Stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is one of the most destructive diseases on wheat worldwide.  Wudubaijian, a wheat landrace released from Gansu Province in China since 1950, exhibits adult-plant resistance to stripe rust for several decades.  To elucidate the genetic basis of stripe rust resistance, Wudubaijian was crossed with the high susceptible cultivar Mingxian 169, and stripe rust tests of both parents and the F_2:3 lines were conducted in four environments of Yangling and Tianshui in 2015 and 2016, respectively.  The relative area under disease progress curve (rAUDPC) of Mingxian 169/Wudubaijian F_2:3 lines showed that the resistance of Wudubaijian was controlled by quantitative trait loci (QTL).  Combined with phenotypic data and molecular markers, two stable QTLs were identified in Wudubaijian.  QYrwdbj.nwafu-5A with the phenotypic variance of 15.02–40.26% was located between 5AS1–0.40–0.75 and 5AS3–0.75–0.98 of chromosome 5AS, and QYrwdbj.nwafu-2B.1 with the phenotypic variance of 9.54–10.40% was located in the bin C-2BS1–0.53 of chromosome 2BS.  Through the location of flanking markers and epistasis analysis, QYrwdbj.nwafu-5A may be a new major QTL that can be used in conjunction with other stripe rust resistance genes (QTLs).

Controlled-release urea (CRU) has better characteristics than conventional urea for synchronizing nitrogen (N) release with plant uptake.  Understanding the effects of CRU on crop yield and N use efficiency (NUE) has long been the key to evaluate the performance of CRU.  A long-term experiment over five consecutive years was conducted in Changsha, Hunan Province, China, to investigate the effects of polyethylene-coated urea with a 90-d release period on the yield and NUE of double rice (early and late crops are grown in the same year), the amount of residual soil mineral N and the soil–plant N balance, as well as on the economic benefits.  Four N fertilizer treatments including CK (no N fertilizer), U (conventional urea), CRU1 (polyethylene-coated urea with equal N application rate to U) and CRU2 (20% reduction in N application rate of CRU1) were established.  The results indicated that CRU1 application increased the yield and NUE of double rice by 11.0 and 13.5%, respectively, compared with U.  Higher yield and NUE of late rice were found than in early rice in CRU treatments.  Compared with conventional U, the yield and NUE of early rice in the CRU1 treatment were increased by 6.0 and 10.2%, respectively, and those of late rice were increased by 15.4 and 13.8%, respectively.  There was no significant difference between CRU1 and CRU2 in double rice yield.  Furthermore, CRU treatments (including CRU1 and CRU2) had higher apparent residual N_min rate (ARNR) and apparent N recovery rate (ANRR), but lower apparent N loss (N_S) than the conventional U treatment.  Concentrations of NH₄⁺-N and NO₃^–-N were greater in the surface soil (0–20 cm) and lower in the deeper soil layer (40–60 cm) with CRU treatments than in the U treatment after harvest.  Moreover, CRU application produced a greater economic benefit than conventional U application.  In general, CRU outperformed U fertilizer in terms of rice yield, NUE, soil–plant N balance, economic benefit, and CRU2 provided greater comprehensive benefits than CRU1.  It is suggested that CRU application is beneficial for solving N management challenges in the production of rice.

Mechanisms controlling phosphorus (P) availability and the roles of microorganisms in the efficient utilization of soil P in the wheat–maize double cropping system are poorly understood.  In the present study, we conducted a pot experiment for four consecutive wheat–maize seasons (2016–2018) using calcareous soils with high (30.36 mg kg^–1) and low (9.78 mg kg^–1) initial Olsen-P content to evaluate the effects of conventional P fertilizer application to both wheat and maize (Pwm) along with a reduced P fertilizer application only to wheat (Pw).  The microbial community structure along with soil P availability parameters and crop yield were determined.  The results showed that the Pw treatment reduces the annual P input by 33.3% without affecting the total yield for at least two consecutive years as compared with the Pwm treatment in the high Olsen-P soil.  Soil water-soluble P concentrations in the Pw treatment were similar to those in the Pwm treatment at the 12-leaf collar stage when maize requires the most P.  Furthermore, the soil P content significantly affected soil microbial communities, especially fungal communities.  Meanwhile, the relative abundances of Proteobacteria and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of Pw were significantly higher (by 11.4 and 13.3%) than those of Pwm in soil with high Olsen-P.  The microfloral contribution to yield was greater than that of soil P content in soil with high Olsen-P.  Relative abundances of Bacillus and Rhizobium were enriched in the Pw treatment compared with the Pwm treatment.  Bacillus showed a significant positive correlation with acid phosphatase (ACP) activity, and Rhizobium displayed significant positive correlations with ACP and ALP in soil with high Olsen-P, which may enhance P availability.  Our findings suggested that the application of P fertilization only to wheat is practical in high P soils to ensure optimal production in the wheat and maize double cropping system and that the soil P availability and microbial community may collaborate to maintain optimal yield in a wheat–maize double cropping system.

Polyimide (PI) is a type of important membrane material. A soluble polymer was synthesized from 4,4´-(hexafluoroisopropylidene) diphthalic anhydride (6FDA) and 2,2-bis[4-(4-aminophenoxy) phenyl] hexafluoropropane (BDAF) by the two-step polymerization method. The polymer was proved to be polyimide 6FDA-BDAF by the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), the 1H-NMR and 19F-NMR spectra. An asymmetric membrane was prepared with the synthesized polyimide 6FDA-BDAF, it was porous in the 50 μm height bulk and dense in a 3–5 μm height surface. The membrane was used to separate n-heptane/ thiophene mixtures by pervaporation with sulfur (S) contents from 50 to 900 μg g–1. The total flux was enlarged from 7.96 to 37.61 kg m–2 h–1 with temperature increasing from 50 to 90°C. The membrane’s enrichments factor for thiophene were about 3.13 and dependent on the experimental conditions. The experimental results demonstrated that polyimide 6FDA-BDAF would be a potential membrane material for desulfurization and controlled release of the S-containing fertilizer.

Exploration of soil environmental characteristics governing soil microbial community structure and activity may improve our understanding of biogeochemical processes and soil quality. The impact of soil environmental characteristics especially organic carbon availability after 15-yr different organic and inorganic fertilizer inputs on soil bacterial community structure and functional metabolic diversity of soil microbial communities were evaluated in a 15-yr fertilizer experiment in Changping County, Beijing, China. The experiment was a wheat-maize rotation system which was established in 1991 including four different fertilizer treatments. These treatments included: a non-amended control (CK), a commonly used application rate of inorganic fertilizer treatment (NPK); a commonly used application rate of inorganic fertilizer with swine manure incorporated treatment (NPKM), and a commonly used application rate of inorganic fertilizer with maize straw incorporated treatment (NPKS). Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of the 16S rRNA gene was used to determine the bacterial community structure and single carbon source utilization profiles were determined to characterize the microbial community functional metabolic diversity of different fertilizer treatments using Biolog Eco plates. The results indicated that long-term fertilized treatments significantly increased soil bacterial community structure compared to CK. The use of inorganic fertilizer with organic amendments incorporated for long term (NPKM, NPKS) significantly promoted soil bacterial structure than the application of inorganic fertilizer only (NPK), and NPKM treatment was the most important driver for increases in the soil microbial community richness (S) and structural diversity (H). Overall utilization of carbon sources by soil microbial communities (average well color development, AWCD) and microbial substrate utilization diversity and evenness indices (H’ and E) indicated that long-term inorganic fertilizer with organic amendments incorporated (NPKM, NPKS) could significantly stimulate soil microbial metabolic activity and functional diversity relative to CK, while no differences of them were found between NPKS and NPK treatments. Principal component analysis (PCA) based on carbon source utilization profiles also showed significant separation of soil microbial community under long-term fertilization regimes and NPKM treatment was significantly separated from the other three treatments primarily according to the higher microbial utilization of carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, polymers, phenolic compounds, and amino acid, while higher utilization of amines/amides differed soil microbial community in NPKS treatment from those in the other three treatments. Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that soil organic carbon (SOC) availability, especially soil microbial biomass carbon (Cmic) and Cmic/SOC ratio are the key factors of soil environmental characteristics contributing to the increase of both soil microbial community structure and functional metabolic diversity in the long-term fertilization trial. Our results showed that long-term inorganic fertilizer and swine manure application could significantly improve soil bacterial community structure and soil microbial metabolic activity through the increases in SOC availability, which could provide insights into the sustainable management of China’s soil resource.

To investigate the dynamic change of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) in the genesis and development of tumor, we successfully established tumor animal model using Marek’s disease and then determined the location of Hsp90 in the tumor tissue using immunohistochemistry method, the antibody titer level of Hsp90 in the serum and the expression level in the tissue using enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Our result showed that Hsp90 location in the tumor tissue was significantly associated with the tumor cell and most in the cytoplasm of the tumor cell, and Hsp90 expression level in the tissue and the antibody titer level in the serum was most significantly increased with the development of tumor. This is the first report to show the presence of Hsp90 in tumor tissues induced by the Marek’s disease, with its expression correlated to the tumoral grading. These data may also be valuable for developing new molecular anti-cancer therapies.