Dopamine is a catecholamine and an anti-oxidant which functions in responses to stress and it interacts with plant hormones to mediate plant development.  At present, there are few studies on the functions of dopamine in apple.  This study developed a method for dopamine determination which was used to analyze dopamine in Malus germplasm, in order to clarify the tissue distribution, developmental changes, diurnal variations, and stress responses in apple trees.  First, the proposed method was verified.  The linear range of quantification was robust from 0.1 to 20 ng mL^–1.  The instrumental, inter-day precision, and sample repeatability relative standard deviations were 1.024, 5.607, and 7.237%, respectively.  The spiked recovery was greater than 100%, indicating the feasibility of the method and its suitability for the rapid analysis of dopamine in Malus.  Next, the dopamine content was measured in 322 Malus tissues.  The results showed that the dopamine level in Malus was low and the average dopamine content in leaf was higher than in peel and flesh.  The dopamine had a skewed distribution that deviated to the right in cultivars and wild accessions.  Finally, the tissue specificity, developmental changes, diurnal changes, and responses to stress were analyzed.  In cultivar ‘Pinova’ (Malus domestica), the dopamine concentration was the highest in leaf buds and lowest in flesh.  The dopamine contents in leaf and flesh decreased with the growth and development of cultivar ‘Liangxiang’ (Malus domestica).  The dopamine content of apple leaves was higher after either drought or salinity stress as compared to the control.  In this study, a dopamine detection method for apple was established based on HPLC-MS and shown to be a robust approach.  This study provides a framework for future research on elucidating the tissue distribution, developmental changes, diurnal variation, and stress responses of dopamine in apple trees.

Now, lodging is a major constraint factor contributing to yield loss of maize (Zea mays L.) under high planting density. Chemical regulation and nitrogen fertilizer could effectively coordinate the relationship between stem lodging and maize yield, which significantly reduce lodging and improve the grain yield. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of chemical regulation and different nitrogen application rates on lodging characteristics, grain filling and yield of maize under high density. For this, we established a field study during 2017 and 2018 growing seasons, with three nitrogen levels of N100 (100 kg ha^–1), N200 (200 kg ha^–1) and N300 (300 kg ha^–1) at high planting density (90 000 plants ha^–1), and applied plant growth regulator (Yuhuangjin, the mixture of 3% DTA-6 and 27% ethephon) at the 7th leaf. The results showed that chemical control increased the activities of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), tyrosine ammonia-lyase (TAL), 4-coumarate:CoA ligase (4CL), and cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD), and increased the lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose contents at the bottom of the 3rd internode, which significantly reduced the lodging percentage. The lignin-related enzyme activities, lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose contents decreased with the increase of nitrogen fertilizer, which significantly increased the lodging percentage. The 200 kg ha^–1 nitrogen application and chemical control increased the number, diameter, angle, volume, and dry weight of brace roots. The 200 kg ha^–1 nitrogen application and chemical control significantly increased the activities of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase), soluble starch synthase (SSS) and starch branching enzyme (SBE), which promoted the starch accumulation in grains. Additional, improved the maximum grain filling rate (V_max) and mean grain filling rate (V_m), which promoted the grain filling process, significantly increased grain weight and grain number per ear, thus increased the final yield.