Zhongwei Tian

Improved tolerance to post-anthesis drought stress by pre-drought priming at vegetative stages in drought-tolerant and -sensitive wheat cultivars.

Wheat crop endures a considerable penalty of yield reduction to escape the drought events during post-anthesis period. Drought priming under a pre-drought stress can enhance the crop potential to tolerate the subsequent drought stress by triggering a faster and stronger defense mechanism. Towards these understandings, a set of controlled moderate drought stress at 55-60% field capacity (FC) was developed to prime the plants of two wheat cultivars namely Luhan-7 (drought tolerant) and Yangmai-16 (drought sensitive) during tillering (Feekes 2 stage) and jointing (Feekes 6 stage), respectively. The comparative response of primed and non-primed plants, cultivars and priming stages was evaluated by applying a subsequent severe drought stress at 7 days after anthesis. The results showed that primed plants of both cultivars showed higher potential to tolerate the post-anthesis drought stress through improved leaf water potential, more chlorophyll, and ribulose-1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase contents, enhanced photosynthesis, better photoprotection and efficient enzymatic antioxidant system leading to less yield reductions. The primed plants of Luhan-7 showed higher capability to adapt the drought stress events than Yangmai-16. The positive effects of drought priming to sustain higher grain yield were pronounced in plants primed at tillering than those primed at jointing. In consequence, upregulated functioning of photosynthetic apparatus and efficient enzymatic antioxidant activities in primed plants indicated their superior potential to alleviate a subsequently occurring drought stress, which contributed to lower yield reductions than non-primed plants. However, genotypic and priming stages differences in response to drought stress also contributed to affect the capability of primed plants to tolerate the post-anthesis drought stress conditions in wheat.

Nitrogen Nutrition Improves the Potential of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to Alleviate the Effects of Drought Stress during Vegetative Growth Periods

Efficient nitrogen (N) nutrition has the potential to alleviate drought stress in crops by maintaining metabolic activities even at low tissue water potential. This study was aimed to understand the potential of N to minimize the effects of drought stress applied/occur during tillering (Feekes stage 2) and jointing (Feekes stage 6) growth stages of wheat by observing the regulations and limitations of physiological activities, crop growth rate during drought periods as well as final grain yields at maturity. In present study, pot cultured plants of a wheat cultivar Yangmai-16 were exposed to three water levels [severe stress at 35–40% field capacity (FC), moderate stress at 55–60% FC and well-watered at 75–80% FC] under two N rates (0.24 g and 0.16 g/kg soil). The results showed that the plants under severe drought stress accompanied by low N exhibited highly downregulated photosynthesis, and chlorophyll (Chl) fluorescence during the drought stress periods, and showed an accelerated grain filling rate with shortened grain filling duration (GFD) at post-anthesis, and reduced grain yields. Severe drought-stressed plants especially at jointing, exhibited lower Chl and Rubisco contents, lower efficiency of photosystem II and greater grain yield reductions. In contrast, drought-stressed plants under higher N showed tolerance to drought stress by maintaining higher leaf water potential, Chl and Rubisco content; lower lipid peroxidation associated with higher superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase activities during drought periods. The plants under higher N showed delayed senescence, increased GFD and lower grain yield reductions. The results of the study suggested that higher N nutrition contributed to drought tolerance in wheat by maintaining higher photosynthetic activities and antioxidative defense system during vegetative growth periods.

Winter Night-Warming Improves Post-anthesis Physiological Activities and Sink Strength in Relation to Grain Filling in Winter Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

The diurnal and seasonal temperature rising patterns “asymmetric warming,” plays an important role in crop distribution and productivity. Asymmetric warming during the early growth periods of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) profoundly affects vegetative growth and post-anthesis grain productivity, but the underlying physiological mechanism is still unclear. We conducted field experiments from 2012 to 2014 using two wheat cultivars, namely, Yangmai-13 (vernal type) and Yannong-19 (semi-winter type), to investigate the influences of night-warming during the winter (warming by 1.56–1.67°C from tillering to jointing) or during the spring (warming by 1.78–1.92°C from jointing to booting) on post-anthesis physiological activities and grain-filling processes. Both night-warming treatments enhanced the source activity by increasing flag leaf area, chlorophyll content, and photosynthetic capability in both cultivars compared with those of the control. The night-warming treatments caused an increase in the antioxidant activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase, and catalase (CAT) in the flag leaves of both cultivars, while ROS contents such as superoxide anion radical (O2•−) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) decreased. Moreover, the expression levels of Rubisco activase B (RcaB), major chlorophyll a/b-binding protein (Cab), chloroplast Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn-SOD), mitochondrial manganese superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD), and CAT genes were upregulated at anthesis and were associated with higher photosynthetic capacity and antioxidant activities. Furthermore, night-warming improved sink activities by increasing the concentrations of grain indole-3-acetic acid and cytokinins as well as the sucrose synthase activity for both cultivars. Winter night-warming showed greater potential for improving source strength and grain filling, with consistent performance in both cultivars compared with that of spring night-warming. We concluded form these results that night-warming can improve source and sink capacities in winter wheat, and winter night-warming has greater advantages in this respect than does spring warming.

Physiological and biochemical changes during drought and recovery periods at tillering and jointing stages in wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.)

Defining the metabolic strategies used by wheat to tolerate and recover from drought events will be important for ensuring yield stability in the future, but studies addressing this critical research topic are limited. To this end, the current study quantified the physiological, biochemical, and agronomic responses of a drought tolerant and drought sensitive cultivar to periods of water deficit and recovery. Drought stress caused a reversible decline in leaf water relations, membrane stability, and photosynthetic activity, leading to increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, lipid peroxidation and membrane injury. Plants exhibited osmotic adjustment through the accumulation of soluble sugars, proline, and free amino acids and increased enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant activities. After re-watering, leaf water potential, membrane stability, photosynthetic processes, ROS generation, anti-oxidative activities, lipid peroxidation, and osmotic potential completely recovered for moderately stressed plants and did not fully recover in severely stressed plants. Higher photosynthetic rates during drought and rapid recovery after re-watering produced less-pronounced yield declines in the tolerant cultivar than the sensitive cultivar. These results suggested that the plant’s ability to maintain functions during drought and to rapidly recover after re-watering during vegetative periods are important for determining final productivity in wheat.

Improved leaf nitrogen reutilisation and Rubisco activation under short-term nitrogen-deficient conditions promotes photosynthesis in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) at the seedling stage

Excess N input results in low N use efficiency and environmental crisis, so nitrogenous fertiliser applications must be reduced. However, this can lead to low-N stress. Previous studies on low N have not explored the unique adjustment strategy to N deficiency in the short term, which is important for developing long-term N deficiency tolerance. In this case, two wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars with different tolerances to low N, Zaoyangmai (sensitive) and Yangmai158 (tolerant), were exposed to 0.25mM N as a N-deficient condition with 5.0mM N as a control. Under long-term N-deficient conditions, a significant decrease in Rubisco content resulted in decreased Rubisco activity and net photosynthetic rate (Pn) in both cultivars. However, the NO3-:soluble protein ratio decreased, and nitrate reductase and glutamine synthetase activity increased under short-term N deficiency, especially in Yangmai158. As a result, Rubisco content was not decreased in Yangmai158, while total N content decreased significantly. Moreover, increased Rubisco activase activity promoted Rubisco activation under short-term N deficiency. In sequence, Rubisco activity and Pn improved under short-term N deficiency. In conclusion, N deficiency-tolerant cultivars can efficiently assimilate N to Rubisco and enhance Rubisco activation to improve photosynthetic capabilities under short-term N deficiency conditions.

Enhanced Rubisco activation associated with maintenance of electron transport alleviates inhibition of photosynthesis under low nitrogen conditions in winter wheat seedlings

Studying the response of photosynthesis to low nitrogen (N) and the underlying physiological mechanism can provide a theoretical basis for breeding N-efficient cultivars and optimizing N management. We conducted hydroponic experiments using two wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars, Zaoyangmai (low N sensitive) and Yangmai158 (low N tolerant), with either 0.25 mM N as a low N (LN) treatment or 5 mM N as a control. Under LN, a decrease in net photosynthetic rate (Pn) was attributed to reduction in the maximum Rubisco carboxylation rate, which then accelerated a reduction in the maximum ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate regeneration rate, and the reduction in Pn was 5-35% less in Yangmai158 than in Zaoyangmai. Yangmai158 maintained a 10-25% higher Rubisco concentration, especially in the upper leaves, and up-regulated Rubisco activase activity compared with Zaoyangmai to increase the Rubisco activation to sustain Rubisco carboxylation under LN conditions. In addition, Yangmai158 increased electron flux to the photorespiratory carbon oxidation cycle and alternative electron flux to maintain a faster electron transport rate and avoid photodamage. In conclusion, the LN-tolerant cultivar showed enhanced Rubisco activation and sustained electron transport to maintain a greater photosynthetic capacity under LN conditions.

Soil nitrogen balance and nitrogen utilization of winter wheat affected by straw management and nitrogen application in the Yangtze river basin of China

ABSTRACT Straw incorporation is a useful management practice in sustainable agricultural systems to improve soil fertility and to reduce air pollution from straw burning. A three-year field experiment was conducted under two rice straw managements and four nitrogen (N) application rates in Rugao, China during 2010–2013, to examine whether straw management practices integrated with fertilizer N applications affect crop yield, N balance and N use efficiency in the wheat season of rice-wheat cropping systems. The results showed that straw incorporation had positive effects on plant N uptake and grain yield. This may be attributed to the greater soil water content and lower amount of seasonal rainfall. However, straw incorporation resulted in lower soil inorganic N and more N surplus at the early growth stage. Grain yield had a significant relation with wheat N uptake from sowing to jointing and from jointing to anthesis with straw incorporation. Therefore, our results suggest that in adjusting the ratio of basal and topdressing N fertilizer, it is important for the supply of optimum N to the crop and to maintain grain production with straw incorporation.

Activities of carbohydrate-metabolism enzymes in pre-drought primed wheat plants under drought stress during grain filling: Carbohydrate metabolism in drought primed wheat plants

Abid M, Tian Z, Hu J, Ullah A, Cui Y, Ali S, Jiang S, Zahoor R, Fan Y, Dong J and Dai T Activities of carbohydrate-metabolism enzymes in pre-drought primed wheat plants under drought stress during grain filling. J Integr Plant Biol Accepted Author Manuscript. doi:10.1111/jipb.12628 The above article from Journal of Integrative Plant Biology, published online on 20 December, 2017, in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) as Accepted Article, has been withdrawn by agreement among the authors, the journal Editors-in-Chief and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of the JIPB Board, after noticing an overlap of a figure from a previously published article, from the same laboratory. REFERENCE Abid M, Tian Z, Hu J, Ullah A, Cui Y, Ali S, Jiang S, Zahoor R, Fan Y, Dong J and Dai T Activities of carbohydrate-metabolism enzymes in pre-drought primed wheat plants under drought stress during grain filling. J Integr Plant Biol Accepted Author Manuscript. doi:10.1111/jipb.12628.

Higher Ammonium Transamination Capacity Can Alleviate Glutamate Inhibition on Winter Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Root Growth under High Ammonium Stress.

Most of the studies about NH4+ stress mechanism simply address the effects of free NH4+, failing to recognize the changed nitrogen assimilation products. The objective of this study was to elucidate the effects of glutamate on root growth under high ammonium (NH4+) conditions in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Hydroponic experiments were conducted using two wheat cultivars, AK58 (NH4+-sensitive) and Xumai25 (NH4+-tolerant) with either 5 mM NH4+ nitrogen (AN) as stress treatment or 5 mM nitrate (NO3-) nitrogen as control. To evaluate the effects of NH4+-assimilation products on plant growth, 1 μM L-methionine sulfoximine (MSO) (an inhibitor of glutamine synthetase (GS)) and 1 mM glutamates (a primary N assimilation product) were added to the solutions, respectively. The AN significantly reduced plant biomass, total root length, surface area and root volume in both cultivars, but less effect was observed in Xumai25. The inhibition effects were alleviated by the application of MSO but strengthened by the application of glutamate. The AN increased the activities of GS, glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) in both cultivars, resulting in higher glutamate contents. However, its contents were decreased by the application of MSO. Compared to AK58, Xumai25 showed lower glutamate contents due to its higher activities of glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (GPT). With the indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) contents decreasing in roots, the ratio of shoot to root in IAA was increased, and further increased by the application of glutamate, and reduced by the application of MSO, but the ratio was lower in Xumai25. Meanwhile, the total soluble sugar contents and its root to shoot ratio also showed similar trends. These results indicate that the NH4+-tolerant cultivar has a greater transamination ability to prevent glutamate over-accumulation to maintain higher IAA transport ability, and consequently promoted soluble sugar transport to roots, further maintaining root growth.