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Increased inorganic nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) additions expected in the future will endanger the biodiversity and stability of agricultural ecosystems. In this context, a long-term fertilizer experiment (37 years) was set up in the black soil of northeast China. We examined interaction impacts of elevated fertilizer and host selection processes on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) communities in wheat rhizosphere soil using the Illumina MiSeq platform. The soil samples were subjected to five fertilization regimes: no fertilizer (CK) and low N (N 1), low N plus low P (N 1 P 1), high N (N 2), and high N plus high P (N 2 P 2) fertilizer. Long-term fertilization resulted in a significant shift in rhizosphere soil nutrient concentrations. The N fertilization (N 1 and N 2) did not significantly change rhizosphere AMF species diversity, but N plus P fertilization (N 1 P 1 and N 2 P 2) decreased it compared with CK. Non-metric multidimensional scaling showed that the rhizosphere AMF communities in CK, N 1 , N 2 , N 1 P 1 and N 2 P 2 treatments were distinct from each other. The AMF communities were predominantly composed of Glomeraceae, accounting for 30.0-39.1% of the sequences, and the relative abundance of family Glomeraceae was more abundance in fertilized soils, while family Paraglomeraceae were increased in N 1 and N 2 compared with CK. Analysis shown that AMF diversity was directly affected by soil C:P ratio but indirectly affected by plant under long-term fertilization. Overall, the results indicated that long-term N and P fertilization regimes changed rhizosphere AMF diversity and community composition, and rhizosphere AMF diversity was both affected by soil C:P ratio and plant.

The high productivity and efficient nutrient utilization in rice–fish integrated farming system are well reported. However, the characteristics of soil bacterial communities and their relationship with soil nutrient availability in rice–fish field remain unclear. In this study, we selected three paddy fields, including a rice monoculture field and two rice–fish fields with different planting years, to investigate the soil bacterial community composition with Illumina MiSeq sequencing technology. The results indicated that the soil properties were significantly different among different rice farming systems. The soil bacterial community composition in the rice–fish field was significantly different from that in the rice monoculture field. Five of the top 15 phyla were observed with significant differences and Nitrospirae was the most significant one. However, no taxa observed with significance between the rice planting area and aquaculture area no matter in the 1st or 5th year of rice–fish field. RDA analysis showed that the soil bacterial community differentiation in the 5th year of rice–fish field was positively correlated with soil properties, such as AN and OM contents, EC and pH value. Although the rice yields in rice–fish field decreased, the net economic benefit of the rice–fish system enhanced obviously due to the high value of aquaculture animals.

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Soil nutrient characteristics are key factors that regulate grape growth and fruit quality. To investigate soil nutrient characteristics, 73 typical vineyards in Shanghai suburbs were selected for this study. The impacts of different planting areas, planting ages and grape varieties on soil characteristics were studied. The Agro Services International (ASI) analysis method was adopted to measure the levels of soil nutrients. The results indicated that soil nutrient characteristics varied greatly across the 73 selected vineyards in Shanghai suburbs. Planting area and planting age were the major factors that significantly affected soil nutrient characteristics. However, no significant differences were observed among the 5 major cultivated grape varieties. Significant differences in soil pH were only observed in different planting areas. Soil nutrients in the selected vineyards were mainly at a high level or extra-high level, which means that the current amount of fertilizer in these vineyards exceeds the actual demands of the grapevines and should be reduced. Meanwhile, the intermediate soil organic matter (OM) content indicated that more organic fertilizer should be applied to the soil in these vineyards. Optimized fertilization based on soil nutrient levels plays an essential role in sustaining production resources, increasing economic benefits and improving environmental conditions of vineyards.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a massive threat to women's health due to its high morbidity, malignancy, and the refractory, effective therapeutic option of TNBC is still deficient. The mitochondrial protein showed therapeutic potential on breast cancer, whereas the mechanism and downstream pathway of mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) was not fully elucidated. We found that UCP1 was negatively regulated to the process of TNBC. Overexpressing UCP1 could inhibit the proliferation and metastasis of TNBC, meanwhile inducing the mitochondrial swelling and activation of mitophagy in vitro . Mitophagy activation was then assessed to elucidate whether it was downstream of UCP1 in TNBC metastasis. GSDME is the core of pyroptosis. We found that GSDME was activated in the TNBC cells when UCP1 levels were high. It regulates TNBC cell proliferation potential instead of the apoptosis process in vitro and in vivo . Our results suggested that UCP1 could inhibit the process of TNBC by activating mitophagy and pyroptosis. Impaired activation of mitophagy weakens the regulation effect of UCP1 on metastasis of TNBC, similar to the impairment of GSDME activation on the proliferation regulation of UCP1 on TNBC. UCP1 might be a novel therapeutic target of TNBC.

Grafting is a common method of variety propagation in loquat breeding, the slow growth of rootstocks is a main factor limiting the expansion of this technique. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of seven different fertilizer formulas on the growth of loquat rootstock seedlings, five water-soluble fertilizer formulas, as well as organic fertilizer and controlled-release fertilizer were evaluated. An unfertilized control (CK) was also performed. Growth indicators including plant height, stem thickening and lignification, leaf area, root development, dry matter accumulation, spatial distribution of nutrient elements, and cross-sectional anatomy of stem were measured. The results showed that the addition of microelements in fertilizer could significantly delay the lignification process of the cambium, which exhibiting the greatest improvement in stem thickening. Phosphorus nutrition could significantly promote the occurrence of fibrous roots, while excessive phosphorus supply might disturb the absorption and utilization of nitrogen of roots, intensify the lignification process of the main stem, and then affect the growth of the aboveground part. The findings of this research could provide a theoretical basis for identifying an optimum fertilization formula and technique for promoting the rapid growth and accelerating the lignification process at different stages of loquat rootstock seedling growth. Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl., Maloideae, Rosaceae) is indigenous to China and represents one of the most important fruit species in subtropical areas of China 1. Traditionally, there are several problems existed that limiting the propagation of loquat varieties, one is that seed reproduction takes too long juvenescent phase and seedling progeny cannot maintain variety characteristics due to genetic variation 2 , another problem is that explants are prone to browning in loquat asexual propagation system due to the higher content of phenols as compared with other Rosaceae fruit trees, therefore, callus proliferation needs strict selection of explants and proper medium. For example, Zhang 3 reported that in tissue culture of loquat, leaf explants collected 5 days after bud sprouting were prone to severe browning and the highest mortality rate, whereas 10-day-old leaf explants showed minor browning symptoms and rapidly induced large quantity of granular light-green tight, high quality calluses, 15-day-old leaf explants also showed minor browning symptoms, but the generated calluses were yellow and loose, with lower proliferation efficiency. What is more, different varieties and ploidy materials of loquat have different requirements on medium formulation, especially hormone concentration and composition 4 , the asexual propagation system suitable for one loquat variety can not be directly copied and extended to other varieties, most importantly, even if asexual plant regeneration is successful, it will take another 7-8 years to grow into adult fruit trees. Therefore, grafting is still one of the most import...