Carbohydrate stress affecting fruitlet abscission and expression of genes related to auxin signal transduction pathway in litchi.

Auxin, a vital plant hormone, regulates a variety of physiological and developmental processes. It is involved in fruit abscission through transcriptional regulation of many auxin-related genes, including early auxin responsive genes (i.e.

Selection of reliable reference genes for expression studies by reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR in litchi under different experimental conditions.

Reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR), a sensitive technique for quantifying gene expression, depends on the stability of the reference gene(s) used for data normalization. Only a few studies on reference genes have been done in fruit trees and none in litchi. In the present study, seven frequently used candidate reference genes, including actin (ACTIN), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate-dehydrogenase (GADPH), elongation factor 1-alpha (EF-1α), poly ubiquitin enzyme (UBQ), α-tubulin (TUA), β-tubulin (TUB) and RNA polymerase-II transcription factor (RPII), were evaluated for their expression stability in litchi.

Molecular simulation of water/alcohol mixtures' adsorption and diffusion in zeolite 4A membranes.

The COMPASS (condensed-phase optimized molecular potentials for atomistic simulation studies) force field with two sets of partial atomic charges of water was used to simulate adsorption and diffusion behavior of water/methanol and water/ethanol mixtures in zeolite 4A at 298 K. The adsorption of alcohol first increased and then decreased with increasing pressure, whereas the adsorption of water increased progressively until an adsorption equilibrium was reached. Both the adsorbed molecules and the zeolite framework were treated as a fully flexible model in MD simulations.

Effects of two sludge application on fractionation and phytotoxicity of zinc and copper in soil.

The potential harm of heavy metals is a primary concern in application of sludge to the agricultural land. A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of two sludges on fractionation of Zn and Cu in soil and their phytotoxicity to pakchoi. The loamy soil was mixed with 0%, 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% (by weight) of digested sewage sludge (SS) and composted sludge (SC).