Pork cutting is a very important processing in promoting economic appreciation across the swine business chain.  The goal of this research is to determine the proportion and weight of meat cuts, as well as to analyze the effects of carcass weight, sex and breed composition on meat cuts.  Simultaneously, we investigate the correlation between meat cuts, carcass traits and meat quality traits.  To assess 17 meat cut traits, 12 carcass traits and 6 meat quality traits, we sample 2 012 pigs from four breeds, including Landrace (LD), Yorkshire (YK), Landrace Yorkshire (LY), and Duroc Landrace Yorkshire (DLY).  The results showed that carcass weight, sex and breed composition have significant effects on the weight and proportion of most meat cuts.  The proportion of cuts for muscle and bone decrease as carcass weight grows, whereas the proportion of cuts for fat increases.  Moreover, the thickness of four-point backfat was significantly increasing (P<0.001) with increase of carcass weights, indicating that large amount of intaking energy in the late finishing stage was used for fat deposition.  Besides, the proportion of Shoulder cut (SC) and Back fat (BF) in barrows was significantly higher (P<0.001) than that in sows, whereas the Leg cut (LC) showed the opposite trend.  The Loin (LO) proportion and Loin muscle area (LMA) of barrows were significantly lower (P<0.001), but the proportion of fat areas in the image (PFAI) and visual marbling score (VMS) were significantly higher (P<0.001) than those of sows, respectively.  In terms of breeds, LD had the longest straight carcass length, significantly longer (P<0.001) than the other three breeds, which partially explains why LD had the largest proportion of the Middle cut (MC).  Moreover, the proportion of SC in DLY was the highest.  Last but not least, the correlations between the proportions of most meat cuts, and also between meat cuts and meat quality or carcass traits were low or not significant (P>0.05).  The effects of carcass weight, sex and breed composition on the meat cuts, meat quality and carcass traits are breed and growth stage dependent.  It also reflects the asynchrony of the growth curve between different sexes.  Our results laid an important foundation for breeding pig carcass cuts and composition.

Plant structures and chemicals, which are developed from the shoot apical meristem (SAM), form the main barriers to insect feeding.  A plant chimera containing cells of different genetic origins in the SAM will be morphologically and chemically different compared with the parents and thus may result in differential resistance to herbivores.  In this study, we explore if particular elements of plant resistance are localized in one of the layers of SAM; the replacement of one cell layer in a chimera may be linked to change of a single resistance trait to herbivores.  The morphology and glucosinolate profiles of two periclinal chimeras (labeled as TTC and TCC, respectively) and grafted parents tuber mustard (labeled as TTT) and red cabbage (labeled as CCC) were compared and the performance of whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) in host selection, oviposition preference and development were assessed under controlled conditions.  Both chimeras possessed leaf trichomes as parent tuber mustard TTT, however, TTC had significantly more trichomes than TCC and parent TTT.  Leaf wax content of both chimeras was intermediate between the two parents.  Five aliphatic and two indole glucosinolates were detected in both chimeras, whereas three aliphatic glucosinolates (3-methyl-sulfinylpropyl, 4-methyl-sulfinylbutyl and 2-hydroxy-3-butenyl) were not detected in tuber mustard, and one aliphatic glucosinolate (3-butenyl) was not detected in red cabbage.  Unexpectedly for a chimera, the quantities of two aliphatic glucosinolates (3-methyl-sulfinylpropyl and 4-methyl-sulfinylbutyl) in both TTC and TCC were 3- to 5-fold higher than parents.  In olfactory preference assays, B. tabaci showed preference to CCC, followed by TCC, TTC and TTT, and number of eggs laid showed the same pattern: CCC>TCC>TTC>TTT.  Interestingly, more whiteflies landed on TTT plants than the other three types in a free choice experiment and the developmental duration from egg to adult was the shortest on TTT and increased in the order TTT<TTC<TCC<CCC.  Our results indicate plant defenses traits of leaf waxes, trichomes and glucosinolates are not controlled by one cell layer of SAM, but are influenced by interactions amongst cell layers.  The overall findings suggest that periclinal chimera systems can be a valuable approach for the study of plant-insect interactions and may also be useful for future resistance breeding.