Impact of soil water content on maize responses to the plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium Azospirillum lipoferum CRT1

Members of the bacterial genus Azospirillum are root-associated bacteria that increase yield in cereals by promoting growth and alleviating drought stress. How plants integrate the many bacterium-derived growth-promoting stimuli with other environmental factors to generate a coordinated response remains unresolved. Using a commercial Azospirillum strain, A. lipoferum CRT1 and two host maize cultivars, it was observed that bacterization reduced the drought-induced increase in lateral root growth and enhanced the flood-induced increase in lateral root growth in the more drought- and flood-sensitive cultivar. In the other one, A. lipoferum CRT1 only elicited a moderate root growth response under low soil water potential. The photosynthetic potential and activity were increased in the earlier cultivar and decreased in the later one, irrespective of the soil water content. No impact of the bacterium was seen on the growth of the leaves of both cultivars under both stresses until the third leaf stage, therefore suggesting that it is a consequence of multiple primary adaptations to biotic and abiotic stresses. It is suggested that host–bacteria recognition leads to a stress-specific modulation of the root response and a differential stress-independent effect on photosynthesis. This is the first report of the impact of Azospirillum under flood conditions.     

4种植物油热氧化同步荧光光谱分析

以亚麻籽油、大豆油、菜籽油与葵花籽油为原料,在不同温度条件下氧化并测定其不同时间的同步荧光光谱,分析同步荧光光谱及荧光物质变化情况。结果表明,4种植物油不同温度下的同步荧光光谱峰变化主要集中在300~415 nm内,且随着加热时间的延长存在波动现象;在50℃和150℃加热氧化条件下,300,330,375,415 nm这4个峰都存在明显的波动现象;二维相关分析表明,这4个峰的荧光强度变化速率不同,不同油变化差异较大;同种油在不同温度下,4个峰的波动情况、相互关系、变化速率均有明显差异。这些峰的变化与油脂氧化过程中荧光物质和油脂氧化程度的变化有关,可以利用同步荧光光谱的变化特性作为监控油脂氧化的依据。     

Impact of weather variables and season on sporulation of Phytophthora pluvialis and Phytophthora kernoviae

Phytophthora pluvialis and Phytophthora kernoviae are the causal agents of important needle diseases on Pinus radiata in New Zealand. Little is known about the epidemiology of the diseases, making the development of control strategies challenging. To investigate the seasonality and climatic drivers of sporulation, inoculum traps, consisting of pine fascicles floating on water in plastic containers, were exchanged fortnightly at five sites in P. radiata plantations between February 2012 and December 2014. Sections of needle baits were plated onto selective media and growth of Phytophthora pluvialis and P. kernoviae recorded. To explore the generalizability of these data, they were compared to detection data for both pathogens from the New Zealand Forest Health Database (NZFHDB). Further, equivalent analyses on infection of Rhododendron ponticum by P. kernoviae in Cornwall, UK allowed the comparison of the epidemiology of P. kernoviae across different host systems and environments. In New Zealand, inoculum of P. pluvialis and P. kernoviae was detected between January–December and March–November, respectively. Inoculum of both species peaked in abundance in late winter. The probability of detecting P. pluvialis and P. kernoviae was greater at lower temperatures, while the probability of detecting P. pluvialis also increased during periods of wet weather. Similar patterns were observed in NZFHDB data. However, the seasonal pattern of infection by P. kernoviae in the UK was the opposite of that seen for sporulation in New Zealand. Phytophthora kernoviae was likely limited by warmer and drier summers in New Zealand, but by colder winter weather in the UK. These results emphasize the importance of considering both environmental drivers and thresholds in improving our understanding of pathogen epidemiology.     

宁夏地区荷斯坦牛乳房性状的遗传参数估计和主成分分析

旨在评估宁夏地区荷斯坦牛乳房性状的遗传水平。本研究使用DMU（v6.0）软件的AI-REML模块结合EM算法并配合多性状动物模型对宁夏地区12 415头荷斯坦牛，包括111 735个观察值的9个乳房性状进行遗传参数估计，运用主成分分析法（PCA）探讨构象性状之间的关系。结果表明，宁夏地区荷斯坦牛乳房性状遗传力处于中等偏低水平，乳房深度遗传力值为0.242，乳房质地为0.080，悬韧带为0.183，前乳房附着为0.230，前乳头位置为0.231，前乳头长度为0.173，后乳房高为0.272，后乳房宽为0.378，后乳头位置为0.169。各性状遗传相关范围为-0.277~0.706，表型相关范围为-0.084~0.316。研究共筛选出特征值≥1的4个主成分，占总方差的64.19%，且9个乳房性状在前3个主成分中已全部体现，荷载系数均在0.4以上。本研究通过对宁夏地区奶牛DHI数据的深入挖掘和遗传参数估计，准确地把握了宁夏奶牛群体的结构特征，对于奶牛的选种选配和育种规划具有重要意义。     

Proteomic profiles during adventitious rooting of Eucalyptus species relevant to the cellulose industry

New Forests - Adventitious rooting (AR) is an obligatory step for vegetative propagation of commercial woody species. Paper industries have interest in Eucalyptus globulus Labill and its hybrids...     

Embodied Resources in Fish and Shrimp Feeds

Global averages were obtained for amounts of energy, land, water, wildfish, nitrogen, and phosphorus embodied in aquaculture feed ingredients. These data allowed amounts of these embodied resources to be calculated for typical feed formulations for channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus; hybrid catfish, I. punctatus♀ × I. furcatus♂; Vietnamese catfish, Pangasius spp.; Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar; rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss; tilapia, Oreochromis spp.; whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei; and black tiger shrimp, Penaeus monodon. Embodied resource use per m.t. of feed varied among species: energy, 4.90–12.48 GJ/m.t.; land, 0.082–0.312 ha/m.t.; water, 502–1227 m³/m.t.; wildfish, 0–2880 kg/m.t.; nitrogen, 3.08–8.63 kg/m.t.; phosphorus, 1.16–5.62 kg/m.t. These calculations did not account for variations in site‐specific factors related to embodied resources and feed composition and use. But they suggest that reducing feed conversion ratio (FCR) by 0.1 unit for the seven species (species groups) could potentially reduce feed use by around 1.1 million tonne (Mt) while conserving 9.8 million GJ of energy, 270,000 ha of agricultural land, 1.4 billion m³ of freshwater, and 1.24 Mt of wildfish. Reduction of the FCR is a powerful means of lessening farm‐level production costs and negative impacts of feed production and use.     

Effects of Feeding Frequency on Apparent Energy and Nutrient Digestibility/Availability of Channel Catfish,Ictalurus punctatus,Reared at Optimal and Suboptimal Temperatures

This study examined the effects of feeding frequency (daily versus every other day [EOD]) on nutrient digestibility/availability of channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, reared at optimal (30 C) and suboptimal (24 C) temperatures. A 28% protein practical diet was used as the test diet, and chromic oxide was used at 0.75% of the diet as a maker. Twenty channel catfish of a mean weight of 141 g/fish were stocked into 12 flow‐through aquaria (110 L). Fish were fed daily or EOD to apparent satiation for 7 d before fecal samples were collected by the dissection method. Fish fed EOD to apparent satiation consumed more diet on days fed than those fed daily, and fish reared at 30 C consumed more diet than those reared at 24 C. Neither feeding frequency nor water temperature significantly affected apparent digestibility coefficients for energy and protein and apparent availability coefficients for total amino acids. Results show no advantage by feeding EOD over feeding daily on nutrient digestibility and diet utilization efficiency.     

Evaluating the Effects of Dietary Prebiotic Mixture of Mannan Oligosaccharide and Poly‐β‐Hydroxybutyrate on the Growth Performance,Immunity, and Survival of Rainbow Trout,Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum 1792), Fingerlings

This study investigated the effects of dietary poly‐β‐hydroxybutyrate (PHB) and mannan oligosaccharide (MOS) on the growth performance, digestive enzyme activities, and disease resistance of rainbow trout fingerlings. A total of 420 fingerlings, distributed equally into four different groups, each with three replicates, were fed a basal diet (control), 2% PHB (PHB), 0.2% MOS (MOS), or a diet supplemented with a mixture of 2% PHB and 0.2% MOS (PHB+MOS) for 60 d. Results showed that dietary PHB and/or MOS did not cause significant improvement in the growth performance of the fingerlings. The gut pH was markedly reduced; however, the activities of the digestive enzymes (except for pepsin and amylase by dietary PHB) were not significantly improved by the dietary supplements. Results also showed that dietary PHB and/or MOS markedly increased the resistance of the fingerlings toward Yersinia ruckeri infection, while the lowest total antibody was observed in fish fed control and MOS, indicating that MOS exerts its protective effects by modulating other mechanisms. Overall, this study provided a first screening effort to determine the effects of PHB and/or MOS as dietary supplements in rainbow trout fingerlings to develop an optimal prebiotic mix for improving the growth and health status of rainbow trout.