Long-term application of manures plus chemical fertilizers sustained high rice yield and improved soil chemical and bacterial properties

Compared to the short-term experiment, we have a lack of understanding about the long-term effect of fertilizers on rice yield and paddy soil properties under the conditions of frequent soil disturbance and intensive cropping cultivation. Thus, a 32-year (1984–2015) field experiment was established on a red clay soil (typical Ultisols) near Nanchang, Jiangxi province, China, to assess the effects of inorganic and organic fertilizers on rice yields, soil chemical properties and bacterial communities in early rice-late rice-Astragalus sinicus L. rotation system. Manure applications in combination with different proportions of chemical fertilizer in terms of nitrogen, particularly 70 M + 30CF (70% manure in combination with 30% chemical fertilizer), sustained high rice yields and increased soil OM, 1 N NaOH-hydrolyzed N, Olsen phosphorus, microbial biomass, and bacterial diversity but alleviated soil acidification. The soil receiving MCF had a great number of bacterial operational taxonomic units and high richness indexes. Compositions and abundances of predominant bacteria in soils varied among the fertilizer treatments and all of bacterial communities were dominated by three major phyla (Chloroflexi, Proteobacteria, and Acidobacteria), which were more than 70% of the total sequences in each of the soils examined. Among the top 15 predominant bacteria, seven were commonly found in all studied soils and only 1–2 phylotypes were unique in each soil. A large number of facultative anaerobic and aerobic bacteria, including Thiobacillus thioparus, Bradyrhizobium, and Nitrospira, were present in all studied soil. Therefore, bacterial community compositions can reflect soil processes such as acidification, greenhouse gas emission and nitrogen recycling in response to tillage and fertilizer managements.     

Structure and function of bacterial communities in ageing soils: Insights from the Mendocino ecological staircase

The ecological staircase of Mendocino (California, USA) is characterized by a succession of uplifted marine terraces that are derived from the same mineralogical parent material but have different ages, levels of fertility, and types of vegetation, from grassland in the youngest and most fertile terrace to a pygmy forest in the older terraces. Such conditions present a unique opportunity to determine how the structure, abundance, and function of bacterial communities vary with soil fertility along this natural chronosequence. Pyrosequencing analysis of 16S rRNA gene amplicons revealed that Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes were the most abundantly represented phyla. Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobia were significantly enriched in the grasslands, while the less fertile forested terraces showed higher abundance of Acidobacteria Gp2 and Alphaproteobacteria. The pygmy forest soil harboured significantly more Actinobacteria and OP10 than the non-pygmy forest. Between samples from different terraces, the structure of the bacterial community clearly correlated with soil characteristics. Notably, the number of operational taxonomic units was greater in the fertile terrace, as was the density of culturable bacterial populations. Functional characterization of the soil culturable bacteria from the pygmy and non-pygmy forest terraces revealed that the soil bacteria from the non-pygmy terrace were significantly more effective in solubilizing minerals and more abundant than in the pygmy terrace. Our results provide new information on bacterial community structure as a function of soil age, land cover and fertility, which improve our understanding of soil evolution.     

丛枝菌根真菌最新分类系统与物种多样性研究概况

丛枝菌根真菌(arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi,AMF)是自然界分布最广泛的一类植物共生真菌,能够与大部分高等植物的根系形成共生关系.由于它们在农林、环境等领域的巨大应用潜力,国内外关于AMF物种多样性的研究一直受到较高的关注.然而,AMF专性共生的特征以及研究方法不够理想等因素长期阻碍了AMF物种多样性的研究进展.近年来,研究方法的改进与新技术的应用为AMF物种多样性的研究提供了极好的机遇.简述了AMF的最新分类系统及全球物种数量、AMF物种多样性影响因素以及AMF物种多样性研究方法三个方面的研究进展,并分析了今后在AMF物种多样性相关领域值得关注的研究方向.     

缺刻缘绿藻转录组测序及脂质代谢相关基因注释

为了能深入地了解缺刻缘绿藻花生四烯酸(ArA)和脂质的代谢过程,利用Roche 454 GS FLX测序仪对该藻转录组进行高通量的焦磷酸测序。得到高质量读序(read)382 468条,占原始读序的97.14%,平均每条读序长322 bp,总大小达123 Mb。经CAP3软件拼接得到22 714条重叠群、25 621条singleton。将这些序列与公共数据库进行同源性搜索、比较、基因功能注释和分类。基于转录组中所注释的基因构建缺刻缘绿藻脂质代谢途径:脂肪酸是在叶绿体内从头合成,然后游离脂肪酸进入胞质,由内质网进行三酰甘油的合成,最后可能在油体蛋白作用下形成油滴并储在于细胞中。ArA自油酸是开始经过多个去饱和酶及延长酶的作用而产生的。油酸是由硬脂酰-ACP去饱和酶作用而形成的,而棕榈油酸是在叶绿体的糖脂上被去饱和而产生的。三酰甘油最终被分解成自由脂肪酸和丙酮酸,而长链脂肪酸是以酰基-辅酶A的形式逐级降解的。     

用焦磷酸测序技术研究猪KIT基因的基因型

为了探讨猪KIT基因等位基因的识别及KIT基因和毛色的关系,为实现猪毛色的定向分子育种奠定基础。以皮特兰、棕色杜洛克、白色杜洛克、长白猪、大白猪、B系猪、荣昌猪、盆周山地猪共8个品种(系)98头猪为试验材料,利用焦磷酸测序技术检测了猪KIT基因第17内含子区第一核苷酸处G→A突变的比例,推测了猪在KIT基因座位上的基因型或基因型组合。结果表明,A/A+G呈现明显的品种特征:棕色杜洛克、盆周山地猪、荣昌猪、皮特兰猪KIT基因A/A+G均在20%以下,推测棕色杜洛克和盆周山地猪在KIT基因座位上的基因型为ii,荣昌猪、皮特兰在KIT基因座位上的基因型为ii、IPi和IPIP;白色杜洛克、大白猪、长白猪、B系猪KIT基因A/A+G呈现散在分布,依据理论基因型下A/A+G将其聚类。通过探讨KIT基因和毛色的关系,证实荣昌猪的全白毛色并非受传统的显性白等位基因控制。     

Pineapple–banana rotation reduced the amount of Fusarium oxysporum more than maize–banana rotation mainly through modulating fungal communities

Continuous cropping with banana results in an enrichment of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense race 4 (FOC) in soil, causing the soil-borne disease Fusarium wilt. Crop rotation has been an effective method of controlling various soil-borne diseases. However, no information is currently available concerning variations in soil microbial community structure in banana crop rotations. Thus, the influence of two-year crop rotation systems of pineapple–banana and maize–banana on the population density of FOC and soil microbial community structure was investigated to identify which rotation system is more effective in FOC suppression and differences in microbial community composition among different rotations. Bacterial and fungal communities were interrogated by pyrosequencing of the 16 S RNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. The pineapple–banana rotation was more effective than maize–banana in reducing FOC abundances and suppressing Fusarium wilt disease incidence. Allelopathic effects of pineapple root exudates on FOC were not observed. Greater fungal community variations than bacterial were identified between the two rotation systems, suggesting that fungal communities may play a more important role in regulating FOC abundances. Furthermore, in the pineapple–banana rotation, Acidobacteria, Planctomycetes, Chloroflexi phyla, Gp1, Gp2 and Burkholderia bacterial genera increased while the fungal phyla Basidiomycota, (esp. Gymnopilus) increased and Sordariomycetes decreased. Such changes may be important microbial factors in the decrease in FOC.     

基于焦磷酸测序技术的基因编辑位点检测方法的建立

为探索建立基因编辑农产品的检测方法,本研究以猪MSTN基因定点编辑位点为靶标,通过设计PCR-焦磷酸测序引物、优化测序碱基次序、构建标准曲线等步骤,建立基于焦磷酸测序技术的基因编辑产品定性和定量检测方法。结果表明,该方法能够准确检测出MSTN基因第3外显子的AG缺失位点,具备基因分型定性判定和等位基因频率定量检测的功能,从而准确检测样品是否为MSTN基因编辑猪产品,以及样品基因编辑产品的含量。     

SNP discovery and gene annotation in the surf clam Mesodesma donacium

The main objective of this research was to identify single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from an Expressed Sequences Tags (EST) data set generated by 454 pyrosequencing in the soft clam Mesodesma donacium. A total of 180 159 ESTs were yielded from a M. donacium cDNA library. De novo assembly was performed using stringent calling parameters, producing 10 178 contigs and 41 765 singletons. Here, a total of 2594 SNPs were discovered related to 613 consensus sequences, achieving a frequency of 1 SNPs per 260 bp. SNP variants showed that A/G, A/T and C/T were the most abundant among the identified polymorphisms. We validated a total of 12 SNPs loci by HRMA for annotated genes such as heat shock protein‐70 and the translation elongation factor 1‐alpha. The Gene Ontology analysis regarding molecular function level revealed that sequences with SNPs were mainly classified to protein and nucleotide binding, as well hydrolase activity, ion binding and oxidoreductase activity. Further, biological processes like cellular and metabolic process, biogenesis, localization and biological regulation were highly annotated. The most expressed genes were related to the mitochondrial electron transport chain, senescence‐associated protein, ubiquitin and actin. Interestingly, some relevant genes related to immune response and biomineralization showed a high abundance, such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐alpha‐receptor‐like protein, serine protease inhibitor, heat shock protein, aragonite‐binding protein and ferritin. This study contributes to relevant genes associated with functional polymorphisms and gives an overview for future genetic investigations.     

Impact of dietary fibre:starch ratio in shaping caecal archaea revealed in rabbits

In rabbits, many studies have investigated the effect of diet, including the fibre intake, on caecal microbiota; however, there are no direct measurements of the influence of diets with different dietary fibre‐to‐starch ratios and the archaeal community composition in the caecum. We used 16S rDNA sequencing to investigate the impact of different dietary neutral detergent fibre (NDF)‐to‐starch ratios (1.0–2.3) on the caecal archaeal community in rabbits. The results revealed that the archaeal community from all experimental rabbits was relatively less complex than intestinal bacterial community. High‐throughput 16S rDNA sequencing of the gut archaea indicated that the rabbit caecum was inhabited by Methanobrevibacter and Methanosphaera species, and therefore is possibly dominated by two species of archaea. Here, we compared the effect of different diets on the archaeal community in the rabbit caecum and found no significant differences in the diversity and abundance of caecal archaeal community of rabbits that were fed diets with different dietary fibre‐to‐starch ratios. Therefore, we suggest that the contribution of host‐derived substrates to caecal archaea constitution is insignificant.     

中国北方森林坡向对土壤细菌和从枝菌根真菌群落的影响

The effects of slope aspects on soil biogeochemical properties and plant communities in forested environments have been studied extensively; however, slope aspect influence on soil microbial communities remains largely unexamined, despite the central role of soil biota in ecosystem functioning. In this study, the communities of both soil bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) were investigated using tagged pyrosequencing for three types of slope aspects (south-facing aspect, north-facing aspect and flat area) in a boreal forest of the Greater Khingan Mountains, China. The bacterial and AMF community composition differed with slope aspects. Bacterial diversity was the lowest on the north-facing aspect, and AMF diversity was the lowest on the flat area. Aspects also had a significant impact on soil pH and available phosphorus (P) and shrubby biomass. Soil pH and understory shrub biomass were significantly correlated with bacterial communities, and soil available P and shrub biomass showed significant correlations with AMF communities. Our results suggested that slope aspects affected bacterial and AMF communities, mediated by aspect-induced changes in plant community and soil chemical properties (e.g., pH and available P), which improved the knowledge on the effects of forest slope aspects on aboveground and belowground communities.