TCP transcription factors (TFs) constitute a family of plant-specific proteins, with conserved motif known as the TCP domain. TCP domain contained 60 amino acids, and formed a bHLH structure involved in DNA-binding and protein-protein interaction. TCP TFs have been found to regulate many aspects of plant development, such as branching, height, leaf and flower growth. However, the study of TCP TFs in response to abiotic stress started relatively late. Accumulating evidence suggested that these proteins also played crucial roles in environmental stress responses, such as those mounted to cold and salt stresses. TCP TFs were involved in brassinolide, jasmonic acid, gibberellin and cytokinin signal transduction pathways. Thus, TCP proteins might be involved in the cross-talking between plant development and stress signal pathway. This paper systematically reviewed the latest advances on the functions and mechanisms of TCP TFs in plant developmental programs, hormonal interactions and environmental stresses, which may shed new lights on the applications of these proteins in modifying plant growth and resistance in desirable ways.

Maize Stalk rot is one of the important diseases, which are occurring in corn cultivating regions of China and abroad. Due to increasing mechanical harvesting and grain direct harvest, stalk rot has become the most threatening disease in maize production. The cultivation of resistant varieties is the most economic and effective measure to control stalk rot. This paper reviews the research progress of stalk rot on aspects of the distributing regions, pathogenic species, resistant germplasm screening, resistance inheritance and disease resistance gene discovery and localization, which will lay an important theoretical foundation for IPM of this disease.

Pear is one of the major fruit in China and favorite by domestic and foreign consumers due to its nutritional value and health efficacy. Pear flower is corymb inflorescence and belongs to the multi-flowered type. Fruit setting rate of inflorescence has significant influence on the yield of fruit trees. Artificial control of flowers and fruits is a measure to regulate the amount of fruit set in the tree, to ensure the yield and fruit quality maximizing the commercial profile. Understanding the mechanism of inflorescence formation is of interest to increase fruit yield and improve fruit quality. This paper reviews the evolution of inflorescence, the process of inflorescence development, fruit setting position of inflorescence, effects of endogenous hormones on floral formation, and regulation of related genes on floral formation, etc. Moreover, the future prospective is proposed, in order to provide ideas for the research on pear inflorescence formation.

NAC transcription factors are one of plant-specific transcription factors that participate in the regulation of plant growth and development as well as the responses to environmental stress. In relative to the in-depth study of NAC transcription factors in model plants Arabidopsis and rice, there are few related studies on NAC transcription factors in apple. In this study, to explore the role of NAC transcription factors in growth and development, as well as biotic and abiotic stress response of apple (Malus×domestica Borkh.), full-length coding sequences of 13 MdNAC genes were isolated by search for sequence homolog and RT-PCR. The obtained cDNA sequences were used as queries in BLAST P searches against NCBI. The open reading frame (ORF) and amino acid sequence were analyzed by DNAMAN 6.0, and phylogenetic tree was constructed by MEGA 6 software. The conserved domains were predicted by Pfam 26.0 and Conserved Domains in NCBI. CELLO v.2.5, PSORT and SoftBerry ProtComp 9.0 were used for predicting subcellular location. As a result, thirteen MdNAC cDNAs from ‘Zihong Fuji’ were obtained (designated MdNAC40-45, MdNAC47-53, with GenBank accession No. MG099877-MG099882, MG099884-MG099890), with sizes of open reading frame (ORF) of 639 - 1830 bp. By phylogenetic analyses, MdNAC41 was assigned to AtNAC3 group, MdNAC40, MdNAC42-43 and MdNAC45-53 were NAM group, and MdNAC44 was belonged to VND group. The subcellular localization prediction suggested that MdNAC40-45, MdNAC47-50 and MdNAC52-53 were in the nucleus, while MdNAC51 was located in the cytoplasm or nucleus. The results from array analysis indicated that thirteen MdNAC genes were expressed in all examined tissues with various transcript abundance. RNA-seq data showed that the expression levels of MdNAC43, MdNAC45, MdNAC47, MdNAC49 and MdNAC51 were induced in response to AAAP infection. qRT-PCR results showed that, under 150 mmol/L NaCl treatment, the transcription levels of MdNAC45, MdNAC47 and MdNAC52 were induced, whereas the transcription levels of MdNAC40, MdNAC48 and MdNAC51 were down-regulated in ‘Gala’ tissue culture seedlings under 300 mmol/L mannitol treatment, the transcription level of MdNAC50 was induced, while the transcription level of MdNAC41 was down-regulated. These results indicated that 13 MdNAC genes were expressed in all examined tissues, and these genes were inducible under AAAP infection, NaCl or mannitol treatment with different degrees. Taken together, these results laid a theoretical foundation to further study the mechanism of NAC transcription factor in the regulation of apple growth, development and stress responses.

Salt stress is one of the most important abiotic stresses, which seriously threatens the growth and development of plants. Understanding the adaptive mechanisms of plant to salt stress is beneficial for the breeding of salt tolerant crops and the effective use of saline land to meet the increasing demand of food supply. Salt stress causes ion imbalance, osmotic derangement, and accumulation of toxic substances, especially reactive oxygen species (ROS), in plants. To adapt to salt stress, the plants have to balance cellular ions, remodel osmotic potential and maintain ROS. The former researches on the genetic, physiological and biochemical subjects have revealed a large number of plant regulators responding salt stresses, which might modulate plant salt tolerance through multiple and complex stress signal pathways. This paper reviews the salt sensing, signal transduction, gene expression regulation, phytohormone regulation and adaptive response of plants under salt stress, and provides a relatively complete summary of plant salt stress response mechanisms.

Abiotic stress seriously affects plants growth and crop yield. Plant AREB (ABA responsive element binding protein)/ABF(ABRE binding factors) transcription factors are a type of leucine zipper protein that specifically recognizes ABA-responsive element (ABRE). They are involved in regulating the expression of ABA-responsive genes and play a crucial role in the response to abiotic stress in plant.This article introduced the structural characteristics of ABF transcription factors, the identified cis-acting elements, regulatory modification pathway and their roles in response to abiotic stress. This review might contributes a theoretical foundation for the application of ABF transcription factors to breed excellent cultivars?with stress tolerances.

Oilseed rape is an important oil crop in China. The sown area is about 67 million hectares and about 4.5 million tons of rapeseed oil is produced every year, which account for about 19.7% of total food oil consumption in China. Compared with developed countries, the problems in rapeseed industry of China are low yield and poor quality of rapeseed, and about 5 million tons of rapeseed is annually imported. The sequencing of oilseed rape genome has promoted the research on its breeding. According to the searching record of Web of Science, about total 728 articles related to rapeseed breeding was published in SCI/SCIE journals. Of 728 articles, 181 and 62 were independently completed by Chinese scientists and jointly done by Chinese and their cooperators from other countries, respectively, which account for 33.38% of the total published paper in the world. However, we lack high impact paper. The achievements in 2017 mainly focused on rapeseed oil content and quality, rapeseed yield, genome domestication, male sterility, abiotic

沙冬青是我国西北荒漠区唯一的常绿阔叶灌木,具有极强的抗逆性和特殊的医疗保健作用。本文从细胞学与遗传多样性、抗逆性分子基础与基因克隆和药用成分及作用机制方面对沙冬青的研究进展进行了综述,并提出了今后的重点研究方向。

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.

Evaluation of the edible quality of sweetpotato is being conducted with the traditional sensory evaluation method. However, lack of a standard protocol makes the traditional evaluation method to be subjective and unprecise. To address this problem, this study intended to establish a new sensory evaluation model by using fuzzy mathematics. Firstly, five criteria indices were screened for evaluating the sweetpotato quality, including color, odour, sweetness, stickiness (flour-like taste) and fibrous taste. Each of these criteria indices was seperated and definded for five-point scores. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to construct a weight set and the industry experts were invited to score each pair of criteria indices of pairwise comparison. The sensory scores of various criteria indices of all tested varieties marked by valuators were used as the rank elements to construct fuzzy relationship matrix. The matrix was built and then used to calculate the result vector of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. Lastly, the calculation rule of the integrated score of sweetpotato edible quality was formulated and edible quality grading standard of sweetpotato was proposed. To test the accuracy of the new evaluation system, 11 sweetpotato varieties with confirmed quality definitions (evaluating in the sweetpotato of China agricultural research system in 2019) were re-evaluated by the new built evaluation system. The result showed that the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation was more stable than that reveled with the tranditional method. The outcome gained from the new evaluation method is coincidence with the current universal recognition by the sweetpotato of China agricultural research system. Furthermore, the scoring was more accurate because there was a detailed scoring rubric for evaluators to mark. Difference in the tested varieties could be quantified with the integrated score via a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation rather than an expert direct scoring method.

Abstract: The phytohormone auxin exerts a pleiotropic effect on various aspects of plant growth and development, including cell elongation, cell division, differentiation, root initiation, apical dominance, and tropic responses. Auxin mediates these effects at the molecular level by altering the expression of numerous genes. Most early auxin response genes are classified into three families: AUX/ IAAs, GRETCHEN HAGEN3s (GH3s), and Small Auxin-Up RNA (SAUR). AUX/IAA (PF02309) family genes achieve transcript due to the induction of plant hormone auxin and part of them have an N-terminal DNA binding domain. It is a transcriptional repressor that has proved to play a very vital role in auxin signaling pathway. GH3 (PF03321) was first found in soybean later, some GH3 genes were reported and divided into three groups: one combine JA-amino acid conjugates, the others were used to produce IAA conjugates and catalyze the 30 conjugation of amino acids and 4-substituted benzoic acid. GH3 plays an important role in auxin signaling pathways, optical signaling pathways and plant defense responses; Previous reports indicated that SAUR protein contains a central domain (PF02519), and it is highly conserved. The SAUR domain mainly contains hydrophobic amino acids, short, highly conserved, charged patches and a nearly invariant cysteine residue. Around the SAUR domain, SAUR 35 proteins have lowly conservative length N- and C-terminal extensions. Small auxin-up RNAs (SAURs) are the early auxin-responsive genes represented by a large multigene family in plants. In order to recognize the SAUR (Small auxin-up RNA) gene from the whole genome of the grape, the gene of SAUR gene was identified from the whole genome of the grape, and the gene structure, amino acid characterization, chromosome localization, gene evolution,functional analysis and tissue expression analysis of the SAUR gene family were carried out. A total of 64 members of the SAUR gene family were identified and showed cluster distribution on 8 chromosomes among 19 chromosomes. The genes were mainly distributed in Chr3 and Chr4. Chr3, exist the highest number of genes, 37 were distributed in it. the length of Grape SAUR family genes is shorter, where 59 genes are intronless. Analysis of protein physical and chemical characteristics showed that most SAUR protein was alkaline, the structure stability was poor, the protein fat soluble index was high, and it was hydrophilic. The function prediction of genes showed that the SAUR gene mainly functioned as growth factors, structural proteins, transcription, transcriptional regulation and responded to stress and immunization response and immune response. Most of them were involved in growth regulation. According to the phylogenetic analysis, it was divided into 10 branches. Analysis of different tissue expression profiles showed that SAUR gene family members had different tissue expression patterns and had some regulation effect on abiotic stress. This information has laid a foundation for the functional analysis of SAUR gene family. This work will pave a a new era of applying genetic information to a deeper understanding of strawberries and used to enhance the agricultural production. Making genetic information and genomics applied in many aspects of grape production, which means that the era of application of genetic information in crop production has arrived.

Abstract: Thirteen agronomic characters and 12 quality characters of 102 rice landraces from Shandong Province were investigated and analyzed using the method of diversity index (H′) to provide useful information for genetic improvement of rice (Oryz sativa L.). The results indicated that the diversity index of agronomic characters varied from 1.42 to 2.05. There were higher diversity indexes in plant height, panicle neck length, and spikeletes per panicle. Diversity index were 2.01, 2.02, and 2.05, respectively. The ranges of diversity indexes of the quality characters were 0.99 to 2.04. Diversity indexes of protein content, gel consistency, peak viscosity, and hot paste viscosity and breakdown were 2.00, 2.04, 2.04, 2.01, and 2.04, respectively. These results showed that there was an abundant genetic diversity among agronomic characters and quality characters in Shandong rice landraces. These results provides useful information to rice breeding.

Iris halophila Pall and its variety I. halophila var. sogdiana (Bung) Grubov are potential horticultural plants for arid and saline-alkali land because of their drought and salt tolerant characteristics and various flower color. In order to elucidate the mechanism of different pigmentation in these two species, we cloned 3 partial segments of key genes relating to anthocyanin biosynthesis, namely chalcone synthase (CHS), chalcone isomerase (CHI) and flavonoid- 3',5'- hydroxylase like(F3'5'H-like), from perianth of young flowers of these two Iris plants. retro-transcription PCR method were employed in cloning and gene-specific primers were designed based on a transcriptome sequencing. The expression of these 3 genes were characterized by a real-time PCR assay. Sequence analysis showed that these 3 genes are first reported in I. halophila. Among these genes, F3'5'H-like is different from the classical F3'5'H which belong to CYP75A subfamily of cytochrome P450 superfamily, it is a homolog of Vanda coerulea F3'5'H-like gene which belongs to a new subfamily CYP76AB, a novel type of blue flower related genes. Expression analysis indicated that compared with in the yellow flowered I. halophila, CHS and F3'5'H-like are up-regulated in I. halophila var. sogdiana and are responsible for its blue-violet flowers.

Using a set of 309 recombinant inbred lines of the spring wheat ‘Worrakatta’ × ‘Berkut’ grown with normal irrigation and under drought stress, respectively, as materials, the phenotypes of leaf area index (LAI) at flowering, filling and ripening stages, and the flag leaf chlorophyll content (CC) at heading, flowering and filling stages were identified. QTL mapping was carried out with wheat 50K SNP chip. The results showed that LAI and CC decreased significantly under drought stress compared with normal irrigation treatment. It was found that LAI and CC of the parents and RIL lines were significantly different with an obvious phenomenon of transgressive segregation at different growth stages with the two treatments. Two and one LAI-related QTLs were detected at flowering stage and ripening stage, respectively, which were located on chromosomes 5BS, 2BL and 1BL with normal irrigation. QLAI.xjau-5BS, QLAI.xjau-2BL.1 and QLAI.xjau-1BL explained 6.8%-8.2% of the phenotypic variation. CC-related QTL QCC.xjau-1DS was detected at both heading and flowering stages, which was located on 1DS chromosome, explaining 5.3%-5.8% of the phenotypic variation. One LAI-related QTL, QLAI.xjau-2BL.2, located on 2BL chromosome, was detected at ripening stage under drought stress, explaining 13.8% of the phenotypic variation. Seven candidate genes related to LAI and CC were screened from the QTLs found in the study, which included two genes related to F-box family proteins and one gene each related to MYB, GATA, abscisic acid receptor, BTB/POZ and WUS. These genes are involved in regulating crop growth and development and signal transduction, as well as in response to drought and other stresses. This study provides reference information for gene discovery and molecular breeding of leaf area index and chlorophyll content in wheat.

Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola (Xoc) are two highly related pathogens of rice that cause bacterial leaf blight (BB) and bacterial leaf streak (BLS), respectively, which constrain rice production in much of Asia and parts of Africa. Developing resistant cultivars has been the most effective approach to control BB and BLS. In this study, we reviewed the advances on identification of the main effect resistance genes and quantitative resistance locus of the two diseases, which will provide some useful information for further resistance breeding of this two related bacterial diseases.

The genus Polygonatum represents a wide geographical distribution, abundant resources, complex taxa and a long cultivation history, and they are considered to be important with the medicinal, economic, ornamental and cultural value. By taking advantage of the improvement of molecular biology, a variety of DNA-based molecular techniques have been developed valuable to the research in related fields of the genus Polygonatum. In this paper, we review the current status and progress of the genus Polygonatum using DNA-based technologies (such as molecular marker and DNA barcode), and propose future prospects in order to provide references for efficient protection and utilization of plant resources.

In this study, we report molecular characterization and expression patterns of AmLEA5 (AAW31666.1) under abiotic stresses, a gene cloned from cold- and drought-stressed Ammopiptanthus mongolicus by a modified solid subtractive hybridization method. Bioinformatic analysis shows that the gene encodes a group 5 late embryogenesis abundant protein (LEA).The overall length of AmLEA5 is 693 bp, and the cDNA contains a 297 bp ORF encoding a polypeptide of 98 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 10.6 kDa. AmLEA5, with more phosphorylation sites, is a kind of hydrophilic protein. The analysis of codon bias shows that AmLEA5 gene is bias toward the synonymous codons with A and T at the third codon position. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that AmLEA5 protein is most closed to Medicago truncatula LEA (ACJ84182.1) in genetic relationship. qRT- PCR analysis indicates that AmLEA5 is up-regulated by cold, drought, salt and hot stresses. Specifically, transcription of AmLEA5 accumulated more at the late stage of cold treatment. Intracellular localization analysis shows that AmLEA5 proteins tagged with yellow fluorescent proteins (YFP)is more likely localized in the cytoplasm and nucleus. Our results suggest that AmLEA5 may plays important roles in abiotic stresses responses, especially in cold tolerant mechanism in A. Mongolicus.

In order to further improve evaluation and its effective utilization of rice landrace in Guangdong Province, we used 2974 accessions catalogued in the national genebank that 9 rice quality traits as basic data to study. The geographic distribution of rice quality traits were analyzed, and rice quality trait diversity among each area were compared, and the correlation between some ecological factors and rice quality traits were studied. The rice landrace in Guangdong province showed higher brown rice rate and milled rice rate, richer diversity of protein content, larger variation in gel consistency, and not many materials reached the national standard in amylose content. High-quality rice germplasm mainly distribute in Southcentral rice area of Guangdong province. The result also showed that amylose content, gelatinization temperature and gel consistency were the main impact index of rice quality formation. Humidity and temperature difference among areas were the main impact factors of rice quality formation. So, it is very important for high quality rice breeding and genetic background expanding to use rice landrace in Guangdong Province effectively.

Heat tolerance was evaluated of for 196 grape accessions from National Grape Resources Repository at Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute of CAAS were evaluated using the chlorophyll fluorescence parameter Fv/Fm. The results showed that the range of the Fv/Fm was from 0.0792- to 0.6836, displaying varieties differences among thevarieties, with the distribution frequency distribution of all heat tolerance Fv/Fm accorded within normal distribution. It represents a andbelonged to quantitative trait controlled by multiple genes. Based on sequential clustering method, the grade of grape heat tolerance could be divided into 3 level, which was weak, medium and strong, . and the The correspondingthreshold value was were ≤0.3,（0.3, 0.5] and >0.5, respectively. Based on the above evaluation, Forty-eight48heat-resistant grape accessions were screened out,germplasm including Shuangxixianzhi03, Meilingshan-ciputao1301,Lingyeputao0945 and Hetianlv were screened,. tThe heat tolerance level of Chinese wild grape specieswere was, in general,higherthan that ofothers Vitis species / varieties.on the whole. The result in from this study would provide valuable insights for breeding heat tolerant grapes and for studying the mechanisms of grape heat resistance.

To enrich tools for plant functional genomics and to develop marker-free transgenic plants, three plasmid vectors, pAH006, pWMB022 and pWMB025, ideal for cereal transformation, were constructed in this study by using some plasmids available publically. The vector pAH006 can be used to improve the Agrobacterium mediated transformation system on monocot plants and to evaluate the biolistic particle mediated transformation efficiency of linear transgene expression cassette on which both GUS and bar genes were controlled by the ubi promoters; the intact T-DNA region can be easily recovered by enzyme digestion. The vector pWMB022 carries maize pigment regulatory genes Lc and C1 under the control of double 35S promoters, which can be used to visually screen positive calli or shoots when co-bombarded with other expression vectors containing genes of interest. The vector pWMB025 carries the glyphosate-resistant gene EPSPS regulated by the ubi promoter; the vector can be used in Agrobacterium- or biolistic-mediated transformation of cereal plants to generate bio-safely transgenic materials. Genes of interest can be easily cloned into the multiple cloning site (MCS) between the ubi promoter and the nos terminator on pWMB025 by enzyme digestion. All three vectors were confirmed by enzyme digestion and then tested in Agrobacterium- or biolistic-mediated transformation by using wheat immature embryos derived calli or leaves as explants. It was shown that all three vectors were constructed successfully, and the selectable reporter/visual genes worked efficiently. Construction of these three expression vectors is important for the improvement of transformation efficiency of some recalcitrant cereals such as wheat, development of bio-safely transgenic crop varieties, and plant functional genomics.

To get insight of MYB genes in strawberry, we used bioinformatics methods to screen the MYB genes from the Fragaria vesca genome database, and further analyzed gene structure, conserved motif, chromosomal location, phylogenetic analysis and expression in the period of the development of anther. Our results showed that three types of MYB transcription factors, including 105 R2R3-MYB, 4 MYB3R, 1 MYB4R, were identified. These genes unevenly distributed on 7 chromosomes, e.g., that chromosome Fvb5 contained the largest number of 26 MYB genes. Some of MYBs formed distinct tandem duplicate gene clusters. Although the protein length of strawberry MYB genes differed, all of MYBs contained conserved R2R3 domain, with characteristic amino acids, especially orderly spaced conservative tryptophan residues (W). Phylogenetic and gene structure analysis showed that strawberry MYB genes were divided into 34 distinct groups (A1-A34). The function prediction of strawberry orthologous genes using Arabidopsis thaliana gene annotation showed strawberry MYB genes were most likely involved in flavone synthesis, cell fate, and biotic and abiotic stresses. Temporal or spatial expression trends of MYB genes during strawberry anther development indicated that FvMYB2, FvMYB85, FvMYB74, and FvMYB28 had increased expression during 5 period of the development of strawberry anther, which were mainly expressed in the later period of anther development. These results suggested that those MYB genes may play important role during strawberry anther development. Thus, this paper provided information for functional identification of strawberry MYB genes.