Nitrogen management improves lodging resistance and production in maize(Zea mays L.)at a high plant density

Lodging in maize leads to yield losses worldwide.In this study,we determined the effects of traditional and optimized nitrogen management strategies on culm morphological characteristics,culm mechanical strength,lignin content,root growth,lodging percentage and production in maize at a high plant density.We compared a traditional nitrogen(N)application rate of 300 kg ha–1(R)and an optimized N application rate of 225 kg ha^(–1)(O)under four N application modes:50%of N applied at sowing and 50%at the 10th-leaf stage(N1);100%of N applied at sowing(N2);40%of N applied at sowing,40%at the 10th-leaf stage and 20%at tasseling stage(N3);and 30%of N applied at sowing,30%at the 10th-leaf stage,20%at the tasseling stage,and 20%at the silking stage(N4).The optimized N rate(225 kg ha^(–1))significantly reduced internode lengths,plant height,ear height,center of gravity height and lodging percentage.The optimized N rate significantly increased internode diameters,filling degrees,culm mechanical strength,root growth and lignin content.The application of N in four split doses(N4)significantly improved culm morphological characteristics,culm mechanical strength,lignin content,and root growth,while it reduced internode lengths,plant height,ear height,center of gravity height and lodging percentage.Internode diameters,filling degrees,culm mechanical strength,lignin content,number and diameter of brace roots,root volume,root dry weight,bleeding safe and grain yield were significantly negatively correlated with plant height,ear height,center of gravity height,internode lengths and lodging percentage.In conclusion,treatment ON4 significantly reduced the lodging percentage by improving the culm morphological characteristics,culm mechanical strength,lignin content,and root growth,so it improved the production of the maize crop at a high plant density.

Detection of ROS and translocation of ERP-57 in apoptotic induced human neuroblastoma(SH-SY5Y)cells

Several toxic compounds are known to induce apoptosis in mammalian cell lines.The human neuroblastoma cells(SHSH-SY5Y)were exposed to the phosphatase inhibiting toxin okadaic acid(OA)or hydrogen peroxide(H2O2)to induce apoptosis as well as generate reactive oxygen species(ROS).Mitoxantrone(MXT)was used as a positive control for apoptosis.The SHSH-SY5Y cells were transfected with eukaryotic expression plasmid pHyPer-dMito encoding mitochondrial-targeted fluorescent or pHyPer-dCito encoding cytoplasmic-targeted fluorescent sensor for hydrogen peroxide(HyPer).The ERp57,also called GRP58(Glucose-regulated protein 58),is a stress protein induced in conditions like glucose starvation and viral infection.Recently ERp57 was shown to translocate from the endoplasmatic reticulum to the cell surface in anthracycline-induced apoptotic cells.ERp57 co-translocation together with calreticulin has been suggested to be crucial for recognizing tumor cells to induce immunogenic cell death.ERp57 translocation after exposure to okadaic acid was studied using immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy.These studies indicated that okadaic acid has induced the translocation of ERp57 to the cellular membrane.

RNAi-Mediated Resistance to Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV) in Genetically Engineered Tomato

Cucumber mosaic virus is one of the most constraints to the production of tomato and other vegetable crops worldwide. Here, we generated an RNAi construct containing inverted repeat of 1138 bp fragment of a partial replicase gene of CMV-O and used it to produce transgenic tomato plants expressing CMV-specific dsRNA of the replicase gene. Inoculation of transgenic plants with CMV strain O discriminated three categories of plants: plants that showed complete resistance, which were free of symptoms;highly resistant plants, which had mild symptoms, but later recovered because new leaves that emerged were free of symptoms;and susceptible plants, which showed severe symptoms similar to wild-type plants. The completely resistant lines were selected and challenged with a closely related strain, CMV-Y. Interestingly, the transgenic plant lines either remained immune or showed high levels of resistance to the strain. No virus could be detected in uninoculated new leaves of the resistant lines after RT-PCR and Dot immunobinding assay (DIBA) analyses. We could show that the resistance is correlated with post-transcriptional gene silencing because of the production of transgenic specific siRNA.