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GATA transcription factors are crucial proteins in regulating transcription and are characterized by a type-IV zinc finger DNA-binding domain. They play a significant role in the growth and development of plants. While the GATA family gene has been identified in several plant species, it has not yet been reported in Phoebe bournei. In this study, 22 GATA family genes were identified from the P. bournei genome, and their physicochemical properties, chromosomal distribution, subcellular localization, phylogenetic tree, conserved motif, gene structure, cis-regulatory elements in promoters, and expression in plant tissues were analyzed. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the PbGATAs were clearly divided into four subfamilies. They are unequally distributed across 11 out of 12 chromosomes, except chromosome 9. Promoter cis-elements are mostly involved in environmental stress and hormonal regulation. Further studies showed that PbGATA11 was localized to chloroplasts and expressed in five tissues, including the root bark, root xylem, stem bark, stem xylem, and leaf, which means that PbGATA11 may have a potential role in the regulation of chlorophyll synthesis. Finally, the expression profiles of four representative genes, PbGATA5, PbGATA12, PbGATA16, and PbGATA22, under drought, salinity, and temperature stress, were detected by qRT-PCR. The results showed that PbGATA5, PbGATA22, and PbGATA16 were significantly expressed under drought stress. PbGATA12 and PbGATA22 were significantly expressed after 8 h of low-temperature stress at 10 °C. This study concludes that the growth and development of the PbGATA family gene in P. bournei in coping with adversity stress are crucial. This study provides new ideas for studying the evolution of GATAs, provides useful information for future functional analysis of PbGATA genes, and helps better understand the abiotic stress response of P. bournei.

Glyptostrobus pensilis is a critically endangered living fossil plant species of the Mesozoic era, with high scientific research and economic value. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of climate change on the potential habitat area of G. pensilis in East Asia. The MaxEnt (maximum entropy) model optimized by the ENMeval data package was used to simulate the potential distribution habitats of G. pensilis since the last interglacial period (LIG, 120–140 ka). The results showed that the optimized MaxEnt model has a high prediction accuracy with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.9843 ± 0.005. The Current highly suitable habitats were found in the Northeast Jiangxi, Eastern Fujian and Eastern Guangdong; the main climatic factors affecting the geographic distribution of G. pensilis are temperature and precipitation, with precipitation as the temperature factor. The minimum temperature of coldest month (Bio6) may be the key factor restricting the northward distribution of G. pensilis; during the LIG, it contracted greatly in the highly suitable habitat area. Mean Diurnal Range (Bio2), Minimum Temperature of Coldest Month (Bio6), Annual Precipitation (Bio12) and Mean Temperature of Driest Quarter (Bio9) may be important climatic factors causing the changes in geographic distribution. In the next four periods, the suitable areas all migrated southward. Except for the RCP2.6-2070s, the highly suitable areas in the other three periods showed varying degrees of shrinkage. The results will provide a theoretical basis for the management and resource protection of G. pensilis.

Marker-assisted selection (MAS) is implemented to improve Camellia oleifera yield and fruit attributes for meeting China’s increased demand for new varieties development. We conducted three-generational (G0, G1, and G2) hybridization (diallel mating) and selection experiment and used Sequence-Related Amplified Polymorphism (SRAP). SRAP markers to investigate their utility in a MAS framework. The utilized SRAP markers were instrumental in hybrid authenticity and the identification of matroclinal or patroclinal inheritance presence, thus guiding mating pair selection and direction (their role as male or females). Across the studied 3 generations, estimates of genetic diversity parameters showed steady increase with percentage increase of ((G0 to G1 and G1 to G2) 9.25 and 9.05: observed number of alleles; 3.12 and 7.80: means effective number of alleles; 12.35 and 22.34: Nei‘s gene diversity; and 14.21 and 21.77: Shannon‘s index), indicating lack of diversity reduction associated with selection. Estimates of genetic distance and their correlation with heterosis were useful in guiding selection of mating pairs for achieving the desired yield and fruit attributes (fruit diameter, height, weight, and index, peel thickness, number of seeds per fruit, seed weight per fruit, and seed rate). Most yield and fruit attributes exhibited high broad-sense heritability with increasing trend over generation intervals, indicating the increased potential of hybrid breeding for this species.

Self-incompatibility (SI) is a mechanism used to prevent inbreeding and promote outcrossing in a wide variety of angiosperms. Camellia oleifera (Theaceae), is one of the most prominent wood oil pla...

Trees dominate the structural and functional dynamics of many temperate and tropical forest ecosystems and are of considerable scientific and social interest. The effective ecological restoration of abandoned agricultural fields, especially of highly degraded ecosystems, remains a challenge. Germination is imperative to restore natural ecosystems and to save the environment. Low germination rate is key player to disturb the ecosystem. Cyclobalnopsis gilva is an economically important woody plant, however its germination rate is less than 50% in its natural habitats compared to that of other plants. A comparative proteomics approach was carried out to investigate this feature on germinated and non-germinated seeds of C. gilva. Proteins from seeds of C. gilva were extracted using phenol extraction, separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis, and identified through matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight/time of flight mass spectrometry. In addition, the results of proteome were verified through the RT-qPCR determination. More than 700 proteins were reproducibly detected. Among 26 proteins with 2-fold changes in abundance, the 24 differential proteins were identified successfully. Many differential proteins were involved in starch metabolism. β-amylase abundance and mRNA level were both up-regulated in germinated seeds of C. gilva. An important point to provides new insights into the understandings of C. gilva seed germination problems are found through 2-DE and RT-qPCR analyses to save the forest ecology and solve the problem of woody plants with low germination rate all over the world.

A valuable plant, Cyclobalanopsis gilva, (C. gilva) has a low germination rate (below 50%) under its natural habitations. In order to examine the reasons for the low germination rate, the seeds of C. gilva (germinated and non-germinated) were evaluated using comparative proteomics analysis. A total of 3078 differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) were identified through a label-free method; most DAPs up-accumulated in germinated seeds were related to carbohydrates metabolism. Furthermore the proteins related to the signals, stress, and protein metabolism showed up-accumulation in germinated and no abundance or down-accumulation in non-germinated seeds. Enzyme activity of HK, PGK, PFK, and PK from glycolysis in SG-Control samples were 1.7-, 1.1-, 1.4-, and 1.3-times higher compared with those in control ones while CS, NAD-MDH, α-KGDH, and ICDH from the TCA cycle in SG-Control samples were 3, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.2 times higher than those in NG-Control ones. The β-amylase activity was 4-fold higher in successfully germinated seeds compared to non-germinated seeds. Interestingly, α-amylase did not show significant changes in protein abundance and enzyme activity among the three samples. The present findings reveal that unsuccessful germination of C. gilva seeds is due to lack of energy.

Camellia oleifera is a valuable woody oil plant belonging to the Theaceae, Camellia oil extracted from the seed is an excellent edible oil source. Self-incompatibility (SI) in C. oleifera results in low fruit set, and our knowledge about the mechanism remains limited. In the present study, the Tandem mass tag (TMT) based quantitative proteomics was employed to analyze the dynamic change of proteins response to self- and cross-pollinated in C. oleifera. A total of 6,616 quantified proteins were detected, and differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) analysis identified a large number of proteins. Combined analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and DAPs of self- and cross-pollinated pistils based on transcriptome and proteome data revealed that several candidate genes or proteins involved in SI of C. oleifera, including polygalacturonase inhibitor, UDP-glycosyltransferase 92A1-like, beta-D-galactosidase, S-adenosylmethionine synthetase, xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolase, ABC transporter G family member 36-like, and flavonol synthase. Venn diagram analysis identified 11 proteins that may participate in pollen tube growth in C. oleifera. Our data also revealed that the abundance of proteins related to peroxisome was altered in responses to SI in C. oleifera. Moreover, the pathway of lipid metabolism-related, flavonoid biosynthesis and splicesome were reduced in self-pollinated pistils by the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis. In summary, the results of the present study lay the foundation for learning the regulatory mechanism underlying SI responses as well as provides valuable protein resources for the construction of self-compatibility C. oleifera through genetic engineering in the future.

Effective ecological restoration of abandoned agricultural fields, especially highly degraded ecosystems, remains challenge. Germination is imperative to restore natural ecosystems and save the environment. Low germination rate is key player to disturb the ecosystem. During germination, seeds undergo physiological and morphological changes. Starting with imbibition, seeds consume stored food and biosynthesize different proteins. Afterward, radical emergence leads to the seedling establishment. Coordinated activities during seed germination correspond directly with transcription of genes playing crucial roles. Despite the presence of rigid seed coats, up/down-regulation of some genes coding specific proteins require thorough investigation. We have focused topical advancements in transcriptomics with reference to seed germination. Over the years model plant species such as Oryza sativa and Arabidopsis thaliana have been analyzed through transcriptomic studies with respect to seed germination. A daunting challenge is to provide detailed transcriptomic profiling of germination process in woody plants. So far there is a shortage of transcriptomics data regarding woody plants. Cyclobalnopsis gilva is a woody plant having very low seed germination and no transcriptomics analysis has been conducted. Omics technology can offer increments to existing information about C. gilva seed germination. The review aims to reveal the involvement of molecular biological mechanisms during seed germination and their effects on ecology. It will be helpful to solve low germination problem of all over the world woody plants to save forest ecology.

Cyclobalnopsis gilva is a woody plant with lower seed germination rate in its natural habitats as compared with other plants. The regulation at transcriptional level to of seed germination in C.gilva is yet to be discovered. Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform was performed to investigate the transcriptome of germinated and non-germinated seeds of C.gilva. A total of 40,782 differentially expressed unigenes (DEGs) were identified in germinated and non-germinated seeds and compared with the control. Carbohydrate metabolisms were enriched significantly through the analysis of KEGG pathways of DEGs. The physiological parameters and mRNA expression levels relevant to carbohydrate metabolisms including glycolysis and TCA cycle, and sucrose and starch metabolism were found to be poor in non-germinated seeds. The consistent results of the transcriptomic data, physiological analyses, and mRNA expression levels suggest that C.gilva seeds fail to germinate due to the lower activity of carbohydrate metabolism. Our findings will expand the knowledge on the transcriptional responses of respiratory pathways, sucrose, and starch metabolism related to lower seed germination rate of C.gilva.

The mangrove Kandelia candel (L.) Druce experiences daily flooding cycles. To explore the molecular mechanism underlying the physiological adaptation of K. candel to flooding, the potential role of protein phosphorylation in flooding responses was investigated by a large-scale quantitative phosphoproteomic analysis using isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation. Total 2141 unique phosphopeptides and 2603 non-redundant phosphorylation sites were identified from 1516 phosphoproteins in K. candel leaves. In addition to known phosphorylation motifs, three new motifs [GSP], [GxxSP] and [RSxS] were discovered. The phosphorylation levels of 96 differentially expressed phosphoproteins, including those involved in pyruvate metabolism and energy production, were identified in response to flooding. The physiological parameters and transcriptional levels relevant to flooding responses including photosynthesis, pyruvate metabolism, and ROS production were investigated and all were found to be robust under flooding conditions. The consistent results of the phosphoproteomic, physiological analyses and transcriptional levels reinforce each other to demonstrate that K. candel adapts to flooding through maintaining sufficient photosynthesis activities, achieving effective anaerobic respiration and increasing pentose phosphate pathway flux. Protein phosphorylation is likely to play a major role in the regulation of these pathways which together contribute to stable energy supply that enhances flooding tolerance in K. candel. Biological significance Flooding stress is one of the major environmental stresses. The woody mangrove Kandelia candel experiences daily flooding cycles in its natural habitat. Protein phosphorylation is a crucial regulatory mechanism in plants' responses to both biotic and abiotic stresses. To analyze phosphorylation levels in critical enzymes involved in key metabolic pathways, we employed phosphoproteomic approach to dissect the adaptive mechanism of K. candel to flooding conditions. To our knowledge, this is the first large-scale quantitative phosphoproteomic analyses of K. candel's flooding responses. Multiplex iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomic and Nano-LC–MS/MS methods were used to construct the phosphorproteome. Our results indicate that K. candel is able to acquire stable energy supply under flooding by maintaining sufficient photosynthesis activities, enhancing effective anaerobic respiration and increasing pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) flux. The protein phosphorylation found in photosynthesis, anaerobic respiration and PPP is likely to play important roles in the flooding tolerance of K. candel.

To explore the adaptation mechanisms of Kandelia candel (L.) Druce in response to daily flooding, a large-scale quantitative lysine acetylome was carried out using immunoaffinity enrichment of Lys-acetylated peptides and liquid chromatography linked to tandem mass spectrometry. A total of 1041 lysine acetylation (LysAc) sites, 1021 Lys-acetylated peptides and 617 Lys-acetylated proteins were identified. Six conserved sequence motifs of the LysAc sites, including a new motif KxxxxK, were detected. Among these proteins, 260 were differentially acetylated in response to flooding, which were preferentially predicted to participate in carbon metabolism and photosynthesis pathways based on KEGG pathway category enrichment analysis. Consistently, the transcriptional level of acetyltransferase and the consumption of acetyl-CoA were up-regulated under flooding conditions. Most of physiological parameters and mRNA expression levels related to carbon metabolism and photosynthesis were found to be insignificantly affected by flooding. Taken together, reversible protein LysAc is likely to be a post-translational mechanism contributing to the mangrove K. candel's adaptation to daily flooding.

The molecular mechanisms of fatty acid biosynthesis and accumulation during Camellia meiocarpa and Camellia oleifera seed natural drying are characterized through transcriptome analyses. Camellia seed oil has been used as high quality and healthy food for over two thousand years. Seed drying affects oil quality and quantity; however, the molecular mechanisms of fatty acid biosynthesis and accumulation during the drying process remain unknown. In this study, the transcriptomes of Camellia meiocarpa and C. oleifera seed were characterized at five moisture content levels (10–50%) to identify the major processes and reveal genes affecting lipid metabolism in response to natural drying. We found a total of 111,156 unigenes by de novo assembled from RNA-Seq libraries of five moisture content levels during after-ripening of C. meiocarpa (74,016) and C. oleifera (76,374). Ten pathways were closely linked to changes in oil content and composition with 244 genes involved in fatty acid synthesis and accumulation. Gene ontology enrichment of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) indicated that fatty acid synthesis and accumulation are essential in C. meiocarpa while fatty acid accumulation in C. oleifera during natural drying process. Comparative analyses of DEGs between any two consecutive moisture contents identified six and three key unigenes in C. meiocarpa and C. oleifera seeds, respectively, and one additional unigene responsible for the difference between the two species’ fatty acid synthesis and accumulation. Natural drying has improved the quality and quantity of the camellia seed oil. The study provided: (a) global transcriptional profiles at five moisture content levels during seed natural drying, (b) highlighting transcripts putatively involved in the regulation of gene expression program and in specific processes likely essential for lipid metabolism, and (c) discovery of genes associated with oil seed quantity and quality improvement for the studied two camellia species.

Background Camellia species are ancient oilseed plants with a history of cultivation over two thousand years. Prior to oil extraction, natural seed drying is often practiced, a process affecting fatty acid quality and quantity. MicroRNAs (miRNA) of lipid metabolism associated with camellia seed natural drying are unexplored. To obtain insight into the function of miRNAs in lipid metabolism during natural drying, Illumina sequencing of C. oleifera and C. meiocarpa small-RNA was conducted. Results A total of 274 candidate miRNAs were identified and 3733 target unigenes were annotated by performing a BLASTX. Through integrated GO and KEGG function annotation, 23 miRNA regulating 131 target genes were identified as lipid metabolism, regulating fatty acid biosynthesis, accumulation and catabolism. We observed one, two, and four miRNAs of lipid metabolism which were specially expressed in C. Meiocarpa, C. oleifera, and the two species collectively, respectively. At 30% moisture contents, C. meiocarpa and C. oleifer produced nine and eight significant differentially expressed miRNAs, respectively, with high fatty acid synthesis and accumulation activities. Across the two species, 12 significant differentially expressed miRNAs were identified at the 50% moisture content. Conclusions Sequencing of small-RNA revealed the presence of 23 miRNAs regulating lipid metabolism in camellia seed during natural drying and permitted comparative miRNA profiles between C. Meiocarpa and C. oleifera. Furthermore, this study successfully identified the best drying environment at which the quantity and quality of lipid in camellia seed are at its maximum. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-017-3923-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The anatomical and physiological signaling pathways associated with successful scion-rootstock union in nurse seedling grafting of Camellia oleifera propagation are illustrated. Grafting, the successful union between scion and rootstock, has practical and biological importance. Nurse seedling grafting, as those practiced for Camellia oleifera, often results in high cell division activity and affinity, and is usually associated with significant rootstock and scion anatomical structures changes. However, a comprehensive explanation of signaling pathways, and how they affect graft union development, is still largely unknown. The present study investigates the union formation process in C. oleifera nurse seedling grafts and determines that it consists of six stages, namely, isolation layer formation, rootstock callus differentiation, scion callus differentiation, callus proliferation and connection, cambium differentiation and connection, and conducting tissue differentiation and connection, extending over a period of 35 days. Principal components analyses of the observed changes in physiology and protein expression identified three main factors contributing to the union formation process: cell proliferation, cell differentiation, and vascular bundle development. Further analysis showed that the regulation of the union formation process can be divided into two signaling pathways, namely, calcium and MAPK, which occur during vascular bundle development and cell proliferation and differentiation, respectively.

Camellia oleifera Abel. is a critical oil tree species. Camellia oil, which is extracted from the seeds, is widely regarded as a premium cooking oil, with the content of oleic acid being over 80%. Light is thought to be one of the largest essential natural components in the regulation of plant developmental processes, and different light qualities can considerably influence plant physiological and phenotypic traits. In this research, we examined the growth and physiological responses of C. oleifera &ldquo, MIN 43&rdquo, cultivar plantlets to three different wavelengths of light, containing white, red, and blue light, and we utilized the combination of the PacBio single-molecule real-time (SMRT) and Illumina HiSeq RNA sequencing to obtain the mRNA expression profiles. The results showed that plantlets growing under blue light conditions displayed superior growth performance, including stimulated enhancement of the leaf area, increased leaf number, increased chlorophyll synthesis, and improved photosynthesis. Furthermore, SMAT sequencing created 429,955 reads of inserts, where 406,722 of them were full-length non-chimeric reads, and 131,357 non-redundant isoforms were produced. Abundant differentially expressed genes were found in leaves under different light qualities by RNA-sequencing. Gene expression profiles of actin, dynein, tubulin, defectively organized tributaries 3 (DOT3), and ADP ribosylation factor 5 (ARF5) were associated with the greatest leaf performance occurring under blue light conditions. Moreover, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis identified hundreds of pathways involved in different light conditions. The pathways of the plant circadian rhythm and hormone signal transduction were associated with different light quality responses in C. oleifera. Phytochrome B (PHYB), constitutively photomorphogenic 1 (COP1), long hypocotyl 5 (HY5), auxin/indole-3-acetic acid (AUX/IAA), Gretchen Hagen 3 (GH3), and small auxin-up RNA (SAUR), which were differentially expressed genes involved in these two pathways, play a vital role in responses to different wavelengths of light in C. oleifera. In addition, blue light significantly promotes flavonoid biosynthesis via changing expression of related genes.

Plant anthocyanin biosynthesis is well understood, but the regulatory mechanism in purple foliage tea remains unclear. Using isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ), 815 differential proteins were identified in the leaves of Zijuan tea, among which 20 were associated with the regulation of anthocyanin metabolism. We found that the abundances of anthocyanin synthesis-related enzymes such as chalcone synthase, chalcone isomerase, dihydroflavonol 4-reductase and anthocyanin synthetase, as well as anthocyanin accumulation-related UDP-glucosyl transferase and ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters in the purple leaves were all significantly higher than those in the green leaves. The abundances of the transcription factors bHLH and HY5, regulating anthocyanin biosynthesis at transcriptional level were also obviously higher in purple leaves than those in green leaves. In addition, bifunctional 3-dehydroquinate dehydratase and chorismate mutase in purple leaves were distinctly higher in abundance compared to green leaves, which provided sufficient phenylalanine substrate for anthocyanin synthesis. Furthermore, lignin synthesis was found to be reduced due to the lower abundances of cinnamoyl-CoA reductase 1, peroxidase 15 and laccase-6, which resulted in increase of intermediates flow into anthocyanin synthesis pathway. The physiological data were consistent with proteomic results. These four aspects of biosynthetic regulation contribute to anthocyanin accumulation in purple leaves of Zijuan tea.

The heavy metal Cadmium (Cd), added to the water bodies through weathering of rocks and human activities, constitutes one of the major environmental pollutants toxic to plants. This study examines the proteome changes in roots of actively growing Kandelia candel (L.) Druce when challenged with Cd. This mangrove-like species proliferates in estuaries and bays and is a potential choice for phytoremediation of Cd. A total of 53 proteins were up- or down-regulated following a short-term Cd treatment. The identities of the differentially expressed proteins were determined by MALDI-TOF/TOF. Approximately half of the up-regulated proteins are involved in oxidative response, including antioxidant enzymes, enzymes required for glutathione biosynthesis, enzymes in TCA and PPP cycles for generating ATP, NADH and NADPH. These results support the prediction that a prompt antioxidative response is necessary for the reduction of the oxidative stress caused by Cd and set the stage for further investigating of Cd up-regulated proteins in Kandelia candel.

To solve the problem whether Flipped Classroom is suitable for the Chinese primary schools, this paper illustrates the concept and main idea of Flipped Classroom, then argues that there is great challenge to deeply carry out the Flipped Classroom in the Chinese primary schools, especially in developing the high quality education resources, building the online education platform and guaranteeing the learning quality of students before class. So this paper points out the essence of e-education, which includes exerting students' principal role to arouse their active learning, playing a guiding role of teachers to let students break through the cognitive obstacle and appropriately facilitating student's development by utilizing the zone of proximal development. Based on these mentioned points, it suggests that Chinese primary schools should apply to laws of education to explore the new educational reform supported by IT.

Social media are the online media for social interaction, based on Web2.0 technology, which has the typical characteristics of the user-generated content and the online interpersonal interaction. When social media involves in distance education, it makes the educational communication elements of distance education undergo a qualitative change, and forms a new network communication model of group interaction. The value of social media in distance education is to promote to build and share distance learning resources, and to support distance learners to carry out social interaction, and to promote the collaborative learning and the reflective learning.

Unlike the traditional paper-and-pencil tests, computer adaptive testing (CAT) presents the next item based on his or her past responses, which is more appropriate for a particular individual. However, it is rarely seen in a smaller-scale scenario, such as in classrooms or business?because of the complexity of Item Response Theory (IRT) and the possible usages of services may not be known or may increase due to the development of new services. Our approach to this problem is self-adaptive functional testing, which is a combination of monitoring and active testing at runtime. We present a Response-Driven Adaptive Test System (RDATS) to get user’s response data which has been detected during monitoring, existing test cases are adapted automatically to the specific situation and applied afterwards based on user’s response at runtime. In this paper, we discuss the structure and functionality of the system with particular emphasis on adaptive test Mechanisms and SQL database design. Finally, we discuss some practical issues related to the application of the system and its future works.

Ability level of learner is the important dimension of adaptation in adaptive learning system. There are great differences in the capacity dimensions between different learners. Even for each specific learner, his ability level changes in the learning process. In order to more effectively evaluate the learner's ability level and to support the personalized learning, we integrate the computerized adaptive testing (CAT) module into adaptive learning system in this paper. We put forward the architecture of integrating computerized adaptive testing module into adaptive learning system, and analyze the algorithms of adaptive testing based on item response theory and three parameters logistic (3PL) model. Via CAT, the test result updates the learnerpsilas ability level in student model. So based on the new ability level of learner, adaptive learning system can support the personalized learning with the adaptive content and the adaptive navigation.