Aluminum (Al) toxicity is a major factor limiting crop production and plant growth in acid soils. The complex inheritance of Al toxicity and tolerance mechanisms in maize has uncharacterized yet. In thsi study, the maize inbred line 178 seedlings were treated with 200 μmol L-1 CaCl 2 +0 μmol L-1 AlCl 3 (control) and 200 μmol L-1 CaCl 2 +60 μmol L-1 AlCl 3 (Al treatment) for 1 and 6 h, respectively. The experiment was repeated three times. Then a detailed temporal analysis of root gene expression was performed using an Agilent GeneChip with 34 715 genes, only the genes showing more than 2.0-fold difference (P<0.01) between the control and the Al treatment maize seedlings was analyzed further. Thus, a total of 832 different expression genes, 689 significantly up-regulated and 143 down-regulated, were identified after the seedlings were treated with Al for 6 h. And 60 genes, 59 up-regulated and 1 down-regulated, were also detected after the seedlings were treated for 1 h. Replicated transcriptome analyses further showed that about 61% of total significantly genes could be annotated based on plant genome resources. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCT) of some selected candidate genes was used to demonstrate the microarray data, indicating significant differences between the control and Al treated seedlings. Exposure to Al for 6 h triggered changes in the transcript levels for several genes, which were primarily related to cell wall structure and metabolism, oxidative stress response, membrane transporters, organic acid metabolism, signaling and hormones, and transcription factors, etc. After Al treated for 1 h, differential abundance of transcripts for several transporters, kinase, and transcription factors were specifically induced. In this study, the diversity of the putative functions of these genes indicates that Al stress for a short stage induced a complex transcriptome changes in maize. These results would further help us to understand rapid and early mechanisms of Al toxicity and tolerance in maize regulated at the transcriptional level.
Aluminum (Al) toxicity usually occurs in acidic soils with a pH of 5.5 or lower. The selection and breeding of Al-tolerant cultivars is a useful approach for protecting maize from Al toxicity. Rapid and reliable screening methods must be developed to discriminate Al-tolerant and Al-sensitive maize genotypes. The relative root growth (RRG) of the longest root in a toxic Al solution was used to classify 141 maize germplasm lines into three groups with varied Al sensitivity: Al-sensitive, moderately Al-tolerant, and Al-tolerant. Among these lines, the cultivars HZ85 and 178 had the highest RRG values and therefore the highest Al tolerance. Further root assessment of six representative lines using other methods, such as digital imaging analysis of total root length and superficial area or volume, biomass measurement, and hematoxylin staining, was roughly consistent with the classification based on RRG. These results indicated that the RRG of the longest root could be used as a reliable and reproducible phenotypic index for the evaluation of Al tolerance in maize genotypes. Cultivars with different Al tolerances can be used to improve breeding and explore the mechanism of Al tolerance in maize.
For improving lodging resistance and increasing grain yield in wheat in the Yellow-Huai River Basin in China, different sowing modes have been investigated. Conventionally, the small-flat-plot sowing mode has been adopted in wheat cultivation. However, this sowing mode leads to heavy lodging and low land use efficiency. In this study, a new sowing mode, high-low-plot sowing mode with two more rows sowed on the high plot, was investigated. Two cultivars, Hengguan 35 and Jimai 44 were used for two seasonal field experiments from 2018 to 2020. The results showed that grain yield improved with the high-low sowing mode by as much as 25% since more spikes per unit area were observed concomitant with reduced stem lodging. The grain yield increase was mainly due to the enhanced spike number per m2, while the lodging resistance was improved through the lowered plant height and the center of gravity height. This research proves that the high-low-plot sowing mode is an improved sowing mode for producing greater grain yield with better lodging resistance in the wheat production area in northern China.
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