The Gibberellic Acid-stimulated Arabidopsis (GASA) gene family is involved in the regulation of gene expression and plant growth, development, and stress responses.  To investigate the function of loquat GASA genes in the growth and developmental regulation of plants, a loquat EjGASA6 gene homologous to Arabidopsis AtGASA6 was cloned.  EjGASA6 expression was induced by gibberellin, and ectopic transgenic plants containing this gene exhibited earlier bloom and longer primary roots since these phenotypic characteristics are related to higher gibberellin content.  Transcriptome analysis and qRT-PCR results showed that the expression levels of GA3ox1 and GA20ox1, which encode key enzymes in gibberellin biosynthesis, were significantly increased.  Furthermore, we confirmed that EjGASA6 could promote the expression of GA20ox1 via the luciferase reporter system.  Overall, our results suggest that EjGASA6 promotes blooming and main-root elongation by positively regulating gibberellin biosynthesis.  These findings broaden our understanding of the role of GASAs in plant development and growth, and lay the groundwork for future research into the functions of EjGASA6 in regulating loquat growth and development.

Access to off-farm employment has been expected to be a critical approach to ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition, two important targets of achieving Zero Hunger.  This study aims to investigate the role of off-farm employment in improving dietary diversity through substitution effect and complementary effect with agricultural production activities and income effect.  This study adopts Poisson/Tobit/Probit/OLS regressions and the instrument variable method based on the primary survey data collected among 1,282 households at 12 sites in environmentally and economically vulnerable areas of China, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar in 2019.  The results show that off-farm employment is positively associated with household dietary diversity and the consumption of flesh meat, fish and other aquatic animals, fruits, and milk and dairy products, which are rich in protein and micronutrients.  The results of mechanism analysis show that off-farm employment contributes to household dietary diversity by improving crop diversity, especially for poor households, boosting the probability of livestock raising for households with the middle one-third disposal income, and increasing household income.  The positive association between off-farm employment and household dietary diversity is much higher for households with the bottom one-third disposal income, low illiteracy, and from upper-middle income countries.  These findings imply that off-farm employment does play a vital role in achieving multiple benefits of poverty alleviation, malnutrition reduction, and agrobiodiversity conservation in environmentally and economically vulnerable areas.  However, it may enlarge the gaps in dietary diversity between households with low human capital and from low and lower-middle income countries and those with high human captal and from middle-high countries.

Fusarium graminearum, the primary pathogenic fungus responsible for Fusarium head blight (FHB) in wheat, secretes abundant chemical compounds that interact with host plants.  In this study, a secreted protein FgHrip1, isolated from the culture filtrate of F. graminearum, was found to induce typical cell death in tobacco.  The FgHrip1 gene was then cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli.  Further bioassay analysis showed that the recombinant FgHrip1 induced early defense induction events, such as reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, callose deposition, and up-regulation of defense-related genes in tobacco.  Furthermore, FgHrip1 significantly enhanced immunity in tobacco seedlings against Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci 6605 (Pst. 6605) and tobacco mosaic virus (TMV).  FgHrip1-treated wheat spikes also exhibited defense-related transcript accumulation and developed immunity against FHB infection.  Whereas the expression of FgHrip1 was induced during the infection process, the deletion of the gene impaired the virulence of F. graminearum.  Our results suggest that FgHrip1 triggers immunity and induces disease resistance in tobacco and wheat, thereby providing new insight into strategy for biocontrol of FHB.

Domesticated sheep have been exposed to artificial selection for the production of fiber, meat, and milk as well as to natural selection. Such selections are likely to have imposed distinctive selection signatures on the sheep genome. Therefore, detecting selection signatures across the genome may help elucidate mechanisms of selection and pinpoint candidate genes of interest for further investigation. Here, detection of selection signatures was conducted in three sheep breeds, Sunite (n=66), German Mutton (n=159), and Dorper (n=93), using the Illumina OvineSNP50 Genotyping BeadChip array. Each animal provided genotype information for 43 273 autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We adopted two complementary haplotype-based statistics of relative extended haplotype homozygosity (REHH) and the cross-population extended haplotype homozygosity (XP-EHH) tests. In total, 707, 755, and 438 genomic regions subjected to positive selection were identified in Sunite, German Mutton, and Dorper sheep, respectively, and 42 of these regions were detected using both REHH and XP-EHH analyses. These genomic regions harbored many important genes, which were enriched in gene ontology terms involved in muscle development, growth, and fat metabolism. Fourteen of these genomic regions overlapped with those identified in our previous genome-wide association studies, further indicating that these genes under positive selection may underlie growth developmental traits. These findings contribute to the identification of candidate genes of interest and aid in understanding the evolutionary and biological mechanisms for controlling complex traits in Chinese and western sheep.

The objectives of this study were to estimate genetic parameters of lactation average somatic cell scores (LSCS) and examine genetic associations between LSCS and production traits in the first three lactations of Chinese Holstein cows using single-parity multi-trait animal model and multi-trait repeatability animal model. There were totally 273 605 lactation records of Chinese Holstein cows with first calving from 2001 to 2012. Heritability estimates for LSCS ranged from 0.144 to 0.187. Genetic correlations between LSCS and 305 days milk, protein percentage and fat percentage were –0.079, –0.082 and –0.135, respectively. Phenotypic correlation between LSCS and 305 days milk yield was negative (–0.103 to –0.190). Genetic correlation between 305 days milk and fat percentage or protein percentage was highly negative. Genetic correlation between milk fat percentage and milk protein percentage was highly favorable. Heritabilities of production traits decreased with increase of parity, whereas heritability of LSCS increased with increase of parity.

This gene pyramiding strategy is based on the idea of efficiently pyramiding genes of interest by crosses and selection to obtain a population with favorable alleles from different breeds or lines, which is called an ideal population. We investigate impacts of some factors on the pyramiding efficiencies by simulation. These factors include selection strategies (the breeding value selection, the molecular scores selection and the index selection), proportion selected (2, 10 and 20%), recombination rates between adjacent target genes (0.1, 0.3 and 0.5) and different mating types (the random mating and the positive assortative mating avoiding sib mating). The results show that: (1) The more recombination rate and the lower proportion male selected, the better pyramiding efficiency; (2) the ideal population is obtained via various selection strategies, while different selection strategies are suitable for different breeding objectives. From the perspective of pyramiding target genes merely, the molecular scores selection is the best one, for the purpose of pyramiding target genes and recovering genetic background of the target trait, the index selection is the best one, while from the saving cost point of view, the breeding value selection is the best one; (3) the positive assortative mating is more efficient for gene pyramiding compared with the random mating in the terms of the number of generations of intercross for getting the ideal population.

The alleviatory effect of silicon (Si) on chromium (Cr) toxicity to rice plants was investigated using a hydroponic experimentwith two Cr levels (0 and 100 μmol L-1), three Si levels (0, 1.25, and 2.5 mmol L-1) and two rice genotypes, differing in grainCr accumulation (Dan K5, high accumulation and Xiushui 113, low accumulation). The results showed that 100 μmol L-1 Crtreatment caused a marked reduction of seedling height, dry biomass, soluble protein content, and root antioxidantenzyme activity, whereas significantly increased Cr concentration and TBARS (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances)content. However, the reductions of seedling height, dry biomass, and soluble content were greatly alleviated due to Siaddition to the culture solution. Compared with the plants treated with Cr alone, Si addition markedly reduced Cr uptakeand translocation in rice plants. No significant differences were observed between the two Si treatments (1.25 and 2.5 mmolL-1) in shoot Cr concentration and Cr translocation factor. Under the treatment of 100 μmol L-1 Cr+2.5 mmol L-1 Si, higherroot Cr concentration but lower shoot Cr concentration and Cr translocation factor were observed in Dan K5 than thosein Xiushui 113, indicating that the beneficial effect of Si on inhibiting Cr translocation was more pronounced in Dan K5than in Xiushui 113. Si addition also alleviated the reduction of antioxidative enzymes (superoxide dismutase (SOD) andascorbate peroxidase (APX) in leaves; catalase (CAT) and APX in roots) and the increase of TBARS content in the Crstressedplants. Furthermore, the beneficial effects of Si on activities of antioxidative enzymes under Cr stress weregenotype-dependent. The highest activities of SOD, POD (guaiacol peroxidase), CAT, and APX in leaves occurred in thetreatment of 100 μmol L-1 Cr+2.5 mmol L-1 Si for Xiushui 113 and in the treatment of 100 μmol L-1 Cr+1.25 mmol L-1 Si for DanK5. The beneficial effect of Si on alleviating oxidative stress was much more pronounced in Dan K5 than in Xiushui 113.It may be concluded that Si alleviates Cr toxicity mainly through inhibiting the uptake and translocation of Cr andenhancing the capacity of defense against oxidative stress induced by Cr toxicity.