Development of DArT markers for a linkage map of flue-cured tobacco

Tobacco(Nicotiana tabacum) is one of the most economically important nonfood crops,and flue-cured tobacco accounts for approximately 80% of world tobacco production.An extremely narrow genetic diversity in the tobacco pool has led to a low efficiency of PCR-based molecular markers(such as AFLP and SSR).Diversity Arrays Technology(DArT) is a high-throughput hybridisation-based marker system that has been developed in many plants including wheat,which,like tobacco,has a complex genome.In this study,we developed a tobacco DArT chip that included 7680 representative sequence tags based on typical tobacco accessions.The 1076 DArT markers of flue-cured tobacco were identified and most(82.1%) of their polymorphism information contents(PICs) were greater than 0.4.An integrated linkage map that included 851 markers(238 DArT and 613 SSR),which is the highest density map of flue-cured tobacco to date,was constructed.This chip-based DArT system provides an alternative in high-throughput marker genotyping for tobacco.

Diversity arrays technology (DArT) for studying the genetic polymorphism of flue-cured tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum)

Diversity arrays technology (DArT) is a microarray-based marker system that achieves high throughput by reducing the complexity of the genome. A DArT chip has recently been developed for tobacco. In this study, we genotyped 267 flue-cured cultivars/landraces, including 121 Chinese accessions over five decades from widespread geographic regions in China, 103 from the Americas, and 43 other foreign cultivars, using the newly developed chip. Three hundred and thirty polymorphic DArT makers were selected and used for a phylogenetic analysis, which suggested that the 267 accessions could be classified into two subgroups, which could each be further divided into 2-4 sections. Eight elite cultivars, which account for 83% of the area of Chinese tobacco production, were all found in one subgroup. Two high-quality cultivars, HHDJY and Cuibi1, were grouped together in one section, while six other high-yield cultivars were grouped into another section. The 330 DArT marker clones were sequenced and close to 95% of them are within non-repetitive regions. Finally, the implications of this study for Chinese flue-cured tobacco breeding and production programs were discussed.

Reprogramming plant specialized metabolism by manipulating protein kinases

Being sessile,plants have evolved sophisticated mechanisms to balance between growth and defense to survive in the harsh environment.The transition from growth to defense is commonly achieved by factors,such as protein kinases(PKs)and transcription factors,that initiate signal transduction and regulate specialized metabolism.Plants produce an array of lineage-specific specialized metabolites for chemical defense and stress tolerance.Some of these molecules are also used by humans as drugs.However,many of these defense-responsive metabolites are toxic to plant cells and inhibitory to growth and development.Plants have,thus,evolved complex regulatory networks to balance the accumulation of the toxic metabolites.Perception of external stimuli is a vital part of the regulatory network.Protein kinase-mediated signaling activates a series of defense responses by phosphorylating the target pro-teins and translating the stimulus into downstream cellular signaling.As biosynthesis of specialized metabolites is triggered when plants perceive stimuli,a possible connection between PKs and spe-cial ized meta bolism is well recognized.However,the roles of PKs in plant specialized metabolism have not received much attention until recently.Here,we summarize the recent advances in understanding PKs in plant specialized metabolism.We aim to highlight how the stimulatory signals are transduced,leading to the biosynthesis of corresponding metabolites.We discuss the post-translational regulation of specialized metabolism and provide insights into the mechanisms by which plants respond to the external signals.In addition,we propose possible strategies to increase the production of plant spe-cial ized metabolites in biotechnological applications using PKs.