[Response of grain filling characteristics of maize to sowing date.] / 玉米籽粒灌浆特性对播期的响应.

To study the effect of different sowing dates on the process of grain filling characteristics, Jingke 528 (JK528) and Zhengdan 958 (ZD958) were used in the field experiment with two sowing dates (10th April and 14th May). The results showed that the 100-grain dry mass and yield of JK528 and ZD958 with the early spring sowing were significantly higher than that with the spring sowing date, which increased by 6.8% and 10.1%, 17.8% and 9.2%, respectively. The maximum grain filling rate (Gmax) and the average grain filling rate (Gave) were higher with the early spring sowing than that with the spring sowing date, while the active grain filling period (P) showed an opposite trend. The 100-grain mass and yield of JK528 were significantly improved by 7.4 g and 1189.6 kg·hm-2 compared to ZD958, with the increase of 21.6% and 10.8%, respectively. The P of ZD958 was higher than that of JK528, while Wmax, Gmax, Gave and Tmax of JK528 were higher than that of ZD958. The average grain filling rate of JK528 during early and mid grain filling stages was higher than that of late grain filling stages, which was also higher than that of ZD958 at the same sowing date. Furthermore, correlation analysis revealed that the mean temperature and the accumulated temperature were significantly positively correlated with the grain dry matter accumulation. Therefore, the full use of hot-ray resources and the increase of the mean grain-filling rate could improve maize grain yield. The higher grain filling rate during early and mid grain filling stages in JK528 could compensate for the short active grain filling period, leading to higher yields under different sowing dates.

[Linkage disequilibrium in plant genomes].

Linkage disequilibrium (LD) is one of the most recently focused interests in the field of plant genomics. LD mapping is an effective approach to discovering novel genes and a bridge for connecting structural genomics to phenomics. LD mapping was first applied in plants in 2001. Since then, researches on the structure and extent of LD and LD mapping have been reported in a wide range of plant species. The basic theory of LD and its application in LD mapping, haplotype diversity analysis, htSNP identification and population genetics were reviewed in this paper. And advances of LD research in plants including influences of population structure, gene conversion, epistasis and GxE interactions, and future prospects were also presented. China has abundant germplasm resources, but gene discovery lags behind. Intensive researches on LD will certainly accelerate rapid development of plant genomics, especially the progress of gene discovery based on germplasm resources in China.