Modification of Drought Resistance by Water Stress Conditioning in Acacia and Eucalyptus

Plants of Acacia and Eucalyptus species were grown under differentlevels of shading, nutrition, and irrigation to assess the effectof these factors on plant water use. Water use per unit of leaf(phyllode) area was affected only by the irrigation treatment,control plants that had received water daily using appreciablymore water than plants that had been repeatedly subjected towater stress. Water stress conditioning had little or no effecton plant height, leaf (phyllode) area, or minimum stomatal resistancein any of the species. Detailed study of the water stress conditioningof Eucalyptus robusta showed that controls used 46% more waterthan conditioned plants. Leaf area and plant height were unaffectedby conditioning. Control of transpiration was not due to stomatalfunctioning, both sets of plants operating with the same leafdiffusive resistance under conditions of ready water availability.Hydraulic conductivity of the intact root system was loweredby conditioning and it is suggested that this was due, at leastin part, to the effect that conditioning had on root xylem conductivity.Specific conductivity of stem sections was lowered by waterstress conditioning. Water stress avoidance was also associatedwith a more pronounced tendency for stomata to close prior towilting and with a higher level of leaf resistance which couldbe maintained at a low leaf water potential. Conditioned plantsexhibited drought tolerance in their ability to control lossof water from the leaf at lower leaf water potentials than thecontrols.     

转AhNCED1基因拟南芥的形态特征和抗旱性研究

目的：探讨外源基因花生NCED1（AhNCED1）对拟南芥的形态特征和抗旱能力的影响。方法：观察转AhNCED1拟南芥的表型特征以及在干旱条件下的变化,利用扫描电镜观察植株叶上表面细胞和气孔大小。结果：与野生型相比,AhNCED1转基因植株矮壮,株型紧凑,分蘖和分枝数减少,幼苗根发育好。在干旱条件下转基因型植株叶大色绿,气孔开度减小,表皮细胞排列紧密。结论：转基因型植株在干旱条件下的表型特征与抗旱能力表明转基因拟南芥抗旱能力高于野生型。     

Effects of Engineered Sinorhizobium meliloti on Cytokinin Synthesis and Tolerance of Alfalfa to Extreme Drought Stress

Cytokinin is required for the initiation of leguminous nitrogen fixation nodules elicited by rhizobia and the delay of the leaf senescence induced by drought stress. A few free-living rhizobia have been found to produce cytokinin. However, the effects of engineered rhizobia capable of synthesizing cytokinin on host tolerance to abiotic stresses have not yet been described. In this study, two engineered Sinorhizobium strains overproducing cytokinin were constructed. The tolerance of inoculated alfalfa plants to severe drought stress was assessed. The engineered strains, which expressed the Agrobacterium ipt gene under the control of different promoters, synthesized more zeatins than the control strain under free-living conditions, but their own growth was not affected. After a 4-week inoculation period, the effects of engineered strains on alfalfa growth and nitrogen fixation were similar to those of the control strain under nondrought conditions. After being subjected to severe drought stress, most of the alfalfa plants inoculated with engineered strains survived, and the nitrogenase activity in their root nodules showed no apparent change. A small elevation in zeatin concentration was observed in the leaves of these plants. The expression of antioxidant enzymes increased, and the level of reactive oxygen species decreased correspondingly. Although the ipt gene was transcribed in the bacteroids of engineered strains, the level of cytokinin in alfalfa nodules was identical to that of the control. These findings suggest that engineered Sinorhizobium strains synthesizing more cytokinin could improve the tolerance of alfalfa to severe drought stress without affecting alfalfa nodulation or nitrogen fixation.     

Transgenerational Variations in DNA Methylation Induced by Drought Stress in Two Rice Varieties with Distinguished Difference to Drought Resistance

Adverse environmental conditions have large impacts on plant growth and crop production. One of the crucial mechanisms that plants use in variable and stressful natural environments is gene expression modulation through epigenetic modification. In this study, two rice varieties with different drought resistance levels were cultivated under drought stress from tilling stage to seed filling stage for six successive generations. The variations in DNA methylation of the original generation (G0) and the sixth generation (G6) of these two varieties in normal condition (CK) and under drought stress (DT) at seedling stage were assessed by using Methylation Sensitive Amplification Polymorphism (MSAP) method. The results revealed that drought stress had a cumulative effect on the DNA methylation pattern of both varieties, but these two varieties had different responses to drought stress in DNA methylation. The DNA methylation levels of II-32B (sensitive) and Huhan-3 (resistant) were around 39% and 32%, respectively. Genome-wide DNA methylation variations among generations or treatments accounted for around 13.1% of total MSAP loci in II-32B, but was only approximately 1.3% in Huhan-3. In II-32B, 27.6% of total differentially methylated loci (DML) were directly induced by drought stress and 3.2% of total DML stably transmitted their changed DNA methylation status to the next generation. In Huhan-3, the numbers were 48.8% and 29.8%, respectively. Therefore, entrainment had greater effect on Huhan-3 than on II-32B. Sequence analysis revealed that the DML were widely distributed on all 12 rice chromosomes and that it mainly occurred on the gene’s promoter and exon region. Some genes with DML respond to environmental stresses. The inheritance of epigenetic variations induced by drought stress may provide a new way to develop drought resistant rice varieties.     

Predictability of Extreme Events in Social Media

It is part of our daily social-media experience that seemingly ordinary items (videos, news, publications, etc.) unexpectedly gain an enormous amount of attention. Here we investigate how unexpected these extreme events are. We propose a method that, given some information on the items, quantifies the predictability of events, i.e., the potential of identifying in advance the most successful items. Applying this method to different data, ranging from views in YouTube videos to posts in Usenet discussion groups, we invariantly find that the predictability increases for the most extreme events. This indicates that, despite the inherently stochastic collective dynamics of users, efficient prediction is possible for the most successful items.     

干旱胁迫下外源氯化钙、水杨酸和一氧化氮对石蒜抗旱性的影响

通过盆栽试验,研究了外源氯化钙（CaCl2）、水杨酸（SA）和NO供体硝普钠（SNP）处理对干旱胁迫下石蒜抗旱性的影响。结果表明,较低浓度的CaCl2对石蒜抗旱性的影响不显著,而随着CaCl2预处理浓度的提高,石蒜的抗旱效果显著增强。较低浓度SA和sNP可显著提高石蒜的抗旱性,而高浓度则会发生毒害作用。利用模糊隶属函数法综合评价渗透调节物质、膜系统和抗氧化酶活性多项指标可以得出,喷施10mmol·L—CaCl2、2mmol-L。SA和0．5mmol·L-1 SNP对石蒜抗旱性的提高具有显著效果。     

外源超氧化物歧化酶基因MnSOD在玉米中的过量表达及抗逆性的提高

为研究过量表达的超氧化物歧化酶基因MnSOD对玉米抗逆性的作用,构建了小麦来源MnSOD基因的单子叶植物高效表达载体,用基因枪法转化优良玉米自交系胚性愈伤组织。经潮霉素梯度浓度培养基筛选,从阳性愈伤组织再生获得9个正常结实的植株。其中5株经PCR和Southern印迹检测表现为阳性,表明外源基因己整合到玉米基因组中。提取SOD酶液,非变性聚肉烯酰胺浓度梯度凝胶电泳分离,用H2O2 5mmol／L抑制FeSOD和CU／ZnSOD活性,氯化硝基四氮唑蓝染色检测MnSOD酶活性。Southern印迹呈阳性的5个植株,MnSOD酶活性均高于未转基因的对照。甲基紫精氧化损伤处理后,用电解质渗漏率法测定阳性株系的叶片渗透液的电导率。结果表明,转基因株系的抗氧化损伤能力显著高于对照。     

l-Arginine Pretreatment Enhances Drought Resistance of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) Plants by Increase in Polyamines Content

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - A significant reduction of fresh, dry biomass, shoot height, root length, succulent value, and leaf area were noticed as well as a significant accumulation of...     

Advances in Drought Resistance of Rice

Water deficit is a serious environmental stress and the major constraint to rice productivity. Losses in rice yield due to water shortage probably exceed losses from all other causes combined and the extent of the yield loss depends on both the severity and duration of the water stress. Drought affects rice at morphological, physiological, and molecular levels such as delayed flowering, reduced dry matter accumulation and partitioning, and decreased photosynthetic capacity as a result of stomatal closure, metabolic limitations, and oxidative damage to chloroplasts. Small-statured rice plants with reduced leaf area and short growth duration are better able to tolerate drought stress, although the mechanisms are not yet fully understood. Increased water uptake by developing larger and deeper root systems, and the accumulation of osmolytes and osmoprotectants are other important mechanisms for drought resistance. Drought resistance in rice has been improved by using plant growth regulators and osmoprotectants. In addition, several enzymes have been found that act as antioxidants. Silicon has also improved drought resistance in rice by silicification of the root endodermis and improving water uptake. Seed priming improves germination and crop stand establishment under drought. Rice plants expressing HVA1, LEA proteins, MAP kinase, DREB and endo-1, 3-glucanase are better able to withstand drought stress. Polyamines and several enzymes act as antioxidants and reduce adverse effects of drought stress in rice. Drought resistance can be managed by developing and selecting drought-tolerant genotypes. Rice breeding and screening may be based on growth duration, root system, photosynthesis traits, stomatal frequency, specific leaf weight, leaf water potential, and yield in target environments. This review discusses recent developments in integrated approaches, such as genetics, breeding and resource management to increase rice yield and reduce water demand for rice production.     

水分胁迫对冬小麦CO_2同化作用的影响

比较了两个小麦品种陕合6号和郑引1号经受不同程度的水分胁迫处理后,叶片多种光合参数:净光合速率(P_n)、气孔导度(G_s)、细胞间隙CO_2浓度(G_i)、表观量子需要量和羧化效率以及Rubis CO蛋白量与活性等的变化。在轻度水分胁迫下,叶片光合速率降低的根本原因在于气孔导度的下降;而在严重胁迫下,非气孔因素起主要作用。     

Uncovering Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Human Online Behaviors during Extreme Events

In response to an extreme event, individuals on social media demonstrate interesting behaviors depending on their backgrounds. By making use of the large-scale datasets of posts and search queries collected from Twitter and GoogleTrends, we first identify the distinct categories of human collective online concerns and durations based on the distributions of solo tweets and new incremental tweets about events. Such a characterization enables us to gain a better understanding of dynamic changes in human behaviors corresponding to different types of events. Next, we observe the heterogeneity of individual responses to events through measuring the fraction of event-related tweets relative to the tweets released by an individual, and thus empirically confirm the heterogeneity assumption as adopted in the meta-population models for characterizing collective responses to events. Finally, based on the correlations of information entropy in different regions, we show that the observed distinct responses may be caused by their different speeds in information propagation. In addition, based on the detrended fluctuation analysis, we find that there exists a self-similar evolution process for the collective responses within a region. These findings have provided a detailed account for the nature of distinct human behaviors on social media in presence of extreme events.     

Autochthonous Chikungunya Transmission and Extreme Climate Events in Southern France

BackgroundExtreme precipitation events are increasing as a result of ongoing global warming, but controversy surrounds the relationship between flooding and mosquito-borne diseases. A common view among the scientific community and public health officers is that heavy rainfalls have a flushing effect on breeding sites, which negatively affects vector populations, thereby diminishing disease transmission. During 2014 in Montpellier, France, there were at least 11 autochthonous cases of chikungunya caused by the invasive tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus in the vicinity of an imported case. We show that an extreme rainfall event increased and extended the abundance of the disease vector Ae. albopictus, hence the period of autochthonous transmission of chikungunya.Conclusions/SignificanceOur empirical data suggests that heavy rainfall events did increase the risk of arbovirus transmission in Southern France in 2014 by favouring a rapid rise in abundance of vector mosquitoes. Further studies should now confirm these results in different ecological contexts, so that the impact of global change and extreme climatic events on mosquito population dynamics and the risk of disease transmission can be adequately understood.     

科罗拉多冷杉的抗旱性

以服务于科罗拉多冷杉（Abies concolor）的引种工作为目的,以科罗拉多冷杉的9个种源半年生幼苗为材料,对其进行了模拟干旱处理,测定了抗旱性的相关理化指标,并与同样处理下的我国本土冷杉辽东冷杉（A．holophylla）、峨嵋冷杉（A.squamata）及鳞皮冷杉（A.fabric）半年生幼苗的对应指标作比较分析,估测了科罗拉多冷杉在我国的适生范围。     

薯蓣皂素对小麦幼苗抗旱性的影响

用不同浓度的薯蓣皂素喷施处理小麦幼苗叶片,研究薯蓣皂素在干旱胁迫下对小麦幼苗影响。结果表明,喷施一定浓度的外源薯蓣皂素,在干旱胁迫下可保持小麦幼苗叶片相对含水量,提高SOD和POD活性,降低MDA含量,对小麦幼苗抗旱有一定的作用。且薯蓣皂素最佳质量浓度为0.5 mg.L-1。