Thirteen kinds of steroid hormones in raw milk (cow, goat and buffalo milk) were analyzed with ultra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS) after extraction and cleanup with the modified QuEChERS method. These steroid hormones included 17β-estradiol, estriol, estrone, diethylstilbestrol, progesterone, melengestrol acetate, megestrol acetate, chlormadinone acetate, 19-nortestosterone, metandienone, boldenone, epitestosterone, and testosterone. The limits of detection for the raw milk basing on 3 times the signal to noise ratios (S/N=3) was in range of 0.07-0.51 µg kg^–1, and the limits of quantification (basing on S/N=10 method) covered the ranges from 0.23 to 1.7 µg kg^–1. With matrix external standard method, the substances presented recoveries over the range 74.2–99.7%. Qualitative analysis was also done in the mass/mass spectrum (MS/MS) mode and each debris structure of 13 kinds of steroid hormones was achieved. The methodology was then applied in real raw milk samples which were collected in several areas of China and the progesterone was detected with high level.

    A fast analytical method for the simultaneous determination of 9 mycotoxins, including aflatoxins (B₁, B₂, G₁, and G₂), fumonisins (B1, B2 and B3), zearalenone, and deoxynivalenol in corn using dispersive solid-phase extraction method and ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS) was developed and validated. Samples were extracted with acetonitrile-water (84:16, v:v, containing 1% acetic acid) using ultrasonic extraction. The extracts were purified with a dispersive SPE method using C18 as a cleaning agent. The final clear extracts were dried by nitrogen blowing and subsequently redissolved in methanol-water (5:5, v:v). The samples were then analyzed by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS with 0.1% formic acid in ammonium acetate-methanol as mobile phase. The mean recoveries were ranged from 68.0 to 120.0%, and the relative standard deviation (RSD) ranged from 0.18 to 6.29%. Limits of detections ranged from 0.05 to 50 μg kg⁻¹, and limits of quantification ranged from 0.1 to 200 μg kg⁻¹, which were below the legal limits set by the European Union for the legislated mycotoxins. The developed method was applied to 130 corn samples. Among the mycotoxins studied, aflatoxins B₁ and fumonisins B₁, B₂ and B₃ were the most predominant mycotoxins, and their concentrations were 0–593.12, 0–2.01×10⁴, 0–6.94×10³ and 0–3.05×10³ µg kg^–1, respectively.

In this study, we investigated the effects of high ambient temperature on lipid metabolism in finishing pigs. Sixteen pigs ((79.6±1.2) kg) were randomly assigned to two groups: (1) ambient temperature of 30°C with ad libitum access to feed (HT; n=8) and (2) ambient temperature of 22°C and fed the average amount consumed by eight pigs in HT group on the previous day (PF; n=8). After 21 days of constant exposure to different environmental conditions, all the pigs were euthanized, and blood and tissue samples were obtained. High ambient temperature increased the proportion of backfat (P=0.04, +21.6%) and flare fat (P<0.01, +43.3%). Compared with pair-fed pigs, the activities of fatty acid synthase (FAS) and malic enzyme in backfat and flare fat were lower (P<0.05) in heat-stressed pigs, as were the amounts of acetyl-CoA-carboxylase and FAS in the longissimus muscle (LM), the amount of FAS in backfat (P<0.01), and FAS activity in the liver (P<0.01). Ambient temperature did not affect the amount of hormone-sensitive lipase in different tissues. The amount of lipoprotein lipase in flare fat tended to be higher (P=0.09, +28.3%), and the activities of β-hydroxyacyl coenzyme A dehydrogenase in front and back of LM were lower (P<0.01, –48.3 and –49.8%, respectively) at 30°C than at 22°C. The plasma concentration of high-density lipoprotein tended to be lower (P=0.08), but the plasma concentrations of very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) (P=0.09, +50.0%) and nonestesterified fatty acid (NEFA) (P=0.04, +44.2%) were higher in heat-stressed pigs. We concluded that high ambient temperature depressed de novo fatty acid synthesis in both adipose tissues and the liver. However, β-oxidation of fatty acid in skeletal muscles was also inhibited in the high-temperature environment. As a result, more plasma NEFAs were used to synthesize VLDLs in the liver and were absorbed by adipose tissues. This may be one reason that high ambient temperature enhances the accumulation of backfat and flare fat in finishing pigs.

How to overcome yield stagnation is a big challenge to rice breeders. An effective method for quickly developing new cultivars is to further improve an outstanding cultivar. In this study, three advanced backcross populations under yield selection that consist of 123 BC2F2:4 introgression lines (ILs) were developed by crossing Minghui 86 (recurrent parent, RP) with three high-yielding varieties (donors), namely, ZDZ057, Fuhui 838, and Teqing, respectively. The progeny testing allowed the identification of 12 promising ILs that had significantly higher mean grain yields than Minghui 86 in two environments. A total of 55 QTLs that affect grain yield and its related traits were identified, which included 50 QTLs that were detected using the likelihood ratio test based on stepwise regression (RSTEP-LRT) method, and eight grain yield per plant (GY) QTLs were detected using chi-squared (c2) test. Among these QTLs, five QTLs were simultaneously detected in different populations and 22 QTLs were detected in both environments. The beneficial donor alleles for increased GY and its related traits were identified in 63.6% (35 out of 55) of the QTLs. These promising ILs and QTLs identified will provide the elite breeding materials and genetic information for further improvement of the grain yield for Minghui 86 through pyramiding breeding.

The water content and nutrient in soil are two main determine factors to crop yield and quality, managements of which in field are of great importance to maintain sustainable high yield. The objective of this study was to measure the uptake, forms, and use efficiency of phosphorus (P) in wheat under four levels of irrigation (W0, W1, W2, and W3) and three levels of P application (P0, P1, and P2) through two growth seasons of wheat (2008-2010). The field experiment was carried out in a low level of soil P concentration and the cultivar was Jimai 20. The results indicated that P fertilizer combined with irrigation not only improved the activity of phosphatase in soil, but also increased P accumulation in wheat, similar results was found in the grain of wheat, the content of total P increased significantly. Meanwhile, the mainly existence forms of P in grain were the lecithoid-P and labile organic-P. On the other hand, in comparison to the irrigation, the dry matter and grain P production efficiency and postponing P application of wheat increased with increasing P application rates within the range of 0-180 kg P2O5 ha-1. The interaction between P and irrigation also significantly (P<0.01) affected on the P accumulation, grain total P, grain phospholipid P, and P production efficiency. In this study, therefore, the P applications and irrigation improved grain P production efficiency and postponing P application of winter wheat, and W2P2 treatment (180 kg P2O5 ha-1 combination with 120 mm irrigation) had a high P accumulation and P use efficiency, it was an optimum level for P fertilizer application and irrigation in this region.

Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) is mainly distributed in desert, and the molecular mechanisms of jojoba in response to abiotic stress still remain elusive. In this paper, we cloned and characterized a SOD gene from jojoba named as ScMnSOD, and introduced into Arabidopsis to investigate its functions of responding to drought stress. The transgenic Arabidopsis showed an improvement in drought tolerance. Moreover, under a water deficit condition, the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) was remarkably decreased in the transgenic lines compared to the WT. Furthermore, the ScMnSOD promoter was cloned to the 5´-upstream of GUS coding region in a binary vector, and introduced into Arabidopsis. And results showed that ScMnSOD expression can be induced by drought, salt, ABA, and low temperature. In conclusion, ScMnSOD plays an important role in drought tolerance which is, at least partially, attributed to its role in ROS detoxification.

Ontology is the formal representation of concepts and their mutual relations. It has wide application potential in the classification of agricultural information, the construction of information and knowledge database, the research and development of intelligent search engine, as well as the realization of cooperative information service, etc. In this research, an ontology-based agricultural knowledge management system framework is proposed, which includes modules of ontology-based knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation, knowledge organization, and knowledge mining, etc. The key technologies, building tools and applications of the framework are explored. Future researches on the theoretical refinement and intelligent simulation knowledge service are also envisioned.

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.), one of the most important legumes in the world, evolved different types of cultivars due to its partial cross-pollination. The development of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers from expressed sequence tags (EST) provided a useful tool for investigation of its genetic diversity. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the genetic diversity of faba bean from China and Europe using EST-SSR markers. 5 031 faba bean ESTs from the NCBI database were downloaded and assembled into 1 148 unigenes. A total of 107 microsatellites in 96 unigenes were identified, indicating that merely 8.36% of sequences contained SSRs. The most abundant SSR within faba bean was tri-nucleotide repeat motif, and among all the tri-nucleotide repeats, the motif AAG/CTT was the most abundant type. Based on these results, 11 EST-SSR markers were used to assess the genetic diversity of 29 faba bean cultivars from China and Europe with two to three alleles per locus. The polymorphism information content value ranged from 0.0644 to 0.4278 with an average of 0.2919. Principal coordinate analysis (PCA) and phylogenetic clustering based on these 11 EST-SSR markers distinguished these cultivars into different groups. The results indicated that faba bean in China had a narrow genetic basis, and the additional sources of genetic cultivars/accessions should be introduced to enhance the genetic variability. The results of this study proved that the EST-SSR marker is very effective in evaluation of faba bean germplasm.