On the Two Successive Supercold Waves Straddling the End of 2020 and the Beginning of 2021

Two supercold waves straddling 2020 and 2021 successively hit China and caused record-breaking extremely low temperatures.In this study,the distinct features of these two supercold waves are analyzed on the medium-range time scale.The blocking pattern from the Kara Sea to Lake Baikal characterized the first cold wave,while the large-scale tilted ridge and trough over the Asian continent featured the second cold wave.Prior to the cold waves,both the northwest and hyperpolar paths of cold air contributed to a zonally extensive cold air accumulation in the key region of Siberia.This might be the primary reason why strong and extensive supercold waves occur even under the Arctic amplification background.The two cold waves straddling 2020 and 2021 exhibited distinct features:(1)the blocking circulation occurred to the north or the east of the Ural Mountains and was not confined only to the Ural Mountains as it was for the earlier cold waves;(2)the collocation of the Asian blocking pattern and the polar vortex deflection towards East Asia preferred the hyperpolar path of cold air accumulation and the subsequent southward outburst;and(3)both high-and low-frequency processes worked in concert,leading to the very intense cold waves.The cold air advance along the northwest path,which coincides with the southeastward intrusion of the Siberian High(SH)front edge,is associated with the high-frequency process,while the cold air movement along the hyperpolar path,which is close to the eastern edge of the SH,is controlled by the low-frequency process.

Exploring the Transcriptome Landscape of Pomegranate Fruit Peel for Natural Product Biosynthetic Gene and SSR Marker Discovery

Pomegranate fruit peel is rich in bioactive plant natural products, such as hydrolyzable tannins and anthocyanins. Despite their documented roles in human nutrition and fruit quality, genes involved in natural product biosynthesis have not been cloned from pomegranate and very little sequence information is available on pomegranate in the public domain. Shotgun transcriptome sequencing of pomegranate fruit peel cDNA was performed using RNA-Seq on the Illumina Genome Analyzer platform. Over 100 million raw sequence reads were obtained and assembled into 9,839 transcriptome assemblies （TAs） （〉200 bp）. Candidate genes for hydrolyzable tannin, anthocyanin, flavonoid, terpenoid and fatty acid biosynthesis and/or regulation were identified. Three lipid transfer proteins were obtained that may contribute to the previously reported IgE reactivity of pomegranate fruit extracts. In addition, 115 SSR markers were identified from the pomegranate fruit peel transcriptome and primers were designed for 77 SSR markers. The pomegranate fruit peel transcriptome set provides a valuable platform for natural product biosynthetic gene and SSR marker discovery in pomegranate. This work also demonstrates that next-generation transcriptome sequencing is an economical and effective approach for investigating natural product biosynthesis, identifying genes controlling important agronomic traits, and discovering molecular markers in non-model specialty crop species.