Enhancing Grassland Productivity through Disease Management of Grass and Forage Species

The total area of grassland in China is about 400 million hectares, accounting for 41.7% of the country’s land area, which plays important role in ecological construction and food security assurance of the national. However, diseases of grass and forage limited the development of the pastoral agriculture. There are more than1500 new diseases were reported in the past 16 years with more and more new diseases were discovered. The damage to grassland is becoming more severe with the known diseases prevalent areas expanding

Metabolic changes of glycerophospholipids during the reparative phase after myocardial infarction injury

IntroductionMyocardial infarction (MI) is a fatal manifestation of coronary heart disease, and its underlying mechanism is still largely unknown. Lipid levels and composition alterations predict the risk of MI complications. Glycerophospholipids (GPLs) are important bioactive lipids and play a crucial role in the development of cardiovascular diseases. However, the metabolic changes in the GPLs profile during post-MI injury remain unknown.MethodsIn the current study, we constructed a classic MI model by ligating the left anterior descending branch and assessed the alterations in both plasma and myocardial GPLs profiles during the reparative phase post-MI by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry analysis.ResultsWe found that myocardial GPLs, but not plasma GPLs, were markedly changed after MI injury. Importantly, MI injury is associated with decreased phosphatidylserine (PS) levels. Consistently, the expression of phosphatidylserine synthase 1 (PSS1), which catalyzes the formation of PS from its substrate phosphatidylcholine, was significantly reduced in heart tissues after MI injury. Furthermore, oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) inhibited PSS1 expression and reduced PS levels in primary neonatal rat cardiomyocytes, while overexpression of PSS1 restored the inhibition of PSS1 and the reduction in PS levels caused by OGD. Moreover, overexpression of PSS1 abrogated, whereas knockdown of PSS1 aggravated, OGD-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis.ConclusionsOur findings revealed that GPLs metabolism was involved in the reparative phase post-MI, and cardiac decreased PS levels, resulting from inhibition of PSS1, are important contributor to the reparative phase post-MI. PSS1 overexpression represents a promising therapeutic strategy to attenuate MI injury

The nutrition-based comprehensive intervention study on childhood obesity in China (NISCOC): a randomised cluster controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Childhood obesity and its related metabolic and psychological abnormalities are becoming serious health problems in China. Effective, feasible and practical interventions should be developed in order to prevent the childhood obesity and its related early onset of clinical cardiovascular diseases. The objective of this paper is to describe the design of a multi-centred random controlled school-based clinical intervention for childhood obesity in China. The secondary objective is to compare the cost-effectiveness of the comprehensive intervention strategy with two other interventions, one only focuses on nutrition education, the other only focuses on physical activity.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>The study is designed as a multi-centred randomised controlled trial, which included 6 centres located in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shandong province, Heilongjiang province and Guangdong province. Both nutrition education (special developed carton style nutrition education handbook) and physical activity intervention (Happy 10 program) will be applied in all intervention schools of 5 cities except Beijing. In Beijing, nutrition education intervention will be applied in 3 schools and physical activity intervention among another 3 schools. A total of 9750 primary students (grade 1 to grade 5, aged 7-13 years) will participate in baseline and intervention measurements, including weight, height, waist circumference, body composition (bioelectrical impendence device), physical fitness, 3 days dietary record, physical activity questionnaire, blood pressure, plasma glucose and plasma lipid profiles. Data concerning investments will be collected in our study, including costs in staff training, intervention materials, teachers and school input and supervising related expenditure.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Present study is the first and biggest multi-center comprehensive childhood obesity intervention study in China. Should the study produce comprehensive results, the intervention strategies would justify a national school-based program to prevent childhood obesity in China.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>Chinese clinical trial registry (Primary registry in the WHO registry network) Identifier: ChiCTR-TRC-00000402</p

Luobuma Leaf Spot Disease Caused by <i>Alternaria tenuissima</i> in China

Luobuma (Apocynum venetum and Poacynum hendersonni) is widely cultivated for environmental conservation, medicinal purposes and the textile industry. In 2018, a severe leaf spot disease that attacked the leaves of Luobuma was observed in plants cultivated in Yuzhong County, Gansu Province, China. Symptoms of the disease appeared as white or off-white spots surrounded by brown margins on the leaves of A. venetum. The spots expanded and covered a large area of the leaf, presenting as “cankers” with progression of the disease, leading to leaf death. The initial symptoms of the disease on P. hendersonni were similar to the symptoms of A. venetum, with a larger disease spot than A. venetum, and the spot was black and thicker. The aim of this study was to identify the fungal species and evaluate the effectiveness of fungicides (hymexazol and zhongshengmycin) against the pathogen in vitro. The fungi species that caused the new disease was identified as Alternaria tenuissima based on the morphological characteristics, pathogenicity tests, and phylogenetic analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gpd), translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF) and the histone 3 (H3) gene sequences. The findings showed that hymexazol fungicide can be used to control leaf spot disease. This is the first report on Luobuma leaf spot disease caused by A. tenuissima in China

Tracking Key Industrial Sectors for CO2 Mitigation through the Driving Effects: An Attribution Analysis

The heavy pressure to improve CO2 emission control in industry requires the identification of key sub-sectors and the clarification of how they mitigate CO2 emissions through various actions. Focusing on 30 Chinese provincial regions, this study quantifies the contribution of each industrial sector to regional CO2 mitigation by combining the logarithmic mean Divisia index with attribution analysis and extract the key sectors of CO2 mitigation for each region. Results indicate that during 2010&ndash;2019, significant emission reduction was achieved through energy intensity (74%) in Beijing, while emission reductions were attained through industrial structure changes for Anhui (50%), Henan (45%), and Chongqing (45%). The contribution to emission reduction through energy structures is not significant. The production and supply of power and heat (PSPH) is a central factor in CO2 mitigation through all three inhibitive factors. Petroleum processing and coking (PPC) generally contributes to emission reduction through energy structures, while the smelting and pressing of ferrous metals (SPMF) through changes in industrial structures and energy intensity. PSPH and SPMF, in most regions, have not achieved the emission peak. Except in the case of coal mining and dressing (CMD), CO2 emissions in other key sectors have almost been decoupled from industrial development. CMD effectively promotes CO2 mitigation in Anhui, Henan, and Hunan, with larger contribution of PPC in Tianjin, Xinjiang, Heilongjiang, and that of smelting and pressing of nonferrous metals in Yunnan and Guangxi. The findings help to better identify key sectors across regions that can mitigate CO2 emissions, while analyzing the critical emission characteristics of these sectors, which can provide references to formulating region- and sector-specific CO2 mitigation measures for regions at different levels of development

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus Alters Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) Defense Enzyme Activities and Volatile Organic Compound Contents in Response to Pea Aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) Infestation

Pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) infestation leads to withering, reduced yield, and lower quality of the host plant. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi have been found to enhance their host plants&rsquo; nutrient uptake, growth, and resistance to biotic stresses, including pathogen infection and insect pest infestation. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of AM fungus Rhizophagus intraradices on alfalfa defense responses to pea aphid infestation. Aphid infestation did not affect the colonization of AM fungus. The inoculation of AM fungus, on average, enhanced alfalfa catalase and the contents of salicylic acid and trypsin inhibitor by 101, 9.05, and 7.89% compared with non-mycorrhizal alfalfa, respectively. In addition, polyphenol oxidase activities significantly increased by six-fold after aphid infestation in mycorrhizal alfalfa. Moreover, the fungus significantly (p &lt; 0.05) improved alfalfa shoot N content, net photosynthetic and transpiration rates, and shoot dry weight in aphid infected treatment. The aphid infestation changed the total volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in alfalfa, while AM fungus enhanced the contents of methyl salicylate (MeSA). The co-expression network analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed VOCs analysis showed that three DEGs, namely MS.gene23894, MS.gene003889, and MS.gene012415, positively correlated with MeSA both in aphid and AM fungus groups. In conclusion, AM fungus increased alfalfa&rsquo;s growth, defense enzyme activities, hormones, and VOCs content and up-regulated VOC-related genes to enhance the alfalfa&rsquo;s resistance following aphid infestation

Mother phubbing and harsh mothering: Mothers' irritability and adolescents' gender as moderators

Background: While extant evidence supports the link between mother phubbing (Mphubbing) and harsh mothering, the current understanding of factors that may affect this relationship is limited. Methods: Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the relation between Mphubbing and harsh mothering, as well as to explore whether mothers' irritability and adolescents' gender would moderate this relationship. The participants included 482 middle school students (51.7 % girls) and their mothers from China. Results: The results revealed a significant positive association between Mphubbing as reported by adolescents and their perception of harsh mothering. However, the predictive power of Mphubbing for harsh mothering varied based on mothers' irritability and adolescents' gender. Specifically, the association between Mphubbing and harsh mothering was perceived more strongly in girls than in boys, but this gender difference was only observed among adolescents whose mothers rated themselves as high in irritability. Conclusions: The current study offers a preliminary understanding of the association between Mphubbing and harsh mothering through mothers' irritability and adolescents' gender as moderators, which has certain theoretical and practical implications for comprehending harsh mothering in the digital age

A Cysteine-Reloading Process Initiating the Biosynthesis of the Bicyclic Scaffold of Dithiolopyrrolones

Dithiolopyrrolone antibiotics are well known for their outstanding biological activities, and their biosynthesis has been studied vigorously. However, the biosynthesis mechanism of the characteristic bicyclic scaffold is still unknown after years of research. To uncover this mechanism, a multi-domain non-ribosomal peptide synthase DtpB from the biosynthetic gene cluster of thiolutin was selected as an object to study. We discovered that its adenylation domain not only recognized and adenylated cysteine, but also played an essential role in the formation of the peptide bond. Notably, an eight-membered ring compound was also discovered as an intermediate during the formation of the bicyclic structure. Based on these findings, we propose a new mechanism for the biosynthesis of the bicyclic scaffold of dithiolopyrrolones, and unveil additional functions of the adenylation domain

Effects of Epichloë endophyte on antioxidant enzymes activities, photosynthesis and growth of three ecotypes of Elymus dahuricus

Fungal endophytes of some cultivated grasses can increase plant performance and competitive abilities, especially under stress. Far less is known about the influence of Epichlo&#235; infections in wild populations of wild grasses. In this study, plants of three Elymus dahuricus ecotypes (WLS, QY and WTS) either infected with Epichlo&#235; endophyte (E+) or uninfected (E&#8211;) were grown in the field. The activities of the antioxidant enzymes ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, peroxidase and superoxide dismutase, and concentrations of H2O2 and malondialdehyde were examined in the leaves of E+ and E&#8211; plants. We also determined photosynthesis parameters, leaf blade and sheath carbohydrate concentration and plant growth parameters of both E+ and E&#8211; plants. E+ plants from the WLS and QY populations had significantly higher antioxidant enzyme activities and photosynthetic capability (P&lt;0.05), superior growth characteristics including more abundant carbohydrate concentration than E&#8211; plants. In contrast, in plants from the WTS population, the endophyte had no significant effect on reactive oxygen species scavenging capability and growth performance (P&gt;0.05), and even displayed some negative effects on plant photosynthetic capability. Thus, endophyte infection significantly affected E. dahuricus antioxidant enzyme activities (P&lt;0.05), photosynthesis and growth capability, although, the effects varied with plant ecotypes