Puccinia striiformis Westend. f. sp. tritici Erikss. (Pst) infects wheat and causes stripe rust.  The rust is heteroecious with wheat as the primary uredinial and telial host and barberry (Berberis spp.) as the alternate pycnial and aecial host.  More than 40 Berberis species have been identified as alternate hosts for Pst, and most of these are Chinese Berberis species.  However, little is known about Berberis species or their geographic distributions in the Yunnan-Guizhou plateau in southwestern China.  The Yunnan-Guizhou plateau is considered to be an important and relatively independent region for the evolution of the wheat stripe rust pathogen in China because the entire disease cycle can be completed within the region.  In this study, we conducted a survey of barberry plants in the Yunnan-Guizhou plateau and identified the eight Pst-susceptible Berberis species under controlled conditions, including B. julianae, B. tsienii, B. veitchii, B. wilsonae, B. wilsonae var. guhtzunica, B. franchetiana, B. lepidifolia and B. pruinosa.  These species are reported here for the first time to serve as alternate hosts for the wheat stripe rust pathogen under controlled conditions. 

Glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) is a kind of serine/threonine kinase widely found in eukaryotes.  Many plant GSK3 kinases play important roles in regulating stress responses.  This study investigated BRASSINOSTEROID-INSENSITIVE 2 (GmBIN2) gene, a member of the GSK3 protein kinase family in soybean and an orthologue of Arabidopsis BIN2/AtSK21.  GmBIN2 expression was increased by salt and drought stresses, but was not significantly affected by the ABA treatment.  To examine the function of GmBIN2, transgenic Arabidopsis and transgenic soybean hairy roots were generated.  Overexpression of GmBIN2 in Arabidopsis resulted in increased germination rate and root length compared with wild-type plants under salt and mannitol treatments.  Overexpression of GmBIN2 increased cellular Ca²⁺ content and reduced Na⁺ content, enhancing salt tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis plants.  In the soybean hairy root assay, overexpression of GmBIN2 in transgenic roots also showed significantly higher relative root growth rate than the control when subjected to salt and mannitol treatments.  Measurement of physiological indicators, including proline content, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and relative electrical conductivity, supported this conclusion.  Furthermore, we also found that GmBIN2 could up-regulate the expression of some stress-related genes in transgenic Arabidopsis and soybean hairy roots.  Overall, these results indicated that GmBIN2 improved tolerance to salt and drought in transgenic Arabidopsis and soybean hairy roots.