Evaluation of the cold tolerance of Saccharum spontaneum L. clones with different ploidy levels on the basis of morphological and physiological indices

• Saccharum spontaneum L. is one of the most important germplasm resources for modern sugarcane breeding. Exploring the cold tolerance of S. spontaneum clones with different ploidy levels and screening for cold‐tolerant material can be helpful in parent selection for breeding cold‐tolerant sugarcane.
• Morphological indices, leaf ultrastructure and physiological indices were used to evaluate the cold tolerance of 36 S. spontaneum clones with different ploidy levels (2n = 40, 48, 54, 60, 64, 78, 80, 88, 92 and 96).
• The morphological indices of S. spontaneum clones with different ploidy levels were positively correlated with ploidy. Under low‐temperature stress, the chloroplast and mitochondrial structures of the clones with high ploidy were more severely damaged than were those of clones with low ploidy. A comprehensive evaluation of the physiological indices showed that the 36 S. spontaneum clones could be divided into four categories: strongly cold tolerant, cold tolerant, moderately cold tolerant and cold sensitive. Correlation analysis of the morphological indices and cold tolerance revealed a significant negative correlation between cold tolerance and ploidy. On the basis of the morphological and physiological indices, optimal stepwise regression equations that can be used for the selection of cold‐tolerant S. spontaneum resources were established.
• The S. spontaneum clones with low ploidy are more cold tolerant than those with high ploidy. Clones 12‐37, 13‐10 and 12‐23 are strongly cold‐tolerant germplasm resources, which suggests these germplasm sources have high potential for use in breeding cold‐tolerant sugarcane.

     

The price of protection:a defensive endosymbiont impairs nymph growth in the bird cherry-oat aphid,Rhopalosiphum padi

Bacterial endosymbionts have enabled aphids to adapt to a range of stressors,but their effects in many aphid species remain to be established.The bird cherry-oat aphid,Rhopalosiphum padi(Linnaeus),is an important pest of cereals worldwide and has been reported to form symbiotic associations with Serratia symbiotica and Sitobion miscanthi L-type symbiont endobacteria,although the resulting aphid phenotype has not been described.This study presents the first report of R.padi infection with the facultative bacterial endosymbiont Hamiltonella defensa.Individuals of R.padi were sampled from populations in Eastern Scotland,UK,and shown to represent seven R.padi genotypes based on the size of polymorphic microsatellite markers;two of these genotypes harbored H.defensa.In parasitism assays,survival of H.defensa-infected nymphs following attack by the parasitoid wasp Aphidius colemani(Viereck)was 5 fold higher than for uninfected nymphs.Aphid genotype was a major determinant of aphid performance on two Hordeum species,a modern cultivar of barley H.vulgare and a wild relative H.spontaneum,although aphids infected with H.defensa showed 16%lower nymph mass gain on the partially resistant wild relative compared with uninfected individuals.These findings suggest that deploying resistance traits in barley will favor the fittest R.padi genotypes,but symbiontinfected individuals will be favored when parasitoids are abundant,although these aphids will not achieve optimal performance on a poor quality host plant.     

甘蔗ScNRAMP基因家族的鉴定与生物信息学分析

NRAMP蛋白(natural resistance-associated macrophage proteins)家族在植物响应重金属胁迫时具有重要作用,能够转运Fe²⁺、Mn²⁺、Zn²⁺和Cd²⁺等重金属离子。为探究甘蔗ScNRAMP基因家族的特征,该文基于甘蔗割手密基因组鉴定了ScNRAMP基因家族,并进行了理化特性、基因结构、顺式作用元件、保守基序、结构域和进化关系等分析。结果表明:甘蔗ScNRAMP基因家族含有29个成员,不均匀分布在19条染色体上; 编码蛋白均为不稳定蛋白,无信号肽,亚细胞均定位在质膜上; 各成员保守基序有6～10个不等,跨膜数有6～12个不等,二级结构主要构成元件为α-螺旋和无规则卷曲; 顺式作用元件分析表明甘蔗ScNRAMP基因家族可能通过激素代谢参与逆境胁迫和生长发育等生物过程; 利用割手密的RNA-seq转录组表达数据进行的组织特异性分析发现,ScNRAMP在甘蔗不同发育阶段的叶和茎中具有时空表达特性; 进化树分析将甘蔗ScNRAMP家族成员分为3个亚家族(I、Ⅱ和Ⅲ)。该研究在全基因组水平上系统地鉴定了现代栽培甘蔗祖先种之一割手密NRAMP基因家族,既为进一步了解甘蔗NRAMP基因家族提供了基础,也为后续甘蔗重金属研究提供了重要候选基因。     

割手密野生资源抗逆性研究进展

割手密作为现代甘蔗遗传杂交育种史上最为成功的野生亲本,对多种不良环境都具有很强的抗逆性,被公认为是抗逆基因的主要来源。但目前真正被有效利用的割手密抗逆亲本和抗逆基因非常有限,我国自育和引进甘蔗主栽品种的抗逆性仍然比较单一且普遍偏弱,因此加强割手密优良抗逆亲本筛选和抗逆基因挖掘利用研究意义重大。本文综述了不同基因型割手密在非生物逆境(干旱、低温等理化因素)和生物逆境(病虫害侵染)下的抗逆性鉴定及其抗逆基因克隆和功能验证等国内外相关研究进展;并探讨了当前割手密资源抗逆材料筛选和抗逆基因挖掘利用中存在的问题和今后的研究方向,希望为高效利用割手密优异抗逆基因资源开展甘蔗多抗逆性聚合育种提供参考。     

Peroxisomal polyhydroxyalkanoate biosynthesis is a promising strategy for bioplastic production in high biomass crops

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are bacterial carbon storage polymers with diverse plastic‐like properties. PHA biosynthesis in transgenic plants is being developed as a way to reduce the cost and increase the sustainability of industrial PHA production. The homopolymer polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) is the simplest form of these biodegradable polyesters. Plant peroxisomes contain the substrate molecules and necessary reducing power for PHB biosynthesis, but peroxisomal PHB production has not been explored in whole soil‐grown transgenic plants to date. We generated transgenic sugarcane (Saccharum sp.) with the three‐enzyme Ralstonia eutropha PHA biosynthetic pathway targeted to peroxisomes. We also introduced the pathway into Arabidopsis thaliana, as a model system for studying and manipulating peroxisomal PHB production. PHB, at levels up to 1.6%–1.8% dry weight, accumulated in sugarcane leaves and A. thaliana seedlings, respectively. In sugarcane, PHB accumulated throughout most leaf cell types in both peroxisomes and vacuoles. A small percentage of total polymer was also identified as the copolymer poly (3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyvalerate) in both plant species. No obvious deleterious effect was observed on plant growth because of peroxisomal PHA biosynthesis at these levels. This study highlights how using peroxisomal metabolism for PHA biosynthesis could significantly contribute to reaching commercial production levels of PHAs in crop plants.     

甘蔗野生种割手密远缘杂交后代品质性状的遗传研究

利用甘蔗品种Co419与野生种割手密云南75-1-2远缘杂交,ROC25与远缘杂交后代云野02-356进行回交,分别获得F1和BC1群体;利用R软件,分析了2个群体全部真实性后代品质性状的遗传表现.结果表明,杂交后代品质性状广义遗传力高,正态分布特性明显,品质性状间显著正相关;F1含糖量和纤维含量高于商业亲本,但甘蔗蔗糖分、蔗汁糖分、蔗汁锤度和简纯度等性状劣于商业亲本;BC1除含糖量高于双亲外,其他性状介于双亲之间,但主要性状均优于F1,后代性状恢复快.     

Temperature and Leaf Wetness Effects on Infection of Sugarcane by Puccinia melanocephala

Brown rust epidemics in sugarcane, caused by Puccinia melanocephala, vary in severity between seasons. To improve the understanding of disease epidemiology, the effects of leaf wetness, temperature and their interaction on infection of sugarcane by the pathogen were studied under controlled conditions. Disease severity was low at 15 and 31°C regardless of leaf wetness duration. No infection occurred with a 4‐h leaf wetness period. Increasing leaf wetness duration from 7 to 13 h lowered the temperature required for disease onset from 21 to 17°C. More infection occurred with 13 compared to 10 h of leaf wetness at 17°C, and severity decreased for all leaf wetness periods at 29 compared to 27°C. Postinfection suboptimal low and high temperatures increased the time required for lesion development and high temperatures decreased maximum disease severity. The observed effects of leaf wetness and temperature on infection by P. melanocephala could help explain the initiation, rate of increase and decline of brown rust epidemics in the field.     

甘蔗β-1,3-葡聚糖酶基因的电子克隆与分析

以高粱β-1,3-葡聚糖酶基因(β-1,3-glucanase gene)cDNA序列为探针,搜索甘蔗EST数据库,而后通过电子克隆技术,拼接获得甘蔗β-1,3-葡聚糖酶基因ScBG。采用生物信息学方法,对该基因编码蛋白从氨基酸组成、理化性质、跨膜结构域、卷曲螺旋、亚细胞定位、信号肽、功能域及高级结构等方面进行了预测和分析。结果表明:ScBG基因全长1270bp,包含一个长达1011bp的完整开放读码框(open reading frame,ORF),编码336个氨基酸,分子量为34.8KD,理论等电点为4.98。该蛋白质很可能是胞外定位的诱导物释放型酸性葡聚糖酶,是一种稳定的分泌蛋白,且可信度达最高等级1。该蛋白属于糖苷水解酶第17家族,含有N端信号肽,在第7～29位氨基酸处含有跨膜信号区,在第31～321位氨基酸处含有糖苷水解酶17家族结构域,含2个主要的功能结构域。10个物种ScBG蛋白氨基酸序列的同源性分析表明,甘蔗ScBG基因编码蛋白与高粱β-1,3-葡聚糖酶基因的编码蛋白的同源性最高,达79.82%。以上研究结果为ScBG基因下一步的分子克隆、功能鉴定和应用提供基础。     

Identification of Hordeum spontaneum QTL alleles improving field performance of barley grown under rainfed conditions

Advanced backcross QTL (AB-QTL) analysis was deployed to identify allelic variation in wild barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum) of value in the improvement of grain yield and other agronomically important traits in barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. vulgare) grown under conditions of water deficit in Mediterranean countries. A population of 123 double haploid (DH) lines obtained from BC₁F₂ plants derived from a cross between Barke (European two-row cultivar) and HOR11508 (wild barley accession) were tested in replicated field trials, under varying conditions of water availability in Italy, Morocco and Tunisia, for seven quantitative traits. Significant QTL effects at one (P 0.001) or more trial sites (P 0.01) were identified for all traits. At 42 (52%) of the 80 putative QTLs identified, the allele increasing a “traits' value” was contributed by H. spontaneum. For example, though the majority (67%) of QTL alleles increasing grain yield were contributed by H. vulgare, H. spontaneum contributed the alleles increasing grain yield at six regions on chromosomes 2H, 3H, 5H and 7H. Among them, two QTLs (associated to Bmac0093 on chromosome 2H and to Bmac0684 on chromosome 5H) were identified in all three locations and had the highest additive effects. The present study shows the validity of deploying AB-QTL analysis for identifying favourable QTL alleles from wild germplasm and indicates its potential as an enhancement strategy for the genetic improvement of cultivars better adapted to drought-prone environments.