Mapping QTL of Fiber Yield and Quality Traits in F2 Populations of Chromosome Segment Substitution Lines from Gossypium hirsutum × Gossypium barbadense

In this study, F₂ populations from two chromosome segment substitution lines MBI7455 and MBI7358, were quantified using SSR to evaluate the parents' genotype and detect QTL related to fiber quality plus yield traits of cotton. Results show that the recurrent parent (CCRI45) hosted 96.70% and 95.60% of chromosome segment substitution in MBI7455 with 12 chromosome segments and in MBI7358 with 16 chromosome substitution segments of Gossypium barbadense, respectively. In the F₂ population, the average rate of chromosome substitution of the recurrent parent (CCRI45) was 96.44%, and the average segments of chromosome substitution of Gossypium barbadense was 13.42, with an average segments of homozygous donor chromosome value of 3.90. Analysis showed 19 fiber quality-related QTL with a phenotypic variance of between 2.52%-13.11% and seven yield traits-related QTL with a range of 2.93%-11.40% phenotypic variance, resulting in a total of 26 QTL. The CSSLs could be used to detect QTL for fiber yield and quality traits, which offer an important foundation for the cotton molecular-assisted breeding.     

棉花陆海染色体片段代换系BC_7F_2群体纤维产量和品质性状表现及相关分析

为了揭示棉花染色体片段代换系BC_7F_2纤维产量性状和品质性状之间的相关关系,筛选纤维品质优异的新材料。以1套陆海染色体片断代换系为材料,对BC7F2高代回交群体的产量性状与纤维品质性状的表性数据进行评价及偏相关分析。结果表明:群体各性状的平均值接近于轮回亲本‘中棉所36’,群体内存在丰富的遗传变异。纤维上半部平均长度超轮回亲本比例为30.25%,断裂比强度超轮回亲本比例为71.25%,衣分超轮回亲本比例为29.38%。总体上单铃重与马克隆值、整齐度指数呈极显著正相关,衣分与上半部平均长度、断裂比强度呈显著负相关,与单铃重呈极显著负相关。从中筛选出部分纤维品质突出的单株,纤维上半部平均长度高于30.00 mm,断裂比强度高于31.00 cN/tex。     

水稻紫鞘染色体片段代换系Z519的鉴定及PSH1候选基因分析

花青素是广受人们喜爱的植物色素,在食品加工、杂种纯度鉴定中具有重要的作用。本研究鉴定了一个以日本晴为受体、优良紫鞘恢复系R225为供体亲本的紫鞘水稻染色体片段代换系Z519。Z519共含有16个代换片段,分布于除第10染色体外的其他11条染色体,平均长度为6.85 Mb。Z519在芽鞘3 mm时鞘尖呈现紫色,其后在叶鞘、叶缘、茎维管束和柱头等部位出现紫色线条,而日本晴各部位均为绿色。Z519叶鞘中花青素含量极显著高于日本晴,剑叶中没有显著差异。与受体日本晴相比,Z519的株高显著降低,千粒重、主穗总粒数和实粒数显著增加,有效穗数、主穗长和结实率无显著差异。进一步以日本晴与Z519杂交产生的F1和F2群体对紫鞘基因进行了遗传分析和分子定位。该紫鞘表型受显性单基因控制,位于第1染色体In Del标记L03和SSR标记L01之间37.8 kb的区域,被命名为PSH1。对该区间进行候选基因预测和测序,Z519在一个编码质体ATP/ADP转运蛋白的LOC_Os01g45910基因第一外显子的第238~252碱基的GTG重复区又多插入了GTG 3个碱基,导致增加了一个甘氨酸。q RT-PCR结果进一步表明其表达量在Z519中明显降低,初步确定LOC_Os01g45910是PSH1的候选基因。该研究为PSH1调控花青素的分子机制奠定了良好基础。     

Effects of forage type and gibberellic acid on nitrate leaching losses

Nitrogen (N) leaching from soil into water is a significant concern for intensively grazed forage‐based systems because it can cause a decline in water quality and is a risk to human health. Urine patches from grazing animals are the main source of this N. The objective of this study was to quantify the effect that forage type and gibberellic acid (GA) application had on N leaching and herbage N uptake from urine patches on perennial ryegrass–white clover (RGWC), Italian ryegrass and lucerne. A lysimeter study was conducted over 17 months to measure herbage growth, N uptake and N loss to water beneath each of the three forage types with the following treatments: control, urine (700 kg N/ha) and urine with GA (8 g GA active ingredient/ha). Compared with RGWC (205 kg N/ha), N leaching losses were 35.3% lower from Italian ryegrass (133 kg N/ha) and 98.5% higher from lucerne (407 kg N/ha). These differences in leaching loss are likely to be due to winter plant growth and N uptake. During the winter months, Italian ryegrass had higher N uptake, whereas lucerne had lower N uptake, compared with RGWC. The application of GA had no effect on N leaching losses, DM yield or N uptake of forage treated with 700 kg N/ha urine.     

紫色土光谱特征及其碱解氮的预测研究

文章分析探索了应用可见近红外光谱技术快速、高效、便捷测定土壤营养参数的可能性。采集蓬莱镇组紫色土样本，比对分析了不同肥力水平、土壤厚度和土壤粒径条件下采集土壤光谱对可见近红外光谱特征的影响，筛选出不同厚度、粒径土壤条件下的碱解氮含量预测模型。研究结果表明，土壤样本厚度为30mm时具有最大的光谱反射率，建立的氮含量预测模型效果最佳，校正集和验证集的相关系数分别为0.84和0.83，均方根误差分别为1.79和1.87。土样粒径在0.25-0.85mm时氮含量的预测效果最佳，校正集和验证集的相关系数均超过0.8，且均方根误差较小；但当土样粒径<0.25mm时，氮含量预测模型效果明显下降。采用20目（<0.85mm）过筛、30mm厚度土壤样本采集可见近红外光谱和偏最小二乘法（PLS）模型预测，可以实现对蓬莱镇组紫色土碱解氮含量的较好光谱预测。     

水稻高产、优质和氮高效协同的氮素调控研究

以超级粳稻‘新稻18号’为试验材料,大田条件下,研究不同施氮量(0、232.5、255.0、277.5、300.0、322.5和345.0kg/hm2纯氮水平)对水稻产量、品质及氮肥吸收利用效率的影响,以明确高产、优质和氮高效协同的适宜氮素水平。结果表明,随氮素水平提高,水稻产量、稻米品质和氮肥吸收利用效率均呈先增后降趋势。施氮量为255.0kg/hm2纯氮处理下,产量最高为9 878.11kg/hm2,稻米的糙米率、精米率和整精米率较高,分别为84.81%、72.85%和66.94%,垩白粒率和垩白度较低,分别10.00%和2.86%,氮肥吸收利用效率较高,为41.34%。低氮肥和高氮肥处理,产量、品质和氮肥利用效率相对较低。说明,在适宜的氮肥水平下,水稻高产、优质和氮高效可达到协同一致。     

Nitrogen use efficiency of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) as influenced by wheat–cotton cropping systems

Wheat–cotton rotations largely increase crop yield and improve resources use efficiency, such as the radiation use efficiency. However, little information is available on the nitrogen (N) utilization and requirement of cotton under wheat–cotton rotations. This study was to determine the N uptake and use efficiency by evaluating the cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) N use and the soil N balances, which will help to improve N resource management in wheat–cotton rotations. Field experiments were conducted during 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 growing seasons in the Yangtze River region in China. Two cotton cultivars (Siza 3, mid-late maturity with 130 days growth duration; CCRI 50, early maturity with 110 days growth duration) were planted under four cropping systems including monoculture cotton (MC), wheat/intercropped cotton (W/IC), wheat/transplanted cotton (W/TC) and wheat/direct-seeded cotton (W/DC). The N uptake and use efficiency of cotton were quantified under different cropping systems. The results showed that wheat–cotton rotations decreased the cotton N uptake through reducing the N accumulation rate and shortening the duration of fast N accumulation phase as compared to the monoculture cotton. Compared with MC, the N uptake of IC, TC and DC were decreased by 12.0%, 20.5% and 23.4% for Siza 3, respectively, and 7.3%, 10.7% and 17.6% for CCRI 50, respectively. Wheat–cotton rotations had a lower N harvest index as a consequence of the weaker sink capacity in the cotton plant caused by the delayed fruiting and boll formation. Wheat–cotton rotations used N inefficiently relative to the monoculture cotton, showing consistently lower level of the N agronomic use efficiency (NAE), N apparent recovery efficiency (NRE), N physiological efficiency (NPE) and N partial factor productivity (NPFP), particularly for DC. Relative to the mid–late maturity cultivar of Siza 3, the early maturity cultivar of CCRI 50 had higher N use efficiency in wheat–cotton rotations. An analysis of the crop N balance suggested that the high N excess in preceding wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in wheat–cotton rotations led to significantly higher N surpluses than the monoculture cotton. The N management for the cotton in wheat–cotton rotations should be improved by means of reducing the base fertilizer input and increasing the bloom application.     

Achieving legislation requirements with different nitrogen fertilization strategies: Results from a long term experiment

The Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC, Anonymous, 1991) was developed in Europe to limit environmental threats from intensive livestock farming and N fertilizer applications to crops. It imposed several rules on farmers and public bodies, one of which was nutrient fertilization plan adoption. Here we use results from the Tetto Frati (Northern Italy) Long-Term Experiment to verify the terms and coefficients in the official Italian guidelines and evaluate the limitations imposed to organic fertilization amounts. For this purpose, we mined long-term experimental data of crop yield, N uptake, N use efficiency, and soil organic matter content from miscellanea cropping systems fertilized with farmyard manure (FYM) and bovine slurry (SLU), typical of a dairy farm in Northern Italy. N fertilization efficiency indicators (Removal to Fertilizer ratio, Apparent Recovery and Nitrogen Fertilizer Replacement Value) indicated that in the long run, FYM behaved similarly to urea, and better than SLU. Even N supply rates as high as 250 kg N ha⁻¹ were justified by high rates of crop removal. In fact, among the terms of the mass-balance equation, SOM mineralization was found to be most relevant, followed by meadow rotation residual effects. We conclude that a revised Nitrates Directives application scheme could be more relaxed in its application limit of manure-N, but should be more ambitious in setting efficiency coefficients for manure fertilization.     

Level and Timing of Nitrogen Fertilizer Application to Early and Semi-early Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) Grown with Irrigation on Light Soils in Norway

Trials were performed with early and semi-early potatoes to test the effects of nitrogen (N) fertilizer level (0-160 kg N ha^-1) and timing (all at planting versus half then and half either soon after emergence or 3 weeks later). All seven trials with earlies were irrigated as required, whilst different irrigation regimes (moderate versus intensive) were compared in two trials with semi-earlies. No benefit was derived from splitting the N application. Haulm growth and N uptake increased in all cases almost linearly up to the highest N level, but tuber yield did not respond in the same way. The optimum N level was 80 kg N ha^-1 for a yield of 15 Mg ha^-1, rising to 120 kg N ha^-1 for a yield of 40 Mg ha^-1. Tuber quality was lowered by the use of excess N fertilizer, particularly in the case of earlies. The quantity of mineralised N present in the soil after harvest rose sharply with above optimum fertilizer use, and the amount of N present in crop residues also increased. The likely leaching after early potatoes was estimated to be up to 80 kg N ha^-1. The proportion of fertilizer N which was not accounted for in either tuber yield, crop residues or mineral N in soil was 26% in earlies and 38% in semi-earlies.     

An experimental study of charcoal degradation in a boreal forest

Degradation rates of pyrogenic carbon (PyC) under natural environmental conditions are largely unknown. Here we present results from a field experiment monitoring the change in mass, C- and N concentrations of a variety of charcoal types in a Norwegian boreal forest over a period of 20 months. The charcoal types represent different feedstock tree species, production temperature regimes, and placements in the forest, i.e. above ground, in the humus layer or in contact with the mineral subsoil. The types of charcoal had different initial C concentrations mainly depending on their production temperature. Nevertheless, all types of charcoal at all placements in the forest showed an initial drop in their C concentrations, which subsequently rose back to reach near initial values in part of the charcoal types. In part of the charcoal types, N concentrations decreased throughout the experiment, exhibiting considerable variation among feedstock species, production temperature regime, and placements in the forest. C/N ratios rose especially in charcoal made from wood of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), and charcoal that had been stored in contact with the mineral subsoil showed the most rapid mass gain. Our results confirm the important influence of production temperature and feedstock type on the degradation of charcoal, but they also show that microbial activity and environmental conditions play significant roles in charcoal degradation and thus for the fate of pyrogenic carbon under natural conditions.