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Author McKersie, B. doi  openurl
  Title Planning for food security in a changing climate Type Journal Article
  Year 2015 Publication Journal of Experimental Botany Abbreviated Journal J. Experim. Bot.  
  Volume 66 Issue 12 Pages 3435-3450  
  Keywords Adaptation, Physiological; *Climate Change; Crops, Agricultural/growth & development; Droughts; *Food Supply; Zea mays/physiology; Climate change; DroughtGard; cropping systems; drought tolerance; genetic engineering; maize; marker-assisted selection; plant breeding  
  Abstract The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other international agencies have concluded that global crop production is at risk due to climate change, population growth, and changing food preferences. Society expects that the agricultural sciences will innovate solutions to these problems and provide food security for the foreseeable future. My thesis is that an integrated research plan merging agronomic and genetic approaches has the greatest probability of success. I present a template for a research plan based on the lessons we have learned from the Green Revolution and from the development of genetically engineered crops that may guide us to meet this expectation. The plan starts with a vision of how the crop management system could change, and I give a few examples of innovations that are very much in their infancy but have significant potential. The opportunities need to be conceptualized on a regional basis for each crop to provide a target for change. The plan gives an overview of how the tools of plant biotechnology can be used to create the genetic diversity needed to implement the envisioned changes in the crop management system, using the development of drought tolerance in maize (Zea mays L.) as an example that has led recently to the commercial release of new hybrids in the USA. The plan requires an interdisciplinary approach that integrates and coordinates research on plant biotechnology, genetics, physiology, breeding, agronomy, and cropping systems to be successful.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0022-0957 1460-2431 ISBN Medium (up) Review  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes CropM Approved no  
  Call Number MA @ admin @ Serial 4568  
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Meyer, P. doi  openurl
  Title Epigenetic variation and environmental change Type Journal Article
  Year 2015 Publication Journal of Experimental Botany Abbreviated Journal J. Experim. Bot.  
  Volume 66 Issue 12 Pages 3541-3548  
  Keywords DNA Methylation/genetics; DNA Transposable Elements/genetics; *Environment; *Epigenesis, Genetic; Plants/genetics; Stress, Physiological/genetics; Adaptation; DNA methylation; epigenetics; stress response  
  Abstract Environmental conditions can change the activity of plant genes via epigenetic effects that alter the competence of genetic information to be expressed. This may provide a powerful strategy for plants to adapt to environmental change. However, as epigenetic changes do not modify DNA sequences and are therefore reversible, only those epi-mutations that are transmitted through the germline can be expected to contribute to a long-term adaptive response. The major challenge for the investigation of epigenetic adaptation theories is therefore to identify genomic loci that undergo epigenetic changes in response to environmental conditions, which alter their expression in a heritable way and which improve the plant’s ability to adapt to the inducing conditions. This review focuses on the role of DNA methylation as a prominent epigenetic mark that controls chromatin conformation, and on its potential in mediating expression changes in response to environmental signals.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1460-2431 (Electronic) 0022-0957 (Linking) ISBN Medium (up) Review  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes CropM Approved no  
  Call Number MA @ admin @ Serial 4569  
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Kunert, K.J.; van Wyk, S.G.; Cullis, C.A.; Vorster, B.J.; Foyer, C.H. doi  openurl
  Title Potential use of phytocystatins in crop improvement, with a particular focus on legumes Type Journal Article
  Year 2015 Publication Journal of Experimental Botany Abbreviated Journal J. Experim. Bot.  
  Volume 66 Issue 12 Pages 3559-3570  
  Keywords Crops, Agricultural/*growth & development/metabolism; Cystatins/*metabolism; Cysteine Proteases/metabolism; Fabaceae/*growth & development/metabolism; Plant Proteins/*metabolism; Plant Root Nodulation; Stress, Physiological; Chilling; cystatin; drought; protein degradation; senescence; soybean; stress tolerance  
  Abstract Phytocystatins are a well-characterized class of naturally occurring protease inhibitors that function by preventing the catalysis of papain-like cysteine proteases. The action of cystatins in biotic stress resistance has been studied intensively, but relatively little is known about their functions in plant growth and defence responses to abiotic stresses, such as drought. Extreme weather events, such as drought and flooding, will have negative impacts on the yields of crop plants, particularly grain legumes. The concepts that changes in cellular protein content and composition are required for acclimation to different abiotic stresses, and that these adjustments are achieved through regulation of proteolysis, are widely accepted. However, the nature and regulation of the protein turnover machinery that underpins essential stress-induced cellular restructuring remain poorly characterized. Cysteine proteases are intrinsic to the genetic programmes that underpin plant development and senescence, but their functions in stress-induced senescence are not well defined. Transgenic plants including soybean that have been engineered to constitutively express phytocystatins show enhanced tolerance to a range of different abiotic stresses including drought, suggesting that manipulation of cysteine protease activities by altered phytocystatin expression in crop plants might be used to improve resilience and quality in the face of climate change.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0022-0957 1460-2431 ISBN Medium (up) Review  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes CropM Approved no  
  Call Number MA @ admin @ Serial 4564  
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Dockter, C.; Hansson, M. doi  openurl
  Title Improving barley culm robustness for secured crop yield in a changing climate Type Journal Article
  Year 2015 Publication Journal of Experimental Botany Abbreviated Journal J. Experim. Bot.  
  Volume 66 Issue 12 Pages 3499-3509  
  Keywords Climate Change; Crops, Agricultural/*anatomy & histology/genetics/*growth & development; Edible Grain/anatomy & histology/genetics/growth & development; Genes, Plant; Hordeum/*anatomy & histology/genetics/*growth & development; Phenotype; Barley (Hordeum vulgare); Green Revolution; brassinosteroid; gibberellin; lodging; plant architecture; short culm  
  Abstract The Green Revolution combined advancements in breeding and agricultural practice, and provided food security to millions of people. Daily food supply is still a major issue in many parts of the world and is further challenged by future climate change. Fortunately, life science research is currently making huge progress, and the development of future crop plants will be explored. Today, plant breeding typically follows one gene per trait. However, new scientific achievements have revealed that many of these traits depend on different genes and complex interactions of proteins reacting to various external stimuli. These findings open up new possibilities for breeding where variations in several genes can be combined to enhance productivity and quality. In this review we present an overview of genes determining plant architecture in barley, with a special focus on culm length. Many genes are currently known only through their mutant phenotypes, but emerging genomic sequence information will accelerate their identification. More than 1000 different short-culm barley mutants have been isolated and classified in different phenotypic groups according to culm length and additional pleiotropic characters. Some mutants have been connected to deficiencies in biosynthesis and reception of brassinosteroids and gibberellic acids. Still other mutants are unlikely to be connected to these hormones. The genes and corresponding mutations are of potential interest for development of stiff-straw crop plants tolerant to lodging, which occurs in extreme weather conditions with strong winds and heavy precipitation.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0022-0957 1460-2431 ISBN Medium (up) Review  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes CropM Approved no  
  Call Number MA @ admin @ Serial 4556  
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Boeckx, T.; Winters, A.L.; Webb, K.J.; Kingston-Smith, A.H. doi  openurl
  Title Polyphenol oxidase in leaves: is there any significance to the chloroplastic localization Type Journal Article
  Year 2015 Publication Journal of Experimental Botany Abbreviated Journal J. Experim. Bot.  
  Volume 66 Issue 12 Pages 3571-3579  
  Keywords Catechol Oxidase/*metabolism; Cell Compartmentation; Chloroplasts/*enzymology; Environment; Photosynthesis; Plant Leaves/*enzymology; Abiotic stress; polyphenol oxidase; secondary metabolism.  
  Abstract Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) catalyses the oxidation of monophenols and/or o-diphenols to o-quinones with the concomitant reduction of oxygen to water which results in protein complexing and the formation of brown melanin pigments. The most frequently suggested role for PPO in plants has been in defence against herbivores and pathogens, based on the physical separation of the chloroplast-localized enzyme from the vacuole-localized substrates. The o-quinone-protein complexes, formed as a consequence of cell damage, may reduce the nutritional value of the tissue and thereby reduce predation but can also participate in the formation of structural barriers against invading pathogens. However, since a sufficient level of compartmentation-based regulation could be accomplished if PPO was targeted to the cytosol, the benefit derived by some plant species in having PPO present in the chloroplast lumen remains an intriguing question. So is there more to the chloroplastic location of PPO? An interaction between PPO activity and photosynthesis has been proposed on more than one occasion but, to date, evidence either for or against direct involvement has been equivocal, and the lack of identified chloroplastic substrates remains an issue. Similarly, PPO has been suggested to have both pro- and anti-oxidant functions. Nevertheless, several independent lines of evidence suggest that PPO responds to environmental conditions and could be involved in the response of plants to abiotic stress. This review highlights our current understanding of the in vivo functions of PPO and considers the potential opportunities it presents for exploitation to increase stress tolerance in food crops.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0022-0957 1460-2431 ISBN Medium (up) Review  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes CropM Approved no  
  Call Number MA @ admin @ Serial 4552  
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