Methyl jasmonate treatment alleviates chilling injury and improves antioxidant system of okra pod during cold storage.

Okra pod is sensitive to low temperature, which results in chilling injury under improper low-temperature storage. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment on okra pod stored at 4 ± 1°C for 12 days and illuminate the mechanism of MeJA alleviating chilling injury. Compared to the control, MeJA treatments maintained lower relative electric conductivity (REC), chilling injury (CI) degree, and lignin content, as well as higher total soluble solids, total soluble sugar, pectin content, and chlorophyll content.

Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of calmodulin-like proteins in cucumber.

Background: The calmodulin-like (CML) protein is a crucial Ca-binding protein that can sense and conduct the Ca signal in response to extracellular stimuli. The CML protein families have been identified and characterized in many species. Nevertheless, scarce information on cucumber CML is retrievable.

Postharvest melatonin treatment inhibited longan ( Lour.) pericarp browning by increasing ROS scavenging ability and protecting cytomembrane integrity.

Postharvest melatonin treatments have been reported to improve the quality and storability, especially to inhibit browning in many fruits, but the effect had not been systematically investigated on longan fruit. In this study, the effect of 0.4 mM melatonin (MLT) dipping on the quality and pericarp browning of longan fruits stored at low temperature was investigated.

Diversity and community structure of ectomycorrhizal fungi in Pinus thunbergii coastal forests bordering the Yellow Sea of China.

Ectomycorrhizas play a fundamental role in the function of forest ecosystems, being essential for plant nutrition absorption and soil quality. Many afforestation and reforestation programmes have begun to recover and maintain coastal forests in China, using pine species including Pinus thunbergii. We investigated the ectomycorrhizal colonization status of P.

Effects of climatic factors and ecosystem responses on the inter-annual variability of evapotranspiration in a coniferous plantation in subtropical China.

Because evapotranspiration (ET) is the second largest component of the water cycle and a critical process in terrestrial ecosystems, understanding the inter-annual variability of ET is important in the context of global climate change. Eight years of continuous eddy covariance measurements (2003-2010) in a subtropical coniferous plantation were used to investigate the impacts of climatic factors and ecosystem responses on the inter-annual variability of ET. The mean and standard deviation of annual ET for 2003-2010 were 786.

[Influential factors for methylphenidate treatment compliance in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder].

Objective: To investigate influential factors for the tendency to medicate and medication compliance in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Methods: A total of 188 children aged from 5 to 16 years, who were initially diagnosed with ADHD according to DSM-IV criteria, were included in the study. They underwent symptom assessment and cognitive function test.

Monitoring nitrogen deposition in typical forest ecosystems along a large transect in China.

The nitrogen (N) deposition fluxes were investigated in eight typical forest ecosystems along the North-South Transect of Eastern China (NSTEC; based on the ChinaFLUX network) by ion-exchange resin (IER) columns from May 2008 to April 2009. Our results demonstrated that the method of IER columns was both labor cost saving and reliable for measuring dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) deposition at the remote forest stations. The deposition of DIN in the throughfall ranged from 1.

Water-use efficiency of forest ecosystems in eastern China and its relations to climatic variables.

Carbon (C) and water cycles of terrestrial ecosystems are two coupled ecological processes controlled partly by stomatal behavior. Water-use efficiency (WUE) reflects the coupling relationship to some extent. At stand and ecosystem levels, the variability of WUE results from the trade-off between water loss and C gain in the process of plant photosynthetic C assimilation.

Simulation of the stomatal conductance of winter wheat in response to light, temperature and CO2 changes.

Background And Aims: The stomata are a key channel of the water cycle in ecosystems, and are constrained by both physiological and environmental elements. The aim of this study was to parameterize stomatal conductance by extending a previous empirical model and a revised Ball-Berry model.

Methods: Light and CO(2) responses of stomatal conductance and photosynthesis of winter wheat in the North China Plain were investigated under ambient and free-air CO(2) enrichment conditions.