Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is one of the major staple foods for developing countries in tropical region. Its production is impacted by abiotic stress impacts such as soil salinity. To develop salt more tolerant cassava species, we cloned a SCL subfamily SCL30A and found it plays a negative role in plant salt stress response. The function of MeSCL30A in plant salt stress found in this study indicates a potential in more resilient cassava variety breeding using techniques like CRISPR/Cas9 systems in the future.

In the recent years, many studies indicated that the coordinated study of antioxidant and glyoxalase pathways is crucial in abiotic stress stresses including extreme temperature tolerance in plants. However, it is not yet known whether improved extreme heat tolerance of thermophile plants by the interactions and the coordinated action of antioxidant and glyoxalase defence systems. The antioxidant defence and glyoxalase systems have strong interactions in conferring extremely heat tolerance in Heliotropium thermophilum through the detoxification of ROS and MG.

Grey mould, caused by Botrytis cinerea, causes great economic losses and food safety problems to the kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) industry. In this study, we cloned the AcPGIP gene and used virus-induced gene silencing to explore the function of the PGIP gene in the kiwifruit response to B. cinerea. Our results provide the first clear evidence of a specific role for PGIP in kiwifruit resistance against a fungal pathogen by down-regulation of the gene.

The 14-3-3 proteins play essential roles in regulating various biological processes and abiotic stress responses in plants, but the family members in cucumber remain unclear. Ten 14-3-3 family members were identified from cucumber genome and six genes were segmentally duplicated. Genes playing important roles in different tissues and fruit ripening as well as in response to cold and drought stress were identified.

Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis (Link) Schneider) oil is an important component of toiletries and medicines, but despite its high industrial value, fundamental information about jojoba’s metabolic reserves and physiology is missing. We performed metabolite, carbohydrate and mineral profiles of the whole plant organs in relation to the annual cycle and developmental stage. Our results enable further studies of this important plant.

Genetic basis determining barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) seed germination and seedling development under TiO₂ nanoparticles stress is not well understood. Here, we reported the influnce of nTiO₂ on seed germination and seedling development related traits. Using 9K SNPs in genome-wide association scan (GWAS) in diverse barley collection, we determined the genetic factors underlying the natural variation in seed germination and seedling development under nTiO₂ stress. We found novel stage- and trait-specific associations that would otherwise not be found by simply scoring seed germination under control condition. Interestingly, many candidate genes detected in this study are also potentially involved in salt stress tolerance.

We investigated 10 selected genes related to smut (Sporisorium scitamineum) resistance on two sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) progenies with contrasting responses to smut infection. The results revealed some genes were down-regulated in the susceptible progeny and up-regulated in the resistant progeny early infection process reflecting an early attempt to halt pathogen development at the infection site. At the late infection, they were up-regulated in the susceptible progeny coincide with whip development. This study revealed a complex interaction between smut pathogen and sugarcane.