Growing Wheat on Acid Soils

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Submitted by News on August 13, 2008 - 12:08pm.

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Researchers have found markers foraluminum-resistance genes in wheat that breeders could use to improve theresistance of regional varieties. Aluminum can hurt production for wheatgrowers in the southern Great Plains. Click the image for more informationabout it.


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Helping Wheat Pass the Acid Test

By Ann Perry
August 4, 2008

Many wheat farmers in the southernGreat Plains states face a significant challenge: High levels of aluminumreleased in the acidic soils can stunt crop growth. SoAgricultural Research Service (ARS) plantgeneticistGuihuaBai leads a team that is improving the odds for cultivating wheat in theseacidic soils.

Bai works at the ARSPlantScience and Entomology Research Unit, part of the agency'sGrainMarketing and Production Research Center in Manhattan, Kan. His researchincludes finding aluminum-resistance genes in wheat that breeders could use toimprove the resistance of regional varieties to aluminum toxicity.

Bai and Kansas State Universitycolleagues Dadong Zhang and Shibin Cai created a wheat population by crossing"FSW," a Chinese wheat landrace known for its resistance to aluminum,with "ND35," a wheat line sensitive to elevated levels of aluminum insoils. They exposed the population to high aluminum levels to assess theirresistance to aluminum toxicity.

The team assessed the effects of aluminum exposure on roots by measuringroot growth and evaluating how effectively hematoxylin stained the root tissue.Hematoxylin is a natural dye that only stains root tissue after reacting toaluminum that has been drawn out of the soil and into the roots.

The researchers then compared patterns of 1,028 simple-sequence-repeat (SSR)markers between the two wheat parents and their offspring to identifyrelationships between markers and aluminum resistance among the offspring. SSRmarkers are short repeating segments of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that arefound in all chromosomes. Some SSRs are near the genes that confer beneficialtraits in plants and can be used to locate these genes in experimentalpopulations.

The scientists used the SSR map to locate two genes in FSW that togetheraccounted for about 58 percent of its aluminum resistance. They also identifiedseveral SSR markers that are in close proximity to these genes. These SSRscould potentially be used to tag aluminum resistance genes for breedingaluminum-resistant wheat varieties.

Readmore about this research in the August 2008 issue of AgriculturalResearch magazine.

ARS is a scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.


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