Transcriptomic analysis provides insight into the genetic regulation of shade avoidance in Aegilops tauschii.

BACKGROUND: Weeds are not only economically important but also fascinating models for studying the adaptation of species in human-mediated environments. Aegilops tauschii is the D-genome donor species of common wheat but is also a weed that influences wheat production. How shading stress caused by adjacent wheat plants affects Ae. tauschii growth is a fundamental scientific question but is also important in agriculture, such as for weed control and wheat breeding. RESULT: The present study indicated that shade avoidance is a strategy of Ae. tauschii in response to shading stress. Ae. tauschii plants exhibited growth increases in specific organs, such as stem and leaf elongation, to avoid shading. However, these changes were accompanied by sacrificing the growth of other parts of the plants, such as a reduction in tiller number. The two reverse phenotype responses seem to be formed by systemically regulating the expression of different genes. Fifty-six genes involved in the regulation of cell division and cell expansion were found to be downregulated, and one key upstream negative regulator (RPK2) of cell division was upregulated under shading stress. On the other hand, the upregulated genes under shading stress were mainly enriched in protein serine/threonine kinase activity and carbon metabolism, which are associated with cell enlargement, signal transduction and energy supply. The transcription factor WRKY72 may be important in regulating genes in response to shading stress, which can be used as a prior candidate gene for further study on the genetic regulation of shade avoidance. CONCLUSIONS: This study sheds new light on the gene expression changes and molecular processes involved in the response and avoidance of Ae. tauschii to shading stress, which may aid more effective development of shading stress avoidance or cultivars in wheat and other crops in the future.

An Equivalent Substitute Strategy for Constructing 3D Ordered Porous Carbon Foams and Their Electromagnetic Attenuation Mechanism.

Three-dimensional (3D) ordered porous carbon is generally believed to be a promising electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbing material. However, most research works targeted performance improvement of 3D ordered porous carbon, and the specific attenuation mechanism is still ambiguous. Therefore, in this work, a novel ultra-light egg-derived porous carbon foam (EDCF) structure has been successfully constructed by a simple carbonization combined with the silica microsphere template-etching process. Based on an equivalent substitute strategy, the influence of pore volume and specific surface area on the electromagnetic parameters and EMW absorption properties of the EDCF products was confirmed respectively by adjusting the addition content and diameter of silica microspheres. As a primary attenuation mode, the dielectric loss originates from the comprehensive effect of conduction loss and polarization loss in S-band and C band, and the value is dominated by polarization loss in X band and Ku band, which is obviously greater than that of conduction loss. Furthermore, in all samples, the largest effective absorption bandwidth of EDCF-3 is 7.12 GHz under the thickness of 2.13 mm with the filling content of approximately 5 wt%, covering the whole Ku band. Meanwhile, the EDCF-7 sample with optimized pore volume and specific surface area achieves minimum reflection loss (RLmin) of - 58.08 dB at 16.86 GHz while the thickness is 1.27 mm. The outstanding research results not only provide a novel insight into enhancement of EMW absorption properties but also clarify the dominant dissipation mechanism for the porous carbon-based absorber from the perspective of objective experiments.

Chromosome Stability of Synthetic-Natural Wheat Hybrids.

Primary allopolyploids are not only ideal materials to study species evolution, but also important bridges in incorporating genetic diversity of wild species into crops. Primary allopolyploids typically exhibit chromosome instability that a disadvantage trait in crop breeding. Newly synthesized hexaploid wheat has been widely used in wheat genetics and breeding studies. To better understand the cytological and genetic basis of chromosome instability, this study investigated the chromosomes of a large number of seeds derived from the synthetic wheat SHW-L1 and its hybrids with natural wheat. SHW-L1 exhibited persistent chromosome instability since we observed a high frequent chromosome variation de novo generated from euploid SHW-L1 plants at the 14th generation of selfing (F14). High frequent chromosome variations were also observed in the F2 hybrids and most of the analyzed recombinant inbred lines (RILs) at F14, derived from the cross of SHW-L1 with common wheat variety Chuanmai 32. Chromosome instability was associated with frequent univalency during meiotic metaphase I. The experiment on reciprocal crosses between SHW-L1 and Chuanmai 32 indicated that cytoplasm has not obvious effects on chromosome instability. An analysis on 48 F14 RILs revealed chromosome variation frequency was not associated with the Ph1 alleles from either SHW-L1 or Chuanmai 32, rejecting the hypothesis that chromosome instability was due to the Ph1 role of synthetic wheat. In the analyzed RILs, chromosome instability influences the phenotype uniformity, showing as obvious trait differences among plants within a RIL. However, the analyzed commercial varieties only containing ∼12.5% genomic components of synthetic wheat were chromosomally stable, indicating that chromosome instability caused by synthetic wheat can be effectively overcome by increasing the genetic background of common wheat.

A transcriptomic view of the ability of nascent hexaploid wheat to tolerate aneuploidy.

BACKGROUND: In contrast to most animal species, polyploid plant species are quite tolerant of aneuploidy. Here, the global transcriptome of four aneuploid derivatives of a synthetic hexaploid wheat line was acquired, with the goal of characterizing the relationship between gene copy number and transcript abundance. RESULTS: For most of the genes mapped to the chromosome involved in aneuploidy, the abundance of transcripts reflected the gene copy number. Aneuploidy had a greater effect on the strength of transcription of genes mapped to the chromosome present in a noneuploid dose than on that of genes mapped elsewhere in the genome. Overall, changing the copy number of one member of a homeologous set had little effect on the abundance of transcripts generated from the set of homeologs as a whole, consistent with the tolerance of aneuploidy exhibited by allopolyploids, whether in the form of a chromosomal deficit (monosomy) or chromosomal excess (trisomy). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings shed new light on the genetic regulation of homeoallele transcription and contribute to a deeper understanding of allopolyploid genome evolution, with implications for the breeding of polyploid crops.

Karyotype mosaicism in early generation synthetic hexaploid wheats.

It is known that both the number and the structure of somatic chromosomes can vary in early generation hexaploid wheats. The phenomenon is generally assumed to arise as a result of the meiotic instability characteristic of freshly created allopolyploids. Here, an analysis of the somatic karyotype of a set of 33 early generation synthetic hexaploid wheats has revealed that variation, taking the form of sub-chromosomal fragments and inter-chromosomal translocations, can also arise in somatic tissue. A possible explanation for the observations was that karyotypic instability in early generation hexaploid wheat probably occurs not just during sporogenesis, but also in somatic tissue. However, other factors such as the use of nitrous oxide during the experiments could also cause the chromosome variations, and additional experimentation would be required to determine the most likely.

A breeding strategy targeting the secondary gene pool of bread wheat: introgression from a synthetic hexaploid wheat.

KEY MESSAGE: Introgressing one-eighth of synthetic hexaploid wheat genome through a double top-cross plus a two-phase selection is an effective strategy to develop high-yielding wheat varieties. The continued expansion of the world population and the likely onset of climate change combine to form a major crop breeding challenge. Genetic advances in most crop species to date have largely relied on recombination and reassortment within a relatively narrow gene pool. Here, we demonstrate an efficient wheat breeding strategy for improving yield potentials by introgression of multiple genomic regions of de novo synthesized wheat. The method relies on an initial double top-cross (DTC), in which one parent is synthetic hexaploid wheat (SHW), followed by a two-phase selection procedure. A genotypic analysis of three varieties (Shumai 580, Shumai 969 and Shumai 830) released from this program showed that each harbors a unique set of genomic regions inherited from the SHW parent. The first two varieties were generated from very small populations, whereas the third used a more conventional scale of selection since one of bread wheat parents was a pre-breeding material. The three varieties had remarkably enhanced yield potential compared to those developed by conventional breeding. A widely accepted consensus among crop breeders holds that introducing unadapted germplasm, such as landraces, as parents into a breeding program is a risky proposition, since the size of the breeding population required to overcome linkage drag becomes too daunting. However, the success of the proposed DTC strategy has demonstrated that novel variation harbored by SHWs can be accessed in a straightforward, effective manner. The strategy is in principle generalizable to any allopolyploid crop species where the identity of the progenitor species is known.

The karyotype of Aegilops geniculata and its use to identify both addition and substitution lines of wheat.

BACKGROUND: The annual allotetraploid species Aegilops geniculata harbors a number of traits relevant for wheat improvement. An effective cytogenetic method has yet to be developed to distinguish between each of its 14 chromosomes. RESULTS: A fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) approach was adopted to describe the karyotype of Ae. geniculata. Each of its 14 chromosomes was unequivocally recognized using a cocktail of three probes, namely pTa-713, (AAC)5 and pTa71. FISH karyotyping was then used to detect and characterize selections from an Ae. geniculata × bread wheat wide cross of a chromosome 1Mg disomic addition line and three 4Mg(4B) substitution lines. The identity of the addition line was confirmed by the presence of Glu-M1, detected both using an SDS-PAGE separation of endosperm proteins and by applying a PCR assay directed at the Glu-M1 locus. The status of the substitution lines was validated by genotyping using a wheat single nucleotide polymorphism chip. CONCLUSION: FISH karyotyping based on pTa-713, (AAC)5 and pTa71 will be useful for determining the contribution of Ae. geniculata to derivatives of an Ae. geniculata × wheat wide cross. SNP chip-based genotyping is effective for confirming the status of whole chromosome wheat/alien substitution lines.

Fluorescence in situ hybridization karyotyping reveals the presence of two distinct genomes in the taxon Aegilops tauschii.

BACKGROUND: Aegilops tauschii is the donor of the bread wheat D genome. Based on spike morphology, the taxon has conventionally been subdivided into ssp. tauschii and ssp. strangulata. The present study was intended to address the poor match between this whole plant morphology-based subdivision and genetic relationships inferred from genotyping by fluorescence in situ hybridization karyotyping a set of 31 Ae. tauschii accessions. RESULTS: The distribution of sites hybridizing to the two probes oligo-pTa-535 and (CTT)10 split the Ae. tauschii accessions into two clades, designated Dt and Ds, which corresponded perfectly with a previously assembled phylogeny based on marker genotype. The Dt cluster was populated exclusively by ssp. tauschii accessions, while the Ds cluster harbored both ssp. strangulata and morphologically intermediate accessions. As a result, it is proposed that Ae. tauschii ssp. tauschii is restricted to carriers of the Dt karyotype: their spikelets are regularly spaced along the rachis, at least in the central portion of their spike. Accessions classified as Ae. tauschii ssp. strangulata carry the Ds karyotype; their spikelets are irregularly spaced. Based on this criterion, forms formerly classified as ssp. tauschii var. meyeri have been re-designated ssp. strangulata var. meyeri. CONCLUSIONS: According to the reworking of the taxon, the bread wheat D genome was most probably donated by ssp. strangulata var. meyeri. Chromosomal differentiation reveals intra-species taxon of Ae. tauschii. Ae. tauschii ssp. tauschii has more distant relationship with breed wheat than ssp. strangulata and can be used for breeding improving effectively.

Cytological identification of an Aegilops variabilis chromosome carrying stripe rust resistance in wheat.

Aegilops variabilis (UUSvSv), an important sources for wheat improvement, originated from chromosome doubling of a natural hybrid between Ae. umbellulata (UU) with Ae. longissima (SlSl). The Ae. variabilis karyotype was poorly characterized by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). The FISH probe combination of pSc119.2, pTa71 and pTa-713 identified each of the 14 pairs of Ae. variabilis chromosomes. Our FISH ideogram was further used to detect an Ae. variabilis chromosome carrying stripe rust resistance in the background of wheat lines developed from crosses of the stripe rust susceptible bread wheat cultivar Yiyuan 2 with a resistant Ae. variabilis accession. Among the 15 resistant BC1F7 lines, three were 2Sv + 4Sv addition lines (2n = 46) and 12 were 2Sv(2B) or 2Sv(2D) substitution lines that were confirmed with SSR markers. SSR marker gwm148 can be used to trace 2Sv in common wheat background. Chromosome 2Sv probably carries gametocidal(Gc) gene(s) since cytological instability and chromosome structural variations, including non-homologous translocations, were observed in some lines with this chromosome. Due to the effects of photoperiod genes, substitution lines 2Sv(2D) and 2Sv(2B) exhibited late heading with 2Sv(2D) lines being later than 2Sv(2B) lines. 2Sv(2D) substitution lines were also taller and exhibited higher spikelet numbers and longer spikes.