Root system architecture plays a crucial role in water and nutrient acquisition in maize. Cytokinins, which can be irreversibly degraded by the cytokinin oxidase/dehydrogenase (CKX), are important hormones that regulate root development in plants. In this study, ZmCKX5 was resequenced in 285 inbred lines, 68 landraces, and 32 teosintes to identify the significant variants associated with root traits in maize. Sequence polymorphisms and nucleotide diversity revealed that ZmCKX5 might be selected during domestication and improvement processes. Marker–trait association analysis in inbred lines identified 12 variants of ZmCKX5 that were significantly associated with six root traits, including seed root number (SRN), lateral root length (LRL), total root area (RA), root length in 0 to 0.5 mm diameter class (RL005), total root volume (RV), and total root length (TRL). SNP-1195 explained the most (6.01%) phenotypic variation of SRN, and the frequency of this allele G increased from 6.25% and 1.47% in teosintes and landraces, respectively, to 17.39% in inbred lines. Another significant variant, SNP-1406, with a pleiotropic effect, is strongly associated with five root traits, with the frequency of T allele increased from 25.00% and 23.73% in teosintes and landraces, respectively, to 35.00% in inbred lines. These results indicate that ZmCKX5 may be involved in the development of the maize root system and that the significant variants can be used to develop functional markers to accelerate the improvement in the maize root system.

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<p>Sea spray has important influence on the evolution of tropical cyclone. The influence of sea spray in the numerical simulation and prediction of tropical cyclones is not ignorable. In order to explore the kinetic and thermodynamic effects of sea spray on tropical cyclone, the drag coefficient C<sub>D </sub>and the enthalpy transfer coefficient C<sub>K</sub> with sea spray’s effects were included in the coupled ocean-atmosphere-wave-sediment transport modeling system (COAWST). The numerical results show that, the effect of sea spray can effectively improve the simulation results of tropical cyclone path. When only the kinetic effect of sea spray is considered, the momentum flux at the surface of sea is little affected, and the upward sensible heat flux and latent heat flux are slightly increased. When kinetic and thermodynamic effects of sea spray is considered at the same time, the momentum flux is slightly increased, the upward sensible heat flux is increased, and the latent heat flux is significantly increased, the intensity of tropical cyclone is significantly enhanced, mainly due to the thermodynamic effect . Considering the kinetic and thermodynamic effects of sea spray at the same time is more effective than considering the kinetic effects of sea spray in improving the intensity simulation of tropical cyclone.</p>