Abundance, distribution, and associated forage losses of pest grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acrididae) in the Argentine Pampas.

The goal of this study was to assess the status of Dichroplus elongatus and Borellia bruneri as actual agricultural pests in the Argentine Pampas by determining their abundance, distribution, and associated forage loss. The study was conducted in Laprida and Tandil, two counties in Buenos Aires province. In each county 20 sampling sites were established and monitored from 2012 to 2018. B. bruneri was more abundant and with a wider distribution in Laprida (91.4% of the sites) than in Tandil (42.1% of the sites) while D. elongatus abundance was significantly higher from 2012 to 2016 in Tandil than in Laprida and its distribution was wide in Laprida (75% of the sites) and very wide in Tandil (77.14%). Under field-cage conditions forage loss caused at three different densities (8, 16, and 32 ind/m2) of D. elongatus and B. bruneri adults on a pasture of Festuca arundinacea was estimated. Forage loss caused by D. elongatus was significantly higher than that caused by B. bruneri. Dichroplus elongatus caused a significant decrease in biomass at the three densities respect to the control, while B. bruneri only caused a significant decrease at the highest density. Our study suggests that although the gomphocerine B. bruneri is an abundant and widely-distributed species capable of doing some damage in the grasslands of the southern Pampas, it is comparatively much less harmful than the melanopline D. elongatus.

Diagnose of Indigenous Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Communities Associated to Cynara cardunculus L. var. altilis and var. sylvestris.

Cynara cardunculus L. is a perennial species with high potential for bioenergy production. Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis (AMF) is probably the terrestrial symbiosis most extended on earth. It presence in roots and soils improves plant nutrition and soil quality. Indigenous AMF have developed a variety of modifications to survive in their habitat and thus could serve as potential inoculants for the implantation of plant species in the respective AMF soil habitat. This work aimed to diagnose the status of the AMF symbiosis associated to two cardoon cultivars after a year of growth in a saline soil and in a conventional farming soil. For that purpose we determined AMF parameters in 4 rhizospheric soils and in roots of the cardoon varieties. We found that: (1) the rhizosphere of C. cardunculus var. altilis positively influenced the extraradical mycelium development in the saline soil, (2) the inorganic fertilization history of the conventional farming soil could have had a negative effect on the AMF community and, (3) the intraradical mycelium (IRM) development was extremely low. Our diagnosis suggests that, in order to improve the positive effects of AMF on cardoon growth and soil quality, efforts should be focused on the development of the IRM. In a boarder sense, the implementation of a diagnosis of indigenous AMF communities as a general agronomic practice could become an useful tool to farmers that are willing to potentiate the benefits of AMF on plant growth and soil quality.

The MAP3K-Coding QUI-GON JINN (QGJ) Gene Is Essential to the Formation of Unreduced Embryo Sacs in Paspalum.

Apomixis is a clonal mode of reproduction via seeds, which results from the failure of meiosis and fertilization in the sexual female reproductive pathway. In previous transcriptomic surveys, we identified a mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase (N46) displaying differential representation in florets of sexual and apomictic Paspalum notatum genotypes. Here, we retrieved and characterized the N46 full cDNA sequence from sexual and apomictic floral transcriptomes. Phylogenetic analyses showed that N46 was a member of the YODA family, which was re-named QUI-GON JINN (QGJ). Differential expression in florets of sexual and apomictic plants was confirmed by qPCR. In situ hybridization experiments revealed expression in the nucellus of aposporous plants' ovules, which was absent in sexual plants. RNAi inhibition of QGJ expression in two apomictic genotypes resulted in significantly reduced rates of aposporous embryo sac formation, with respect to the level detected in wild type aposporous plants and transformation controls. The QGJ locus segregated independently of apospory. However, a probe derived from a related long non-coding RNA sequence (PN_LNC_QGJ) revealed RFLP bands cosegregating with the Paspalum apospory-controlling region (ACR). PN_LNC_QGJ is expressed in florets of apomictic plants only. Our results indicate that the activity of QGJ in the nucellus of apomictic plants is necessary to form non-reduced embryo sacs and that a long non-coding sequence with regulatory potential is similar to sequences located within the ACR.

Characterization and expression analysis of SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS RECEPTOR KINASE (SERK) genes in sexual and apomictic Paspalum notatum.

The SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS RECEPTOR-LIKE KINASE (SERK) gene plays a fundamental role in somatic embryogenesis of angiosperms, and is associated with apomixis in Poa pratensis. The objective of this work was to isolate, characterize and analyze the expression patterns of SERK genes in apomictic and sexual genotypes of Paspalum notatum. A conserved 200-bp gene fragment was amplified from genomic DNA with heterologous primers, and used to initiate a chromosomal walking strategy for cloning the complete sequence. This procedure allowed the isolation of two members of the P. notatum SERK family; PnSERK1, which is similar to PpSERK1, and PnSERK2, which is similar to ZmSERK2 and AtSERK1. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that PnSERK1 and PnSERK2 represent paralogous sequences. Southern-blot hybridization indicated the presence of at least three copies of SERK genes in the species. qRT-PCR analyses revealed that PnSERK2 was expressed at significantly higher levels than PnSERK1 in roots, leaves, reproductive tissues and embryogenic calli. Moreover, in situ hybridization experiments revealed that PnSERK2 displayed a spatially and chronologically altered expression pattern in reproductive organs of the apomictic genotype with respect to the sexual one. PnSERK2 is expressed in nucellar cells of the apomictic genotype at meiosis, but only in the megaspore mother cell in the sexual genotype. Therefore, apomixis onset in P. notatum seems to be correlated with the expression of PnSERK2 in nucellar tissue.