Preliminary Trial to Establish Artificial Grassland in Tibet, China

Tibet Autonomous Region with an average altitude of more than 4,000 m above sea level, altogether cover an area of 1.22 million km2, equivalent to one-eight of the total area of China. High mountains along with forests and rivers in Tibet consist of an important ecological barrier for protecting parts of inland ecosystems. Tibet is also one of the five major pastoral areas in China. The grassland in Tibet covers 0.83 million km2, but the grass is sparse and low, and with low yield in this area. There are nearly 2.8 million people in this region, while the area of arable land is less than 2.533 thousand km2. Nearly 40.5 million tons of hay are needed for about 45 million sheep units in Tibet (Yu et al., 2010), while the actual amount is less than 20 million tons (including 15 million tons per year from natural grassland, and 2～3 million tons per year from the straw of naked barley). It exacerbating the degradation of natural grassland for the contradiction between livestock and grass. Research shows that the most effective measure to maintain local economic growth, coordinated development of ecological security and curb the further degradation of the grassland in Tibet is by planting high yielding and high quality forage crops, changing the traditional way of free grazing and implementing captive feeding gradually

New Reassortant H5N6 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Viruses in Southern China, 2014

New reassortant H5N6 highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses were isolated from apparently healthy domestic ducks in Southern China in 2014. Our results show that the viruses grew efficiently in eggs and replicated systemically in chickens. They were completely lethal in chicken (100% mortality), and the mean death time (MDT) was 6 to 7 days post-inoculation (DPI). The viruses could transmit in chickens by naïve contact. BLAST analysis revealed that their HA gene was most closely related to A/wild duck/Shangdong/628/2011 (H5N1), and their NA genes were most closely related to A/swine/Guangdong/K6/2010 (H6N6). The other genes had the highest identity with A/wild duck/Fujian/1/2011(H5N1). The results of phylogenetic analysis showed that their HA genes clustered into clade 2.3.4.4 of the H5N1 viruses and all genes derived from H5 were Mix-like or H6-like viruses. Thus, the new H5N6 viruses were reassortanted of H5N1 and H6N6 virus. Therefore, the circulation of the new H5N6 avian influenza viruses may become a threat to poultry and human health

Metabolomic Analysis of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) Root-Symbiotic Rhizobia Responses under Alkali Stress

Alkaline salts (e.g., NaHCO3 and Na2CO3) causes more severe morphological and physiological damage to plants than neutral salts (e.g., NaCl and Na2SO4) due to differences in pH. The mechanism by which plants respond to alkali stress is not fully understood, especially in plants having symbotic relationships such as alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Therefore, a study was designed to evaluate the metabolic response of the root-nodule symbiosis in alfalfa under alkali stress using comparative metabolomics. Rhizobium-nodulized (RI group) and non-nodulized (NI group) alfalfa roots were treated with 200 mmol/L NaHCO3 and, roots samples were analyzed for malondialdehydyde (MDA), proline, glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and peroxidase (POD) content. Additionally, metabolite profiling was conducted using gas chromatography combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC/TOF-MS). Phenotypically, the RI alfalfa exhibited a greater resistance to alkali stress than the NI plants examined. Physiological analysis and metabolic profiling revealed that RI plants accumulated more antioxidants (SOD, POD, GSH), osmolytes (sugar, glycols, proline), organic acids (succinic acid, fumaric acid, and alpha-ketoglutaric acid), and metabolites that are involved in nitrogen fixation. Our pairwise metabolomics comparisons revealed that RI alfalfa plants exhibited a distinct metabolic profile associated with alkali putative tolerance relative to NI alfalfa plants. Data provide new information about the relationship between non-nodulized, rhizobium-nodulized alfalfa and alkali resistance

Evaluation of Hypoglycemic Activity of the Polysaccharides Extracted from Lycium Barbarum

A study was undertaken to evaluate the hypoglycemic activity of polysaccharide extracted from Lycium barbarum (LBP). The various parameters studied included body weight (bw), fasting blood glucose levels (FBG), total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (TG) in diabetic and normal mice. LBP treatment (20, 40 mg/ kg body weight) for 28 days resulted in a significant decrease in the concentration of FBG, TC and TG in diabetes mellitus mice. Furthermore, LBP significantly increased body weight. The data demonstrated LBP at the dose of 40 mg/kg bw exhibited the better effect

Growth and Morphological Responses of Kentucky Bluegrass to Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Soil Water Availabilities

Understanding the effect of water heterogeneity on the growth and water integration of clonal plants is important for scientific water management. In controlled field plots, we conducted a study by creating three different soil water treatments comprising four patches with different soil water supplies using Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) as the materials. The objective was to explore the differences in the growth indices and morphological attributes, and the possible water integration in ‘Arcadia’ Kentucky bluegrass in plots and patches with different soil water availabilities. Soil water deficit resulted in the declined biomass, root/shoot ratio and leaf relative water content of the whole genet, decreased leaf length and height of mother ramet, reduced leaf width and height of daughter ramets, and significant changes in the structures of vascular bundles in rhizomes and leaves. However, the leaf length, leaf width, height and leaf relative water content of daughter ramets in heterogeneous water-poor patches were recovered to the levels in water-rich patches. In addition, the diameter of the vessel in the xylem and percentage of the xylem area in leaf vascular bundles of daughter ramets in the heterogeneous water-poor patch were insignificantly different from those in water-rich patches. These results demonstrated that water integration among interconnected ramets promoted the growth status of daughter ramets in heterogeneous water-poor patches. However, the water translocation in interconnected ramets subjecting to heterogeneous water supplies was not investigated using stable isotope labelling in this study. Thus, the directions and patterns of water translocation among ramets necessitate further research