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.

Soil moisture is a key factor that restricts plant growth. Coal mining subsidence causes cracks on the ground, coupled with the reduction of groundwater level, which further reduces the already low soil moisture content in arid and semi-arid areas. When the soil moisture content is lower than the drought stress threshold of plants, it will inevitably affect plant physiology and ecology. This article first analyzed the impact of coal mining subsidence on the water environment, and then summarized the potential changes of plant physiological and ecological indicators when the soil moisture content was less than the plant drought stress threshold, including leaf and root morphologies, photosynthetic physiological indicators, osmotic adjustment substances, water physiological indicators, antioxidant enzyme activities, and components and contents of drought-resistant proteins. In the future, it should strengthen the monitoring of the coordinated changes in soil moisture and plant physiology and ecology in the arid and semi-arid areas, and strive to reveal the response mechanism of plant physiology and ecology to soil moisture changes caused by coal mining subsidence, as well as strengthening the research on the prediction model of the impact of coal mining on vegetation physiology and ecology in arid and semi-arid areas.

To explore the mechanism of seven factors (Jdp2-Jhdm1b-Mkk6-Glis1-Nanog-Esrrb-Sall4)-induced somatic cell reprogramming, we analyzed the related role of homeobox C8 (Hoxc8) in the process of pluripotency network reconstruction through forward and reverse genetics, quantitative analysis of the classic reprogramming process, and simultaneous knockdown of Hoxc8 and SMAD family member 6 (Smad6). The results showed that knockdown of Hoxc8 could significantly inhibit seven factors-induced somatic cell reprogramming, but overexpression of Hoxc8 had no effects. Furthermore, knockdown of Hoxc8 neither impeded the up-regulation of pluripotency marker genes and down-regulation of somatic cell marker genes nor impeded the expressions of mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) marker genes and cell proliferation marker genes. It was also found that simultaneous knockdown of Hoxc8 and Smad6 could rescue the inhibitory effects caused by knocking down Hoxc8 alone. In conclusion, these results suggest that Hoxc8 plays a pivotal role in somatic cell reprogramming, which provides a reference for further revealing the mechanism of Hoxc8 regulating cell fate transition.

In order to screen the optimal combination of functional fertilizers for increasing yield and improving quality in the production of substrate-grown cherry tomatoes, cherry tomato ‘Fragrant Feminine 9’ was used as the material, and seven different combinations of functional fertilizers were set up, including blank control (CK), amino acid (T₁), potassium xanthate (T₂), alginate (T₃), amino acid+potassium xanthate (T₄), amino acid+alginate (T₅), and potassium xanthate+alginate (T₆). The functional fertilizers and nutrient solution were applied by drip irrigation to study the effects of different functional fertilizers on quality, yield and substrate environment of substrate-grown cherry tomatoes. The results showed that compared with CK, the addition of alginate (T₃) obviously increased the net photosynthetic rate, intercellular CO₂ concentration and yield of cherry tomatoes by 39.97%, 6.61% and 22.32%, respectively. The combination of T₄ and T₅ functional fertilizers not only significantly increased microbial quantities, and the activities of urease, sucrase, alkaline phosphatase and catalase in the substrate, but also significantly improved the quality and yield of cherry tomatoes, with a yield increase by 20.16% and 12.84%, respectively. It was found that the T₅ treatment performed the best by comprehensive evaluation. In conclusion, the substrate environment can be improved, and the fruit quality and yield can be increased by adding 50 mg/L amino acids and 5 mg/L alginate in the nutrient solution to cultivate cherry tomatoes using drip irrigation.

To further explore the biological roles of MoRei1in the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, we carried out MoREI1 gene deletion, phenotypic analysis of ΔMorei1 mutants, gene complementation and identification of its interaction proteins. The results showed that the ΔMorei1 mutants were defective in sexual reproduction, appressorium formation and pathogenicity. Deletion of MoREI1 led to significant increase of sensitivity to cell wall damaging and oxidative stress agents, and delay of glycogen mobilization and degradation during appressorium development. Moreover, the MoREI1 gene could partially complement the defects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Δrei1 mutants, indicating that MoRei1 is a functional homolog of yeast Rei1, and may share a similar role in ribosome biogenesis. MoRei1 physically interacts with MoAlb1, a predicted nuclear export factor. Interestingly, deletion of MoREI1 resulted in the impairment of nuclear localization of MoAlb1. These results lay a foundation to clarify the roles of MoRei1 in fungal morphogenesis and pathogenicity in M. oryzae.

Xylanase inhibitor protein (XIP) is considered to participate in plant defense. OsXIP was found to be a stress-responsive gene of Nilaparvata lugens (St?l) in the previous study. The transcription factor OsbHLH59 could be combined with the promoter of OsXIP in response to brown planthopper (BPH) treatment. In order to study whether OsbHLH59 was involved in regulating the expression of OsXIP and mediating rice resistance to BPH, OsbHLH59 overexpression transgenic lines were obtained by transgenic methods, and OsbHLH59 mutant lineswere obtained by using CRISPR/Cas9 system. The results showed that the expression levels of xylanase inhibitor OsXIP enhanced accompanied with the increased overexpression level of transcription factor gene OsbHLH59. Through the determination of agronomic traits, it was found that the growth of OsbHLH59 overexpression lines and OsXIP overexpression lines was less affected by the BPH treatment compared with wild type (WT). When WT plants and transgenic plants were exposed to BPH, the feeding preference of BPH in OsbHLH59 overexpression and OsXIP overexpression lines reduced compared with that of WT. With the BPH treatment, higher expression levels of defense-related genes were found in OsbHLH59 overexpression and OsXIP overexpression lines. In addition, compared with WT, OsbHLH59 overexpression and OsXIP overexpression lines had stronger abilities to remove excess H₂O₂ and higher antioxidant enzyme activities. This study reveals that OsbHLH59 can activate the expression of OsXIP, and OsXIP participates in rice resistance to BPH.

In order to measure the tea lipid contents in different types of tea and to analyze the tea lipid compositions, twenty tea samples such as Xihulongjing, Jiuquhongmei, Baihaoyinzhen, etc., were used as materials to analyze the lipid contents through acid hydrolysis method and Soxhlet extraction method. The results showed that the tea lipid contents tested with Soxhlet extraction method were lower than the tea lipid contents tested with acid hydrolysis method. As for the tea lipid contents, they were changed due to tea materials and processing technologies. The tea lipid contents roughly showed as follows: green tea (non-fermented tea)＞yellow tea (lightly fermented tea)＞oolong tea (semi-fermented tea)＞black tea (completely fermented tea)＞white tea (lightly fermented tea)＞dark tea (post-fermented tea). Further study on the lipid content of white tea was analyzed, and it was found that the tea lipid content of Shoumei was higher than that of Baihaoyinzhen or Bai peony, and with the increase of storage years, the tea lipid content in white tea decreased; tea lipids were composed of phospholipids, lipoproteins and free fatty acids according to the qualitative analysis results. This study provides a theoretical and practical basis for the determination of tea lipids.

This paper studied the effects of different seedling quality traits of Sedum plumbizincicola on the removal rate of cadmium (Cd). By the methods of correlation analysis, principal component analysis and clustering analysis, it was found that seedling quality had a great impact on Cd removal efficiency and remediation cost, and stem diameter, branch number, seedling height and Cd content were the important indexes to determine the quality of seedlings. The shoot Cd uptake of the Ⅰ or Ⅱ grade seedling with stem diameter≥5.0 mm, branch number per plant≥2, seedling height≥6.0 cm and seedling Cd content≤5 mg/kg, was more than 200 g/hm² after 90 d of planting. The remediation efficiencies of the Ⅰ and Ⅱ grade seedlings were over 3.4 times higher than the Ⅳ grade seedling (stem diameter＜4.0 mm, branch number per plant of 0-1, seedling height＜6.0 cm, seedling Cd content≤5 mg/kg), and using Ⅰ and Ⅱ grade seedlings could effectively save labor cost, and reduce or avoid herbicide application. A case of large-area heavy metal contaminated soil remediation was carried out to test this quality classification standard for S. plumbizincicola seedlings, and it was found that the shoot Cd uptake of the Ⅰ or Ⅱ grade seedling was 222.35 g/hm² after 120 d of planting, and the remediation effect could reach or even higher than that of 6-8 months in previous experiments. In summary, the high-quality S. plumbizincicola seedlings is an important basis for improving remediation efficiency and reducing remediation cost. This study clarifies the quality traits and remediation efficiencies of different grades of seedlings. This standard for grading S. plumbizincicola seedlings is helpful to promote the standardization and mechanization of remediating heavy metal contaminated soil with this plant.

To explore the effects of seabuckthorn fruit residue on soil physicochemical properties, greenhouse gas (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O) emissions, and the microbial numbers, a 28-day soil pot experiment was conducted. Three groups of materials were used, including seabuckthorn fruit residue (R), biochar (B), and biological ceramsite (T) in the experiment, and a natural culture was used as the control group (CK). The results showed that the seabuckthorn fruit residue significantly promoted the contents of soil nutrients such as total carbon, total nitrogen, and available potassium, and the average increase rates were 16.31%, 14.99%, and 46.15%, respectively. Besides, the soil pH was also enhanced from 0.25 to 0.69. The microbial numbers in the soils treated with seabuckthorn fruit residue were promoted significantly. The average growth rate of microorganisms in the first 14 days was 335.6% higher than that of the control. The CO₂ emissions and global warming potential (GWP) with the treatment of seabuckthorn fruit residue were higher of biochar (R) treatment, while the CH₄ and N₂O emissions were both lower than those of biochar (B) and biological ceramsite (T) treatments. In general, the seabuckthorn fruit residue showed relatively high returning value, but its risk of greenhouse gas emission should also be considered. This study can provide some references for the practice of returning seabuckthorn fruit residue into the field.

Mulberry sclerotial disease is a devastating disease in mulberry production. In order to understand the existent situation of pathogens and their microecology in the soil of the mulberry field, we collected the soil samples from mulberry fields in four plots of different regions in Zhejiang Province [namely Deqing County (DQ), Changxing County (CX), Jinhua Duohu Residential District (JD) and Jiangdong Town (JJ)]. Among them, CX mulberries were cultivated in greenhouse, and the others were cultivated in open field. The experiment took one plot in Sichuan Province as a control (CK), which was rarely or never found the sclerotial disease. Then, we identified the soil fungi and bacteria through high-throughput sequencing of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and 16S rRNA. The results showed that the relative abundance (RA) of genus Ciboria in the mulberry fields of DQ, JJ and JD were 28.84%, 60.17%, and 70.15%, respectively. No diseased fruit of mulberry sclerotinia was found in CX and CK fields, and the relative abundance of Ciboria was 0.02% and 0.06?, respectively. The main microorganisms in CX field were Mortierella, Chaetomium, and Humicola, with the relative abundance of 36.46%, 21.59%, and 15.93%, respectively; the main microorganisms in CK field were Penicillium, Fusarium, and Fusicolla, and their relative abundances were 24.05%, 15.35%, and 9.75%, respectively. Among the bacteria, Pseudomonas was the only genus identified in all five field samples, and the highest relative abundance of Pseudomonas was found in the JJ field (but only 6.81%), highlighting a rich bacterial diversity. Collectively, the relative abundance of the genus Ciboria and the diversity of fungi and bacteria reveal the complex relationship between the relative abundance of Ciboria and the soil microecology in mulberry fields. It also further implies the possibility of preventing and controlling mulberry sclerotial disease by changing the soil microecological structure.

It has been widely reported that elevated carbon dioxide concentration (eCO₂) affects soil nitrogen cycling dramatically, in which nitrification plays an important role in net primary productivity and greenhouse gas emission. However, the general patterns of soil nitrification and ammonia oxidizers in response to eCO₂ remain uncertain. Here we performed a global meta-analysis to explore the effects of eCO₂ on soil nitrification in agroecosystems and underlying microbial mechanisms. Our results showed that eCO₂ significantly increased potential nitrification rate (PNR), nitrous oxide (N₂O) emission and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) abundance. Climates, experimental conditions, soil properties and agricultural practices were important factors in regulating the responses of soil nitrification to eCO₂. The responses of nitrification potential were positively correlated with AOB abundance, while no evidence was found for ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) abundance. The eCO₂ response of AOB abundance was more closely related to the responses of soil nitrification than a wide range of environmental and experimental factors, as well as management practices. Furthermore, various effects of eCO₂ on AOB abundance were determined by soil type and CO₂ increase magnitude. Collectively, our results suggest that eCO₂ strengthens soil nitrification by increasing AOB populations in agroecosystems.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of Zn-L-selenomethionine (Zn-L-SeMet) on lactation performance and metabolic status of dairy cows at peak lactation period. Sixty multiparous Chinese Holstein dairy cows at peak lactation were selected. The cows were divided into 15 blocks with four cows in each block based on the similarity principles of the lactation time, body mass, parity and milk yield. The four cows in the same block were randomly assigned to four treatments: the control group (fed with basal diet, without supplementing Zn-L-SeMet), and Zn-L-SeMet supplementation groups (supplementing Zn-L-SeMet with 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 mg/kg Se, respectively, which was calculated in dry matter mass). The prefeeding period was two weeks, and the experiment lasted for 12 weeks. The results showed that: 1) the energy corrected milk, milk, milk fat, milk protein, milk lactose yields and feed efficiency of dairy cows increased linearly (P0.01) as the supplementation of Zn-L-SeMet increased; 2) the milk fat and lactose contents, and Se concentration in milk were improved linearly or quadratically, and the milk protein content was decreased linearly (P0.05) by administrating increasing amount of Zn-L-SeMet; 3) the activities of glutathione peroxidase and catalase in plasma were improved linearly or quadratically (P0.05) and malondialdehyde content in plasma was decreased linearly or quadratically (P0.01) with the increase of Zn-L-SeMet supplementation. The above results demonstrate that dietary supplementation of Zn-L-SeMet can effectively improve the performance and antioxidant capacity of dairy cows during the peak lactation. It is suggested that Se from Zn-L-SeMet can be effectively used by lactating cows, and Zn-L-SeMet is an effective dietary Se source.

In this study, we analyzed the main chemical components of matcha made from four tea cultivars, established a high-fat diet-induced C57BL/6J obese mouse model, and selected ‘Maolü’ matcha as an experimental dietary supplement with three doses of 0.1%, 0.5% and 1.0%. The results showed that matcha could reduce body mass gain, blood glucose level rise and liver lipid accumulation induced by the high-fat diet without affecting food intake, and the effect was concentration-dependent. Furthermore, we detected the liver function, oxidative stress level and inflammatory response in mice, and the results showed that dietary supplementation of 1.0% matcha significantly inhibited the abnormal increase of activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) induced by a high-fat diet in liver, and increased the activity of antioxidant enzyme. The expression levels of inflammatory factors, Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and MyD88 were also significantly reduced. In conclusion, matcha effectively improves obesity-related fatty liver lesions and inflammation, and its potential mechanism is to inhibit the activation of the TLR4/MyD88 signaling pathway.

The shape information of leaves from 39 tobacco varieties was extracted by using landmark method. The differences in leaf shapes were compared and analyzed among different varieties and different leaf positions at different growth stages. Principal component analysis was used to reduce the dimensionality of the data. The sources of differences were visualized among different leaf shapes. Decision tree, random forest and support vector machine were used to perform discriminant analysis on tobacco leaf shapes. The results of the principal component analysis showed that the first three principal components accounted for 42.7%, 21.3% and 10.7% of the total differences in tobacco leaves at the flowering stage, which were characterized by leaf width and the maximum width position, leaf torsion, and petiole size, respectively. The discriminant results of tobacco leaf shape based on machine learning showed that the discriminant accuracy based on landmark data was 52%-62%, while the value was 51%-54% for common leaf shape indicators. The discriminant accuracy on superior or medial leaves was about 10% higher than that of inferior leaves, representing more obvious characteristics of variety. Due to the growth of the leaves, the discriminant accuracy of the leaves at rosette stage was nearly 10% lower than flowering stage. The discriminant accuracy of landmark method increased to 77% after removing 12 atypical varieties. The effect of the landmark method on leaf shape information extraction is better than the common leaf shape indicators, which provides a new idea for the automated extraction of leaf shape information.