Peptide treatments were performed in the morning and collected at the indicated times

The larger genome size of S. habrochaites suggests the possibility that the putative loss of function of genes and/or genetic elements in S. lycopersicum may be due to deletions or non-functional null mutations. Matsuba et al. sequenced a functional gene cluster for terpene biosynthesis on chromosome 8 of S. habrochaites acc. 1778 and identified several rearrangements, deletions, and a novel gene when compared to the same gene cluster on chromosome 8 of the S. lycopersicum reference genome. Our prior research suggests that the inability of cultivated tomato to maintain shoot turgor under root chilling is the result of a loss of function in S. lycopersicum . Taken together, the current evidence suggests that the S. habrochaites allele for high-resolution mapped QTL stm9 may not be completely syntenic to S. lycopersicum, and that it may not contain the same genic compliment as the S. lycopersicum allele for stm9. Therefore, although the S. lycopersicum genome sequence is helpful in identifying potential candidate genes for shoot turgor maintenance under root chilling, the genomic sequence of the stm9 region of S. habrochaites is necessary for accurate, well-informed candidate gene identification.Stability of QTL expression for tolerance to abiotic stresses is important for successful deployment of stress tolerance QTL in breeding crop plants. Although a significant Genotype × Season interaction was identified for QTL stm9,procona flower transport containers the potential causes of the interaction suggest that this region would likely be useful as a stable source of root chilling tolerance for breeding. A number of other QTL have been identified as targets for breeding despite a significant Genotype × Season interaction in several species, including barley, rice, and maize .

The phenotypic plasticity likely contributed by the stm9 flanking regions suggest that any future breeding strategies should be undertaken with the smallest introgression possible that still contains the entire high-resolution mapped QTL stm9. The S. habrochaites introgression in sub-NIL C7 contains only the high resolution QTL stm9 region . This sub-NIL was grouped as tolerant in both the Spring and Fall datasets, and gave a consistently low stmscore in both seasons , suggesting it may serve as a suitable potential donor parent source of tolerance to root chilling in breeding programs. Due to the complexity of the abiotic stress response pathway, it is unlikely that the S. habrochaites QTL stm9 allele contains only a single gene conferring shoot turgor maintenance under root chilling. Single causal genes have been identified for a number of major QTL , but other major QTL have been shown to be controlled by two or more causal genes or polymorphisms . Identification and testing of the causal gene or polymorphisms underlying QTL stm9 for tolerance to root chilling will be an important step in the identification of genetic targets for improving stress tolerance of plants exposed to root chilling and other types of water stress through marker assisted breeding. Determination of the gene/polymorphisms responsible for a quantitative trait phenotype is facilitated by genomic approaches . Once a target region is identified via high-resolution mapping, a combination of genomic sequencing, structural genomic analysis, and transcriptome profiling can be used to assist in the identification of candidate genes. Therefore a biologically informed ranking of candidate genes located within the QTL stm9 region will require a combination of S. habrochaites genome sequence for this region as well as transcription profiles for susceptible and tolerant subNILs exposed to root chilling.

It is hoped that a better understanding of the underlying mechanism for tolerance to rapid-onset water stress in wild tomato S. habrochaites may aid in the identification of chilling tolerance genes in other species of tropical and sub-tropical origin.Plant immunity is mediated, in part, by cell surface immune receptors that recognize molecules produced by microbes. For example, the Arabidopsis FLS2 and EFR receptors recognize the flg22 peptide derived from bacterial flagellin and the elf18 peptide derived from elongation factor thermounstable protein, respectively . The rice XA21 receptor recognizes the sulfated RaxX peptide derived from the RaxX protein produced by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. XA21, EFR, and FLS2 all contain extracellular leucine rich repeat , transmembrane, and intracellular non-RD kinase domains. These receptor domains are partially interchangeable. For example, the LRR domain from EFR can be fused to the transmembrane and intracellular domain of FLS2 to form a chimeric receptor that responds to elf18 treatments when transiently expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana and Arabidopsis thaliana . The EFR LRR can be fused to the transmembrane and intracellular domain of XA21 to form achimeric receptor that responds to elf18 treatment and confers partial resistance to Xoo in transgenic rice lines . The availability of rapid and reliable assays that measure markers characteristic of immune response activation can help facilitate investigations of innate immune signaling. For example, immune signaling studies of FLS2 and EFR in Arabidopsis have been aided by the availability of rapid and reliable assays . In contrast, studies of the XA21-mediated immune response have been limited by the lack of rapid assays and well-characterized genetic markers. Typically, disease assessments are carried out by measuring lesions on rice leaves or by assessing bacterial populations from infected leaves . In this study we aimed to establish a rapid and efficient assay to monitor the XA21- mediated immune response after bacterial infection. For this purpose, we employed the EFR:XA21:GFP chimera composed of the EFR extracellular domain and the XA21 transmembrane and intracellular kinase domains, tagged with green fluorescent protein .

EFR:XA21:GFP transgenic rice plants are partially resistant to Xoo and detached EFR:XA21:GFP leaves respond to elf18 with stress related gene induction, mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade activation, and reactive oxygen species production . These results indicate that plants expressing the EFR:XA21:GFP chimeric protein are appropriate for studies to identify markers of resistance. We used RNA sequencing to identify genes differentially regulated in elf18 treated EFR:XA21:GFP rice. We then assessed if differentially regulated genes in elf18 treated EFR:XA21:GFP rice leaves were up-regulated in Xoo infected rice leaves expressing full-length XA21, which are resistant to Xoo. We developed a rapid and reliable assay to analyze gene expression in detached rice leaves inoculated with Xoo. We identified 8 DRGs from elf18 treated EFR:XA21:GFP rice that are also specifically up-regulated in detached XA21 rice leaves infected with Xoo.For peptide treatments, wild type Kitaake and progeny from line EFR:XA21:GFP-3-8 Kitaake rice leaves were harvested from plants grown in the greenhouse for 4.5 weeks . 1.5–2 cm leaf sections were collected from expanded adult leaves using surgical grade scissors. Thissue from the leaf base and leaf tip was discarded. Detached leaves were equilibrated overnight in 6-well Costar cell culture plates under constitutive light . For bacterial inoculations, we used detached rice leaves harvested from 4-week old plants grown using a hydroponic growth system as described previously under a light intensity of 280 µmol/. Freshly harvested leaves from Kitaake and Ubi-Myc:XA21 Kitaake rice  were cut into 1.5–2 cm pieces and immediately floated on 10 mM MgCl2 solution for mock treatments or 10 mM MgCl2 containing fresh Xoo cell suspensions at O.D.600 of 0.1 . The samples were left overnight under constitutive light and collected 24 h post-inoculation . Leaves were floated on approximately 1.5 mL Xoo cell suspension media in 6-well Corning Costar cell culture plates . The detached leaf infection assay allows a more uniform distribution,procona valencia compared to the scissor inoculation method , of Xoo inoculum by floating leaves on bacterial suspensions. Detached leaves were frozen in liquid nitrogen and powdered using a Qiagen tissue lyser. For tissue from greenhouse grown plants, RNA was extracted from powdered tissue using TRI Reagent and precipitated with isopropanol. For tissue from hydroponically grown plants, RNA was extracted using the Spectrum Plant Total RNA Kit from Sigma-Aldrich. RNA was DNase treated using the TURBO DNase kit from Life Technologies. RNA concentrations were normalized to the lowest sample concentration in each experiment. cDNA was synthesized from 2 µg of total RNA using the High Capacity cDNA Reverse Transcription Kit by Life Technologies. Gene expression changes were determined by 11 Ct method normalized to Actinand compared to mock treated samples. Plant growth, leaf tissue isolation, and treatments were performed as described above. RNA was isolated from untreated Kitaake as well as untreated and elf18 treated EFR:XA21:GFP leaf tissue using the Spectrum Plant Total RNA Kit from Sigma-Aldrich and on-column DNase treated to remove genomic DNA contamination following the manufacturer’s instructions. RNA was quantified using the Quant-IT Ribogreen RNA Assay Kit. Sequences were deposited to the NCBI Sequence Read Archive . RNAseq libraries, sequencing, and reference alignment were performed as described previously . Sample correlation between Kitaake and EFR:XA21:GFP replicates and differential gene expression analysis was performed using the Bioconductor ‘edgeR’ package for R .We generated a PXO99A1 hrpA1 mutant in Philippine race 6 strain PXO99Az, a derivative of strain PXO99 . Xoo was grown in 10 g PSB , 10 g Sucrose, 1 g sodium glutamate , final volume 1L, pH 7.0 or on PSA plates at 28 ◦C.

PXO99A1 hrpA1 was generated by single crossover mutagenesis using the suicide vector pJP5603 . An approximately 500 base pair sequences within hrpA1 was amplified using forward primer 50 -CGGGGTACCGTGCTGCGTGATTTGTCCG-30 and reverse primer 50 – CGCGGATCCTGACTTGGTCGATGCAGTCC-30 and cloned into the multiple cloning site of pJP5603 using the restriction enzyme sites KpnI and BamHI. PXO99A-competent cells were transformed with the suicide plasmids by electroporation and plated to PSA with kanamycin . PXO99A1 hrpA1 colonies with kanamycin resistance were screened by PCR for colonies with single crossover events, which contain the vector disrupting the target gene. PXO99A1 raxST and PXO99A1 raxST complemented strains used in this study were described previously . PXO99A1 raxST evades XA21- mediated immunity while the complemented PXO99A1 raxST strain does not.We analyzed the transcriptomic profile of EFR:XA21:GFP rice lines treated with elf18 to identify genes differentially regulated during this response. We sequenced cDNA from EFR:XA21:GFP leaves treated with 500 nM elf18 for 0.5, 1, 3, 6, and 12 h. We also included untreated EFR:XA21:GFP and Kitaake as controls . Multidimensional scaling of pairwise biological coefficient of variance comparisons for each sample revealed that replicate samples group together . This grouping of biological replicates demonstrates the overall transcriptional similarity between each sample . We identified 2,212 genes that were differentially regulated in EFR:XA21:GFP rice treated with elf18 compared with untreated samples. Using a false discovery rate cutoff of 0.05 and absolute expression log fold change of 2 or greater, we previously reported that the transcriptomic profile of untreated Kitaake compared to untreated EFR:XA21:GFP did not differ significantly . Over the treatment time course, we identified 2,212 DRGs using untreated EFR:XA21:GFP at 0 h as a reference. The number of DRGs that overlap between the elf18 treatment time points are summarized in Fig. 1B and File S1. Of the 2,212 differentially regulated genes, there were 1,420 up-regulated and 792 down-regulated genes. The highest number of DRGs was observed 6 h post elf18 treatment. These results show that elf18 treated EFR:XA21:GFP rice express a substantially different set of genes over time compared to untreated samples. To examine the types of biological processes affected in elf18 treated EFR:XA21:GFP rice, we analyzed GO term enrichment of DRGs using the AgriGo analysis tool . A total of 1,204 out of 1,420 of the up-regulated DRGs and 682 of the 806 down-regulated DRGs had GO annotations. An FDR of 0.05 or less was used to define significantly enriched terms compared to the Michigan State University annotation reference as calculated by the AgriGo tool . Fig. 1C and File S2 summarize the most enriched GO terms in each of the three major DRG clades. Clade 1 contains 1,333 genes that are mostly up-regulated over time. Genes from clade 1 are enriched for metabolic process , response to stimulus and response to stress GO terms . Clade 2 genes are up-regulated across all time points and are enriched for secondary metabolic process , metabolic process and response to stress GO terms . Clade 3 consists of 757 genes that are mostly down-regulated in all time points. Photosynthesis and response to abiotic stimulus are the most enriched GO terms associated with clade 3 genes . We chose 23 DRGs from the elf18 treated EFR:XA21:GFP rice RNAseq dataset with relatively high logFC and low FDR values after 3, 6, and 12 h for detailed analysis.

Two key challenges facing future attempts to bypass sensitive ecosystems emerge

A 65 km stretch of the San Joaquin River upstream of Mud Slough was delisted in 2010 . On the other hand, selenium loads in the 10 km stretch of Mud Slough through which selenium-rich drainage is being delivered from the San Luis Drain to the San Joaquin River have increased since the start of the GBP and usually exceed 5 µg/L . This rise in concentrations is likely to endanger local sensitive species including juvenile Chinook salmon and Steelhead trout . For the Chinook salmon in particular, seasonally elevated selenium concentrations in the stretch of the San Joaquin River between the confluence with Mud Slough and the confluence with the Merced River may prove problematic. Selenium concentrations have exceeded 10 µg/L in 6 of 24 months during the most recently published monitoring period, typically during the rainy season, i.e. between September and February . The seasonality of these peaks coincides with the emergence of the Chinook salmon’s sensitive juvenile live-stage, and the concentrations are in a range were increased mortality of up to 20% can be expected for juveniles . Thus selenium input through Mud Slough in this particular stretch of the San Joaquin River may represent an obstacle for ongoing efforts to restore salmon above the Merced, where they have been extirpated due to water diversions . Additionally, whereas selenium concentrations in most of the marshes have decreased, the 2 µg/L criterion was still exceeded in parts of the wetlands as recently as 2002, due to high flow input originating from the Delta-Mendota Canal , which was not captured by the bypass . As a result,procona London container the Grassland marshes listed in 1988 remain on California’s 303 list of impaired waters today .

First, caution needs to be exercised in preventing ecological damage in locations to which seleniferous runoff is being diverted. Second, circumvented locations may still receive selenium inputs due to other sources in the watershed. Consequently thorough monitoring of both circumvented and receiving water bodies is essential, especially during periods of high flow.In 2010, USGS scientists Theresa Presser and Samuel Luoma completed an ecosystem-scale selenium modeling effort in support of site-specific fish and wildlife criteria development for the San Francisco Bay and Delta . In brief, the model consists of three key components. First, the partitioning between dissolved selenium concentrations and the “particulate/planktonic” concentrations at the base of the food web is simulated using site-specific partitioning coefficients . Second, the local food web is resolved around target predator species of concern, including separate compartments for prey species or groups of species these predators feed on that differ significantly with respect to their selenium accumulation potential. Finally, the model comprises trophic transfer factors that correlate the concentration in the tissue of each species or trophic compartment with that of its diet. The model thus allows the calculation of tissue concentration estimates for all species that are part of the food web by simply multiplying dissolved concentrations by the Kd and then by the TTF for each lower connecting link in the food web. The model can also be used to convert tissue concentration limits for a target species to limits in solution. This approach is unique in that it captures critical trophic transfer steps relevant to the toxicological effects of selenium on individual species, while being generic enough to remain applicable to a wide array of aquatic ecosystems with diverse biogeochemical conditions. The main requirement is the availability of site-specific field data on the partitioning between dissolved concentrations and those at the local base of the food chain as well as information on the local food web, and on trophic transfer factors for key species present at a location.

The specific application of this approach to the San Francisco Bay and Delta lead to the capability of realistically translating tissue-based criteria for the protection of desired fish and bird species into dissolved or particulate concentration limits . In addition, the model was used to predict the ecosystem impacts of selenium in the Bay and Delta under various management scenarios . The California office of the EPA is now in the process of developing site-specific selenium criteria for the Bay and Delta based on the model results. In the future, the same modeling approach is to be used to develop site-specific criteria for other Californian ecosystem in which problems with selenium contamination occur . Such regulation would allow the protection of the most sensitive ecosystems without imposing an unnecessary regulatory burden in areas with less sensitive ecosystems and also the targeted protection of critical species. This approach would thus represent a landmark in the regulation of aquatic contaminants in the US and a significant improvement over regulation that traditionally has taken the form of state or nationwide criteria based on dissolved or acid soluble concentrations. Whereas the use of the model to determine site-specific dissolved selenium criteria or TMDLs is well warranted, its application to predict ecosystem impacts under changing environmental or management conditions may be limited to environments with relatively stable bio-geochemical conditions. The reason is that the model does not explicitly account for selenium speciation nor does it separate environmental compartments such as sediments and the water column. Transformation between chemical species and transfer between environmental compartments are far more dynamic and less linear than transfer through food webs and thus necessitate a dynamical model for adequate representation.

Such transfer could be of great importance in predicting selenium exposure under changing environmental conditions, especially for shallow stagnant water bodies with a high sediment-water interface to volume ratio, such as the Salton Sea. Fortunately, a dynamic model extension for water-sediment interactions could be integrated with Presser and Luoma’s approach, since mathematically this approach represents a simple multiplication of concentrations by partitioning and trophic transfer factors. Without such extensions, the models predictive power is limited to the geochemical steady-state and site-specific regulatory limits derived from it need to be coupled to ongoing monitoring and periodic revisions.The last three decades have seen significant progress with respect to the management and regulation of irrigation-induced selenium contamination in California. Among local remediation methods, sequential drainage reuse ending in well-designed evaporation facilities can be a viable option limited primarily by the scalability of the operation cost and the disposal of produced salts. Much can be learned from the integrated approach pursued as part of the Grassland Bypass Project . In particular, the project provides a blueprint of the framework necessary to establish and enforce load limits in an agricultural non-point context. As long as the means to track discharge quantities and concentrations are available, this approach can be translated to other agricultural sources of selenium or other pollutants . Given that a majority of selenium load reductions to date have been achieved by a reduction in drainage loads rather than selenium concentrations, there appear to be opportunities for additional reductions through management practices that enhance selenium retention in the source soils. Recent research suggests that unexplored options remain in this area, such as the management of soil structure to enhance microbial selenium reduction , or the addition of organic matter amendments to enhance reduction, retention, and volatilization . A better understanding of the factors controlling selenium speciation in soils would also help evaluate the long-term sustainability of drainage reuse schemes. The site-specific regulation currently under development for the San Francisco Bay and Delta represents an appropriate and timely update to federal selenium water quality criteria, which as discussed in the background section,cut flower transport bucket have proven inadequate in light of scientific findings over the last two decades. In this context, scientists and resource managers should think ahead about the needs that will arise as the approach is expanded to other sites of concern with respect to selenium contamination. California’s 303 list of impaired waters currently includes more than 60 water bodies polluted by selenium . By far the largest of these is the Salton Sea with an estimated 944 km2 affected . Like the Kesterson Reservoir in the 1980s, the Salton Sea has long been the receiving body of seleniferous irrigation drainage . It is also one of the most important bird habitats in the American Southwest, used by hundreds of thousands of waterfowl pertaining to resident and migratory bird species, including endangered ones like the brown pelican .

Whereas the Salton Sea is an obvious target for the expansion of the site-specific regulatory approach, matters may be complicated by the Sea’s uncertain management future . For example, management choices that expose sediment to oxic conditions may lead to the local release of reduced selenium accumulated in sediments, creating ecological hazard beyond that due to ongoing seleniferous irrigation-drainage inputs. In this case, the development of site-specific selenium criteria would need to be coupled to a detailed understanding not only of the trophic transfer processes in the local food web, but also the local bio-geochemical transformations in the shallow basin. Thus, the promise of the site-specific approach to the regulation of selenium as contaminant creates renewed urgency for the improvement of biogeochemical models of selenium cycling and the acquisition of field data at sites of concern.Within the physically complex matrix of a soil, microbial reduction is dictated by the local chemical conditions and thus subject to the soil’s physical, chemical and biological heterogeneity. Aggregates, which are mm to cm sized structural units of clay, silt and sand particles bound by roots, hyphae, and organic matter , represent the smallest systems in which the spatial coupling of transport with biogeochemical reactions can be studied on a well-defined scale . While advective solute transport is prevalent in the inter-aggregate macropores, transport in the intra-aggregate micropores is dominated by diffusion . In conjunction with local microbial metabolic activity this often leads to the formation of strong chemical gradients within aggregates. The importance of aggregate-scale heterogeneity in particular for local redox levels has long been recognized . Full anoxic to oxic gradients have been observed within aggregates as small as 4 mm in diameter . Tokunaga et al. showed that anoxic microzones within flat synthetic soil aggregates are likely to support localized sites of Se reduction and documented transport-controlled reduction of soluble Cr to solid Cr taking place exclusively within the surface layer of natural soil aggregates immerged in a Cr solution . Pallud et al. recently investigated ferrihydrite reduction in anoxic flow-through experiments utilizing novel artificial aggregate systems that closely mimic field transport conditions in structured soils and found strong radial gradients in secondary mineralization products as a result of mass-transfer limitations. Utilizing the same artificial aggregate systems, Masue-Slowey et al. investigated arsenic reduction and release in artificial aggregates surrounded by oxic solution and found through reactive transport modeling that the development of an anoxic region within the aggregate best described their experimental results. Given the valuable insights that these novel aggregate reactors systems have shed on the dynamics of iron and arsenic redox chemistry at the aggregate-scale an application to selenium reduction appears consequential. The dynamics of selenium cycling at the aggregate-scale are expected to differ drastically from those investigated so far in these systems, since unlike arsenic, selenium is an example of a contaminant that can be reductively immobilized from solution in soils. In this study I present data on selenium reduction from a series of flow-through reactor experiments utilizing these novel aggregate reactor systems that mimic the dual porosity of structured soils with a microporous artificial soil aggregate contained in a flow-through reactor macropore. Our guiding hypothesis was that aggregate-scale transport coupled to microbial selenium reduction will lead to systematic spatial concentration gradients within aggregates. Similarly to what has been observed for iron minerals and arsenic , we expected the Se reduction rates and emergent gradients to depend on the bulk chemical concentrations of carbon source and electron acceptor, aeration conditions, microbial activity, and the presence of sorptive phases in the solid matrix of aggregates. Our objective was thus to assess the impact of these factors on aggregate-scale selenium reduction and transport as well as to characterize emergent chemical gradients. Aggregates were made of sand or ferrihydrite-coated sand, to assess the impact of sorption on selenium reduction and transport, and initially contained a homogenous distribution of either Thauera selenatis or Enterobacter cloacae SLD1a-1 as model selenium-reducer.