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The current research work of Pullulan polysaccharide was reviewed, and the types of physical and chemical modifications of Pullulan polysaccharide were summarized. The chemical modifications were divided into esterification modification, copolymerization crooslinking modification, thiolation modification, etc. The application of its modified products in food processing and food preservation was also reviewed. The future research of Pullulan polysaccharide should focus on the direction of reducing pigment production and hydrophilicity, so as to produce excellent Pullulan polysaccharide based membrane materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interferon response is the first line of host defense against virus infection. Recent years have witnessed tremendous progress in understanding of fish innate response to virus infection, especially in fish interferon antiviral response. A line of fish genes involved in interferon antiviral response have been identified and functional studies further reveal that fish possess an IFN antiviral system similar to mammals. However, fish virus-induced interferon genes contain introns similar to mammalian type III interferon genes although they encode proteins similar to type I interferons, which makes it hard to understand the evolution of vertebrate interferon genes directly resulting in a debate on nomenclature of fish interferon genes. Actually, fish display some unique mechanisms underlying interferon antiviral response. This review documents the recent progress on fish interferon response and its molecular mechanism.

The study on the vertical and horizontal distribution of organic matters and total nitrogen (TN) in the sediment of ditch wetland naturally grown with reed (Phragmites communis) and wild rice (Zizania latifolia) showed that the sediment below 40 cm depth had a significant effectiveness in retaining and accumulating organic matters and TN, but in its surface layer, this effectiveness varied largely with seasons, and the maximum was more than twofold of the minimum. TN was highly correlated with organic matters, the correlation coefficient being 0.9876 in reed wetland and 0.9335 in wild rice wetland, and in water phase, it was positively related to NH4+ -N and NO3-N, indicating that the main composition of TN was organic N, and the mineralization of organic N was the sources of inorganic N. The harvest of reed in each autumn could take away 818 kg x hm(-2) of N and 103.6 kg x hm(-2) of P, and that of wild rice could take away 131 kg x hm(-2) of N and 28.9 kg x hm(-2) of P. Zizania caduci flora had a high assimilation ability of nutrients. Its cultivation in ditch wetland to replace wild helophytes would be a good approach to attain higher absorbing ability of N and P, and to resolve the secondary pollution problem of emerged plants, because farmers could harvest it voluntarily.