华山新麦草(2n=2x=14, NsNs)因具有诸多优异的农艺性状被认为是对普通小麦品种改良而言具有重要价值的野生近缘种。然而，尽管多个小麦-华山新麦草衍生后代的创制为优异性状的转移提供了种质资源基础，但小麦背景中华山新麦草染色体鉴定方法的滞后限制了对这些衍生后代的研究。本研究开发了三条高效非变性荧光原位杂交（ND-FISH）探针，其中HS-TZ3和HS-TZ4能特异性地结合华山新麦草染色体端粒区域，HS-TZ5可以和染色体着丝粒区域结合。华山新麦草染色体的FISH核型图和模式图被分别构建，以便于区分衍生系中所导入华山新麦草染色体的同源群归属。具体而言，染色体1Ns和2Ns在短臂和长臂上有相反的荧光信号，3Ns、4Ns和7Ns有叠加的双色荧光信号，5Ns和6Ns仅在短臂有荧光信号，7Ns在长臂的中间区域也有荧光信号。此外，评估了在不同组合方式下利用低密度单核苷酸多态性(SNP)芯片鉴定外源导入系的效果。结果表明最佳的模式是统计分析每条染色体上SNP位点的纯合率，15K SNP芯片可以广泛应用于附加系、代换系和易位系的鉴定，而40K SNP芯片在小麦和外源染色体易位区段的鉴定中最准确。本研究提供了基于ND-FISH和SNP芯片识别小麦背景中华山新麦草染色体同源群归属的简便方法，对于小麦-华山新麦草衍生系的高效鉴别和Ns染色体的进一步利用具有重要意义。

Wheat crown rot caused by Fusarium spp. is a common disease worldwide.  Both Fusarium pseudograminearum and Fusarium graminearum infect wheat crown and produce mycotoxin leading to grain loss due to white head.  F. pseudograminearum (Fp) was reported in wheat from Henan Province of China a couple of years ago.  The wheat crown rot (CR) caused by this new pathogen is as an emerging severe disease of wheat, which has recently expanded to several provinces in China and is, therefore, under rapid investigation.  Colonization of wheat tissue by Fp is accomplished though the formation of a septated foot-shaped appressoria and generation of a penetration peg to break through the internal cells of leaf sheath.  The molecular mechanism by which Fp regulates the pathogenesis on wheat host is unclear.  Here, we report FpPDE1, a P-type ATPase-encoding predicted PDE1 orthologue gene of Magnaporthe oryzae, belonging to the DRS2 subfamily of aminophospholipid translocases.  The gene deletion of FpPDE1 with the split-marker approach did not obviously affect hyphae growth and conidiation, but led to an attenuated virulence on wheat base stem and root.  Our finding indicates that the putative aminophospholipid translocases is not essential for the infectious hyphae development in Fp.  

    The sown area of winter wheat in the Huang-Huai-Hai (HHH) Plain accounts for over 65% of the total sown area of winter wheat in China. Thus, it is important to monitor the winter wheat growth condition and reveal the main factors that influence its dynamics. This study assessed the winter wheat growth condition based on remote sensing data, and investigated the correlations between different grades of winter wheat growth and major meteorological factors corresponding. First, winter wheat growth condition from sowing until maturity stage during 2011–2012 were assessed based on moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time-series dataset. Next, correlation analysis and geographical information system (GIS) spatial analysis methods were used to analyze the lag correlations between different grades of winter wheat growth in each phenophase and the meteorological factors that corresponded to the phenophases. The results showed that the winter wheat growth conditions varied over time and space in the study area. Irrespective of the grades of winter wheat growth, the correlation coefficients between the winter wheat growth condition and the cumulative precipitation were higher than zero lag (synchronous precipitation) and one lag (pre-phenophase precipitation) based on the average values of seven phenophases. This showed that the cumulative precipitation during the entire growing season had a greater effect on winter wheat growth than the synchronous precipitation and the pre-phenophase precipitation. The effects of temperature on winter wheat growth varied according to different grades of winter wheat growth based on the average values of seven phenophases. Winter wheat with a better-than-average growth condition had a stronger correlation with synchronous temperature, winter wheat with a normal growth condition had a stronger correlation with the cumulative temperature, and winter wheat with a worse-than-average growth condition had a stronger correlation with the pre-phenophase temperature. This study may facilitate a better understanding of the quantitative correlations between different grades of crop growth and meteorological factors, and the adjustment of field management measures to ensure a high crop yield.

Salinity is one of the most important abiotic stresses that adversely affects crop growth and productivity. A subtractive suppression hybridization (SSH) library were constructed from the roots of salt-sensitive Yulu cultivar melon seedlings under salt stress; 557 high-quality expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were randomly sequenced, with an average size of 428 bp, which assembled into 68 contigs and 315 singletons. Compared with our previous SSH library generated from the salt-tolerant Bingxuecui cultivar, the proportion of transcripts involved in metabolism, protein fate, cellular communication/signal transduction mechanisms, and cell rescue/defense were 4, 1.46, 0.94, and 0.4% higher, respectively, in the salt-tolerant cultivar than the in salt-sensitive cultivar. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis of eleven transcripts revealed temporal variations in their expression in the two cultivars under salt stress. One NAC gene (JZ477011) was heterologously expressed in yeast for functional characterization, and enhanced the sensitivity of yeast cells to high-salinity to salt stress and inhibited their growth. Information regards to their functions would aid in the understanding of response mechanisms to saline stress and in the development of molecular markers for selecting salt-tolerant melon cultivars.