The oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), is a devastating pest of citrus fruits.  After successful mating, adult females insert their eggs into the ripened fruit, resulting in moldy and rotten fruit and causing great economic losses for the citrus industry.  In the field, flies initiate copulatory behaviors as twilight approaches, and decreasing light intensity in this period is the normal stimulus for copulation.  In this study, ten light intensities ranging from 0–30 000 lux were set to identify the typical intensity that strongly regulates the copulation behavior of B. dorsalis.  Three light intensities found to regulate the copulation behavior were then selected to verify their effects on adult male wing fanning and female chemotaxis towards 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (TMP).  At last, strong light and complete darkness were artificially combined in the lab to verify whether they could prevent copulation to inform behavioral manipulation of oriental flies in the future.  The results indicated that adult flies generally initiated copulatory behaviors at low light intensity (<1 000 lux).  
Stronger light significantly prevented copulation in proportion to intensity, with nearly no copulation events initiated when light intensity was above 20 000 lux.  Both male wing fanning and female chemotaxis towards TMP were attenuated as light intensity became stronger.  However, at 10 000 lux, males still fanned their wings to a certain extent while TMP completely lost its attractiveness to females.  In the darkness, adults did not initiate any sexual behaviors, e.g., copulation, wing fanning, or chemotaxis to TMP.  One hour of strong light (10 000 lux) combined with continuous darkness completely prevented mating.  These results show that light condition is an essential factor for copulatory behaviors in the oriental fruit fly.  Researchers could thus manipulate light conditions artificially or disrupt the molecular target in flies’ light transduction pathway to develop environmentally-friendly techniques to control this pest.

Many different chicken breeds are found around the world, their features vary among them, and they are valuable resources.  Currently, there is a huge lack of knowledge of the genetic determinants responsible for phenotypic and biochemical properties of these breeds of chickens.  Understanding the underlying genetic mechanisms that explain across-breed variation can help breeders develop improved chicken breeds.  The whole-genomes of 140 chickens from 7 Shandong native breeds and 20 introduced recessive white chickens from China were re-sequenced.  Comparative population genomics based on autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) revealed geographically based clusters among the chickens.  Through genome-wide scans for selective sweeps, we identified thyroid stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR, reproductive traits, circadian rhythm), erythrocyte membrane protein band 4.1 like 1 (EPB41L1, body size), and alkylglycerol monooxygenase (AGMO, aggressive behavior), as major candidate breed-specific determining genes in chickens.  In addition, we used a machine learning classification model to predict chicken breeds based on the SNPs significantly associated with recourse characteristics, and the prediction accuracy was 92%, which can effectively achieve the breed identification of Laiwu Black chickens.  We provide the first comprehensive genomic data of the Shandong indigenous chickens.  Our analyses revealed phylogeographic patterns among the Shandong indigenous chickens and candidate genes that potentially contribute to breed-specific traits of the chickens.  In addition, we developed a machine learning-based prediction model using SNP data to identify chicken breeds.  The genetic basis of indigenous chicken breeds revealed in this study is useful to better understand the mechanisms underlying the resource characteristics of chicken.

Rose is a highly significant ornamental plant with substantial edible and medicinal value, cultivated worldwide primarily for perfume production. Recently, Rosa yangii, a new species found in northwestern Yunnan, China, has drawn attention due to its strong sweet scented flowers. In this study, the floral components of R. yangii were extracted at different flowering stages using solid phase micro extraction (SPME) and analyzed through gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). A total of 131 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were detected from R. yangii, including 69 odor compounds. The production and release of floral VOCs were the highest during the initial-open stage, making it the most suitable time for harvesting as a significant number of floral components were synthesized and preserved. The analysis of the odor activity values (OAV) highlighted several key aromatic ingredients of R. yangii, such as eugenol, methyleugenol, benzeneacetaldehyde and phenylethylalcohol, heptanal, decanal, (E)-2-hexen-1-yl acetate, caryophyllene, and others. Metabolome and time-order gene co-expression networks (TO-GCN) revealed that VOCs and benzenoids/phenylpropanoids, along with associated genes, played a pivotal role in the overall floral regulatory network of R. yangii. MYB and bHLH were identified as the essential regulatory factors governing the regulation of eugenol synthase (EGS) and isoeugenol synthase (IGS), consequently influencing the sweet scent of R. yangii. The findings of this study provide a scientific foundation for enhancing fragrance through molecular breeding of ornamental plants. Furthermore, the study facilitated the development and utilization of this new plant’s essential oil material in various industries, including food storage, aromatherapy, cosmetic, and perfumery.

Hyperlipidemia is a frequent metabolic disorder that is closely associated with diet.  It is believed that brown rice, containing the outer bran layer and germ, is beneficial for the remission of hyperlipidemia.  This study established a rat model of hyperlipidemia by feeding a high-fat diet.  The hypolipidemic potential of germinated brown rice (Gbrown) and germinated black rice (a germinated black-pigmented brown rice, Gblack) were explored in the model rats, mainly in the aspects of blood lipids, lipases, apolipoproteins, and inflammation.  The gut microbiota in hyperlipidemic rats receiving diverse dietary interventions was determined by 16S rDNA sequencing.  The results showed that the intervention of Gbrown/Gblack alleviated the hyperlipidemia in rats, evidenced by decreased TC, TG, LDL-C, and apolipoprotein B, and increased HDL-C, HL, LPL, LCAT, and apolipoprotein A1.  Gbrown/Gblack also weakened the inflammation in hyperlipidemia rats, evidenced by decreased TNF-α, IL-6, and ET-1.  In addition, 16S rDNA sequencing revealed that the diet of Gbrown/Gblack elevated the abundance and diversity of gut microbiota in hyperlipidemia rats.  At the phylum level, Gbrown/Gblack decreased Firmicutes, increased Bacteroidetes, and decreased the F/B ratio in hyperlipidemia rats.  At the genus level, Gbrown/Gblack decreased Streptococcus and increased Ruminococcus and Allobaculum in hyperlipidemia rats.  Some differential microbial genera relating to lipid metabolism were also determined, such as the Lachnospira and Ruminococcus in the Gblack group, and the Phascolarctobacterium, Dorea, Turicibacter, and Escherichia-Shigella in the Gbrown group.  Notably, the beneficial effect of Gblack was stronger than Gbrown.  To sum up, the dietary interventions of Gbrown/Gblack contributed to the remission of hyperlipidemia by alleviating the dysbiosis of gut microbiota.

Yield loss due to low precipitation use efficiency (PUE) occurs frequently in dryland crop production.  PUE is determined by a complicated process of precipitation use in farmland, which includes several sequential steps: precipitation infiltrates into the soil, the infiltrated precipitation is stored in soil, the soil-stored precipitation is consumed through transpiration or evaporation, transpired precipitation is used to produce dry-matter, and finally dry-matter is re-allocated to grains.  These steps can be quantified by six ratios: precipitation infiltration ratio (SW/SWe; SW, total available water; SWe, available soil water storage at the end of a specific period), precipitation storage ratio (SWe/P; P, effective precipitation), precipitation consumption ratio (ET/SW; ET, evapotranspiration), ratio of crop transpiration to evapotranspiration (T/ET; T, crop transpiration), transpiration efficiency (B/T; B, the increment of shoot biomass) and harvest index (Y/B; Y, grain yield).  The final efficiency is then calculated as: PUE=SWe/P×SW/SWe×ET/SW×T/ET×B/T×Y/B.  Quantifying each of those ratios is crucial for the planning and execution of PUE improvements and for optimizing the corresponding agronomic practices in a specific agricultural system.  In this study, those ratios were quantified and evaluated under four integrated agronomic management systems.  Our study revealed that PUE and wheat yield were significantly increased by 8–31% under manure (MIS) or biochar (BIS) integrated systems compared to either conventional farmers’ (CF) or high N (HN) integrated systems.  In the infiltration and storage steps, MIS and BIS resulted in lower SWe/P but higher SW/SWe compared with CF and HN.  Regarding the consumption step, the annual ET/SW under MIS and BIS did not increase due to the higher ET after regreening and the lower ET before regreening compared with CF or HN.  The T/ET was significantly higher under MIS and BIS than under CF or HN.  In the last two steps, transpiration efficiency and harvest index were less strongly affected by the agronomic management system, although both values varied considerably across the different experimental years.  Therefore, attempts to achieve higher PUE and yields in rainfed wheat through agronomic management should focus on increasing the T/ET and SW/SWe, while maintaining ET/SW throughout the year and keeping SWe/P relatively low at harvest time.

Agropyron cristatum (2n=4x=28, PPPP) is a wild relative of common wheat which contains a large number of desirable genes that can be exploited for wheat improvement.  Wheat–A. cristatum 2P alien translocation lines exhibit many desirable traits, such as small flag leaves, a high spikelet number and density, and a compact plant type.  An agronomic trait evaluation and a genetic analysis were carried out on translocation lines and backcross populations of these lines carrying different translocation fragments.  The results showed that a translocation fragment from 2PT-3 (2PL) reduced the length of the flag leaves, while translocation fragments from 2PT-3 (2PL) and 2PT-5 (2PL (0.60–1.00)) reduced the width of the flag leaves.  A translocation fragment from 2PT-13 (2PS (0.18–0.36)) increased the length and area of the flag leaves.  Translocation fragments from 2PT-3 (2PL) and 2PT-8 (2PL (0.86–1.00)) increased the density of spikelets.  Translocation fragments from 2PT-7 (2PL (0.00–0.09)), 2PT-8 (2PL (0.86–1.00)), 2PT-10 (2PS), and 2PT-13 (2PS (0.18–0.36)) reduced plant height.  This study provides a scientific basis for the effective utilization of wheat–A. cristatum translocation lines.

Germination and processing are always accompanied by significant changes in the metabolic compositions of rice.  In this study, polished rice (rice), brown rice, wet germinated brown rice (WGBR), high temperature and pressure-treated WGBR (WGBR-HTP), and low temperature-treated WGBR (WGBR-T18) were enrolled.  An untargeted metabolomics assay isolated 6 122 positive ions and 4 224 negative ions (multiple difference ≥1.2 or ≤0.8333, P<0.05, and VIP≥1) by liquid chromatography-mass spectrum.  These identified ions were mainly classified into three categories, including the compounds with biological roles, lipids, and phytochemical compounds.  In addition to WGBR-T18 vs. WGBR, massive differential positive and negative ions were revealed between rice of different forms.  Flavonoids, fatty acids, carboxylic acids, and organoxygen compounds were the dominant differential metabolites.  Based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database, there 7 metabolic pathways (phenylalanine/tyrosine/tryptophan biosynthesis, histidine metabolism, betalain biosynthesis, C5-branched dibasic acid metabolism, purine metabolism, zeatin biosynthesis, and carbon metabolism) were determined between brown rice and rice.  Germination changed the metabolic pathways of porphyrin and chlorophyll, pyrimidine, and purine metabolisms in brown rice.  In addition, phosphonate and phosphinate metabolism, and arachidonic acid metabolism were differential metabolic pathways between WGBR-HTP and WGBR-T18.  To sum up, there were obvious variations in metabolic compositions of rice, brown rice, WGBR, and WGBR-HTP.  The changes of specific metabolites, such as flavonoids contributed to the anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and immunomodulatory effects of GBR.  HTP may further improve the nutrition and storage of GBR through influencing specific metabolites, such as flavonoids and fatty acids.

Excessive rainfall provides a favorable condition for field mold infection of plants, which triggers field mold (FM) stress.  If FM stress occurs during the late maturation stage of soybean seed, it negatively affects seed yield and quality.  To investigate the responses of soybean seed against FM stress and identify the underlying biochemical pathways involved, a greenhouse was equipped with an artificial rain producing system to allow the induction of mold growth on soybean seed.  The induced quality changes and stress responses were revealed on the levels of both transcriptome and metabolome.  The results showed that soybean seeds produced under FM stress conditions had an abnormal and inferior appearance, and also contained less storage reserves, such as protein and polysaccharide.  Transcriptional analysis demonstrated that genes involved in amino acid metabolism, glycolysis, tricarboxylic acid, β-oxidation of fatty acids, and isoflavone biosynthesis were induced by FM stress.  These results were supported by a multiple metabolic analysis which exhibited increases in the concentrations of a variety of amino acids, sugars, organic acids, and isoflavones, as well as reductions of several fatty acids.  Reprogramming of these metabolic pathways mobilized and consumed stored protein, sugar and fatty acid reserves in the soybean seed in order to meet the energy and substrate demand on the defense system, but led to deterioration of seed quality.  In general, FM stress induced catabolism of storage reserves and diminished the quality of soybean seed in the field.  This study provides a more profound insight into seed deterioration caused by FM stress.

Moderate leaf rolling can maintain leaf erectness, improve light transmittance in the population, and improve light energy utilization, thereby increasing rice yield.  This study used ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) to treat Yunjing 17 (YJ17) and obtained a semi-rolled leaf mutant that was named semi-rolled leaf 3 (srl3).  We found that the rolled-leaf phenotype was due to the aberrant development of bulliform cells and the loss of sclerenchymatous cells.  In addition, the shoot and root length of srl3 seedlings differed from the wild type.  The srl3 mutant had significantly lower plant height and seed-setting rate but notably greater tiller number, panicle length, and primary branch number per panicle than the wild type.   Genetic analysis showed that a single recessive nuclear gene defined the srl3 mutant, and it was precisely located in a 144-kb region between two insertion-deletion (InDel) markers, M8 and M19, on chromosome 2.  In this region, no leaf-rolling-related genes have been reported previously.  Thus, the study indicated that SRL3 is a novel leaf-rolling-related gene, and the results laid the foundation for the cloning and functional analysis of the SRL3 gene.

As an important food crop and oil crop, soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) is capable of nitrogen-fixing by root nodule.  Previous studies showed that GmNMH7, a transcription factor of MADS-box family, is associated with nodule development, but its specific function remained unknown.  In this study, we found that GmNMH7 was specifically expressed in root and nodule and the expression pattern of GmNMH7 was similar to several genes involved in early development of nodule (GmENOD40-1, GmENOD40-2, GmNFR1a, GmNFR5a, and GmNIN) after rhizobia inoculation.  The earlier expression peak of GmNMH7 compared to the other genes (GmENOD40-1, GmENOD40-2, GmNFR1a, GmNFR5a, and GmNIN) indicated that the gene is related to the nod factor (NF) signaling pathway and functions at the early development of nodule.  Over-expression of GmNMH7 in hairy roots significantly reduced the nodule number and the root length.  In the transgenic hairy roots, over-expression of GmNMH7 significantly down-regulated the expression levels of GmENOD40-1, GmENOD40-2, and GmNFR5α.  Moreover, the expression of GmNMH7 could respond to abscisic acid (ABA) and gibberellin (GA₃) treatment in the root of Zigongdongdou seedlings.  Over-expressing GmNMH7 gene reduced the content of ABA, and increased the content of GA₃ in the positive transgenic hairy roots.  Therefore, we concluded that GmNMH7 might participate in the NF signaling pathway and negatively regulate nodulation probably through regulating the content of GA₃.
 

Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, the pathogen that causes wheat powdery mildew, is one of the most important diseases affecting wheat production in China, and the oversummering is the key stage of wheat powdery mildew epidemic.  The more oversummering regionalization of wheat powdery mildew has played an important role in disease prediction, prevention and control.  In this study, we analyzed the correlation between oversummering data of wheat powdery mildew and the meteorological factors over the past years, and determined that temperature was the key meteorological factor influencing oversummering of wheat powdery mildew.  The average temperature at which wheat powdery mildew growth was terminated (26.2°C) was used as the threshold temperature to regionalize the oversummering range of wheat powdery mildew.  This regionalization was done using the GIS ordinary kriging method combined with the Digital Elevation model (DEM) of China.  The results showed that annual probability of oversummering region based on Model 26.2 were consistent with the actual survey of the more summer wheat powdery mildew.  Wheat powdery mildew oversummering regions in China mainly cover mountainous or high-altitude areas, and these regions form a narrow north-south oversummering zone.  Oversummering regions of wheat powdery mildew is mainly concentrated in the high-altitude wheat growing areas, including northern and southern Yunnan, northwestern Guizhou, northern and southern Sichuan, northern and southern Chongqing, eastern and southern Gansu, southeastern Ningxia, northern and southern Shaanxi, central Shanxi, western Hubei, western Henan, northern and western Hebei, western Liaoning, eastern Tibet, eastern Qinghai, western Xinjiang and other regions of China.

Founder parents have contributed significantly to the improvement of wheat breeding and production.  In order to investigate the genetic characteristics of founder parents and widely planted cultivars, Mazhamai (M), Biyumai (B) and six sibling lines (BM1–6) derived from the cross M×B were phenotyped for eight yield-related traits over multiple years and locations and genotyped using the the wheat 90K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) assay.  BM4 has been used as a founder parent, and BM1 has been widely planted, whereas BM2, 3, 5, and 6 have not been used extensively for breeding or planting in China.  Phenotypic comparisons revealed that BM4 and BM1 displayed a better overall performance than the other sibling lines.  BM1 showed higher thousand-grain weight than BM4, whereas BM4 exhibited lower coefficient of variation for most of the yield-related traits across different years and locations, indicating that BM4 was widely adaptable and more stable in different environments.  SNP analysis revealed that BM4 and BM1 inherited similar proportions of the M genome but are dissimilar to BM2, 3, 5, and 6.  Both BM1 and BM4 have specific alleles that differ from the other BM lines, and most of these alleles are concentrated in specific chromosomal regions that are found to associate with favorable QTLs, these SNPs and their surrounding regions may carry the genetic determinants important for the superior performance of the two lines.  But BM4 has more genetic diversity than BM1 with more specific alleles and pleiotropic regions, indicating that the genome of BM4 may be more complex than the other sibling lines and has more favorable gene resources.  Our results provide valuable information that can be used to select elite parents for wheat and self-pollinating crop breeding.

Intercropping is one of the most vital practice to improve land utilization rate in China that has limited arable land resource. However, the traditional intercropping systems have many disadvantages including illogical field lay-out of crops, low economic value, and labor deficiency, which cannot balance the crop production and agricultural sustainability. In view of this, we developed a novel soybean strip intercropping model using maize as the partner, the regular maize-soybean strip intercropping mainly popularized in northern China and maize-soybean relay-strip intercropping principally extended in southwestern China. Compared to the traditional maize-soybean intercropping systems, the main innovation of field lay-out style in our present intercropping systems is that the distance of two adjacent maize rows are shrunk as a narrow strip, and a strip called wide strip between two adjacent narrow strips is expanded reserving for the growth of two or three rows of soybean plants.  The distance between outer rows of maize and soybean strips are expanded enough for light use efficiency improvement and tractors working in the soybean strips.  Importantly, optimal cultivar screening and increase of plant density achieved a high yield of both the two crops in the intercropping systems and increased land equivalent ratio as high as 2.2.  Annually alternative rotation of the adjacent maize- and soybean-strips increased the grain yield of next seasonal maize, improved the absorption of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potasium of maize, while prevented the continuous cropping obstacles.  Extra soybean production was obtained without affecting maize yield in our strip intercropping systems, which balanced the high crop production and agricultural sustainability.

In China, the abuse of chemical nitrogen (N) fertilizer results in decreasing N use efficiency (NUE), wasting resources and causing serious environmental problems.  Cereal-legume intercropping is widely used to enhance crop yield and improve resource use efficiency, especially in Southwest China.  To optimize N utilization and increase grain yield, we conducted a two-year field experiment with single-factor randomized block designs of a maize-soybean intercropping system (IMS).  Three N rates, NN (no nitrogen application), LN (lower N application: 270 kg N ha^–1), and CN (conventional N application: 330 kg N ha^–1), and three topdressing distances of LN (LND), e.g., 15 cm (LND1), 30 cm (LND2) and 45 cm (LND3) from maize rows were evaluated.  At the beginning seed stage (R5), the leghemoglobin content and nitrogenase activity of LND3 were 1.86 mg plant^–1 and 0.14 mL h^–1 plant^–1, and those of LND1 and LND2 were increased by 31.4 and 24.5%, 6.4 and 32.9% compared with LND3, respectively.  The ureide content and N accumulation of soybean organs in LND1 and LND2 were higher than those of LND3.  The N uptake, NUE and N agronomy efficiency (NAE) of IMS under CN were 308.3 kg ha^–1, 28.5%, and 5.7 kg grain kg^–1 N, respectively; however, those of LN were significantly increased by 12.4, 72.5, and 51.6% compared with CN, respectively.  The total yield in LND1 and LND2 was increased by 12.3 and 8.3% compared with CN, respectively.  Those results suggested that LN with distances of 15–30 cm from the topdressing strip to the maize row was optimal in maize-soybean intercropping.  Lower N input with an optimized fertilization location for IMS increased N fixation and N use efficiency without decreasing grain yield.

   Grain number per spike (GNPS) is a major factor in wheat yield breeding.  A new wheat germplasm Pubing 3504 shows superior features in spike traits.  To elucidate the genetic basis of spike and yield related traits in Pubing 3504, 282 F2:3 families were generated from the cross Pubing 3504×Jing 4839, and seven spike and yield related traits, including GNPS, spike length (SL), kernel number per spikelet (KPS), spikelet number per spike (SNS), thousand-grain weight (TGW), spike number per plant (SNP), and plant height (HT) were investigated.  Correlation analysis indicated significant positive correlations between GNPS and spike-related traits, including KPS, SNS, and SL, especially KPS.  A genetic map was constructed using 190 polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR), expressed sequence tag (EST)-SSR, and sequence-tagged-site (STS) markers.  For the seven traits measured, a total of 37 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in a single-environment analysis and 25 QTLs in a joint-environment analysis were detected.  Additive effects of 70.3% (in a single environment) and 57.6% (in a joint environment) of the QTLs were positively contributed by Pubing 3504 alleles.  Five important genomic regions on chromosomes 1A, 4A, 4B, 2D, and 4D could be stably detected in different environments.  Among these regions, the marker interval Xmag834–Xbarc83 on the short arm of chromosome 1A was a novel important genomic region that included QTLs controlling GNPS, KPS, SNS, TGW, and SNP with stable environmental repeatability.  This genomic region can improve the spike trait and may play a key role in improving wheat yield in the future.  We deduced that this genomic region was vital to the high GNPS of Pubing 3504.

Soybean is one of the major oil seed crops, which is usually intercropped with other crops to increase soybean production area and yield.  However, soybean is highly sensitive to shading.  It is unclear if soybean morphology responds to shading (i.e., shade tolerance or avoidance) and which features may be suitable as screening materials in relay strip intercropping.  Therefore, in this study, various agronomic characteristics of different soybean genotypes were analyzed under relay intercropping conditions.  The soybean materials used in this study exhibited genetic diversity, and the coefficient of variations of the agronomic parameters ranged from 13.84 to 72.08% during the shade period and from 6.44 to 52.49% during the maturity period.  The ratios of shading to full irradiance in stem mass fraction (SMF) were almost greater than 1, whereas opposite results were found in the leaves.  Compared with full irradiance, the average stem length (SL), leaf area ratio (LAR) and specific leaf area (SLA) for the two years (2013 and 2014) increased by 0.78, 0.47 and 0.65 under shady conditions, respectively.  However, the stem diameter (SD), total biomass (TB), leaf area (LA), number of nodes (NN) on the main stem, and number of branches (BN) all decreased.  During the shady period, the SL and SMF exhibited a significant negative correlation with yield, and the SD exhibited a significant positive correlation with yield.  The correlation between the soybean yield and agronomic parameters during the mature period, except for SL, the first pod height (FPH), 100-seed weight (100-SW), and reproductive growth period (RGP), were significant (P<0.01), especially for seed weight per branch (SWB), pods per plant (PP), BN, and vegetative growth period (VGP).  These results provide an insight into screening the shade tolerance of soybean varieties and can be useful in targeted breeding programs of relay intercropped soybeans.  

Keng stiffgrass is a grass weed that affects wheat-rice cropping systems in China.  The extensive reliance on acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase (ACCase)-inhibiting herbicides has resulted in keng stiffgrass developing resistance to these herbicides.  The objective of this research was to evaluate the resistance level of the putative resistant keng stiffgrass populations to ACCase-inhibiting herbicides and to identify their molecular resistance mechanism.  Whole-plant dose-response experiments demonstrated that SD-4 (R), SD-11 (R), and JS-25 (R) populations were highly resistant to fenoxaprop, clodinafop, and fluazifop, moderately resistant to diclofop, had low resistance to sethoxydim and pinoxaden, but were sensitive to clethodim.  Partial chloroplastic ACCase sequences showed that there were two copies of ACCase gene in keng stiffgrass, and all homoeologous genes were expressed.  The results of sequence analyses of the ACCase CT domain revealed an isoleucine-to-asparagine substitution at position 2041 in SD-4 (R) and SD-11 (R) populations, and a tryptophan-to-cysteine substitution at position 2027 in the JS-25 (R) population.  To our knowledge, this is the first report of Ile-2041-Asn and Trp-2027-Cys mutations in ACCase-resistant keng stiffgrass.  In addition, three robust (derived) cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence ((d)CAPS) markers have been developed to rapidly identify these mutations in the ACCase gene of keng stiffgrass.

The wheat grain number per spike (GNPS) is a major yield-limiting factor in wheat-breeding programs. Germplasms with a high GNPS are therefore valuable for increasing wheat yield potential. To investigate the molecular characteristics of young spike development in large-spike wheat germplasms with high GNPS, we performed gene and protein expression profiling analysis with three high-GNPS wheat lines (Pubing 3228, Pubing 3504 and 4844-12) and one low-GNPS control variety (Fukuho). The phenotypic data for the spikes in two growth seasons showed that the GNPS of the three large-spike wheat lines were significantly higher than that of the Fukuho control line. The Affymetrix wheat chip and isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation-tandam mass spectrometry (iTRAQ-MS/MS) technology were employed for gene and protein expression profiling analyses of young spike development, respectively, at the floret primordia differentiation stage. A total of 598 differentially expressed transcripts (270 up-regulated and 328 down-regulated) and 280 proteins (122 up- regulated and 158 down-regulated) were identified in the three high-GNPS lines compared with the control line. We found that the expression of some floral development-related genes, including Wknox1b, the AP2 domain protein kinase and the transcription factor HUA2, were up-regulated in the high-GNPS lines. The expression of the SHEPHERD (SHD) gene was up-regulated at both the transcript and protein levels. Overall, these results suggest that multiple regulatory pathways, including the CLAVATA pathway and the meristem-maintaining KNOX protein pathway, take part in the development of the high-GNPS phenotype in our wheat germplasms.

The effects of grape-tobacco intercropping patterns on populations of grape phylloxera, Daktulosphaira vitifoliae Fitch, as well as on the growth and development of the infested vines were evaluated in the field and the impact of an aqueous tobacco root extract on grape phylloxera was evaluated using a laboratory bioassay. The aqueous tobacco root extract exhibited biological activity against this pest. The egg mortality, nymph mortality, development period, life span and female fecundity were significantly affected. In the field trial, grape phylloxera populations were clearly lower as compared to the monoculture pattern. However, the rates of newly developed roots and newly infested grape roots were significantly higher and lower, in intercropping patterns than in the vine monoculture, respectively. The grape phylloxera population number on the grape roots decreased each year, and the vine trees gradually renewed upon continuous intercropping with tobacco over three years. These results confirmed that intercropping grapes with tobacco can effectively control grape phylloxera in an infested vineyard. The results also indicated that additional crops could be intercropped with grapes and are effective against grape phylloxera, which should be explored as an integrated approach for controlling the pest.