黄土旱塬Hybrid-Maize模型适应性及春玉米生产潜力估算

通过对Hybrid-Maize玉米高产模型进行田间验证,应用该模型对黄土旱塬春玉米生产潜力进行初步估算。结果表明,Hybrid-Maize模型在黄土旱塬表现出较好模拟效果,总生物量、秸秆生物量和籽粒产量模拟值与实测值间具有极显著线性相关性,其决定系数分别为0.9469、0.8164和0.9650,回归系数分别为1.0198、0.9787和1.1844,接近于1。黄土旱塬区多年光温生产潜力和气候生产潜力因品种不同有所差别,对多年平均光温籽粒和总生物量生产潜力,紧凑型玉米品种分别为13.25和22.45t/hm2,平展型玉米品种分别为12.32和20.62t/hm2,年际变化小;对多年平均气候籽粒和总生物量生产潜力,紧凑型玉米品种分别为11.97和19.94t/hm2,平展型玉米品种分别为11.37和18.63t/hm2,年际波动大。在黄土旱塬区,玉米产量潜力挖掘的主要途径应集中在提高密度和水分限制条件下,Hybrid-Maize玉米模型在指导玉米高产栽培上具有较好应用。

A switch-on mechanism to activate maize ribosome-inactivating protein for targeting HIV-infected cells

Maize ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP) is a plant toxin that inactivates eukaryotic ribosomes by depurinating a specific adenine residue at the a-sarcin/ricin loop of 28S rRNA. Maize RIP is first produced as a proenzyme with a 25-amino acid internal inactivation region on the protein surface. During germination, proteolytic removal of this internal inactivation region generates the active heterodimeric maize RIP with full N-glycosidase activity. This naturally occurring switch-on mechanism provides an opportunity for targeting the cytotoxin to pathogen-infected cells. Here, we report the addition of HIV-1 protease recognition sequences to the internal inactivation region and the activation of the maize RIP variants by HIV-1 protease in vitro and in HIV-infected cells. Among the variants generated, two were cleaved efficiently by HIV-1 protease. The HIV-1 protease-activated variants showed enhanced N-glycosidase activity in vivo as compared to their un-activated counterparts. They also possessed potent inhibitory effect on p24 antigen production in human T cells infected by two HIV-1 strains. This switch-on strategy for activating the enzymatic activity of maize RIP in target cells provides a platform for combating pathogens with a specific protease.

Emergy Assessment of a Wheat-Maize Rotation System with Different Water Assignments in the North China Plain

Sustainable water use is seriously compromised in the North China Plain (NCP) due to the huge water requirements of agriculture, the largest use of water resources. An integrated approach which combines the ecosystem model with emergy analysis is presented to determine the optimum quantity of irrigation for sustainable development in irrigated cropping systems. Since the traditional emergy method pays little attention to the dynamic interaction among components of the ecological system and dynamic emergy accounting is in its infancy, it is hard to evaluate the cropping system in hypothetical situations or in response to specific changes. In order to solve this problem, an ecosystem model (Vegetation Interface Processes (VIP) model) is introduced for emergy analysis to describe the production processes. Some raw data, collected by investigating or observing in conventional emergy analysis, may be calculated by the VIP model in the new approach. To demonstrate the advantage of this new approach, we use it to assess the wheat-maize rotation cropping system at different irrigation levels and derive the optimum quantity of irrigation according to the index of ecosystem sustainable development in NCP. The results show, the optimum quantity of irrigation in this region should be 240-330 mm per year in the wheat system and no irrigation in the maize system, because with this quantity of irrigation the rotation crop system reveals: best efficiency in energy transformation (transformity = 6.05E + 4 sej/J); highest sustainability (renewability = 25%); lowest environmental impact (environmental loading ratio = 3.5) and the greatest sustainability index (Emergy Sustainability Index = 0.47) compared with the system in other irrigation amounts. This study demonstrates that application of the new approach is broader than the conventional emergy analysis and the new approach is helpful in optimizing resources allocation, resource-savings and maintaining agricultural sustainability.