Genetic analysis of grain protein deviation in wheat

Relatório de estágio do mestrado em Ensino da Educação Física nos Ensinos Básico e Secundário, apresentado à Faculdade de Ciências do Desporto e Educação Física da Universidade de CoimbraO Estágio Pedagógico operacionalizado na Escola Secundária de Anadia representou a possibilidade de aplicar em contexto real os conhecimentos e saberes científicos adquiridos ao longo do curso, aliados à experiência profissional já adquirida. Ao longo deste percurso assumiu particular importância a reflexão constante sobre a prática, aliada à investigação e mobilização de saberes pertinentes. É esta dinâmica que permite ao professor ser produtor da sua profissão, ser um profissional reflexivo e crítico, pois o ato de ensinar representa uma atividade transformadora da sociedade. Os professores devem questionar diariamente o que ensinam, a forma como o fazem e os objetivos que perseguem. A cultura de profissionalidade docente assenta no conhecimento pedagógico de e para a mestria. Uma das principais conclusões deste processo de formação evidencia a necessidade de ensinar e promover a aprendizagem para todos os alunos. Até os menos aptos no domínio motor podem aceder a níveis elevados de aprendizagem, desde que beneficiem de oportunidades e condições educativas apropriadas. Esta é uma preocupação que deve assistir a todos os professores, pois trata-se acima de tudo, de uma questão de responsabilidade educativa social. Apenas com professores que acreditem na importância da qualidade do ensino se pode credibilizar a Educação Física. Assiste-se a um momento de particular incerteza, sobretudo nas orientações emanadas da administração central, evidenciadas, por exemplo, na exclusão da nota de Educação Física no apuramento da média final do Ensino Secundário. Esta medida constituiu uma clara desvalorização da disciplina, com reflexos negativos na participação e empenho motor dos alunos. Cabe-nos a nós, futuros profissionais, guiados por valores éticos e morais, devolver o reconhecimento da importância inequívoca da disciplina de Educação Física, com estatuto formal igual às demais. The Teaching Practice that took place in the Secondary School of Anadia provided the possibility to apply in real context the scientific knowledge and skills acquired while taking the degree, combined with professional experience already acquired. Throughout this path, it became particularly important the constant reflection on the practice, along with the research and the use of relevant knowledge. This dynamics allows the teacher to be a producer of his career, to be a reflective and critical professional, as teaching is an activity that enables society to change. Teachers should question what they teach, how they teach and their teaching goals. The professional teaching culture is based on knowledge and teaching to mastery. One of the main conclusions of this practice process highlights the need to teach and to promote learning for all students. Even the least able at the motor domain, can have access to higher levels of learning, if they are given the educational opportunities and the appropriate conditions. This is a concern all teachers should have in mind, since that is a question of educational and social responsibility. Only the teachers who believe in the importance of the quality of education can make Physical Education more credible. We are witnessing a moment of particular uncertainty, especially in the guidelines issued by the government, seen mainly when the Physical Education marks are not taken into account to calculate the final average of Secondary School Education. This measure was a clear devaluation of this school subject, with negative effects on students’ participation and effort. It is up to us, as future professionals guided by ethical and moral values, to gain back the recognition of the clear relevance of Physical Education – a subject as important as all the others

Phenotyping pipeline reveals major seedling root growth QTL in hexaploid wheat

Seedling root traits of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) have been shown to be important for efficient establishment and linked to mature plant traits such as height and yield. A root phenotyping pipeline, consisting of a germination paper-based screen combined with image segmentation and analysis software, was developed and used to characterize seedling traits in 94 doubled haploid progeny derived from a cross between the winter wheat cultivars Rialto and Savannah. Field experiments were conducted to measure mature plant height, grain yield, and nitrogen (N) uptake in three sites over 2 years. In total, 29 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for seedling root traits were identified. Two QTLs for grain yield and N uptake co-localize with root QTLs on chromosomes 2B and 7D, respectively. Of the 29 root QTLs identified, 11 were found to co-localize on 6D, with four of these achieving highly significant logarithm of odds scores (>20). These results suggest the presence of a major-effect gene regulating seedling root vigour/growth on chromosome 6D

Leaf photosynthesis and associations with grain yield, biomass and nitrogen-use efficiency in landraces, synthetic-derived lines and cultivars in wheat

Future genetic progress in wheat grain yield will depend on increasing above-ground biomass and this must be achieved without commensurate increases in N fertilizer inputs to minimise environmental impacts. Our objective was to quantify variation in grain yield, above-ground biomass and N-use efficiency (NUE) and associated traits in a panel of diverse hexaploid wheat germplasm comprising: (i) landraces from the AE Watkins collection, (ii) synthetic-derived hexaploid lines in a cv. Paragon spring wheat background and (iii) UK modern cultivars including cv. Paragon under low N and high N conditions. A field experiment was carried out in two seasons examining 15 genotypes (five landraces, five synthetic-derived (SD) hexaploid lines and five UK modern cultivars) under low N and high N conditions at Nottingham University farm, UK. Machine-harvested grain yield, above-ground biomass and NUE were measured. Physiological traits were assessed including flag-leaf light-saturated photosynthetic rate (Amax) and relative chlorophyll content (SPAD) under HN conditions; and flag-leaf senescence duration and rate and Normalized Difference Vegetative Index (NDVI) under LN and HN conditions. Under HN conditions, the modern cultivars overall produced higher grain yield than the SD lines (+9.7%) and the landraces (+60.4%); and the modern cultivars and SD lines also produced higher biomass than the landraces (30.3% and 28.4%, respectively). Under LN conditions, reduction in grain yield and biomass compared to HN conditions was least for the landraces (−1% and −8.6%, respectively), intermediate for the SD lines (−7.4 and −10.2%, respectively) and highest for the modern cultivars (−9.3 and −24.6%, respectively). As a result, the SD lines had higher biomass (+17%) than the modern cultivars under LN conditions. Under HN conditions the synthetic derivatives (23.8 μmol m−2 s−1) and modern cultivars (241.1 μmol m−2 s−1) had higher pre-anthesis Amax than the landraces (19.7 μmol m−2 s−1) (P < 0.001). Pre-anthesis Amax was strongly positively linearly associated with above-ground biomass (R2 = 0.63, P < 0.001) and grain yield (R2 = 0.75, P < 0.001) amongst the 15 genotypes. Flag-leaf Amax was also positively linearly associated with flag-leaf relative chlorophyll content at anthesis (R2 = 0.74; P < 0.001). Comparing the SD lines to the recurrent parent Paragon, under HN conditions one line (SD 22) had higher pre-anthesis flag-leaf Amax than Paragon (P < 0.05). Under LN conditions one line (SD 24, +27%) had higher yield than Paragon (P < 0.05) and two lines (SD 24 and SD 38, +32% and +31%, respectively) had more biomass than Paragon (P < 0.05). Our results indicated that introgressing traits from synthetic-derived wheat and landraces into UK modern wheat germplasm offers scope to raise above-ground biomass and grain yield in moderate-to-low N availability environments

Meeting the Challenges Facing Wheat Production The Strategic Research Agenda of the Global Wheat Initiative

Wheat occupies a special role in global food security since, in addition to providing 20% of our carbohydrates and protein, almost 25% of the global production is traded internationally. The importance of wheat for food security was recognised by the Chief Agricultural Scientists of the G20 group of countries when they endorsed the establishment of the Wheat Initiative in 2011. The Wheat Initiative was tasked with supporting the wheat research community by facilitating col-laboration, information and resource sharing and helping to build the capacity to address chal-lenges facing production in an increasingly variable environment. Many countries invest in wheat research. Innovations in wheat breeding and agronomy have delivered enormous gains over the past few decades, with the average global yield increasing from just over 1 tonne per hectare in the early 1960s to around 3.5 tonnes in the past decade. These gains are threatened by climate change, the rapidly rising financial and environmental costs of fertilizer, and pesticides, combined with declines in water availability for irrigation in many regions. The international wheat research community has worked to identify major opportunities to help ensure that global wheat pro-duction can meet demand. The outcomes of these discussions are presented in this paper

Heterologous Expression of ATG8c from Soybean Confers Tolerance to Nitrogen Deficiency and Increases Yield in Arabidopsis

Nitrogen is an essential element for plant growth and yield. Improving Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) of crops could potentially reduce the application of chemical fertilizer and alleviate environmental damage. To identify new NUE genes is therefore an important task in molecular breeding. Macroautophagy (autophagy) is an intracellular process in which damaged or obsolete cytoplasmic components are encapsulated in double membraned vesicles termed autophagosomes, then delivered to the vacuole for degradation and nutrient recycling. One of the core components of autophagosome formation, ATG8, has been shown to directly mediate autophagosome expansion, and the transcript of which is highly inducible upon starvation. Therefore, we postulated that certain homologs of Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATG8 (ScATG8) from crop species could have potential for NUE crop breeding. A soybean (Glycine max, cv. Zhonghuang-13) ATG8, GmATG8c, was selected from the 11 family members based on transcript analysis upon nitrogen deprivation. GmATG8c could partially complement the yeast atg8 mutant. Constitutive expression of GmATG8c in soybean callus cells not only enhanced nitrogen starvation tolerance of the cells but accelerated the growth of the calli. Transgenic Arabidopsis over-expressing GmATG8c performed better under extended nitrogen and carbon starvation conditions. Meanwhile, under optimum growth conditions, the transgenic plants grew faster, bolted earlier, produced larger primary and axillary inflorescences, eventually produced more seeds than the wild-type. In average, the yield was improved by 12.9%. We conclude that GmATG8c may serve as an excellent candidate for breeding crops with enhanced NUE and better yield