iDHS-FFLG: Identifying DNase I Hypersensitive Sites by Feature Fusion and Local-Global Feature Extraction Network.

The DNase I hypersensitive sites (DHSs) are active regions on chromatin that have been found to be highly sensitive to DNase I. These regions contain various cis-regulatory elements, including promoters, enhancers and silencers. Accurate identification of DHSs helps researchers better understand the transcriptional machinery of DNA and deepen the knowledge of functional DNA elements in non-coding sequences. Researchers have developed many methods based on traditional experiments and machine learning to identify DHSs. However, low prediction accuracy and robustness limit their application in genetics research. In this paper, a novel computational approach based on deep learning is proposed by feature fusion and local-global feature extraction network to identify DHSs in mouse, named iDHS-FFLG. First of all, multiple binary features of nucleotides are fused to better express sequence information. Then, a network consisting of the convolutional neural network (CNN), bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) and self-attention mechanism is designed to extract local features and global contextual associations. In the end, the prediction module is applied to distinguish between DHSs and non-DHSs. The results of several experiments demonstrate the superior performances of iDHS-FFLG compared to the latest methods.

Minimum fertilization at the appearance of the first flower benefits cotton nutrient utilization of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

There are currently many problems related to excessive fertilizer application, low fertilizer-use efficiency and lack of an agricultural labor force for cotton production in China. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to explain the optimal application time for once fertilization based on cotton nutrient accumulation of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to provide technical support for simplified fertilization management in cotton production. A 2 yr field experiment and a 1 yr pot experiment were conducted with fertilizer (225, 67.5, and 225 kg ha-1 of N, P2O5, and K2O, respectively) applied once at 0 (FT1), 5 (FT2), 10 (FT3), 15 (FT4), or 20 (FT5) d after the appearance of the first flower and a triple application (preplant 30%, first bloom 40%, and peak bloom 30%) as the conventional control (FT6). The results showed that FT1 exhibited the greatest nutrient accumulation speed for both the average (5.81, 1.22, and 5.74 kg ha-1 of N, P2O5, and K2O, respectively) and the maximum (6.31, 1.44, and 6.24 kg ha-1 of N, P2O5, and K2O, respectively) during the fast accumulation period. Moreover, among the different treatments, FT1 exhibited the greatest nutrient recovery and partial productivity. The results suggest that applying the minimum amount of fertilizer at the appearance of the first flower is optimal for maximizing nutrient utilization while minimizing environmental disturbance.

Allelopathic potential of oil seed crops in production of crops: a review.

Agricultural production enhancement has been realized by more consumption of fossil energy such as fertilizer and agrochemicals. However, the production provides the present human with sufficient and diversified commodities, but at the same time, deprives in some extent the resources from the future human as well. In the other hand, it is known that synthetic herbicides face worldwide threats to human's health and environment as well. Therefore, it is a great challenge for agricultural sustainable development. The current review has been focussed on various oilseed crop species which launch efficient allelopathic intervention, either with weeds or other crops. Crop allelopathic properties can make one species more persistent to a native species. Therefore, these crops are potentially harmful to both naturalized as well as agricultural settings. On the other side, allelopathic crops provide strong potential for the development of cultivars that are more highly weed suppressive in managed settings. It is possible to utilize companion plants that have no deleterious effect on neighbor crops and can be included in intercropping system, thus, a mean of contributing to agricultural sustainable development. In mixed culture, replacement method, wherein differing densities of a neighbor species are planted, has been used to study phytotoxic/competitive effects. So, to use alternative ways for weed suppression has become very crucial. Allelochemicals have the ability to create eco-friendly products for weed management, which is beneficial for agricultural sustainable development. Our present study assessed the potential of four oilseed crops for allelopathy on other crops and associated weeds.