IRSEI-based monitoring of ecological quality and analysis of drivers in the Daling River Basin.

The Daling River Basin is an important ecological functional area in the western region of Liaoning with outstanding environmental problems. The monitoring of ecological and environmental quality in the basin and the analysis of driving factors are of great importance for the protection of the ecological environment and the improvement of economic quality. In this paper, the three periods of Landsat remote sensing images in 1995, 2010 and 2020 are used as the basic data, and platforms and technical means such as RS and GIS are used to decipher and extract the three periods of land use information, and to construct the land use type transfer matrix. The remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) was improved, and the principal component analysis method was applied to construct the improved remote sensing ecological index (IRSEI) model based on the greenness (NDVI), moisture (WET), heat (LST) and new dryness (N-NDBSI), so as to realize the dynamic monitoring of ecological and environmental quality in the study area. Based on the land use change, combined with the trend of improved remote sensing ecological index (IRSEI) of Daling River Basin, thus achieving the purpose of rapid and efficient dynamic monitoring of ecological quality of Daling River Basin from 1995 to 2020. A geoprobe model was then used to systematically assess the drivers of ecological quality in the catchment. The results show that the improved remote sensing ecological index (IRSEI) can efficiently and accurately obtain the spatial distribution pattern and temporal variation trend of IRSEI in the study area, which is more in line with the characteristics of indicators in this study area. The IRSEI in the study area showed an increasing trend from 1995 to 2020, from 0.4794 to 0.5615, and the proportion of benign ecological classes increased year by year during the period. Among the evaluation indicators, NDVI and N-NDBSI are the main factors affecting the environmental and ecological quality of the Daling River Basin, and the increase of vegetation cover, climate regulation and human activities have obvious promoting effects on the improvement of the ecological environment of the Daling River Basin. This study provides a scientific theoretical basis for the implementation of further ecological environmental protection measures.

EST-SSR Marker Development and Full-Length Transcriptome Sequence Analysis of Tiger Lily (Lilium lancifolium Thunb).

The fast advancement and deployment of sequencing technologies after the Human Genome Project have greatly increased our knowledge of the eukaryotic genome sequences. However, due to technological concerns, high-quality genomic data has been confined to a few key organisms. Moreover, our understanding of which portions of genomes make up genes and which transcript isoforms synthesize these genes is scarce. Therefore, the current study has been designed to explore the reliability of the tiger lily (Lilium lancifolium Thunb) transcriptome. The PacBio-SMRT was used for attaining the complete transcriptomic profile. We obtained a total of 815,624 CCS (Circular Consensus Sequence) reads with an average length of 1295 bp. The tiger lily transcriptome has been sequenced for the first time using third-generation long-read technology. Furthermore, unigenes (38,707), lncRNAs (6852), and TF members (768) were determined based on the transcriptome data, followed by evaluating SSRs (3319). It has also been revealed that 105 out of 128 primer pairs effectively amplified PCR products. Around 15,608 transcripts were allocated to 25 distinct KOG Clusters, and 10,706 unigenes were grouped into 52 functional categories in the annotated transcripts. Until now, no tiger lily lncRNAs have been discovered. Results of this study may serve as an extensive set of reference transcripts and help us learn more about the transcriptomes of tiger lilies and pave the path for further research.

Cloning and expression of floral organ development-related genes in herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.).

Herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) is an important ornamental plant that has different flower types. However, the molecular mechanism underlying its floral organ development has not been fully investigated. This study isolated six floral organ development-related genes in P. lactiflora, namely, APETALA1 (PlAP1), APETALA2 (PlAP2), APETALA3-1 (PlAP3-1), APETALA3-2 (PlAP3-2), PISTILLATA (PlPI) and SEPALLATA3 (PlSEP3). The expression patterns of these genes were also investigated in the three cultivars 'Hangshao', 'Xiangyangqihua' and 'Dafugui'. Furthermore, gene expression during floral development was also analyzed in different organs. The results showed that PlAP1 was mainly expressed in the sepals, and PlAP2 was mainly expressed in the carpels and sepals. PlAP3-2 and PlPI had the highest expression levels in the stamens, followed by the petals. The expression levels of PlAP3-1 (from highest to lowest) were in the following order: petals, stamens, carpels and sepals. PlSEP3 was mainly expressed in sepals and carpels. With the depth of stamen petaloidy, the expression levels of PlAP1, PlAP2 and PlSEP3 increased, whereas those of PlAP3-1, PlAP3-2 and PlPI decreased, which showed that PlAP1 mainly determined sepals and petals of P. lactiflora. The PlAP2 not only determined the sepals and petals, and it participated in carpel formation. PlAP3-1, PlAP3-2 and PlPI mainly determined stamens and petals. PlSEP3 determined the identities of sepals and petals. This study would help determine the molecular mechanism underlying floral organ development in P. lactiflora.

Flower color diversity revealed by differential expression of flavonoid biosynthetic genes and flavonoid accumulation in herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.).

Herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) is an important ornamental plant which contains different flower colors. In this paper, eight genes encoding phenylalanine ammonialyase (PAL), chalcone synthase (CHS), chalcone isomerase (CHI), flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H), flavonoid 3'-hydroxylase (F3'H), dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR), anthocyanidin synthase (ANS), UDP-glucose: flavonoid 3-o-glucosyltransferase (UF3GT) were isolated. Moreover, the expression patterns of these eight genes and UF5GT in the flowers were investigated in three cultivars, that is, 'Hongyanzhenghui', 'Yulouhongxing' and 'Huangjinlun' with purplish-red, white and yellow flower respectively. Furthermore, flavonoid accumulation in the flowers was also analyzed. The results showed that in different organs, most of genes expressed higher in flowers than in other organs. During the development of flowers, all genes could be divided into four groups. The first group (PlPAL) was highly expressed in S1 and S4. The second group (PlCHS and PlCHI) was at a high expression level throughout the whole developmental stages. The third group (PlF3H, PlF3'H, PlDFR, PlANS and PlUF5GT) gradually decreased with the development of flowers. The fourth group (PlUF3GT) gradually increased during the flower development. In addition, anthoxanthins and anthocyanins were detected in 'Hongyanzhenghui' and 'Yulouhongxing', chalcones and anthoxanthins were found in 'Huangjinlun'. When different color flowers were concerned, low expression level of PlCHI induced most of the substrate accumulation in the form of chalcones and displaying yellow, changing a small part of substrates to anthoxanthins, and there was no anthocyanin synthesis in 'Huangjinlun' because of low expression level of DFR. In 'Yulouhongxing', massive expressions of upstream genes and low expression of DFR caused synthesis of a great deal of anthoxanthins and a small amount of colorless anthocyanins. In 'Hongyanzhenghui', a large number of colored anthocyanins were changed from anthoxanthins because of PlDFR, PlANS and PlUF3GT high expressions. These results would provide us a theoretical basis to understand the formation of P. lactiflora flower colors.

Effect of calcium sprays on mechanical strength and cell wall fractions of herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora pall.) inflorescence stems.

Calcium is an essential element and imparts significant structural rigidity to the plant cell walls, which provide the main mechanical support to the entire plant. In order to increase the mechanical strength of the inflorescence stems of herbaceous peony, the stems are treated with calcium chloride. The results shows that preharvest sprays with 4% (w/v) calcium chloride three times after bud emergence are the best at strengthening "Da Fugui" peonies' stems. Calcium sprays increased the concentrations of endogenous calcium, total pectin content as well as cell wall fractions in herbaceous peonies stems, and significantly increased the contents of them in the top segment. Correlation analysis showed that the breaking force of the top segment of peonies' stems was positively correlated with the ratio of water insoluble pectin to water soluble pectin (R = 0.673) as well as lignin contents (R = 0.926) after calcium applications.