Project description:Caryopses of barley grains become firmly adhered to the glumes of the husk during grain development through a cuticular cementing layer on the caryopsis surface. The quality of this attachment varies among cultivars, with poor quality adhesion causing “skinning”, an economically significant grain quality defect for the malting industry. Malting cultivars encompassing a range of husk adhesion qualities were grown under a misting treatment known to induce skinning. Changes in gene expression during adhesion development were examined with a custom barley microarray. The abundance of transcripts involved early in cuticular lipid biosynthesis, including acetyl-CoA carboxylase, and all four members of the fatty acid elongase complex of enzymes was significantly higher early in caryopsis development than later. Members of the subsequent cuticular lipid biosynthetic pathways were also higher early in development including the decarbonylation and reductive pathways, and sterol biosynthesis.
Project description:Maize husk leaf - the outer leafy layers covering the ear - modulates kernel yield and quality. Despite its importance, however, the genetic controls underlying husk leaf development remain elusive. Our previous genome-wide association study identified a single nucleotide polymorphism located in the gene RHW1 (Regulator of Husk leaf Width) that is significantly associated with husk leaf-width diversity in maize. Here, we further demonstrate that a polymorphic 18-bp InDel (insertion/deletion) variant in the 3' untranslated region of RHW1 alters its protein abundance and accounts for husk leaf width variation. RHW1 encodes a putative MYB-like transcriptional repressor. Disruption of RHW1 altered cell proliferation and resulted in a narrower husk leaf, whereas RHW1 overexpression yielded a wider husk leaf. RHW1 positively regulated the expression of ZCN4, a well-known TFL1-like protein involved in maize ear development. Dysfunction of ZCN4 reduced husk leaf width even in the context of RHW1 overexpression. The InDel variant in RHW1 is subject to selection and is associated with maize husk leaf adaption from tropical to temperate regions. Overall, our results identify that RHW1-ZCN4 regulates a pathway conferring husk leaf width variation at a very early stage of husk leaf development in maize.
Project description:In the present study, we found a new walnut germplasm from wild Juglans cathayensis population, which presented white husk that did not brown. We compared the transcriptome between the fresh-cut browning (control) and white husks of the Chinese walnut using Illumina HiSeq 4000 platform
Project description:Floral organ shape and size in cereal crops can affect grain size and yield, so genes that regulate their development are promising breeding targets. The lemma, which protects inner floral organs, can physically constrain grain growth; while the awn, a needle-like extension of the lemma, creates photosynthates to promote grain fill. Although several genes and modules controlling grain size and awn/lemma growth in rice have been characterized, these processes, and the relationships between them, are not well understood for barley and wheat. Here, we demonstrate that the barley E-class gene HvMADS1 positively regulates awn length and lemma width, leading to increased grain size and weight. Cytological data indicated that MADS1 promotes grain growth by promoting cell proliferation, while multi-omics data revealed MADS1 target genes associated with cell cycle, phytohormone signaling, and developmental processes. We defined two direct targets of MADS1 regulation, HvSHI and HvDL, whose knockout mutants mimic awn and/or lemma phenotypes of mads1 mutants; and demonstrated that MADS1 interacts APETALA2 (A-class) to synergistically activate downstream genes in awn/lemma development. Notably, we found that MADS1 function remains conserved in wheat, promoting cell proliferation to increase awn length. These findings extend our understanding of MADS1 function in floral organ development to inform strategies for Triticeae crop improvement. Three replicates of barley tissues were collected for RNA extraction: lemma and awn from the central part of lemma and awn from WT and mads1 mutants for RNA-seq and RT-qPCR
Project description:Transcript levels of barley genes were examined in the wheat-barley chromosome addition lines having one of six barley chromomes, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H, 6H and 7H. ****[PLEXdb(http://www.plexdb.org) has submitted this series at GEO on behalf of the original contributor, Seungho Cho. The equivalent experiment is BB8 at PLEXdb.]
Project description:In this study we used the Affymetrix Barley 1 GeneChip to investigate transcriptome responses of barley cv. Morex to drought over 21 days based on five triplicated stress treatments and a wide range of soil water content treatments. Keywords: repeat sample
Project description:In this study we used the Affymetrix Barley 1 GeneChip to investigate transcriptome responses of barley cv. Morex to low temperature, including triplicated measurements of cold, freeze/thaw cycles and de-acclimation over 33 days. Keywords: stress response
Project description:Improving phosphate (Pi) acquisition and utilization efficiency is a crucial challenge for the sustainability of agriculture worldwide. The understanding of plant how to response and cope with Pi-limitation, and its underlying molecular mechanisms is key to discovering strategies of efficient Pi acquisition and utilization. Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the major cereal crops, has distinct advantage for studying mechanisms of tolerance of phosphorus deficiency due to low Pi demand. Recent studied reveal that post-translational modification (PTM) by phosphorylation, ubiquitination, and glycosylation are play important roles in cellular regulation the plant phosphate starvation response (PSR). Lysine succinylation occurs frequently in the proteins associated with metabolic pathways, which may participate in the regulation of the plant PSR process. However, succinylation precisely modulates the metabolic pathways of proteins in response to PSR in barley remain largely unknown.
Project description:Improving phosphate (Pi) acquisition and utilization efficiency is a crucial challenge for the sustainability of agriculture worldwide. The understanding of plant how to response and cope with Pi-limitation, and its underlying molecular mechanisms is key to discovering strategies of efficient Pi acquisition and utilization. Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the major cereal crops, has distinct advantage for studying mechanisms of tolerance of phosphorus deficiency due to low Pi demand. Recent studied reveal that post-translational modification (PTM) by phosphorylation, ubiquitination, and glycosylation are play important roles in cellular regulation the plant phosphate starvation response (PSR). Lysine succinylation occurs frequently in the proteins associated with metabolic pathways, which may participate in the regulation of the plant PSR process. However, succinylation precisely modulates the metabolic pathways of proteins in response to PSR in barley remain largely unknown.