Grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs) are progressively affecting vineyard longevity and productivity worldwide. To be able to understand and combat these diseases, we need a different concept of the signals exchanged between the grapevine and fungi than the well-studied pathogen-associated molecular pattern and effector concepts. We screened extracts from fungi associated with GTDs for their association with basal defence responses in suspension cells of grapevine. By activity-guided fractionation of the two selected extracts, O-methylmellein was identified as a candidate modulator of grapevine immunity. O-Methylmellein could not induce immune responses by itself (i.e. does not act as an elicitor), but could amplify some of the defence responses triggered by the bacterial elicitor flg22, such as the induction level of defence genes and actin remodelling. These findings show that Eutypa lata, exemplarily selected as an endophytic fungus linked with GTDs, can secrete compounds that act as amplifiers of basal immunity. Thus, in addition to elicitors that can trigger basal immunity, and effectors that down-modulate antibacterial basal immunity, once it had been activated, E. lata seems to secrete a third type of chemical signal that amplifies basal immunity and may play a role in the context of consortia of mutually competing microorganisms.

Variation in vegetation cover in Inner Mongolia has been previously studied by the remote sensing data spanning only one decade. However, spatial and temporal variations in vegetation cover based on the newly released GIMMS NDVI3g data spanning nearly thirty years have yet to be analyzed. In this study, we applied the methods of the maximum value composite (MVC) and Pearson's correlation coefficient to analyze the variations of vegetation cover in Inner Mongolia based on GIMMS NDVI3g data spanning from 1982 to 2013. Our results indicate that the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) increased at a rate of 0.0003/a during the growing seasons despite of the drier and hotter climate in Inner Mongolia during the past three decades. We also found that vegetation cover in the southern agro-pastoral zone significantly increased, while it significantly decreased in the central Alxa. The variations in vegetation cover were not significant in the eastern and central regions. NDVI is positively correlated with precipitation (r=0.617, P=0.000) and also with air temperature (r=0.425, P=0.015), but the precipitation had a greater effect than the air temperature on the vegetation variations in Inner Mongolia.

This research is based on the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) which represent the drought and vegetation condition on land. Take the linear regression method and Pearson correlation analysis to study the spatial and temporal evolution of SPEI and NDVI and the drought effect on vegetation. The results show that (1) during 1961–2015, SPEI values at different time scales showed a downward trend; SPEI-12 has a mutation in 1997 and the SPEI value significantly decreased after this year. (2) During 2000–2015, the annual growing season SPEI has an obvious upward trend in time and the apparent wetting spatially. (3) In the recent 16 years, the growing season NDVI showed an upward trend and more than 80% of the total area’s vegetation increased in Xilingol. (4) Vegetation coverage in Xilingol grew better in humid years and opposite in arid years. SPEI and NDVI had a significant positive correlation; 98% of the region showed positive correlation, indicating that meteorological drought affects vegetation growth more in arid and semiarid region. (5) The effect of drought on vegetation has lag effect, and the responses of different grassland types to different scales of drought were different.

Oat natural silage is rich in Enterobacteriaceae , increasing gas production and fermentation loss. Lactic acid bacteria interact synergistically to form a dominant community during ensiling. Pediococci grow vigorously in the early stage of fermentation and create an anaerobic environment. Lactobacilli inhibit the harmful microorganisms and result in cleaner fermentation of oat silage.

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