由于金属纳米颗粒具有较高的抗菌性能，且不易导致病原体产生耐药性的风险，纳米颗粒作为杀菌剂在可持续农业中的潜在应用发展迅速。近几年，氧化铜纳米颗粒(CuO NPs)因其低毒、经济以及高效的抗菌性被广泛应用于农业病害防控领域，但是有关 CuO NPs对土传真菌的抑制作用还不清楚。本研究通过室内毒力测定和盆栽试验方法，旨在探讨CuO NPs对烟草疫霉菌（Phytophthora nicotianae）的体外抗真菌活性及灌根施用对烟草黑胫病的防治效果。结果表明，CuO NPs极大地干扰了该真菌的生殖生长过程，在特定浓度下显著性抑制了菌丝生长、孢子萌发和孢子囊的产生，且抑真菌效应表现出明显的浓度依赖性。此外，菌丝形态损伤、细胞内ROS积累和菌丝SOD酶活性升高也是CuO NPs的抗真菌作用机制。另外，盆栽试验发现相比于对照，100 mg/L CuO NPs灌根处理对烟草黑胫病的防治效果达到33.69%，且未影响作物生长。CuO NPs能显著激活烟草的一系列防御酶和抗性基因，这进一步解释CuO NPs抑制真菌侵染烟草植株的机制。另外，100 mg/L CuO NPs处理后烟叶和根中的铜含量分别比健康烟叶提高了50.03%和27.25%，根中铜含量明显高于叶片。本研究探索了CuO NPs作为纳米杀菌剂和真菌抗性诱导剂的潜力，通过抑制病原菌侵染和刺激植物防御来防控烟草黑胫病，研究结果为拓宽金属纳米粒子在植保抗菌领域中的应用提供了有力的科学依据。

The supernumerary spikelets (SS) characters of tetraploid wheat (Triticum turgidum L.) resulting in more spikelets and kernels per spike, thus enhancing sink capacity may contribute to potential wheat yield improvement.  In order to investigate the effect of different SS types on agronomic characters and understand the genetic base of SS phenotype in tetraploid wheat, near isogenic lines (NILs), bh-50 with normal spikelets (NS), bh-51 with four-rowed spikelets (FRS), bh-52 with short-ramified spikelets (SRS), and bh-53 with long-ramified spikelets (LRS) in a Triticum durum cv. ZY1286 genetic background were developed by continuous backcrossing.  Agronomic characters showed that the SS phenotype lines, bh-51, bh-52 and bh-53 have significant increase in the number of spikelets and grains per spike compared with the NS phenotype line bh-50 (P<0.05), and bh-53 line showed much more increase than those of bh-51 and bh-52.  However, bh-53 had the lowest grain weight and the longest spike development stage than those of other spike phenotypes.  These results indicated that the different SS types have different effects on the agronomic and spike characters.  Genetic analysis through bh-50/bh-51 and bh-51/bh-53 F₂ populations showed that a recessive major gene controlled the spike architecture to transform from NS to FRS, and a dominant major gene determined the change of spike phenotype from FRS to RS.  DNA sequences of TtBH/WFZP ortholog on chromosome 2AS revealed that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) substitution happened in the open reading frame (ORF) region of all the SS tetraploid wheat accessions, which may lead to the generation of lateral meristems between glume and lemma during the immature spike development.  While the fates of the lateral meristems, developing into lateral spikelets or branched spikelets, may be determined by another major gene.  Our results presented here may advance our understanding and knowledge of the genes and genetic pathways determining the spike architecture development in wheat.

The leaf photosynthesis and nitrogen (N) translocation in three large-spike lines and control cultivar (Xi’nong 979) of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were studied in 2010–2011 and 2011–2012. The objectives of this study were to investigate the differences in the physiological characteristics of large-spike lines and control cultivar and identify the limiting factors that play a role in improving the yield of breeding materials. The average yield, grain number per spike, kernel weight per spike, and 1 000-kernel weight of the large-spike lines were 16.0, 26.8, 42.6, and 15.4%, respectively, significantly higher than those of control. The average photosynthetic rates (Pn) were not significant between the large-spike lines and control cultivar during the active growth period. The average PSII maximum energy conversion efficiency (Fv/Fm), PSII actual quantum efficiency (ФPSII), photochemical quenching coefficient (qP), PSII reaction center activity (Fv´/Fm´) and water-use efficiency (WUE) of the large-spike lines were 1.0, 5.1, 3.6, 0.8, and 43.4%, respectively, higher than those of the control during the active growth stages. The N distribution proportions in different tissues were ranked in the order of grains>culms+sheathes>rachis+ glumes>flag leaves>penultimate leaves>remain leaves. This study suggested that utilization of the large-spike wheat might be a promising approach to obtain higher grain yield in Northwest China.

To assess the effects of creatine pyruvate (Cr-Pyr) on lipid and protein metabolism in broiler chickens, a total of 400 1-day-old male birds (Aconred) were randomly allocated to four groups, with each group replicating four times and each replicate involving 25 birds. The broilers were provided with a commercial diet supplemented with Cr-Pyr at 0, 1, 5, or 10% of the diet, respectively, for a period of 3 wk ad libitum (from 22 to 42 d). In the present study, body weight (BW) and average daily gain (ADG) of broilers decreased in 10% Cr-Pyr group (P<0.01), whereas the relative leg and pectoral muscle weights were significantly higher than they were in the control group (P<0.05). 5 or 10% Cr-Pyr of diets decreased the abdominal fat rate (AFR, abdominal fat/live weight) of the broilers. The serum or hepatic triglyceride (TG) concentrations were significantly lower in the 5 and 10% groups (P<0.01). In contrast, Cr-Pyr caused a marked increase in the serum nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and creatine kinase (CK) concentrations (P<0.01). Supplementation with Cr-Pyr (5 and 10%) in the diet also increased glucagons (GLU), insulin (INS) or leptin (LEP) contents (P<0.01). The expression of hepatic peroxisomal proliferators-activated receptor α (PPAR-α) and carnitine palmitoyl transferase-I (CPT-I), muscle insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) were significantly elevated and myostatin mRNA level was reduced in the 5 and 10% groups (P<0.05). It was found that supplementation with 5% Cr-Pyr improves both lipid and protein metabolism by regulating various metabolic parameters of broilers, while not adversely affects growth performance in broiler chickens.