Evaluation on Chinese Bread Wheat Landraces for Low pH and Aluminum Tolerance Using Hydroponic Screening

Aluminum （Al） toxicity often takes place in acidic soils with a pH of 5.5 or lower. Breeding and cultivation of Al tolerance wheat can partially protect wheat escaping from Al toxicity. The scarcity of the tolerant sources impedes the wheat breeding. In order to find new Al tolerance sources, we screened 173 bread wheat landraces from Tibet of China using hydroponic screening. It was indicated that： （1） There were diversities on the root regenerate length （RRL）. The RRL of a large of landraces were longer than 7.00 cm in pH 7 （58.38%） and pH 4.5 （66.47%）, but shorter than 5.00 cm in pH 4.5 ＋50μM Al^3＋ （80.93%）. The low pH showed either promotion or restraining effects depend on landraces, but Al toxicity under low pH only showed restraining effects on the root elongation. （2） There were also diversities on root tolerance index of low pH （RTI 1） or root aluminum tolerance index （RTI2） among cultivars. The RTI1 varied from a narrow range but with relatively high value （0.8722-1.2953） in comparison with that of RTI2 （0.3829-1.0058）, and the RTI1 of approximately 60% landraces was higher than 1.0000, the RTI2 of only 19.07% landraces was higher than 0.7000, suggesting that Al toxicity acted as an important factor for the reduction of the root elongation under acidic soils. （3） The RTI 1 of many wheats was higher than 1.0000, and As2256 and As2295 were the most tolerant for low pH, with RTI1 1.2953 and 1.2925, respectively. （4） Based on RTI2, seven wheats showed similar or higher tolerance to Al toxicity than Chinese Spring （CS）, a known tolerance wheat. Much better tolerance existed in landraces of As1543 and As1242, which can be used as the new parents for Al tolerant breeding.

Different Aluminum Tolerance among Indica, Japonica and Hybrid Rice Varieties

Hydroponic cultures were conducted to compare the aluminum（Al） tolerance among different rice（Oryza sativa L.） varieties, including indica, japonica and their hybrids. The results showed that the root growth of rice plant was inhibited in different degrees among Al treated varieties. The Al tolerance observed through relative root elongation indicated that five japonica varieties including Longjing 9, Dharial, LGC 1, Ribenyou and Koshihikari were relatively more tolerant than indica varieties. Most indica varieties in this study, such as Aus 373 and 9311（awnless）, were sensitive to Al toxicity. The Al tolerance of most progenies from japonica × indica or indica × japonica crosses was constantly consistent with indica parents. The differences of Al tolerance among Longjing 9（japonica）, Yangdao 6（indica） and Wuyunjing 7（japonica） were studied. Biomass and the malondial-dehyde content of Yangdao 6 under Al exposure decreased and increased, respectively, while there was no significant effect on those of Longjing 9 and Wuyunjing 7. Remarkable reduction of root activities was observed in all these three rice varieties. Significantly higher Al content in roots was found in Yangdao 6 compared to Longjing 9 or Wuyunjing 7.

Molecular Characterization of Atlas 66-Derived Wheat Near-lsogenic Lines Contrasting in Aluminum(Al)Tolerance

Aluminum （Al） toxicity is the major limiting factor for wheat growth in acidic soils. Genetic improvement of Al tolerance is one of the most cost-effective solutions to improve wheat productivity. The objective of this study was to characterize near isogenic lines （NILs） contrasting in Al tolerance derived from Atlas 66 in the backgrounds of Al-sensitive cultivars Chisholm and Century using amplified fragment length polymorphism （AFLP） and simple sequence repeat （SSR）. A total of 200 AFLP and 88 SSR primer pairs were screened and 12 markers （11 AFLPs and one SSR） were associated with Al-tolerance in NILs of at least one recurrent parental background. Among them, nine were linked to A1 tolerance in the Chisholm-derived NILs, seven were associated with Al-tolerance in the Century-derived NILs, and three AFLPs derived from the primer combinations of pAG/mGCAG, pCAG/mAGC and pGTG/mGCG, and one SSR, Xwmc331 on chromosome 4D, associated with A1 tolerance in NILs of both recurrent parental backgrounds. Those common markers across two backgrounds may be the major marker loci associated with Al-tolerance in Atlas 66 and could be useful for marker-assisted breeding to improve Al tolerance in wheat. In addition, evaluation of Al tolerance among different genotypes using hematoxylin stain and relative root growth revealed that Atlas 66 was more tolerant to Al stress than the NILs, therefore suggested that the Al-tolerant NILs might not carry all Al-tolerance loci from Arias 66 and inheritance of Al tolerance in Arias 66 is more likely multigenic.

Mapping Quantitative Trait Loci Associated with Aluminum Toxin Tolerance in NJRIKY Recombinant Inbred Line Population of Soybean (Glycine max)

To investigate the genetic mechanism of AI-tolerance in soybean, a recombinant inbred line population （RIL） with 184 F2：7：11 lines derived from the cross of Kefen9 No.1×Nannong 1138-2 （AI-tolerant×AI-sensitive） were tested in pot experiment with sand culture medium in net room in Nanjing. Four traits, i.e. plant height, number of leaves, shoot dry weight and root dry weight at seedling stage, were evaluated and used to calculate the average membership index （FAi） as the indicator of AI-tolerance. The composite interval mapping （CIM） under WinQTL Cartographer v. 2.5 detected five QTLs （i.e. qFAi-1, qFAi- 2, qFAi-3, qFAi-4 and qFAi-5）, explaining 5.20%-9.07% of the total phenotypic variation individually. While with the multiple interval mapping （MIM） of the same software, five QTLs （qFAi-1, qFAi.5, qFAi.6, qFAi-7, and qFAi-8） explaining 5.7%-24.60% of the total phenotypic variation individually were mapped. Here qFAi-1 and qFAi-5 were detected by both CIM and MIM with the locations in a same flanking marker region, GMKF046-GMKF080 on B1 and satt278-sat_95 on L, respectively. While qFAi-2 under CIM and qFAi-6 under MIM both on Dlb2 were located in neighboring regions with their confidence intervals overlapped and might be the same locus. Segregation analysis under major gene plus polygene inheritance model showed that AI-tolerance was controlled by two major genes （h^2mg=33.05%） plus polygenes （h^2pg=52.73%）. Both QTL mapping and segregation analysis confirmed two QTLs responsible for AI-tolerance with relatively low heritability, and there might be a third QTL, confounded with the polygenes in segregation analysis.

Nylon Filter Arrays Reveal Differential Expression of Expressed Sequence Tags in Wheat Roots Under Aluminum Stress

To enrich differentially expressed sequence tags (ESTs) for aluminum (Al) tolerance, cDNA subtraction libraries were generated from Al-stressed roots of two wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) near-isogenic lines (NILs) contrasting in Al-tolerance gene(s) from the Al-tolerant cultivar Atlas 66, using suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH). Expression patterns of the ESTs were investigated with nylon filter arrays containing 614 cDNA clones from the subtraction library. Gene expression profiles from macroarray analysis indicated that 25 ESTs were upregulated in the tolerant NIL in response to Al stress. The result from Northern analysis of selected upregulated ESTs was similar to that from macroarray analysis. These highly expressed ESTs showed high homology with genes involved in signal transduction, oxidative stress alleviation, membrane structure, Mg2+ transportation, and other functions. Under Al stress, the Al-tolerant NIL may possess altered structure or function of the cell wall, plasma membrane, and mitochondrion. The wheat response to Al stress may involve complicated defense-related signaling and metabolic pathways. The present experiment did not detect any induced or activated genes involved in the synthesis of malate and other organic acids in wheat under Al-stress.