This paper examines the impacts of information about COVID-19 on pig farmers’ production willingness by using endorsement experiments and follow-up surveys conducted in 2020 and 2021 in China.  Our results show that, first, farmers were less willing to scale up production when they received information about COVID-19.  The information in 2020 that the second wave of COVID-19 might occur without a vaccine reduced farmers’ willingness to scale up by 13.4%, while the information in 2021 that COVID-19 might continue to spread despite the introduction of vaccine reduced farmers’ willingness by 4.4%.  Second, farmers whose production was affected by COVID-19 were considerably less willing to scale up, given the access to COVID-19 information.  Third, farmers’ production willingness can predict their actual production behavior.

The constant evolution of pathogens poses a threat to wheat resistance against diseases, endangering food security.  Developing resistant wheat varieties is the most practical approach for circumventing this problem.  As a close relative of wheat, Aegilops geniculata, particularly accession SY159, has evolved numerous beneficial traits that could be applied to improve wheat.  In this study, we established the karyotype of SY159 by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using the oligonucleotide probes Oligo-pTa535 and Oligo-pSc119.2 and a complete set of wheat–Ae. geniculata accession TA2899 addition lines as a reference.  Using specific-locus amplified fragment sequencing (SLAF-seq) technology, 400 specific markers were established for detecting the SY159 chromosomes with efficiencies reaching 81.5%.  The SY159-specific markers were used to classify the different homologous groups of SY159 against the wheat–Ae. geniculata addition lines.  We used these specific markers on the 7M^g chromosome after classification, and successfully confirmed their suitability for studying the different chromosomes of SY159.  This study provides a foundation for accelerating the application of SY159 in genetic breeding programs designed to improve wheat. 

Mangoes often suffer from low temperature-induced chilling injury (CI) during postharvest cold storage.  Therefore, advanced techniques are crucial and in high demand to solve the chilling stress of mango fruit for a higher value.  This study addresses chilling stress modulation by investigating the effects of melatonin treatment on CI, proline metabolism, and related gene expressions of ‘Keitt’ mango during cold storage after dipped in 0 (control), 0.1 (MT1), and 0.2 mmol L^–1 (MT2) melatonin solution for 30 min.  The results revealed that melatonin treatment in MT1 significantly reduced CI development and increased proline content in mango fruit during cold storage compared to the control.  These changes were along with increases in the activity of critical enzymes as well as the expression of encoding genes involved in proline biosynthesis, such as pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase (P5CS), pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase (P5CR), ornithine D-aminotransferase (OAT), P5CS2, P5CR2, and OAT3.  Additionally, proline dehydrogenase (PDH) activity and the expression of the PDH3 gene associated with proline dehydrogenation were lower in MT1-treated mangoes than the controlled group.  Thus, melatonin treatment has regulated proline metabolism resulting in the accumulation of proline, subsequently contributing to enhancing the chilling tolerance of ‘Keitt’ mango fruit.