Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as powerful regulators of adipocyte differentiation, fat metabolism and gene expression. However, the functional roles and mechanisms of lncRNAs in these processes remain unclear. Here, we identified a novel antisense transcript, named APMAP-AS, transcribed from adipocyte membrane-associated protein (APMAP) in the pig genome. APMAP-AS and APMAP were highly expressed in retroperitoneal adipose of obese pigs, compared with that in control pigs. Using a bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) adipogenic differentiation model, we found that APMAP-AS positively regulated adipogenic differentiation. APMAP-AS had the potential to form an RNA–RNA duplex with APMAP, and increased the stability of APMAP mRNA. Additionally, APMAP-AS promoted lipid metabolism and inhibited the expression of inflammatory factors. These findings of a natural antisense transcript for a regulatory gene associated with lipid synthesis might further our understanding of lncRNAs in driving adaptive adipose tissue remodeling and preserving metabolic health.

Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is the most important natural textile fiber crop worldwide. Plant height (PH) is a significant component of plant architecture, strongly influencing crop cultivation patterns, overall yield, and economic coefficient. However, cotton genes regulating plant height have not been fully identified. Previously, an HD-Zip gene (GhHB12) was isolated and characterized in cotton, which regulates the abiotic and biotic stress responses and the growth and development processes. In this study, we showed that GhHB12 was induced by auxin. Moreover, overexpression of GhHB12 induces the expression of HY5, ATH1, and HAT4, represses the spatial-temporal distribution, polar transport, and signaling of auxin, alters the expression of genes involved in cell wall expansion, and restrains the plant height in cotton. These results suggest a role of GhHB12 in regulating cotton plant height, which could be achieved by affecting the auxin signaling and cell wall expansion.

Extreme low-temperature incidents have become more frequent and severe as climate change intensifies.  In Huang-Huai-Hai wheat growing area of China, the late spring coldness occurring at the jointing-booting stage (the anther interval stage) has resulted in significant yield losses of winter wheat.  This study attempts to develop an economical, feasible, and efficient cultivation technique for improving the low-temperature (LT) resistance of wheat by exploring the effects of twice-split phosphorus application (TSPA) on wheat antioxidant characteristics and carbon and nitrogen metabolism physiology under LT treatment at the anther interval stage using Yannong 19 as the experimental material.  The treatments consisted of traditional phosphorus application and TSPA, followed by a –4°C LT treatment and natural temperature (NT) control at the anther interval stage.  Our analyses showed that, compared with the traditional application, the TSPA increased the net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), and transpiration rate (Tr) of leaves and reduced the intercellular carbon dioxide concentration (Ci).  The activity of carbon and nitrogen metabolism enzymes in the young wheat spikes was also increased by the TSPA, which promoted the accumulation of soluble sugar (SS), sucrose (SUC), soluble protein (SP), and proline (Pro) in young wheat spike and reduced the toxicity of malondialdehyde (MDA).  Due to the improved organic nutrition for reproductive development, the young wheat spikes exhibited enhanced LT resistance, which reduced the sterile spikelet number (SSN) per spike by 11.8% and increased the spikelet setting rate (SSR) and final yield by 6.0 and 8.4%, respectively, compared to the traditional application.  The positive effects of split phosphorus application became more pronounced when the LT treatment was prolonged.  

DNA methylation plays an important role in plant growth and development, and in regulating the activity of transposable elements (TEs).  Research on DNA methylation-related (DMR) genes has been reported in Arabidopsis, but little research on DMR genes has been reported in Brassica rapa and Brassica oleracea, the genomes of which exhibit significant differences in TE content.  In this study, we identified 78 and 77 DMR genes in Brassica rapa and Brassica oleracea, respectively.  Detailed analysis revealed that the numbers of DMR genes in different DMR pathways varied in B. rapa and B. oleracea.  The evolutionary selection pressure of DMR genes in B. rapa and B. oleracea was compared, and the DMR genes showed differential evolution between these two species.  The nucleotide diversity (π) and selective sweep (Tajima’s D) revealed footprints of selection in the B. rapa and B. oleracea populations.  Transcriptome analysis showed that most DMR genes exhibited similar expression characteristics in B. rapa and B. oleracea.  This study dissects the evolutionary differences and genetic variations of the DMR genes in B. rapa and B. oleracea, and will provide valuable resources for future research on the divergent evolution of DNA methylation between B. rapa and B. oleracea.

Whole genome duplication (WGD) and tandem duplication (TD) are important modes of gene amplification and functional innovation, and they are common in plant genome evolution.  We analyzed the genomes of three Solanaceae species (Solanum lycopersicum, Capsicum annuum, and Petunia inflata), which share a common distant ancestor with Vitis vinifera, Theobroma cacao, and Coffea canephora but have undergone an extra whole genome triplication (WGT) event.  The analysis was used to investigate the phenomenon of tandem gene evolution with (S. lycopersicum) or without WGT (V. vinifera).  Among the tandem gene arrays in these genomes, we found that V. vinifera, which has not experienced the WGT event, retained relatively more and larger tandem duplicated gene (TDG) clusters than the Solanaceae species that experienced the WGT event.  Larger TDG clusters tend to be derived from older TD events, so this indicates that continuous TDGs (absolute dosage) accumulated during long-term evolution.  In addition, WGD and TD show a significant bias in the functional categories of the genes retained.  WGD tends to retain dose-sensitive genes related to biological processes, including DNA-binding and transcription factor activity, while TD tends to retain genes involved in stress resistance.  WGD and TD also provide more possibilities for gene functional innovation through gene fusion and fission.  The TDG cluster containing the tomato fusarium wilt resistance gene I3 contains 15 genes, and one of these genes, Solyc07g055560, has undergone a fusion event after the duplication events.  These data provide evidence that helps explain the new functionalization of TDGs in adapting to environmental changes.  

Grain zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) concentrations and their responses to foliar application of micronutrients in 28 Chinese wheat landraces and 63 cultivars were investigated in a two-year field experiment.  The average grain Zn and Fe concentrations were 41.8 mg kg^–1 (29.0−63.3 mg kg^–1) and 39.7 mg kg^–1 (27.9−67.0 mg kg^–1), respectively.  Compared with cultivars, landraces had greater grain Zn (11.0%) and Fe (4.8%) concentrations but lower harvest index (HI), grain weight per spike (GWS), grain number per spike (GNS) and thousand grain weight (TGW).  Both Zn and Fe concentrations were negatively and significantly correlated with HI, GWS, and GNS, while showed a poor association with TGW, suggesting that lower HI, GWS, and GNS, but not TGW, accounted for higher Zn and Fe concentrations for landraces than for cultivars.  Grain Zn concentrations of both cultivars and landraces significantly increased after foliar Zn spray and the increase was two-fold greater for landraces (12.6 mg kg^–1) than for cultivars (6.4 mg kg^–1).  Foliar Fe spray increased grain Fe concentrations of landraces (3.4 mg kg^–1) and cultivars (1.2 mg kg^–1), but these increases were not statistically significant.  This study showed that Chinese wheat landraces had higher grain Zn and Fe concentrations than cultivars, and greater increases occurred in grain Zn concentration than in grain Fe concentration in response to fertilization, suggesting that Chinese wheat landraces could serve as a potential genetic source for enhancing grain mineral levels in modern wheat cultivars.

The present study investigates the chemical composition and antioxidant capacity of juice from the Gannan navel orange, which is harvested at one- to two-week intervals during the ripening period.  The total soluble solid (TSS), total polyphenol content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), sucrose and hesperidin contents gradually increase with the ripening of the fruit, followed by slight declines at the late maturity stage.  Contrary to these observations, the contents of titratable acid (TA), vitamin C (Vc), and limonin trend downward throughout the ripening period.  However, the contents of fructose, glucose, and narirutin fluctuate throughout the harvest time.  Three in vitro antioxidant assays consistently indicate that the harvest time exerts no significant influence (P>0.01) on the antioxidant capacity.  Furthermore, principal component analysis (PCA) and Pearson’s correlation test are performed to provide an overview of the complete dataset. This study provides valuable information for evaluating the fruit quality and determining when to harvest the fruit in order to meet the preferences of consumers.  Meanwhile, our observations suggest that the fruits subjected to juice processing should be harvested at the late maturity stage to alleviate the “delayed bitterness” problem without compromising the antioxidant capacity and the flavonoid content in the juice.

The panicle architecture and grain size of rice affect not only grain yield but also grain quality, especially grain appearance. The erect-panicle (EP) trait controlled by the qpe9-1/dep1 allele has been widely used in high-yielding japonica rice breeding, but usually accompanied with moderate appearance of milled rice. The null gs9 allele shows a good potential for improving grain shape and appearance. However, GS9 and qPE9-1/DEP1 loci are tightly linked, and their interaction is unclear, which obviously restricts their utilization in modern rice breeding. In the present study, comparative analyses of protein and mRNA levels revealed that GS9 and qPE9-1 function independently. Three near-isogenic lines (NILs) carrying various allelic combinations of these two loci, NIL (gs9/qpe9-1), NIL (GS9/qPE9-1) and NIL (gs9/qPE9-1), in the EP japonica cultivar 2661 (GS9/qpe9-1) background were developed for genetic interaction analysis. GS9 and qPE9-1 had additive effects on determining grain size, and the null gs9 allele could decrease grain chalkiness and improve grain appearance without affecting plant and panicle architecture in EP japonica cultivars. Additionally, introgression lines (ILs) developed in another released EP japonica cultivar Wuyujing 27 (WYJ27) background showed the same additive effect and the feasibility of utilizing the gs9 allele to improve grain appearance quality in high-yielding EP cultivars. This study provides an effective strategy for rice breeders to improve rice grain appearance in EP japonica and related cultivars.

Cold stress is a major problem in rice production.  To rapidly identify genes for cold tolerance in Dongxiang wild rice (DWR, Oryza rufipogon Griff.), sequencing-based bulked segregant analysis of QTL-seq method was used to resequence the extremely resistant (R) and susceptible (S) bulks of a backcross inbred lines (BILs) population (derived from Oryza sativa×O. rufipogon) and their parents.  Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP)-index graphs and corresponding Δ(SNP-index) graphs (at 99 and 95% confidence levels) for R- and S-bulks detected a total of 2 609 candidate SNPs, including 58 candidate cold-tolerance genes.  Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that 5 out of the 58 candidate genes had significant differences in expression between O. sativa and O. rufipogon.  Structural variation and functional annotations of the 5 candidate genes were also analyzed, and allowed us to identify 2 insertion-deletion (InDel) markers (12-7 and 12-16) that were linked with candidate genes on chromosome 12 in DWR.  These results are helpful for cloning and using cold tolerance genes from common wild rice in cultivated rice.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with flavonoid from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi (SBGFN) as SBGFN-zinc (SBGFN-Zn) on growth performance, meat quality, immune responses and antioxidation of broilers.  A total of 450 one-d-old Arbor Acres male broilers were randomly allocated to 5 treatments with 6 replicates of 15 birds per replicate for each treatment in a completely randomized design.  Birds were fed a SBGFN-unsupplemented corn-soybean meal basal diet (control) or the basal diet supplemented with 60, 120, 180 or 240 mg SBGFN kg^–1 from SBGFN-Zn for 42 d.  Dietary SBGFN supplementation affected (P<0.03) drip loss in thigh muscle, total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity in liver of broilers at 42 d of age.  Chicks fed the diets supplemented with 120, 180 and 240 mg SBGFN kg^–1 had lower (P<0.03) drip loss of thigh muscle than those fed the control diet.  Chicks fed the diet supplemented with 180 mg SBGFN kg^–1 had higher (P<0.03) liver T-SOD and GSH-Px activity than those fed the diets supplemented with 0, 60 and 120 mg SBGFN kg^–1.  The results from the present study indicate that dietary supplementation with 180 mg SBGFN kg^–1 as SBGFN-Zn improved both meat quality and antioxidative ability of broilers.   

We investigated the soil microbiologic characteristics, and the yield and sustainable production of winter wheat, by conducting a long-term fertilization experiment.  A single application of N, P and K (NPK) fertilizer was taken as the control (CK) and three organic fertilization treatments were used: NPK fertilizer+pig manure (T1), NPK fertilizer+straw return (T2), NPK fertilizer+pig manure+straw return (T3).  The results showed that all three organic fertilization treatments (T1, T2 and T3) significantly increased both soil total N (STN) and soil organic carbon (SOC) from 2008 onwards.  In 2016, the SOC content and soil C/N ratios for T1, T2 and T3 were significantly higher than those for CK.  The three organic fertilization treatments increased soil microbial activity.  In 2016, the activity of urease (sucrase) and the soil respiration rate (SRS) for T1, T2 and T3 were significantly higher than those under CK.  The organic fertilization treatments also increased the content of soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (SMBN), the SMBC/SMBN ratio and the microbial quotient (qMB).  The yield for T1, T2 and T3 was significantly higher than that of CK, respectively.  Over the nine years of the investigation, the average yield increased by 9.9, 13.2 and 17.4% for T1, T2 and T3, respectively, compared to the initial yield for each treatment, whereas the average yield of CK over the same period was reduced by 6.5%.  T1, T2, and T3 lowered the coefficient of variation (CV) of wheat yield and increased the sustainable yield index (SYI).  Wheat grain yield was significantly positively correlated with each of the soil microbial properties (P<0.01).  These results showed that the long-term application of combined organic and chemical fertilizers can stabilize crop yield and make it more sustainable by improving the properties of the soil.

    Tassel branch number (TBN) is the principal component of maize tassel inflorescence architecture and is a typical quantitative trait controlled by multiple genes. The main objective of this research was to detect quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for TBN. The maize inbred line SICAU1212 was used as the common parent to develop BC₁S₁ and recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations with inbred lines 3237 and B73, respectively. The two related populations consisted of 123 and 238 lines, respectively. Each population was grown and phenotyped for TBN in two environments. Eleven QTLs were detected in the BC₁S₁ population, located on chromosomes 2, 3, 5, and 7, accounted for 4.45–26.58% of the phenotypic variation. Two QTLs (qB11Jtbn2-1, qB12Ctbn2-1, qBJtbn2-1; q11JBtbn5-1, qB12Ctbn5-1, qBJtbn5-1) that accounted for more than 10% of the phenotypic variation were identified. Three QTLs located on chromosomes 2, 3 and 5, exhibited stable expression in the two environments. Ten QTLs were detected in the RIL population, located on chromosomes 2, 3, 5, 8, and 10, accounted for 2.69–13.58% of the TBN variation. One QTL (qR14Dtbn2-2) explained >10% of the phenotypic variation. One common QTL (qB12Ctbn2-2, qR14Dtbn2-2, qRJtbn2-2) was detected between the two related populations. Three pairs of epistatic effects were identified between two loci with or without additive effects and accounted for 1.19–4.26% of the phenotypic variance. These results demonstrated that TBN variation was mainly caused by major effects, minor effects and slightly modified by epistatic effects. Thus, identification of QTL for TBN may help elucidate the genetic basis of TBN and also facilitate map-based cloning and marker-assisted selection (MAS) in maize breeding programs.

Distribution of horizontal boom produced droplets downwards into maize canopies at flowering period and its effects on the efficacies of emamectin benzoate, lambda-cyhalothrin and chlorantraniliprole against the second generation of Asian corn borer (ACB) larvae and their toxicity to spiders were studied. When insecticides were sprayed downwards into the maize canopies, randomly filtering out droplets by upper leaves led to great variations of droplet coverage and density within the canopies. Consequently, the efficacies of lambda-cyhalothrin and emamectin benzoate against ACB larvae were decreased because of randomly filtering out droplets by upper leaves. But field investigation showed that lambda-cyhalothrin was extremely toxic to hunting spiders, Xysticus ephippiatus, and not suitable to IPM programs in regulation of the second generation of ACB. Therefore，randomly filtering out droplets by upper leaves decreased lambda-cyhalothrin’s efficacy against ACB larvae, but did little to decrease its toxicity to X. ephippiatus. Amamectin benzoate can reduce the populations of X. ephippiatus by 58.1-61.4%, but the populations can recover at the end of the experiment. Chlorantraniliprole was relatively safe to X. ephippiatus. It only reduced the populations of X. ephippiatus by 22.3-33.0%, and the populations can totally recover 9 d after application.