Growth promotion and disease prevention effects of streptomyces on Amorphophallus konjac K. Koch ex N.E.Br北大核心CSCD

This study aimed to evaluate the disease antagonism and seed growth promotion effects of streptomyces on Amorphophallus konjac by agar block and axenic fermentation extract experiments. Pot experiments were taken to assess relative biocontrol effiency and effect of streptomyce preparation M (mixture of S. carnosus and S. pactum in solid-state fermentation with 1:1 ratio) on biomass, photosynthetic rate, yield and corm quality of A. konjac K. Koch ex N.E.Br. Results showed that: 1 Streptomyces Act12 had obvious antagonistic activity against six soft rot pathogens, and the diameter of growth inhibition zones ranged from 19.4 to 31.6 mm. Fermentation filtrate of streptomyces exhibited growth-promoting activity on melon seed germination and seedling growth. 2 Streptomyce-derived viable preparations had biocontrol effect on A. konjac regarding soft rot-disease prevention. In the pot experiment, individual inoculation of preparations achieved 65.0% relative biocontrol effect on A. konjac during the harvest stage. After 10 and 20 days of inoculation combined with Pectobacterium chrysanthemi (a bacterial pathogen), the relative biocontrol effiency of streptomyces were 100.0% and 58.4%, respectively. 3 Streptomyces showed obvious growth-promoting effect on growth and yield of A. konjac. In the pot experiment, combined inoculation of streptomyces and Pectobacterium chrysanthemi significantly increased the petiole diameter by 11.1%, net photosynthetic rate by 111.7%, fresh weight of corm by 54.8%, fresh weight of rhizome by 304.2%, and the number of rhizomes by 200.0%, compared with individual inoculation of Pectobacterium chrysanthemi. 4 Individual inoculation with streptomyces improved corm quality of A. konjac. The contents of glucomannan, starch and cellulose significantly increased by 14.0%, 8.1% and 27.7%, respectively compared with control (P < 0.05) . This study indicates that streptomyces promotes the growth of A. konjac, enhances the yield and the content of glucomannan, and at the same time helps disease prevention of A. konjac.     

Irrigation quotas for high water use efficiency and economic water productivity of typical crops in Shiyang River Basin北大核心CSCD

Water consumption in agricultural activities is the main water use in inland oases in Northwest China. Research on water conservation in agriculture is of great significance to alleviate the conflict between the use of agricultural and ecological water and is of great importance to local farmers’ livelihoods. This study, based on traditional irrigation practices (flood irrigation and fixed irrigation frequency) of Minqin County in Shiyang River Basion, was designed to reveal the impacts of five irrigation quotas (1 800, 1 440, 1 080, 720, and 360 m3/hm2) on crop yield, biomass, irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE), and economic water productivity (EWP) to determine the optimal irrigation for five crops and guide local irrigation practices. The results showed that: (1) Under the five irrigation quotas, IWUE of corn, with the highest of 12.27 kg/m3, was higher than the other four crops; (2) The average EWP of cotton with a 2-year-average of 8.0 yuan/m3 was higher than the other four crops. Thus, the economic output of cotton is the best under the same irrigation quota; (3) Considering the yield, IWUE, EWP, and biomass, corn was better than the other four typical crops; and (4) 1 080 m3/hm2 was the optimal irrigation quota for sunflower in local planting practices. In addition, 720 m3/hm2 was suitable for corn, pepper, wheat, and cotton as their irrigation quota. This study shows that reducing the amount of irrigation quota in the Shiyang River Basin can effectively improve local IWUE and EWP. © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.     

The relative importance of COVID-19 pandemic impacts on biodiversity conservation globally

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on almost all aspects of human society and endeavor; the natural world and its conservation have not been spared. Through a process of expert consultation, we identified and categorized, into 19 themes and 70 subthemes, the ways in which biodiversity and its conservation have been or could be affected by the pandemic globally. Nearly 60% of the effects have been broadly negative. Subsequently, we created a compendium of all themes and subthemes, each with explanatory text, and in August 2020 a diverse group of experienced conservationists with expertise from across sectors and geographies assessed each subtheme for its likely impact on biodiversity conservation globally. The 9 subthemes ranked highest all have a negative impact. These were, in rank order, governments sidelining the environment during their economic recovery, reduced wildlife-based tourism income, increased habitat destruction, reduced government funding, increased plastic and other solid waste pollution, weakening of nature-friendly regulations and their enforcement, increased illegal harvest of wild animals, reduced philanthropy, and threats to survival of conservation organizations. In combination, these impacts present a worrying future of increased threats to biodiversity conservation but reduced capacity to counter them. The highest ranking positive impact, at 10, was the beneficial impact of wildlife-trade restrictions. More optimistically, among impacts ranked 11-20, 6 were positive and 4 were negative. We hope our assessment will draw attention to the impacts of the pandemic and, thus, improve the conservation community's ability to respond to such threats in the future.     

Production of hydrogen and value-added carbon materials by catalytic methane decomposition: a review

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Dihydrogen (H2), commonly named “hydrogen”, is attracting research interest due to potential applications in fuel cells, vehicles, pharmaceuticals and...     

Carbon dioxide methanation on heterogeneous catalysts: a review

Environmental Chemistry Letters - The Ukraine war has strongly accentuated the ongoing energy and environmental issues, thus requiring a fast development of alternative and more local fuels. For...     

The oligopeptides production by the feather-degrading bacterium Bacillus methylotrophicus H0北大核心CSCD

Due to the high nutritive value of oligopeptides and the waste of feather resources, this study aimed at screening efficient strains of bacteria able to rapidly degrade feathers and produce large quantities of value-added oligopeptides. In order to assess the potential yield of oligopeptides, the promising strain H0 was selected from 16 feather-degrading microorganisms. To identify the strain, we analyzed the morphological and physiological characteristics of different strains, and carried out a gene sequence analysis of their 16S rRNAs. A single factor experiment was used to promote feather degradation and oligopeptide production, and the characteristics of the oligopeptides produced were also analyzed by Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The strain was identified as Bacillus methylotrophicus. The optimal initial pH and temperature for oligopeptide production were 11 and 40 °C, respectively. After 72 h of fermentation under these optimal conditions, the feathers were almost completely degraded, with a 38.19% of oligopeptides (accounting for 67.53% of the total soluble peptides) and a 11.11% of free amino acids produced. LC-MS/MS analysis indicated that the oligopeptides were mainly short peptides containing 5-10 amino acids, with a molecular mass (Mr) of less than 1 300. Moreover, the peptides were abundant in branched-chain amino acids, that might be responsible for the antioxidant property of the feather hydrolysate. Our results demonstrate the great capability of B. methylotrophicus H0 in feather degradation and oligopeptide production. This research provides a high-quality microorganism resource, and the scientific basis for the development of feather-derived oligopeptide products. © 2018 Science Press. All rights reserved.     

The physiological response and iron and potassium contents in the hairy roots of Brassica rape L. Under cadmium stress北大核心CSCD

The experiments were conducted to investigate the tolerance and enrichment capabilities by elucidating the physiological response and cadmium impact on iron and potassium accumulation amounts of brassica rape hairy roots under different cadmium concentrations by using liquid suspension culture method. The results showed the following. (1) The growth of hairy roots was not significantly different under low cadmium concentrations (below 100 μmol/L), whereas it was obviously inhibited under high cadmium concentrations (more than 100 μmol/L). Further, the maximum fresh weight of brassica rape hairy roots reached 4.34 g under 25 μmol/L cadmium stress after 7 days. (2) The content of ROS in brassica rape hairy roots increased with increasing concentrations of cadmium; the antioxidant enzyme activities of brassica rape hairy roots (SOD, POD, and CAT) decreased first and then increased with increasing cadmium concentrations under 1-day stress, whereas showed an opposite trend under 7-day stress. (3) PI staining and MDA content indicated that cellular damage was more serious with increasing cadmium concentrations. (4) With the increase of cadmium concentrations, cadmium content of hairy roots increased and reached maximum of 2.97 mg/g under 400 μmol/L cadmium stress after 7 days. The iron content also increased significantly with the maximal weight of 14.52 mg/g after 1-day cadmium stress, whereas no significant difference was noted under 7-day cadmium stress. The potassium content under 7-day cadmium stress was 1.6 times of that after 1-day stress (15.73 mg/g). The study showed that the physiological response of Brassica rape hairy roots was correlated with the concentration and time of cadmium stress. Moreover, cadmium stress caused metabolic disorders of iron and potassium in the hairy roots, but the hairy roots of Brassica rape had better enrichment effect on cadmium. © 2018 Science Press. All rights reserved.     

Flow cytometric analysis of nuclear DNA stained with SYBR Green I in Phaeodactylum tricornutum北大核心CSCD

This study aimed to investigate a suitable method to stain the nuclei of Phaeodactylum tricornutum with a flow cytometer equipped with a 488-nm laser to detect the DNA. Exponentially growing cells were fixed using a 70% ethanol, a 1% glutaraldehyde and a 1% formaldehyde solution, respectively. The samples were treated with RNase A and were then stained with propidium iodide. Samples not treated with RNase A were stained with SYBR-green I. All these samples were observed under a fluorescence microscope and the content of the nuclear DNA was quantitated by flow cytometry. Specific fluoresce spots indicate that fluorescence was detected only in the nuclei of cells stained with SYBR-green I and non-RNase A treated, using fluorescence microscopy. The result of flow cytometry showed that the DNA histogram of cells stained with SYBR-green I had distinct G1 and G2/M peaks, with a fit degree (RCS) of about 3, and a coefficient of variation (CV) of around 8.6%. However, the DNA histograms of cells stained with propidium iodide had a higher CV value, a poor fit degree, and no obvious G1 and G2/M peaks. The results indicate that SYBR Green I is an adequate detection method for nuclear DNA quantitation in cells of P. tricornutum using a flow cytometer equipped with a 488-nm laser, and without RNase A treatment. © 2018 Science Press. All rights reserved.