Accurate estimation of regional winter wheat yields is essential for understanding the food production status and ensuring national food security.  However, using the existing remote sensing-based crop yield models to accurately reproduce the inter-annual and spatial variations in winter wheat yields remains challenging due to the limited ability to acquire irrigation information in water-limited regions.  Thus, we proposed a new approach to approximating irrigations of winter wheat over the North China Plain (NCP), where irrigation occurs extensively during the winter wheat growing season.  This approach used irrigation pattern parameters (IPPs) to define the irrigation frequency and timing.  Then, they were incorporated into a newly-developed process-based and remote sensing-driven crop yield model for winter wheat (PRYM–Wheat), to improve the regional estimates of winter wheat over the NCP.  The IPPs were determined using statistical yield data of reference years (2010–2015) over the NCP.  Our findings showed that PRYM–Wheat with the optimal IPPs could improve the regional estimate of winter wheat yield, with an increase and decrease in the correlation coefficient (R) and root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.15 (about 37%) and 0.90 t ha^–1 (about 41%), respectively.  The data in validation years (2001–2009 and 2016–2019) were used to validate PRYM–Wheat.  In addition, our findings also showed R (RMSE) of 0.80 (0.62 t ha^–1) on a site level, 0.61 (0.91 t ha^–1) for Hebei Province on a county level, 0.73 (0.97 t ha^–1) for Henan Province on a county level, and 0.55 (0.75 t ha^–1) for Shandong Province on a city level.  Overall, PRYM–Wheat can offer a stable and robust approach to estimating regional winter wheat yield across multiple years, providing a scientific basis for ensuring regional food security.

Soil salinization is a critical environmental issue restricting agricultural production.  Deep return of straw to the soil as an interlayer (at 40 cm depth) has been a popular practice to alleviate salt stress.  However, the legacy effects of straw added as an interlayer at different rates on soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) in saline soils still remain inconclusive.  Therefore, a four-year (2015–2018) field experiment was conducted with four levels (i.e., 0, 6, 12 and 18 Mg ha^–1) of straw returned as an interlayer.  Compared with no straw interlayer (CK), straw addition increased SOC concentration by 14–32 and 11–57% in the 20–40 and 40–60 cm soil layers, respectively.  The increases in soil TN concentration (8–22 and 6–34% in the 20–40 and 40–60 cm soil layers, respectively) were lower than that for SOC concentration, which led to increased soil C:N ratio in the 20–60 cm soil depth.  Increases in SOC and TN concentrations in the 20–60 cm soil layer with straw addition led to a decrease in stratification ratios (0–20 cm:20–60 cm), which promoted uniform distributions of SOC and TN in the soil profile.  Increases in SOC and TN concentrations were associated with soil salinity and moisture regulation and improved sunflower yield.  Generally, compared with other treatments, the application of 12 Mg ha^–1 straw had higher SOC, TN and C:N ratio, and lower soil stratification ratio in the 2015–2017 period.  The results highlighted that legacy effects of straw application as an interlayer were maintained for at least four years, and demonstrated that deep soil straw application had a great potential for improving subsoil fertility in salt-affected soils.

Lignin metabolism plays a pivotal role in plant defense against pathogens and is always positively correlated as a response to pathogen infection.  Thus, understanding resistance genes against pathogens in plants depends on a genetic analysis of lignin response.  In the study, eight upland cotton lines were used to construct a multi-parent advanced generation intercross (MAGIC) population (n=280), which exhibited peculiar characteristics from the convergence of various alleles coding for advantageous traits.  To measure the lignin response to Verticillium wilt (LRVW), artificial disease nursery (ADN) and rotation nursery (RN) were prepared for MAGIC population planting in four environments.  The stem lignin contents were collected, and the LRVW was measured with the lignin value of ADN/RN in each environment, which showed great variation.  A total of 9323 high-quality single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers obtained from the Cotton-SNP63K array were employed for genotyping the MAGIC population.  The SNPs were distributed through the whole genome with 4.78 SNP/Mb density, ranging from 1.14 (ChrA06) to 10.08 (ChrD08).  A genome-wide association study was performed using a mixed linear model (MLM) for LRVW, and three stable quantitative trait loci (QTLs), qLRVW-A04, qLRVW-A10 and qLRVW-D05, were identified in more than two environments.  Two key candidate genes, Ghi_D05G01046 and Ghi_D05G01221, were selected within the QTLs through the combination of variations in the coding sequence, induced expression patterns, and function annotations, both of which presented nonsynonymous mutations in coding regions and were strongly induced by Verticillium dahliae. Ghi_D05G01046 encodes a leucine-rich extensin (LRx) protein, which is involved in Arabidopsis cell wall biosynthesis and organization.  Ghi_D05G01221 encodes a transcriptional co-repressor novel interactor of jaz (NINJA), which functions in the jasmonic acid (JA) signaling pathway.  In summary, the study creates valuable genetic resources for breeding and QTL mapping and opens up a new perspective to uncover the genetic basis of VW resistance in upland cotton.

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a small molecule glycerophospholipid, which regulates multiple downstream signalling pathways through G-protein-coupled receptors to achieve numerous functions on oocyte maturation and embryo development.  In this study, sheep in vitro fertilized embryos were applied to investigate the effects of LPA on early embryos development and embryonic stem cell establishment.  At first, the maturation medium containing estrus female sheep serum and synthetic oviduct fluid (SOF) were optimized for sheep IVF, and then the effects of LPA were investigated.  From 0.1 to 10 μmol L^–1, LPA had no significant effect on the cleavage rate (P>0.05), but the maturation rate and blastocyst rate increased dependently with LPA concentration (P<0.05), and the blastocyst morphology was normal.  When the LPA concentration was 15 μmol L^–1, the maturation rate, cleavage rate and blastocyst rate decreased significantly (P<0.05), and the blastocyst exhibited abnormal morphology and could not develop into high-quality blastocyst.  Besides, the exogenous LPA increases the expression of LPAR2, LPAR4, TE-related gene CDX-2

and pluripotency-related gene OCT-4 in sheep early IVF embryos with the raise of LPA concentration from 0.1 to 10 μmol

L^–1.  The expression of LPAR2, LPAR4, CDX-2 and OCT-4 from the LPA-0.1 μmol L^–1 to LPA-10 μmol L^–1 groups in early embryos were extremely significant (P<0.05), while the expression of these genes significantly decreased in 15 μmol L^–1 LPA-treated embryos compared with LPA-10 μmol L^–1 group (P<0.05).  The inner cell mass in 15 μmol L^–1 LPA-treated embryos was also disturbed, and the blastocysts formation was abnormal.  Secondly, the sheep IVF blastocysts were applied to establish embryonic stem cells.  The results showed that LPA made the blastocyst inoculated cells grow towards TSC-like cells.  They enhanced the fluorescence intensity and mRNA abundance of OCT-4 and CDX-2 as the concentration increased from 0 to 10 μmol L^–1, while 15 μmol L^–1 LPA decreased OCT-4 and CDX-2 expression in the derived cells.  The expression of CDX-2 and OCT-4 in the blastocyst inoculated cells of LPA-1 μmol L^–1 group and LPA-10 μmol L^–1 group extremely significantly increased (P<0.05), but there was significant decrease in LPA-15 μmol L^–1 group compared with LPA-10 μmol L^–1 group (P<0.05).  Meanwhile, the protein expression of LPAR2 and LPAR4 remarkably increased after treatment of LPA at 10 μmol L^–1 concentration.  This study references the IVF embryo production and embryonic stem cell research of domestic animals. 

Potato is one of the staple food crops in North China.  However, potato production in this region is threatened by the low amount and high spatial-temporal variation of precipitation.  Increasing yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of potato by various water management practices under water resource limitation is of great importance for ensuring food security in China.  However, the contributions of different water management practices to yield and WUE of potato have been rarely investigated across North China’s potato planting region.  Based on meta-analysis of field experiments from the literature and model simulation, this study quantified the potential yields of potatoes without water and fertilizer limitation, and yield under irrigated and rainfed conditions, and the corresponding WUEs across four potato planting regions including the Da Hinggan Mountains (DH), the Foothills of Yanshan hilly (YH), the North foot of the Yinshan Mountains (YM), and the Loess Plateau (LP) in North China.  Simulated average potential potato tuber dry weight yield by the APSIM-Potato Model was 12.4 t ha^–1 for the YH region, 11.4 t ha^–1 for the YM region, 11.2 t ha^–1 for the DH region, and 10.7 t ha^–1 for the LP region, respectively.  Observed rainfed potato tuber dry weight yield accounted for 61, 30, 28 and 24% of the potential yield in the DH, YH, YM, and LP regions.  The maximum WUE of 2.2 kg m^–3 in the YH region, 2.1 kg m^–3 in the DH region, 1.9 kg m^–3 in the YM region and 1.9 kg m^–3 in the LP region was achieved under the potential yield level.  Ridge-furrow planting could boost yield by 8–49% and WUE by 2–36% while ridge-furrow planting with film mulching could boost yield by 35–89% and WUE by 7–57% across North China.  Our study demonstrates that there is a large potential to increase yield and WUE simultaneously by combining ridge-furrow planting with film mulching and supplemental irrigation in different potato planting regions with limited water resources.

Understanding the spatial distribution of the crop yield gap (YG) is essential for improving crop yields.  Recent studies have typically focused on the site scale, which may lead to considerable uncertainties when scaled to the regional scale.  To mitigate this issue, this study used a process-based and remote sensing driven crop yield model for winter wheat (PRYM-Wheat), which was derived from the boreal ecosystem productivity simulator (BEPS), to simulate the YG of winter wheat in the North China Plain from 2015 to 2019.  Yield validation based on statistical yield data revealed good performance of the PRYM-Wheat Model in simulating winter wheat actual yield (Ya).  The distribution of Ya across the North China Plain showed great heterogeneity, decreasing from southeast to northwest.  The remote sensing-estimated results show that the average YG of the study area was 6 400.6 kg ha^–1.  The YG of Jiangsu Province was the largest, at 7 307.4 kg ha^–1, while the YG of Anhui Province was the smallest, at 5 842.1 kg ha^–1.  An analysis of the responses of YG to environmental factors showed no obvious correlation between YG and precipitation, but there was a weak negative correlation between YG and accumulated temperature.  In addition, the YG was positively correlated with elevation.  In general, studying the specific features of the YG can provide directions for increasing crop yields in the future

Follistatin (FST) is an important regulator of skeletal muscle growth and adipose deposition through its ability to bind to several members of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) superfamily, and thus may be a good candidate for future animal breeding programs.  However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the phenotypic changes have yet to be clarified in pig.  We generated transgenic (TG) pigs that express human FST specifically in skeletal muscle tissues and characterized the phenotypic changes compared with the same tissues in wild-type pigs.  The TG pigs showed increased skeletal muscle growth, decreased adipose deposition, and improved metabolism status (P<0.05).  Transcriptome analysis detected important roles of the PIK3–AKT signaling pathway, calcium-mediated signaling pathway, and amino acid metabolism pathway in FST-induced skeletal muscle hypertrophy, and depot-specific oxidative metabolism changes in psoas major muscle.  Furthermore, the lipid metabolism-related process was changed in adipose tissue in the TG pigs.  Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that genes related to lipid synthesis, lipid catabolism, and lipid storage were down-regulated (P<0.01) in the TG pigs for subcutaneous fat, whereas genes related to lipid catabolism were significantly up-regulated (P<0.05) in the TG pigs for retroperitoneal fat compared with their expression levels in wild-type pigs.  In liver, genes related to the TGF-β signaling pathway were over-represented in the TG pigs, which is consistent with the inhibitory role of FST in regulating TGF-β signaling.  Together, these results provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the phenotypic changes in pig.

African swine fever (ASF), caused by the African swine fever virus (ASFV), is a devastating disease of domestic and wild pigs.  There is no effective vaccine, and the control of the disease relies mainly on surveillance and early detection of infected pigs.  Previously, serological assays, such as ELISA, have been developed mainly based on recombinant structural viral proteins of ASFV, including p72, p54, and p30.  However, the antibodies against these proteins do not provide efficient protection against ASFV infection in pigs.  Therefore, new serological assays that can be applied for clinical diagnosis and evaluating serological immune response in vaccinated pigs are still required.  In this study, we expressed and purified a recombinant pB602L protein.  The purified pB602L protein was then used as an antigen to develop an indirect ELISA assay.  This assay has no cross-reaction with the anti-sera against the 15 most common pig pathogens in China, such as classical swine fever virus, pseudorabies virus, and porcine parvovirus.  This assay and a commercial ELISA kit were then used to detect 60 field pig serum samples, including an unknown number of anti-ASFV sera.  The coincidence of the two assays was 95%.  Furthermore, the pB602L-based ELISA was employed to test the antibody responses to the seven-gene-deleted ASFV strain HLJ/18-7GD in pigs.  The results showed that the antibody levels in all vaccinated pigs, starting from the 10th day post-inoculation, have increased continuously during the observation period of 45 days.  Our results indicate that this pB602L-based indirect ELISA assay can be employed potentially in the field of ASFV diagnosis.

Cotton is a globally important natural fiber and oilseed crop of crucial economic significance.  Molecular breeding has become a dominant method of cotton cultivation because it allows for a shorter breeding period and directional selection of high quality genes.  Patent data are key resources and are the core competitiveness of agricultural development, as the world’s largest and most reliable source of technical information.  However, little attention has been paid to patent analysis of cotton molecular breeding.  This study uses bibliometric analysis methodology and technical classification indexing to reveal global development trends of cotton molecular breeding, based on patents by retrieval methods and expert screening.  The annual number of patents, the life-cycle of patent-based technology, patent portfolios of primary countries, and main patentees, as well as technical distribution of patents, were analyzed in this study.  In addition, this study put emphasis on the comparative analysis of two important patentees through patent roadmaps based on the relationship among patent citations.  Finally, in order to understand the trend of new molecular breeding technology, patents related to clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), RNA interference (RNAi), and gene chip were also analyzed, all of which apply to cotton but also to other crops.  Results in this paper can provide references for cotton molecular breeding researchers and relevant management departments.

In this paper, a polyethersulfone (PES)/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) composite membrane was prepared using phase inversion.  The surface morphology and internal structure of the membrane were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).  The effects of MWCNTs content on various aspects of membrane performance such as porosity, water flux, and antifouling characteristics were investigated.  Results showed that proper addition of MWCNTs would improve the properties of the membrane.  MWCNTs had a strong adsorption capacity for industrial dyes and the composite membrane could be used as an effective method to identify and clean up illegal dyes in foods.  In addition, this new method for identifying dyes is rapid: the cleanup procedure in the determination of illegal dyes in foods by the composite membrane was shortened to 30 min or less compared to 6–8 h for traditional methods.

The stress-associated protein (SAP) multigene family is conserved in both animals and plants.  Its function in some animals and plants are known, but it is yet to be deciphered in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).  We identified the wheat gene TaSAP17-D, a member of the SAP gene family with an AN1/AN1 conserved domain.  Subcellular localization indicated that TaSAP17-D localized to the nucleus, cytoplasm, and cell membrane.  Expression pattern analyses revealed that TaSAP17-D was highly expressed in seedlings and was involved in NaCl response, polyethylene glycol (PEG), cold, and exogenous abscisic acid (ABA).  Constitutive expression of TaSAP17-D in transgenic Arabidopsis resulted in enhanced tolerance to salt stress, confirmed by improved multiple physiological indices and significantly upregulated marker genes related to salt stress response.  Our results suggest that TaSAP17-D is a candidate gene that can be used to protect crop plants from salt stress.  

Application of fertilizer has been found to significantly affect soil N cycling.  However, a comprehensive understanding of the effects of long-term fertilization on soil gross N transformation rates is still lacking.  We compiled data of observations from 10 long-term fertilization experiments and conducted a meta-analysis of the effects of long-term fertilization on soil gross N transformation rates.  The results showed that if chemical fertilizers of N, P and K were applied in balance, soil pH decreased very slightly.  There was a significantly positive effect of long-term fertilization, either chemical or organic fertilizers or their combinations, on gross N mineralization rate compared to the control treatment (the mean effect size ranged from 1.21 to 1.25 at 95% confidence intervals (CI) with a mean of 1.23), mainly due to the increasing soil total N content.  The long-term application of organic fertilizer alone and combining organic and chemical fertilizer could increase the mineralization-immobilization turnover, thus enhance available N for plant while reduce N losses potential compared to the control treatment.  However, long-term chemical fertilizer application did not significantly affect the gross NH4+ immobilization rate, but accelerated gross nitrification rate (1.19; 95% CI: 1.08 to 1.31).  Thus, long-term chemical fertilizer alone would probably induce higher N losses potential through NO3– leaching and runoff than organic fertilizer application compared to the control treatment.  Therefore, in the view of the effects of long-term fertilization on gross N transformation rates, it also supports that organic fertilizer alone or combination of organic and chemical fertilizer could not only improve crop yield, but also increase soil fertility and reduce the N losses potential.

    Salt stress has been increasingly constraining crop productivity in arid lands of the world. In our recent study, salt stress was alleviated and crop productivity was improved remarkably by straw layer burial plus plastic film mulching in a saline soil. However, its impact on the microflora diversity is not well documented. Field micro-plot experiments were conducted from 2010 to 2011 using four tillage methods: (i) deep tillage with plastic film mulching (CK), (ii) straw layer burial at 40 cm (S), (iii) straw layer burial plus surface soil mulching with straw material (S+S), and (iv) plastic film mulching plus buried straw layer (P+S). Culturable microbes and predominant bacterial communities were studied; based on 16S rDNA, bacterial community structure and abundance were characterized using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results showed that P+S was the most favorable for culturable bacteria, actinomyces and fungi and induced the most diverse genera of bacteria compared to other tillage methods. Soil temperature had significant positive correlations with the number of bacteria, actinomyces and fungi (P<0.01). However, soil water was poorly correlated with any of the microbes. Salt content had a significant negative correlation with the number of microbers, especially for bacteria and fungi (P<0.01). DGGE analysis showed that the P+S exhibited the highest diversity of bacteria with 20 visible bands followed by S+S, S and CK. Moreover, P+S had the highest similarity (68%) of bacterial communities with CK. The major bacterial genera in all soil samples were Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria. Given the considerable increase in microbial growth, the combined use of straw layer burial and plastic film mulching could be a practical option for alleviating salt stress effects on soil microbial community and thereby improving crop production in arid saline soils.

Potassium (K) deficiency is one of the major abiotic stresses which has drastically influenced maize growth and yield around the world. However, the physiological mechanism of K deficiency tolerance is not yet fully understood. To identify the differences of root morphology, physiology and endogenous hormones at different growing stages, two maize inbred lines 90-21-3 (tolerance to K deficiency) and D937 (sensitive to K deficiency) were cultivated in the long-term K fertilizer experimental pool under high potassium (+K) and low potassium (–K) treatments. The results indicated that the root length, volume and surface area of 90-21-3 were significantly higher than those of D937 under –K treatment at different growing stages. It was noteworthy that the lateral roots of 90-21-3 were dramatically higher than those of D937 at tasselling and flowering stage under –K treatment. Meanwhile, the values of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and oxidizing force of 90-21-3 were apparently higher than those of D937, whereas malondialdehyde (MDA) content of D937 was obviously increased. Compared with +K treatment, the indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) content of 90-21-3 was largely increased under –K treatment, whereas it was sharply decreased in D937. On the contrary, abscisic acid (ABA) content of 90-21-3 was slightly increased, but that of D937 was significantly increased. The zeatin riboside (ZR) content of 90-21-3 was significantly decreased, while that of D937 was relatively increased. These results indicated that the endogenous hormones were stimulated in 90-21-3 to adjust lateral root development and to maintain the physiology function thereby alleviating K deficiency.

Both bolting and flowering times influence taproot and seed production in radish. FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) plays a key role in plant flowering by functioning as a repressor. Two genomic DNA sequences, a 3 046-bp from an early- and a 2 959-bp from a late-bolting radish line were isolated and named as RsFLC1 and RsFLC2, respectively, for they share approximately 87.03% sequence identity to the FLC cDNA sequences. The genomic DNA sequences, 1 466-bp and 1 744-bp, flanking the 5´-regions of RsFLC1 and RsFLC2, respectively, were characterized. Since both of them harbor the basic promoter elements, the TATA box and CAAT box, they were designated as PRsFLC1 and PRsFLC2. The transcription start site (TSS) was identified at 424 and 336 bp upstream of the start codon in PRsFLC1 and PRsFLC2, respectively. cis-regulatory elements including CGTCA (MeJA-responsive) and ABRE (abscisic acid-responsive) motifs were found in both promoters, while some cis-regulatory elements including TCA element and GARE-motif were present only in PRsFLC1. These sequence differences lead to the diversity of promoter core elements, which could partially result in the difference of bolting and flowering time in radish line NauDY13 (early-bolting) and Naulu127 (late-bolting). Furthermore, to investigate the activity of these promoters, a series of 5´-deletion fragment-GUS fusions were constructed and transformed into tobacco. GUS activity was detected in PRsFLC1-(1 to 4)-GUS-PS1aG-3 and PRsFLC2-(1 to 4)-GUS-PS1aG-3 transgenic tobacco leaf discs, and this activity progressively decreased from PRsFLC-1-GUS-PS1aG-3 to PRsFLC-5-GUS-PS1aG-3. Deletion analysis indicated that the cis-regulatory elements located at –395 bp to +1 bp may be critical for specifying RsFLC gene transcription.

Photoperiodic response is an important characteristic that plays an important role in plant adaptability for various environments. Wheat cultivars grow widely and have high yield potential for the strong photoperiod adaptibility. To assess the photoperiodic response of different genotypes in wheat cultivars, the photoperiodic effects of the Ppd-D1 alleles and the expressions of the related TaGI, TaCO and TaFT genes in Liaochun 10 and Ningchun 36 were investigated under the short-day (6 h light, SD), moderate-day (12 h light, MD) and long-day (24 h light, LD) conditions. Amplicon length comparison indicated that the promoter of Ppd-D1 in Ningchun 36 is intact, while Liaochun 10 presented the partial sequence deletion of Ppd-D1 promoter. The durations of all developmental stages of the two cultivars were reduced by subjection to an extended photoperiod, except for the stamen and pistil differentiation stage in the Liaochun 10 cultivar. The expression levels of the Ppd-D1 alleles and the TaGI, TaCO and TaFT genes associated with the photoperiod pathway were examined over a 24-h period under SD and MD conditions. The relationships of different photoperiodic responses of the two cultivars and the expression of photoperiod pathway genes were analyzed accordingly. The photoperiod insensitive (PI) genotype plants flower early under SD; meanwhile, the abnormal expression of the Ppd-D1a allele is accompanied with an increase in TaFT1 expression and the TaCO expression variation. The results would facilitate molecular breeding in wheat.

    Plant height (PH) is one of the most important agronomic traits of rice, as it directly affects the lodging resistance and the high yield potential. Meanwhile, PH is often constrained by water supply over the entire growth period. In this study, a recombinant inbred line (RIL) derived from Xiaobaijingzi and Kongyu 131 strains grown under drought stress and with normal irrigation over 2 yr (2013 and 2014), respectively (regarded as four environments), was used to dissect the genetic basis of PH by developmental dynamics QTL analysis combined with QTL×environment interactions. QTLs with net effects excluding the accumulated effects were detected to explore the relationship between gene×gene interactions and gene×environment interactions in specific growth period. A total of 26 additive QTLs (A-QTLs) and 37 epistatic QTLs (E-QTLs) associated with PH were detected by unconditional and conditional mapping over seven growth periods. qPH-2-3, qPH-4-3, qPH-6-1, qPH-7-1, and qPH-12-5 could be detected by both unconditional and conditional analyses. qPH-4-3 and qPH-7-5 were detected in four stages (periods) to be sequentially expressed QTLs controlling PH continuous variation. QTLs with additive effects (A-QTLs) were mostly expressed in the period S3|S2 (the time interval from stages 2 to 3), and QTL×environment interactions performed actively in the first three stages (periods) which could be an important developmental period for rice to undergo external morphogenesis during drought stress. Several QTLs showed high adaptability for drought stress and many QTLs were closely related to the environments such as qPH-3-5, qPH-2-2 and qPH-6-1. 72.5% of the QTLs with a and aa effects detected by conditional analysis were under drought stress, and the PVE of QTLs detected by conditional analysis under drought stress were also much higher than that under normal irrigation. We infer that environments would influence the detection results and sequential expression of genes was highly influenced by environments as well. Many QTLs (qPH-1-2, qPH-3-5, qPH-4-1, qPH-2-3) coincident with previously identified drought resistance genes. The result of this study is helpful to elucidating the genetic mechanism and regulatory network underlying the development of PH in rice and providing references to marker assisted selection.

   Lipid transfer protein (LTP) is a kind of small molecular protein, which is named for its ability to transfer lipid between cell membranes. It has been proved that the protein is involved in the responding to abiotic stresses. In this study, TaLTP-s, a genomic sequence of TaLTP was isolated from A genome of wheat (Triticum aestivum L). Sequencing analysis exhibited that there was no diversity in the coding region of TaLTP-s, but seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 1 bp insertion/deletion (InDel) were detected in the promoter regions of different wheat accessions. Nucleotide diversity (π) in the region was 0.00033, and linkage disequilibrium (LD) extended over almost the entire TaLTP-s region in wheat. The dCAPS markers based on sequence variations in the promoter regions (SNP-207 and SNP-1696) were developed, and three haplotypes were identified based on those markers. Association analysis between the haplotypes and agronomic traits of natural population consisted of 262 accessions showed that three haplotypes of TaLTP-s were significantly associated with plant height (PH). Among the three haplotypes, HapIII is considered as the superior haplotype for increasing plant height in the drought stress environments. The G variance at the position of 207 bp could be a superior allele that significantly increased number of spikes per plant (NSP). The functional marker of TaLTP-s provide a tool for marker-assisted selection regarding to plant height and number of spikelet per plant in wheat.

    A fluorescent competitive assay for melamine was first developed utilizing dummy molecularly imprinted polymers (DMIPs) as artificial antibodies. This method is based on the competition between fluorescent substances and the unlabeled analyte for binding sites in synthesized DMIPs and the decreased binding of fluorescent substances to DMIPs due to increased concentrations of melamine in the solutions. DMIPs for melamine were synthesized under a hot water bath in the presence of the initiator azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) using 2,4-diamino-6-methyl-1,3,5-triazine (DAMT) as a dummy template, methacrylic acid (MAA) as a functional monomer, and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as a crosslinking agent. The adsorption capacity and selectivity of DMIPs for melamine were evaluated by the isothermal adsorption curve and Scatchard analysis. The evaluation results showed that the synthesized DMIPs had specific recognition sites for melamine and the maximum adsorption amount was 1 066.33 μg g^–1. Later, 5-(4,6-dichlorotriazinyl) amino fluorescein (DTAF) with a triazine ring, which slightly resembles melamine, was selected as the fluorescent substance. The fluorescent competitive assay using DMIPs as the antibody mimics was finally established by selecting and optimizing the reaction solvents, DMIPs amount, DTAF concentration, and incubation time. The optimal detection system showed a linear response within range of 0.05–40 mg L^–1 and the limit of detection (LOD) was 1.23 μg L^–1. It was successfully applied to the detection of melamine in spiked milk samples with satisfactory recoveries (71.9 to 86.3%). According to the comparative analysis, the result of optimized fluorescent competitive assay revealed excellent agreement with the HPLC-MS/MS result for melamine.

The rapidly growing demand for food, feed and fuel requires further improvements of land and water management, crop productivity and resource-use efficiencies. Combined field experimentation and crop growth modelling during the past five decades made a great leap forward in the understanding of factors that determine actual and potential yields of monocrops. The research field of production ecology developed concepts to integrate biological and biophysical processes with the aim to explore crop growth potential in contrasting environments. To understand the potential of more complex systems (multi-cropping and intercropping) we need an agro-ecosystem approach that integrates knowledge derived from various disciplines: agronomy, crop physiology, crop ecology, and environmental sciences (soil, water and climate). Adaptation of cropping systems to climate change and a better tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses by genetic improvement and by managing diverse cropping systems in a sustainable way will be of key importance in food security. To accelerate sustainable intensification of agricultural production, it is required to develop intercropping systems that are highly productive and stable under conditions with abiotic constraints (water, nutrients and weather). Strategies to achieve sustainable intensification include developing tools to evaluate crop growth potential under more extreme climatic conditions and introducing new crops and cropping systems that are more productive and robust under conditions with abiotic stress. This paper presents some examples of sustainable intensification management of intercropping systems that proved to be tolerant to extreme climate conditions.