Leonardvinding7470

another. These findings have important implications for local scale dynamic vegetation models. Copyright © 2020 Fyllas, Michelaki, Galanidis, Evangelou, Zaragoza-Castells, Dimitrakopoulos, Tsadilas, Arianoutsou and Lloyd.Advances in plant synthetic biology promise to introduce novel agricultural products in the near future. 'Molecular farms' will include crops engineered to produce medications, vaccines, biofuels, industrial enzymes, and other high value compounds. These crops have the potential to reduce costs while dramatically increasing scales of synthesis and provide new economic opportunities to farmers. Current transgenic crops may be considered safe given their long-standing use, however, some applications of molecular farming may pose risks to human health and the environment. Unwanted gene flow from engineered crops could potentially contaminate the food supply, and affect wildlife. There is also potential for unwanted gene flow into engineered crops which may alter their ability to produce compounds of interest. Here, we briefly discuss the applications of molecular farming and explore the various genetic and physical methods that can be used for transgene biocontainment. As yet, no technology can be applied to all crop species, such that a combination of approaches may be necessary. Effective biocontainment is needed to enable large scale molecular farming. Copyright © 2020 Clark and Maselko.The cytoplasmic genome of one species may be replaced by that of another species without leaving any trace of past hybridization in its nuclear genome, which can thus confuse the inference of genealogical relationship and evolutionary history of many congeneric species. In this study, we used sequence variations of chloroplast DNA and restriction site-associated DNA to investigate gene exchange between Castanopsis fabri and Castanopsis lamontii, and to infer the divergence history of the two species by comparing different divergence models based on the joint allele frequency spectrum. We evaluated climatic niche similarity of the two species using climatic variables across their entire distribution range in subtropical China. Clear genetic differentiation was revealed between C. fabri and C. lamontii, and gene exchange between the two species was discovered as a consequence of secondary contact. The gene exchange rates were variable across the genome. Gene exchange could allow C. fabri to widen its habitat through pollen swamping and broaden its climatic niche, and the chloroplast genome of C. lamontii is captured by C. fabri during this process. These results further our understanding of the timing and contribution of gene exchange to species divergence in forests. Copyright © 2020 Sun and Wen.Untangling the genetic architecture of grain yield (GY) and yield stability is an important determining factor to optimize genomics-assisted selection strategies in wheat. We conducted in-depth investigation on the above using a large set of advanced bread wheat lines (4,302), which were genotyped with genotyping-by-sequencing markers and phenotyped under contrasting (irrigated and stress) environments. Haplotypes-based genome-wide-association study (GWAS) identified 58 associations with GY and 15 with superiority index Pi (measure of stability). Sixteen associations with GY were "environment-specific" with two on chromosomes 3B and 6B with the large effects and 8 associations were consistent across environments and trials. For Pi, 8 associations were from chromosomes 4B and 7B, indicating 'hot spot' regions for stability. Epistatic interactions contributed to an additional 5-9% variation on average. We further explored whether integrating consistent and robust associations identified in GWAS as fixed effects in prediction models improves prediction accuracy. For GY, the model accounting for the haplotype-based GWAS loci as fixed effects led to up to 9-10% increase in prediction accuracy, whereas for Pi this approach did not provide any advantage. This is the first report of integrating genetic architecture of GY and yield stability into prediction models in wheat. Copyright © 2020 Sehgal, Rosyara, Mondal, Singh, Poland and Dreisigacker.It is unclear whether light affects the structure and activity of exogenous secretory tissues like glandular hairs. Therefore, transmission electron microscopy was first used to study plastid differentiation in glandular hairs and leaves of light-grown rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis "Arp") plants kept for 2 weeks under ambient light conditions. During our detailed analyses, among others, we found leucoplasts with tubuloreticular membrane structures resembling prolamellar bodies in stalk cell plastids of peltate glandular hairs. To study the effect of darkness on plastid differentiation, we then dark-forced adult, light-grown rosemary plants for 2 weeks and observed occasionally the development of new shoots with elongated internodes and pale leaves on them. Absorption and fluorescence spectroscopic analyses of the chlorophyllous pigment contents, the native arrangement of the pigment-protein complexes and photosynthetic activity confirmed that the first and second pairs of leaf primordia of dark-forced shooon. Therefore, light conditions and developmental stage are both important factors to be considered in case of potential therapeutic, culinary or aromatic uses of rosemary leaves and their essential oils. Copyright © 2020 Böszörményi, Dobi, Skribanek, Pávai and Solymosi.The Euonymus lectin (EUL) family is a unique group of carbohydrate-binding proteins that is omnipresent in plants. Sequences encoding EUL-related lectins have been retrieved from all completely sequenced plant genomes. The rice (Oryza sativa) genome contains 5 functional EUL genes referred to as OsEULS2, OsEULS3, OsEULD1a, OsEULD1b, and OsEULD2. In this study we focused on the tissue specific expression, stress inducibility and subcellular localization of the rice EULs. Even though the EUL domain sequence is highly conserved among the rice EULs (at least 80% sequence similarity) different biotic and abiotic stress treatments yielded unique responses for the different EULs. Transcript levels for OsEULs were differentially affected by drought and salt stress, ABA treatment, pathogen infection or insect infestation. Analysis of promoter activity revealed differential expression and tissue specificity for the 5 OsEUL genes, with most expression observed in the vascular system of roots and shoots, as well as in the root tips and seeds. At cell level, all OsEULs are located in the nucleus whereas OsEULD1b and OsEULD2 also locate to the cytoplasm. This paper contributes to the functional characterization of the EULs and provides insight in the biological importance of this family of proteins for rice. Copyright © 2020 Lambin, Demirel Asci, Dubiel, Tsaneva, Verbeke, Wytynck, De Zaeytijd, Smagghe, Subramanyam and Van Damme.Epigenetics refers to the mode of inheritance independent of mutational changes in the DNA. Early evidence has revealed methylation, acetylation, and phosphorylation of histones, as well as methylation of DNA as part of the underlying mechanisms. The recent awareness that many human diseases have in fact an epigenetic basis, due to unbalanced diets, has led to a resurgence of interest in how epigenetics might be connected with, or even controlled by, metabolism. The Next-Generation genomic technologies have now unleashed torrents of results exposing a wondrous array of metabolites that are covalently attached to selective sites on histones, DNA and RNA. Metabolites are often cofactors or targets of chromatin-modifying enzymes. Many metabolites themselves can be acetylated or methylated. This indicates that the acetylome and methylome can actually be deep and pervasive networks to ensure the nuclear activities are coordinated with the metabolic status of the cell. The discovery of novel histone marks also raises the question on the types of pathways by which their corresponding metabolites are replenished, how they are corralled to the specific histone residues and how they are recognized. Further, atypical cytosines and uracil have also been found in eukaryotic genomes. Although these new and extensive connections between metabolism and epigenetics have been established mostly in animal models, parallels must exist in plants, inasmuch as many of the basic components of chromatin and its modifying enzymes are conserved. Plants are chemical factories constantly responding to stress. Plants, therefore, should lend themselves readily for identifying new endogenous metabolites that are also modulators of nuclear activities in adapting to stress. Copyright © 2020 Leung and Gaudin.Uncovering the genetic basis of yield-related traits is important for molecular improvement of wheat cultivars. In this study, a genome-wide association study was conducted using the wheat 55K genotyping assay and a diverse panel of 384 wheat genotypes. The accessions used included 18 founder parents and 15 widely grown cultivars with annual maximum acreages of over 667,000 ha, and the remaining materials were elite cultivars and breeding lines from several major wheat ecological areas of China. Field trials were conducted in five major wheat ecological regions of China over three consecutive years. A total of 460 significant loci were detected for eight yield-related traits. Forty-five superior alleles distributed over 31 loci for which differences in phenotypic values grouped by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) reached significant levels (P less then 0.05) in nine or more environments, were detected; some of these loci were previously reported. Eleven of the 31 superior allele loci on chromosomes 4A, or yield improvement and dissecting the genetic mechanism of important cultivars in wheat. Copyright © 2020 Li, Xu, Liu, Li, Yang, Ru and Li.Gluten strength is one of the factors that determine the end-use quality of durum wheat and is an important breeding target for this crop. To characterize the quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling gluten strength in Canadian durum wheat cultivars, a population of 162 doubled haploid (DH) lines segregating for gluten strength and derived from cv. Pelissier × cv. Strongfield was used in this study. The DH lines, parents, and controls were grown in 3 years and two seeding dates in each year and gluten strength of grain samples was measured by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-sedimentation volume (SV). With a genetic map created by genotyping the DH lines using the Illumina Infinium iSelect Wheat 90K SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) chip, QTL contributing to gluten strength were detected on chromosome 1A, 1B, 2B, and 3A. Two major and stable QTL detected on chromosome 1A (QGlu.spa-1A) and 1B (QGlu.spa-1B.1) explaining 13.7-18.7% and 25.4-40.1% of the gluten strength variability respectively were consistently Glu.spa-1B.1 were converted to Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) markers, which can be deployed in marker-assisted breeding to increase the efficiency and accuracy of phenotypic selection for gluten strength in durum wheat. The QTL that were expressed consistently across environments are of great importance to maintain the gluten strength of Canadian durum wheat to current market standards during the genetic improvement. Copyright © 2020 Ruan, Yu, Knox, Singh, DePauw, Cuthbert, Zhang, Piche, Gao, Sharpe and Fobert.