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.

   Farm animals are sources of meat, milk and eggs for the humans, and animal health ensures the quality and security of these agricultural and sideline products. The animal raising conditions in livestock stations and poultry houses play vital roles in both animal health and production. One of the major factors affecting raising conditions, relative humidity, has not received much attention even though it is important for animal husbandry. In this review, we summarize the impacts of relative humidity on animal health and welfare to draw attention for its importance in the improvement of animal raising conditions in the future.

    SWEETs (sugars will eventually be exported transporters) are a novel class of recently identified sugar transporters that play important roles in diverse physiological processes. However, only a few species of the plant SWEET gene family have been functionally identified. Up till now, there has been no systematic analysis of the SWEET gene family in Cucurbitaceae crops. Here, a genome-wide characterization of this family was conducted in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.). A total of 17 CsSWEET genes were identified, which are not evenly distributed over the seven cucumber chromosomes. Cucumber SWEET protein sequences possess seven conserved domains and two putative serine phosphorylation sites. The phylogenetic tree of the SWEET genes in cucumber, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Oryza sativa was constructed, and all the SWEET genes were divided into four clades. In addition, a number of putative cis-elements were identified in the promoter regions of these CsSWEET genes: nine types involved in phytohormone responses and eight types involved in stress responses. Moreover, the transcript levels of CsSWEET genes were analyzed in various tissues using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. A majority (70.58%) of the CsSWEET genes were confined to reproductive tissue development. Finally, 18 putative watermelon ClaSWEET genes and 18 melon CmSWEET genes were identified that showed a high degree of similarity with CsSWEET genes. The results from this study provided a basic understanding of the CsSWEET genes and may also facilitate future research to elucidate the function of SWEET genes in cucumber and other Cucurbitaceae crops.

Efficient N fertilizer management is critical for the economic production of rice and the long-term protection of environmental quality. A field experiment was designed to study the effects of N fertilizer management practices on grain yield and N uptake of rice. The experiment was laid out in the randomized complete block design with four replications in Central China during 2008 and 2009. Five N treatments denoted as N0, N150A, N150B, N240A, and N240B, respectively, were studied. N0 represented no N application and served as a control, N150A and N150B indicated the total N application of 150 kg N ha-1 but with two different application schedules (A and B) across the early stage of rice growth. Schedule A was applied as follows: 40% basal, 30% at 10 d after transplanting (DAT) and 30% at 36 DAT (nearly at the panicle initiation stage), while schedule B was as follows: 30% at basal, 20% at 10 DAT, and 50% at 36 DAT. Similarly, N240A and N240B indicated the total N application of 240 kg N ha-1 with schedules A and B as described above. To quantify N uptake from fertilizer and soil, a 15N experiment was also conducted within the main experimental field, with micro-plots. Grain yields were significantly increased as N rates increased from 0 to 240 kg N ha-1. At the same rate, splitting N application as schedule B significantly increased the grain yield, spikelets per panicle, percentage of ripened grain, and 1 000-grain weight, compared with the N application according to schedule A. Mean rice recovery of N fertilizer by 15N tracing method ranged from 25.39% at N240A to 34.89% at N150B, however, N fertilizer residual rate in the soil ranged from 12.40% at N240A to 16.61% at N150B. About 31.5 and 28.5% of total uptake of 15N derived from basal fertilizer was absorbed at panicle initiation and heading stages, respectively. However, 65.6-92.5% of total uptake of 15N derived from topdressing fertilizer was absorbed at the heading stage. Based on yield and nitrogen recovery efficiency, splitting N application according to schedule B at the rate of 240 kg N ha-1 will be more profitable among the tested five N treatments in Central China.

WRKY transcription factors are involved in the regulation of response to biotic and abiotic stresses in plants. A fulllength cDNA clone of rice WRKY82 gene (OsWRKY82) was isolated from a cDNA library generated from leaves infected by Magnaporthe grisea. OsWRKY82 contained an entire open reading frame in length of 1 701 bp, and was predicted to encode a polypeptide of 566 amino acid residues consisting of two WRKY domains, each with a zinc finger motif of C₂H₂,belonging to the WRKY subgroup I. OsWRKY82 shared high identity at the amino acid level with those from Sorghum bicolor, Hordeum vulgare, and Zea mays. The transcript level of OsWRKY82 was relatively higher in stems, leaves, and flowers, and less abundant in grains. It was induced by inoculation with M. grisea and Rhizoctonia solani. However, the inducible expression in incompatible rice-M. grisea interactions was earlier and greater than that in compatible interactions.The expression of OsWRKY82 was up-regulated by methyl jasmonate and ethephon, whereas salicylic acid exerted no effects on its expression. Moreover, OsWRKY82 exhibited transcriptional activation ability in yeast. Additionally,OsWRKY82 transcripts could be induced by wounding and heat shocking, but not by abscisic acid, cold, high salinity and dehydration. By contrast, gibberellin suppressed the expression of OsWRKY82. These indicate that OsWRKY82 is a multiply stress-inducible gene responding to both biotic and abiotic stresses, and may be involved in the regulation of defense response to pathogens and tolerance against abiotic stresses by jasmonic acid/ethylene-dependent signaling pathway.