Optimal design of vegetation in residential district with numerical simulation and field experiment

Vegetation plays a key role in improving wind environment of residential districts,and is helpful for creating a comfortable and beautiful living environment.The optimal design of vegetation for wind environment improvement in winter was investigated by carrying out field experiments in Heqingyuan residential area in Beijing,and after that,numerical simulation with SPOTE(simulation platform for outdoor thermal environment) experiments for outdoor thermal environment of vegetation was adopted for comparison.The conclusions were summarized as follows:1) By comparing the experimental data with simulation results,it could be concluded that the wind field simulated was consistent with the actual wind field,and the flow distribution impacted by vegetation could be accurately reflected;2) The wind velocity with vegetation was lower than that without vegetation,and the wind velocity was reduced by 46%;3) By adjusting arrangement and types of vegetation in the regions with excessively large wind velocity,the pedestrian-level wind velocity could be obviously improved through the simulation and comparison.

Isolation and Functional Analysis of the Regulation of Branching by Isopentenyl Transferase Gene CmIPT1 in <i>Chrysanthemum morifolium </i>cv. ‘Jinba’

Today’s chrysanthemums are highly evolved flowering plants and they are considered as one of the most important ornamental cut flowers. In this research an isopentenyl transferase gene named CmIPT1 was isolated from Chrysanthemum morifolium cv. ‘Jinba’ using RACE and RT-PCR methods. The full cDNA sequence of CmIPT1 was 873 bp which encoded a deduced protein of 290 amino acids. It contained GxxGxGKS which is a conserved sequence of the typical domain of IPT family. The phylogenetic tree analysis of CmIPT1 in Chrysanthemum morifolium cv. ‘Jinba’ shows that it has the closest relationship with CcIPT1 in Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus. Expression of CmIPT1 was higher in stems and apex, whereas it was lower in leaves and roots. And the overexpression of CmIPT1 obviously increased the number of rosette branches in Arabidopsis. Here, in our study, we showed that CmIPT1 is a positive regulator of branch development in Chrysanthemum and may play a key role in regulating lateral branch formation of Chrysanthemum plants.

Spatial Process of Green Infrastructure Changes Associated with Rapid Urbanization in Shenzhen,China

Through a case study of Shenzhen City,China,this study focused on a quantitative method for analyzing the spatial processes involved in green infrastructure changes associated with rapid urbanization.Based on RS,GIS and SPSS statistics software,the approach includes selection of the square analysis units and representative landscape metrics,quantification of the change types of landscape metrics in all analysis units through two indices and hierarchical cluster analysis of the above analysis units with different landscape metric change types(i.e.spatial attributes).The analyses verify that there is a significant sequence of continuous changes in green infrastructure in Shenzhen.They are the perforation,the segmentation,the fragmentation,the evanescence and the filling-in processes,which have a good spatio-temporal correspondence with urbanization and reflect the synthetic influence of urban planning,government policies and landforms.Compared with other studies on quantifying the spatial pattern,this study provides an alternative probe into linking the spatial pattern to spatial processes and the corresponding ecological processes in the future.These spatio-temporal processes offer many opportunities for identifying,protecting and restoring key elements in an urban green infrastructure network for areas in the early stages of urbanization or for non-urbanized areas.

Investigating the Effectiveness of Road-related Mitigation Measures under Semi-controlled Conditions:A Case Study on Asian Amphibians

Road traffic is the main factor causing the decline in amphibian populations worldwide. The proper design of an amphibian tunnel is one of the most efficient measures to mitigate the negative impacts of road traffic on amphibians. However, no study has investigated the effectiveness of amphibian tunnels under semi-controlled conditions in Asian amphibians. Here, we selected two representative amphibian species, the Chinese brown frog, Rana chensinensis, and the Asiatic toad, Bufo gargarizans, which suffer the most severe road mortality along the roads in Northeast China. We placed experimental arrays of culverts of various sizes(diameters of 1.5, 1, and 0.5 m for circular culverts; side lengths of 1.5, 1, and 0.5 m for box culverts), and substrate type(soil, concrete, and metal) to examine the preferences of both species during the migratory season between May and September in 2016 and 2017. The results revealed that the Chinese brown frog preferred mid-and large-sized culverts as well as soil culverts. We concluded that culverts with a side length ≥ 1 m, lined with soil, and accompanied by a ≥ 0.4 m high guide drift fence and ≤ 45° gradient on the roadside ditch wall would best facilitate road crossings for both species and likely for other amphibian species in Northeast China.

Plant Regeneration from In Vitro Cultured Hypocotyl Explants of Euonymus japonicus Cu zhi

Adventitious shoots were successfully regenerated from hypocotyl explants of in vitro cultures of Euonymus japonicus Cu zhi. Hypocotyl slices were cultured on Murashige and Skoog （MS） and B5 basal medium supplemented with varied concentration of different plant growth-regulators, e.g., α-naphthaleneacetic acid （NAA） and indole-3-butyric acid （IBA） in combination with 6-benzylaminopurine （6-BA） and kinetin. The study showed that shoots could be directly regenerated from hypocotyl explants without the intervening callus phase; MS medium was more suitable for adventitious shoots regeneration. The ability of hypocotyls segments to produce shoots varied depending upon their position on the seedlings. The highest regeneration rate was obtained with hypocotyl segments near to the cotyledon cultured on MS basal medium supplemented with 1.5 mg L^-1 6-BA and 0.05 mg L^-1 NAA （63.64%）. The regenerated shoots were readily elongated on the same medium as used for multiplication and rooted on half-strength MS basal medium supplemented with 1.0 mg L^-1 IBA and 100 mg L^-1 activated carbon. After being transferred to greenhouse conditions, 96% of the plantlets were successfully acclimatized. This regeneration system is applied for genetic transformation now.

Antagonism between abscisic acid and gibberellin regulates starch synthesis and corm development in Gladiolus hybridus

Understanding corm development in flower bulbs is of importance for securing the quality of cut flowers and propagation of commercial stocks.Gladiolus is one of the most popular bulb plants worldwide.Its corm development is characterized by starch accumulation.Previous research has shown that phytohormones(especially gibberellin(GA))are involved in tuber development.However,the relationship between abscisic acid(ABA)/GA and starch during corm development remains unclear.To gain deeper insights into the biological process of corm development,we performed a detailed anatomical characterization of different stages of corm development and analyzed phytohormone levels.Our study showed that corm development is linked to hormones(ABA and GA)and carbohydrates(sucrose and starch).Exogenous hormone treatment and silencing of endogenous hormone biosynthesis genes indicated that ABA positively regulates corm development,while GA acts as an antagonist of ABA function.A sucrose synthase gene(GhSUS2)was shown to be involved in the antagonism between ABA and GA.GhSUS2 was upregulated by ABA and downregulated by GA.The increase in the transcript level of GhSUS2 coincided with the development of corm/cormels.Silencing of GhSUS2 repressed corm development and starch accumulation.In conclusion,we propose that GhSUS2,an essential enzyme in sucrose degradation,is differentially regulated by ABA and GA and controls corm development in Gladiolus.

Identification and Functional Analysis of Three MAX2 Orthologs in Chrysanthemum

MORE AXILLARY BRANCHING 2 （MAX2）, initially identified in Arabidopsis thaliana, is a key regulatory gene in strigolactone signal transduction. Three orthologs of MAX2 were cloned from Dendranthema grandiflorum （DgMAX2a, b, and c）. Each of the genes has an open reading frame of 2,049 bp and encodes 682 amino acid proteins. The predicted amino acid sequences of the three DgMAX2s are most closely related to the MAX2 orthologs identified in petunia （PhMAX2A and PhMAX2B）, and display the highest amino acid sequence similarity with PhMAX2A compared to other MAX2s. Expression analysis revealed that DgMAX2s are predominantly expressed in the stem and axillary buds. On a cellular level, we localized the DgMAX2a：：GFP fusion protein to the nucleus in onion epidermal cells, which is consistent with the nuclear localization of MAX2 in Arabidopsis. The chrysanthemum DgMAX2a is able to restore the max2–1 mutant branching to wild-type （WT） Arabidopsis, suggesting that it is a functional MAX2 ortholog. These results suggest that DgMAX2s may be candidate genes for reducing the shoot branching of chrysanthemum.

RoTFL1c of Rosa multiflora has a dual-function in suppressing reproductive growth and promoting vegetative growth of Arabidopsis

Dear Editor, TFL1homologues play a key role in the flowering habit of roses.To analyze the function of the newly isolated TFL1 gene of Rosa multiflora(Chen et al.,2013),named RoTFLlc,we performed overexpression analyses in Arabidopsis thaliana.When compared with empty vector control and wild type Arabidopsis plants,RoTFLlc overexpressing transgenic plants exhibited strong phenotypes such as a clustered habit,an increased number of rosette leaves, late flowering or failure to flower.

A Novel Rice Gene, NRR Responds to Macronutrient Deficiency and Regulates Root Growth

To better understand the response of rice to nutrient stress, we have taken a systematic approach to identify rice genes that respond to deficiency of macronutrients and affect rice growth. We report here the expression and bio- logical functions of a previously uncharacterized rice gene that we have named NRR （nutrition response and root growth）. NRR is alternatively spliced, producing two 5＇-coterminal transcripts, NRRa and NRRb, encoding two proteins of 308 and 223 aa, respectively. Compared to NRRb, NRRa possesses an additional CCT domain at the C-terminus. Expression of NRR in rice seedling roots was significantly influenced by deficiency of macronutrients. Knock-down of expression of NRRa or NRRb by RNA interference resulted in enhanced rice root growth. By contrast, overexpression of NRRa in rice exhibited significantly retarded root growth. These results revealed that both NRRa and NRRb played negative regulatory roles in rice root growth. Our findings suggest that NRRa and NRRb, acting as the key components, modulate the rice root archi- tecture with the availability of macronutrients.

The Rice＇NUTRITION RESPONSE AND ROOT GROWTH＇ （NRR） Gene Regulates Heading Date

Dear Editor, As one of the most important developmental traits, flow-ering time has been extensively investigated in the long-day plant Arabidopsis. Multiple factors are involved, including photoperiod and/or temperature （Amasino, 2010）. Flowering locus T （FT） is known to be an important integrator of dif-ferent flowering pathways （Taoka et al., 2011）. Genes of the CONSTANS （CO） family also play key roles in regulating flow-ering time. The CO protein consists of a zinc finger and a CCT domain shared by a group of plant-specific transcription fac-tors that regulate photoperiodic flowering response and cir-cadian rhythms in Arabidopsis.

Activity Gel Analysis of Endopeptidases in Rose Petals

Poor resolution for the identification of endopeptidase(EP) activity in activity gel assays is a critical issue in the analysis of the postharvest physiology of rose petals. In this paper, major factors influencing EP activity gel assays were evaluated. The results showed that a phosphate(NaH_2PO_4/Na_2HPO_4) buffer favors the detection of clear EP bands, as compared to Tris–HCl buffer. Removal of salts and pigments with Sephadex G-25 columns was vital to the measurement of EP activity in rose petal extracts. For optimal resolution of bands, we show that before electrophoresis,samples should be treated for 10 min at 40 °C. Additionally, electrophoresis should be done in 12% SDS–PAGE co-polymerized with 0.15%(w/v) gelatin. After electrophoresis, the optimal incubation temperature and pH are 42 °C and 7.0, respectively. Using our optimized assay, Rh-EP1,Rh-EP2, Rh-EP3, three proteases with molecular masses of 200, 123.5, and 97.4 kD, respectively, were detected in rose petals. Experiments using EP class-specific inhibitors revealed that Rh-EP2 and Rh-EP3 were both serine proteases, while Rh-EP1 was a metalloprotease. In this study, we also measured changes in EP activity during flower opening, senescence, and water deficit stress(WDS) using our optimized activity gel assay,and found that Rh-EP3 may be more relevant to senescence in roses compared with Rh-EP1 or Rh-EP2. Changes occurring to EPs after WDS were similar to those during the period from flower opening to senescence, and Rh-EP3 activities were greatly increased by WDS treatment. Collectively, our results suggest that significant increases in Rh-EPs activities, especially increases in Rh-EP3 activity, may contribute to the flower senescence induced under WDS treatment.

MRI can reveal metabolic changes in lily bulbs in vivo during dormancy release

The factors influencing dormancy release in lily bulbs strongly affect commercialization success, but the mechanism of dormancy release is still unclear. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can detect changes in morphology and water status in a living plant bulb and aid in investigating release factors. To evaluate whether MRI could be used to detect intra-bulb metabolic changes during the dormant period in Oriental Lilies (Lilium 'Sorbonne'), a series of MRI and sugar concentration measurements were performed weekly on bulbs stored for 11 weeks at 4°C. The image quality of intra-bulb structure obtained using T 1-weighted imaging was superior to that obtained using T 2 -weighted imaging and had a higher signal-to-noise ratio (0.97±0.01). Magnetization transfer ratio values for the bud and basal plate declined during the first eight weeks of cold storage (P>0.05), and were well correlated with concentration of soluble sugar in the bud (R 2 =0.95) and basal plate (R 2 =0.93). Thus, MRI can serve as a valuable tool for observation and analysis of dynamic morphological and metabolic changes in vivo during dormancy release. This information is potentially useful as a guide in the improvement of horticultural product quality.