Polychlorinated biphenyls in alfalfa: Accumulation,sorption and speciation in different plant parts

The accumulation, chemical speciation and distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were investigated in various parts of alfalfa. Moreover, the adsorption characteristics for PCB 28 by alfalfa and the influencing factors of the adsorption characteristics were studied. There were different degrees of PCB accumulation in alfalfa roots, root nodules and shoots. The decreasing order of the accumulation of PCBs in plant tissues was root nodules > roots > shoots, and the decreasing order of the total PCB contents was roots > shoots > root nodules, indicating that the roots were the main sink for PCB accumulation. There were three modes of PCB speciation in alfalfa roots and root nodules, comprising strong sorption (78%) and weak sorption (19%) on tissue surfaces and absorption within tissues (2%). The adsorption isotherms of PCB 28 indicate that the adsorption capacities of root nodules and shoots were both significantly higher than that of the roots. Both lipids and carbohydrates, and especially lipids, affected the PCB adsorption capacities of the tissues. These results may help in the elucidation of the mechanisms of sorption and accumulation of PCBs in the plants and their main influencing factors and thus contribute to the development of phytoremediation technologies for PCB-contaminated soils.     

苹果炭疽叶枯病菌致病力分析及苹果种质抗病性鉴定

苹果炭疽叶枯病是由胶孢炭疽菌(Colletotrichum gloeosporioides)引起的一种真菌病害,现已上升为世界苹果生产中的主要病害之一。了解不同来源的苹果炭疽叶枯病菌致病力差异及明确苹果种质资源对苹果炭疽叶枯病的抗性,对品种选育、品种合理布局以及控制病害的流行具有重要的参考价值。本研究对不同来源的79株病原菌进行了室内致病力测定,获知该菌致病力差异明显,其中强致病力菌株所占比例大。同时,本研究也对327份苹果种质资源进行了室内抗病性鉴定,其中高抗资源160份,中抗资源6份,中感资源22份,高感资源139份。表明我国现保存的苹果种质资源中存在丰富抗病种质。进一步按苹果分类系统分析发现,抗病资源在当前栽培的主要品种群中均有分布,特别是红玉品种群、富士品种群抗病资源最为丰富。     

New aspects of grassland recovery in old‐fields revealed by trait‐based analyses of perennial‐crop‐mediated succession

Classical old‐field succession studies focused on vegetation changes after the abandonment of annual croplands or on succession after the elimination of cultivated crops. Perennial‐crop‐mediated succession, where fields are initially covered by perennial crops, reveals alternative aspects of old‐field succession theories. We tested the validity of classical theories of old‐field succession for perennial‐crop‐mediated succession. We formulated the following hypotheses: (1) functional diversity increases with increasing field age; (2) resource acquisition versus conservation trade‐off shifts toward conservation at community level during the succession; (3) the importance of spatial and temporal seed dispersal decreases during the succession; and (4) competitiveness and stress‐tolerance increases and ruderality decreases at community level during the succession. We studied functional diversity, trait distributions and plant strategies in differently aged old‐fields using chronosequence method. We found increasing functional richness and functional divergence, but also unchanged or decreasing functional evenness. We detected a shift from resource acquisition to resource conservation strategy of communities during the succession. The role of spatial and temporal seed dispersal was found to be important not only at the initial but also at latter successional stages. We found an increasing stress‐tolerance and a decreasing ruderality during succession, while the competitiveness remained unchanged at the community level. Despite the markedly different starting conditions, we found that classical and perennial‐crop‐mediated old‐field successions have some similarities regarding the changes of functional diversity, resource acquisition versus conservation trade‐off, and seed dispersal strategies. However, we revealed also the subsequent differences. The competitive character of communities remained stable during the succession; hence, the initial stages of perennial‐crop‐mediated succession can be similar to the middle stages of classical old‐field succession. Moreover, the occupied functional niche space and differentiation were larger in the older stages, but resources were not effectively utilized within this space, suggesting that the stabilization of the vegetation requires more time.     

苦荞地方种质资源的遗传多样性分析

利用SSR分子标记技术对中国苦荞主产区陕西、云南、四川、西藏等地的82份苦荞地方种质的遗传多样性进行了分析,以揭示中国特有的作物种质--苦荞地方种质资源的遗传多样性,促进苦荞优良品种的选育.结果显示:(1)所用25个SSR引物中有13个引物在苦荞地方品种中具有多态性,且扩增条带的稳定性较好,共扩增出208条条带,其中多态性条带200条,占总数的96.2%;(2)聚类分析结果显示,82份苦荞材料的遗传相似系数(GS)分布于0.52～0.85之间,平均值为0.69,在GS值为0.722的水平上,82份材料被聚为10大类群.研究表明82份苦荞品种间遗传多样性明显,具有丰富的遗传基础.     

蚜虱净对苜蓿田节肢动物群落结构及动态的影响

以物种丰富度(S)、个体数量(N)、香农指数(Shannon’sindex,H′)和均匀度指数(E)作为多样性指标,研究了蚜虱净对苜蓿田节肢动物群落结构和季节动态的影响.结果表明:蚜虱净对天敌亚群落物种数的影响大于害虫亚群落,使总群落和害虫亚群落的优势集中性显著增加,但5月底施药对传粉蜜蜂类亚群落的优势集中性无显著影响.喷药初期,蚜虱净显著降低了蚜虫、蓟马等害虫数量,7d后蚜虫、蓟马等种群数量迅速回升,40d后超过对照;施药初期天敌亚群落的物种数大幅减少,多样性和均匀度指数较低,7d后天敌的物种数逐渐回升,到后期与对照田基本一致,但个体数量一直未恢复至对照水平.     

Sequence analysis and homology modeling of peroxidase from Medicago sativa

Plant peroxidases are one of the most extensively studied group of enzymes which find applications in the environment, health, pharmaceutical, chemical and biotechnological processes. Class III secretary peroxidase from alfalfa (Medicago sativa) has been characterized using bioinformatics approach Physiochemical properties and topology of alfalfa peroxidase were compared with that of soybean and horseradish peroxidase, two most popular commercially available peroxidase preparations. Lower value of instability index as predicted by ProtParam and presence of extra disulphide linkages as predicted by Cys_REC suggested alfalfa peroxidase to be more stable than either of the commercial preparations. Multiple Sequence Alignment (MSA) with other functionally similar proteins revealed the presence of highly conserved catalytic residues. Three dimensional model of alfalfa peroxidase was constructed based on the crystal structure of soybean peroxidase (PDB Id: 1FHF A) by homology modelling approach. The model was checked for stereo chemical quality by PROCHECH, VERIFY 3D, WHAT IF, ERRAT, 3D MATCH AND ProSA servers. The best model was selected, energy minimized and used to analyze structure function relationship with substrate hydrogen peroxide by Autodock 4.0. The enzyme substrate complex was viewed with Swiss PDB viewer and one residue ASP43 was found to stabilize the interaction by hydrogen bonds. The results of the study may be a guiding point for further investigations on alfalfa peroxidase.     

Analysis of the genetic diversity of garlic (Allium sativum L.) germplasm by SRAP

Cluster analysis and principal component analysis were used to investigate the genetic diversity of 40 garlic germplasms analyzed with 23 sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) primer combinations. A total of 130 polymorphic loci were detected among these germplasms, with an average of 5.65 polymorphic loci per SRAP primer combination. The percentage of polymorphic loci was 69.1%, whereas the mean effective number of alleles, the mean Nei's gene diversity, and the mean Shannon's information index were 1.4446, 0.2788, and 0.4365, respectively. Cluster analysis revealed that the 40 germplasms could be divided into 3 groups. The results of principal component analysis were consistent with those of unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) clustering analysis. The Shannon-Weaver information index ranged from 0.2419 to 0.4202, indicating that the garlic germplasms had high genetic diversity.