Heart disease is a major threat to human health due to the high morbidity and mortality rates. As a result, the discovery of adult zebrafish heart regeneration provides a new perspective for the study and treatment of human heart diseases. This study reviewed the zebrafish heart injury models for heart regeneration, such as apex amputation, cryoinjury, genetic ablation of cardiomyocyte models and so on. In addition, we also explored the essential mechanisms underlying heart regeneration, including the spatiotemporal activation of multiple signaling pathways in different cell types, epigenetic reprogramming, coronary revascularization, activation of key development-related transcription factors, and the disassembly and reassembly of cardiomyocyte sarcomeric structure. Analysis of the mechanism of heart regeneration provides more references basis for therapeutic strategies to overcome heart disease in the future.

The application of ovum pick-up (OPU) and in vitro embryo production (IVP) can significantly improve the reproductive efficiency of cows, which is of great significance for the propagation of superior breeds of dairy cows and beef cattle. In recent years, OPU/IVP technology has spread rapidly around the world and gradually replaced in vivo derived (IVD) technology to be the most wildly used method of embryo transfer. However, the technical system is still in its infancy in China due to the low efficiency and high technical difficulty in operation, which is the main restriction factor for genetic improvement of dairy cows and beef cattle in China. In this paper, we reviewed the current situation of OPU/IVP, the technical progress as well as the prospect of the application of OPU/IVP in the propagation of superior breeds of dairy cows and beef cattle, aiming to provide references for the complement of China’s OPU/IVP technical system and the improvement of efficiency of bovine reproduction, thereby promoting the development of bovine breeding in China.

Soil moisture is a sensitive factor for crop phenological growth, climate and environment changes, and it plays an important role in the land surface water and atmospheric circulation. In this paper, the soil moisture retrieval algorithms based on active microwave remote sensing, passive microwave remote sensing and Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) technology were firstly sorted, including: 1) active microwave remote sensing-based empirical model, semiempirical model, physical scattering model for bare ground surface, and water cloud model (WCM), Michigan microwave canopy scattering (MIMICS) model for vegetation coverage; 2) passive microwave remote sensing-based Q/H, H_p, Q_p roughness models for bare ground surface and \tau-\omega model for vegetation coverage; 3) spaceborne and ground-based GNSS-R soil moisture retrieval algorithms. Secondly, the research and development of soil moisture retrieval from microwave remote sensing in recent decades were reviewed. It was proposed that the key to improve the accuracy of soil moisture retrieval was to quantify accurately the spatial and temporal variability of soil moisture retrieval factors such as vegetation and surface roughness, especially the uncertainty of vegetation growth process and the resulting electromagnetic wave radiation transmission mechanism. Finally, the application outlook of soil moisture in agricultural production and land-surface moisture circulation was prospected, and it was pointed out that the response and feedback mechanism of soil moisture on global scale to climate change would be a research hotspot in the future.

The vegetative insecticidal protein Vip3 produced by Bacillus thuringiensis is a tetramer composed of five domains. Its N-terminal is mainly related to the stability of the structure, while the C-terminal is a potential specific receptor binding region. The Vip3 family of vegetative insecticidal proteins contains 14 holotypes and more than 110 proteins. The proposed mode of action of Vip3 shares some similarities with that of the crystal proteins (Cry proteins), in that both undergo activation (proteolytic processing) in the insect midgut, bind to receptors on the surface of the midgut cells, make pores that lead to cell lysis, and eventually death of the insect. In consideration of different active mechanisms to insects as well as their insecticidal spectrum complementarity, the stack strategy of two kinds of genes (vip3 and cry) has been widely used in development of new insect-resistant transgenic crops worldwide; and Vip3Aa transgenic crops such as maize and cotton have been commercially planted in the United States, Brazil and other countries, in order to delay and manage the Cry protein resistance from some target pests such as Spodoptera frugiperda and others. It has been reported that a high resistance to Vip3 toxins by some insects could be rapidly evolved under the toxin selective press in the laboratory, and also field monitoring to several species has confirmed resistance occurrence of Vip3 in natural environments. Therefore, monitoring and management of target pest resistance are much necessary for industrialization of Vip3 insect-resistant transgenic crops.

In order to explore whether heat shock transcription factor (HSF) known to be involved in plant adaptation to extreme heat stress is also involved in plant thermomorphogenesis at warm temperatures, the result of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, physiological and biochemical, genetic experiments, and effector-reporter assay demonstrated that the heat shock transcription factor HSFB2b was induced by the warm temperature and played an important role in the process of plant thermomorphogenesis. Under the warm temperature (29 ℃), the Arabidopsis mutant hsfb2b exhibited a longer hypocotyl than the wild type, suggesting that HSFB2b functioned as a negative regulator in thermomorphogenesis. Subcellular localization results showed that the HSFB2b protein was localized in the nucleus. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis showed that the heat shock proteins (HSPs) gene, the heat shock transcription factor HSFA2, and the jasmonic acid degradation gene ST2A were up-regulated in the wild type under the warm temperature relative to the normal temperature (22 ℃), but these genes were more up-regulated by the warm temperature in the hsfb2b mutant than that in the wild type. Furthermore, effector-reporter assay demonstrated that HSFB2b could inhibit ST2A expression by binding to the heat shock element (HSE). In conclusion, the heat shock transcription factor HSFB2b induced by the warm temperature played a negative regulatory role in the hypocotyl elongation and negatively regulated the expression of gene ST2A by recognizing the HSE in molecular mechanism, thusnegatively regulated the plant thermomorphogenesis.

In this study, two acylated flavonol tetraglycosides {quercetin-3-O-[(E)-p-coumaroyl-(1→2)][α-L-arabinopyranosyl-(1→3)]-[β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→3)-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)]-β-D-glucopyranoside，F₁；kaempferol-3-O-[(E)-p-coumaroyl-(1→2)]-[α-L-arabinopyranosyl-(1→3)]-[β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→3)-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)]-β-D-glucopyranoside，F₂} were isolated and purified from Camellia sinensis, and the distribution characteristics of F₁ and F₂ in different tissues, leaf positions, and tea cultivars were systematically studied through the independent established high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. The effect of light on the contents of F₁ and F₂, and the dynamic changes in the processing stages of oolong tea were also studied. The results showed that F₁ was mainly distributed in tea leaves and stems, and F₂ was only present in leaves; neither F₁ nor F₂ was detected in the roots. With the increase of leaf maturity, the contents of F₁ and F₂ firstly increased and then decreased. Among the 42 tea cultivars, the contents of F₁ and F₂ ranged from 0-2.31 mg/g and 0-1.56 mg/g, respectively. F₁ had the highest content in ‘Huangjinju’ and was not detected in ‘Benshan’ and ‘Lüyafoshou’ tea cultivars. F₂ had the highest content in ‘Huangjinju’ and was not detected in ‘Lüyafoshou’, ‘Jinmian Qilan’, ‘Zhonghuang No. 2’ and ‘Benshan’. Shading experiments were carried out on three tea cultivars, and it was found that the content of F₁ in the shading treatment group was significantly reduced, indicating that the light plays a significant role in the formation of F₁. The fresh leaves of ‘Fujian Shuixian’ were selected for the processing of oolong tea. The contents of F₁ and F₂ showed downward trends during the whole processing stages, and the largest decline was observed in the process of fixation, while the smallest was in the process of rotation, which shows that different processing operations have different degrees of influences on the contents of two substances.

The Triticeae provides the important cereal crops, such as wheat, barley, and rye, which produces approximately 9×10⁸ t annually, accounting for about 30% of the total global cereal production. However, Triticeae genomes are relatively difficult to be de novo sequenced and assembled due to their large genome size, a high proportion of repeat sequences, and different ploidy levels. With the rapid development of third-generation long read sequencing technologies and assembly algorithms designed for complex genomes, and also the falling cost of genome sequencing in recent years, more and more Triticeae species have been successfully sequenced. In this study, we reviewed the advances on the whole genome sequencing of 17 Triticeae species (including subspecies), including Triticum, Hordeum, Secale, Elytrigia, and Aegilops, in aspects of sequencing technology, assembly strategy and quality, and the major research contents associated with genomes and gene functions. This review may provide the references for sequencing strategies and genomic studies of other more complex plant genomes.

The ability of the rhizosphere micro-ecosystem to resist pathogenic microorganisms declined, induced by different dose-effect relations in the “plant-soil-microbe” system, culminating in yield loss and quality deterioration. This paper reviewed the causes of continuous cropping obstacles of medicinal plants and the strategies to mitigate these obstacles from the perspective of rhizosphere microecology. Then we summarized the existing problems in the field and recommended directions for future research. Continuous cropping leads to changes in the complicated interactions between the medicinal plant’s roots and their exudates, as well as the microbial population and community structure, which in turn leads to the imbalance of the original rhizosphere micro-ecosystem and benefits soil-borne diseases. Therefore, based on the interactions between medicinal plants and the rhizosphere environment, this paper proposed various mitigation strategies, including plant breeding, soil microbial community assembly and so on. These strategies could serve to maintain the balance of the soil ecosystem, and consequently plant health, and ultimately improve the yield and quality of medicinal plants. This study recommended that researchers who worked on the continuous cropping obstacles focused on the interactions and mechanisms among plant-soil-microbe which are mediated by the plant-pathogen competition, to provide guidance for the effective management of continuous cropping control and the healthy development of medicinal plants in the future.

Large yellow croaker(Larimichthys croceus) is a typically marine economical fish in our country, which is very popular with consumers due to its delicious tastes. However, the overfishing resulted in the decreased production of wild large yellow croaker in recent years, and the farmed one was the main way to meet consumers’ demands. Compared with the wild large yellow croaker, some severe problems occurred in the farmed one, such as light skin color, high fat content, and heavy fishy smell, etc. The nutrition regulation may be considered as a safe and effective way to improve the qualities of the farmed large yellow croaker. This review was to present various indicators for fish qualities, including skin color, muscle texture, nutrient components, flavor, etc. Emphasis was placed on a variety of feed additives available to improve fish qualities and the possible influence on related gene expression. This work is expected to guide for developing new feed additives used to improve the qualities of farmed large yellow croaker.

Sensor technology is the foundation of agricultural informatization, and it is one of the core elements and key support to realize agricultural modernization. First, this paper summarizes the current technical status and application of agricultural sensor technology in three areas of intelligent agricultural machinery equipment, agricultural unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based remote sensing, and agricultural internet of things, and conducts an in-depth analysis on the technical demands and market development of agricultural sensor in China. Second, the industrialization, marketization, and future development trends of agricultural sensors were summarized and pointed out through the technical industry analysis. Finally, 16 key technologies in the field of agricultural sensor industry were condensed, and on this basis, a Delphi-based expert questionnaire survey was carried out. The results showed that universality was the most important attribute of agricultural sensors; basic theory and research and development input were the two biggest constraints to the development of agricultural sensor technology. It was proposed that the agricultural sensor technology would develop towards low cost, high stability, high intelligence, portability, and operability in the future. This paper provides a reference for the technical and industrial development of agricultural sensors in China.

With climate change, global temperatures are expected to rise, posing a pervasive and growing threat to biodiversity and ecosystem stability. As ectotherms, insects are completely dependent on environmental temperature to grow, develop, and regulate various physiological functions. Therefore, global warming is likely to have direct or indirect effects on insect individuals, populations, and their associated communities and food webs. However, many studies have suggested that the species at higher trophic levels seem to be more sensitive to changes in environmental factors, meaning that predators and parasitoids may face more severe challenges than their prey or hosts. In this paper, we analyzed the effects of temperature changes on the development, reproduction, predation and parasitism of insect natural enemies based on existing studies, compared the responses of the same species (different natural enemy species) and different trophic level species (natural enemy and its host or prey) to temperature increase, and summarized the synchronicity changes between natural enemies and pests caused by global warming. Understanding the response of insect predators and parasitoids to temperature rise is of great significance for biological control and ecological governance of agricultural pests in a warming climate.

In order to scientifically identify and evaluate the soil heavy metal pollution and ecological risk in the background area with high heavy metal contents, 309 sets of maize and rhizosphere soil samples were collected in Hezhen Town of Hezhang County of Guizhou Province, and 20 maize samples from different parts of roots, stems and leaves were collected. The contents of heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) were analyzed in topsoil and maize samples. Also, speciations of heavy metals in the rhizosphere soil samples were analyzed (Cr was not measured). The results showed that the contents of heavy metals in the soils were relatively high, and the averages were remarkably higher than the national soil background value (NBV), and the content of Cd element was nearly seven times higher than the NBV. The soil was mainly acidic, and the ecological risk was high based on the total amount of heavy metals. Speciation analysis indicated that heavy metals (As, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) mainly existed in the forms of strong organic binding state and residual state, with low bioavailability, and the bioavailability of Cd was high. The ecological risk was mainly caused by Cd based on speciation of heavy metals. In the soil-corn system, the bioconcentration factors and translocation factors were both low, so heavy metals were difficult to be enriched in the corn. The contents of heavy metals in corn seeds did not exceed the standard, and the crops were safe. The above results provide a theoretical basis for further studying the migration and transformation law of heavy metals in rock-soil-gas-biota media, integrating geology, pedology and biology to establish a unified standard, and scientifically evaluating the ecological environment risk and health risk.

Visual inspection of rice leaf blast resistance is time-consuming and labor-intensive with low accuracy. Therefore, this study aims to identify and detect rice leaf blast spots based on RGB imaging of rice canopy combined with mask regions with convolutional neural network (Mask-RCNN), and develop multiple classification models to quantify the number of disease spots and evaluate the association between the number of disease spots and the resistance level by analyzing the quantitative information of different categories of disease spots in RGB images of rice. First, we collected RGB images from different rice breeding lines at the seedling stage, including japonica lines, early indica lines and indica recovery lines. Preprocessing and labeling of the input images were then performed. A Mask-RCNN model for the recognition of rice leaf blast spots was developed to perform the rectangular frame detection, mask segmentation and classification. The classification result of rice leaf blast spots with the mean intersection over union (mIoU) of 0.603 was achieved. The mean average precision (mAP) of the test dataset was 0.716, when the intersection over union (IoU) threshold of 0.5 was used. Among all the classification models, Gaussian process support vector machine obtained the highest prediction accuracy of 94.30% (proportion of disease spots in each category corresponding to different resistances) on the test dataset. The above results demonstrate that RGB images of rice canopy combined with Mask-RCNN have the great potential for the accurate identification of rice leaf blast spots, and the number of detected disease spots is highly correlated with the rice leaf blast resistance level. The proposed method is promising for efficient selection of disease-resistant rice varieties in breeding.

Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) is a devastating invasive pest originating from South America. It has spread rapidly to Europe, Africa, and Asia, and has invaded China in recent years, and now is a highly potential threat to the solanaceous crop industry in China. Due to its characteristics of leaf mining, fruit burrowing, short life history, high reproductivity, etc., its control effect relying on chemical pesticides is limited. Many theoretical studies and application explorations have been carried out for developing the biological control strategies for Tuta absoluta in the world, and a lot of biological control agents with high potential for usage have been screened. In this review, we summarized the research progress on the global biological control of Tuta absoluta, focusing on the parasitic and predatory natural enemy insects, the bio-control microbes, and the repellent plants and their chemical extracts. In the green control of Tuta absoluta in China, in-depth studies could be carried out on the introduction of biocontrol species suitable for the agricultural niche in China, the digging of local biocontrol resources, and the industrialization of these biocontrol organisms; meanwhile, the integrative utilization of these organisms could be promoted via the combined use of them and the ecological regulation of the agricultural landscape, so as to ensure the high-quality development of Chinese solanaceous crop industry.

This experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of drought stress treatments during the grain-filling stage on the malt main qualities of the two barley genotypes, Zheda No. 9 (ZU9) (a cultivar) and XZ166 (a wild Tibetan barley accession), which differed greatly in the drought tolerance and malt quality, and had the similar heading and maturing stages. The results showed that drought stress significantly increased the malt protein and α-amino nitrogen contents, and the Kolbach index, and reduced malt extract rate and viscosity, with ZU9 being more largely affected than XZ166. Drought treatment at the early grain-filling stage (7 d after anthesis) caused much larger changes of all the examined malt qualities in ZU9 than in XZ166, while for the drought treatment at the middle grain-filling stage (14 d after anthesis), the changes of these quality traits were much larger in XZ166 than in ZU9. It may be concluded that drought stress occurred during the grain-filling stage had a great impact on malt quality, which should be addressed in breeding and agronomic management of malt. In the actual production, appropriate varieties should be selected according to the occurrence time of the drought, so as to avoid the drought stress during the critical period of quality formation.

Rice planthoppers, mainly including Nilaparvata lugens, Sogatella furcifera, and Laodelphax striatellus, are one of the most important insect pests of rice in China. In this review, we summarized the latest research progress on the molecular basis of important genetic characteristics (wing-morph differentiation, fecundity, insecticide resistance) of rice planthoppers, interactions among rice, rice planthoppers, natural enemies of rice planthoppers and other organisms, mechanisms underlying rice planthopper outbreak, and management of rice planthoppers. Finally, we suggest that future studies should further dissect the molecular basis of biology and ecology related to rice planthopper outbreak, and find the coordination mechanisms between intensified agriculture and rice ecosystem resistance at the micro level, so as to maintain or improve the rice ecosystem resistance, and achieve sustainable management of rice planthoppers in the context of intensified agriculture.

RNA interference (RNAi) is a highly conserved gene-silencing phenomenon, induced by 20-30 nucleotide (nt) small molecules of non-coding RNA in vivo. Three non-coding RNAs, such as small interfering RNA (siRNA), microRNA (miRNA) and PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA), play important roles in RNAi of eukaryotes including insects. The applications of RNAi in pest control are mainly on the research of gene function, transgenic insect-resistant plants and novel nucleic acid pesticides. Before the applications, the safety risks in terms of non-target effects, target pest resistance and environmental persistence of interfering RNAs need to be strictly evaluated. In this paper, the mechanism of RNAi technology, application and safety of RNAi in agro-forestry pest control are described, which provide some theoretical basis for RNAi technology in pest control.

The effects of Tieguanyin extracts from different fragrance types (Qingxiang, Tgy-Q; Nongxiang, Tgy-N; and Chenxiang, Tgy-C) on the behavior of APP/PS1 double transgenic Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mice were studied, and the mechanisms of oxidative stress and inflammation were analyzed. Forty six-month-old female APP/PS1 mice were equally divided into five groups, which named as model group, donepezil group, Tgy-Q, Tgy-N and Tgy-C groups, and the control group consisted of 10 C57BL/6J mice. The drug was given by oral gavage for 70 consecutive days, and Y-maze test and open field test were performed during administration. At the end of the behavioral study, they were executed, and their plasma and brain tissue were collected, and then the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and malondialdehyde (MDA) content in plasma of mice were determined, and the morphological changes of glial cells were observed by immunohistochemical assay. The spontaneous alternation behavior rates of Tgy-Q, Tgy-N, Tgy-C extract treatments in the Y-maze experiment of mice groups were increased by 17.3%, 17.6% and 19.8% compared with the model group, respectively (P＜0.001), and the learning and memory abilities of mice in each group were significantly improved as compared with the model group. The results of open field test showed that the movement distances and residence time in the central area of mice fed with Tieguanyin extracts were significantly increased. The effective movement distances in the central area of mice was increased by 93.0% in the Tgy-C group (P＜0.001), followed by 82.0% in the Tgy-N group (P＜0.001) and 49.2% in the Tgy-Q group (P＜0.001). The optimal retention time in the central area of mice was 105.0% in the Tgy-C group (P＜0.01), followed by 84.1% in the Tgy-N group (P＜0.01), and 66.8% in the Tgy-Q group (P＜0.05). In the open field test, the spatial exploration ability and anxiety behavior of Tgy-C group were the best in all the treatments. In this experiment, oxidative stress levels of three Tieguanyin treatments were decreased, which are the main mechanisms of Tieguanyin against Alzheimer’s disease of APP/PS1 mice. Compared with the model group, the MDA contents of plasma in the Tgy-Q, Tgy-N, Tgy-C treatments were significantly reduced by 18.44%, 12.97% and 15.11%, respectively, and the SOD activities in the three groups were increased by 15.31%, 13.69% and 18.80%, respectively. Tieguanyin extracts also improved the morphological recovery of microglia and astrocytes in the brain of AD mice. The above research results indicate that three Tieguanyin extracts had a certain alleviating or protective effect on AD mice.

Lipid is one of the four major biochemical molecules, and it plays important roles in many life processes. Lipid peroxidation (LPO) is commonly used to measure the effect of environmental pollutants or contamination factors on biochemistry processes. In this review, we summarized different kinds of pollutants or contamination factors that have been reported to induce LPO, including metals or metalloids, nanophase materials with different chemical properties, organic pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and pesticides, as well as environmental physical and chemical stress factors such as ozone, heat wave and radiation. Lipid peroxidation can occur in cells of different evolutionary classes of species, including bacteria, fungi, plants and animals. Most pollutants or contamination factors induce LPO through producing reactive oxidative species or inhibiting anti-oxidation systems. Therefore, this reaction is one of the important indicators of oxidative stresses caused by environmental pollutants. The LPO indexes are influenced by exposure time and doses, organism differences, and the balance between oxidation and anti-oxidation systems. In the future, we should be able to better understand the roles of lipids in the biochemical reaction to environmental pollution by using multi-omics technology and new measurements about lipid composition and membrane function.

To improve the degradation efficiency of cellulose distributed in livestock, poultry wastes and garden wastes, a high-efficiency cellulose-degrading fungus which was from bamboo shavings, dead branches, and rotted leaves, and sheep dung was screened with Congo red staining, filter paper disintegration test and the endoglucanase [carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC)] activity was tested. The physiological and molecular identification of the strain was carried out. The results showed that a high-efficiency cellulose-degrading fungus was screened in this study, which was identified as Trichoderma longibrachiatum by morphological observation and fungus species identification, and named as T. longibrachiatum ZJ-10. Single factor test showed that the conditions for achieving the maximum enzyme production activity showed as follows: 3% inoculation, initial pH 6.5, rotation speed of 160 r/min, 40 ℃, and cultured for 5 d. According to Plackett-Burman experimental design, Box-Benhnken steepest climbing path method and response surface methodology, the optimal enzyme production medium formula was 5 g/L NaCl, 7 g/L peptone, and 12 g/L CMC-Na. Under the optimal conditions, the CMC enzyme activity of strain ZJ-10 could reach 80.32 U/mL, which was 26.45% higher than that of the former optimization. In conclusion, strain of T. longibrachiatum ZJ-10 with strong CMC enzyme activity was screened in this study, which provides a good strain resource for the utilization of livestock, poultry and garden waste resources.