Immunofluorescence staining is an important method for detecting the localization of proteins in the cell. It is also frequently used in the localization study of chloroplast-division proteins. Although this method has been improved before by using protoplasts, it still has some limitations. Now we developed a new method to make it much easier. We just broke the plant leaf tissue with a serrated blade, stained the samples directly, and simply lysed the tissue into separatable cells. The localization of the target protein can then be observed with a clear view. Since this method directly uses broken leaf pieces, it is very fast. It can also be applied to the plants in which protoplasts are difficult to prepare. We first used this method to observe the localization of a chloroplast division protein FtsZ1 in the wild-type Arabidopsis. A ring was clearly seen in the middle of chloroplasts. In addition, we used this method to analyze the localization of FtsZ1 in arc3 and pdv2 mutants, as well as in dozens of other species, including some woody plants. This new immunofluorescence staining method is not only easy to use, but also has a wide applicability in various plants.

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The Chinese Loess Plateau region has long been suffering from serious soil erosion. Thus, large-scale afforestation has continued during the past decades in order to control soil erosion. Afforestation can dramatically alter nutrient cycles, affect soil-carbon storage, and change hydrology. However, it is unknown how afforestation influences species diversity of the soil seed bank and understory vegetation compared with spontaneous restoration of abandoned land. Forest land with trees planted 30 years ago, abandoned slope land restored spontaneously for 30 years, and the corresponding slopes with remnant natural vegetation were selected as sampling sites. The species richness both in the soil seed bank and vegetation was significantly higher on the afforested slope compared to the spontaneously restored abandoned land. The species similarity between the afforested slope and the remnant slope land was high both in the soil seed bank and standing vegetation compared to the abandoned land. The soil seed bank density varied from 1778 ± 187 to 3896 ± 221 seeds/m², and more than half of it was constituted by annual and biennial species, with no significant difference among sampling habitats. However, the afforested slope had higher seed density of grass and shrub/subshrubs compared to the abandoned slope. The present study indicates that in the study region, characterized by serious soil erosion, afforestation can better facilitate vegetation succession compared to spontaneously restoration of abandoned slope land.

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