Project description:The functional diversity of soil microbial communities was explored for a poplar plantation, which was treated solely with biogas slurry, or combined with biochar at different fertilization intensities over several years.
Project description:The use of biofertilizers is becoming an economical and environmentally friendly alternative to promote sustainable agriculture. Biochar from microalgae can be applied to enhance the productivity of food crops through soil improvement, slow nutrient absorption and release, increased water uptake, and long-term mitigation of greenhouse gas sequestration. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the stimulatory effects of biochar produced from Spirulina platensis biomass on the development and seed production of rice plants. Biochar was produced by slow pyrolysis at 300°C, and characterization was performed through microscopy, chemical, and structural composition analyses. Molecular and physiological analyses were performed in rice plants submitted to different biochar concentrations (0.02, 0.1, and 0.5 mg mL-1) to assess growth and productivity parameters. Morphological and physicochemical characterization revealed a heterogeneous morphology and the presence of K and Mg minerals in the biochar composition. Chemical modification of compounds post-pyrolysis and a highly porous structure with micropores were observed. Rice plants submitted to 0.5 mg mL-1 of biochar presented a decrease in root length, followed by an increase in root dry weight. The same concentration influenced seed production, with an increase of 44% in the number of seeds per plant, 17% in the percentage of full seeds per plant, 12% in the weight of 1,000 full seeds, 53% in the seed weight per plant, and 12% in grain area. Differential proteomic analyses in shoots and roots of rice plants submitted to 0.5 mg mL-1 of biochar for 20 days revealed a fine-tuning of resource allocation towards seed production. These results suggest that biochar derived from Spirulina platensis biomass can stimulate rice seed production.
Project description:Purpose:The mud crab Scylla paramamosain is an economically important marine crab in China suffering from severe outbreaks of infectious disease caused by marine bacteria such as Vibrio Parahaemolyticus, resulting in great economic losses. However, the mechanisms involved in the immune response of this crab to bacterial infection are not fully understood. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the immune response to such pathogenic bacteria, we used high-throughput deep sequencing technology to investigate the transcriptome and comparative expression profiles of the mud crab S.paramamosain infected with V.parahaemolyticus. Methods: The hemocytes sampled at 0-24h after infection with V.parahaemolyticus were used for transcriptome analysis. The hemocytes sampled at 24 h after injections with V.parahaemolyticus and no injected 0h(as control) were used for gene expression profiling analysis. Results: A total of 52,934,042 reads were obtained and assembled into 186,193 contigs in transcriptional responses of the V.parahaemolyticus-infected mud crab. Via annotation to the NCBI database and the Swissprot database, we obtained 48,934 identified unigenes. In total, 10,139(20.7%) unigenes were classified into Gene Ontology, and 25,349 unigenes were found in 20 KEGG categories. These genes included representatives from almost all functional categories. By using Solexa/Illumina's DeepSAGE, 1213 differentially expressed genes (P value < 0.05) were detected in comparative analysis of the expression profiles between V.parahaemolyticus-infected crabs and control crabs, including 538 remarkably upregulated genes and 675 remarkably downregulated genes. Conclusions: Based on our results, we conclude that the inflammatory response may play an important role in the early stages of infection. The signaling cascades such as the chemokine, JAK-STAT, and MAPK pathways are regulated by V.parahaemolyticus infection. These results revealed changes of multiple signaling pathways involved in immunity during V.parahaemolyticus infection, which will facilitate our comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms involved in the immune response to bacterial infection in the mud crab.