Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary field that applies engineering principles to design and construct novel biological systems or organisms.  Initially focused on microbial systems, its applications have expanded to include plants.  Plant synthetic biology offers promising solutions to pressing global challenges in agriculture and human health.  As a staple crop for much of the world’s population and a model species in plant science, rice has emerged as a pivotal platform in this domain.  Significant progress has been achieved in genome engineering through multiplex genome editing, synthetic hybrid rice systems, induction of apomixis, reconstruction of photosynthesis and nitrogen-fixation pathways, and biosynthesis of micronutrients, pharmaceuticals, and therapeutic proteins or peptides.  This review summarizes recent advances in rice synthetic biology, outlines current developments, and discusses future research directions.

Piperazine is a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound that is commonly used as an intermediate linking group in the structural derivation of compounds.  Heterocyclic drugs containing piperazine have many commercial uses in medicine and are also used in pesticides.  For example, the piperazine ring is a key structural element of the systemic fungicide Triforine.  Piperazine is an attractive option because of its low acute toxicity to mammals, and it has become one of the hotspots of heterocyclic pesticide research in recent years.  The pesticidal activity and mechanism of piperazine derivatives have been studied extensively.  Herein, a comprehensive review of the research on the pesticidal bioactivity and mechanism of action of piperazine derivatives from 1971 to 2025 is presented.  The agriculturally relevant antifungal, insecticidal, anti-plant virus, herbicidal, acaricidal, and antibacterial activities are discussed and the molecular mechanism of action of related piperazine derivatives is summarized.  In addition, we also propose the future derivation direction of piperazine structures and look forward to the development of the anti-plant virus and anti-bacterial action mechanisms.

Modern agriculture faces unprecedented challenges: A growing global population, limited arable land, freshwater scarcity, and inefficient agrochemical use have triggered severe environmental degradation.  Pollutants including pesticides, heavy metals, microplastics, antibiotics, nutrient runoff, and greenhouse gases threaten ecosystem stability, food security, and human health.  Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), with their tunable structures, high porosity, and versatile functionality, emerge as promising materials to address these issues.  This review comprehensively summarizes recent advances in MOFs-based solutions for agriculture.  It covers green synthesis strategies to enhance structural stability and promote circular economy principles.  Applications span three primary domains: pollutant remediation, sustainable technologies (e.g., atmospheric water harvesting, seawater desalination, and green ammonia synthesis), and smart agricultural systems.  The latter enables controlled agrochemical release and real-time sensing and monitoring.  Finally, challenges - such as high costs, biosafety concerns, and scalability limitations - are discussed, alongside forward-looking perspectives including AI-assisted design, improved recyclability, scalable production, and multifunctional integration toward green and smart agriculture.

Wheat is a staple cereal crop that is crucial for food security and human health.  Improving wheat quality has become an essential task for allowing breeders to meet escalating market demand.  In this study, a set of wheat–Aegilops tauschii introgression lines was developed from a cross between the high-yielding wheat variety Jimai 22 and Ae. tauschii Y215.  A high-density genetic map containing 2,727 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was constructed using a 55K SNP array, and it was used to conduct a quantitative trait loci (QTLs) analysis for grain quality-related traits.  Eight QTLs were identified for grain protein content (GPC), starch content, and wet gluten content in two environments.  Among them, a major and environmentally stable QTL for GPC, qGPC4D, was identified, with favorable alleles contributed by Ae. tauschii Y215.  Subsequently, qGPC4D was narrowed down to a 9.88 Mb physical interval through further fine mapping utilizing the introgression lines.  In addition, three linked SNP of qGPC4D were converted into high-throughput kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) markers and validated in the introgression population.  These findings offer promising candidate genes, elite introgression lines, and KASP markers for high-quality wheat breeding.  

Maize (Zea mays L.) is a globally significant crop that plays a crucial role in feeding the world’s growing population.  Among its various traits, plant height is particularly important as it affects yield, lodging resistance, ecological adaptability, and other important factors.  Traditional methods for measuring plant height often lack cost-efficiency and accuracy.  In this study, a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was employed to collect point cloud data from 270 doubled haploid (DH) lines.  This innovative application of UAV-based LiDAR technology was explored for high-throughput phenotyping in maize breeding trials.  High-density genetic maps were constructed, and plant height was assessed at both single-plant and row scales across multiple developmental stages and genetic backgrounds.  The findings revealed that for many varieties and small areas, single-plant-scale estimation accuracy was superior to row-scale estimation, with R² values of 0.67 vs. 0.56 and RMSE values of 0.12 m vs. 0.17 m, respectively.  Two high-density genetic maps were constructed based on SNP markers.  In Sanya and Xinxiang, the F₁DH and F₂DH populations identified 12 and 20 QTLs (quantitative trait loci) for plant height, respectively.  This study successfully identified and validated QTLs associated with plant height, thereby revealing novel genetic loci and candidate genes.  This research highlights the potential of UAV-based remote sensing to advance precision agriculture by enabling efficient, large-scale phenotyping and gene discovery in maize breeding programs.

An efficient genome editing tool, the CRISPR/Cas12a system, has been used in research on plant functional genomics and the improvement of agronomic traits.  In this study, the CRISPR/Cas12a system was optimized by using the endogenous pGhαGloA promoter in cotton.  With this system, crRNAs were driven by the Pol II pGhaGloA promoter to construct the pGhRBE3-pGhαGloA-GhPGF vector and carry out genetic transformation.  The vector worked efficiently in all positive transgenic plants and the editing efficiencies at the crRNA1 and crRNA2 target sites were up to 93.37 and 88.24%, respectively.  This system had significantly higher editing efficiency than the pGhRBE3 system with a Pol III promoter-Ubi 6.7 promoter, indicating that the Pol II promoter is more suitable for expressing multiple sgRNAs or crRNAs than the Pol III promoter in cotton.  The vector mainly generated the editing type of fragment deletion, and the deletion sizes were in the range of 3–12 bp with the editing sites spanning the 14th to 29th bases downstream of the protospacer adjacent motif (PAM).  All the targeted mutation loci were stably inherited from the T₀ to T₂ generations, and three transgene-free lines with target site mutations in the GhPGF gene were obtained.  These glandless and gossypol-free (or low content) cotton germplasms will play a key role in healthy cottonseed oil/cake production.  Therefore, the CRISPR/Cas12a system driven by the pGhαGloA promoter can efficiently edit target genes in cotton, so it can provide a powerful tool for cotton functional genomics and genetic improvement.

Lignans are critical bioactive compounds in sesame (Sesamum indicum L.), valued for their health benefits and industrial potential.  However, the genetic mechanisms underlying the lignan biosynthesis pathway remain poorly understood.  This study aimed to identify key quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with lignan content using 140 F₉ recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between the sesame cultivars Areum and Gomazou, and to develop molecular markers for breeding programs to enhance lignan content.  Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) technology was employed, combining single (ApeKI) and double-enzyme (PstI/MspI) digestions.  This approach provided comprehensive genome coverage and substantially improved the quality of the linkage map.  A total of 19 QTLs associated with lignan components, including oil-soluble and water-soluble lignans, were identified.  Among these, loci on chromosomes 6 and 11 exhibited high LOD scores of 17.8 (PVE 13.9%) and 51.5 (PVE 68.7%), respectively, for total lignan contents in seeds.  Two major QTLs, qLIGNAN6 and qLIGNAN11, were identified as key contributors to lignan content.  Significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) linked to these QTLs were used to develop CAPS markers for potential application in marker-assisted selection (MAS).  These markers were validated in RILs and germplasm to evaluate beneficial allele stacking and gene pyramiding.  This study provides valuable genetic resources and molecular markers to facilitate the effective implementation of sesame breeding strategies to improve nutritional value.  The findings contribute to the development of sesame varieties with higher lignan content, supporting both health and industrial applications.  

This study examined the involvement of cytokinins in the process by which moderate water limitation (MWL) mediates nitrogen (N) remobilization from source to sink during the grain-filling phase in wheat.  Field experiments were performed using N application rates of low (LN), medium (MN), and high (HN).  Two soil moisture regimes were implemented for each N rate: conventional well-watered (CWW) and MWL post anthesis.  The MWL application optimized N, total free amino acids (FAA), and trans-zeatin (Z)+trans-zeatin riboside (ZR) reallocation from the source organs (stems and leaves) to the sink organ (spikes) in wheat.  Compared to those in the CWW regime, the activities of proteolytic enzymes, including endopeptidase, carboxypeptidase, and aminopeptidase within stems and leaves, and the expression levels of total FAA transporter genes in spikes were significantly elevated in the MWL regime, showing a close correlation with the Z+ZR levels in the spikes.  Application of kinetin to stems and leaves significantly inhibited proteolytic enzyme activities, promoting N retention in stems and leaves, decreasing N accumulation in the sink organ, and reducing the N harvest index.  In contrast, applying kinetin to spikes significantly upregulated expression levels of FAA transporter genes, reducing N retention in stems and leaves, increasing N accumulation in the sink organ, and raising the N harvest index.  Such facilitation induced by the MWL in the remobilization of N from source to sink was greater at HN than at LN or MN.  Results demonstrate that post-anthesis MWL can significantly intensify the remobilization of N from source to sink, while also synergistically enhancing grain yield and N use efficiency through strategically redistributing cytokinins (Z+ZR) between source and sink in wheat.

Winter wheat is a key staple crop in Northwest China, yet optimizing its productivity and economic returns remains a challenge due to water constraints and suboptimal planting densities.  This study evaluates the combined effects of irrigation strategies and planting density (PD) on winter wheat yield, resource-use efficiency, and net economic benefits (NEB).  A two-year field experiment was conducted under four irrigation treatments (I1, no irrigation; I2, before winter and jointing; I3, jointing; I4, jointing and anthesis) and three PD treatments (PD1, 562.5×10⁴ plants ha^–1; PD2, 375 ×10⁴ plants ha^–1; PD3, 187.5×10⁴ plants ha^–1).  Through field trials, we identified optimal water-saving irrigation regimes and planting densities that maximize grain yield while enhancing water productivity.  Our results demonstrated that lower PD (187.5×10⁴ plants ha^–1) under reduced irrigation significantly improved dry matter accumulation (DMA), SPAD, and leaf area index (LAI), leading to higher grain yield.  Moderate irrigation at the jointing stage (I3) enhanced grain yield in higher planting densities by up to 18.42% compared to other irrigation regimes, while the highest overall yield (6,310 kg ha^–1) was achieved in medium PD under the I3 irrigation.  Water-use efficiency (WUE) was significantly improved by reducing irrigation at specific growth stages, mitigating excessive evapotranspiration.  PD3–I3 achieved the highest NEB, exceeding I1, I2, and I4 by 11.9, 18.4, and 16.4%, respectively, in 2022–2023 and by 15.1, 14.0, and 8.4%, respectively, in 2023–2024.  The findings provide practical insights for sustainable wheat production, ensuring higher profitability while conserving water resources.  Implementing optimized irrigation and PD strategies offers a strategic pathway to improving food security and farm income in the semi-arid regions of Northwest China.

Ensuring the provision of adequate and nutritious food for humans through sustainable agricultural development poses a major challenge.  Optimizing the nitrogen supply is one of the key factors for improving crop grain yield and quality.  Green manure is often used to optimize the nitrogen supply in crop production, but it is unclear whether green manure can maintain nutrient yield and quality of spring wheat under reduced chemical nitrogen input.  A split-plot field experiment of several varieties of green manure and mixed cropping with green manure was established in an arid area in 2018.  This study aimed to explore the feasibility of using mixed common vetch and hairy vetch, which could simultaneously maintain high nutrient production and grain quality of spring wheat under reduced chemical nitrogen input, and to reveal the mechanism of nitrogen metabolism.  The effects of green manure and reduced chemical nitrogen on nutrient yield, amino acid contents, vitamin B contents, mineral contents, and processing quality of spring wheat grain, as well as nitrogen accumulation, remobilization, and assimilation, were examined from 2020 to 2022.  Our results showed that a reduced chemical nitrogen input led to lower nutrient production, but green manure could increase the protein and starch yields of wheat grain.  HCVN2 (mixed hairy vetch and common vetch under 20% nitrogen reduction) displayed higher protein and starch yields, which increased by 35.9 and 16.2% compared to fallow after wheat harvest with conventional nitrogen application (FN3).  Meanwhile, reduced chemical nitrogen reduced the wheat grain quality, but green manure improved wheat grain quality.  HCVN2 had higher wheat grain qualities, which improved by 13.2 and 10.0% for essential amino acid and non-essential amino acid contents, by 20.0 and 22.2% for vitamin B and zinc contents, and by 14.0 and 8.6% for falling number and wet gluten compared to FN3, respectively.  HCVN2 could simultaneously improve the nutrient production and quality of wheat grain.  This was attributed to significantly increasing the nitrogen accumulation and distribution in grain; enhancing the contribution rates of leaf, stem-sheath, and cob-glume nitrogen to grain nitrogen; and promoting the activities of nitrate reductase and glutamine synthetase.  Therefore, mixed sown green manure under chemical nitrogen reduced by 20% is promising for improving the nutrient production and quality of spring wheat grain by promoting nitrogen accumulation, remobilization, and assimilation.

Characterizing the N uptake and utilization of different maize hybrids is essential for optimizing N application and increasing the profits from maize production.  Research trials were conducted with controlled-release urea (CRU) as a base fertilizer (TC) and urea split application in one (T1), two (T2), or three (T3) stages to evaluate the effects on N uptake, N use efficiency (NUE), and yield using the ¹⁵N tracer technique and two maize hybrids: DH518 (a mid-early-maturing hybrid) and DH605 (a late-maturing hybrid).  According to the results, compared with urea, CRU as a base fertilizer and urea split applications in two and three stages significantly increased grain yield and NUE while reducing environmental N loss.  Compared with T1, the grain yields of the TC, T2, and T3 treatments were respectively increased by 11.1, 9.8, and 11.7% in DH518 and by 16.4, 15.7, and 22.9% in DH605.  Regression analysis showed that the grain yield of DH518 displayed a bilinear trend with an initial rapid increase and then a slow increase with increases in post-anthesis N accumulation, total N accumulation, N recovery efficiency, and N nutrition index (NNI).  By contrast, DH605 consistently showed a linear regression relationship with a rapid increase.  The crop recovery N efficiency (CRN) values in the T3 treatment for urea applied at the sowing stage and as topdressing at the 9th-leaf stage (V9) in DH518 were 60.0 and 62.4% higher than under topdressing at the tasseling stage (VT) stage, respectively, while the CRN values of urea topdressing at the V9 and VT stages in DH605 were 37.7 and 37.1% higher than when applied at the sowing stage, respectively.  The higher pre-anthesis N demand and shorter growth period of DH518 maintained the N supply–demand balance, resulting in the NNI (NNI≥0.988) falling within the range of a low yield increase under the T2 and TC treatments, while the N status of DH605 plants only reached optimal levels in the T3 treatment.  Therefore, a three-stage split application of urea or applying CRU as a base fertilizer and topdressing with urea in the later growth stages is recommended for obtaining an optimal yield in mid-late-maturing hybrids.  In addition, for mid-early-maturing hybrids, applying CRU or reducing the number of split applications, e.g., a two-stage split application, can ensure an adequate N supply in the later growth stages and increase production, and thus profits.

Improving nitrogen utilization efficiency is not only beneficial for increasing maize yield, but it can also mitigate the environmental impact of excessive nitrogen fertilizer use.  Numerous studies have evaluated the impacts of plant growth retardants and plant density on plant lodging resistance and nitrogen uptake.  However, the influence of plant growth retardants on nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUtE) under varying plant densities has been rarely reported.  A field experiment conducted in 2020–2021 involved spraying EC (an ethephon and cycocel compound) at the 7th-leaf stage of maize with dosages of 0 (CK), 450, and 900 mL ha⁻¹ at plant densities of 4.5, 6.0, 7.5, and 9.0 plants m⁻².  Compared to CK, the application of EC (especially the high dosage) significantly reduced plant height and dry matter, while increasing stem diameter, the plant horizontal-vertical ratio (PHVR, a new index which we define as the ratio of stem diameter of the basal first internode above the ground to plant height), and the number and area of vascular bundles.  PHVR and vascular bundle morphology had significantly positive correlations with individual plant dry matter remobilization amount and its contribution to grain yield.  Therefore, despite the reduced dry matter weight observed in the EC treatment, the greater dry matter remobilization enhanced the harvest index (HI).  However, nitrogen uptake efficiency was not improved with the enhancement of PHVR and vascular bundle morphology, due to a reduction in dry matter accumulation.  In contrast, the improved PHVR and vascular bundle were beneficial for accelerating nitrogen translocation, thus increasing NUtE significantly by 4.3–31.1% compared with CK across the plant densities.  Increasing density simultaneously improved nitrogen uptake and utilization efficiency.  Consequently, a high dosage application of EC under high density could not only significantly enhance lodging resistance but also improve NUtE and HI significantly by promoting the transport of dry matter and nitrogen. 

Genetic diversity is crucial to genetic research and crop breeding, and core collections are important resources for capturing this diversity.  Recently, the core germplasm of tea plants was constructed mainly based on phenotypic data or molecular markers; however, the effective construction of core germplasm resources for plant breeding programs requires consideration of multiple aspects.  In this study, we collected 320 tea germplasm resources and analyzed their single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and metabolite data.  Abundant genetic diversity in tea plants was inferred from the mean values of observed heterozygosity (Ho=0.340), expected heterozygosity (He=0.327), minor allele frequency (MAF=0.229), and polymorphic information content (PIC=0.268), based on the data from 2,118,060 high-quality SNP markers.  A mean genetic diversity index (H´) value of 1.902 suggested significant metabolic variation.  The 320 tea samples were categorized into six groups based on phylogenetic analysis, reflecting the influence of geographical origins on genetic diversity.  Based on the genetic and metabolic data, a preliminary core collection of 106 accessions was developed to effectively represent most of the original panel’s molecular, metabolic, population, and regional diversity.  Genome-wide association studies of the core panel successfully replicated the marker-trait associations found in the original panel.  This study contributes to the conservation and management of tea plant germplasm.

Increasing the sucrose content of sugarcane, a major sugar crop, is a key breeding objective.  However, the complex genetic background of sugarcane affects development of sugarcane hybrids.  In this study, we sequenced 292 sugarcane germplasm accessions and identified 2,542,965 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertions/deletions (InDels).  We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for two important sugarcane traits: sucrose content and stem diameter.  Both traits followed a normal distribution and showed typical characteristics of quantitative traits.  Population structure analysis revealed four subpopulations with an average genetic distance of 0.236.  GWAS of the sucrose content detected 27 SNPs.  After annotating genes at or near significant loci, 17 candidate genes were screened.  For stem diameter, GWAS revealed 19 SNPs, from which 9 candidate genes were identified.  These results improve our understanding of genetic mechanisms affecting sucrose content in sugarcane, and identify important genetic resources to accelerate breeding of new sugarcane varieties with high sucrose content.

Anthocyanins play a crucial role in plant growth, development, reproduction, and stress response.  Additionally, anthocyanins enhance the quality of fruits and vegetables due to their antioxidant properties.  While numerous previous studies have been conducted on anthocyanins, limited information exists regarding their composition and the role of the anthocyanin pathway gene dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR) in chili pepper leaves.  In this study, we used a purple leaf pepper cultivar H18 in which the anthocyanin content in leaves decreases with plant growth and development.  Targeted anthocyanin metabolite assays revealed that the contents of delphinidin, malvidin, and petunidin derivatives followed the same trend as the overall anthocyanin content, with delphinidin derivatives being the predominant component of H18 pepper leaves.  Transcriptome sequencing was performed on H18 leaves at four different stages.  The results showed that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at various stages were primarily associated with biological processes and flavonoid metabolic pathways.  Through phylogenetic tree and expression analysis, we identified three candidate genes involved in DFR function.  Substrate catalysis assays of CaDFRs demonstrated that only CaDFR1 was active, catalyzing dihydroquercetin (DHQ), dihydromyricetin (DHM), and dihydrokaempferol (DHK).  VIGS-mediated silencing of CaDFR1 resulted in a significant decrease in anthocyanin levels in H18 pepper leaves and stems, along with a reduction in the expression levels of other candidate functional genes in the anthocyanin metabolic pathway.  This study identifies the key anthocyanin components in the leaves of H18 peppers and validates the function of CaDFR1, providing a theoretical foundation for modifying anthocyanin content in pepper plants through molecular breeding.

Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. pekinensis) is an important leafy vegetable in the Brassica genus of the Brassicaceae family.  The size of its edible leaves is an essential trait that determines its economic and nutritional values.  However, the current understanding of leaf development in Chinese cabbage remains limited.  Here, through forward genetic analysis of the mutant mini24 with defective leaf and root development, we identified the BrRRG gene, which regulates cell division in Chinese cabbage by map-based cloning.  We demonstrated that BrRRG impacts leaf size by regulating the expression of E2Fa transcription factors and cell cycle-related genes in Chinese cabbage.  Furthermore, BrRRG was found to modulate Chinese cabbage’s response to auxin (indole-3-acetic acid, IAA) and cytokinins hormones, revealing a distinct regulatory mechanism by which BrRRG coordinates the development of underground roots and aboveground leaves.  Thus, these results indicate that mutation in BrRRG impairs the growth and development of Chinese cabbage.

Simultaneously enhancing plant growth and disease resistance is an ideal goal in agriculture.  Significant efforts have been made to promote plant growth or immunity through the use of biological reagents, such as the application of beneficial microbes and plant immunity inducers.  However, balancing plant immunity and growth remains a challenging task.  In this study, we engineered the plant growth-promoting bacterium Bacillus subtilis OKB105 to express a secreted microbial pattern, flg22, and assessed its activity in enhancing both plant growth and disease resistance.  The OKB105 (flg22) strain exhibited plant growth-promoting activity similar to the OKB105 strain containing an empty vector, OKB105 (EV).  Furthermore, the OKB105 (flg22) strain significantly enhanced plant resistance against two distinct pathogens, Pseudomonas syringae DC3000 ΔhopQ1-1 and Phytophthora parasitica, compared to OKB105 (EV), confirming that the engineered OKB105 (flg22) effectively enhances plant disease resistance.  Interestingly, root irrigation with OKB105 (flg22) also markedly boosted the plant’s aboveground resistance to pathogens compared to OKB105 (EV).  We further demonstrated that OKB105 (flg22) can be applied to confer resistance to pathogens in other plants that recognize flg22. Finally, RNA-Seq and qRT-PCR analyses illustrated that OKB105 (flg22) effectively induced the expression of defense-related genes in pattern-triggered immunity.  Our results prove that employing an engineered beneficial microbe expressing a microbial pattern is a promising strategy for simultaneously enhancing plant growth and immunity.

As the largest multifunctional and dynamic organelle in fungi, vacuoles are associated with different organelles through membrane contact sites and participate in various cellular processes.  Vacuole and mitochondria patch (vCLAMP), the membrane contact site that tethers vacuoles and mitochondria, is indispensable for reciprocal interplay between these two organelles.  The impairment of vacuoles and mitochondria significantly suppressed FB1 production in Fusarium verticillioides.  However, the understanding of how vCLAMP complex regulates fumonisin biosynthesis remained unknown.  Herein, the biological functions of vCLAMP component Vam6 were investigated in F. verticillioides. Our results showed that FvVam6 deletion mutant ΔFvVam6 exhibited palpable defects in fungal development, stresses responses and pathogenicity.  In addition, abnormal vacuolar morphology and significantly reduced FB1 production were observed in ΔFvVam6.  Furthermore, we demonstrated that two vacuolar sorting protein 39 (Vps39) domains and clathrin domain were critical for the biological functions of FvVam6, while clathrin and Vps39-2 domains played dominant roles in the regulation of virulence and FB1 production.  Taken together, our results advanced our understanding of vCLAMP in fumonisin biosynthesis in plant pathogenic fungus F. verticillioides

Kiwifruit bacterial canker, caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa), is a significant threat to the kiwifruit industry.  The two-component signaling systems (TCSs) play a crucial role in regulating the virulence of P. syringae, yet their specific function in Psa remains largely unclear.  In this study, we found that disrupting the TCS RegAB (encoded by Psa_802/Psa_803) resulted in a notable increase in the virulence of P. syringae pv. actinidiae M228 (Psa M228) in host plant and hypersensitive reaction (HR) in nonhost plant.  Through comparative transcriptome analysis of the Psa M228 wild-type strain and the regA mutant, we identified the pivotal role of RegAB in controlling various physiological pathways, including the type III secretion system (T3SS), a key determinant of Psa virulence.  Additionally, we discovered that the RegA has binding sites in the promoter region of the hrpR/S, and the transcriptional level of the hrpR and other T3SS-related genes increased in the regA deletion strain relative to the Psa M228 wild-type.  The DNA-binding affinity of RegA, and therefore the repressor function, is enhanced by its phosphorylation.  Our findings unveil the function of TCS RegAB and the regulatory mechanism of T3SS by RegAB in Psa, highlighting the diverse functions of the RegAB system.

Phenotypic plasticity is a crucial adaptive strategy that allows organisms to respond to environmental changes. Many aphids have evolved mutualistic relationships with ants, whereby aphids provide honeydew in exchange for protection from natural enemies. Such ant–aphid mutualisms are often facultative and aphid colonies must often cope without ants. We show here that attendance by red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta, alters the within-plant distribution of cotton aphids (Aphis gossypii), resulting in fewer aphids on leaves and more on the stem, petioles, and sprouts (SPS) of cotton seedlings compared to colonies without ant attendance. The nitrogen contents in stems and sprouts were higher than in leaves, which may be a reason for the significantly higher population growth in ant-tended colonies. In contrast, exposure to the signals of a predatory ladybug, Coccinella septempunctata, resulted in a remarkably smaller aphid colony size, with lower proportions of aphids distributed on SPS, but a higher proportion on the leaves, compared to those in the predator-free colonies. In addition, ladybug predation risk is considerably higher on SPS than on leaves, and aphids showed rapid positional shifts from stems to leaves upon direct exposure to a ladybug, highlighting their ability to respond swiftly to predator presence. Our findings reveal that adaptive plasticity in aphid distribution patterns enables aphid colonies to optimize their fitness by responding to the presence of mutualistic ants or predatory threats with flexibility.

The mammary glands of dairy cows with ketosis face unique challenges, including the supraphysiological circulating concentrations of free fatty acids (FFA) and apoptosis of epithelial cells.  The fact that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and apoptosis are closely related processes (at least in nonruminants) suggests that mechanisms of metabolic stress-induced apoptosis in bovine mammary epithelial cells may involve the ER stress pathway.  The objective of this study was to investigate (1) the status of the ER stress pathway in mammary gland of dairy cows with ketosis, and (2) the role of ER stress in the apoptosis of bovine mammary epithelial cells challenged with high concentrations of FFA.  Ketosis or exogenous FFA activated the ER stress pathway in the mammary gland of dairy cows or MAC-T cells.  Pretreatment with the ER stress activator Tunicamycin (Tun) aggravated ER stress and apoptosis in MAC-T cells induced by FFA.  However, ER stress inhibitor Tauroursodeoxycholate (TUDCA) attenuated ER stress induced by FFA and also attenuated the apoptosis in MAC-T cells.  In conclusion, the data confirmed that FFA induced apoptosis of bovine mammary epithelial cells in dairy cows with ketosis via ER stress signaling.  Thus, timely resolution of ER stress may help counteract the negative effects of ketosis on the mammary gland.

Detecting keypoints in dairy cows aims to locate and track the motion trajectories of the body’s joints, which plays a crucial role in behavior analysis and lameness detection.  However, real farming scenarios, characterized by occlusions and large variations in object scale may result in poor detection results.  Therefore, we introduce the atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) module into the shallow layers network of ResNet101, designed to improve the multi-scale feature extraction capability of the model.  The ASPP module enhances the robustness of recognition for different dimensional sizes and occluded keypoints using different dilatation rates in the parallel atrous convolutional layers to expand the model’s receptive field.  Furthermore, seven types of motion features, including tracking up, gait symmetry, step height balance, motion speed variability, head swing amplitude, head-neck slope and back curvature are extracted simultaneously by monitoring and tracking the motion trajectory of distinct keypoints.  Several of these features represent innovative extraction models and attributes, first proposed in this study.  Multiple models are trained and tested on datasets containing 2,385 frames for ablation experiments.  The experiments show that, in comparison with the ResNet50, MobileNet_v2_1.0, and EfficientNet-b0 backbone networks, the training error and test error of ResNet101 are reduced by 4.04–30.12 pixels and 3.81–28.14 pixels.  Therefore, ResNet101 is used as the benchmark for subsequent model improvement by adding the ASPP module.  The training error and test error of the ResNet101-ASPP network are reduced by 0.27 and 0.24 pixels, respectively, compared to the benchmark network.  The prediction confidence improves by 1.65–2.50% at three different dairy cow object scales. In addition, the keypoints under different occlusion conditions improve considerably, especially for small-scale keypoints, demonstrating the capability of the ASPP module for multi-scale feature extraction.  By analyzing the distribution of the seven features and health, mild lameness, and severe lameness in dairy cows, it is shown that all the different features play an important role in distinguishing between different levels of lameness.

NADC34-like porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) has been circulating in China for several years and became the dominant field strain in some provinces.  Current commercial vaccines could not provide complete cross-protection to NADC34-like PRRSV infection, which led to huge economic losses on pig farms.  Co-infections of NADC34-like PRRSV with some other PRRSV strains are commonly found in many clinical cases, and successful isolation of NADC34-like PRRSV strain from the clinical samples has been a challenge to study its biological characters and perform animal experiments to evaluate its pathogenicity.  In this study, we constructed a NADC34-like PRRSV infectious clone derived from the isolated JS2021NADC34 PRRSV strain using the reverse genetics technique and investigated its virulence and pathogenicity for nursery pigs.  The rescued (rNADC34) strain could proliferate well in porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs), and the viral copy number and titers were comparable to parental strain.  For pathogenicity, the rNADC34 strain-infected pigs showed high body temperature and body weight loss.  The histopathological results presented interstitial pneumonia and severe hemorrhage, infiltration of neutrophils and lymphocyte in lungs, lymph nodes, and tonsils.  The viral proteins were also detectable in rNADC34 strain-infected pigs using immunohistochemistry staining.  Moreover, the trends of PRRSV-specific antibody and viremia in PRRSV rNADC34-infected pigs were similar with the parental strain-infected pigs.  These data indicated that rNADC34 strain manifested strong virulence and high pathogenicity for nursery pigs.

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is an important zoonotic viral disease transmitted by ticks.  In recent decades, global climate change has increased human exposure to ticks, and mortality rate have gradually risen.  Effective vaccines are essential for controlling TBE as specific antiviral treatment is unavailable.  Vaccine candidates based on virus-like particles (VLPs) have previously been demonstrated to be effective in eliciting excellent immune responses against influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2.  Here, we constructed TBE virus (TBEV) VLPs containing the envelope and membrane proteins derived from the Far Eastern TBEV strain (WH2012) using an insect cell-baculovirus expression system.  Induction of immune responses was investigated in mice following intramuscular injection with the TBEV VLPs vaccine candidates formulated with a combination of poly(I:C) and Montanide ISA201VG adjuvants.  Mice produced memory T-cells and serum-specific IgG antibodies that averaged up to 1:10^4.6 and remained at 1:10⁴ (mean) at 24 wk after three immunizations.  TBEV VLPs vaccine was able to provide long-term antibody protection against TBEV, making it a promising subunit vaccine candidate for this disease.

Following the implementation of China’s “Zero-Growth Action Plan on Fertilizers” in 2015, research has predominantly focused on replacing synthetic fertilizers with organic amendments to address over-fertilization concerns.  However, insufficient attention has been given to the sustainable supply capacity of soil residual nutrients accumulated from previous over-fertilization.  To investigate the transformation dynamics and supply capacity of residual nutrients during crop production, a six-year field experiment was conducted in the dryland wheat growing region of China’s Loess Plateau.  Five treatments were established: farmer’s fertilization (FF), regulated fertilization (RF), regulated fertilization without N (RF-N), regulated fertilization without P (RF-P), and regulated fertilization without K (RF-K).  The study examined wheat yield formation, variations and stability of soil N, P, and K fractions, and their correlations with yield.  Results indicated that wheat yield sensitivity to nutrient deficiency followed the sequence N>P>K.  During the six-year period, the average yield under RF-N decreased by 22.0% compared to RF, showing statistical significance (P<0.05).  Mineral N, light fraction organic N (LFON), and heavy fraction organic N (HFON) in RF-N showed progressive decline relative to RF and initial 2018 levels.  Dissolved organic N (DON) and easily oxidizable organic N (EON) in RF-N initially decreased but subsequently increased due to N fraction transformations.  Under RF-P, H₂O-P, NaHCO₃-P, and NaOH-P levels decreased by 40.0, 51.5, and 10.3% respectively (P<0.05) compared to the RF treatment, while HCl-P, residual P, and total P (TP) remained stable.  The absence of K application (RF-K) reduced water-soluble K (WSK) by 10.9% (P<0.05), whereas exchangeable K (EK), non-exchangeable K (NEK), mineral K (MK), and total K (TK) showed no significant changes compared to the RF treatment.  These findings demonstrated that the soil nitrogen pool exhibits lower stability compared to phosphorus and potassium pools during continuous residual nutrient supply.  Notably, NO₃-N and LFON significantly influenced spike number and kernels per spike, driving yield formation.  This research advances our understanding of sustained residual nutrient supply capacity in soil and provides theoretical foundations for optimizing fertilization strategies in dryland agroecosystems.

Root exudates serve a vital function in recruiting beneficial phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB), thereby enhancing plant adaptation to phosphorus (P) deficiency.  The C2H2-type zinc finger transcription factor STOP1 (sensitive to proton rhizotoxicity 1) regulates root organic acid (OA) exudation in plants.  However, the impact of STOP1-regulated root OA exudation on rhizosphere microbial composition remains unexplored.  This study revealed enhanced vegetation properties of soybean with higher P content in P-rich soils, while rhizosphere organic acid concentrations were elevated in P-poor soils.  The soybean genotype YC03-3 in P-deficient soils specifically recruited three PSB in acid soils: Gammaproteobacteria_Incertae_Sedis, KF_JG30_C25, and Solirubrobacterales.  These PSB abundances correlated positively with rhizosphere oxalate and citrate concentrations.  Under P-sufficient conditions, GmSTOP1-3 overexpression in soybean plants increased oxalate and citrate exudation compared to YCO3-3 wild type (WT), leading to preferential colonization by the same three PSB species naturally present in P-deficient WT rhizosphere.  The population dynamics of these PSB demonstrated strong positive correlations with the abundance of key genes involved in P cycling, particularly those governing acid/alkaline phosphatase activities and organic-P mineralization.  Given the phosphate starvation-enhanced expression pattern of GmSTOP1-3, the findings indicate that specific PSB recruitment for organic-P remobilization in soybean rhizosphere depends on GmSTOP1-3-mediated oxalate and citrate exudation in P-deficient acid soils.  This research establishes GmSTOP1-3 as a crucial regulator of rhizosphere microbiome assembly and P-acquisition efficiency in acid soils.

Soil microbial-metabolite interactions influence crop productivity, yet their responses to long-term nutrient management in legume systems warrant further investigation.  This study examined how fertilization and Bradyrhizobium inoculation reshape soybean rhizosphere fungal-metabolite networks to improve soil health.  Through a decade-long field trial utilizing internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) metabolomics, four treatments were evaluated: no fertilizer application (CK); phosphorus and potassium fertilization (PK); PK chemical fertilizers combined with urea (PK+N); PK fertilization with Bradyrhizobium japonicum 5821 inoculation (PK+R).  Results indicated that nitrogen fertilization increased fungal diversity at maturity and enhanced co-occurrence network complexity (displaying the highest node and edge counts), while Bradyrhizobium inoculation promoted stochastic assembly.  Soil fungi exhibited notable correlations with 3-hydroxymethylantipyrine, chrysophanol, 3,7-dihydroxyflavone and triethylamine.  Metabolite profiling revealed nitrogen suppression of stress-resistant flavonoids (3-hydroxymethylantipyrine, chrysophanol, 3,7-dihydroxyflavone), whereas Bradyrhizobium enhanced these key metabolites.  KEGG enrichment identified tryptophan and caffeine metabolism as central during flowering–podding stage, coordinating nitrogen assimilation and defense responses.  Additionally, the key metabolites correlated significantly with soil total nitrogen, organic matter, and available nitrogen.  These findings reveal that Bradyrhizobium acts synergistically with fertilization to activate fungal-driven metabolic pathways, offering a microbiome-based approach to enhance nitrogen efficiency and reduce agrochemical dependency in soybean systems.

The combined implementation of intercropping systems and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation represents a promising phytoremediation strategy for heavy metal-contaminated farmland, providing both ecological and economic benefits.  However, additional research is necessary to understand the influence of AMF and intercropping on Cd bioavailability.  This study examines the synergistic effects of maize–soybean intercropping and AMF inoculation on crop growth, cadmium (Cd) allocation patterns, and rhizosphere soil dynamics through comprehensive field and pot experiments.  Field trials revealed significant yield advantages in maize–soybean intercropping systems, with land equivalent ratios (LERs) of 1.62 (common maize) and 1.64 (sweet maize).  Intercropping decreased soybean Cd accumulation across all tissues, notably in grains (42.8% reduction), while maintaining maize grain Cd concentrations below China’s food safety threshold (0.20 mg kg^–1).  The metal removal equivalent ratio (MRER) achieved 1.33–1.38 in field conditions, validating intercropping’s dual advantage in productivity and Cd phytoextraction.  Pot experiments indicated the AMF-inoculated intercropping system (IN+A) increased maize yield by 16.4% while reducing Cd accumulation in both crops, with grain concentrations meeting safety standards.  Rhizosphere analysis demonstrated IN+A treatment substantially improved soil health indicators: 34.5% reduction in bioavailable Cd, elevated pH, decreased redox potential (Eh), and enhanced catalase activity.  AMF colonization rates were 2.2–4.3 times higher in inoculated treatments (11.5–14.0%) vs. controls (3.2–5.3%).  These results establish that AMF-enhanced legume–cereal intercropping reduces Cd bioavailability through soil alkalinization (pH increase) coupled with redox potential reduction, and metal allocation plasticity redirecting Cd to root tissues.  This interaction between microbial symbiosis and plant community design stabilizes Cd in soils while maintaining crop safety (grain Cd<0.20 mg kg^–1), establishing an ecoengineering approach for contaminated farmland remediation.

Understanding the spatial distribution, temporal dynamics, and driving factors of soybean cultivation is critical for yield estimation, agricultural planning, and national food security.  However, high-resolution, long-term, and nationwide datasets of soybean cultivation in China remain scarce.  This study developed a 30-m resolution dataset of soybean in China from 2000–2022 using multi-source data (ChinaSoyA30m), and analyzed the spatiotemporal dynamics and driving forces of soybean cultivation.  The phenological characteristics of major crops across China were evaluated to generate training samples for supervised classification.  Gap statistics, K-means clustering, and spectral angle mapping were employed to enhance classification reliability.  A supervised classification approach was implemented on Google Earth Engine (GEE) using dense Landsat data to produce annual soybean maps.  ChinaSoyA30m demonstrates competitive performance compared to six existed soybean datasets, with strong correlations with provincial, prefectural, and county statistics (R²=0.95, 0.89, and 0.80), and the F1 scores validated against ground truth data were 70.16, 80.40, and 78.38%.  Since 2000, the soybean planting area has exhibited a fluctuating upward trend with distinct regional characteristics.  Northern China emerged as the primary production area, characterized by a stable planting centroid and small spatial variation.  The primary driver of soybean area dynamics was the “value added of primary industry”, while gross power of agricultural machinery was a significant factor in North China, highlighting regional differences in driving mechanisms.  This study provides the first long-term, high-resolution soybean planting dataset for China and offers valuable insights into the sustainable development of soybean cultivation.

To ensure nutritional intake and reduce the occurrence of diet-related diseases, it is urgent to promote a healthy diet.  At present, short video apps with information dissemination, social interaction, and online shopping are widely used, which have changed the way people obtain and exchange information, and the way of life and consumption.  Exploring whether short video app use can affect food consumption choices offers new insights for promoting dietary transformation among residents.  Based on the first-hand micro-survey data of 2,000 rural households across 100 villages in 5 Chinese provinces in 2023, this study examines the effects of short video app use on rural household food consumption.  The results show that short video app use can increase households’ per capita food consumption and dietary diversity, mainly by raising consumption of aquatic products, fruits, poultry, pork and soybeans, but it does not improve households’ food health index.  Short video app use promotes dietary diversity mainly by improving nutrition awareness.  Its positive effect on dietary diversity is stronger among high-income groups.  It also improves dietary diversity in villages that have express delivery points, but lack food markets and are remotely located.  Short video app use can help improve nutrition awareness and to a certain extent, reduce the impact of location and supporting facilities on food access.

Global agricultural trade helps to balance the supply and demand for food worldwide, stimulating economic growth and promoting political stability.  However, agriculture’s inherent vulnerability to extreme weather events and other natural disasters has a significant impact on the industry, which is further amplified through trade and can threaten global food security.  This study examines both the mortality and economic losses caused by natural disasters and identifies the mechanisms through which these disasters affect international agricultural trade from 2002 to 2023.  The results show that natural disasters cause a decline in the volume of agricultural exports from affected countries, which is much larger than the decline observed in other industries.  Despite the high demand inelasticity of agricultural products, which typically leads to increased export prices when production declines, the value of exports still declined significantly over the study period, implying an average annual export loss of 6.21 billion USD and 39,359 jobs.  Geological disasters primarily hinder agricultural exports by increasing transportation costs, climate-related disasters by damaging production systems, and biological disasters by increasing storage and compliance costs.  We show that disasters have a more devastating effect on agricultural production in less developed countries, which diminishes their global product competitiveness, reduces export prices, and intensifies overall disaster impacts.  We also show that countries with low disaster risk, which lack emergency response experience, incur up to 2.053 million USD in agricultural export losses due to disasters.  In addition, political risks interact with natural disasters, thereby amplifying their negative impact on agricultural exports.  In terms of product heterogeneity, we find that the destructive impact of disasters on primary agricultural products extends through the supply chain to processed agricultural goods, affecting both their production and export.  We show that disasters exert an even broader influence on the agricultural system through secondary effects that are 2.83 times greater than the direct impacts.  Our findings provide valuable insights and highlight the need for countries affected by disasters to establish disaster prevention and recovery mechanisms to help minimize agricultural trade losses and safeguard global food security.