Evaluating contribution of ionic, osmotic and oxidative stress components towards salinity tolerance in barley.

BACKGROUND: Salinity tolerance is a physiologically multi-faceted trait attributed to multiple mechanisms. Three barley (Hordeum vulgare) varieties contrasting in their salinity tolerance were used to assess the relative contribution of ionic, osmotic and oxidative stress components towards overall salinity stress tolerance in this species, both at the whole-plant and cellular levels. In addition, transcriptional changes in the gene expression profile were studied for key genes mediating plant ionic and oxidative homeostasis (NHX; RBOH; SOD; AHA and GORK), to compare a contribution of transcriptional and post-translational factors towards the specific components of salinity tolerance. RESULTS: Our major findings are two-fold. First, plant tissue tolerance was a dominating component that has determined the overall plant responses to salinity, with root K(+) retention ability and reduced sensitivity to stress-induced hydroxyl radical production being the main contributing tolerance mechanisms. Second, it was not possible to infer which cultivars were salinity tolerant based solely on expression profiling of candidate genes at one specific time point. For the genes studied and the time point selected that transcriptional changes in the expression of these specific genes had a small role for barley's adaptive responses to salinity. CONCLUSIONS: For better tissue tolerance, sodium sequestration, K(+) retention and resistance to oxidative stress all appeared to be crucial. Because these traits are highly interrelated, it is suggested that a major progress in crop breeding for salinity tolerance can be achieved only if these complementary traits are targeted at the same time. This study also highlights the essentiality of post translational modifications in plant adaptive responses to salinity.

Genetic and physiological traits for internal phosphorus utilization efficiency in rice.

Phosphorus (P) is an essential macronutrient for plant growth and development. Phosphorus is usually applied as fertilizer obtained from rock phosphate which is a non-renewable resource. Therefore, developing rice varieties that can use P more efficiently is crucial. Here, we investigated genotypic differences in traits related to internal Phosphorus Utilization Efficiency (PUE) in five rice genotypes grown under P-deficient conditions. P-efficient rice genotypes showed higher total biomass. This was partly due to higher root biomass, which in turn relied on preferential allocation of P to roots in these genotypes. Changes in P content and tissue P concentrations were analyzed in individual leaves at different time points. Genotypes belonging to the high-PUE group responded more quickly to P starvation in terms of reducing leaf P concentrations and they were able to reduce these concentrations to a lower level compared to the low-PUE group. Changes in P concentrations were reflected in gene expression levels for genes involved in lipid remodeling. Sulfolipid (OsSQD2) and galactolipid (OsMGD and OsDGD) synthesis-related genes were generally induced due to P starvation with most pronounced up-regulation in OsDGD1 and OsMGD3, but patterns differed between genotypes. A significantly higher expression of OsDGD5 and OsMGD1 & 2 was detected in the youngest fully expanded leaf of the high-PUE genotype group, whereas expression levels were reversed in older leaves. This pattern would confirm that P efficient genotypes react faster to P starvation in terms of freeing P for redistribution to growing tissues and replacing phospholipids with galactolipids in younger leaves may contribute to this aspect.