Karnal bunt resistance in synthetic hexaploid wheats (SH) derived from durum wheat × Aegilops tauschii combinations and in some SH × bread wheat derivatives

Bridge crosses utilizing the D genome synthetic hexaploids (SH), Triticum turgidum / Aegilops tauschii (2n = 6x = 42, AABBDD), are a potent means of improving bread wheat ( T. aestivum ) for biotic and abiotic stresses. The synthetic germplasm enables incorporation of the genetic diversity of T. turgidum cultivars together with the attributes of the Ae. tauschii accessions. In this research, SH wheats were screened for karnal bunt in Obregon, Mexico over six crop cycles and several SHs were earlier identified with an immune response. These SHs have unique Ae. tauschii accessions as parents. Phenologically descriptors and additional trait evaluations led us to develop a sub-set of the most desirable combinations for wheat breeding. The SH wheats are generally tall, late to mature, have good agronomic type, and are non-free threshing with a high 1000 kernel weight. All have a spring growth habit with several possessing multiple stress resistances. The resistance exhibited by SH wheats has been transferred into elite but KB susceptible bread wheat cultivars thus generating a new and unique genetic resource that can be readily exploited by conventional breeding programs

Alleviation of cadmium toxicity in Brassica juncea L. (Czern. & Coss.) by calcium application involves various physiological and biochemical strategies.

Calcium (Ca) plays important role in plant development and response to various environmental stresses. However, its involvement in mitigation of heavy metal stress in plants remains elusive. In this study, we examined the effect of Ca (50 mM) in controlling cadmium (Cd) uptake in mustard (Brassica juncea L.) plants exposed to toxic levels of Cd (200 mg L(-1) and 300 mg L(-1)). The Cd treatment showed substantial decrease in plant height, root length, dry weight, pigments and protein content. Application of Ca improved the growth and biomass yield of the Cd-stressed mustard seedlings. More importantly, the oil content of mustard seeds of Cd-stressed plants was also enhanced with Ca treatment. Proline was significantly increased in mustard plants under Cd stress, and exogenously sprayed Ca was found to have a positive impact on proline content in Cd-stressed plants. Different concentrations of Cd increased lipid peroxidation but the application of Ca minimized it to appreciable level in Cd-treated plants. Excessive Cd treatment enhanced the activities of antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase and glutathione reductase, which were further enhanced by the addition of Ca. Additionally, Cd stress caused reduced uptake of essential elements and increased Cd accumulation in roots and shoots. However, application of Ca enhanced the concentration of essential elements and decreased Cd accumulation in Cd-stressed plants. Our results indicated that application of Ca enables mustard plant to withstand the deleterious effect of Cd, resulting in improved growth and seed quality of mustard plants

Genome-wide association studies of seven agronomic traits under two sowing conditions in bread wheat

Abstract Background Wheat is a cool seasoned crop requiring low temperature during grain filling duration and therefore increased temperature causes significant yield reduction. A set of 125 spring wheat genotypes from International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT-Mexico) was evaluated for phenological and yield related traits at three locations in Pakistan under normal sowing time and late sowing time for expose to prolonged high temperature. With the help of genome-wide association study using genotyping-by-sequencing, marker trait associations (MTAs) were observed separately for the traits under normal and late sown conditions. Results Significant reduction ranging from 9 to 74% was observed in all traits under high temperature. Especially 30, 25, 41 and 66% reduction was observed for days to heading (DH), plant height (PH), spikes per plant (SPP) and yield respectively. We identified 55,954 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using genotyping by sequencing of these 125 hexaploid spring wheat genotypes and conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for days to heading (DH), grain filled duration (GFD), plant height (PH), spikes per plant (SPP), grain number per spike (GNS), thousand kernel weight (TKW) and grain yield per plot (GY). Genomic regions identified through GWAS explained up to 13% of the phenotypic variance, on average. A total of 139 marker-trait associations (MTAs) across three wheat genomes (56 on genome A, 55 on B and 28 on D) were identified for all the seven traits studied. For days to heading, 20; grain filled duration, 21; plant height, 23; spikes per plant, 13; grain numbers per spike, 8; thousand kernel weight, 21 and for grain yield, 33 MTAs were detected under normal and late sown conditions. Conclusions This study identifies the essential resource of genetics research and underpins the chromosomal regions of seven agronomic traits under normal and high temperature. Significant relationship was observed between the number of favored alleles and trait observations. Fourteen protein coding genes with their respective annotations have been searched with the sequence of seven MTAs which were identified in this study. These findings will be helpful in the development of a breeder friendly platform for the selection of high yielding wheat lines at high temperature areas

Effect of Ca on malondialdehyde (MDA) content in leaves of mustard plants under Cd stress at different stages of growth.

<p>Data presented are the means ± SE (n = 5). Different letters indicate significant difference (<i>P</i> < 0.05) among the treatments within a developmental stage. Symbols $, £ and ¥ denote significant change among the different developmental stage in the same treatment. DAT, days after treatment; FW, fresh weight.</p