Improving Salinity Tolerance in Cereals

Cereals are grown in almost every region of the world and are exposed to a variety of environmental stresses that severely affect their growth and grain yield. Of various abiotic stresses, salinity is one of the more significant threats to cereal crops. To ensure food security, there is a need to adopt strategies to overcome this specific threat. Undoubtedly, plant scientists have been exploiting a variety of approaches to achieve enhanced crop productivity on salt affected soils. Of the various biotic approaches, conventional breeding, marker-assisted selection and genetic engineering to develop salt-tolerant lines/cultivars of cereals all seem plausible. Some success stories have been reported for improvement in salt tolerance of wheat and rice, but are scarce for other cereals. A number of barriers to the development of salt-tolerant cultivars/lines have been identified and include a lack of knowledge about the genetics of crops, their physiological and biochemical behavior, wide variation in environmental conditions, and the complex polygenic nature of the salt tolerance character. This review focuses on how improvements have been made in salt tolerance in cereals through different biotic means, such as conventional breeding, marker assisted selection and genetic engineering.     

异源细胞质小麦耐盐性的研究

以粗厚山羊草（Ａｅｇｉｌｏｐｓ ｃｒａｓｓａ）细胞质小麦为材料,采用组织培养,水培、模拟盐池等方法,研究细胞质对小麦耐盐性的遗传效应,结果表明：粗厚山羊草细胞质可以不同程度地诱发小麦耐盐性产生变异。不同核质组合细胞质效应有一定差异,表现出特定的核质互作关系。部分异质系细胞水平与植株水平的耐盐性表现一致,特别是（Ａｅ．ｃｒａｓｓａ）－鉴２６的愈伤组织和幼苗的耐盐性表现均最突出。返青期和成熟期的鉴定结     

植物耐盐的生理机制及基因工程新进展

在各种环境胁迫中,盐胁迫是造成作物减产的严重环境因素之一。主要从耐盐的生理机制和一些下游调节过程入手,包括:离子区隔化、渗透调节、激素调节、去毒化作用、光合途径的改变等,讨论了植物耐盐工程的新进展;同时还讨论了分子水平育种的影响因子。     

耐盐转基因植物研究进展

高盐是限制作物生长、发育和产量的最严重的非生物胁迫之一。长期以来,改善作物的耐盐性一直是一个伟大的目标。然而,由于耐盐反应是一个极为复杂的过程,过去,通过传统的育种和遗传工程取得的成功有限。近十年来,由于分子生物学的发展,发现了一些与耐盐相关的新基因,对于这些基因的表达方式及其在耐盐反应中的作用已逐步得到了解,这为转基因工程提供了新的材料。通过控制耐盐相关基因在植物体内的表达,已获得了一些提高耐盐性的转基因植物,展示了诱人的前景,但该领域研究仍然存在许多困难和问题,文章重点讨论耐盐转基因植物的进展。     

Recent Advances in Genetics of Salt Tolerance in Tomato

Salinity is an important environmental constraint to crop productivity in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Most crop plants, including tomato, Lycopersicon esculentum Mill., are sensitive to salinity throughout the ontogeny of the plant. Despite considerable research on salinity in plants, there are only a few instances where salt-tolerant cultivars have been developed. This is due in part to the complexity of the trait. A plant's response to salt stress is modulated by many physiological and agronomical characteristics, which may be controlled by the actions of several to many genes whose expressions are influenced by various environmental factors. In addition, salinity tolerance is a developmentally regulated, stage-specific phenomenon; tolerance at one stage of plant development is often not correlated with tolerance at other stages. Specific ontogenic stages should be evaluated separately for the assessment of tolerance and the identification, characterization, and utilization of useful genetic components. In tomato, genetic resources for salt tolerance have been identified largely within the related wild species, and considerable efforts have been made to characterize the genetic controls of tolerance at various developmental stages. For example, the inheritance of several tolerance-related traits has been determined and quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with tolerance at individual developmental stages have been identified and characterized. It has been determined that at each stage salt tolerance is largely controlled by a few QTLs with major effects and several QTLs with smaller effects. Different QTLs have been identified at different developmental stages, suggesting the absence of genetic relationships among stages in tolerance to salinity. Furthermore, it has been determined that in addition to QTLs which are population specific, several QTLs for salt tolerance are conserved across populations and species. Research is currently underway to develop tomatoes with improved salt tolerance throughout the ontogeny of the plant by pyramiding QTLs through marker-assisted selection (MAS). Transgenic approaches also have been employed to gain a better understanding of the genetics of salt tolerance and to develop tomatoes with improved tolerance. For example, transgenic tomatoes with overexpression of a single-gene-controlled vacuolar Na⁺/H⁺ antiport protein, transferred from Arabidopsis thaliana, have exhibited a high level of salt tolerance under greenhouse conditions. Although transgenic plants are yet to be examined for field salt tolerance and salt-tolerant tomatoes are yet to be developed by MAS, the recent genetic advances suggest a good prospect for developing commercial cultivars of tomato with enhanced salt tolerance in near future.     

Salinity Tolerance in Brassica Oilseeds

Brassica oilseed species now hold the third position among oilseed crops and are an important source of vegetable oil. The most common Brassica oil-seed crops grown for commercial purposes are rape seeds, (Brassica campestris L. and B. napus L.) and mustards (B. juncea (L.) Czern. & Coss. and B. carinata A.Br.). The other Brassica species such as B. nigra (L.) Koch and B. tournefortii Gouan are grown on a very small scale. Brassica napus, B. juncea, and B. carinata are amphidiploids, whereas B. campestris and B. nigra are diploid. Most of the Brassica species have been categorized as moderately salt tolerant, with the amphidiploid species being the relatively salt tolerant in comparison with the diploid species. Due to the higher salt tolerance of the amphidiploids, it has been suggested that their salt tolerance has been acquired from the A (B. campestris) and C (B. oleracea L.) genomes. However, significant inter- and intraspecific variation for salt tolerance exists within brassicas, which can be exploited through selection and breeding for enhancing salt tolerance of the crops. There are contrasting reports regarding the response of these species to salinity at different plant developmental stages, but in most of them it is evident that they maintain their degree of salt tolerance consistently throughout the plant ontogeny. The pattern of uptake and accumulation of toxic ions (Na⁺ and Cl^?), in tissues of plants subjected to saline conditions appears to be mostly due to mechanism of partial ion exclusion (exclusion of Na⁺ and/or Cl^?) in most of the species, although ion inclusion in some cases at intraspecific levels has also been observed. Maintenance of high tissue K⁺/Na⁺ and Ca^{2 +}/Na⁺ ratios has been suggested as an important selection criterion for salt-tolerance in brassicas. Osmotic adjustment has also been reported in Brassica plants subjected to saline conditions, but particularly to a large extent in salt-tolerant species or cultivars. The roles of important organic osmotica such as total soluble sugars, free amino acids, and free proline, which are central to osmotic adjustment, have been discussed. In canola, B. napus, no positive relationship has been observed between salt tolerance and erucic acid content of seed oil in different cultivars. Furthermore, glucosinolate content of the seed meal in canola generally increases with an increase in salt level of the growth medium. This review highlights the responses of potential Brassica crops to soil salinity from the whole plant to the molecular level. It also describes the efforts made during the past millennium in uncovering the mechanism(s) of salinity tolerance of these crops both at the whole plant and cellular levels. The important selection criteria, which are used by researchers to enhance the degree of salinity tolerance in brassicas, are summarized. In addition, the vital role of genetic engineering and molecular biology approaches to the improvement of salt tolerance in brassicas is emphasized.     

耐非生物胁迫转基因水稻的培育——现在和未来

环境胁迫严重降低了作物产量,日益减少的耕地和膨胀的人口对世界粮食安全造成了威胁。长期以来,改善作物的抗逆性一直是农业生产的主要目标。水稻是重要的粮食作物之一,培育具有抗逆性的水稻品种对全球的粮食生产将产生重要影响。在改善水稻的抗逆性方面,转基因比传统方法更有发展潜力。近年来,已有许多抗逆相关基因转入水稻并获得了一些提高抗逆性的转基因植株,文章重点讨论了耐非生物胁迫转基因水稻的研究进展。     

The maintenance of heritable variation through social competition

The paradoxical persistence of heritable variation for fitness-related traits is an evolutionary conundrum that remains a preeminent problem in evolutionary biology. Here we describe a simple mechanism in which social competition results in the evolutionary maintenance of heritable variation for fitness related traits. We demonstrate this mechanism using a genetic model with two primary assumptions: the expression of a trait depends upon success in social competition for limited resources; and competitive success of a genotype depends on the genotypes that it competes against. We find that such social competition generates heritable (additive) genetic variation for "competition-dependent" traits. This heritable variation is not eroded by continuous directional selection because, rather than leading to fixation of favored alleles, selection leads instead to allele frequency cycling due to the concerted coevolution of the social environment with the effects of alleles. Our results provide a mechanism for the maintenance of heritable variation in natural populations and suggest an area for research into the importance of competition in the genetic architecture of fitness related traits.     

Microbial ACC-Deaminase: Prospects and Applications for Inducing Salt Tolerance in Plants

Salinity is one of the most important stresses that hamper agricultural productivity in nearly every part of the world. Enhanced biosynthesis of ethylene in plants under salinity stress is well established. Higher ethylene concentration inhibits root growth and ultimately affects the overall plant growth. Overcoming this ethylene-induced root inhibition is a prerequisite for successful crop production. Recent studies have shown that ethylene level in plants is regulated by a key enzyme 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylicacid (ACC)-deaminase. This enzyme is present in plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPR) and lowers the ethylene level by metabolizing its precursor ACC into α-ketobutyrate and ammonia (NH₃). Inoculation of plants under salinity stress with PGPR having ACC-deaminase activity mitigates the inhibitory effects of salinity on root growth by lowering the ethylene concentration in the plant. This in turn results in prolific root growth, which is beneficial for the uptake of nutrients and maintenance of growth under stressful environment. The present review critically discusses the effects of salinity stress on plant growth with special reference to ethylene production and the effects of rhizobacteria containing ACC-deaminase on crop improvement under salinity stress. It also discusses how much progress has been made in producing transgenic lines of different crops over-expressing the gene encoding ACC-deaminase and how far such transformed lines can tolerate salinity stress.     

结缕草（Zoysia japonica）耐盐性的遗传分析

选用结缕草属植物耐盐性两极端类型材料Z105(耐盐)和Z061(敏盐)进行杂交,获得F1分离群体,通过叶片枯黄率和枝叶修剪干重降低百分率对F1群体的耐盐性进行鉴定,并应用植物数量性状主基因+多基因混合遗传模型分析方法对F1群体耐盐性进行遗传分析.结果表明:(1)盐胁迫下F1群体的叶片枯黄率和枝叶修剪干重降低百分率的变异范围均较大,叶片枯黄率的变异范围为10.00％～98.33％,枝叶修剪干重降低百分率的变异范围为1.87％～91.40％,均远远超出了双亲的范围,双亲的叶片枯黄率为35.00％和95.00％,双亲的枝叶修剪干重降低百分率为42.10％和84.59％.(2)叶片枯黄率的最适遗传模型为A-2模型,即1对主基因的加性模型,主基因的加性效应(d)为23.59,主基因遗传率(h2mg)为66.83％.枝叶修剪干重降低百分率的最适遗传模型为B-1模型,即两对主基因,加性-显性-上位性模型,在该群体中加性效应(da和db)分别为29.70和3.23,显性效应(ha和hb)分别为15.03和2.28,上位性效应(i,jab,jba,l)分别为-3.23、-2.28、11.44和-12.82,主基因遗传率(h2mg)为84.37％.     

燕麦分子育种研究进展

燕麦是一种主要生长在温带冷凉地区的粮饲兼用作物,近年来燕麦的营养价值和降低胆固醇特性的发现使人们认识到燕麦及其制品是一种健康食品,促进了燕麦产业发展,对燕麦品种培育提出了更高要求。在此背景下,现代生物技术与常规育种技术结合是满足这一需求的重要途经。本文综述了国内外燕麦分子育种方面的研究进展:(1)我国燕麦种质资源的收集与遗传多样性研究。我国的燕麦种质资源收集工作起始于20世纪50年代,迄今收集并保存了5282份燕麦种质资源。对这些资源的遗传多样性分析研究表明,国内的燕麦种质资源中内蒙古和山西的资源多样性最高;(2)利用各种分子标记构建燕麦遗传连锁图谱研究;(3)一些重要农艺性状的QTL定位研究以及全基因组关联分析研究。包括产量、含油量、β-葡聚糖含量、蛋白质含量、抽穗期、抗病基因、抗冻性等重要农艺性状;(4)标记辅助基因组选择技术在燕麦中的应用;(5)燕麦遗传工程育种研究进展。同时,本文将国内的主要研究进展与国外相关的最新研究成果进行了比较,并对当前分子育种中存在的问题及今后的研究方向进行了探讨,希望能为今后通过生物技术手段培育燕麦新品种提供一定的参考。     

Unlocking Allelic Diversity for Sustainable Development of Salinity Stress Tolerance in Rice

Rice is a major cereal crop, negatively impacted by soil-salinity, both in terms of plant growth as well as productivity. Salinity tolerant rice varieties have been developed using conventional breeding approaches, however, there has been limited success which is primarily due to the complexity of the trait, low yield, variable salt stress response and availability of genetic resources. Furthermore, the narrow genetic base is a hindrance for further improvement of the rice varieties. Therefore, there is a greater need to screen available donor germplasm in rice for salinity tolerance related genes and traits. In this regard, genomics based techniques are useful for exploring new gene resources and QTLs. In rice, the vast allelic diversity existing in the wild and cultivated germplasm needs to be explored for improving salt tolerance. In the present review, we provide an overview of the allelic diversity in the Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) like Saltol, qGR6.2, qSE3 and RNC4 as well as genes like OsHKT1;1, SKC1 (OsHKT1;5/HKT8) and OsSTL1 (salt tolerance level 1 gene) related to salt tolerance in rice. We have also discussed approaches for developing salt-tolerant cultivars by utilizing the effective QTLs or genes/alleles in rice.     

Female mate preferences in Drosophila simulans: evolution and costs

Female mate preference is central to sexual selection, and all indirect benefit models require that there is genetic variation in female preference. This has rarely been tested however, with relatively few studies documenting heritable variation in female preference and even fewer that have directly selected on mate preference to unequivocally show that it can evolve. Additionally, costs of mate preference are poorly understood even though these have implications for preference evolution. We selected on female preference for ebony‐males in replicate Drosophila simulans lines, and generated a rapid evolutionary response in both replicates, with the proportion of females mating with ebony‐males increasing from approximately 5% to 30% after five generations of selection. This increase was independent of changes in ebony‐males as only females were included in our selection regime. We could detect no cost to mate preference itself other than that associated with the fitness consequences of mating with ebony males.     

人工诱变技术在植物抗病育种中的应用(综述)

介绍人工诱变技术在植物抗病育种中的主要成就,并探讨其发展方向及前景。人工诱变技术与杂交育种、基因转移及离体筛选等手段相结合,提高了育种效率,拓宽了抗病育种的范围。该技术在植物抗病育种中的成功应用,将有利于培育植物抗病新品种,促进农业的增产增收及可持续发展。     

人工海水胁迫下小麦种质资源的耐盐性筛选与鉴定

利用人工配制的海水筛选耐盐性较好的小麦品种,为沿海滩涂地区的小麦耐盐育种提供重要信息。本研究利用人工海水处理的方法,对363份小麦种质资源进行了芽期耐盐性初步鉴定,筛选出芽期耐盐性为1级的小麦种质28份。进一步对芽期耐盐性较好的48份小麦种质进行了苗期耐盐性鉴定,并对其耐盐指标进行隶属值模糊评价分析,从中鉴定出了2个苗期耐盐性较强的小麦种质,分别为淮麦31和红壳洋麦。依据来源的不同,发现小麦种质资源的芽期耐盐性大小依次为地方品种>育成品种>国外引进品种。小麦芽期与苗期的耐盐性相关分析表明,二者相关性极低(r=-0.0051)。     

Arguments for the use of physiological criteria for improving the salt tolerance in crops

Efforts to develop new crop varieties with improved salt tolerance have been intensified over the past 15–20 years. Despite the existence of genetic variation for salt tolerance within species, and many methods available for expanding the source of genetic variation, there is only a limited number of varieties that have been developed with improved tolerance. These new varieties have all been based upon selection for agronomic characters such as yield or survival in saline conditions. That is, based upon characters that integrate the various physiological mechanisms responsible for tolerance. Yet over the same time period, knowledge of physiological salt responses has increased substantially.Selection and breeding to increase salt tolerance might be more successful if selection is based directly on the physiological mechanisms or characters conferring tolerance. Basic questions associated with using physiological selection criteria are discussed in the paper. These are centred around the need for genetic variation, the importance of the targeted mechanism, the ease of detection of the physiological mechanism (including the analytical requirements) and the breeding strategy. Many mechanisms, including ion exclusion, ion accumulation, compatible solute production and osmotic adjustment have been associated with genetic variation in salt tolerance. Yet their successful use in improving salt tolerance, via physiological selection criteria, is largely non-existent. Consideration is given to the role of physiological criteria in the short and long term in improving salt tolerance. In several glycophytic species, particularly legumes, physiological selection based on ion exclusion from the shoots shows promise. Recent results for white clover indicate the potential for using a broad physiological selection criterion of restricted Cl accumulation in the shoots, with scope for future refinement based upon the specific physiological characters that combined result in ion exclusion.     

跨膜离子转运蛋白与植物耐盐的分子生物学

植物抵御盐害的主要方式是增加Na 的外排、减少Na 的吸入和Na 的区隔化,而Na 的跨膜运输主要由质膜和液泡膜上的离子转运蛋白完成。对质膜和液泡膜跨膜离子转运蛋白包括K /Na 离子转运蛋白,Na /H 逆向转运蛋白以及液泡膜H -PPase的分子生物学研究及应用进展进行了综述。     

黄河三角洲盐碱地条件下不同甘薯品种耐盐性

利用北方薯区当前生产上广泛种植的甘薯新品种,在黄河三角洲盐碱地上开展种植试验,以期选育耐盐甘薯品种。对每个测试品种的重要农艺性状及盐离子含量进行分析。结果表明不同甘薯品种的耐盐性存在差异。除叶片数、分枝数、分枝长度无显著性差异外,其他农艺性状如总鲜重、鲜薯产量、薯块干率、薯干产量、薯块数等都在不同品种中达到显著水平,建议耐盐性的评价指标应以鲜薯和薯干产量为主。对甘薯新生叶片、成熟叶片、须根、块根等不同器官进行Cl-、Ca2＋、Na＋和K＋的含量分析,结果表明不同品种其不同器官中各种盐离子含量差异显著,暗示不同基因型耐盐机制存在差异。基于对鲜薯和薯干产量的比较,筛选出耐盐碱的品种,主要有‘泰中9号’、‘苏薯7号’、‘龙薯1号’、‘徐薯18’等。同时,对甘薯种植前后的土壤总盐分和营养成分的分析显示：甘薯收获后,土壤中的含盐量显著降低。本研究为沿海滩涂培育和种植耐盐碱甘薯新品种进行了有益的尝试,同时也为盐碱地改良和生物质能原材料种植提供了思路。