Grafting is a pivotal horticultural technique for enhancing vegetable crop productivity; however, the specific molecular mechanisms governing rootstock-induced vigor remain insufficiently elucidated. This study deciphers how bottle gourd rootstock augments growth in melon scions through an integrated approach combining physiology, transcriptomics, phytohormone profiling, and functional genetics. Phenotypic analysis confirmed a significant increase in plant height, fresh weight, and stem diameter in heterografted scions compared to controls. Transcriptome sequencing of scion apices identified 663 core differentially expressed genes (DEGs) specifically modulated by the bottle gourd rootstock. These DEGs were prominently enriched in carbohydrate metabolism and plant hormone signal transduction pathways. Consistent with this, hormonal assays revealed a specific elevation in cytokinin and ethylene levels in the scion, accompanied by the upregulation of key pathway genes, including <i>MELO3C016881</i> (<i>LOG</i>) and <i>MELO3C007769</i> (<i>ERF060</i>). Crucially, virus-induced gene silencing of either gene completely abolished the rootstock-conferred growth advantage. Our findings preliminarily unveil the secret behind scion vigor, providing a foundational mechanistic framework for how rootstocks reprogram scion development. The identified genes, <i>MELO3C016881</i> and <i>MELO3C007769</i>, offer direct molecular targets for the precision breeding of superior scions in melon.
IntroductionOrganic farming (OF) has established itself as an alternative to conventional farming. Currently, only a few results are available from long-term studies examining the effects of OF on the environment and agriculture.MethodsThe effects of organic soil cultivation were investigated in a 32-year long-term experiment (from 1991 to 2023) using non-weighable gravity lysimeters, taking into account the known limitations of this method, and compared with agriculture based on best management practices (BMP) cultivation principles with regard to nitrogen leaching via seepage and other parameters, such as yield, nitrogen uptake, and nitrogen use efficiency.ResultsCompared with BMP, OF showed an average annual increase of 25 mm in seepage volume over the long term. Nitrogen concentrations in seepage water did not differ significantly between the two farming systems. The annual N load (median) was significantly higher for OF at 26.1 kg ha−1 than for BMP (20.5 kg ha−1). In contrast, the OF lysimeters showed a 35% reduction in long-term dry matter yield.DiscussionThe organic management practiced here must be optimized to avoid long-term increases in N emissions. To achieve this, soil tillage intensity must be reduced, fallow periods during the vegetation-free season avoided, and the plowing of legumes in the fall obviated, as this can be associated with high N mineralization losses. The main challenge in increasing the share of OF in agricultural management systems is to enhance OF productivity by increasing yields and improving yield stability.
This study was aimed to possibility of applying three constructed wetlands units (based on the vertical subsurface flow mode-operation) for treating of simulated wastewater contained cadmium ions. Iraqi sand was the substrate used for packing of mentioned units; however, Canna indica and Typha domingensis can be planted in any two units to improve of cadmium removal while the last one remains free of vegetation. The pH, DO, temperature, and Cd values were monitored in the effluents for detention time (0.5-120 h) and metal concentration (5-40 mgl-1) to estimate the performance of units. Results proved that the removal of cadmium ions can increase significantly for longer contact time and lower Cd concentration with percentage exceeding 82% beyond 5 days. Outputs of FT-IR analysis signified the presence of several functional groups that able to improve the removal process. The values of pH, DO, temperature, TDS, and EC for treated wastewater are satisfied the requirements of irrigation water.
The Ili region hosts China's largest lavender cultivation base, yet soil bacterial diversity in its primary cultivation areas remains understudied. To address this, we compared soil bacterial communities across four major cultivation counties (Chabuchar, Agricultural Research Institute, Yining, and Huocheng). Essential oil profiles, soil properties, and bacterial community characteristics were analysed to elucidate microbial variations and environmental interactions. The results showed that: (1) The essential oil yield (1.14%) and linalool content (41.04%) in the Huocheng County cultivation area were significantly higher than those in other areas, and the essential oil quality was relatively the best; (2) the soil bacterial communities in different main cultivation areas shared certain commonalities. At the phylum level, Proteobacteria, Acidobacteriota, Gemmatimonadota, and Actinobacteriota were the dominant phyla, and their relative abundances varied by region and soil layer, and (3) the redundancy analysis results showed that soil bacterial communities were comprehensively affected by environmental factors such as pH, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, soil organic carbon, longitude, and altitude. The significant positive correlations between the abundance of Vicinamibacteraceae (Acidobacteriota) in Huocheng County soils and both soil total phosphorus and linalool content suggest a putative mechanism whereby this bacterial taxon enhances lavender terpenoid synthesis by facilitating phosphorus cycling. Overall, these results suggest that geographically driven climatic variations dynamically alter the soil bacterial community, thereby influencing lavender growth and the final essential oil quality.
Anti Damayanti Hamdani, Syarul Nugroho, Rizkita Rachmi Esyanti
et al.
Plant improvement through in vitro culture and genetic engineering is a significant aspect of breeding programs aimed at producing disease‐resistant cultivars of disease‐prone red chili (Capsicum annuum L.). However, the Capsicum genus is recalcitrant to genetic transformation and in vitro regeneration. Moreover, developing a universal transformation protocol is difficult due to its highly genotype‐dependent nature. Therefore, this study aimed to develop an Agrobacterium‐mediated in planta transformation method applicable to various red chili cultivars. Two open‐pollinated varieties, Tanjung 2 and Ciko, were subjected to transformation. The young seedlings were immersed in transformation medium containing Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain GV3101 harboring the binary vector pCAMBIA1301, which carries the β‐glucuronidase (GUS) gene. GUS histochemical analysis revealed that all the primary transformants of Tanjung 2 and Ciko were identified as chimeric. The average staining in the body of the seedlings was 88.63 + 26.33% in Tanjung 2, and 90.65 + 16.77% in the Ciko variety. More than 50% of the seedlings continued to express GUS in their shoot areas 10 days after Agrobacterium infection, indicating the possibility of transgene inheritance in the following generation. The in planta transformation approach is notably genotype independent, making it a promising standard transformation protocol for different red chili varieties.
A. Fahima Fathima1*, L. Pugalendhi1, T. Saraswathi2, N. Manivannan3 and M. Raveendran4
The present experiment was conducted with 16 germplasms and two varieties of snake gourd. The yield contributing
traits such as node order of first male flower, node order of first female flower, days to first male flowering, days to
first female flowering, internodal length, days to first harvest, single fruit weight, fruit length, fruit girth, number of fruits
per plant, were studied to assess the genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance besides correlation and path
coefficient analysis. The study of GCV and PCV in snake gourd germplasms exhibited variability for the traits viz., node
order of first male flower, fruit length, number of fruits per plant, single fruit weight and fruit yield per plant including
yield characteristics. Heritability and genetic advance as a percentage of mean indicated that the variation is due to
a high degree of additive effect and hence the traits can be improved further through selection. Correlation and path
analysis results showed that single fruit weight, number of fruits per plant and days to first harvest had a significant
positive direct effect on number of fruits per plant. Hence these traits could be considered for yield improvement
programmes in snake gourd.
Nadezhda G. Sinyavina, Alexei A. Kochetov, Natalia V. Kocherina
et al.
This paper presents the results of breeding and genetic studies of <i>Raphanus sativus</i> L. under the controlled conditions of the biopoligon of the Agrophysical Research Institute (St. Petersburg, Russia). The aim of this study was to create new <i>R. sativus</i> forms for controlled environments with artificial lightning (CEAL). An original technique for accelerated transgressive plant breeding was used. It is based on the methodology for predicting transgressions by economically valuable plant traits when evaluating breeding traits under controlled conditions. Using it in a short period of time (4–5 years) greatly increases productive accessions of small radish and radish adapted to light culture, and a set of valuable characteristics (resistance to bolting, glabrous leaves, compact leaf rosette) were obtained. The yield of roots of new forms was 4.30–4.98 kg/m<sup>2</sup> (small radish) and 5.46–7.66 kg/m<sup>2</sup> (radish) for the growing period. Transgression by root mass was observed in plants of three new forms and amounted to 40.7–63.0% in small radish and 40.3% in radish. The breeding of new genotypes of <i>R. sativus</i> is aimed at expanding the range of crops cultivated in plant factories, and ultimately, at a better and more balanced nutrition for the population.
Carlos I. Cortés-Martínez, Adriana Ines Rodríguez-Hernández, Ma del Rocío López-Cuellar
et al.
Steinernema glaseri is a potential biocontrol agent against white grubs of the Phyllophaga spp. complex; however, its suitability for in vitro multiplication has been scarcely investigated. In this study, the effects of the surface culture of NJ-43 strain with its symbiotic bacteria Xenorhabdus poinarii on egg-yolk agar (P2), chicken-liver agar and nutrient meat-peptone (MP) agar on infective juvenile (IJ) productivity and their virulence against Galleria mellonella larvae were investigated. The bacteria on the surface of the agar were first incubated in darkness at 30 °C for 54-102 h, and then 100 surface-sterilised IJs were added. After two harvests, the accumulated productivity was higher on chicken-liver agar (536 × 103 IJs/m2 day) and P2 agar (534 × 103 IJs/m2 day) than on nutrient MP agar (58 × 103 IJs/m2 day). The mean virulence of the in vitro produced IJs was 46-60% and showed no statistically significant difference among the three culture media. In conclusion, the maximum multiplication factor of S. glaseri NJ-43 on solid media was 385, and its original virulence was retained.
AbstractThe in vitro tissue cultures are, beyond all difficulties, an essential tool in basic research as well as in commercial applications. Numerous works devoted to plant tissue cultures proved how important this part of the plant science is. Despite half a century of research on the issue of obtaining plants in in vitro cultures, many aspects remain unknown. The path associated with the reprogramming of explants in the fully functioning regenerants includes a series of processes that may result in the appearance of morphological, physiological, biochemical or, finally, genetic and epigenetic changes. All these changes occurring at the tissue culture stage and appearing in regenerants as tissue culture-induced variation and then inherited by generative progeny as somaclonal variation may be the result of oxidative stress, which works at the step of explant preparation, and in tissue culture as a result of nutrient components and environmental factors. In this review, we describe the current status of understanding the genetic and epigenetic changes that occur during tissue culture.
Plant responses to salinity are complex, especially when combined with other stresses, and involve many changes in gene expression and metabolic fluxes. Until now, plant stress studies have been mainly dealt only with a single stress approach. However, plants exposed to multiple stresses at the same time, a combinatorial approach reflecting real-world scenarios, show tailored responses completely different from the response to the individual stresses, due to the stress-related plasticity of plant genome and to specific metabolic modifications. In this view, recently it has been found that γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) but not glycine betaine (GB) is accumulated in durum wheat plants under salinity only when it is combined with high nitrate and high light. In these conditions, plants show lower reactive oxygen species levels and higher photosynthetic efficiency than plants under salinity at low light. This is certainly relevant because the most of drought or salinity studies performed on cereal seedlings have been done in growth chambers under controlled culture conditions and artificial lighting set at low light. However, it is very difficult to interpret these data. To unravel the reason of GABA accumulation and its possible mode of action, in this review, all possible roles for GABA shunt under stress are considered, and an additional mechanism of action triggered by salinity and high light suggested.
Genes controlling plant development have been studied in multiple plant systems. This has provided deep insights into conserved genetic pathways controlling core developmental processes including meristem identity, phase transitions, determinacy, stem elongation, and branching. These pathways control plant growth patterns and are fundamentally important to crop biology and agriculture. This review describes the conserved pathways that control plant development, using Arabidopsis as a model. Historical examples of how plant development has been altered through selection to improve crop performance are then presented. These examples, drawn from diverse crops, show how the genetic pathways controlling development have been modified to increase yield or tailor growth patterns to suit local growing environments or specialized crop management practices. Strategies to apply current progress in genomics and developmental biology to future crop improvement are then discussed within the broader context of emerging trends in plant breeding. The ways that knowledge of developmental processes and understanding of gene function can contribute to crop improvement, beyond what can be achieved by selection alone, are emphasized. These include using genome re-sequencing, mutagenesis, and gene editing to identify or generate novel variation in developmental genes. The expanding scope for comparative genomics, the possibility to engineer new developmental traits and new approaches to resolve gene–gene or gene–environment interactions are also discussed. Finally, opportunities to integrate fundamental research and crop breeding are highlighted.
Adrian Gracia-Romero, Shawn C. Kefauver, Omar Vergara-Díaz
et al.
Low soil fertility is one of the factors most limiting agricultural production, with phosphorus deficiency being among the main factors, particularly in developing countries. To deal with such environmental constraints, remote sensing measurements can be used to rapidly assess crop performance and to phenotype a large number of plots in a rapid and cost-effective way. We evaluated the performance of a set of remote sensing indices derived from Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images and multispectral (visible and infrared) data as phenotypic traits and crop monitoring tools for early assessment of maize performance under phosphorus fertilization. Thus, a set of 26 maize hybrids grown under field conditions in Zimbabwe was assayed under contrasting phosphorus fertilization conditions. Remote sensing measurements were conducted in seedlings at two different levels: at the ground and from an aerial platform. Within a particular phosphorus level, some of the RGB indices strongly correlated with grain yield. In general, RGB indices assessed at both ground and aerial levels correlated in a comparable way with grain yield except for indices a* and u*, which correlated better when assessed at the aerial level than at ground level and Greener Area (GGA) which had the opposite correlation. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) evaluated at ground level with an active sensor also correlated better with grain yield than the NDVI derived from the multispectral camera mounted in the aerial platform. Other multispectral indices like the Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) performed very similarly to NDVI assessed at the aerial level but overall, they correlated in a weaker manner with grain yield than the best RGB indices. This study clearly illustrates the advantage of RGB-derived indices over the more costly and time-consuming multispectral indices. Moreover, the indices best correlated with GY were in general those best correlated with leaf phosphorous content. However, these correlations were clearly weaker than against grain yield and only under low phosphorous conditions. This work reinforces the effectiveness of canopy remote sensing for plant phenotyping and crop management of maize under different phosphorus nutrient conditions and suggests that the RGB indices are the best option.
Atsushi Fukushima, Michimi Nakamura, Hideyuki Suzuki
et al.
The genus Physalis in the Solanaceae family contains several species of benefit to humans. Examples include Physalis alkekengi (Chinese-lantern plant, hōzuki in Japanese) used for medicinal and for decorative purposes, and Physalis peruviana, also known as Cape gooseberry, which bears an edible, vitamin-rich fruit. Members of the Physalis genus are a valuable resource for phytochemicals needed for the development of medicines and functional foods. To fully utilize the potential of these phytochemicals we need to understand their biosynthesis, and for this we need genomic data, especially comprehensive transcriptome datasets for gene discovery. We report the de novo assembly of the transcriptome from leaves of P. alkekengi and P. peruviana using Illumina RNA-seq technologies. We identified 75,221 unigenes in P. alkekengi and 54,513 in P. peruviana. All unigenes were annotated with gene ontology (GO), Enzyme Commission (EC) numbers, and pathway information from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). We classified unigenes encoding enzyme candidates putatively involved in the secondary metabolism and identified more than one unigenes for each step in terpenoid backbone- and steroid biosynthesis in P. alkekengi and P. peruviana. To measure the variability of the withanolides including physalins and provide insights into their chemical diversity of Physalis, we also analyzed the metabolite content in leaves of P. alkekengi and P. peruviana at 5 different developmental stages by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. We discuss that comprehensive transcriptome approaches within a family can yield a clue for gene discovery in Physalis and provide insights into their complex chemical diversity. The transcriptome information we submit here will serve as an important public resource for further studies of the specialized metabolism of Physalis species.
İzzet KARA, Asli ÖZTÜRK KİRAZ, Halil CETİŞLİ
et al.
<p>Etheric oil results from the esterification reactions of oil acids with alcohols. In these reactions, one molecule water (H<sub>2</sub>O) is composed of H<sup>×</sup> protons from oil acids and OH<sup>-</sup> groups which separated from alcohol. Etheric oil is commonly used in food industry, perfume industry and medicine. From this perspective, we need to know physical properties of etheric oil as well as chemical properties. In this study, the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energies, the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energies, the electronic properties (total energy, electronegativity, chemical hardness and softness), NBO analysis and thermodynamic parameters of a compound formed by methyl alcohol and simmondsin have been performed by using Gaussian 09W program. The structural and spectroscopic data of the molecule in the ground state have been calculated by using density functional method (DFT/B3LYP) with the 6-31++G(d,p) basis set.</p>
Fernando Simoni Bacilieri, Luara Cristina de Lima, Regina Maria Quintao Lana
et al.
The purpose of this work was to evaluate the efficacy of a plant growth regulator applied at different growth stages in coffee. The experiment was conducted in the years 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 on the Docas 1 farm, using Mundo Novo IAC 379-19 coffee cultivar, with spacing 4 meter between rows and 0.8 meter between plants and 10 plants per plot. The experimental design was in blocks at random, with two factors and three repetitions. The first factor was the dose of the product (0.25 and 0.5 liter per hectare per application) and second factor was the time of applications according to the phenological stages (pre-flowering, post-flowering and pinhead). The control treatment (control) consisted of the absence of the application of the plant growth regulator. Biometric aspects (number of internodes and length of reproductive branches in centimeters, number of fruits on the fourth and fifth node on reproductive branches) and productivity were evaluated. Collected data were analyzed using Tukey test at 0.05 of significance. The application of a plant growth regulator at different growth stages of development of coffee leads to increased biometric variables in coffee: the number of internodes, the average number of fruits on the fourth and fifth node and the length of reproductive branches. The productivity of coffee can be increased with the use of plant growth regulators, particularly at the dose of 0.5 liter per hectare per application, regardless of the application period, promoting productivity up to 46.9%. It is not possible to state that the presence of substances similar to phytohormones in plant growth regulators is responsible for the increase in productivity without making isolate application of these substances.