Zeaxanthin is a carotenoid pigment, which was named from maize where it was first extracted. Because it couldn’t be synthesized by human, and it was obtained only from daily dietary food, and could not only protect eyes, but also played an important role in the prevention of aged-related macular degeneration (AMD, the leading cause of blindness), cataract, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and so on, people paid more attention to zeaxanthin in crops. In this study, the properties and source of zeaxanthin, its physiological functions and its biosynthesis pathway were summarized according to new progress. Moreover, its extraction, measurement methods and application in food industry were also reviewed. In addition, studies on zeaxanthin-rich crops were discussed.

Maize is one of the most important grain crops in the world. Improving the kernel quality of maize is a highly concerned problem in the field of maize breeding worldwide. The traditional and conventional breeding methods have the limitations of long breeding time and low transformation rate, so the most economical and effective way to solve this problem is to use molecular marker assisted selection breeding. In order to provide reference for molecular design and breeding of maize quality traits in the future, this study summarized relevant research progress of QTL mapping, molecular marker assisted improvement, candidate gene cloning and transgenic technology application of maize kernel quality traits at home and abroad. Based on the review, the study points out that the utilization of high-quality gene resources in maize is not sufficient, and the application of existing molecular marker technology in maize breeding is not extensive enough. In the future, breeding methods and quality identification techniques should be improved to shorten the breeding cycle of maize.

In field production, new maize varieties with U.S. germplasm such as ‘Xianyu 335’ are weak in resistance to dense planting, lodging, Southern Corn Rust, leaf blight, and high temperature and heat. To solve these problems by means of plant breeding, we use maize new variety ‘Yufeng 303’ as the test material to study its performances, including yield performance, drought tolerance, high temperature and heat tolerance, dense planting resistance, and grain quality at production trials, at national trials (Huang-huai-hai Summer Maize Area, Eastern of North China Middle and Late Maturity Spring Maize Area, and Northwest Spring Maize Area) and provincial trials. The results show that ‘Yufeng 303’ not only possesses the desirable traits of new maize varieties with U. S. germplasm, but also has traits of high tolerances to drought, high temperature and heat, lodging, and Southern Corn Rust, achieving and substantially surpassing our original breeding goal. Based on these results, several issues for future breeding, including the general technical route of germplasm expansion, improvement and innovation, the avoidance of genetic vulnerability risk and others related to commercial breeding, are discussed. The study emphasizes the importance of breeding the traits of high temperature tolerance and drought tolerance, especially the importance of breeding new varieties with wide stress adaptability by constantly uplifting the positive super normal expression of genotype environment interaction.

【Objective】The objective of this study is to screen Trichoderma strains which have inhibitory effect on the Pythium spp. causing maize stalk rot, and to clarify their taxonomic status, control efficacy and antifungal mechanism. This study will provide important resources for the research and development of biocontrol agent against Pythium stalk rot.【Method】For the antagonistic strains screening, the inhibitory effect of Tichoderma strains on P. inflatum, P. arrhenomanes and P. aristosporum was tested by measuring the mycelia growth. The taxonomic status of Tr21 was determined by morphological and molecular characteristics. The effect of Tr21 on the mycelia morphology of Pythium spp. was observed in the laboratory. In order to analyze the effect of Tr21 fermentation broth on the membrane permeability of Pythium spp., propyridine bromide (PI) dye solution was used to stain, and the absorbance values of protein and nucleic acid in mycelia supernatant at different treatment times were detected. The effect of Tr21 fermentation broth on germination characteristics of maize seeds was tested by seed soaking with different concentrations of fermentation broth. The control efficacy of Tr21 on stalk rot was confirmed through greenhouse pot and field inoculation experiments.【Result】From the 109 strains of Trichoderma spp., seven strains were screened with antagonistic activity against P. inflatum, P. arrhenomanes and P. aristosporum, and the inhibition rate was above 60%. The inhibition rate of Tr21 to three Pythium species reached 100%, the inhibition rate of 5×, 10× and 20× diluent to three Pythium species reached 100%, and the inhibition rate of 50× diluent to three Pythium species was also more than 55.56%. Tr21 strain was identified by morphological and molecular biology as T. afroharzianum. The results of microscopic observation showed that the fermentation broth of Tr21 could cause mycelial malformations, such as rough mycelia, increased mycelial branching, shortened nodes, and overflow of mycelia contents. The result of PI fluorescence stain showed that the cell membrane of three Pythium species was damaged by Tr21 fermentation broth, and the PI dye was more likely to penetrate the damaged cell membrane into the mycelium and stain the mycelia red. The results of nucleic acid and protein leakage showed that the absorbance values of the mycelia treated by the fermentation broth changed greatly. After treatment for 5 h, the OD₂₆₀ increased by 0.08 and OD₂₈₀ increased by 0.10, 0.11 and 0.10, respectively, indicating that the membrane of the mycelia was damaged, leading to the overflow of mycelia contents. The different concentrations of Tr21 fermentation broth had no effect on the germination characteristics of maize seeds, and the 20× diluent had the best effect on germination and growth of seeds. The results of pot experiment showed that 5× diluted fermentation broth of Tr21 had the best control efficacy on Pythium stalk rot caused by three Pythium species, which was 60.67%, 63.15% and 59.66%, respectively. The control efficacy on Pythium stalk rot of 5× diluent was the highest, reaching 82.25%, with a mass ratio of 1﹕100 (5× diluent to seed).【Conclusion】An effective T. afroharzianum strain Tr21 was obtained for preventing and controlling of maize Pythium stalk rot. The fermentation broth of Tr21 can lead to mycelia malformation, breakage, cell membrane damage and contents leakage, etc. In conclusion, the T. afroharzianum strain Tr21 is a promising biocontrol microbial.

To study the effects of maize seed dressing with chlorantraniliprole on seed germination, seedling growth and physiological and biochemical indexes, plate experiments in incubator and indoor pot experiments were conducted to study the seed germination, seedling growth (plant height, root length, root shoot ratio, etc.), physiological and biochemical indexes (protective enzyme, root activity and chlorophyll content, etc.) of maize by seed dressing with different dosage (0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4 g/kg) ofhlorantraniliprole. The results showed that chlorantraniliprole at 0.5- 3 g/kg significantly increased the germination potential, germination rate, germination index, vigor index of maize and increment in seedling stage, induced the activity of CAT, POD, SOD, PAL and PPO in maize seedling leaves, and increased root activity, chlorophyll content, sugar content and soluble protein content. Chlorantraniliprole inhibited the growth of maize after treated with 4 mg/kg, but the indicators were still higher than that of the control. In conclusion, chlorantraniliprole at suitable dosage could significantly promote seed germination and seedling growth of maize.

An Daoyuan1, Huang Bizhi2, Wu Bozhi1

‘Yongyou 988’ is a new maize variety bred by Hebi Academy of Agricultural Sciences with T1932 from European flint line as the female parent and ‘Xun 856’ as the male parent, and it was approved by the nation for Huang-Huai-Hai summer maize region in 2021. In this study, the breeding process, parent source and characteristics, yield performance, stress resistance, disease resistance and quality analysis of the variety were analyzed. The study proposed that in variety breeding, we should highlight the exploration and utilization of excellent germplasm resources, strengthen adversity selection and improve ecological adaptability of the varieties, so as to breed a new maize variety with high yield and quality, wide adaptability, density tolerance and strong stress resistance.

In order to promote the application of molecular marker-assisted selection in maize breeding, the research progress of QTL of kernel yield of maize and its components’ traits in recent 30 years was summed up. The results showed that there were 5-9 QTLs for kernel yield, and they were mainly distributed on chromosome 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. There were 3-6 QTLs for the kernel row number, kernel number per row and 100-kernel weight, and they were mainly distributed on chromosome 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. These QTLs were distributed in clusters on several main chromosomes and formed QTL enrichment regions, and they could explain about 25% of the phenotypic variation in traits. QTLs of most traits mainly manifested as additive, dominant, partial dominant or superdominant effects, and QTLs of some traits showed genetic × environment interaction. It indicated that QTLs of kernel yield and its components’ traits had common chromosomal carriers, the breeding selection should be carried out in multiple environments and with large number of samples, and those QTLs that could be expressed stably in different environments were more suitable for breeding selection. The QTL study on ear number per plant, plant traits and stress resistance should be strengthened.

In view of the shortage of water and heat resources in different ecological areas, and the frequent occurrence of wind disaster, lodging, low yield, poor quality and other problems in maize production, a new maize variety ‘MC278’ was bred by taking ‘Jing X005’ as female parent and ‘Jing 27’ as male parent. The inoculation tests of the variety in Jilin, Hebei and other places showed that it had strong resistance to small spot disease, Curvularia, dwarf mosaic, silk smut and stem rot, and was easy to infect large leaf spot, and it was moderately resistant to corn borer in Jilin. In the regional trials in Beijing, Inner Mongolia and other regions in different years, the kernel yield of ‘MC278’ was significantly higher than that of ‘Zhengdan 958’ (CK), the highest yield was 16166 kg/hm², and the average yield was increased by 8.3%. The content of crude protein, crude starch and lysine of ‘MC278’ were significantly higher than those of ‘Zhengdan 958’. In 2019, the production in Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and other regions showed that the yield of ‘MC278’ was all more than 12804 kg/hm², and the maximum yield was 14283 kg/hm². ‘MC278’ was equipped with field management measures and harvest techniques, such as suitable sowing date, density and water and fertilizer management, and prevention and control measures of diseases and insect pests. The variety passed the national examination and approval in 2019 (National Approved Maize Variety No.20190030), and its planting area now includes 15 provincial regions, such as Anhui, Shanxi, Shandong and etc.

To have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the current situation and development trend of researches on maize planting density and yield at home and abroad, 5150 pieces of literature on maize planting density and yield collected from the CNKI database and Web of Science Core Collection database from 2000 to 2022 were taken as samples for visual analysis based on CiteSpace software. The results showed that the United States ranked first in the total research volume in this field, followed by China, far beyond other countries. In recent years, China had overtaken the United States in the number of research papers in this field, and kept more than 100 articles published every year. Agronomy Journal had the largest number of publications, with a total of 230 papers, and had the largest influence in academic circles. Chinese scholar Liu Peng published the most papers, made the greatest contribution to the research progress in this field, and cooperated closely with other authors. The research institutions were mainly universities, mostly in northern China, and the cooperation among regional institutions needed to be strengthened. In this field, special corn such as fresh food and silage corn, water and nitrogen utilization efficiency, sustainable agriculture, mechanized management, soil properties, yield loss, mathematical model, straw utilization, and so on are the hot research issues in recent years.

With the change of the examination and approval system, a large number of new maize varieties have emerged in the market. In order to select new maize varieties suitable for regional production in northern Henan and guide local maize production, ‘Zhengdan 958’ was used as control to compare the adaptability, stress resistance and harvest of 30 newly approved maize varieties under field condition. The results showed that the growth period of the tested varieties was 114-120 days, and all the varieties could mature normally in northern Henan, and the male and female could meet normally in the flowering period; the yield of the tested varieties was 8726.97-11973.68 kg/hm², significantly increased compared with that of control. The yield of ‘Yudan 1851’, ‘Dehe 187’, ‘Yunong76’, ‘Zhongbo 510’, ‘Xundan 1538’, and ‘Luoyu 16’ increased by 10.4%, 8.9%, 7.5%, 7.3%, 5.8% and 4.5%, respectively, among them, the water content of ‘Yudan 1851’, ‘Dehe 187’, ‘Yunong76’, ‘Zhongbo 510’ and ‘Xundan 1538’ was relatively low at harvest time, 21.5%, 21.7%, 19.1%, 19.6% and 18.2%, respectively. The results indicate that five of the 30 varieties, such as ‘Xundan 1538’ and so on, have the characteristics of mechanized grain harvesting in northern Henan.

By exploring the changes in the research field of fresh-eating corn in China, grasping the research status and hot topics, and discussing the research frontiers and development trends, the study aims to provide theoretical reference for the research of fresh-eating corn. The research team used 1588 fresh-eating corn research literature in the CNKI database from 2010 to 2021 as the research objects, and carried out visual quantitative analysis based on CiteSpace software. In the past 10 years, the research development in the field of fresh-eating corn was stable, and the number of core papers published per year remained above 100. The high-yield authors were represented by LU Weiping, LIU Chunquan, LI Dajing, LU Dalei, etc., presenting single-line or radial team cooperation. The institutions to which the authors belong were mainly agricultural colleges and universities and scientific research institutes. Agricultural colleges and universities achieved more significant results in terms of the number of publications, and scientific research institutes had more advantages in the research and development of new varieties, and scientific research institutions and universities had close team cooperation. The analysis of emerging words indicates that haploid, super sweet corn, seed germination, genetic diversity, nutritional quality, flavor, folic acid, soluble sugar, etc. are the research trends. The core task of future fresh-eating corn research will be expanding the research coverage, breaking through the traditional limitations, exploring gene editing technology, transgenic technology, gene sequencing, single-celled sequencing, genome, proteins, transcription and other cutting-edge biotechnologies which are auxiliary means for traditional fresh-eating corn breeding research, and the focus will be on sweet and waxy corn and super sweet corn research. The future research should also highlight the quality and nutrition of fresh-eating corn varieties, and improve their resistance to diseases and insects, lodging, drought and other stresses. In the fields of food processing and feed research, more attention should be paid to the technology development of new processing equipment for extending the harvesting period and storage period of fresh-eating corn and maintaining the nutrition of corn during storage.

To adapt to dense planting of maize and meet the rapid mechanization development of agricultural production, the basic maize population was developed by using abroad excellent germplasm materials, then high-density and large-population selection, targeted inoculation and identification methods were adopted to obtain the new variety ‘Ruipu909’ with the disease-resistant self-line ‘RP86’ as female parent and ‘RP06’ as male parent. This variety has characteristics of density resistance, stress resistance, high yield and easy mechanical harvesting. The results show that the average yield of the regional test is 12589.5 kg/hm ², 7.1% higher than that of the control variety. There are 111 test points, the yield-increase points accounted for 93%. The yield of production test is 12601.5 kg/hm ², compared with the control variety, the yield increased by 7.7%, and there are 95% yield-increase points among the 54 test points. The average lodging rate in regional and production tests is 1.6%. ‘Ruipu909’ is resistant to northern corn leaf blight, stalk rot and ear rot. The crude starch content of seeds is 75.24%. In summary, the new variety ‘Ruipu909’ has multiple characteristics of high and stable yield, strong disease and lodging resistance, good quality, wide adaptability, density resistance and is suitable for mechanical harvesting. The variety was examined and approved by Shanxi Province in 2017 and was further approved by Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and passed the national authorization in 2018. The variety is suitable for popularizing and planting in middle-late maturing areas of spring sowing regions in eastern north China and northwest China and Huanghuaihai summer maize areas in southern Shanxi.

【Objective】 Maize ear rot caused by Fusarium verticillioides is one of the most serious diseases in maize producing areas in China. The objective of this study is to understand the differences in gene expression during the plant-pathogen interaction at different stages, and to provide a basis for pathogenic mechanism of the pathogen infection and resistance mechanism of maize. 【Method】 Illumina platform was used to sequence the transcriptome of maize kernels infected with F. verticillioides at 0, 4, 12, and 72 h. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of maize and F. verticillioides were screened with |log₂FC|≥1, P-adjust<0.05 as threshold and clean reads were compared with genome of maize and F. verticillioides, separately. Functional annotation and enrichment analysis of DEGs were carried out by using GO and KEGG databases. Goatools software was used to analyze the expression changes of genes related to plant-pathogen interaction, MAPK signaling pathway and plant hormone signal transduction pathway. Sequencing results were verified by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). 【Result】 A total of 140, 400 and 1 945 DEGs were up-regulated and 9, 302, and 1 784 DEGs were down-regulated in F. verticillioides after 4, 12 and 72 h interaction, respectively. A total of 293, 692, and 1 426 DEGs were up-regulated and 320, 482, and 153 DEGs were down-regulated in maize after 4, 12 and 72 h interaction, respectively. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis of DEGs showed that F. verticillioides grew in intercellular space at the early stage of pathogen infection. The DEGs were enriched in RNA biosynthesis, cell wall structural component, fatty acid biosynthesis, protein metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, biological process, and metabolic process. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) was triggered in maize at the early stage of infection. The DEGs were enriched in response to ROS, hydrogen peroxide, chitinase activity, monooxygenase activity, lignin metabolism. At the later stage of infection, F. verticillioides colonized and expanded in maize, and the DEGs were enriched in carbohydrate and cell wall polysaccharide catabolic process, transmembrane transport and oxidoreductase activity. Maize responded to pathogen infection through phenylpropanoid, lignin, flavonoid biosynthesis, MAPK signaling pathway, plant-pathogen interaction and plant hormone signal transduction. Six DEGs of maize and six DEGs of F. verticillioides were randomly selected for qRT-PCR. The results were consistent with those of transcriptome sequencing, which confirmed the accuracy of RNA-seq. 【Conclusion】 At the early stage of infection, F. verticillioides grew in the intercellular space, triggering ROS outbreak in maize and the expression of related pathway differential genes. At the middle and late stages of infection, the pathogen further colonized and expanded in maize with starch as nutrient. Maize responded to the infection of F. verticillioides through biosynthesis of phenylpropanoid, lignin and chitinase. Meanwhile, plant-pathogen interaction, MAPK signaling pathway, and plant hormone signal transduction were involved in the resistance to the infection of F. verticillioides.

In this study, through the study of the relevant literature, in the grasp of a certain research methods and theoretical basis under the premise of the design of the questionnaire, the "urban residents in Beijing urban fresh consumption characteristics of consumption," one to one face to face interviews with consumers, access to The research data of the purchase and consumption of fresh corn in urban residents of Beijing were analyzed. The data of the survey were analyzed by descriptive statistics and cross analysis. The market segmentation was carried out according to the different purchase and consumption characteristics of fresh corn.The study shows that with the increase of education and income, consumers choose to increase the proportion of fresh edible corn in high-end restaurants and canteen, and the sensitivity to fresh corn prices is reduced. The places of outdoor consumption of fresh corn, Enterprises and institutions are mainly in the unit canteen, urban freelancers are mainly in the general restaurant, individual businessmen are mainly in the roadside temporary dining places, retirees and unemployed persons are mainly in the general restaurant and roadside places; with The increase in age, the consumption of fresh corn by the impact of the more obvious the degree of attention to the price gradually increased; men prefer to eat in high-end places when eating fresh corn, women prefer the convenience of the roadside consumption. When buying fresh corn, women are more likely to be affected by the season than men. According to the characteristics of consumers to buy and consume fresh corn, the fresh corn will be subdivided into two sub-markets: emotional motives sub-market and rational motive sub-market. Consumers of emotional motivational market, with the need to buy and emotional experience to buy the dominant features in the purchase and consumption of fresh corn, the more concerned about the psychological and material needs and other factors; rational motive sub-market consumers , With objectivity, thoroughness, control characteristics, in the purchase and consumption of fresh corn, the more concerned about the product attributes, the purchase environment, the cost of consumption and other factors;

Research on forage maize can effectively promote the development of animal husbandry. In order to accelerate the progress of forage maize, this paper reviewed the regulation mechanism and breeding process of quality protein maize. Meanwhile, the characteristics and breeding process of high protein silage maize were introduced in detail. The problems existing in the development of quality protein maize and high protein silage maize were pointed out, and some relevant suggestions were put forward in order to promote the structural reform of maize from food crop to feed crops in China.

To meet the market requirement for high-yield and high-density resistance maize, the new maize variety‘Shengrui 999’was bred using‘Sheng 68’as female parent and‘Sheng 62’as male parent. In 2011- 2012 Huanghuai summer maize regional trial, the average annual yield was 10035.7 kg/hm2, which was 6.3% higher than that of the control‘Zhengdan 958’. In 2012 Huanghuai summer maize production trial, the average yield was 10336.5 kg/hm2, which was 7.1% higher than that of the control‘Zhengdan 958’. In 2013, the variety was approved by the Henan Provincial and National Crop Variety Approval Committee, its main features are high yield and stability, outstanding lodging resistance, high- density resistance and superior quality, and it is suitable for being planted in summer in Henan, Shandong, Baoding and the south of Hebei, Guanzhong Irrigation District of Shaanxi, northern Jiangsu, northern Anhui and southern Shanxi.

In order to study the small auxin-up RNA (SAUR) family of maize, this study identified by the genome-wide prediction approach 91 SAUR genes which named ZmSAURs, and analyzed the gene structure, amino acid characteristics, chromosomal location and genetic evolutionof ZmSAURs. The results showed that, the SAUR gene family were unevenly distributed on the chromosome, while the chromosome 2 up to 22 ZmSAURs. The amplification pattern of the gene was dispersed replication and fragment replication. The SAUR gene family has a relatively conserved structure, e.g. a conserved RNA DNA structure and the 3D structure of the deduced proteins that generally contained three alpha helices and three beta sheets. The phylogenetic tree analysis revealed 9 branches of SAUR proteins among species. As expected, SAURs in corn and relative millet (Setaria italic) were clustered together. Thus, this information provided by this work might be useful in future functional characterization of the maize SAUR gene family.

Aiming at recent decade drought stress on Spring maize production in Nanzheng, a comparison of the precipitation distribution between 1966-2000 and recent decade are made, and it is put forward that ensure of seeding temperature the start seeding date is ten days ahead can adapt precipitation distribution better and the harm of drought is reduced. The effect of early seeding in low temperature and cultivate free and double covering on reducing soil water evaporation and enlarging soil capacity of absorbing precipitation and increasing the efficiency of precipitation usage are put forward through field soil water measurement.

Considering the ecological environment of Sichuan area, an experiment was conducted to breed new corn varieties with high yield, high quality, multi resistance and wide adaptability. According to the principle of gene recombination, the authors combined the local tropical germplasm with PB germplasm, which was rich in disease- resistant, lodging- resistant and drought- tolerant genes, and the integration was used as the innovative strategy for breeding. Inbred-line‘LSC 107’was successfully bred and the new corn hybrid‘Wande No.1’was bred by crossing‘LSC 107’with‘Yi 99-19’. The results showed that the corn hybrid had good performance, including high yield, good stability, high quality, excellent disease resistance and lodging resistance, and wide adaptation. So it was adaptable for planting in plain and hilly areas of Sichuan Province. With hybrid recombination between local tropical germplasm and PB inbred lines, the inbred-line had high general combining ability and strong adaptability, and the hybrid had high yield, high quality and wide adaptability, and had broad prospects of popularization and application.

To obtain new maize varieties with high yield, drought resistance, lodging resistance and disease resistance, Research Center of Modern Agriculture of Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences combined traditional breeding methods and modern biotechnology to make full use of high-quality American germplasm resources, aiming to improve excellent inbred lines bred by the center. T0725 and T0750 inbred lines were obtained through hybridization and second cycle breeding, associated with molecular assisted resistance identification methods. Then test-cross, variety comparison test and production test in different ecological test sites were conducted to obtain the new maize variety‘Sheng Yu688’which had characters of wide adaptability, good agronomic characters and high yield, and the yield increased by 5% and above compared with that of CK, and had moderate resistance to blight, ear rot and rough dwarf disease. The variety was approved by Shanxi Variety Approval Committee in 2016.‘Sheng Yu688’has high yield, high quality, multi resistance and dense-resistance, with features as follows: the bulk density of 735 g/L, crude protein content of 10%, crude fat content of 3.72%, crude starch content of 72.56%, which indicated that it was a high starch variety; its seed rate is 87.1%, the average yield reaches 11841 kg/hm2. The seed production technology of the variety is simple and convenient, with high yield and reduced production cost.

The Paper will discuss influence of liquid chlorine and chlorine dioxide and mixture of both on livingness of Maize root population. The result of experiment show that liquid chlorine in great does poisoned root, and reduced obviously activity of roots. Other disinfectors have no effect on activity of roots, but affect livingness of Maize Root-population. And the right dose of liquid chlorine is 8mg/l，the right dose of chlorine dioxide is 6mg/l, the right dose of mixture is （4＋2）mg/l.

【Objective】 Plant height is one of the important target traits in maize plant type breeding, which is closely related not only to mechanized grain harvesting and lodging resistance, but also to maize yield. Therefore, it is of great theoretical and breeding value to isolate QTL/gene of maize plant height and analyze its function. This study aims to locate a novel maize dwarf gene ZmDLE1, clarify its biological function, and provide important theoretical basis and gene resources for accelerating the improvement of maize plant type. 【Method】 A single recessive mutant was derived in maize inbred line LY8405, from Crop Research Institute of Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, by chemical mutagenic agent Ethyl Methyl Sulfonate (EMS). A maize dwarf and low ear mutant was isolated from the M₂ progeny, and the M₃ and M₄ progeny could stably inherit, which was named dwarf and low ear mutant1 (Zmdle1). The F₂ population was constructed by hybridization with Mo17 and was identified by bulked segregate analysis-sequencing (BSA-seq) and target segment recombination exchange. Based on the Mo17 reference genome, the genes in the target region were obtained and functionally annotated to locate candidate genes.【Result】Phenotypic identification of Zmdle1 was carried out, and the phenotype of Zmdle1 at seedling stage was not significantly different from that of the control LY8405. The plant height and ear height of Zmdle1 at mature stage were reduced by 87.2 cm and 55.4 cm, respectively, accounting for about 35.0% and 62.9%, difference is extremely significant. Morphological observation showed that the decrease of internode number and the shortening of internode cell length were the main reasons for the significant decrease of plant height and ear height of Zmdle1. The genetic analysis of the mutant gene was conducted by using the F_2:3 genetic populations. The Zmdle1 mutant is inherited in a 3﹕1 (χ²=2.854) ratio and is a single recessive gene. Therefore, according to the results of BSA-seq, the candidate gene ZmDLE1 was initially located in the 15 Mb region of Bin1.09-1.10 on chromosome 1 of maize. The polymorphism molecular markers were further developed using the re-sequencing results of Mo17 and Zmdle1, and the target gene was accurately cloned by map-based cloning. Finally, the candidate genes were mapped to the size range of 600 kb, and there were 16 candidate genes in this range. By comparing the re-sequencing data, it was found that Zm00001d033231 gene changed into A at the 2062 position G, which resulted in amino acid changing from glycine to serine, and the transcription level expression was significantly reduced compared with LY8405. Zm00001d033234 changed from T to C at the 223rd position leading to the 75th amino acid changed from serine to proline, and there was no significant difference in transcription level. Through association analysis of natural populations and the predicted genes for functional annotation, it was found that Zm00001d033231 and Zm00001d033234 were related to the growth and development of maize. 【Conclusion】 The candidate gene ZmDLE1 in the Bin1.09 region at the end of chromosome 1, was identified to effectively regulate maize plant height and ear height, and the target region was reduced to 600 kb by fine localization. Association analysis showed that Zm00001d033231 was genetic locus significantly associated with plant height within the target region.

Under the background of the structural reform of agricultural supply side, through the empirical analysis of the purchase intention of Shanghai local brand fresh corn and its influencing factors, the study aims to better promote the brand building of fresh corn and provide the corresponding advices for guiding the consumption of local brand fresh corn. Through the establishment of multivariate and orderly Logit model, we quantitatively analyzed the individual characteristics, family characteristics of different consumer groups, the cognitive characteristics of consumer groups on fresh corn and the dietary preferences of consumers on the purchase intention of Shanghai brand fresh corn products and the direction of action. The results showed that: the gender, age, place of birth, education, consumer willingness to treat fresh corn as a snack, the awareness of the fresh corn production in Shanghai, the trust in the quality and safety of fresh corn products, and the place of origin were significant factors influencing consumers’ willingness to purchase local brand fresh corn. On the whole, the current information asymmetry between the market and consumer is still an important factor restricting the development of local brands and the consumption of high-quality agricultural products. Based on this, we put forward targeted suggestions from the precise positioning of consumer groups, reducing information asymmetry between market and consumer, and increasing the diversity of fresh corn products.

爆裂玉米营养丰富，可制成多种保健食品，具有很高的经济价值，影响其商品性的指标膨化效果受到多方面因素的影响。为了提高爆裂玉米的经济价值，在栽培中应采取多种不同于普通玉米的技术措施。

Maize (Zea mays L.) can exhibit yield penalties as a result of unfavorable changes to growing conditions.  The main threat to current and future global maize production is heat stress.  Maize may suffer from heat stress in all of the growth stages, either continuously or separately.  In order to manage the impact of climate driven heat stress on the different growth stages of maize, there is an urgent need to understand the similarities and differences in how heat stress affects maize growth and yield in the different growth stages.  For the purposes of this review, the maize growth cycle was divided into seven growth stages, namely the germination and seedling stage, early ear expansion stage, late vegetative growth stage before flowering, flowering stage, lag phase, effective grain-filling stage, and late grain-filling stage.  The main focus of this review is on the yield penalty and the potential physiological changes caused by heat stress in these seven different stages.  The commonalities and differences in heat stress related impacts on various physiological processes in the different growth stages are also compared and discussed.  Finally, a framework is proposed to describe the main influences on yield components in different stages, which can serve as a useful guide for identifying management interventions to mitigate heat stress related declines in maize yield.

Seeds of crop treated with the Ambrosia artemisiifolia juice at 0.5%,1%,2%,5%,100% were compared with those treated with water. The result of the experiment showed that suitable concentrations 5%,2% of the prepared raised the germination percentage and the favorite was 5%。0.5%,1% and Ambrosia artemisiifolia juice decreased the germination percentage.

Maize palnts were treated with PC compund plant growth-regulator at 0.3% comcentration during 10~12 leaves show that the growth-regulator can significantydecrease the plant height，ear height and increase the resistance to loding of maize.In the experiments of Yedan 13, Zhengdan 13, Yuyu 27 and Anyu 13, the plant height decrease by 24.2~50.2cm and the ear height decrease by 14.8~27.3cm compared with controls,and had a certain effect on its 100-grain weight，grain weight per ear and yield.In addition, the results of electrophoretic analysis of peroxidase isozyme and souluble protein showed that it could give rise to the change of maize on physiology and biochemistry level after PC plant growth-regulator treatment.

Effects of enhanced UV-B radiation on the phenology of wheat and maize were investigated. Results show that at the grown stage, the phenology of wheat and maize were postponed significantly by enhanced UV-B radiation. The experiment also shows that the germination of wheat and maize were also postponed significantly by enhanced UV-B radiation, which indicated that the effect of enhanced UV-B radiation to the phenology of wheat and maize were not attributed to the nutrition available. The microclimate of crop was also influenced by enhanced UV-B radiation, showing that the temperature of canopy and soil raised significantly. Indicated that the effect of enhanced UV-B radiation to the phenology of wheat and maize were not attributed to the change of microclimate in response to enhanced UV-B radiation. The possible mechanism of the change of crop phenology in response to enhanced UV-B is discussed, and the problem be supposed to be investigated further is also put forwarded in the paper.

Maine single-cross variety Wandan No.8 was bred by self-line Wanxi46(female) And sele-line Wenhuang31413(male) in Crop Resarch Institute Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sceince,maturing stage was between 95-100d. According to the variety test , Wandan No.8 has the Characteristics of high and stable yield、wideadaptation、good resistsnce.It has been approved and released by the National Committee of Crop Variety .

采用系谱法与品系内轮回选择相结合的方法选育出K12自交系，经配合力测定和性状鉴定表明，K12是一个籽粒产量高，配合力高，综合抗病性好，抗逆性强的优良自交系。目前国内育种单位利用该自交系已育成10多个通过省审定推广的优良杂交种，获得了显著的经济和社会效益。

The new maize variety Shaandan 21 (Shaandan 9704) was bred by the male Wu 464 and the female K22 in Maize Institution, Northwest Sci-Tech University of Agriculture and Forestry in 1997. In 2000~2002, the regional test, product test results showed the characteristic of high-stable yield, early mature, disease resistance, good adaptation. The adaptive planting areas were the middle and west parts of Guanzhong plain, Shaanxi province. The optimum desnity range was 45000~50000 seeding / ha. It has been authorized by Crop Authorization Committee of Shaanxi Province in March 2003 and was named Shaandan 21.

The research was carried out on the effects of 7 agronomic characteristics of maize hybrids on their grain yielding stability, based on regional test materials of summer corns in North China, by using the correlation analysis between regression coefficient and characteristics. The results showed that most agronomic characteristics have negative relevance with yielding stability of hybrids. The most important factors are rows per spike and 1000 grains weight, while spike position and its length、plant height and grains per spike have little relevance. In the practice of breeding, such measures as enhancing selection of those characteristics which have little effects on yielding stability but great effects on grain yielding, properly lowering the height of spike position and increasing grains per spike, are all helpful to improve yielding stability of maize hybrids.

The effects of soaked seeds with different concentrations on the growth of maize seedlings were studied. The results were showed as follows. The elongation of leaf blades and leaf sheaths of the treated plants was inhibited at 3~7-leaf stage, and the higher of the concentration, the stronger of the effect. At the same time, as compared to the control, the plant in uniconazole-treatment showed an appearance of high quality plant with increased specific leaf weight, leaf width and stem thickness as well as root number and root length, the root dry weight, and 40mg.kg-1 was the best.

The performance and characteristics of the new corn hybrid ‘Zhongkeyu 505’ are reported here to provide theoretical and practical information needed for large-scale commercialization of this hybrid. ‘Zhongkeyu 505’ was developed by crossing CT1668 as female parent and CT3354 as male parent. The yield performance, agronomic traits, drought resistance, high temperature tolerance, density tolerance, grain quality, and silage forage quality were analyzed based on the multi-year and multi-location data from national and provincial trials. The results showed that the yield of this hybrid increased by 3.4% and 8% respectively on average compared with that of the two check hybrid ‘Xianyu 335’ and ‘Zhengdan 958’. The ear characters such as ear length, ear diameter, kernel number per row, grain weight per ear and grain yield were better than those of the check hybrid. The drought tolerance reached the extremely strong standard, and the high-temperature tolerance reached the medium level equivalent to that of the check ‘Zhengdan 958’. The grain test weight was 746 g/L, the crude protein, crude fatty acid, crude starch, and lysine content reached 10.1%, 3.36%, 74.26%, and 0.3% respectively. The relative stalk feed quality was better than that of ‘Xianyu 335’ and ‘Zhengdan 958’. This hybrid is an excellent one of significant commercial value. In the process of commercial breeding of maize, special attention should be paid to the factors of the market safety evaluation of new varieties, seed production yield, stem rot, ear rot, Southern and Northern leaf blight, Southern rust, suitable planting density and lodging control etc., thus establishing a breeding method combining limited backcrossing with large population adversity screening.

The effect of ultradry on the seed vigor of maize were studied. The results were as follows: Ultradrying treatments did not induce any significant changes either seed vigor or the activities of SOD and POD of maize seeds, and the slight damage of cell membrane induced by ultradrying treatments could be repaired during the seeds imbibition, so it was suitable for ultradry storage .

【Objective】The main producing areas of maize is mostly located on the arid or semi-arid region that relying on the rainfed farming in China. The maize production losses caused by drought is a great threaten to food security. As a cross-pollinating crop, maize is mostly sensitive to water stress during flowering time. Drought at flowering stage will lead to asynchronous development between the male and female flower and cause massive grain yield loss. Thus, mining drought resistance related genes at flowering stage is important for maize drought resistance improvement and breeding. 【Method】In the present study, the phylogenic tree of 24 ZCN genes in maize genome, which is homologs of Arabidopsis FT gene, was build. The gene expression patterns of ZCN7 were analysis using qRT-PCR and in vivo GFP fluorescence imaging. A maize natural population consisting of 118 diverse inbred lines were planted in three environments, Beijing in 2021 and 2022 and Urumqi in 2022, to identify the flowering time related traits under different water treatments. The genomic variants around ZCN7 were detected by PCR and Sanger sequencing. The candidate gene association analysis was performed based on mixed linear model and the significant associated variants with drought induced anthesis-silking interval was obtained. The gene expression level of ZCN7 in natural population at flowering time was also measured by qRT-PCR. The differences of drought resistance traits and ZCN7 expression were compared between different haplotypes of significant associated variant. The Ubi1:ZCN7 overexpression transgenic maize were obtained, and the phenotypic performance was identified under different water treatments. 【Result】The 24 ZCN genes in maize genome included 15 FT like genes, 6 TFL1 like genes and 3 MFT like genes. The protein sequence of ZCN genes varied from 111 nn to 193 nn. The ZCN7 showed close relationship with ZCN8 and the protein sequence identity was 83.3% between the two genes. ZCN7 showed highest gene expression in the leaf blade at V12 stage. And the ZCN7-promoter:GFP vector was transformed to Arabidopsis and the GFP showed enriched signal at the blade edge of mature leaf. The candidate gene association analysis revealed a SNP variant at 1001 bp upstream of ZCN7 start codon had highest association signal with drought induced anthesis-silking interval under drought. The A/A and G/G haplotypes of SNP-1001 included 78 and 27 inbred lines, respectively. The anthesis-silking interval of A/A haplotype lines were significantly lower than G/G lines. And the ZCN7 gene expression of A/A haplotype lines were significantly higher than G/G lines. In addition, the ZCN7 overexpression transgenic lines showed significantly decreased anthesis-silking interval than wild type lines. Under drought, the anthesis-silking intervals of OE1 and OE2 were 2.3 and 2.6 days shorter than wild type lines. And the grain yield per plant and kernel number per plant of transgenic lines were significantly higher than wild type lines under drought, while the hundred kernel weight, kernel length and kernel width showed no significant difference. 【Conclusion】The maize ZCN7 played positive role in drought resistance and its overexpression improved grain yield by reducing anthesis-silking interval under drought.

Systenatic study was carried out on the physiological change of corn under different waterlogging stress at different growth stages.The rerults indicated that waterlogging caused the imbalance of active oxyen metabolism in plant cells,lead to an extensive membrance—lipid and increase of MDA content , the activity of CAT and chlorophyll content dropped . Under waterlogging stress , there appeared to have a close corrdation between the tissue ability to controol lipid peroxxidation and its ability to retain solutes.

Crop coefficient of maize is one of the most parameters needs for crop water requirements.For estimating the evapotranspiration of maize objectively,in this paper,crop coefficient of maize were calculated by using the daily observational data of soil moisture of 1980～2002. The crop coefficient of maize in Liaoning's 5 areas were ascertained and the change of Kc during maize groeing period was analyzed.The Kc as sixth order polynomial functions of time(10 days) were derived.The results showed that the crop coefficient value of maize in Liaoning every area are obvious difference, but the change of their laws are comparatively unanimous.