Previous studies have shown that octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (Oct4) plays a significant role in early embryonic development of mammalian animals, and different Oct4 expression levels induce multi-lineage differentiation which are regulated by DNA methylation. To explore the relationship between the methylation pattern of Oct4 gene exon 1 and embryonic development, in this work, five different tissues (heart, liver, lung, cerebrum and cerebellum) from three germ layers were chosen from low age (50–60 d) and advanced age (60–70 d) of fetal cattle and the differences between tissues or ages were analyzed, respectively. The result showed that the DNA methylation level of Oct4 gene exon 1 was significant different (P<0.01) between any two of three germ layers in low age (<60 d), but kept steady of advanced age (P>0.05) (>60 d), suggesting that 60-d post coital was an important boundary for embryonic development. In addition, in ectoderm (cerebrum and cerebellum), there was no significant methylation difference of Oct4 gene exon 1 between low age and advanced age (P>0.05), but the result of endoderm (liver and lung) and mesoderm (heart) were on the contrary (P<0.01), which indicated the development of ectoderm was earlier than endoderm and mesoderm. The methylation differences from the 3rd, 5th and 9th CpG-dinucleotide loci of Oct4 gene exon 1 were significantly different between each two of three germ layers (P<0.05), indicating that these three loci may have important influence on bovine embryonic development. This study showed that bovine germ layers differentiation was significantly related to the DNA methylation status of Oct4 gene exon 1. This work firstly identified the DNA methylation profile of bovine Oct4 gene exon 1 and its association with germ layers development in fetus and adult of cattle. Moreover, the work also provided epigenetic information for further studying bovine embryonic development and cellular reprogramming.

Spectral reflectance in the near-infrared (NIR) shoulder (750-900 nm) region is affected by internal leaf structure, but it has rarely been investigated. In this study, a dehydration treatment and three paraquat herbicide applications were conducted to explore how spectral reflectance and shape in the NIR shoulder region responded to various stresses. A new spectral ratio index in the NIR shoulder region (NSRI), defined by a simple ratio of reflectance at 890 nm to reflectance at 780 nm, was proposed for assessing leaf structure deterioration. Firstly, a wavelength-independent increase in spectral reflectance in the NIR shoulder region was observed from the mature leaves with slight dehydration. An increase in spectral slope in the NIR shoulder would be expected only when water stress developed sufficiently to cause severe leaf dehydration resulting in an alteration in cell structure. Secondly, the alteration of leaf cell structure caused by Paraquat herbicide applications resulted in a wavelength-dependent variation of spectral reflectance in the NIR shoulder region. The NSRI in the NIR shoulder region increased significantly under an herbicide application. Although the dehydration process also occurred with the herbicide injury, NSRI is more sensitive to herbicide injury than the water-related indices (water index and normalized difference water index) and normalized difference vegetation index. Finally, the sensitivity of NSRI to stripe rust in winter wheat was examined, yielding a determination coefficient of 0.61, which is more significant than normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), water index (WI) and normalized difference water index (NDWI), with a determination coefficient of 0.45, 0.36 and 0.13, respectively. In this study, all experimental results demonstrated that NSRI will increase with internal leaf structure deterioration, and it is also a sensitive spectral index for herbicide injury or stripe rust in winter wheat.

The phosphomannose isomerase (PMI) gene from Saccharomyces cerevisiae acted as selectable marker and mannose acted as selective agent for the production of transgenic plants of rice (Oryza sativa L.) via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. The concentration of mannose during the selection was stepwise increased, 5 g L-1 mannose combined with 15 g L-1 sucrose and 500 mg L-1 cefotaxime was used in the initial selection stage, then the concentration of mannose was increased to 11 g L-1, the highest transformation rate was 20.0%. The integration of PMI gene was confirmed by PCR, and the result of RT-PCR assay proved that the intron of PMI gene can be excised correctly during RNA splicing. β- Glucuronidase (GUS) activity analysis confirmed the expression of GUS gene. All those means the PMI gene from yeast can be used as a selectable marker in rice transformation.

Thermal degradation kinetics of anthocyanins and visual color (Hunter a* value) of blood orange juice were studied at selected temperatures (70-90°C). Results indicated that both the thermal degradation of anthocyanin and visual color all followed first-order reaction kinetics, and they could be expressed by Arrhenius equation. The activation energy values for the anthocyanins degradation and visual color degradation were 55.81 and 47.51 kJ mol-1, respectively. The linear relationship between visual color and anthocyanin content was obtained. Furthermore, during thermal processing of blood orange juice, the formulas about the linear relationships showed no significant difference at selected temperatures. So, the relationships between visual color and anthocyanins content during thermal processing at selected temperatures could be described by the same equation: a*/a0 *=0.559(C/C0)+0.43. It might be inferred that visual color measured instantaneously by tristimulus colorimeters for on-line quality control, could be used to predict the anthocyanins degradation during thermal processing of blood orange juice.