Wheat grain serves as the primary raw material for producing medium-high temperature (MT)-Daqu, a fermentation starter crucial for Chinese Baijiu production, characterized by spontaneous fermentation without the inoculation of exogenous substances. However, the interactions among wheat varieties, cultivation environments, and the resulting Daqu quality remain poorly understood. This study evaluates three wheat varieties harvested from three distinct cultivation environments, examining wheat grain quality, grain-associated endophytes, and physicochemical properties and microbial communities of MT-Daqu at 0, 9, and 90 days of fermentation. The results revealed the cultivation environment had the most pronounced impact on wheat fungal endophytes. The physicochemical properties of Daqu were primarily impacted by variety, namely, the enzyme activity impacted by environmental factors. Pantoea, Aspergillus, and Stephylium are key microbial genera shared between wheat grains and MT-Daqu. Redundancy analysis highlighted the critical roles of moisture content, starch content, and amino acid nitrogen levels in driving microbial succession in Daqu. Mantel analysis demonstrated significant correlations between the abundance of dominant fungal endophytes in wheat grains and Daqu quality parameters, including starch content (r = 0.45; p < 0.01), saccharifying activity (r = 0.41), liquefying activity (r = 0.31), and esterifying activity (r = 0.30) (p < 0.05). Spearman correlation analysis indicated that Nesterenkonia, Aspergillus, Cryptococcus, Dioszegia, Golubevia, Udeniomyces and Stemphylium are the dominant wheat-derived bacterial genera associated with the abundance of microorganisms in MT-Daqu. This study elucidated the “cultivation environment–grain endophyte–Daqu microorganism” microbial transmission pathway, providing a theoretical foundation for breeding wheat varieties optimized for Daqu production and identifying suitable production regions.

Chinese wheat landrace Anyuehong (AYH) has displayed high levels of stable adult plant resistance (APR) to stripe rust for >15 years. To identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for stripe rust resistance in AYH, a set of 110 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) was developed from a cross between AYH and susceptible cultivar Taichung 29. The parents and RILs were evaluated for final disease severity (FDS) in six field tests with a mixture of predominant Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici races at the adult plant stage and genotyped via the wheat 55K single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array to construct a genetic map with 1,143 SNP markers. Three QTLs, designated as QYr.AYH-1AS, QYr.AYH-5BL, and QYr.AYH-7DS, were mapped on chromosome 1AS, 5BL, and 7DS, respectively. RILs combining three QTLs showed significantly lower FDS compared with the lines in other combinations. Of them, QYr.AYH-5BL and QYr.AYH-7DS were stably detected in all environments, explaining 13.6 to 21.4% and 17.6 to 33.6% of phenotypic variation, respectively. Compared with previous studies, QYr.AYH-5BL may be a new QTL, whereas QYr.AYH-7DS may be Yr18. Haplotype analysis revealed that QYr.AYH-5BL is probably present in 6.2% of the 323 surveyed Chinese wheat landraces. The kompetitive allele specific PCR (KASP) markers for QYr.AYH-5BL were developed by the linked SNP markers to successfully confirm the effects of the QTL in a validation population derived from a residual heterozygous line and were further assessed in 38 Chinese wheat landraces and 92 cultivars. Our results indicated that QYr.AYH-5BL with linked KASP markers has potential value for marker-assisted selection to improve stripe rust resistance in breeding programs.

Purpose: Due to the rise in urbanization, demand for easily prepared foods such as pastries and noodles has risen. But the high price of wheat in the global market puts financial stress on low-income people, especially on those living in tropical regions, where wheat does not thrive well. They depend solely on imported wheat, which is expensive due to importation cost, or seek other relatively less-nutritious cereals. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to investigate the possibility of supplementing wheat flour with flour from relatively cheap and easy-to-produce root tuber, such as cassava, potato and sweet potato. Design/methodology/approach: Strong-, medium- and weak-gluten wheat flours were supplemented with flour from cassava, potato and sweet potato at 10, 20 and 30 percent. Strong gluten composites were used to make bread, whereas medium and weak gluten composites were used for cookie and noodle production, respectively. Protein, ash, fat, crude fiber, moisture, carbohydrate, gluten, zeleny and energy contents of each composite were tested. Findings: The nutritional and sensory quality of bread, cookies and noodles made from wheat flour supplemented with root tuber flour at 10, 20 and 30 percent was assessed. Results revealed that mixing wheat flour and root tuber flour has important effects on the moisture, protein, carbohydrate, fat, ash, gluten, zeleny sedimentation value and crude fiber content of the resulting mixture. Moisture and carbohydrate increased while protein and fat significantly (p<0.05) decreased with increasing root tuber flour levels in formulations. Gluten content also decreased significantly with rising root tuber flour concentrations. There was a mild reduction in bread’s general acceptability at 10 and 20 percent in potato composites; thus potato flour was still acceptable at 20 percent. Cassava flour composite also topped with a general acceptability score of 69.26 at 20 percent in cookies, whereas sweet potato composite achieved a score of 84.81 in noodles. Originality/value: This work has successfully confirmed that wheat flour could be supplemented up to 20 percent with root tuber flour without compromising the nutritional and sensory quality of products. It has also demonstrated that different products require different root tuber flour substitution for optimum results. Potato at 10 percent substitution was found to be best for bread production. Cassava and sweet potato at 10 percent substitution were also best for cookies and noodles, respectively. With respect to protein content only, sweet potato substitution is better than cassava and potato.

Iron-based catalysts with high load content of iron sulfide (FeS) were commonly peroxymonosulfate (PMS) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) activators to degrade organic pollutants but limited catalytic efficiency and increased risk of ferrous ion leaching restricted their use. Meanwhile, various biomass materials such as straw, peel, and branch have been extensively prepared into biochar for mechanical support for iron-based catalysts; however, the preparation process of biochar was energy-intensive. In this study, FeS nanoparticles modified rape straw composites (RS–FeS) encapsulated with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (RS–EDTA–FeS) were successfully presented by in-situ synthesis method for efficiently activating PMS and H₂O₂ to degrade oxytetracycline (OTC), which was economical and environmentally friendly. The results showed that the modified rape straw can remove OTC efficiently, and the addition of EDTA also significantly enhanced the stability and the reusability of the catalyst. In addition, EDTA also promoted the activation of H₂O₂ at neutral pH. The OTC degradation efficiency of the two catalysts by PMS was faster than that of H₂O₂, but H₂O₂ had a stronger ability to remove OTC than PMS. The highest OTC removal efficiency of RS–FeS and RS–EDTA–FeS were 87.51 and 81.15%. O₂^•– and ¹O₂ were the major reactive oxidative species (ROS) in the PMS system. Furthermore, compared with RS–FeS, the addition of EDTA inhabited the generation of O₂^•– in the PMS system. Instead, O₂^•– and ^•OH were the major ROS in the H₂O₂ system, but ¹O₂ was also identified in RS–FeS/H₂O₂ system. RS–EDTA–FeS showed a trend of rising first and then decreasing in recycle test. Instead, the removal rate of OTC by RS–FeS decreased significantly with the increase in reuse times. In the actual wastewater test, the TOC removal of two catalysts active by H₂O₂ was better than PMS, which was consistent with the test results of OTC, indicating that the two catalysts have application value in the removal of organic pollutants in actual wastewater. This study directly used plant materials as catalysts and omits the preparation process of biochar, greatly reduces the preparation cost and secondary pollution of catalysts, and provides theoretical support for the deepening of advanced oxidation technology.

Stripe rust (yellow rust), caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, is one of the most destructive diseases of wheat worldwide. Chinese wheat landrace Guangtoumai (GTM) exhibited a high level of resistance against predominant P. striiformis f. sp. tritici races in China at the adult plant stage. The objective of this research was to identify and map the major locus/loci for stripe rust resistance in GTM. A set of 212 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) was developed from a cross between GTM and Avocet S. The parents and RILs were evaluated in three field tests (2018, 2019, and 2020 at Chongzhou, Sichuan) with the currently predominant P. striiformis f. sp. tritici races for final disease severity and genotyped with the Wheat 55K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array to construct a genetic map with 1,031 SNP markers. A major locus, named QYr.GTM-5DL, was detected on chromosome 5DL in GTM. The locus was mapped in a 2.75-cM interval flanked by SNP markers AX-109855976 and AX-109453419, explaining up to 44.4% of the total phenotypic variation. Since no known Yr genes have been reported on chromosome 5DL, QYr.GTM-5DL is very likely a novel adult plant resistance locus. Haplotype analysis revealed that the resistance allele displayed enhanced levels of stripe rust resistance and is likely present in 5.3% of the 247 surveyed Chinese wheat landraces. The derived cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (dCAPS) marker dCAPS-5722, converted from a SNP marker tightly linked to QYr.GTM-5DL with 0.3 cM, was validated on a subset of RILs and 48 commercial wheat cultivars developed in Sichuan. The results indicated that QYr.GTM-5DL with its linked dCAPS marker could be used in marker-assisted selection to improve stripe rust resistance in breeding programs, and this quantitative trait locus will provide new and possibly durable resistance to stripe rust.