Modern agriculture heavily depends on energy consumption, especially fossil energy, but intensive energy input increases the production cost for producers and results in environmental pollution. Organic agricultural production is considered a more sustainable system, but there is lack of scientific research on the energy consumption between organic and conventional systems in China. The analysis and comparison of energy use between the two systems would help decision-makers to establish economic, effective and efficient agricultural production. Thus, the objectives of the present study are to analyze energy inputs, outputs, energy efficiency, and economic benefits between organic and conventional soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) production. A total of 24 organic farmers and 24 conventional farmers in Jilin Province, China, were chosen for investigation in 2010 production year. Total energy input was 71.55 GJ ha–1 and total energy output was 96.18 GJ ha–1 in the organic system, resulting in an energy efficiency (output/input) of 1.34. Total energy input was 9.37 GJ ha–1 and total energy output was 113.4 GJ ha–1 in the conventional system, resulting in the energy efficiency of 12.1. The huge discrepancy in energy inputs and respective efficiencies lies in the several times higher nutrient inputs in the organic compared to the conventional production system. Finally, the production costs ha–1 were 33% higher, and the net income ha–1 25% lower in the organic compared to the conventional soybean production system. It is recommended to improve fertilizer management in organic production to improve its energetic and economic performance.

Phytophthora root rot is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world, which can infect the seedlings and plants, withsubstantial negative impact on soybean yield and quality. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of post-transcriptionalregulators of gene expression during growth and development of organisms. A soybean disease-resistance varietySuinong 10 was inoculated with Phytophthora sojae race No. 1, and the specific miRNA resistant expression profile wasacquired by microarray for the first time. Different expressional miRNAs have been found after comparing the results ofthe treated sample with the control sample. Furthermore, the target genes of different expressional miRNAs were predicted.Two miRNAs, cbr-mir-241 and ath-miR854a, regulated the disease-resistance process directly through their targets, someenzymes. Another two miRNAs, gma-miR169a and ath-miR169h, participated in disease-resistance regulation as transcriptionfactors. Similarly, one miRNA, ptc-miR164f, has been reported to regulate the plant development. All of these studieswould be served as the foundation for exploring the resistance mechanism.