Investigating the dynamics and distribution of soil phosphorus (P) fractions can provide a basis for enhancing P utilization by crops.  Four treatments from a 29-year long-term experiment in black soil with maize cropping were involved in this study: no fertilizer (CK), inorganic nitrogen and potassium (NK), inorganic nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK), and NPK plus manure (NPKM).  We analyzed soil P fractions in different soil layers using a modified Hedley sequential method.  The long-term NPKM treatment significantly increased total P by 0.6–1.6 times in the different soil layers.  The Olsen-P concentration far exceeded the environmental threshold for soil Olsen-P (50.6 mg kg^–1) in the NPKM treatment in the 0–60 cm soil profile.  Moreover, the concentrations and proportion of labile and partially labile inorganic P (Pi) fractions (i.e., NaHCO₃-extracted Pi, NaOH-extracted Pi, and dilute HCl-extracted Pi) to the sum of all P fractions (Pt) in the 0–60 cm soil profile were higher in the NPKM treatment than in the NPK treatment, indicating that manure could promote the transformation of non-labile into more labile forms of P in soil, possibly by manure reducing P fixation by soil particles.  Soil organic matter, Mehlich-3 extractable iron (Fe), and organic-bound aluminum were increased by fertilization, and were the main factors influencing the differences in the P fractions in the 0–20 cm soil layer.  Soil mineral components, i.e., free Fe oxide and CaCO₃, were the main factors influencing the P fractions in the subsoil.  The soil P transformation process varied with soil layer and fertilization.  Application of manure fertilizer can increase the labile (Olsen) P concentrations of the various soil layers, and thus should reduce the mineral P fertilizer requirement for crop growth and reduce potential environmental damage

Understanding the characteristics and influences of various factors on phosphorus (P) fractions is of significance for promoting the efficiency of soil P.  Based on long-term experiments on black soil, fluvo-aquic soil, and loess soil, which belong to Phaeozems, Cambisols, and Anthrosols in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB), respectively, five fertilization practices were selected and divided into three groups: no P fertilizer (CK/NK), balanced fertilizer (NPK/NPKS), and manure plus mineral fertilizer (NPKM).  Soil inorganic P (Pi) fractions and soil properties were analyzed to investigate the characteristics of the Pi fractions and the relationships between Pi fractions and various soil properties.  The results showed that the proportion of Ca₁₀-P in the sum of total Pi fractions was the highest in the three soils, accounting for 33.5% in black soil, 48.8% in fluvo-aquic soil, and 44.8% in loess soil.  Long-term fertilization practices resulted in periodic changes in soil Pi accumulation or depletion.  For black soil and fluvo-aquic soil, the Pi accumulation was higher in the late period (10–20 years) of fertilization than in the early period (0–10 years) under NPK/NPKS and NPKM, whereas the opposite result was found in loess soil.  The Pi accumulation occurred in all Pi fractions in black soil; mainly in Ca₈-P, Fe-P, and Ca₁₀-P in fluvo-aquic soil; and in Ca₂-P, Ca₈-P, and O-P in loess soil.  Under CK/NK, the soil Pi was depleted mainly in the early period in each of the three soils.  In addition to the labile Pi (Ca₂-P) and moderately labile Pi (Ca₈-P, Fe-P, Al-P), the Ca₁₀-P in black soil and fluvo-aquic soil and O-P in loess soil could also be used by crops.  Redundancy analysis showed that soil properties explained more than 90% of the variation in the Pi fractions in each soil, and the explanatory percentages of soil organic matter (SOM) were 43.6% in black soil, 74.6% in fluvo-aquic, and 38.2% in loess soil.  Consequently, decisions regarding the application of P fertilizer should consider the accumulation rate and the variations in Pi fractions driven by soil properties in non-acidic soils.

Agaricus bisporus is one of the most widely cultivated mushrooms in the world. Commercial cultivars are usually phenotypically alike and easy to be copied by isolating tissue cultures. This brings great challenges to distinguish different cultivars and to protect new varieties. Thus, techniques for the accurate identification of cultivars are essentially required. In this study, we accurately identified 11 commercial cultivars of A. bisporus released in China by using microsatellite (SSR, simple sequence repeat) markers. SSR markers were developed by mining the genome sequence. A total of 3 134 SSRs were identified, of which 1 490 SSRs were distributed in gene models, and 1 644 in the intergenic regions. A total of 17 polymorphic primer pairs were developed and SSR fingerprints were constructed for all the commercial cultivars. These SSR markers generated a total of 73 alleles, with an average of 4.29 per locus. Specifically, the primer combination of AB_SSR_2341 and AB_SSR_2590 could distinguish all the 11 commercial cultivars. The similarity coefficients of the 11 commercial cultivars were between 0.56 and 0.95 indicating that some of them were close related. Our results provide an efficient technique for the identification of A. bisporus cultivars in China, which can also facilitate the marker-assisted breeding in the future.

More than 20 years have passed since the first report on successful genetic transformation of wheat. With the establishment and improvement of transformation platform, great progresses have been made on wheat genetic transformation both on its fundamental and applied studies in China, especially driven by the National Major Project for Transgenic Organism Breeding, China, initiated in 2008. In this review, wheat genetic transformation platform improvement and transgenic research progresses including new techniques applied and functional studies of wheat quality, yield and stress tolerant related genes and biosafety assessment are summarized. The existing problems and the trends in wheat transformation with traditional methods combined with genomic studies and genome editing technology are also discussed.