To understand the effects of different fertilization rates and planting densities on yield and economic benefit of Zhuangtang 6, and to determine the optimal fertilization level and planting density, field experiments were carried out in Longʼan cane area of Nanning and Jiangzhou cane area of Chongzuo. A two-factor split-block design was conducted, with the main treatment (A) of fertilization. Three levels of 42% compound fertilizer 3750 (high fertilizer, A1), 2250 (medium fertilizer, A2) and 1125 kg/ha (low fertilizer, A3) were set. For secondary treatment (B), five planting densities were set: low density B1 (60 000 buds/ha), medium- low density B2 (75 000 buds/ha), medium density B3 (90 000 buds/ha), medium-high density B4 (105 000 buds/ha), and high density B5 (120 000 buds/ha). The results showed that the yield of Zhuangtang 6 sugarcane increased with the increasing planting density; however, there was no significant difference between yield and fertilization level. The correlation analysis showed that the yield and tillering rate were negatively correlated in the two cane areas (significantly in Longʼan and extremely significantly in Jiangzhou), and yield was significantly positively correlated with the number of productive stalks. The economic benefit of A3B5 treatment was the highest. The yield of A3B5 treatment in Longʼan area of Nanning was 91.44 t/ha, with an economic benefit of 35 419.5 yuan/ha, which was 6.75% higher than that of A2B4 treatment with the highest yield of 92.32 t/ha. The yield of A3B5 treatment in Jiangzhou area of Chongzuo was 74.88 t/ha, with an economic benefit of 27 190.2 yuan/ha, which was 27.15% higher than that of A1B4 treatment with the highest yield of 77.40 t/ha. Considering the different water and fertilizer conditions and management levels of the two sugarcane areas, the suitable fertilizer application rate for high-yield and high efficiency planting of Zhuangtang 6 is 1125-2250 kg/ha, and the reasonable planting density is 10 500-12 000 buds/ha.

In order to explore the appropriate keeping way of tea plants before closing the garden, using “Baojinghuangjincha 1” as the test material, two autumn management treatments were set up, topping before garden closing (T) and no topping (CK). Samples were collected at germination stage, bud head stage as well as one bud and one leaf stage in spring, and the hormone content was determined. The amino acid components and related gene expression levels at one bud and one leaf stage were determined, and the correlation between hormone content and main amino acid components was analyzed. The results showed that budding density, 100-bud weight, and yield of tea plants in T treatment were extremely significantly increased compared with CK treatment. The determination of endogenous hormones in three periods showed that T treatment mainly affected the contents of auxin and cytokinin, the contents of auxin and cytokinin were positively correlated with the content of major amino acids, and the contents of theanine and aspartic acid were significantly positively correlated with the content of IAA-Ala. T treatment was beneficial to the accumulation of auxin and cytokinin in new shoots of tea plants in spring, promoted the germination and growth of lateral buds of tea plants, increased the yield, and T treatment was also beneficial to the accumulation of major amino acid components, such as theanine, aspartic acid, glutamate, serine, and improved the quality of tea.

To understand the quality and breeding strategies of nationally approved strong and medium-strong gluten wheat varieties in the Huang-Huai Wheat Region in recent years (2020-2024), cluster analysis based on the coefficient of parentage was performed, combined with a comprehensive analysis of pedigree information and quality traits. The results showed that the number of approved strong and medium-strong gluten wheat varieties in the Huang-Huai Wheat Region showed a yearly increasing trend from 2020 to 2024. The breeding capabilities of companies and research institutes were comparable, with their developed varieties accounting for 43.3% and 45.0% of the total number of varieties, respectively. The overall coefficient of parentage among varieties was low, with an average of 0.0640; however, parental utilization was relatively concentrated, with varieties primarily derived from ten core strong-gluten parents. Different parents exhibited varying focuses on the improvement of quality indicators. The breeding of strong-gluten wheat varieties mainly adopted the single-cross design of “high-quality variety/high-quality variety”. Breeding of strong-gluten wheat should emphasize the utilization of exotic high-quality varieties and wild relatives of wheat to create elite germplasm in the future. In the short term, newly developed elite strong-gluten germplasms such as Zhongmai 578 and Jimai 44 should be more extensively utilized to broaden the genetic base.

To determine a suitable nutrient solution for rapid propagation of virus-free sweet potato seedlings, four nutrient solutions at two concentrations each were tested using virus-free seedlings of Longshu No.9 in substrate culture to explore the effects of different treatments on the growth of virus-free seedlings. The results showed that both nutrient solution type and electrical conductivity significantly affected morphology and physiology of the virus-free seedling. The Longjiu treatments showed the best growth performance and root vitality, particularly Longjiu 2 resulted in superior stem vine length, stem node number, and aboveground fresh and dry weights compared with other treatments. These results indicated that Longjiu 2 was a suitable nutrient solution for rapid propagation of virus-free Longshu No.9 sweet potato seedlings.

To clarify the regulatory effects of a polyaspartic acid (PASP) combined with chitosan (CTS) on soil moisture content, tobacco plant and root growth and development, and tobacco leaf quality in the arid tobacco area of Bijie, field experiments were conducted using Yunyan 87. Different concentrations of PASP and CTS (CK: same amount of water; T1: 3.0 kg/ha PASP+0.3 kg/ha CTS; T2: 3.0 kg/ha PASP+0.6 kg/ha CTS; T3: 6.0 kg/ha PASP+0.3 kg/ha CTS; T4: 6.0 kg/ha PASP+0.6 kg/ha CTS) were applied. Soil and root indexes, growth and development parameters and quality indexes of flue-cured tobacco leaves were measured at different growth stages. The results showed that compared with other treatments, T3 treatment significantly increased soil moisture content. At the rosette stage, the moisture content of the shallow soil layer increased by 15.01% and that of deep soil layer increased by 10.16% compared with CK. T4 treatment significantly increased the number of lateral roots and adventitious roots, as well as root volume and root activity, by 34.07%, 29.12%, 25.70% and 29.56% respectively compared with the CK. The combined application of PASP and CTS significantly promoted growth, development, and dry matter accumulation of flue-cured tobacco, with higher concentrations leading to more obvious effects. Compared with CK, the leaf area and stem circumference of T4 treatment increased by 18.3% and 12.3% respectively, and the dry matter accumulation increased by 26.04%. The chemical composition, sensory and appearance quality of tobacco leaves were improved to varying degrees. The improvement effect of T2 treatment was the most significant, with increases of 10.36%, 7.76% and 7.30% respectively, compared with the CK. The quality evaluation of tobacco leaves was 7.57% higher than that of CK. The combined application of PASP and CTS can effectively increase the soil moisture content, promote the root development of flue-cured tobacco, and improve leaf quality. The optimal treatment (3.0 kg/ha PASP+0.6 kg/ha CTS) alleviated the decline in yield and quality of flue-cured tobacco caused by drought in Bijie.

To identify superior adzuki bean varieties suitable for planting in different regions, a multi- environment evaluation of 27 new adzuki bean varieties (lines) was conducted at 18 test sites nationwide from 2022 to 2023, to systematically analyzed the variations in main agronomic traits and yields of these varieties (lines) across different ecological zones. The results showed that there were significant differences in the agronomic traits and yields of the new adzuki bean varieties (lines) across different test sites and ecological zones. Traits such as the number of main stem branches, plant height, and number of pods per plant had strong environmental interaction effects (coefficient of variation >30%), while traits like growth period, pod length, and 100-grain weight showed higher genetic stability (coefficient of variation <15%). Nine varieties, including Baohong 201429-8, Chihong 3 and Tanghong 201301-2, showed yield increases of 0.29%-8.79% compared with the control. Baohong 201429-8 and Tanghong 201509-12 exhibited both high yield and broad adaptability.

The influence of potato transcription factors on anthocyanin accumulation is primarily reflected in their regulation of genes involved in the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway. In this study, the StMYB3 gene was cloned by RT-PCR from three potato cultivars: Shepody (white flesh), Wanziqianhong (light purple flesh), and 2013-89-61 (dark purple flesh). Bioinformatics characterization and differential expression analysis were performed. The results showed that the target fragment of StMYB3 genes was 710 bp in length, encoding a protein with a molecular weight of 20.71 kDa and an isoelectric point of 9.14, which was identified as a hydrophilic protein. StMYB3 genes contains R2R3-MYB domain and bHLH interaction motif but lacks a transmembrane domain. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that StMYB3 genes shares the highest sequence similarity with the ScMYB gene from pepper. Semi-quantitative PCR results showed that the expression level of potato StMYB3 gene in different tissues is: tender leaf > old leaf > stem > tuber > root, and the cultivar 2013-89-61 exhibited consistently high expression across all tissues.

Progesterone is a steroid hormone found in plants, which is closely related to plant growth and development and plays a positive role in stress resistance. The growth status of wheat roots directly affects yield and stress resistance. This study investigated the effects of exogenous progesterone on the elongation growth of wheat roots and preliminarily analyzed their regulatory pathways. The results showed that different concentrations of exogenous progesterone exerted varying regulatory effects on wheat root growth: low concentrations (0.001 and 0.01 μmol/L) promoted root elongation, whereas high concentrations (0.1 and 1.0 μmol/L) inhibited growth. Exogenous progesterone treatment significantly affected the glucose content and phosphofructokinase (PFK) activity in the roots of wheat seedlings. With increasing progesterone concentration, the root glucose content first decreased and then increased, while the trend of PFK activity was opposite. Further research found that under 10 μmol/L glucose treatment, the root glucose content decreased and PFK activity increased; under 10 000 μmol/L glucose treatment, the root glucose content increased and PFK activity was inhibited. In addition, the application of 0.1 μmol/L progesterone significantly promoted root glucose accumulation under low-concentration glucose treatment and inhibited the induction effect of glucose on PFK activity. Conversely, the application of 0.001 μmol/L progesterone significantly inhibited root glucose accumulation under high-concentration glucose treatment and alleviated the inhibitory effect of glucose on PFK activity. These findings suggest that exogenous progesterone may affect the glycolysis process by acting on PFK, a key rate-limiting enzyme in the glycolytic pathway, thereby regulating the glucose content in roots and regulating wheat root elongation growth.

Fertilizer management, especially the precise application of panicle fertilizer, has a significant impact on rice yield, quality, and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). To determine a reasonable panicle fertilizer ratio and application leaf-age stage for the rice-growing region along the Yellow River in Henan Province, this study used rice variety Bianjing 5 as the experimental material. At a nitrogen application rate of 277.5 kg/ha, the effects of two nitrogen fertilizer management modes—the conventional mode (with panicle fertilizer applied at the 2nd and 1st leaf stages from the top) and the precise delayed mode (with panicle fertilizer applied at the 4th and 3rd leaf stages from the top)—combined with silicon and zinc fertilizer on the yield, grain quality, and NUE of japonica rice were investigated. The results showed that both the precise delayed nitrogen mode and the application of silicon and zinc fertilizers had significant yield-increasing effects, with increments ranging from 3.9% to 13.2%. The precise delayed nitrogen mode improved yield by increasing the effective panicle number, improving the panicle-forming rate and grain number per panicle, while silicon and zinc supplementation improved yield by increasing grain number per panicle and 1000-grain weight. The precise delayed nitrogen mode combined with silicon and zinc application significantly increased the milled rice rate and head rice rate, reduced the chalky grain rate and chalkiness, and effectively improved the appearance and processing quality of the rice. Furthermore, the precise delayed nitrogen mode significantly improved nitrogen uptake efficiency, physiological nitrogen efficiency, nitrogen agronomic efficiency, and nitrogen partial productivity, while silicon and zinc application significantly enhanced nitrogen agronomic efficiency and nitrogen partial factor productivity. In conclusion, the precise delayed nitrogen mode combined with silicon and zinc fertilization contributes to the construction of a healthy population of japonica rice in the rice-growing region along the Yellow River in Henan Province, achieving synergistic improvement in yield, grain quality, and nitrogen use efficiency.

To investigate the resistance levels to currently prevalent races and new isolates, as well as the distribution of stripe rust resistance genes in released and candidate wheat varieties from Longnan, Gansu, 73 wheat varieties (lines) were evaluated for seedling resistance against the prevalent races CYR32, CYR34, and ZS asexual isolate and ZS sexual isolate. Meanwhile, molecular markers linked to all-stage resistance genes Yr5, Yr9, Yr10, Yr15, Yr26, and the adult-plant resistance gene Yr18 were utilized for molecular detection. The results indicated that among the 73 tested wheat varieties (lines), 11 (15.07%), 11 (15.07%), 13 (17.81%), and nine (12.33%) exhibited seedling resistance to CYR32, CYR34, and the asexual and sexual isolates of ZS, respectively. Among all tested materials, only Zhongliang 14 exhibited seedling resistance to all the provided isolates of stripe rust. Molecular detection results revealed that the number of wheat varieties (lines) carrying Yr5, Yr9, Yr10, Yr18, and Yr26 was 1, 27, 3, 3, and 16, respectively, accounting for 1.37%, 36.99%, 4.11%, 4.11%, and 21.92% of the total tested materials. Three materials carried two resistance genes, and Zhongliang 14 carried three resistance genes. The Yr15 gene was not detected in any of the tested varieties (lines), and 28 materials carried none of the six tested resistance genes.