Recent Advances in Turfgrass Responses to Abiotic and Biotic Stresses

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (22 January 2022) | Viewed by 4569

Special Issue Editor

State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Interests: grass stress responses; gene regulation; metabolic rearrangements
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Turfgrass is mown vegetation of grasses, and widely used for the afforestation of gardens and sports grounds. Recently, turfgrass has also been widely used for ecosystem services such as soil improvement, recreation, protection, and carbon sequestration. However, some abiotic and biotic stresses severely limit the growth and crop yield of turfgrass. Different types of abiotic stresses, such as temperature, salinity, heavy metal, and drought, as well as biotic stresses, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, insects, and weeds, influence turfgrass growth and development. Thus, turfgrass researchers attach increasing importance to improving turfgrass’ main types of abiotic and biotic stress tolerance now. Additionally, new genetic techniques and genome editing methods supply new opportunities and challenges for turfgrass researchers.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide a forum for recent advances in turfgrass responses to abiotic and biotic stresses, particularly involved in genetic improvement and genome editing. Original research articles and concepts for review articles to address major issues are welcome.

Dr. Tao Hu
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Turfgrass Management Practices
  • Abiotic Stress
  • Biotic Stress
  • Phytoremediation
  • Physiological Responses
  • Genetic Techniques
  • Molecular Breeding
  • Genome editing

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2627 KiB  
Article
Ectopic Expression of Os-miR408 Improves Thermo-Tolerance of Perennial Ryegrass
by Geli Taier, Nan Hang, Tianran Shi, Yanrong Liu, Wenxin Ye, Wanjun Zhang and Kehua Wang
Agronomy 2021, 11(10), 1930; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy11101930 - 26 Sep 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2017
Abstract
With global warming, high temperature stress has become a main threat to the growth of cool-season turfgrasses, including perennial ryegrass. As one of the conserved plant microRNA families, miR408s are known to play roles in various abiotic stresses, including cold, drought, salinity, and [...] Read more.
With global warming, high temperature stress has become a main threat to the growth of cool-season turfgrasses, including perennial ryegrass. As one of the conserved plant microRNA families, miR408s are known to play roles in various abiotic stresses, including cold, drought, salinity, and oxidative stress, but no report, thus far, was found for heat. Here, perennial ryegrass plants overexpressing rice Os-miR408 were used to investigate the role of miR408 in plant heat tolerance. Both wild type (WT) and miR408 transgenic perennial ryegrass plants (TG) were subjected to short-term heat stress at 38 °C for 72 h (experiment 1) or at 42 °C for 48 h (experiment 2), and then let recover for 7 days at optimum temperature. Morphological changes and physiological parameters, including antioxidative responses of TG and WT plants, were compared. The results showed that miR408 downregulated the expression of two putative target genes, PLASTOCYANIN and LAC3. Additionally, overexpression of Os-miR408 improved thermo-tolerance of perennial ryegrass, demonstrated by lower leaf lipid peroxidation and electrolyte leakage, and higher relative water content after both 38 and 42 °C heat stresses. In addition, the enhanced thermotolerance of TG plants could be associated with its morphological changes (e.g., narrower leaves, smaller tiller angles) and elevated antioxidative capacity. This study is the first that experimentally reported a positive role of miR408 in plant tolerance to heat stress, which provided useful information for further understanding the mechanism by which miR408 improved plant high-temperature tolerance, and offered a potential genetic resource for breeding heat-resistant cool-season turfgrass in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Turfgrass Responses to Abiotic and Biotic Stresses)
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18 pages, 2250 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Salt Tolerance in Italian Ryegrass at Different Developmental Stages
by Yan Xie, Xiaoying Liu, Maurice Amee, Hua Yu, Ye Huang, Xiaoning Li, Liang Chen, Jinmin Fu and Xiaoyan Sun
Agronomy 2021, 11(8), 1487; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy11081487 - 27 Jul 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1699
Abstract
Soil salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses that continues to threaten plant growth and agricultural productivity. Screening germplasm with salinity tolerance is therefore necessary. This study was designed to evaluate salt tolerance based on the integrated tolerance index. Fifteen Italian ryegrass [...] Read more.
Soil salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses that continues to threaten plant growth and agricultural productivity. Screening germplasm with salinity tolerance is therefore necessary. This study was designed to evaluate salt tolerance based on the integrated tolerance index. Fifteen Italian ryegrass cultivars were used to evaluate the degree of genotypic variation in salt tolerance at the germination and vegetative growth stages of plant development. Evident variations in salt tolerance were observed at the germination stage under 255 mM NaCl treatment. Root growth rate, chlorophyll content, and germination rates played a vital role in determining salt tolerance. Based on combined attributes at the germination and vegetative growth stages, Gongniu, Chuangnong, Splendor, and Abundant were identified as the most tolerant cultivars. Furthermore, the constant crude protein, lower neutral detergent fiber, and acid detergent fiber contents were measured under salinity. Compared to the control, the cultivars Tetragold, Abundant, Splendor, Muyao, Harukaze, Tegao, Dongmu 70, and Doraian were identified to have high forage quality under salt stress. Finally, we selected Splendor and Abundant as the cultivars that expressed the highest degree of salt tolerance based on combined attributes related to germination, salt tolerance, and overall forage quality. In addition, gene expression analysis between salinity tolerant and sensitive cultivars revealed that the gene response to photosystem and carbohydrate synthesis may have played a mediating role in providing tolerance to salt stress. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Turfgrass Responses to Abiotic and Biotic Stresses)
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