Reap the crop wild relatives for breeding future crops.

Crop wild relatives (CWRs) have provided breeders with several 'game-changing' traits or genes that have boosted crop resilience and global agricultural production. Advances in breeding and genomics have accelerated the identification of valuable CWRs for use in crop improvement. The enhanced genetic diversity of breeding pools carrying optimum combinations of favorable alleles for targeted crop-growing regions is crucial to sustain genetic gain. In parallel, growing sequence information on wild genomes in combination with precise gene-editing tools provide a fast-track route to transform CWRs into ideal future crops. Data-informed germplasm collection and management strategies together with adequate policy support will be equally important to improve access to CWRs and their sustainable use to meet food and nutrition security targets.

Priority regions for research on dryland cereals and legumes.

Dryland cereals and legumes  are important crops in farming systems across the world.  Yet they are frequently neglected among the priorities for international agricultural research and development, often due to lack of information on their magnitude and extent. Given what we know about the global distribution of dryland cereals and legumes, what regions should be high priority for research and development to improve livelihoods and food security? This research evaluated the geographic dimensions of these crops and the farming systems where they are found worldwide. The study employed geographic information science and data to assess the key farming systems and regions for these crops. Dryland cereal and legume crops should be given high priority in 18 farming systems worldwide, where their cultivated area comprises more than 160 million ha. These regions include the dryer areas of South Asia, West and East Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Central America and other parts of Asia. These regions are prone to drought and heat stress, have limiting soil constraints, make up half of the global population and account for 60 percent of the global poor and malnourished. The dryland cereal and legume crops and farming systems merit more research and development attention to improve productivity and address development problems. This project developed an open access dataset and information resource that provides the basis for future analysis of the geographic dimensions of dryland cereals and legumes.

Application of T-DNA activation tagging to identify glutamate receptor-like genes that enhance drought tolerance in plants.

KEY MESSAGE: A high-quality rice activation tagging population has been developed and screened for drought-tolerant lines using various water stress assays. One drought-tolerant line activated two rice glutamate receptor-like genes. Transgenic overexpression of the rice glutamate receptor-like genes conferred drought tolerance to rice and Arabidopsis. Rice (Oryza sativa) is a multi-billion dollar crop grown in more than one hundred countries, as well as a useful functional genetic tool for trait discovery. We have developed a population of more than 200,000 activation-tagged rice lines for use in forward genetic screens to identify genes that improve drought tolerance and other traits that improve yield and agronomic productivity. The population has an expected coverage of more than 90 % of rice genes. About 80 % of the lines have a single T-DNA insertion locus and this molecular feature simplifies gene identification. One of the lines identified in our screens, AH01486, exhibits improved drought tolerance. The AH01486 T-DNA locus is located in a region with two glutamate receptor-like genes. Constitutive overexpression of either glutamate receptor-like gene significantly enhances the drought tolerance of rice and Arabidopsis, thus revealing a novel function of this important gene family in plant biology.

Complex regulation by Apetala2 domain-containing transcription factors revealed through analysis of the stress-responsive TdCor410b promoter from durum wheat.

Expression of the wheat dehydrin gene Cor410b is induced several fold above its non-stressed levels upon exposure to stresses such as cold, drought and wounding. Deletion analysis of the TdCor410b promoter revealed a single functional C-repeat (CRT) element. Seven transcription factors (TFs) were shown to bind to this CRT element using yeast one-hybrid screens of wheat and barley cDNA libraries, of which only one belonged to the DREB class of TFs. The remaining six encoded ethylene response factors (ERFs) belong to three separate subfamilies. Analysis of binding selectivity of these TFs indicated that all seven could bind to the CRT element (GCCGAC), and that three of the six ERFs could bind both to the CRT element and the ethylene-responsive GCC-box (GCCGCC). The TaERF4 subfamily members specifically bound the CRT element, and did not bind either the GCC-box or DRE element (ACCGAC). Molecular modeling and site-directed mutagenesis identified a single residue Pro42 in the Apetala2 (AP2) domain of TaERF4-like proteins that is conserved in monocotyledonous plants and is responsible for the recognition selectivity of this subfamily. We suggest that both DREB and ERF proteins regulate expression of the Cor410b gene through a single, critical CRT element. Members of the TaERF4 subfamily are specific, positive regulators of Cor410b gene expression.