Genome-Wide Association Studies of Image Traits Reveal Genetic Architecture of Drought Resistance in Rice

Understanding how plants respond to drought can benefit drought resistance （DR） breeding. Using a non-destructive phenotyping facility, 51 image-based traits （i-traits） for 507 rice accessions were extracted. These i-traits can be used to monitor drought responses and evaluate DR. High heritability and large variation of these traits was observed under drought stress in the natural population. A genome-wide as- sociation study （GWAS） of i-traits and traditional DR traits identified 470 association loci, some containing known DR-related genes. Of these 470 loci, 443 loci （94%） were identified using i-traits, 437 loci （93%） co- localized with previously reported DR-related quantitative trait loci, and 313 loci （66.6%） were reproducibly identified by GWAS in different years. Association networks, established based on GWAS results, revealed hub i-traits and hub loci. This demonstrates the feasibility and necessity of dissecting the complex DR trait into heritable and simple i-traits. As proof of principle, we illustrated the power of this integrated approach to identify previously unreported DR-related genes. OsPP15 was associated with a hub i-trait, and its role in DR was confirmed by genetic transformation experiments. Furthermore, i-traits can be used for DR linkage analyses, and 69 i-trait locus associations were identified by both GWAS and linkage analysis of a recom- binant inbred line population. Finally, we confirmed the relevance of i-traits to DR in the field. Our study pro- vides a promising novel approach for the genetic dissection and discovery of causal genes for DR.

From fundamental quantum optics to quantum information technology:the personal journey of Sir Peter Knight

Xiaosong Ma:What inspired you to choose quantum optics as your major when you were a student,and can you share your experience or research journey in this field?Peter Knight:Quantum optics,as a discipline,was more or less formed during the time I’ve been active in the area.I started thinking about things that we would now call quantum optics in the middle of the 1960s when I was a student.

Bi-directional Selection in Upland Rice Leads to Its Adaptive Differentiation from Lowland Rice in Drought Resistance and Productivity

Drought resistance is required in rice breeding to address the challenge of frequent droughts . However, the evolutionary mechanism of rice drought resistance is not fully understood. We investigated the genetic differentiation between upland and lowland rice domesticated in agro-ecosystems with contrasting water-soil conditions using genome-wide SNPs. We estimated morphological differences among upland and lowland rice in drought resistance and productivity through common garden experiments. Upland rice had better drought resistance but poorer productivity. The negative correlations between traits of drought resistance and productivity are attributed to the underlying genetic trade-offs through tight linkages (e.g., DCA1 and OsCesA7) or pleiotropic effects (e.g., LAX1). The genetic trade-offs are comm on and greatly shape the evolutio n of drought resista nee in upland rice . In genomic regions associated with both productivity and drought resistance, signs of balancing selection were detected in upland rice, while signs of directional selection were detected in lowland rice, potentially contributing to their adaptive differentiation. Signs of balancing selection in upland rice resulted from bi-directional selection during its domestication in drought-prone upland agro-ecosystems.Using genome-wide association analysis, we ide ntified several valuable quantitative trait loci associated with drought resista nee, for which highly differentiated genes should be considered candidates. Bi-directional selection breaking tight linkages by accumulating recombination events would be applicable in breeding water-saving and droughtresistance rice.

Blue revolution for food security under carbon neutrality: A case from the water-saving and drought-resistance rice

The increasing concentration of greenhouse gases(GHGs)in Earth's atmosphere leads to global warming,which further causes a series of climate changes and does great harm to both human society and natural ecosystems.Agricultural GHG emissions,mainly in theform of methane(CH4)and nitrous oxide(N2O),areasignificantsourceofGHGs,accountingfor~14%total global GHGs(Zhang et al.,2022).One major source of agricultural GHGs is CH4 emissions from rice paddies,which is responsiblefor~10%-12%ofhuman-inducedCH4emissions(van Groenigen et al.,2013)and contributes~2.40%to the enhanced global warming effect(Zhang et al.,2022).The global warming potential of GHGs emissions from rice systems is roughly four times higher than either wheat or maize(Linquist et al.,2012).

Stronger quantum advantages with photons

Quantum computing1 promises exponential speed-up in for such tasks as factorizing,simulating many-body quantum systems,and quantum machine learning.However,to achieve such computational speed-up is far from trivial.A universal quantum computer needs at least:(1)many qubits that can be individually coherently controlled;(2)many quantum gates/operations that can establish correlations among many qubits;and(3)fault-tolerance architecture that can correct the errors during computation,and hence output the correct answers.Each of these three requirements is highly demanding to realize.