These authors contributed equally to the study. Western flower thrip (Frankliniella occidentalis)is a major global pest of agricultural products. It directly damages crops through feeding, oviposition activity or transmission of several plant viruses. We describe a Taqman real-time quantitative PCR detection system, which can rapidly identify F. occidentalis from thrips larvae to complement the traditional morphological identification. The data showed that our detection system targeted on the ribosomal RNA gene regions of F. occidentalis has high sensitivity and specificity. The rapid method can be used for on-site testing of samples at ports-of-entry in the future.

Grain boundary and surface defects can be reduced by nucleation and crystallization management for designing high-quality perovskite films, which further improves the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability of perovskite...

The roots of Taraxacum kok-saghyz Rodin (TKS) are well-known and valued for their rubber-producing ability. Therefore, research on the analysis and detection of metabolites from the roots of TKS have been reported in previous studies. However, all of these studies have the shortcoming of focusing on only the rubber of TKS, without profiling the other metabolites in a systematic and comprehensive way. Here, the primary and secondary metabolites from the leaves of TKS were investigated using UPLC–ESI–MS/MS, and a total of 229 metabolites were characterized. Carboxylic acid derivatives, fatty acyls, phenols, and organooxygen compounds were found to be the major metabolites of TKS. The transcriptome data indicated that ribosomal, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and linoleic acid metabolism genes were significantly differentially expressed. This study is the first to report the differences in the metabolic and transcriptome profiles of TKS leaves under exogenous ethephon spray, which improves our understanding of the main metabolites and their molecular mechanisms in TKS leaves.

Taraxacum kok-saghyz (TKS) is a promising natural rubber plant. In the current study we investigated effects of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium base fertilizers on growth and yield of TKS through the field experiments. We found that appropriate application of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium base fertilizers can significantly increase root, rubber and total sugar yield of TKS. The TKS rubber yield enhanced significantly when the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus, potassium increased accordingly to 107.2, 10.5 and 35.3 g m–2. Maximum accumulation of rubber in the TSK roots is caused by application of potassium fertilizer.According to the obtained results the recommended amount of base fertilizers under conditions of Harbin Experimental Station (N45.592729°, E126.581668°) is 107.2 g m–2 of urea, 43.4 g m–2 of calcium superphosphate, 10.5 g m–2 of potassium chloride.