Plant Breeding and Genetics Commons^™

The Role Of A Transcription Factor In Regulating Rice Response To Drought Stress, Diana Ha, Liyuan A. Zhang, Jeffery Shen

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

The current water shortage is a major concern in regard to our global climate change crisis. A decrease in the availability of water will have direct effects on the development of plants. Some crops, such as Oryza sativa, or commonly known as rice, requires an abundant amount of water for adequate growth. With the water shortage crisis, it will become extremely difficult to harvest such crops to meet the world’s food demand. However, many plants have evolved mechanisms for overcoming and tolerating stresses such as drought. My research focuses on studying the proteins involved with these mechanisms. The WRKY superfamily …

Growing Oats In Western Australia For Hay And Grain, Raj Malik, Blakely Paynter, Cindy L. Webster, Amelia Mclarty

Bulletins 4000 -

The oat industry in Western Australia has made phenomenal progress in recent years with the discovery of new markets, the release of several high yielding varieties and the development of agronomic guidelines through rigorous research programs. Oat production in Western Australia for the domestic and export market has significantly increased over the past few years. Oats are now regarded as one of the most profitable cropping enterprises. Oat production is mainly export orientated and thus has a substantial economic influence on the agricultural industry.

In Western Australia, oats are grown for grain, for both milling and feed, and for hay. …

2012 Barley Variety Sowing Guide For Western Australia, Blakely Paynter, Andrea Hills, Harmohinder Dhammu

Bulletins 4000 -

This variety guide is designed as a quick reference to help growers determine which barley variety to grow in their region. It provides domestic and international market feedback, relative grain yield comparisons, disease ratings, agronomic information and herbicide tolerance ratings for all malting barley varieties, the new food variety and selected feed varieties.

Herbicide-Resistant Risk Assessment: Response Of Common Nebraska Weeds To Dicamba Dose, Roberto J. Crespo

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Dicamba-resistant soybeans are being developed to provide an additional herbicide mechanism of action that can be used in soybean, and to provide a tool to help manage or mitigate the evolution of other herbicide-resistant weed populations. The objectives of this thesis were to assess the risk of common Nebraska weeds developing resistance to dicamba, quantify baseline dose-response to dicamba of high-risk weed species, and survey the variability in dicamba dose-response among populations of those species. Twenty-five weed scientists were asked to estimate the risk likelihood of ten weed species evolving resistance to dicamba following the commercialization of dicamba-resistant soybean. Palmer …

Generation Of Transgenic Medicago Sativa Overexpressing "Osmotin-Chitinase" Gene Chimera, Jahnavi Reddy Kancharla

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Medicago is widely used as a forage crop. It is often susceptible to various pathogenic infections and exhibits low growth in drought and extreme climatic conditions. In the current study, a strategy was developed for over-expressing an “Osmotin-Chitinase” gene chimera in transgenic Medicago that could potentially confer resistance to different biotic and abiotic stresses. Seed germination of several cultivars of Medicago (M. sativa ssp. sativa, M. sativa ssp. falcata, M. sativa ssp. caerulea, M. truncatula, and M. Rugosa) was tested to determine the cultivars with good germination rates. Among these, M. sativa ssp. sativa showed an …

Impact Of Student Motivation In Online Learning Activities, Amy Lathrop

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

With the prevalence of online learning in education for both distance and campus-based students, it is critical to determine how to design electronic learning materials that tailor to student motivation and facilitate learning.  Students were asked to complete an online plant breeding activity, motivation survey and an online learning quiz related to the activity.  The control group of students was those who elected not to complete the activity, while the experimental group of students chose to complete the activity.  Motivation scores were compared between control and experiment groups, courses, and gender using independent sample t-tests.  Pearson correlations were also used …

Analysis Of Rice Blast Resistance Genes In The National Small Grains Collection (Nsgc), Moytri Roychowdhury

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Identification of blast resistance genes in rice germplasm is one of the most important activities of rice breeding programs in worldwide. The objective of this research was to characterize two major blast resistance genes, Pi-z and Pi-b, in selected rice germplasm. A simple sequence repeat DNA marker, AP5659-1 linked to the Pi-z gene, and a Pib dominant marker derived from the Pi-b gene were first used to screen a rice core collection consisting of 1700 accessions estimated to represent 70% of the genetic diversity of rice in the US National Small Grains Collection. There were 131 rice germplasm accessions with …

Oral Presentation: Plant Genes And Drought Tolerance, Norris Lam

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Research has shown that a gene from C3 xerophyte Larrea tridentata (creosote bush), LtWRKY21, is involved in pathways governing creosote bush’s high tolerance to environmental stress. By understanding the way in which creosote bush adapts to drought, crop plants can be engineered to be more drought tolerant during times of imminent global climate change. To study the underlying mechanisms of creosote bush drought response, the LtWRKY21 gene was mobilized into the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. Chlorophyll degradation, cellular electrolyte leakage, and water content in leaves will serve as indicators of drought tolerance in LtWRKY21-transgenic A. thaliana after treatment in chemically …

Producción Artesanal De Semilla De Sorgo, Máximo Antonio Hernández Valle

INTSORMIL Presentations

Objectivos:

General:

Producir semilla de calidad para que los productores tengan disponibilidad de esta y así incrementar la producción.

Específicos:

Que haya disponibilidad de semilla en el mercado para satisfacer la demanda de siembra

Fomentar el uso de variedades mejoradas con alto potencial de rendimiento de grano

Que nuevos productores se capaciten en la producción artesanal y certificada de semilla.

Nuevas Variedades De Sorgo “Bmr” En America Central Y Haiti, René Clará Valencia, Bill Rooney, Elvis A. Heinrichs, Ostilio R. Portillo

INTSORMIL Presentations

Objectivos

Identificar las mejores variedades “bmr” para las condiciones de cada país.

Reproducir y transferir semilla de las mejores variedades en cantidades suficientes para ponerlas accesibles a todos los agricultores.

Demostrar que estas nuevas variedades “bmr” son más nutritivas que las tradicionales y capaces de producir más alimentos para la población.

Generalizar el uso de estas variedades para poder fortalecer la seguridad alimentaria de los países participantes.

Review Of The Tallgrass Prairie Center Guide To Seed And Seedling Identification In The Upper Midwest. By Dave Williams., H. L. Hillhouse

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This book will please both practitioners of prairie restoration and more general prairie enthusiasts. It includes 72 grass and forb species, and the focus is clearly on species often found in tallgrass prairie plantings in the upper Midwest. The grasses and forbs are presented separately here, and for each group a morphological key is provided to divide the species into "Key Characteristic Groups." Because these groups are based on morphological similarity, species within a group are often-but not always-closely related.

Short and highly portable, the book covers the most common species in plantings. The only thing that would have delighted …

Crop Updates 2011 - Weeds, Grant Thompson, Abul Hashem, Catherine Borger, Peter Newman, Mike Ashworth, Glen Riethmuller, David Minkey, Harmohinder Dhammu, David Nicholson, Michael Walsh, Ray Harrington, Nicholas Woods

Crop Updates

This session covers twelve papers from different authors:

1. Herbicides for selective spot spraying application on winter weeds in chemical fallow, Grant Thompson, Landmark/Crop Circle Consulting, Geraldton

2. Management of emerging weeds within the Western Australian wheatbelt, Abul Hashem and Catherine Borger Department of Agriculture and Food

3. Integrated Weed Management (IWM) – it’s all about early sowing of a big crop, Peter Newman, Department of Agriculture and Food

4. Increased water rates improve the performance of trifluralin in minimum tillage systems, Catherine Borger1, Mike Ashworth2, Glen Riethmuller1, David Minkey2, Abul …

Crop Updates 2011 - Cereals, David Bowran, Bill Crabtree, Peter Carberry, Peter Burges, Bevan Buirchell, Ben Curtis, Sarah Ellis, Brenda Shackley, Christine Zaicou, Siva Sivapalan, Penny Goldsmith, Gae Plunkett, Darshan Sharma, Mario D'Antuono, Art Diggle, Peter Mangano, Sally Peltzer, Michael Renton, Bill Macleod, Fumie Horiuchi, George Wyatt, Geoff Anderson, Richard Bell, Ross Brennan, Wen Chen, Penny Riffkin

Crop Updates

This session covers eleven papers from different authors:

OPENING, NEW CROP VARIETIES & DECISION SUPPORT

Opening

1. Overview of the 2010 season, David Bowran, Director, Practice and Systems Innovation, Department of Agriculture and Food,

2. My experience in a drought as a farmer and consultant, Bill Crabtree, Morawa, Western Australia

3. Meeting the productivity and sustainability challenges to Australian agriculture until 2030, Peter Carberry, CSIRO Sustainable Agriculture Flagship

New Crop Varieties

4. National Variety Trials (NTV) wheat variety performance – captivity vs broadacre, Peter Burgess, Kalyx Agriculture

5. WALAN2289 – a new lupin variety to replace …

Crop Updates 2011 - Pests And Diseases, Jeff Russell, Paul Umina, Svetlana Micic, Laura Fagan, Mark Seynour, Tony Dore, Pam Burgess, John Majewski, Manisha Shankar, Rob Loughman

Crop Updates

This session covers four papers from different authors:

1. Grains biosecurity – everyone’s business, Jeff Russell, Department of Agriculture and Food

2. Control of insect and mite pests in grains – insecticide resistance and integrated pest management (IPM), Paul Umina¹, Svetlana Micic² and Laura Fagan³, ¹CESAR and The University of Melbourne, ²Department of Agriculture and Food, ³University of Western Australia

3. Effect of cropping rotations on pest mites of broadacre agriculture, Svetlana Micic, Mark Seymour, Tony Dore and Pam Burgess, Department of Agriculture and Food

4. Common bunt resistance in …

Delivery Of Prolamins To The Protein Storage Vacuole In Maize Aleurone Cells, Francisca C. Reyes, Taijoon Chung, David Holding, Rudolf Jung, Richard Vierstra, Marisa S. Otegui

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Zeins, the prolamin storage proteins found in maize (Zea mays), accumulate in accretions called protein bodies inside the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of starchy endosperm cells. We found that genes encoding zeins, a-globulin, and legumin-1 are transcribed not only in the starchy endosperm but also in aleurone cells. Unlike the starchy endosperm, aleurone cells accumulate these storage proteins inside protein storage vacuoles (PSVs) instead of the ER. Aleurone PSVs contain zeinrich protein inclusions, a matrix, and a large system of intravacuolar membranes. After being assembled in the ER, zeins are delivered to the aleurone PSVs in atypical prevacuolar compartments …

Plant Targets For Pseudomonas Syringae Type Iii Effectors: Virulence Targets Or Guarded Decoys?, Anna Block, James R. Alfano

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

The phytopathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae can suppress both pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP)-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI) by the injection of type III effector (T3E) proteins into host cells. T3Es achieve immune suppression using a variety of strategies including interference with immune receptor signaling, blocking RNA pathways and vesicle trafficking, and altering organelle function. T3Es can be recognized directly or indirectly by resistance proteins monitoring specific T3E targets resulting in ETI. It is presently unclear whether the monitored targets represent bona fide virulence targets or guarded decoys. Extensive overlap between PTI and ETI signaling suggests that T3Es may suppress …

Adventures In The Enormous: A 1.8 Million Clone Bac Library For The 21.7 Gb Genome Of Loblolly Pine., Zenaida V. Magbanua, Seval Ozkan, Benjamin D. Bartlett, Philippe Chouvarine, Christopher A. Saski, Aaron Liston, Richard C. Cronn, C. Dana Nelson, Daniel G. Peterson

CALS Publications

Loblolly pine (LP; Pinus taeda L.) is the most economically important tree in the U.S. and a cornerstone species in southeastern forests. However, genomics research on LP and other conifers has lagged behind studies on flowering plants due, in part, to the large size of conifer genomes. As a means to accelerate conifer genome research, we constructed a BAC library for the LP genotype 7-56. The LP BAC library consists of 1,824,768 individually-archived clones making it the largest single BAC library constructed to date, has a mean insert size of 96 kb, and affords 7.6X coverage of the 21.7 Gb …

Structural And Functional Analysis Of The Type Iii Secretion System From Pseudomonas Fluorescens Q8r1-96, Dmitri V. Mavrodi, Anna Joe, Olga V. Mavrodi, Karl A. Hassan, David M. Weller, Ian T. Paulsen, Joyce E. Loper, James R. Alfano, Linda S. Thomashow

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Pseudomonas fluorescens Q8r1-96 represents a group of rhizosphere strains responsible for the suppressiveness of agricultural soils to take-all disease of wheat. It produces the antibiotic 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol and aggressively colonizes the roots of cereal crops. In this study, we analyzed the genome of Q8r1-96 and identified a type III protein secretion system (T3SS) gene cluster that has overall organization similar to that of the T3SS gene cluster of the plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. We also screened a collection of 30 closely related P. fluorescens strains and detected the T3SS genes in all but one of them. The Q8r1-96 genome contained …

Mpk6, Sphinganine And The Lcb2a Gene From Serine Palmitoyltransferase Are Required In The Signaling Pathway That Mediates Cell Death Induced By Long Chain Bases In Arabidopsis, Mariana Saucedo-García, Arturo Guevara-Garcia, Ariadna González-Solís, Felipe Cruz-García, Sonia Vázquez-Santana, Jennifer E. Markham, M. Guadalupe Lozano-Rosas, Charles R. Dietrich, Maricela Ramos-Vega, Edgar B. Cahoon, Marina Gavilanes-Ruíz

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

• Long chain bases (LCBs) are sphingolipid intermediates acting as second messengers in programmed cell death (PCD) in plants. Most of the molecular and cellular features of this signaling function remain unknown.

• We induced PCD conditions in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings and analyzed LCB accumulation kinetics, cell ultrastructure and phenotypes in serine palmitoyltransferase (spt), mitogen-activated protein kinase (mpk), mitogenactivated protein phosphatase (mkp1) and lcb-hydroxylase (sbh) mutants.

• The lcb2a-1 mutant was unable to mount an effective PCD in response to fumonisin B1 (FB1), revealing that the LCB2a gene is essential for the …

A Plant Dj-1 Homolog Is Essential For Arabidopsis Thaliana Chloroplast Development, Jiusheng Lin, Tara J. Nazarenus, Jeanine L. Frey, Xinwen Liang, Mark A. Wilson, Julie M. Stone

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Protein superfamilies can exhibit considerable diversification of function among their members in various organisms. The DJ-1 superfamily is composed of proteins that are principally involved in stress response and are widely distributed in all kingdoms of life. The model flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana contains three close homologs of animal DJ-1, all of which are tandem duplications of the DJ-1 domain. Consequently, the plant DJ-1 homologs are likely pseudo-dimeric proteins composed of a single polypeptide chain. We report that one A. thaliana DJ-1 homolog (AtDJ1C) is the first DJ-1 homolog in any organism that is required for viability. Homozygous disruption of …