مجله زیست فناوری گیاهان زراعی
پیاپی 38 (تابستان 1401)

Surveying the response and evaluating the salinity tolerance of wheat crop at the molecular level can be considered an important strategy in perception and comparing the defense mechanisms of wheat cultivars. For this purpose, a factorial experiment was conducted at Gorgan university of agricultural sciences and natural resources based on a completely randomized design with three replications in which the experimental factors were included wheat crop cultivars (Sarc 6 as tolerant cultivar and Chinese spring as susceptible cultivar) and sampling time series (control or 0, 24, 48, 72, 96 h after stress). In this experiment, salinity stress with a concentration of 250 mM of sodium chloride was applied to uniform 10-day seedlings in the two-leaf stage, and sampling of root and shoot tissues was performed. Then the amount of sodium and potassium ions and the relative expression of SOS1 and NHX1 genes were measured by the qPCR method in the following. The obtained results indicated that after applying salinity stress, the amount of Na+ in the shoot and root of both cultivars had raised trend with increasing sampling time. But about in the amount of K+, depending on the plant organ, the response of the two cultivars and the trend of variations were different. Also the results showed that the expression pattern of SOS1 and NHX1 genes in the shoot and root of both cultivars, did not have a regular trend. In general, it can be concluded that in the root of the Sarc 6 cultivar, faster and more accumulation of genes transcript was evident. This issue indicates that the essential role of these genes in the root for reducing sodium ion absorption and establishing ionic homeostasis.

Breeding crops with a higher ability in using soil minerals is one of the biotechnology researchers’ goals. Genetic engineering methods provide considerable advances in crop breeding by transferring and creating desired traits for further production under normal or stress conditions. In these procedures, Design of efficient gene constructs is of particular importance and requires promoters with proper function to specifically express the gene of interest in the target tissue and at the appropriate time to develop desired traits such as tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses or other aims. Specific expression of phosphate-transporter genes in the roots and their induced levels in phosphate deficiency shows the potential of this gene-family promoters utilization in transgenic plants, particularly for the use in phosphate absorption from soil. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the 1826-bp promoter fragment of AtPHT1;1 gene carries several motifs leading to root-specific expression in Arabidopsis thaliana. The expression of a secretory acid phosphatase gene, AtPAP17, as a reporter gene in rapeseed transgenic plants indicated that the AtPHT1;1 promoter retains its root-specific criteria in rapeseed such that it could be used as a regulatory region for the specific expression of desired genes in transgenic rapeseed plant roots.

Agriculture is facing many problems and dilemmas on the way to achieving the optimal performance of its products in terms of quantity and quality, due to the presence of various biotic and abiotic stresses such as pathogens, pests, weeds, inappropriate temperature and humidity, and many other factors. It is predicted that by 2050, the world's population will reach about 9.6 billion people, in this way, agricultural production should increase between 70 and 100 percent in order to fulfill the responsibility of providing human food. Factors such as the shrinking of arable land, lack of water resources, climate change, and the reduction of the effectiveness of agricultural chemical inputs have intensified the problems caused by biotic and abiotic stresses for all types of crops. In this way, obtaining modern technologies and new findings to protect plants against stresses and improve the efficiency of using chemical inputs with the aim of ensuring food security in a healthy and sustainable manner is absolutely vital. Nano-biotechnology, which includes using nanostructures (substances smaller than one hundred nanometers) in biological applications, is a promising tool for realizing sustainable agriculture, which is a crucial factor in meeting the growing need for food in the world. In this paper, the general role of nanotechnology in the agricultural industry is reviewed as nano fertilizers, nano pesticides, nano growth regulators, nano water and soil remediators, etc.

Two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae Koch) is one of the most important pests of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Since, complex gene networks are involved in creating sensitivity or resistance against the two-spotted spider mite; therefore, in this research we used biological system methods to identify key networks. For this purpose, we used the RNA-Seq data related to the two-spotted spider mite stress on common bean plant. After providing the gene expression matrix, molecular networks were analyzed using weighted co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). After the modules identification, the gene functions in each module were investigated and analyzed. According to the results, a total of 699 genes were identified with differential expression in response to two-spotted spider mite stress, which were placed in 7 co-expression modules through hierarchical clustering. Gene ontology and interaction analysis of key genes using the String database showed that the response of common bean transcriptome to two-spotted spider mite infestation includes genes encoding protein kinases, catalysts, transcription factors, and metabolite production and pathways of hormonal message transmission. It is notable that among the most important genes that showed co-expression, WRKY and lipoxygenase were highlighted. The turquoise module had the higher number of genes involved in resistance, and this module and the yellow module had the highest correlation with the resistant variety after five and one day of contamination, respectively. Also, the black module had the highest correlation with the sensitive variety after five days of contamination. In conclusion, this study increases our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms involved in resistance to the two-spotted spider mite. Also, the genes examined in this research can be introduced as breeding targets to create resistance.

This experiment was conducted in order to assess genetic variation and determination of the best genetic structure and the grouping of safflower genotypes using ISSR and retrotransposon markers and different agricultural traits. In this study, 28 safflower genotypes were evaluated using 7 ISSR markers, 3 retrotransposon markers and 12 combined ISSR and retrotransposon markers, as well as eight different morphological traits with different statistical methods. From 22 primers, 117 polymorphic bands were created. The primers, primer-of UBC-827 and TOS-1 with 13 band maximum number of bands, and primer UBC-811 and UBC-822 in combination with 5-band TOS-1 with the lowest band for ISSR primers and Retrotransposons. The average percent polymorphism obtained in this study for markers ISSR, Retrotransposons and primer combinations was from 38.46 to 88.88 percent ISSR and Retrotransposons is variable and the mean percentage of polymorphic for this is equal to 62. High standards of straw gene diversity, Shannon index, the PIC and the number of effective allele primer UBC-810, UBC-811 and primer combination TOS-2 + HB-12, TOS-1 + HB12 and TOS-1+ UBC822 show performance Primers on the assessment of genetic diversity in this article. The morphological traits of 28 genotypes by UPGMA and Euclidean distance criteria were divided into 4 groups. Grouping results of cluster analysis by linear discriminant analysis using Fisher's focal 82.1 percent for morphological traits were confirmed. Principal component analysis showed that the main vectors of the first and second respectively are 8.22 and 6.84 and the 10 first components validated 63.47 percent of total variance. Mantel test the relationship between molecular and morphological data matrix equivalent 0.214 that show little correlation between the two data. Overall, the results showed that there is a considerable genetic variation in safflower germplasm that can be used to select parents and desirable genotypes in safflower breeding programs.

Sucrose Froctan 6 fructosyl transferase is an enzyme that catalyzes the transfer of the fructosyl group from sucrose to various receptors. The importance of this protein is due to its role in increasing plant resistance against stresses. Due to the importance of sucrose transport in the cell, this gene was studied with the help of various databases and various bioinformatics software and it was compared with genes involved in the hydrolysis of O-glycosyl in wheat as well as genes of other plant species. Phylogenetic analysis divided 21 haplotypes into eight distinct groups. An exon was detected on the positive strand of this gene by FgenesH program and it was found that its predicted protein is 619 amino acids long. MapViewer revealed that the sequence carrying the Sucrose Froctan 6 fructosyl transferase (6-sft) access gene (JQ728011) is located on chromosome 4 of wheat. The isoelectric point (pI) of the target protein is 5.19, its net charge is -24 and examination of the Instability index showed that this protein has a long life. The molecular weight of Sucrose Froctan 6 fructosyl transferase (6-sft) protein was 6877.38 Da and ontologically, the 6-sft protein remains inside the cell. This protein has two protected domains PF00251 (Glyco-hydrolasy) and SSF75005 (Arabinana) at the N-terminus and a domain is SSF49899 (Cancanava) at the end of C. It was inferred that this protein was transported to the nucleus by the domain glyco-hydrolasy after synthesis in the cytoplasm and regulates O-glycosyle hydrolysis in wheat. Comparison of the secondary structure of the protein confirmed the existence of alpha plates. Three-dimensional modeling of this protein in wheat was performed by homology modeling method using Swiss Model database after selecting the appropriate model with high similarity that was extracted from PDB database. To validation of modeled structure and esterochemical analysis, Ramachandran plot was drawn and dihydral angles were calculated. Structural quality evaluation results showed that the proposed models are good quality and stability. The study of protein structure may help to understand protein function and the details of its structure can be useful in studies of the active site of the protein and docking.