Calcium (Ca²⁺) plays an important role in determining plant growth and development because it maintains cell wall and
membrane integrity. Therefore, understanding the role of Ca2+ in carbon and lipid metabolism could provide insights
into the dynamic changes in cell membranes and cell walls during the rapid elongation of cotton fibers. In the present
study, we found that the lack of Ca²⁺ promoted fiber elongation and rapid ovule expansion, but it also caused tissue
browning in the ovule culture system. RNA-sequencing revealed that Ca²⁺ deficiency induced cells to be highly oxidized,
and the expression of genes related to carbon metabolism and lipid metabolism was activated significantly. All gene
members of nine key enzymes involved in glycolysis were up-regulated, and glucose was significantly reduced in Ca²⁺
deficiency-treated tissues. Ca²⁺ deficiency adjusted the flowing of glycolysis metabolic. However, low K⁺ recovered
the expression levels of glycolysis genes and glucose content caused by Ca2+ deficiency. Electrospray ionizationtandem
mass spectrometry technology was applied to uncover the dynamic profile of lipidome under Ca²⁺ and K⁺
interacted conditions. Ca²⁺ deficiency led to the decrease of fatty acid (FA), diacylglycerol (DAG), glycolipid and the
significant increase of triacylglycerol (TAG), phospholipid phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylglycerol (PG),
and PC (phosphatidylcholine). Low K⁺ restored the contents of FA, phospholipids, and glycolipids, effectively relieved
the symptoms caused by Ca²⁺ deficiency, and recovered the development of fiber cells. This study revealed dynamic
changes in transcript and metabolic levels and uncovered the signaling interaction of Ca²⁺ deficiency and low K⁺ in
glycolysis and lipid metabolism during fiber development.

Fertilization is an effective technique to improve soil fertility and increase crop yield. The long-term effects of different fertilizers on soil considerably vary. Over 38 consecutive years of different fertilization positioning experiments in a double cropping rice field of Qiyang Red Soil Experimental Station, seven different fertilization treatments including CK (no fertilization), NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizer), M (cow manure), NPKM (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium with cow manure), NPM (nitrogen and phosphorus with cow manure), NKM (nitrogen and potassium with cow manure), and PKM (phosphorus and potassium with cow manure) were applied to study the effects on rice yield, soil fertility, and nutrient apparent balance in a paddy field. The results showed that the annual average yields of rice in NPKM, NPM, NKM, PKM, M, NPK and CK treatments ranged from 6 214 to 11 562 kg ha^–1. Yields under longterm organic and inorganic treatments (NPKM, NPM, NKM and PKM) were 22.58, 15.35, 10.53 and 4.41%, respectively, greater than under the NPK treatment. Soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), available nitrogen (AN) and available potassium (AK) concentration with long-term organic and inorganic treatment (NPKM, NPM, NKM and PKM) were significantly higher than in inorganic fertilizer (NPK) treatments. Soil total phosphorus (TP) and available phosphorus (AP) contentration with organic fertilizer combined with inorganic N and P fertilizer treatment (NPKM, NPM and PKM) were significantly higher than with inorganic fertilizer alone (NPK treatments). The average annual rice yield (11 562 kg ha^–1), SOC (20.88 g kg^–1), TN (2.30 g kg^–1), TP (0.95 g kg^–1), TK (22.50 g kg^–1) and AP (38.94 mg kg^–1) concentrations were the highest in the NPKM treatment. The soil AN concentration (152.40 mg kg^–1) and AK contentration (151.00 mg kg^–1) were the highest in the NKM treatment. N and P application led to a surplus of nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil, but NPKM treatment effectively reduced the surplus compared with other treatments. Soils under all treatments were deficient in potassium. Correlation analysis showed that SOC, TN, AN, TP, and AP contentration was significantly correlated with rice yield; the correlation coefficients were 0.428, 0.496, 0.518, 0.501, and 0.438, respectively. This study showed that the combined application of N, P, and K with cow manure had important effects on rice yield and soil fertility, but balanced application of N, P, and K with cow manure was required.

Exploring the effects of sowing date and ecological points on the yield of semi-winter wheat is of great significance.  This study aims to reveal the effects of sowing date and ecological points on the climate resources associated with wheat yield in the Rice–Wheat Rotation System.  With six sowing dates, the experiments were carried out in Donghai and Jianhu counties, Jiangsu Province, China using two semi-winter wheat varieties as the objects of this study.  The basic seedlings of the first sowing date (S1) were planted at 300×10⁴ plants ha⁻¹, which was increased by 10% for each of the delayed sowing dates (S2–S6).  The results showed that the delay of sowing date decreased the number of days, the effective accumulated temperature and the cumulative solar radiation in the whole growth period.  The yields of S1 were higher than those of S2 to S6 by 0.22–0.31, 0.5–0.78, 0.86–0.98, 1.14–1.38, and 1.36–1.59 t ha^–1, respectively.  For a given sowing date, the growth days increased as the ecological point was moved north, while both mean daily temperature and effective accumulative temperature decreased, but the cumulative radiation increased.  As a result, the yields at Donghai County were 0.01–0.39 t ha^–1 lower than those of Jianhu County for the six sowing dates.  The effective accumulative temperature and cumulative radiation both had significant positive correlations with yield.  The average temperature was significantly negatively correlated with the yield.  The decrease in grain yield was mainly due to the declines in grains per spike and 1 000-grain weight caused by the increase in the daily temperature and the decrease in the effective accumulative temperature.

Cereal and legume intercropping has been widely adopted to increase crop productivity in sustainable farming systems worldwide.  Among different intercropping combinations, millet and peanut intercropping can be adapted to most water-limited areas.  However, there are few studies on the differences in yield characteristics and nitrogen use efficiency between millet/peanut intercropping and monocultures under different nitrogen (N) application rates.  The objective of this study was to determine the yield advantages and economic benefits, as well as the appropriate N application rate, of millet/peanut intercropping.  A two-year field experiment was conducted with three cropping patterns (monoculture millet, monoculture peanut and millet/peanut intercropping) and four N rates (0, 75, 150 and 225 kg ha⁻¹).  The results showed that the land equivalent ratio (LER) and net effect (NE) of the intercropping system reached their highest levels at the N input of 150 kg ha⁻¹ in 2018 and 2019 (1.04 for LER, 0.347 Mg ha⁻¹ for NE, averaged across two years).  Millet was the dominant crop in the intercropping system (aggressivity of millet and peanut (Amp)>0, competitive ratio of millet and peanut (CRmp)>1), and millet yields achieved their highest values at N inputs of 225 kg ha⁻¹ for monoculture and 150 kg ha⁻¹ for intercropping.  NUE reached its highest levels with N inputs of 150 kg ha⁻¹ for all planting patterns over the two years.  Intercropping combined with an N input of 150 kg ha⁻¹ achieved the highest net income of 2 791 USD ha⁻¹, with a benefit-cost ratio of 1.56, averaged over the two years.  From the perspective of economics and agricultural sustainable development, millet/peanut intercropping at 150 kg N ha⁻¹ seems to be a promising alternative to millet or peanut monoculture.

Rice, the main food crop in China, has been sporadically reported to suffer from weedy rice infestation.  However, the overall occurrence and distribution pattern of Chinese weedy rice remains unclear because a systematic survey has not been conducted.  In order to reveal the infestation of Chinese weedy rice, a field survey was conducted in 999 sampling sites all over the rice-growing regions in China from 2009 to 2016 using seven-scale visual scoring of the level of weed infestation.  Weedy rice was found 39% occurrence incidence in a total of 387 sites.  The sampling sites with 50% or higher overall weedy rice infestation index mainly radiated from Jiangsu, Heilongjiang, Ningxia and Guangdong to the whole East China, Northeast China, Northwest China and South China.  A total of 45 morphological characters from 287 populations (collected simultaneously with the field survey) out of those occurred sites were observed and analyzed using multivariate analysis in common gardens with the same cultivation conditions in 2017 and 2019.  Canonical correlation analysis showed that 45 morphological characters were significantly related to the latitude, mean temperature, minimum temperature, precipitation and mean diurnal range factors.  The 287 weedy rice populations were divided into three morphological groups with climate-dependent geographical differentiation: strong tiller type only in Jiangsu, large leaf type in South China and Central China and large grain type mainly in North China.  Weedy rice seriously infested rice fields and had a geography, climate and cultivated rice type-dependent morphological and biotype differentiation in China.  It is suggested to pay attention to the harmfulness of weedy rice and adopt comprehensive control strategies.

Single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction (ssGBLUP) is now intensively investigated and widely used in livestock breeding due to its beneficial feature of combining information from both genotyped and ungenotyped individuals in the single model.  With the increasing accessibility of whole-genome sequence (WGS) data at the population level, more attention is being paid to the usage of WGS data in ssGBLUP.  The predictive ability of ssGBLUP using WGS data might be improved by incorporating biological knowledge from public databases.  Thus, we extended ssGBLUP, incorporated genomic annotation information into the model, and evaluated them using a yellow-feathered chicken population as the examples.  The chicken population consisted of 1 338 birds with 23 traits, where imputed WGS data including 5 127 612 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are available for 895 birds.  Considering different combinations of annotation information and models, original ssGBLUP, haplotype-based ssGHBLUP, and four extended ssGBLUP incorporating genomic annotation models were evaluated.  Based on the genomic annotation (GRCg6a) of chickens, 3 155 524 and 94 837 SNPs were mapped to genic and exonic regions, respectively.  Extended ssGBLUP using genic/exonic SNPs outperformed other models with respect to predictive ability in 15 out of 23 traits, and their advantages ranged from 2.5 to 6.1% compared with original ssGBLUP.  In addition, to further enhance the performance of genomic prediction with imputed WGS data, we investigated the genotyping strategies of reference population on ssGBLUP in the chicken population.  Comparing two strategies of individual selection for genotyping in the reference population, the strategy of evenly selection by family (SBF) performed slightly better than random selection in most situations.  Overall, we extended genomic prediction models that can comprehensively utilize WGS data and genomic annotation information in the framework of ssGBLUP, and validated the idea that properly handling the genomic annotation information and WGS data increased the predictive ability of ssGBLUP.  Moreover, while using WGS data, the genotyping strategy of maximizing the expected genetic relationship between the reference and candidate population could further improve the predictive ability of ssGBLUP.  The results from this study shed light on the comprehensive usage of genomic annotation information in WGS-based single-step genomic prediction.

Primary porcine tracheal epithelial cells (PTECs) are an appropriate model for studying the molecular mechanism of various porcine respiratory diseases, including swine-origin mycoplasmas, which are isolated from respiratory tract of pigs and mainly found on the mucosal surface surrounding swine trachea.  However, the short proliferation ability of primary PTECs greatly limits their lifespan.  In this study, primary PTECs were carefully isolated and cultured, and immortal PTECs were constructed by transfecting primary PTECs with the recombinant constructed plasmid pEGFP-hTERT containing human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT).  Immortal PTECs (hTERT-PTECs) maintained both the morphological and functional characteristics of primary PTECs, as indicated by the expression of cytokeratin 18, cell-cycle analysis, proliferation assay, Western blotting, telomerase activity assay, karyotype analysis and quantitative RT-PCR.  Compared to primary PTECs, hTERT-PTECs had an extended replicative lifespan, higher telomerase activity, and enhanced proliferative activity.  In addition, this cell line resulted in a lack of transformed and grown tumors in nude mice, suggesting that it could be safely applied in further studies.  Moreover, hTERT-PTECs were vulnerable to all swine-origin mycoplasmas through quantitative analysis as indicated by 50% color changing unit (CCU₅₀) calculation, and no significant differences of adhesion ability between primary and immortal PTECs were observed.  For the representative swine mycoplasma Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (Mhp), except for DNA copies quantitative real-time PCR assay, indirect immunofluorescence assay and Western blotting analysis also depicted that hTERT-PTECs was able to adhere to different Mhp strains of different virulence.  In summary, like primary PTECs, hTERT-PTECs could be widely used as an adhesion cell model for swine-origin mycoplasmas and in infection studies of various porcine respiratory pathogens.  

Available irrigation resources are becoming increasingly scarce in the North China Plain (NCP), and nitrogen-use efficiency of crop production is also relatively low. Thus, it is imperative to improve the water-use efficiency (WUE) and nitrogen fertilizer productivity on the NCP. Here, we conducted a two-year field experiment to explore the effects of different irrigation amounts (S60, 60 mm; S90, 90 mm; S120, 120 mm; S150, 150 mm) and nitrogen application rates (150, 195 and 240 kg ha^–1; denoted as N1, N2 and N3, respectively) under micro-sprinkling with water and nitrogen combined on the grain yield (GY), yield components, leaf area index (LAI), flag leaf chlorophyll content, dry matter accumulation (DM), WUE, and nitrogen partial factor productivity (NPFP). The results indicated that the GY and NPFP increased significantly with increasing irrigation amount, but there was no significant difference between S120 and S150; WUE significantly increased first but then decreased with increasing irrigation and S120 achieved the highest WUE. The increase in nitrogen was beneficial to improving the GY and WUE in S60 and S90, while the excessive nitrogen application (N3) significantly reduced the GY and WUE in S120 and S150 compared with those in the N2 treatment. The NPFP significantly decreased with increasing nitrogen rate under the same irrigation treatments. The synchronous increase in spike number (SN) and 1 000-grain weight (TWG) was the main reason for the large increase in GY by micro-sprinkling with increasing irrigation, and the differences in SN and TGW between S120 and S150 were small. Under S60 and S90, the TGW increased with increasing nitrogen application, which enhanced the GY, while N2 achieved the highest TWG in S120 and S150. At the filling stage, the LAI increased with increasing irrigation, and greater amounts of irrigation significantly increased the chlorophyll content in the flag leaf, which was instrumental in increasing DM after anthesis and increasing the TGW. Micro-sprinkling with increased amounts of irrigation or excessive nitrogen application decreased the WUE mainly due to the increase in total water consumption (ET) and the small increase or decrease in GY. Moreover, the increase in irrigation increased the total nitrogen accumulation or contents (TNC) of plants at maturity and reduced the residual nitrate-nitrogen in the soil (SNC), which was conducive to the increase in NPFP, but there was no significant difference in TNC between S120 and S150. Under the same irrigation treatments, an increase in nitrogen application significantly increased the residual SNC and decreased the NPFP. Overall, micro-sprinkling with 120 mm of irrigation and a total nitrogen application of 195 kg ha–1 can lead to increases in GY, WUE and NPFP on the NCP.

Tillage represents an important practice that is used to dynamically regulate soil properties, and affects the grain production process and resource use efficiency of crops. The objectives of this 3-year field study carried out in the Huang-Huai-Hai (HHH) Plain of China were to compare the effects of a new deep vertical rotary tillage (DVRT) with the conventional shallow rotary tillage (CT) on soil properties, winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain yield and water and nitrogen use efficiency at different productivity levels, and to identify a comprehensive management that optimizes both grain yield and resource use efficiency in the HHH Plain. A split-plot design was adopted in field experiments in the winter wheat growing seasons of 2016–2017 (S1), 2017–2018 (S2) and 2018–2019 (S3), with DVRT (conducted once in June 2016) and CT performed in the main plots. Subplots were treated with one of four targeted productivity level treatments (SH, the super high productivity level; HH, the high productivity and high efficiency productivity level; FP, the farmer productivity level; ISP, the inherent soil productivity level). The results showed that the soil bulk density was reduced and the soil water content at the anthesis stage was increased in all three years, which were due to the significant effects of DVRT. Compared with CT, grain yields, partial factor productivity of nitrogen (PFP_N), and water use efficiency (WUE) under DVRT were increased by 22.0, 14.5 and 19.0%. Path analysis and direct correlation decomposition uncovered that grain yield variation of winter wheat was mostly contributed by the spike numbers per area under different tillage modes. General line model analysis revealed that tillage mode played a significant role on grain yield, PFP_N and WUE not only as a single factor, but also along with other factors (year and productivity level) in interaction manners. In addition, PFP_N and WUE were the highest in HH under DVRT in all three growth seasons. These results provided a theoretical basis and technical support for coordinating the high yield with high resource use efficiency of winter wheat in the resource-restricted region in the HHH Plain of China.

Northeast China (NEC) is one of the major maize production areas in China. Agro-climatic resources have obviously changed, which will seriously affect crop growth and development in this region. It is important to investigate the contribution of climate change adaptation measures to the yield and resource use efficiency to improve our understanding of how we can effectively ensure high yield and high efficiency in the future. In this study, we divided the study area into five accumulated temperature zones (ATZs) based on growing degree days (GDD). Based on the meteorological data, maize data (from agro-meteorological stations) and the validated APSIM-Maize Model, we first investigated the spatial distributions and temporal trends of maize potential yield of actual planted cultivars, and revealed the radiation use efficiency (RUE) and heat resource use efficiency (HUE) from 1981 to 2017. Then according to the potential growing seasons and actual growing seasons, we identified the utilization percentages of radiation (P_R) resource and heat resource (P_H) for each ATZ under potential production from 1981 to 2017. Finally, we quantified the contributions of cultivar changings to yield, P_R and P_H of maize. The results showed that during the past 37 years, the estimated mean potential yield of actual planted cultivars was 13 649 kg ha^–1, ranged from 11 205 to 15 257 kg ha^–1, and increased by 140 kg ha^–1 per decade. For potential production, the mean values of RUE and HUE for the actual planted maize cultivars were 1.22 g MJ^–1 and 8.58 kg (°C d)^–1 ha^–1. RUE showed an increasing tendency, while HUE showed a decreasing tendency. The lengths of the potential growing season and actual growing season were 158 and 123 d, and increased by 2 and 1 d per decade. P_R and P_H under potential production were 82 and 86%, respectively and showed a decreasing tendency during the past 37 years. This indicates that actual planted cultivars failed to make full use of climate resources. However, results from the adaptation assessments indicate that, adoption of cultivars with growing season increased by 2–11 d among ATZs caused increase in yield, P_R and P_H of 0.6–1.7%, 1.1–7.6% and 1.5–8.9%, respectively. Therefore, introduction of cultivars with longer growing season can effectively increase the radiation and heat utilization percentages and potential yield.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous non-protein-coding small RNAs that play crucial and versatile regulatory roles in plants.  Using a computational identification method, we identified 55 conserved miRNAs in tea (Camellia sinensis) by aligning miRNA sequences of different plant species with the transcriptome library of tea strain 1005.  We then used quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) to analyze the expression of 31 identified miRNAs in tea leaves of different ages, thereby verifying the existence of these miRNAs and confirming the reliability of the computational identification method.  We predicted which miRNAs were involved in catechin synthesis using psRNAtarget Software based on conserved miRNAs and catechin synthesis pathway-related genes.  Then, we used RNA ligase-mediated rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RLM-RACE) to obtain seven miRNAs cleaving eight catechin synthesis pathway-related genes including chalcone synthase (CHS), chalcone isomerase (CHI), dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR), anthocyanidin reductase (ANR), leucoanthocyanidin reductase (LAR), and flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H).  An expression analysis of miRNAs and target genes revealed that miR529d and miR156g-3p were negatively correlated with their targets CHI and F3H, respectively.  The expression of other miRNAs was not significantly related to their target genes in the catechin synthesis pathway.  The RLM-RACE results suggest that catechin synthesis is regulated by miRNAs that can cleave genes involved in catechin synthesis. 

Granulosa cells (GCs) are somatic cells of ovary, the behaviors of GCs are important for ovarian function.  MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of endogenous 18–24 nucleotide (nt) non-coding RNAs, some of which have been shown to be important regulators of GCs function.  miR-34c involved in the regulation of various biological processes and was identified to be a pro-apoptotic and anti-proliferative factor in many cell types.  However, the roles of miR-34c in GCs function remain unknown.  In this study, we used Annexin V-FITC and EdU assays to demonstrate that miR-34c exerted pro-apoptotic and anti-proliferative effects in porcine GCs.  Dual-luciferase reporter assays, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting identified Forkhead box O3a (FoxO3a) as a direct target gene of miR-34c.  The overexpression of FoxO3a rescued the phenotypic change caused by miR-34c in porcine GCs.  In conclusion, miR-34c regulate the function of porcine GCs by targeting FoxO3a.

    Bovine mastitis caused by Staphylococcus aureus is difficult to treat because of increasing resistance against antibiotics, especially penicillin. β-Lactamase and biofilm are responsible for penicillin resistance of S. aureus. The aim of this study was to investigate the β-lactamase activity and biofilm formation capacity of 37 penicillin-resistant S. aureus strains (35 were blaZ positive and 2 were blaZ negative) from bovine mastitis in Gansu Province, China, as well as to measure the intercellular adhesion genes icaA and icaD of these strains. β-Lactamase Test Kit was used to determine the β-lactamase activity, biofilm formation was tested by semi-quantitative adherence assay method. Moreover, the presence of icaA and icaD were measured by PCR. A total of 32 penicillin-resistant S. aureus strains, including the two blaZ-negative strains, were identified as β-lactamase producers. All tested S. aureus isolates produced biofilm in the microtiter plate assay. Meanwhile, all these strains were PCR-positive for the ica locus, icaA and icaD. The study indicated high prevalence of β-lactamase activity, biofilm-forming capacity, and the ica genes among the penicillin-resistant S. aureus isolates, and implied that S. aureus resistant to penicillin was attributed to multiple mechanisms.

A total of 50 endophytic bacterial isolates were obtained from Kobreasia capillifolia at alpine grasslands in the Eastern Qilian Mountains on the Tibetan Plateau in China.  Based on the sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of 16S rDNA genes, all isolates phylogenetically related closely to Bacillus, Acinetobacter, Stenotrophomonas, Brevundimonas, Arthrobacter, Curtobacterium, Paenibacillus, Plantibacter, Promicromonospora, Serratia, and Microbacterium, among which Bacillus was the predominant genus (47.8% of the total number of endophytic isolates).  These isolates possessed different biological functions.  In 50 endophytic bacteria, 42 isolates produced indole acetic acid (IAA) on King medium.  There were seven isolates showing potency of mineral phosphate solubilization in Pikovaskaia’s (PKO) liquid medium.  Seven isolates exhibited antagonistic effect against Fusarium avenaceum, Colletotrichum coccodes and Phoma foveata.  This was the first report on diversity and plant growth promotion of endophytic bacteria from K. capillifolia on alpine grassland in the Eastern Qilian Mountains, Chain.  It is essential for revealing the relationship among plant, microorganism, and the special environment because the potential function of endophytic bacteria made a contribution to the interactions of plants and endophytic bacteria.

    Pepper (Capsicum spp.) is an important vegetable crop in the world. Now the pepper in China contributes one-third of the world’s peppers production. Genetic diversity of the pepper germplasm of China is expected interesting to know. To explore the structure of genetic diversity in Chinese pepper germplasm resources and possible relationship with cultivar types or geographic origin, we sampled and compared 372 GenBank pepper accessions (local cultivars and landraces) from 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of China and 31 additional accessions from other countries. These accessions were genotyped using 28 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers spanning the entire pepper genome. We then investigated the genetic structure of the sampled collection using model-based analysis in STRUCTURE v2.3.4 and examined genetic relationships by the unweighted pair-group method of mathematical averages (UPGMA) in MEGA. In addition to geographic origin, we evaluated eight plant and fruit traits. In total, 363 alleles were amplified using the 28 SSR primers. Gene diversity, polymorphism information content and heterozygosity of the 28 SSR loci were estimated as 0.09–0.92, 0.08–0.92 and 0.01–0.34, respectively. The UPGMA cluster analysis clearly distinguished Capsicum annuum L. from other cultivated pepper species. Population structure analysis of the 368 C. annuum accessions uncovered three genetic groups which also corresponded to distinct cultivar types with respect to the plant and fruit descriptors. The genetic structure was also related to the geographic origin of the landraces. Overall results indicate that genetic diversity of Chinese pepper landraces were structured by migration of genotypes followed by human selection for cultivar types in agreement with consumption modes and adaptation to the highly diversified agro-climatic conditions.

   MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous 18–24 nucleotide (nt) non-coding RNAs, some of which have been indicated to play key roles in granulosa cells (GCs) function. However, little is known about how the miRNA gene expression itself is regulated in the GCs. Our previous study showed that miR-34c, identified to be a pro-apoptotic and anti-proliferative factor in many cell types, exerted the same effects in porcine GCs. Here, the transcriptional regulation of miR-34c expression in GCs was further investigated. 5´ rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) assay indicated that the pri-miR-34c transcription start site was located in 1 556 bp upstream of pre-miR-34c. With dual-luciferase reporter assay, we confirmed a 69 bp core promoter region (–1 799 bp/–1 730 bp) was indispensable for the transcription of miR-34c. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay demonstrated that p53, p50, and p65 could bind to the transcription factor binding sites within the 69 bp core promoter region. In addition, deletion of transcripition factor binding sites resulted in obvious change of the miR-34c promoter activity. Finally, using overexpression and knockdown of p53, p50, and p65 strategies, we showed that p53 and p50 could positively regulated miR-34c expression, whereas p65 neletively regulated miR-34c expression in GCs. Our results provide new data about the transcription regulatory mechanism of miRNA genes in GCs.