Peanut pod shape is a heritable trait which affects the market acceptance of in-shell peanut products.  In order to determine the genetic control of pod shape, six component traits of pod shape (pod length, pod width, pod length/width ratio, pod roundness, beak degree and constriction degree) were measured using an image-based phenotyping method.  A recombinant inbred line (RIL) population consisting of 181 lines was phenotyped across three environments.  Continuous distributions and transgressive segregations were demonstrated in all measured traits and environments.   Significant correlations were found among most component traits with broad-sense heritability ranging from 0.87 to 0.95.  Quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis yielded 26 additive QTLs explaining 3.79 to 52.37% phenotypic variations.  A novel, stable and major QTL region conditioning multiple shape features was detected on chromosome 2, which spans a 10.81-Mb genomic region with 543 putative genes.  Bioinformatics analysis revealed several candidate genes in this region.  In addition, 73 pairs of epistatic interactions involving 92 loci were identified for six component traits explaining 0.94–6.45% phenotypic variations.  These results provide new genetic loci to facilitate genomics-assisted breeding of peanut pod shape.

The research aimed to understand farmers’ willingness to adopt (WTA) and willingness to pay (WTP) for precision pesticide technologies and analyzed the determinants of farmers’ decision-making.  We used a two-stage approach to consider farmers’ WTA and WTP for precision pesticide technologies.  A survey of 545 apple farmers was administered in Bohai Bay and the Loess Plateau in China.  The data were analyzed using the double-hurdle model.  The results indicated that 78.72% of respondents were willing to apply precision pesticide technologies provided by service organizations such as cooperatives and dedicated enterprises, and 69.72% were willing to buy the equipment for using precision pesticide technologies.  The results of the determinant analysis indicated that farmers’ perceived perceptions, farm scale, cooperative membership, access to digital information, and availability of financial services had significant and positive impacts on farmers’ WTA precision pesticide technologies.  Cooperative membership, technical training, and adherence to environmental regulations increased farmers’ WTP for precision pesticide technologies.  Moreover, nonlinear relationships between age, agricultural experience, and farmers’ WTA and WTP for precision pesticide technology services were found.

High yields of wheat are mainly obtained through a high level of nitrogen and irrigation supplementation.  However, excessive nitrogen and irrigation supplication increase the risk of lodging.  The main objectives of this work were to clarify the capacity of lodging resistance of wheat in response to nitrogen and irrigation, as well as to explore the effective ways of improving lodging resistance in a high-yield wheat cultivar. In this study, field experiments were conducted in the 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 growing seasons.  A wheat cultivar Jimai 22 (JM22), which is widely planted in the northern of Huang-Huai winter wheat region, was grown at Tai’an, Shandong Province, under three nitrogen rates and four irrigation treatments.  The lodging risk was increased with increased nitrogen rate, as indicated by increasing lodging index (LI) and lodging rate across both growing seasons.  With nitrogen increasing, the plant height, the basal internode length and the center of gravity height, which were positively correlated with LI, increased significantly.  While the density of the basal 2nd internode (for culm and leaf sheath) and cell wall component contents, which were negatively correlated with LI, decreased conspicuous along with nitrogen increased.  Increasing irrigation supplementation increased the 2nd internode culm wall thickness, breaking strength and leaf sheath density within limits which increased stem strength.  Among the treatments, nitrogen application at a rate of 240 kg ha^–1 and irrigation application at 600 m3 ha^–1 at both the jointing and anthesis stages resulted in the highest yield and strongest stem.  A suitable plant height ensures sufficient biomass for high yield, and higher stem stiffness, which was primarily attributed to thicker culm wall, greater density of the culm and leaf sheaths and higher cell wall component contents are the characteristics that should be taken into account to improving wheat lodging resistance.

To address the relationships between the amount of nitrogen fertilizer application and the yield of double cropping rice systems, we investigated the effects of a cultivation pattern of strong seedlings with increased planting density and reduced nitrogen application (SDN) on the morphological and physiological characteristics of double cropping rice.  Our results indicated that the effects of SDN on the morphological characteristics of the single plant roots of double cropping rice were not significant, but the morphological characteristics of the population roots were largely different.  Specifically, SDN significantly increased the morphological indexes of the root population such as root fresh weight, root volume, root number, root length and root dry weight.  The effects of SDN on the total root absorption areas and root active absorption areas of the single plants were non-significant, but it dramatically enhanced the total root absorption areas and root active absorption areas of the plant population during the tillering, heading and mature stages.  In addition, SDN significantly increased the root bleeding intensity and elevated the soluble sugar and free amino acid contents of root bleeding sap.  Compared to the traditional cultivation pattern (CK), SDN significantly increased root bleeding intensity at the heading stage by 4.37 and 8.90% for early and late rice, respectively.  Meanwhile, SDN profoundly enhanced the soluble sugar contents of root bleeding sap by 12.85 and 10.41% for early and late rice, respectively.  In addition, SDN also significantly enhanced free amino acid content of root bleeding sap by 43.25% for early rice and by 37.50% for late rice systems compared to CK.  Furthermore, SDN increased the actual yield of double cropping rice mainly due to the higher effective panicle number and the larger seed-setting rate.  The actual yields of early rice under SDN were higher than CK by 9.37 and 5.98% in 2016 and 2017, and the actual yields of late rice under SDN were higher than CK by 0.20 and 1.41% in 2016 and 2017, respectively.  Correlation analysis indicated that the significant positive correlations were observed between the majority of the root indexes and the actual yield across the four different growth stages.

Genetic linkage maps are important for quantitative trait locus (QTL) and marker-assisted selection breeding.  The wolfberry (Lycium spp.) is an important food and traditional medicine in China.  However, few construction genetic linkage maps have been reported because of the lack of genomic and genetic resources.  In this study, a population of 89 F₁ seedings was derived from a cross between two heterozygous parents, L. chinense var. potaninii ‘BF-01’ (female) and L. barbarum var. auranticarpum ‘NH-01’ (male), in order to construct a genetic linkage map using simple sequence repeat (SSR) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers based on the double pseudo-test cross mapping strategy.  The resulting genetic map consisted of 165 markers (74 AFLPs and 91 SSRs) distributed across 12 linkage groups and spanned a total length of 557.6 cM with an average distance of 3.38 cM between adjacent markers.  The 12 linkage groups contained 3 to 21 markers and ranged in length from 8.6 to 58.3 cM.  Twenty-nine segregated markers distributed in the map were mainly located on LG4 and LG9 linkage groups at P<0.05.  This is the first linkage map of Lycium species using SSR and AFLP markers, which can serve as basis for improving genes and selective breeding of the genome assembly.

   Straw return is an important management tool for tackling and promoting soil nutrient conservation and improving crop yield in Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, China. Although the incorporation of maize straw with deep plowing and rotary tillage practices are widespread in the region, only few studies have focused on rotation tillage. To determine the effects of maize straw return on the nitrogen (N) efficiency and grain yield of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), we conducted experiments in this region for 3 years. Five treatments were tested: (i) rotary tillage without straw return (RT); (ii) deep plowing tillage without straw return (DT); (iii) rotary tillage with total straw return (RS); (iv) deep plowing tillage with total straw return (DS); (v) rotary tillage of 2 years and deep plowing tillage in the 3rd year with total straw return (TS). Treatments with straw return increased kernels no. ear^–1, thousand-kernel weight (TKW), grain yields, ratio of dry matter accumulation post-anthesis, and nitrogen (N) efficiency whereas reduced the ears no. ha^–1 in the 2011–2012 and 2012–2013 growing seasons. Compared with the rotary tillage, deep plowing tillage significantly increased the grain yield, yield components, total dry matter accumulation, and N efficiency in 2013–2014. RS had significantly higher straw N distribution, soil inorganic nitrogen content, and soil enzymes activities in the 0–10 cm soil layer compared with the DS and TS. However, significantly lower values were observed in the 10–20 and 20–30 cm soil layers. TS obtained approximately equal grain yield as DS, and it also reduced the resource costs. Therefore, we conclude that TS is the most economical method for increasing grain yield and N efficiency of winter wheat in Huang-Huai-Hai Plain.

    A process-oriented methodology to conduct precise evaluation temporally and spatially on temperature suitability for potato growth was applied in China. Arable lands in China were gridded with 1 km×1 km geographic units, and potential potato phenology in each unit was automatically identified in terms of the potato planting initial temperature and effective accumulated temperature. A temperature thermal response coefficient model was used to compute a temperature suitability value for each day of potato phenology in each geographic unit. In addition, five temperature suitability ranking methods were applied to define suitable areas: (1) upper fourth quantile, (2) median, (3) expected value+1/4 standard deviation, (4) expected value+1/2 standard deviation, (5) expected value+1 standard deviation. A validation indicator was innovated to test the effectiveness of the five ranking methods. The results showed that from a strict degree point of view, the five methods sequence was as follows: 1=3>4>2>5, with a and c determined as the two best ranking methods. For methods 1 and 3, the suitable potato growing area was 1 of 57.76×10⁴ km². In addition, the suitable areas were spatially coincident with the main potato producing counties. The study output technically supports the proposal from China’s government that there is a large potential area to grow winter-ploughed potato in South China because the potential suitable area for growing potato is approximately 2×10⁷ ha. In southeast Heilongjiang and east Jilin, where it is hilly and mountainous, there are still some potentially suitable areas for potato growing accounting for nearly 2.32×10⁶ ha. The authors suggest to optimize the agricultural regionalization and layout in China and to adjust the cropping pattern structure.

    It is a novel idea to make steamed bread by adding potato flour into wheat flour considering the production and nutritional factors of potato. In this study, the influence of potato flour (0–35%) on dough rheology and quality of steamed bread were investigated. Potato flour addition significantly influenced the dough rheological properties and steamed bread quality, such as increased water absorption, the maximum gaseous release height, total volume of CO₂ and hardness, while decreased dough stability and specific volume of steamed bread. Moreover, correlation analysis suggested that dough height at the maximum development time, dough stability, water absorption and the phase tangent can be used for predicting the technological quality of steamed bread. Potato-wheat steamed bread had higher dietary fibre, ash content and antioxidant activity than those of wheat steamed bread. The estimated glycemic index decreased from 73.63 (0%) to 60.01 (35%). Considering the sensory evaluation, the steamed bread with 20% potato flour is acceptable. In conclusion, adding appropriate quantity of potato flour to wheat flour for steamed bread production will not only maintain the technological quality, but also can improve the nutritional value of the steamed bread.

Goosegrass is a worst grass weed in orchards and turf. The increased use of glyphosate for goosegrass control has led to the occurrence of many resistant populations. Although glyphosate has been used to control weeds for the past 30 years in China, few reports are available on glyphosate-resistant (GR) googegrass. In this study, we determined the GR level of 14 goosegrass populations from Chengdu and Guangzhou, China. Glyphosate only controlled 3.1 and 25.0% of the populations SL5 and SL1, respectively, at the dose of 1 680 g acid equivalent (ae) ha–1 at 14 days after treatment (DAT). In contrast, the susceptible population (XD1) was completely (100%) controlled. The resistant index (RI) of SL5 and SL1 were 5.1 and 4.5, and the RI for SL2, SL3 and ZC1 were 4.2, 3.2 and 2.6, respectively. The RI for other populations was range from 1.8 to 2.5. Under the dose of glyphosate at 1 640 g ae ha–1 at 10 DAT, shikimate accumulation in susceptible population XD1 was 17.6 and 16.4 times higher than SL5 and SL1, respectively. And the chlorophyll content in the plant leaf of populations SL1, SL2 and SL5 were decreased slightly ranging from 22.6 to 28.0. These results confirmed that the SL1, SL2, SL3, ZC1 and SL5 populations had evolved moderate resistance to glyphosate. This is the first report for the GR goosegrass populations confirmed in Chengdu, China.

So far, the pathogenesis of demyelination caused by canine distemper virus (CDV) in the central nervous system has remained unclear, although a lot of studies have been done extensively. To further investigate the relation of variety cells in brain to demyelination, this study was performed on 15 dogs with spontaneous acute canine distemper and 2 controls. According to anatomical relation, the brain was divided into cerebrum, cerebral stem and cerebellum. The sections with no, mild, moderate, or severe demyelinating lesions were selected respectively and stained by HE and immunohistochemistry. Immuno-localisation of CDV antigen was used to confirm CDV infection. The brain was examined for co-localisation of the CDV antigen with either an astrocyte-specific marker, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), or an oligodendrocyte-specific marker, galactocerebroside (GalC). Apoptotic cell was detected by TdT-mediated nick end-labeling assay (TUNEL). The results demonstrated that the local disturbance of blood circulation mainly included congestion, edema, thrombosis, and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). The CDV neucleocapsid protein positive reaction, metabolic disorder and apoptosis of oligodendrocytes were observed in demyelinating areas. Lots of astrocytes displayed CDV antigen-positive, especially in their process. Some of them became apoptotic cell confirmed by TUNEL staining. Fibrous astrocytes showed more intense GFAP-positive in mild and moderate demyelinating area. Some of nervous cells located in pyramidal cell layers and nucleus nervi were in degeneration, necrosis. Satellitosis, neuronophagia and apoptotic neurons were examined by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) and TUNEL staining. The results suggested that the demyelinating changes in brain tissues infected with CDV mainly related to the metabolic disorder and apoptosis of ogliodendrocytes and astrocytes; also involved with the local disturbance of blood circulation and some neuron lost.

Stalk related traits, comprising plant height (PH), ear height (EH), internode number (IN), average internode length (AIL), stalk diameter (SD), and ear height coefficient (EHC), are significantly correlated with yield, density tolerance, and lodging resistance in maize. To investigate the genetic basis for stalk related traits, a doubled haploid (DH) population derived from a cross between NX531 and NX110 were evauluated under two densities over 2 yr. The additive quantitative trait loci (QTLs), epistatic QTLs were detected using inclusive composite interval mapping and QTL-by-environment interaction were detected using mixed linear model. Differences between the two densities were significant for the six traits in the DH population. A linkage map that covered 1 721.19 cM with an average interval of 10.50 cM was constructed with 164 simple sequence repeat (SSR). Two, two, seven, six, two, and eight additive QTLs for PH, IN, AIL, EH, SD, and EHC, respectively. The extend of their contribution to penotypic variation ranged from 10.10 to 31.93%. Seven QTLs were indentified simultaneously under both densities. One pair, two pairs and one pair of epistatic effects were detected for AIL, SD and EHC, respectively. No epistatic effects were detected for PH, EH, and IN. Nineteen QTLs with environment interactions were detected and their contribution to phenotypic variation ranged from 0.43 to 1.89%. Some QTLs were stably detected under different environments or genetic backgrounds comparing with previous studies. These QTLs could be useful for genetic improvement of stalk related traits in maize breeding.

Association mapping has emerged as a new tool to elucidate complex quantitative trait loci in maize, but there are fewreports about systematic association analysis for the specific SSR markers with agronomic traits of interest in China.We investigated the morphological and genetic diversity and population structure for 76 maize recombinant inbredlines, and then association analysis were further performed between 48 simple sequence repeat loci and 17 morphologicaltraits, consisting of nine ear-related traits and eight other traits. The 48 SSR markers were screened out and furtherclassified into two groups including a group of loci in regions harboring reported quantitative trait loci that affect earshape and a group of markers distributing on the whole genome randomly. The result indicated that the population ofrecombinant inbred lines was structured, showing five subpopulations. Our association results revealed that therewere 82, 59, and 40 significant associations detected by K-test, logistic regression, and both analysis, respectively.When the 17 traits were considered separately, the significant associations between Q-SSRs and E-traits were raised to27.8%, whereas the other groups of combinations ranged between 2.3 and 6.3%. As the proportion of significantassociations is higher among the Q-SSR subset of markers and the subset of traits related to ear shape than those forall of the other combinations, we conclude that this approach is valid for establishing true positive marker-traitrelationships. Our results also demonstrated that association mapping could complement and enhance previous QTLinformation for marker-assisted selection.

Plant height (PH), primary lateral branch length (PBL) and branch number (BN) are architectural components impacting peanut pod yield, biomass production and adaptivity to mechanical harvesting.  In this study, a recombinant inbred population consisting of 181 individual lines was used to determine genetic controls of PH, PBL and BN across three environments.  Phenotypic data collected from the population demonstrated continuous distributions and transgressive segregation patterns.  Broad-sense heritability of PH, PBL and BN was found to be 0.87, 0.88 and 0.92, respectively.  Unconditional individual environmental analysis revealed 35 additive QTLs with phenotypic variation explained (PVE) ranging from 4.57 to 21.68%.  A two-round meta-analysis resulted in 24 consensus and 17 unique QTLs.  Five unique QTLs exhibited pleiotropic effects and their genetic bases (pleiotropy or tight linkage) were evaluated.  Joint analysis was performed to estimate the QTL by environment interaction (QEI) effects on PH, PBL and BN, which collectively explained phenotypic variations of 10.80, 11.02, and 7.89%, respectively.  We identified 3 major and stable QTL regions (uq9-3, uq10-2 and uq16-1) on chromosomes 9, 10 and 16, spanning 1.43-1.53 Mb genomic regions.  Candidate genes involved in phytohormones biosynthesis, signaling and cell wall development were proposed to regulate these morphological traits.  These results provide valuable information for further genetic studies and development of molecular markers applicable for peanut architecture improvement.