Fruit development and ripening is a complex procedure (Malus×domestica Borkh.) and can be caused by various factors such as cell structure, cell wall components, and cell wall hydrolytic enzymes.  In our study, we focused on the variations in fruit firmness, cell wall morphology and components, the activity of cell wall hydrolytic enzymes and the expression patterns of associated genes during fruit development in two different types of apple cultivars, the hard-crisp cultivar and the loose-crisp cultivar.  In this paper, the aim was to find out the causes of the texture variations between the different type cultivars.  Cell wall materials (CWMs), hemicellulose and cellulose content were strongly associated with variations in fruit firmness during the fruit development.  The content of water soluble pectin (WSP) and chelator soluble pectin (CSP) gradually increased, while the content of ionic soluble pectin (ISP) showed inconsistent trends in the four cultivars.  The activities of polygalacturonase (PG), β-galactosidase (β-gal), cellulase (CEL), and pectate lyase (PL) gradually increased in four cultivars.  And the activities of PG, β-gal, and CEL were higher in ‘Fuji’ and ‘Honeycrisp’ fruit with the fruit development, while the activity of PL of ‘Fuji’ and ‘Honeycrisp’ was lower than that of ‘ENVY’ and ‘Modi’.  Both four cultivars of fruit cells progressively became bigger as the fruit expanded, with looser cell arrangements and larger cell gaps.  According to the qRT-PCR, the relative expression levels of MdACO and Mdβ-gal were notably enhanced.  Our study showed that there were large differences in the content of ISP and hemicellulose, the activity of PL and the relative expression of Mdβ-gal between two different types of apple cultivars, and these differences might be responsible for the variations in the texture of the four cultivars.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects on chemical and microbiological properties of paddy soil of short-term biochar, straw, and chemical fertilizers compared with chemical fertilization alone.  Five soil fertilization treatments were evaluated: regular chemical fertilizers (RF), straw+regular chemical fertilizers (SRF), straw biochar+regular chemical fertilizers (SCRF), bamboo biochar (BC)+regular chemical fertilizers (BCRF), and straw biochar+70% regular chemical fertilizers (SC+70%RF).  Their effects were investigated after approximately 1.5 years.  The soil pH and cation exchange capacity (CEC) were significantly higher in biochar-treated soils.  The soil phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) contents increased with biochar application.  The soil Colwell P content was significantly increased with the addition of straw biochar in the treatments of SCRF and SC+70%RF.  The oxygen (O):carbon (C) ratio doubled in BC picked from the soil.  This indicated that BC underwent a significant oxidation process in the soil.  The denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprints of microbial communities differed among the treatments.  Soils with added biochar had higher Shannon diversity and species richness indices than soils without biochars.  The results suggest that biochar can improve soil fertility.

     Heterosis is an important biological phenomenon, and it has been used to increase grain yield, quality and resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses in many crops. However, the genetic mechanism of heterosis remains unclear up to now. In this study, a set of 184 chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) population, which derived from two inbred lines lx9801 (the recurrent parent) and Chang 72 (the donor parent), were used as basal material to construct two test populations with the inbred lines Zheng 58 and Xun 9058. The two test populations were evaluated in two locations over two years, and the heterotic loci for plant height and ear height were identified by comparing the performance of each test hybrid with the corresponding CK at P<0.05 significant level using one-way ANOVA analysis and Duncan’s multiple comparisons. There were 24 and 29 different heterotic loci (HL) identified for plant height and ear height in the two populations at two locations over two years. Three HL (hlPH4a, hlPH7c, hlPH1b) for plant height and three (hlEH1d, hlEH6b, hlEH1b) for ear height were identified in the CSSLs×Zheng 58 and CSSLs×Xun 9058 populations as contributing highly to heterosis performance of plant height and ear height across four environments. Among the 29 HL identified for ear height, 12 HL (41.4%) shared the same chromosomal region associated with the HL (50.0%) identified for plant height in the same test population and environment.

    The objective of this study was to isolate lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains from different origins and to select the best strains for ensiling Robinia pseudoacacia (RB) and Morus alba L. (MB) leaves. The LAB strains were inoculated into the extracted liquid obtained from RB and MB leaves to evaluate the fermentation products. 11 LAB strains were selected for further experiments based on the highest products of lactic or acetic acid, including 1 strain of Weissella confusa, 2 of Lactobacillus reuteri and 8 of Lactobacillus plantarum. The API 50 CH fermentation experiment indicated that all of the selected 11 LAB strains utilised most of the carbohydrates. All the strains grew at temperatures between 10 and 45°C and at a pH of 3.5 to 4.5; however, L. reuteri F7 and F8 tolerated a pH as low as 3.0. All 11 LAB strains showed antibacterial activity against Listeria monocytogens, Escherichia coil, Salmonella sp. and Acetobacter pasteurianus; however, after excluding the effect of organic acids, only F7 and F8 still exhibited antibacterial activity. The present study indicated that the selected 11 LAB strains could be used to prepare silages of RB and MB leaves, especially L. reuteri F7 and F8.

This study investigated effects of dietary fibre and grit on growth performance, gastrointestinal tract (GIT) development, serum indexes and grit retention of Sichuan white goslings in China. The experiment was a 3×2 factorial design consisting of dietary crude fibre (CF) at 2.0, 4.0 and 6.0% levels by adding grass meal and with or without grit supplementation. A total of 720 1-d-old male goslings were randomly allocated into 36 pens of 20 goslings/pen (n=6 pens/treatment). At 21 d of age, GIT, blood samples and grit in gizzards were collected. Body weight (BW), empty BW (without GIT), average daily gain (ADG) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) were affected by CF levels and the medium (4.0%) had the highest value. Adding grit improved BW, empty BW, ADG and ADFI. CF affected relative weight or length of proventriculus, gizzard and duodenum. Increasing CF levels decreased jejunum villus height and affected caecal crypt depth and villus height to crypt depth ratio. Higher CF levels decreased serum triglyceride. Adding grit increased relative weight of abdominal fat. Grit addition increased grit weight in gizzard and the ratio of grit in 0.45-1 and 1-2 mm while decreasing the ratio of grit <0.45 and 2-3 mm. In conclusion, moderate CF level and grit addition increased performance of goslings without interaction. Dietary CF levels affected the development of upper GIT and serum triglyceride. Grit needed by goslings should be less than 2 mm. Goslings’ gizzard would accumulate grit from feed when other grit could not be acquired.

Breeding of male-sterile lines has become the mainstream for the heterosis utilization in foxtail millet, but the genetic basis of most male-sterile lines used for the hybrid is still an area to be elucidated. In this study, a highly male-sterile line Gao146A was investigated. Genetic analysis indicated that the highly male-sterile phenotype was controlled by a single recessive gene a single recessive gene. Using F2 population derived from cross Gao146A/K103, one gene controlling the highly male- sterility, tentatively named as ms1, which linked to SSR marker b234 with genetic distance of 16.7 cM, was mapped on the chromosome VI. These results not only laid the foundation for fine mapping of this highly male-sterile gene, but also helped to accelerate the improvement of highly male-sterile lines by using molecular marker assisted breeding method.