Jae-Young Song

Current Applicable DNA Markers for Marker Assisted Breeding in Abiotic and Biotic Stress Tolerance in Rice ( Oryza sativa L.)

Abiotic and biotic stresses adversely affect rice (Oryza sativa L.) growth and yield. Conventional breeding is a very effective method to develop tolerant rice variety; however, it takes a decade long to establish a new rice variety. DNA-based markers have a huge potential to improve the efficiency and precision of conventional plant breeding via marker-assisted selection (MAS). The large number of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) mapping studies for rice has provided an abundance of DNA marker-trait associations. The limitations of conventional breeding such as linkage drag and lengthy time consumption can be overcome by utilizing DNA markers in plant breeding. The major applications of DNA markers such as MAS, QTL mapping and gene pyramiding have been surveyed. In this review, we presented the latest markers available for some of the most important abiotic and biotic stresses in rice breeding programs. Achieving a significant impact on crop improvement by marker assisted breeding (MAB) represents the great challenge for agricultural scientists in the next few decades.

Genome-Wide Identification, Characterization, and Expression Profiling of Glutathione S-Transferase (GST) Family in Pumpkin Reveals Likely Role in Cold-Stress Tolerance

Plant growth and development can be adversely affected by cold stress, limiting productivity. The glutathione S-transferase (GST) family comprises important detoxifying enzymes, which play major roles in biotic and abiotic stress responses by reducing the oxidative damage caused by reactive oxygen species. Pumpkins (Cucurbita maxima) are widely grown, economically important, and nutritious; however, their yield can be severely affected by cold stress. The identification of putative candidate genes responsible for cold-stress tolerance, including the GST family genes, is therefore vital. For the first time, we identified 32 C. maxima GST (CmaGST) genes using a combination of bioinformatics approaches and characterized them by expression profiling. These CmaGST genes represent seven of the 14 known classes of plant GSTs, with 18 CmaGSTs categorized into the tau class. The CmaGSTs were distributed across 13 of pumpkin’s 20 chromosomes, with the highest numbers found on chromosomes 4 and 6. The large number of CmaGST genes resulted from gene duplication; 11 and 5 pairs of CmaGST genes were segmental- and tandem-duplicated, respectively. In addition, all CmaGST genes showed organ-specific expression. The expression of the putative GST genes in pumpkin was examined under cold stress in two lines with contrasting cold tolerance: cold-tolerant CP-1 (C. maxima) and cold-susceptible EP-1 (Cucurbita moschata). Seven genes (CmaGSTU3, CmaGSTU7, CmaGSTU8, CmaGSTU9, CmaGSTU11, CmaGSTU12, and CmaGSTU14) were highly expressed in the cold-tolerant line and are putative candidates for use in breeding cold-tolerant crop varieties. These results increase our understanding of the cold-stress-related functions of the GST family, as well as potentially enhancing pumpkin breeding programs.

Characterization of Salt Tolerant Rice Mutant Lines Derived from Azetidine-2-Carboxylic Acid Resistant Cell Lines Induced by Gamma Ray Irradiation

To develop rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars to be planted on salt-affected sites, cell lines with enhanced proline content and resistance to growth inhibition by Azetidine-2-carboxylic acid (AZCA), a proline analogue, were screened out among calli irradiated with gamma ray of 50, 70, 90, and 120 Gy. The calli had been derived from embryo culture of the cultivar Donganbyeo. Selected AZCA resistant lines that had high proline accumulation were used as sources for selection of NaCl resistant lines. To determine an optimum concentration for selection of NaCl resistant lines, Donganbyeo seeds were initially cultured on the media containing various NaCl concentrations (0 to 2.5%) for 40 days, and 1.5% NaCl concentration was determined as the optimum concentration. One hundred sixteen salt-tolerant (ST) lines were selected from bulked 20,000 seeds of the AZCA resistant seeds in the medium containing 1.5% NaCl. The putative 33 lines ( generation) considered with salt-tolerance were further analyzed for salt tolerance, amino acid and ion contents, and expression patterns of the salt tolerance-related genes. Out of the 33 lines, 7 lines were confirmed to have superior salt tolerance. Based on growth comparison of the entries, the selected mutant lines exhibited greater shoot length with average 1.5 times, root length with 1.3 times, root numbers with 1.1 times, and fresh weight with 1.5 times than control. Proline contents were increased maximum 20%, 100% and 20% in the leaf, seed and callus, respectively, of the selected lines. Compared to control, amino acid contents of the mutants were 24 to 29%, 49 to 143%, 32 to 60% higher in the leaf, seed and callus, respectively. The ratio of for most of the ST-lines were lower than that of control, ranging from 1.0 to 3.8 for the leaf and 11.5 to 28.5 for the root, while the control had 3.5 and 32.9 in the leaf and root, respectively. The transcription patterns for the P5CS and NHXI genes observed by RT-PCR analysis indicated that these genes were actively expressed under salt stress. The selected mutants will be useful for the development of rice cultivar resistant to salt stress.

Expression Profiling of Regulatory and Biosynthetic Genes in Contrastingly Anthocyanin Rich Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) Cultivars Reveals Key Genetic Determinants of Fruit Color

Anthocyanins are the resultant end-point metabolites of phenylapropanoid/flavonoid (F/P) pathway which is regulated at transcriptional level via a series of structural genes. Identifying the key genes and their potential interactions can provide us with the clue for novel points of intervention for improvement of the trait in strawberry. We profiled the expressions of putative regulatory and biosynthetic genes of cultivated strawberry in three developmental and characteristically colored stages of fruits of contrastingly anthocyanin rich cultivars: Tokun, Maehyang and Soelhyang. Besides FaMYB10, a well-characterized positive regulator, FaMYB5, FabHLH3 and FabHLH3-delta might also act as potential positive regulators, while FaMYB11, FaMYB9, FabHLH33 and FaWD44-1 as potential negative regulators of anthocyanin biosynthesis in these high-anthocyanin cultivars. Among the early BGs, Fa4CL7, FaF3H, FaCHI1, FaCHI3, and FaCHS, and among the late BGs, FaDFR4-3, FaLDOX, and FaUFGT2 showed significantly higher expression in ripe fruits of high anthocyanin cultivars Maehyang and Soelhyang. Multivariate analysis revealed the association of these genes with total anthocyanins. Increasingly higher expressions of the key genes along the pathway indicates the progressive intensification of pathway flux leading to final higher accumulation of anthocyanins. Identification of these key genetic determinants of anthocyanin regulation and biosynthesis in Korean cultivars will be helpful in designing crop improvement programs.

CRISPR/CAS9 as a Powerful Tool for Crop Improvement

Implementation of crop improvement programs relies on genetic diversity. To overcome the limited occurrence of natural mutations, researchers and breeders applied diverse methods, ranging from conventional crossing to classical bio-technologies. Earlier generations of knockout and gain-of-function technologies often result in incomplete gene disruption or random insertions of transgenes into plant genomes. The newly developed editing tool, CRISPR/Cas9 system, not only provides a powerful platform to efficiently modify target traits, but also broadens the scope and prospects of genome editing. Customized Cas9/guide RNA (gRNA) systems suitable for efficient genomic modification of mammalian cells or plants have been reported. Following successful demonstration of this technology in mammalian cells, CRISPR/Cas9 was suc-cessfully adapted in plants, and accumulating evidence of its feasibility has been reported in model plants and major crops. Recently, a modified version of CRISPR/Cas9 with added novel functions has been developed that enables programmable direct irreversible conversion of a target DNA base. In this review, we summarized the milestone applications of CRISPR/ Cas9 in plants with a focus on major crops. We also present the implications of an improved version of this technology in the current plant breeding programs.

Application and utilization of marker assisted selection for biotic stress resistance in hybrid rice ( Oryza sativa L.)

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Development of disease resistant plant is one of the important objectives in rice breeding programs because biotic stresses can adversely affect rice growth and yield losses. This study was conducted to identify lines with multiple-resistance genes to biotic stress among 173 hybrid rice breeding lines and germplasms using DNA-based markers. Our results showed that one hybrid rice line [IR98161-21-1-k1-3 (IR86409-3-1-1-1-1-1/IRBB66)] possessed 5 bacterial blight resistance genes (Xa4, xa5, Xa7, Xa13 and Xa21) while two hybrid rice lines [IR98161-2-1-1-k1-2 (IR864093-1-1-1-1-1/IRBB66) and 7292s (IR75589-31-27-8-33S(S1)/ IR102758B)] possessed 3 bacterial blight resistance genes (Xa4, Xa7 and Xa21, and Xa3, Xa4 and xa5). Molecular survey on rice blast disease revealed that most of these lines had two different resistant genes. Only 11 lines possessed Pib, Pi-5, and Pi-ta. In addition, we further surveyed the distribution of insect resistant genes, such as Bph1, Bph18(t), and Wbph. Three hybrid breeding lines [IR98161-2-1-1-k1-3 (IR86409-3-1-1-1-1-1/IRBB66), IR98161-2-1-1-k1-2 (IR864093-1-1-1-1-1/IRBB66), and 7292s (IR75589-31-27-8-33S(S1) /IR102758B)] contained all three resistance genes. Finally, we obtained four hybrid rice breeding lines and germplasms [IR98161-2-1-1-k1-2 (IR86409-3-1-1-1-1-1/IRBB66), DammNoeub Khmau, 7290s, and 7292s (IR75589-31-27-8-33S(S1)/ IR102758B)] possessing six-gene combination. They are expected to provide higher level of multiple resistance to biotic stress. This study is important for genotyping hybrid rice with resistance to diverse diseases and pests. Results obtained in this study suggest that identification of pyramided resistance genes is very important for screening hybrid rice breeding lines and germplasms accurately for disease and pest resistance. We will expand their cultivation safely through bioassays against diseases, pests, and disaster in its main export countries.

Development of race-specific molecular marker for Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris race 3, the causal agent of black rot of crucifers

Abstract: Race-specific molecular markers were established to distinguish Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc) race 3, the causal agent of black rot disease of crucifers. The available genome sequences of Xcc races were aligned and identified three DNA fragments specific to Xcc race 3. The identified race-specific DNA fragments namely XccR3-49, XccR3-52, and XccR3-55 were used for designing the race-specific primers to detect and identify Xcc race 3. The specificity of race-specific primers was tested against the genomic DNA extracted from Xcc (races 1–7), Xcc strains, Xc pathovars, and other bacterial species. XccR3-49, a specific sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) primer set, gave a single band with 867 bp length for Xcc race 3 only. The remaining two markers XccR3-52 and XccR3-55 showed polymorphic amplification with amplicon sizes of 1889 and 2109 bp for Xcc race 3, respectively. Additionally, the SCAR primer set detected Xcc race 3 rapidly and efficiently in artificially infected cabbage leaves with bio-PCR. This result showed that the newly developed race-specific markers can successfully and efficiently detect and identify Xcc race 3 from Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris races, Xanthomonas species/pathovars, as well as other plant pathogenic bacteria (Pseudomonas syringae pv. maculicola and Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora). Up to now, this is the first report describing the race-specific marker for the detection of Xcc race 3.

Overexpression of an oligopeptide transporter gene enhances heat tolerance in transgenic rice

지구온난화로 인해 온도 상승에 따른 고온 스트레스는 전세계 많은 지역에서 농업적으로 문제가 되어 세계 3대 곡물인 벼의 생산에 피해가 크게 나타나고 있다. 식물은 생장하면서 다양한 환경스트레스에 노출되며, 이러한 스트레스는 작물의 생장, 발달, 수확량 등에 영향을 미친다. 본 연구는 벼의 안정적인 생산성을 높이기 위해 벼 유래 OsOPT 유전자를 이용한 형질전환 후대에서 고온 조건하에서도 생육이 가능한 계통을 선발하여 그 특성을 살펴보았다. 먼저, OsOPT10 유전자 도입 형질전환 벼를 이용하여 고온 처리에 따른 저항성 계통을 선발하고, 선발된 계통의 생리적 특성을 분석하였으며, 분자적 특성을 qRT-PCR을 통해 유전자의 발현 양상을 분석하였다. 고온 스트레스에 의한 세포막 피해 정도를 알아보기 위해 전해질 누출(electrolyte leakage), 삼투조절제 역할을 하는 수용성 당 및 proline 함량 분석을 하여 대조구와 비교분석 하였다. 본 실험에서 고온 처리에 의한 가용성 당 함량의 변화는 OsOPT10-16 형질전환 벼를 제외하고 OsOPT10-1와 OsOPT10-7 계통이 WT 보다 당 함량이 높게 나타났다. 모 품종 동진에 비해 형질전환 벼 계통의 EL 값이 낮게 나타난 것과 가용성 당 함량이 비슷하거나 높게 나타난 것으로 보아 OsOPT10 형질전환 벼가 고온 스트레스에서 저항성 반응을 나타낸 것으로 판단하였다.

Discrimination of Korean rice varieties as revealed by DNA profiling and its relationship with genetic diversity

벼 품종의 DNA profiling을 위하여 SSR 마커를 활용하여 한국 벼의 품종판별 기술 확립을 위하여 국내에서 육성된 벼 243개 품종에 대하여 최종 선발된 7개의 SSR 마커(RM21, RM257, HsSSR01-52, RM333, RM580, RM1306, RM157)를 이용하여 판별하였다. 판별용으로 이용된 SSR 마커 7개의 총 대립인자 수는 130개였으며, 대립인자 수의 범위는 10 ~ 32개이었고, 평균 대립인자 수는 18.57이었다. PIC 값은 0.679(HsSSR01-52) ~ 0.895 (RM333)의 범위이었으며, 평균 PIC 값은 0.774이었다. SSR 마커 7개의 조합으로 6단계의 판별을 통해 총 243개 품종 중 243개 모든 품종의 구별이 가능하였다. 이와 같은 결과, 본 연구에 이용된 SSR 7개 마커는 한국 벼 품종의 판별과 순도유지에 매우 효율적으로 이용할 수 있을 것으로 여겨진다.

Sugar content analysis and expression profiling of sugar related genes in contrasting Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) cultivars

Fragaria × ananassa, a strawberry evolved from hybridization between F. virginiana and F. chiloensis, is a globally cultivated and consumed fruit crop valued for its flavor and nutritional value. Flavor and quality of fruits are determined by factors such as sugars and organic acids present during fruit development. These characteristics are highly subjective in different genotypes and affected by various environmental factors. In this study, we analyzed contents of major sugar compounds including fructose, glucose and sucrose by HPLC analysis in four cultivars namely, Maehyang, Seolhyang, Festival and Sweet Charlie. We identified 55 genes related to fructose, glucose, sucrose and soluble sugar regulation whose expression were analyzed in four cultivars at three developmental stages of the fruit namely, green, white and ripened stages. Expression of these genes across these progressive fruit developmental stages varied among cultivars. Among the 55 genes, genes FaFru3, FaSuc11 and FaGlu8 revealed differential patterns of expression along developmental stages of the fruit in high and low sugar-containing genotypes, respectively and may be putative candidates for sugar content in strawberries. Expression of genes are discussed with regard to corresponding sugar content in these genotypes. Further analysis and application of these genes may be valuable in developing high sugar containing cultivars via marker-assisted breeding.