Inversion tillage with straw amendment is widely applied in northeastern China, and it can substantially increase the storage of carbon and improve multiple subsoil functions. Soil microorganisms are believed to be the key to this process, but research into their role in subsoil amelioration is limited. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted in 2018 in a region in northeastern China with Hapli-Udic Cambisol using four treatments: conventional tillage (CT, tillage to a depth of 15 cm with no straw incorporation), straw incorporation with conventional tillage (SCT, tillage to a depth of 15 cm), inversion tillage (IT, tillage to a depth of 35 cm) and straw incorporation with inversion tillage (SIT, tillage to a depth of 35 cm). The soils were managed by inversion to a depth of 15 or 35 cm every year after harvest. The results indicated that SIT improved soil multi-nutrient cycling variables and increased the availability of key nutrients such as soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, available nitrogen, available phosphorus and available potassium in both the topsoil and subsoil. In contrast to CT and SCT, SIT created a looser microbial network structure but with highly centralized clusters by reducing the topological properties of average connectivity and node number, and by increasing the average path length and the modularity. A Random Forest analysis found that the average path length and the clustering coefficient were the main determinants of soil multi-nutrient cycling. These findings suggested that SIT can be an effective option for improving soil multi-nutrient cycling and the structure of microbial networks, and they provide crucial information about the microbial strategies that drive the decomposition of straw in Hapli-Udic Cambisol.

The B-box (BBX) family of proteins consists of zinc-finger transcription factors with one or two highly conserved B-box motifs at their N-termini.  BBX proteins play crucial roles in various aspects of plant growth and development, including seedling photomorphogenesis, shade avoidance, flowering time, and biotic and abiotic stress responses.  Previous studies have identified many different BBXs from several plant species, although the BBX family members in maize are largely unknown.  Genome-wide identification and comprehensive analysis of maize BBX (ZmBBX) expression and interaction networks would therefore provide valuable information for understanding their functions.  In this study, 36 maize BBXs in three major clades were identified.  The ZmBBXs within a given clade were found to share similar domains, motifs, and genomic structures.  Gene duplication analyses revealed that the expansion of BBX proteins in maize has mainly occurred by segmental duplication.  The expression levels of ZmBBXs were analyzed in various organs and tissues, and under different abiotic stress conditions.  Protein–protein interaction networks of ZmBBXs were established using bioinformatic tools and verified by bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assays.  Our findings can facilitate a greater understanding of the complexity of the ZmBBX family and provide novel clues for unravelling ZmBBX protein functions

Microsporidia are highly specialized obligate intracellular parasites that can infect a wide variety of animals ranging from protists to mammals. The classical concept of the parasite invasion into a host cell involves its polar tube acting as a needle-syringe system. However, recent studies show microsporidian spores can also gain access to host cells by phagocytosis. The present study investigated the phagocytic uptake process of causative agent of the pebrine disease, Nosema bombycis, in several insect cell lines. We observed KOH-treated spores and cold-storaged spores can be easily uptaken by all the studied cell types 4 h post inoculation. In contrast, large numbers of freshly recovered spores remained in the culture medium. To further investigate the intracellular fates of KOH-treated spores and cold-storaged spores, electron and fluorescence microscopy were performed. No intracellular germination or subsequent parasite development were observed. Intracellular spores can be detected in host cells by polyclonal antibody 7 d post inoculation, suggesting phagocytized N. bombycis could not be digested by these non-professional phagocytes. Our results suggest that, phagocytic uptake of N. bombycis spores might represent a defense mechanism of the host cells and the intact spore wall barrier enable freshly recovered spores to keep resistance to this mechanism.