CO₂是植物光合作用的重要原料，而气孔阻力与叶肉阻力是CO₂扩散进入叶绿体的最大限制因素。植物的气孔导度和叶肉导度对非生物胁迫因子非常敏感，这些因子通过调控羧化位点CO₂浓度来影响光合速率。气孔导度对环境的响应，叶肉导度的内部结构、生化因素限制早已有了相关综述，然而围绕环境因子对植物CO₂扩散的系统调控还未进行归纳和探讨。因此，本文综述了气孔导度和叶肉导度对非生物胁迫因子(如光强、干旱、CO₂浓度和温度)的快速响应和长期应答及其调控的生理机制，并对今后的研究趋势做了进一步展望。

在自然条件下，植物经常遭受各种生物和非生物因素胁迫而影响其生长和发育，特别是限制作物的生产能力。在影响植物光合作用的各种非生物因素中，光是驱动植物碳代谢和维持地球生命的重要因素，而光环境中光强和光质的变化极大地影响植物的光合作用以及其形态，生理和生化参数，且不同植物对光强和光质的响应不同，与其生长的环境条件有关。目前，大量研究报道了光照强度是如何影响作物的生长和发育，而本综述归纳总结了光环境中不同光质成分和光强对作物的叶片形态和解剖结构，气孔发育，光合作用，色素组成，活性氧，抗氧化酶和激素动态等相关参数的影响，旨在为作物光合作用对光强和光质的响应机制研究提供理论支撑。

Soybean is one of the major oil seed crops, which is usually intercropped with other crops to increase soybean production area and yield.  However, soybean is highly sensitive to shading.  It is unclear if soybean morphology responds to shading (i.e., shade tolerance or avoidance) and which features may be suitable as screening materials in relay strip intercropping.  Therefore, in this study, various agronomic characteristics of different soybean genotypes were analyzed under relay intercropping conditions.  The soybean materials used in this study exhibited genetic diversity, and the coefficient of variations of the agronomic parameters ranged from 13.84 to 72.08% during the shade period and from 6.44 to 52.49% during the maturity period.  The ratios of shading to full irradiance in stem mass fraction (SMF) were almost greater than 1, whereas opposite results were found in the leaves.  Compared with full irradiance, the average stem length (SL), leaf area ratio (LAR) and specific leaf area (SLA) for the two years (2013 and 2014) increased by 0.78, 0.47 and 0.65 under shady conditions, respectively.  However, the stem diameter (SD), total biomass (TB), leaf area (LA), number of nodes (NN) on the main stem, and number of branches (BN) all decreased.  During the shady period, the SL and SMF exhibited a significant negative correlation with yield, and the SD exhibited a significant positive correlation with yield.  The correlation between the soybean yield and agronomic parameters during the mature period, except for SL, the first pod height (FPH), 100-seed weight (100-SW), and reproductive growth period (RGP), were significant (P<0.01), especially for seed weight per branch (SWB), pods per plant (PP), BN, and vegetative growth period (VGP).  These results provide an insight into screening the shade tolerance of soybean varieties and can be useful in targeted breeding programs of relay intercropped soybeans.  

On the basis of a long-term (30 years) field experiment that involved four rotation systems, rice-rice-winter fallow (RRF), rice-rice-ryegrass (RRG), rice-rice-rape (RRP), and rice-rice-milk vetch (RRV), this study described the effects of green manure on the microbial communities in the red paddy soils using 454 pyrosequencing for the 16S rRNA gene. The Chao1 richness and non-parametric Shannon’s index increased in all soil samples that received green manure treatments. The communities’ structures with the green manure applications were significantly dissimilar from that under the winter fallow. Using Metastats tests, many genera in the RRG, RRP and RRV soils were significantly different from those in the RRF soil, including a number of genera that functioned in the nitrogen and sulfur cycles. Analyses of the genera with these functions revealed the shifts in microbial ecosystem functions after long-term green manuring. Changes in the microbial communities increased the ammonium supply and decreased the soil acidification in green-manure-amended soils. Together, these data suggested powerful effects of green manure on both the microbial communities and the biogeochemical cycle driven by the shifts in bacterial functional groups.

Breeding of male-sterile lines has become the mainstream for the heterosis utilization in foxtail millet, but the genetic basis of most male-sterile lines used for the hybrid is still an area to be elucidated. In this study, a highly male-sterile line Gao146A was investigated. Genetic analysis indicated that the highly male-sterile phenotype was controlled by a single recessive gene a single recessive gene. Using F2 population derived from cross Gao146A/K103, one gene controlling the highly male- sterility, tentatively named as ms1, which linked to SSR marker b234 with genetic distance of 16.7 cM, was mapped on the chromosome VI. These results not only laid the foundation for fine mapping of this highly male-sterile gene, but also helped to accelerate the improvement of highly male-sterile lines by using molecular marker assisted breeding method.

A mutant was isolated from the M2 of 60Co-g ray mutagenized male-fertility restorer line Zao-R974 in rice. The mutant showed pleiotropic phenotypes including dwarfism, delayed heading time, short and partially enclosed panicles, short uppermost internode, decreased grain and secondary branch numbers per panicle, and partially degenerated spikelets. The mutant was named as esp1 (enclosed shorter panicle 1). Genetic analysis indicated that the mutant phenotype was controlled by a recessive locus. Spraying exogenous GA3 did not rescue the panicle enclosure. Using an F2 and a BC1 population of the cross between esp1 and a japonica cultivar Nipponbare, we mapped the ESP1 locus to a region of ~260 kb on chromosome 11. This result provides a basis for further map-based cloning of the ESP1 locus.