensitivity to high vapor pressure deficit (VPD), which contributes to the 'slow wilting' trait observed in the field. These experiments examined whether temperature of the growth environment affected the ability of plants to respond to VPD, and thus control transpiration rate (TR). Two soybean [Glycine max (L.