Rice tolerance to salinity stress involves diverse and complementary mechanisms, such as the regulation of genome expression, activation of specific ion-transport systems to manage excess sodium at the cell or plant level, and anatomical changes that avoid sodium penetration into the inner tissues of the plant. These complementary mechanisms can act synergistically to improve salinity tolerance in the plant, which is then interesting in breeding programs to pyramidize complementary QTLs (quantitative trait loci), to improve salinity stress tolerance of the plant at different developmental stages and in different environments. This approach presupposes the identification of salinity tolerance QTLs associated with different mechanisms involved in salinity tolerance, which requires the greatest possible genetic diversity to be explored. To contribute to this goal, we screened an original panel of 179 Vietnamese rice landraces genotyped with 21,623 SNP markers for salinity stress tolerance under 100 mM NaCl treatment, at the seedling stage, with the aim of identifying new QTLs involved in the salinity stress tolerance via a genome-wide association study (GWAS). Nine salinity tolerance-related traits, including the salt injury score, chlorophyll and water content, and K⁺ and Na⁺ contents were measured in leaves. GWAS analysis allowed the identification of 26 QTLs. Interestingly, ten of them were associated with several different traits, which indicates that these QTLs act pleiotropically to control the different levels of plant responses to salinity stress. Twenty-one identified QTLs colocalized with known QTLs. Several genes within these QTLs have functions related to salinity stress tolerance and are mainly involved in gene regulation, signal transduction or hormone signaling. Our study provides promising QTLs for breeding programs to enhance salinity tolerance and identifies candidate genes that should be further functionally studied to better understand salinity tolerance mechanisms in rice.

Soybean has been consumed in Asia traditionally as a staple food. Soybean can be a source of essential fatty acids—linoleic (18:2, ω-6) and α-linolenic acid (18:3, ω-3)—for humans. Intake of fatty acids with high ω-3 concentration or low ω-6/ω-3 ratios is more desirable for human health. However, in soybean, the unsaturated fatty acids are less stable than the saturated fatty acids in different environments. The objective of the present study is to expand the understanding of the environmental stability of elevated α-linolenic acid of soybean genotypes with alleles from wild soybean grown in three Asian countries. The results highlighted an environmental effect on the accumulation of 18:3, following the growth of soybean genotypes with elevated α-linolenic acid in eight environments. Particularly, temperature influenced the accumulation of 18:3 concentration. The soybean genotype, UT-385-4-4, produced the highest 18:3 concentration and is more stable than all the other soybean genotypes, excluding PT-100-3. UT-385-4-4 is a potential genetic resource to develop novel cultivars with high 18:3 concentration, which could be dietary sources of plant-derived ω-3 fatty acids.

Amino acid transporters (AATs) are central to nitrogen allocation, amino acid distribution, and metabolic adjustment in plants, but this gene family has not been systematically characterized in cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea). In this study, 30 AAT genes were identified from the peanut genome and analyzed for chromosomal distribution, protein properties, gene structure, phylogenetic relationships, and expression profiles. The identified ArahyAAT genes were unevenly distributed across 18 chromosomes and showed marked variation in exon-intron organization, which indicates structural diversification within the family. Transcriptome analysis revealed different expression patterns across vegetative and reproductive tissues, with several genes showing preferential expression in roots, nodules, and reproductive organs. To assess their stress responsiveness, five root low-expression genes were selected for RT-qPCR analysis under drought stress and combined drought stress plus charcoal rot infection. ArahyAAT04, ArahyAAT09, and ArahyAAT21 were induced under drought stress, while ArahyAAT07 showed strong induction under the combined treatment. ArahyAAT23 showed limited transcriptional change across the tested conditions. These results suggest that specific ArahyAAT genes may contribute to stress-associated amino acid transport and metabolic adjustment in peanut roots. This study provides a genome-wide characterization and expression analysis of the peanut AAT gene family and identifies candidate genes for future functional studies on...