Effect of protease supplementation on apparent ileal crude protein and amino acid digestibility of over-processed soybean meals in broilersOA

Background: Nutritional value of proteins in feed ingredients can be negatively affected by hydrothermal processing, which causes large variation in the bioavailability of amino acids(AA) and negatively affects animal productive performance. Supplementation of exogenous proteases could increase the rate of digestion of damaged proteins, thereby increasing overall AA digestibility and bioavailability. The aim was to determine the effect of exogenous protease supplementation on the apparent ileal ...     

Hydroxytyrosol 4-beta-D-glucoside,an important phenolic compound in olive fruits and derived products

There is increasing interest in olive polyphenols because of their biological properties as well as their contribution to the color, taste, and shelf life of olive products. However, some of these compounds remain unidentified. It has been shown that hydroxytyrosol 4-beta-D-glucoside (4-beta-D-glucosyl-3-hydroxyphenylethanol) coeluted with hydroxytyrosol [(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)ethanol] under reversed phase conditions in the phenolic chromatograms of olive pulp, vegetation water, and pomace of olive oil processing. A method to separate this compound from hydroxytyrosol by HPLC has been developed. The concentration of this glucoside increased in olive pulp with maturation and could be the main phenolic compound in mature olives. In contrast, the presence of this compound was not detected in olive oil by using HPLC-MS. The compound must be considered both in table olives and olive oil processing because of its glucose and hydroxytyrosol contribution to these products.     

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.     

海南农民稻田生物多样性保护认知评价 及农药使用情况分析

长期以来农药的不合理利用已经引发了环境污染、食品安全等一系列问题、探索减少农药投入的生产 模式、构建稻田生物多样性生态控制病虫害的水稻生产模式已经成为稻田可持续发展的重要手段之一。 为了更好 地开展海南稻田生物多样性保护、发挥稻田生态系统服务功能、有必要系统全面地了解农民对稻田生物多样性保护 认知及农药使用情况、我们在海南北部和南部分别开展了调查。 结果显示、调查区大部分稻农对稻田生物多样性概 念不了解、相关知识掌握较少、且仅有极少数农民接受过相关的多样性种植培训或者指导。 在农药使用上、存在过 量使用、盲目使用和跟风使用等一系列不科学问题、直接导致海南稻田生态系统遭到破坏、种植成本骤增、稻农净收 益降低。 通过分析、就海南水稻生产中的农药使用问题提出了意见和建议。     

Mapping QTLs for Yield Stability in Durum Wheat Grown under Different Water Regimes

Among the most important Mediterranean annual crops, durum wheat is widely grown in drought-prone areas. Therefore, improving water-use efficiency （WUE） of durum wheat represents a major breeding goal. IDu-WUE （Improving Durum wheat for Water Use Efficiency and yield stability through physiological and molecular approaches） is a collaborative project among public and private research centres in Italy, Spain and WANA （West Asia and North Africa） countries （Morocco, Tunisia, Syria and Lebanon） funded by the European Union aimed at investigating the genetic variation for WUE and yield stability in durum wheat grown in Mediterranean droughtprone areas. During the first year of the project, a number of morpho-physiological traits （e.g. early vigour, flowering time, leaf rolling, number of fertile tillers, etc.）, WUE, WUE-related traits （e.g. carbon isotope discrimination, canopy temperature, chlorophyll fluorescence, etc.）, yield and its components have been investigated in a RIL population （249 lines） and a collection of ca. 190 durum wheat accessions characterized by a high level of linkage disequilibrium （Maccaferri et al., 2005）,     

TILLING and Ecotilling the Plant Kingdom

The modem crop scientist has a large amount of available nucleotide sequence information to identify genes of potential agronomic importance. Using reverse genetic approaches, specific genes can be disrupted, and hypotheses regarding gene function directly tested in vivo. Although a number of reverse genetic methods have been introduced, many are limited in application because they are organism-specific, expensive, transgenic, or only transiently disrupt gene function. However, traditional mutagenesis using chemical mutagens has been widely used as a forward genetics strategy to create many new crop plant varieties at relatively low cost. Mutagens such as ethyl methanesulphonate （EMS） cause stable point mutations and thus produce an allelic series of truncation and missense changes that can provide a range of phenotypes （Greene et al., 2003）. TILLING （targeting induced local lesions IN genomes） is a high-throughput reverse genetic strategy that combines traditional mutagenesis and SNP discovery methods （Colbert et al., 2001; McCallum et al., 2000）. To identify mutations, target regions of-l.5 kb are amplified with fluorescently labeled gene specific primers. Heteroduplexes are then formed between wild-type and mutant strands, mismatches are cleaved by incubation with a single-strand specific nuclease,     

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.     

不同温度及化肥绿肥施用比例对果园土壤有机碳矿化的影响

【目的】了解果园土壤有机碳矿化在不同温度下对不同绿肥施用量的响应关系,为构建果园生态系统的碳循环模型提供参数。【方法】采用室内培养模拟试验（培养期85 d）,在10、20、30℃等3个温度条件下,探讨化肥和绿肥不同比例（不施肥、100%氮肥、75%化学氮肥+25%绿肥、50%化学氮肥+50%绿肥、25%化学氮肥+75%绿肥、100%绿肥;各处理氮肥施用水平均为0.15 g N/kg风干土）还园量对果园土壤有机碳矿化特征的影响。【结果】各施肥处理土壤有机碳矿化速率均表现为培养前期保持较高水平,之后快速下降,培养后期保持相对稳定的趋势;土壤有机碳矿化累积排放量为1439.4~4732.8 mg/kg,全绿肥处理土壤CO2累积排放量最大;土壤有机碳矿化速率随温度升高而增长,不同的土壤绿肥还园处理土壤有机碳矿化的温度敏感性（Q10）不同,以不施肥处理土壤有机碳矿化的温度敏感性最低,25%氮肥+75%绿肥处理最高,各处理间差异显著（P＜0.05）。【结论】10~30℃温度条件下,果园土壤有机碳矿化速率表现为培养前期高,之后快速下降,培养后期相对稳定的趋势。不同比例化肥和绿肥施用显著提高了果园土壤有机碳累计矿化量。氮肥、绿肥还田和温度的共同作用可使果园向大气中排放的CO2增加。     

Antiradical Capacity and Induction of Apoptosis on HeLa Cells by a <Emphasis Type="Italic">Phaseolus vulgaris</Emphasis> Extract

Jamapa bean is a black Phaseolus vulgaris variety rich in condensed tannins, anthocyanins and flavonols with interesting biological activities. The objective of this work was to evaluate the antiradical capacity (ARC) of a Jamapa bean methanolic extract (BME) and some of the proanthocyanidin-rich fractions derived from it, using the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The effect of the BME on some proteins involved in apoptosis on HeLa cells was also evaluated. A strong correlation between proanthocyanidin concentration in BME and antiradical capacity was found, suggesting that these compounds contribute significantly to antiradical activity. BME was a better radical scavenger than butylated hydroxytoluene (45.6 and 33.9% ARC at 400 μM, respectively). Two proanthocyanidin-rich fractions obtained after a preliminary separation of the BME using Toyopearl (TP4 and TP6) exhibited a higher antiradical activity than the parent extract. The treatment of HeLa cells with 35 μg BME/ml/24 h increased the expression of Bax and Caspase-3, pro-apoptotic proteins (6.13 and 1.2 times for Caspase-3 and Bax, respectively). The mechanism of action of some proteins involved in apoptosis was also evaluated, and the results suggest that black Jamapa bean could be an important source of polyphenolic compounds with potential biological use as antioxidant and anticancer agents.     

Effects of two iron sources on iron and cadmium allocation in poplar (Populus alba) plants exposed to cadmium

Effects of 10 microM cadmium (supplied as Cd nitrate) on the utilization and allocation of iron (Fe) were investigated in poplar (Populus alba L.) plants grown in nutrient solution with Fe(III)-EDTA or Fe(III)-citrate as the Fe source. The effects of Cd were also compared with those of Fe deprivation. The accumulation of Fe in roots was 10-fold higher in plants grown with Fe-citrate than with Fe-EDTA. Cadmium decreased leaf chlorophyll concentrations and photosynthetic rates, and these decreases were more marked in plants grown with Fe-citrate than with Fe-EDTA. In both Fe treatments, addition of Cd caused large increases in root and shoot apoplasmic and non-apoplasmic Cd contents and increases in root Fe content; however, Cd decreased shoot Fe content, especially in plants grown with Fe-citrate. New leaves of plants grown with Fe-citrate had small cellular (non-apoplasmic) Fe pools, whereas these pools were large in new leaves of plants grown with Fe-EDTA. Non-apoplasmic Cd pools in new leaves were smaller in plants grown with Fe-citrate than with Fe-EDTA, indicating that inactivation of non-apoplasmic Cd pools is facilitated more by Fe-EDTA than by Fe-citrate. In the presence of Cd, Fe-EDTA was also superior to Fe-citrate in maintaining an adequate Fe supply to poplar shoots. Differences in plant responses to Fe-EDTA and Fe-citrate may reflect differences in long-distance transport of Fe rather than in acquisition of Fe by roots.