Irrigation scheduling of cotton in a climate with uncertain rainfall

Summary An investigation was made of the irrigation requirements of cotton grown in a sub-humid environment with significant but highly variable rainfall. In the first year of the study, no additional yield benefits accrued to subsequent irrigations following a pre-emergent irrigation due to above average rainfall (550 mm) throughout the growing season. In the second year a similar rainfall amount (502 mm) fell but significant yield increases to irrigation resulted due to the uneven distribution of the rainfall. The main effect was associated with later rains which influenced the number of bolls set. The maximum amount of water extracted by cotton from a deep grey cracking clay was 178 mm. It was found that 70% of this amount could be depleted before irrigation without loss of yield. Crop evapotranspiration varied from 607 mm with no irrigation after emergence to 775 mm following three irrigations. Irrigation was associated with significant losses from rainfall runoff. Too frequent irrigation creates a risk that soil will be too wet to permit utilisation of natural rainfall. Therefore, the use of soil water information to maximise the interval between irrigation is proposed as a necessary basis for efficient irrigation management.     

The effect of breed,sex, and oral meloxicam administration on pain biomarkers following hot-iron branding in Hereford and Angus calves

Hot-iron branding uses thermal injury to permanently identify cattle causing painful tissue damage. The primary objective was to examine the physiological and behavioral effects of oral meloxicam (MEL), compared to a control, administered at the time of hot-iron branding in Angus and Hereford steers and heifers. The secondary objectives were to investigate breed and sex effects on pain biomarkers. A total of 70 yearlings, consisting of 35 heifers and 35 steers (Angus, Hereford, or Angus × Hereford), were enrolled in the study. Animals were blocked by sex, randomized across weight, and assigned to receive MEL (1 mg/kg) or a placebo (CON). Biomarkers were assessed for 48 h after branding and included infrared thermography (IRT), mechanical nociceptive threshold (MNT), accelerometry and a visual analog scale (VAS), and serum cortisol and prostaglandin E₂ metabolites (PGEM). Wound healing was assessed for 12 wk. Hair samples to quantify cortisol levels were taken prior to and 30 d post-branding. Responses were analyzed using repeated measures with calf nested in treatment as a random effect, and treatment, time, treatment by time interaction, breed, and sex as fixed effects. There was a treatment by time interaction for PGEM (P < 0.01) with MEL having lower values than CON at 6, 24, and 48 h (MEL: 18.34 ± 3.52, 19.61 ± 3.48, and 22.24 ± 3.48 pg/mL, respectively; CON: 32.57 ± 3.58, 37.00 ± 3.52, and 33.07 ± 3.48 pg/mL; P < 0.01). MEL showed less of a difference in maximum IRT values between the branded (2.27 ± 0.29 °C) and control site (3.15 ± 0.29 °C; P < 0.01). MEL took fewer lying bouts at 0–12 h (4.91 bouts ± 0.56) compared with CON (6.87 bouts ± 0.55; P < 0.01). Compared with Hereford calves, Angus calves exhibited greater serum but lower hair cortisol, greater PGEM, more lying bouts, and less healed wound scores at 3, 4, and 5 wk. Compared with heifers, steers exhibited lower PGEM, lower branding site and ocular IRT, higher MNT, and lower plasma meloxicam levels. Steers spent more time lying, took more lying bouts and had greater VAS pain, and more healed wound scores at 5 wk than heifers. Meloxicam administration at branding reduced branding and control site temperature differences and reduced lying bouts for the first 12 h. Breed and sex effects were observed across many biomarkers. Changes from baseline values for IRT, MNT, lying time, step count, VAS pain, and wound scoring all support that branding cattle is painful.     

Benign mixed Müllerian (duct) vaginal tumor in a 12-y-old goat

In human and veterinary medicine, mixed Müllerian tumors (MMTs) are rarely diagnosed neoplasms of the tubular female genital tract. Although there are case reports of malignant MMTs in various species, benign MMTs have only been described once in a macaque. Here we present a case of benign MMT in a 12-y-old goat, and review the literature on uterine, cervical, and vaginal neoplasia in goats. The doe was presented with vaginal discharge and was euthanized because of the high suspicion of intraabdominal neoplasia. On gross examination, an ulcerated vaginal mass was identified. Histologically, 2 distinct cell populations were present: smooth muscle cells that were well differentiated and positive for alpha–smooth muscle actin, and ciliated columnar epithelial cells that lined ductal structures and had no signs of malignancy. These findings led to the diagnosis of neoplasia of Müllerian origin. Benign MMT should be considered as a differential diagnosis for uterine and vaginal neoplasms in goats.     

Improving Drought Tolerance of Rice by Designed QTL Pyramiding

Drought is the most important factor limiting rice yields in the rainfed areas of Asia. To overcome the problem, we developed a new strategy ＇designed QTL pyramiding＇ to more efficiently develop drought tolerant （DT） rice cultivars. In the first phase of this strategy, we developed large numbers of introgression lines （ILs） in elite backgrounds using backcross （BC） breeding, each of which carries multiple genomic segments for improved DT from a known donor. Then, we genotyped all ILs with SSR markers to track the genomewide pattern of introgression in the DT ILs of 16 BC populations derived from crosses between 2 recipients （IR64 and Teqing） and four different donors. X^2 tests and linkage disequilibrium analyses of introgression in the DT ILs revealed significant frequency shifts at many loci across the genome and non-random associations at the multilocus level as a result of selection for DT in the ILs, which led us to the discovery of putative genetic networks underlying DT in the ILs. The networks each containing all DT loci detected in ILs from a BC population showed some interesting features.     

Cloning and Sequence Analysis of Lipoxygenase Gene cDNA from Cucumber Fruit （Cucumis sativus L.）

Lipoxygenases are nonheme-iron-containing dioxygenases that catalyze the hydroperoxidation of unsatrated fatty acids containing a cis, cis-1,4-pentadiene structure producing hydroperoxy acids with conjugated dienes. LOX activity has been found in a wide range of plants. Typical substrates for LOX in plants are linoleic acid and linilenic acid fatty acids. The function of various LOXs in plants is unknown, but their participation in all stages of plant growth and development has been suggested （Hildebrand, 1989; Siedow, 1991）. Some of the physiological processes in whicn lipoxygenses have been implicated include wounding （Saravitz and Siedow, 1996）, pathogen attack （Melan et al., 1993）, seed germination （Kato et al., 1992）, fruit ripening （Ferrie et al., 1994）, plant senescence （Paliyath and Droillard, 1992）. The study on the role of lipoxygenase in ripening and senescence fruit focused on tomato and strawberry. Cloning LOX gene of cucumber fruit will make us further understand the molecularaction mode of this enzyme during fxuit ripening and senescence. In this paper we isolated the partial nucleotide sequences of cucumber fiuit lipoxygenase gene and discuss the characterization of it.     

Gene Discovery and Characterization from Non-sequenced Medicinal Plants

Plant-derived secondary metabolites still constitute important resources for currently prescribed drugs and for the discovery of active principles which are effective in new indication areas. Promising compounds are often exclusively found in wild medicinal plants and the classical plant-based pharmaceutical production approach has been hampered by low yields, lack of reproducibility and the high complexity of plant extracts （Rischer and Oksman-Caldentey, 2005）. Influencing the accumulation of target compounds by breeding or genetic engineering is greatly impeded because in most cases the general biosynthetic routes are incompletely understood.     

Genetic Diversity of Peanut Core Collection from US Using Simple Sequence Repeats

Groundnut is a member of genus Arachis and the crop is divided into two subspecies and six botanical varieties based on morphological characteristics （Krapovickas and Gregory, 1994）. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics （ICRISAT） holds more than 14 000 groundnut accessions from which a core collection of 1 704 have been developed （Upadhyaya et al., 2003）. Holdbrook et al. （1993） developed a groundnut core collection of 831 accessions from a total of 7 432 US groundnut accessions based on morphological characteristics. The large number and variability of accessions in GenBanks create problems in knowing which germplasm to select for breeding purpose. Only a few established cultivars and elite breeding lines have been utilised in breeding programmes. A core collection is a fraction of accessions from the entire collection which represent most of the available genetic diversity of the species. A core collection can extensively be evaluated and information derived from them can be applied to the whole collection. Identification of DNA markers associated with the botanical varieties of groundnut would be useful in genotyping, germplasm management and evolutionary studies.     

小麦TaPYL8基因的克隆与抗旱功能分析

脱落酸(ABA)信号通路在植物对干旱胁迫的响应中扮演着至关重要的角色;作为ABA受体,PYL家族蛋白在ABA信号转导中发挥核心作用。小麦TaPYL8是PYL家族的成员。为了明确TaPYL8是否参与小麦干旱胁迫响应,本研究分析了TaPYL8的表达模式,创建过表达TaPYL8拟南芥,并探讨了干旱对拟南芥生理生化及胁迫相关基因表达的影响。结果表明,TaPYL8表达量在干旱胁迫、外源ABA及PEG6000处理后上调。干旱胁迫下,过表达TaPYL8增强了拟南芥的存活率,降低了叶片失水率和MDA含量,提高了SOD、POD和CAT等抗氧化酶活性及AtSOD、AtP5CS1、AtABF3等胁迫相关基因的表达量。推测TaPYL8通过促进胁迫相关基因表达增强植物抗旱能力。     

Changes in forest soil organic matter pools after a decade of elevated CO2 and O3

The impact of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) may be mitigated, in part, by enhanced rates of net primary production and greater C storage in plant biomass and soil organic matter (SOM). However, C sequestration in forest soils may be offset by other environmental changes such as increasing tropospheric ozone (O₃) or vary based on species-specific growth responses to elevated CO₂. To understand how projected increases in atmospheric CO₂ and O₃ alter SOM formation, we used physical fractionation to characterize soil C and N at the Rhinelander Free Air CO₂-O₃ Enrichment (FACE) experiment. Tracer amounts of ¹⁵NH₄⁺ were applied to the forest floor of Populus tremuloides, P. tremuloides-Betula papyrifera and P. tremuloides-Acer saccharum communities exposed to factorial CO₂ and O₃ treatments. The ¹⁵N tracer and strongly depleted ¹³C-CO₂ were traced into SOM fractions over four years. Over time, C and N increased in coarse particulate organic matter (cPOM) and decreased in mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) under elevated CO₂ relative to ambient CO₂. As main effects, neither CO₂ nor O₃ significantly altered ¹⁵N recovery in SOM. Elevated CO₂ significantly increased new C in all SOM fractions, and significantly decreased old C in fine POM (fPOM) and MAOM over the duration of our study. Overall, our observations indicate that elevated CO₂ has altered SOM cycling at this site to favor C and N accumulation in less stable pools, with more rapid turnover. Elevated O₃ had the opposite effect, significantly reducing cPOM N by 15% and significantly increasing the C:N ratio by 7%. Our results demonstrate that CO₂ can enhance SOM turnover, potentially limiting long-term C sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems; plant community composition is an important determinant of the magnitude of this response.