Leaf size is a crucial trait in eggplant breeding, as it influences photosynthesis, plant biomass and management. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism regulating leaf size in eggplant. This study reports a small leaf mutant (slf) generated with the mutagen ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS). The slf mutant showed restricted cell proliferation and an increased content of auxin. Transcriptome analysis revealed that several genes involved in auxin signaling are upregulated in slf. Exogenous application of auxinole, an auxin antagonist of TIR1/AFB receptors, repressed the expression of these genes and restored leaf growth of slf, suggesting that the small leaf size of slf is likely associated with auxin signaling. This study provides essential clues to unveil the molecular mechanism of leaf size regulation in eggplant. Full article

‘Taro-like’ odor is an important economic trait of pumpkin species. The metabolic and molecular bases of this aromatic trait remain largely unexplored. Therefore, in this study, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, GC-Olfactometry, and RNA-seq technology were used to illuminate the differential volatile compounds, the key volatile compounds, and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in leaves from two pumpkin samples. Eight volatile compounds, including (E)-2-nonenal, 3-octanol, 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, 1-nonanol, α-terpineol, 2,3-pentanedione, caryophyllene, and 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, were only detected in the sample with ‘taro-like’ aroma. Moreover, the variable importance in projection scores of all the above eight volatile compounds were >1.0 using PLS-DA analysis. The compounds 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, 3-octanol, 1-nonanol, and (E)-3,7-dimethyl-2,6-octadienal were identified as the key contributors using GC-Olfactometry analysis. It was determined that 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline might play a significant role in ‘taro-like’ aroma. Furthermore, most of the differential volatile compounds were derived from fatty acids, and the DEGs were also involved in the pathways related to degradation, metabolism, and biosynthesis of fatty acids. Moreover, five genes involved in the accumulation of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline showed differential expression, and their expression trends were consistent with 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline. This study offers the basis for further studies on the mechanism of ‘taro-like’ aroma in pumpkins. Full article

In the subtropical climate of Taiwan, the cool season (January–June) is most productive for rice cultivation. However, the cool season also sees a large variability and weather impact on the crop. To assess the effect of winter monsoon variability and the warming climate, a common ORYZA(v3) model was used to derive the potential growth and yield of the japonica rice variety in different agro-climatological areas of Taiwan. The simulation was constructed for three planting dates (15 January, 30 January, and 14 February) in three time periods (1986–2005, 2006–2025, and 2026–2045) under a high-emission (RCP8.5) scenario, using a dynamically downscaled regional climate simulation data set (CORDEX). The result indicates that increased temperature during the early season significantly shortens the rice vegetative phase in all planting dates. Compared to the 1986 condition, rice maturation is projected to be 6–9 days and 7–11 days earlier by 2045 for the central-west and the north-east regions, respectively. In the future, decreased duration of crop growth will lead to a lowered yield, while increased CO₂ can enhance rice yield by 8.5–18%. Rice yield is projected to decline by 3.3-to-10% during 2026–2045, offsetting the fertilizing effect of increasing CO₂. Meanwhile, yield variability will increase in the future, due to more exposure to extremely low- and high-yield conditions. As such, a large yield reduction resulting from the increased variability (down to 34%) can offset the increased mean yield. Full article

Water is getting scarce and irrigation practices should become more efficient. Mango orchards require great quantities of water, and policies in developing countries are substituting surface gravity irrigation by pressurized systems. A commercial orchard having mature 25-year-old trees and a 10-year-old HD high-density section were irrigated with micro sprinklers using 100% ETc (crop evapotranspiration) and reduced deficit irrigation treatments of 75% and 50% ETc. Water soil measurements were made with EC-5 probes at 10 and 35 cm in depth to study the effect of the different irrigation treatments. After the 2020 harvest, mature trees were trimmed without achieving pruning severity greater than 1.3. Canopy volume, mango size, fruit yield and water-use efficiency WUE were analyzed during 2020 and 2021. Sporadic storms produced sprinkler watering problems as weeds proliferated within trees. A controller with a fuzzy algorithm optimized orchard management and saved water in trees without decreasing yield and fruit size. It was found that one year after mature trees were trimmed by taking away the larger internal branch, more light penetrated the canopy, increasing yield by 60%; pruning in HD trees presented a yield increase of 5.37%. WUE (water-use efficiency) also increased with pruning and its value increased to 87.6 when the fuzzy controller and the 50% DI treatments were used in mature trees. This value was 260% greater than the one obtained in pruned trees without the controller. HD trees presented a lower WUE and yield per hectare than mature trees. Full article

Aerobic irrigation can effectively improve the oxygen environment in the root zone, and enhance crop quality and yield. However, how aerobic irrigation regulates root growth has not been elucidated. In this study, tomato plants were irrigated with three levels of oxygen (high, medium, and low) under underground drip irrigation. The morphology, activity, transcriptome, and hormone content of tomato roots under oxygen irrigation were analyzed. We found that the aeration irrigation significantly promoted root development. Notably, in the high-aeration irrigation treatment (HAI), the total root length, total surface area, total volume, and root activity were 12.41%, 43.2%, 79.1%, and 24.15% higher than in the non-aeration irrigation treatment (CK), respectively. The transcriptome of tomato roots under aeration irrigation was determined with a total of 272 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), including 131 up-regulated and 141 down-regulated genes. The Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) analysis revealed that the DEGs were enriched mainly in the metabolic pathways and plant hormone signal transduction. Among the plant hormone signal transduction, 50% of DEGs belonged to IAA signal-related genes and were upregulated. LC-MS analysis showed that the content of auxin hormones in the tomato roots subjected to aeration irrigation was significantly higher than that in CK. The content of Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), Indole-3-carboxylic acid (ICA) and Indole-3-carboxaldehyde (ICAld) were 2.3, 2.14 and 1.45 times higher than those of the CK, but insignificant effects were exerted on the contents of cytokinins, salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, abscisic acid, and ethylene. Meanwhile, the key enzyme of auxin synthesis flavin monooxygenase (YUCCA) was significantly up-regulated. The aforementioned results show that aeration irrigation may promote the growth and development of roots by auxin regulation. Full article

This paper’s aim was to investigate the influence of variety and the climatic year on vegetation phenophases in blueberries grown in southwest Romania, the Banat region. This study was carried out during the growing season of 2020–2022 in a blueberry plantation, for ‘Duke’, ‘Hannah’s Choice’ and ‘Elliott’ varieties. In the study, phenological traits were recorded using the BBCH phenological scale and the observation of phenotypic data was recorded as in Julian days. Thus, it is found that the duration of each phenophase characterized each variety. The calendar periods for the onset of vegetation and the duration of spring phenological development stages in varieties have differed from year to year and depended on weather conditions. In the case of the phenological stage, depending on variety, the maximum amplitude was recorded for BBCH 87 stage (75% blue fruits) of 51 days, and the minimum amplitude, of 25 days, for BBCH 51 stage (bud swell) and BBCH 59 (late pink bud). The coefficient of variation, depending on climatic year, for generative phenophases, had values between 6.5% (BBCH 67-petal fall) and 21.1% (BBCH 51-bud swell). It was found that the variety and the climatic year influence the development of vegetation phenophases. The results indicate that blueberry cultivars have demonstrated a high degree of phenotypic plasticity to respond to gradual changes in environmental conditions and are important for the evaluation of cultivar cultivation prospects in the studied area. Full article

The use of living mulches (LM) grown in-season together with the cash crop is a potentially important method of organic vegetable production. There are only a few reports on the influence of LM on the biological value of vegetable crops. The impacts of LM of Alexandrian clover on the yields and levels of phenolic compounds in leeks and shallots were investigated. There were three sowing dates for the clover plants: 3 weeks before planting the leeks and shallot, at the planting date, and three weeks from planting the leeks and shallots. The yields of leeks and shallots with LM were higher than without the clover LM; the plants grown with LM accumulated more total phenolic (TP) compounds, and the plant extracts showed significantly higher antioxidant activity (AA). In shallot bulbs, the LM of Alexandrian clover increased the ferulic acid and chlorogenic acid levels, while in leek pseudo-stems the quercetin level was increased. The level of bioactive compounds depended on the date of clover planting. The most favorable sowing dates for clover planting were at the time of planting the leeks and shallots and three weeks after planting the plants. The LM of Alexandrian clover can be considered as a tool that can influence the nutritional value of leeks and shallots. Full article

Oil tea (Camellia oleifera Abel.) is one of the most important woody edible oil tree species in China, with intraspecific polyploid. In order to study the variation in pollen size and vigor of C. oleifera at ploidy level, four ploidy covers a total of 32 types of Camellia pollens as the material for the experiment. The results showed that the pollen sizes of diploid, tetraploid, hexaploidy, and octaploid were positively correlated with the ploidy level. Pollen viability of C. oleifera was determined by fluorescein diacetate (FDA) dye solution staining and medium containing 10% sucrose, 0.01% boric acid, and 1% agar germination in vitro, which indicated that the pollen viability and germination rate of the hexaploid were relatively high among the four ploidy levels, at 79.69% and 71.78% respectively. The pollen vigor of diploid NR-3, tetraploid DP43, hexaploid CJ-12, and octoploid YNYC-1 was higher than that of other materials with the same ploidy level. Knowledge of different ploidy pollen sizes and pollen viability provides basic information for formulating pollen breeding plans and pollination methods of C. oleifera. Full article

Sorghum landraces are essential for developing cultivars with improved properties, such as disease tolerance, yield and metabolite content. In this study, 139 genotypes (136 Korean sorghum landraces and 3 control cultivars) collected from various provinces were investigated using eleven agronomical and five biochemical traits. The landraces showed little variation in their qualitative agronomical traits. In contrast, quantitative agronomical and biochemical traits differed significantly among the landraces. It was discovered that 16 landraces matured ahead of all control cultivars. Furthermore, 26 landraces had significantly higher thousand seed weights (TSWs) than two of the control cultivars, including Nampungchal (30.63 g) and Sodamchal (30.53 g), whereas only 1 landrace had a significantly higher TSW than the other control cultivar, Wheatland (37.93 g) (p < 0.05). The levels of total tannin content (TTC), total phenolic content (TPC), 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium (ABTS) radical cation scavenging activity, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) were in the ranges of 0.12–428.95 mg CE/g, 1.17–10.23 mg GAE/g, 1.64–67.60 mg TE/g, 0.48–31.99 mg AAE/g and 0.63–21.56 mg AAE/g, respectively, and were all affected by collection area, seed weight and seed color. Landraces from northern provinces were discovered to have higher metabolite contents. Furthermore, large seeds had higher TTC and TPC levels as well as DPPH, ABTS and FRAP activities than medium and small seeds, except for the TTC and FRAP, which were significantly different. In terms of seed color, white seeds had significantly lower metabolite contents and antioxidant activities and were notable in principal component analysis. Correlation analysis revealed positive and significant associations between biochemical traits, as well as between panicle-related agronomic traits. In general, the landraces with superior characteristics could be ideal candidates for sorghum breeding programs. Full article

Roasting has been used by the coffee industry to promote changes in the physical and chemical structure of coffee beans that influence the sensory quality of coffee beverages. However, there are no standardization rules for the temperature and roasting time. Thus, this study evaluated the influence of four roasting profiles obtained by two different roasters on the chemical and sensory quality of the coffee bean. Baked, light, medium, and dark roasting were evaluated using medium infrared spectroscopy and cupping test. Individual and joint effects of temperature and time for each roasting profile were observed on the loss of grain mass. There are specific regions in the infrared spectrum that can be used as markers to discriminate the roasting profiles and the type of roaster used. Despite the difference observed in the ranges of the infrared spectra, the roasters did not present significant differences in the average of the final sensory notes. This result shows the need to use analytical chemical techniques together with sensory analysis in order to better determine differences between coffee samples. Therefore, differences observed in the chemical analyzes and in the sensory attributes of roasted coffee are related to the roasting profile and type of roaster. Full article

Fruit trees grow in complex environments where various environmental factors are related to each other, exerting a comprehensive effect on fruit quality. In this study, diurnal variations in environmental indices in the field and greenhouse were recorded, and the changes of leaf photosynthetic assimilate metabolism and fruit soluble sugar accumulation in peach (Prunus persica) under the influence of a comprehensive environment were explored. The results showed that the field environment was more favorable for peach photosynthesis, and more sucrose, glucose and fructose could be accumulated compared with the greenhouse environment. In addition, more sorbitol was converted into glucose and fructose in field fruits. Therefore, field fruits exhibited a particularly greater increase in the fructose content, which greatly increased the sweetness of field fruits. This study revealed changes in the pattern of sucrose and sorbitol metabolism in peaches grown in the field and greenhouse, and analyzed the possible reasons and mechanisms of fruit intrinsic quality differences. This research will provide a theoretical basis and reference for the regulation of fruit quality in the greenhouse environment. Full article

Hybrid rice seed production predominantly relies on the pollen ability of restorer lines and the stigma properties of the cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) lines. Improving the pollen ability and agronomic performance of restorer lines could be achieved using mutation to reinforce the outcrossing rate and seed set percentage of CMS lines. Two commercial restorer cultivars (Giza-178 and Giza-179) were treated with three different doses of gamma-ray; 200, 300, and 400 Gy. The derived mutant restorer lines were selfed and constantly evaluated with their corresponding parental cultivars until the M6 generation. Six promising mutant lines were chosen based on their performance to be evaluated with their parents for their pollen and agronomic characteristics. The novel-induced mutant restorer lines exhibited significant differences in all studied pollen and agronomic characteristics. The mutant restorer lines R4 and R7 exhibited superior desirable anther length (2.36 and 2.38 mm, in the same order), anther width (0.47 and 0.45 mm), pollen fertility (97.50 and 97.31%), basal pore length (218.8 and 299.5 mm), apical length (103.6 and 108.1), number of pollen grains per anther (1810 and 1832), plant height (121.8 and 115.9 cm), fertile tillers (23.50 and 18.89), number of spikelets per panicle (203.2 and 202.5), panicle length (25.34 and 24.26 cm), number of filled grains per panicle (195.5 and 191.8), seed set percentage (95.56 and 96.63%), and grain yield (11.01 and 11.36 t/ha). Based on the results of the first two seasons, the two novel promising restorers and their parental cultivars were crossed with four diverse CMS lines. The seed set percentage and hybrid seed production of the crossed CMS lines were evaluated for further two seasons. The results exposed that the combinations derived from restorer lines R4 and R7 with most of the evaluated CMS lines produced the uppermost seed set percentage outcrossing rate. Particularly in combination with CMS2, the restorer lines R4 and R7 displayed the highest seed set percentage (39.57 and 34.80%), number of tillers fertile per hill (25.31 and 23.32), seed yield (2.02 and 1.81 t/ha), and harvest index (23.88 and 22.66%). Conclusively, the derived gamma-ray-induced mutant restorer lines R4 and R7 could be exploited as a new source for ensuring desirable pollen and anther characteristics in order to improve the outcrossing rate of CMS lines and hybrid rice seed production. Full article

Roegneria kamoji Ohwi (Poaceae), a wild relative plant of wheat which is widely distributed across China, has become a dominant and problematic weed in wheat fields in some regions. We have previously confirmed that R. kamoji is highly tolerant to foliar-applied acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase) and acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitors in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The sensitivity of R. kamoji to pre-emergence (PRE) herbicides and the basis of fenclorim increase selectivity to butachlor between wheat and R. kamoji were evaluated in this study. Screenhouse bioassay showed that R. kamoji exhibited similar sensitivity to wheat to PRE herbicides at their recommended field doses (RFD); it also showed that buatchlor provides the highest relative control for R. kamoji (53.4% emergence and 81.5% fresh weight reduction, respectively), while it had no impact on seedling emergence of wheat among the six PRE herbicides. When butachlor was applied at four-fold RFD, no R. kamoji seedlings emerged; however, it significantly reduced the above-ground biomass of wheat compared with the non-treated control. Pre-treatment with herbicide safener fenclorim by seed soaking increased the ED₁₀ value of butachlor to wheat from 221.8 to 1600.1 g a.i. ha⁻¹, thus increasing the selectivity index from 9.6 to 68.9 between wheat and R. kamoji. The activities of α-amylase activity and protein content during germination, and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and β-ketoacyl-CoA synthase (KCS) in the seedlings, could be induced by butachlor in both wheat seeds with or without fenclorim pre-soaking. These results suggested that butachlor provides the highest control for R. kamoji and did not affect germination and emergence in wheat. The basis of fenclorim-increased selectivity to butachlor was associated with the induced GST and KCS-mediated enhanced herbicide metabolism in wheat. Full article

Shrub species have increased in density and cover in desertification areas, however, the role of sandy habitats in contributing to the expansion of shrubs is poorly understood. Although the effect of sandy habitats on plant growth and reproduction have been demonstrated, most existing studies lack either experimental demonstration or an integrated study during the whole shrub life cycle. We performed field and laboratory experiments to examine the responses of four stages in the life cycle of shrubs (seed germination, plant growth, seed reproduction, clonal reproduction) to sandy habitats (including sand substrate, sand burial and wind erosion) for Caragana shrubs. Results showed that both sand substrate and sand burial facilitated seed germination, seedling biomass, sapling establishment, plant growth, and root-shoot ratio of Caragana. Meanwhile, they both strongly increased seed number and seed preservation, and thus enhanced sexual reproduction. Sand burial favored clonal reproduction of Caragana by promoting the formation of branch-derived ramets, while wind erosion benefited clonal reproduction by facilitating the formation of root-derived ramets. These results suggested that sandy habitats facilitated seed germination, plant growth, sexual reproduction, and clonal reproduction of Caragana, which could explain why shrub abundance, shrub area and shrub height of Caragana in sandy areas was higher than in grasslands. Our study provided an experimental demonstration that sandy habitats promoted the population growth of Caragana shrubs during the whole life cycle and highlighted the significant role of sandy habitats in facilitating shrub encroachment in grasslands. Full article

Currently, deep convolutional neural networks have achieved great achievements in semantic segmentation tasks, but existing methods all require a large number of annotated images for training and do not have good scalability for new objects. Therefore, few-shot semantic segmentation methods that can identify new objects with only one or a few annotated images are gradually gaining attention. However, the current few-shot segmentation methods cannot segment plant diseases well. Based on this situation, a few-shot plant disease semantic segmentation model with multi-scale and multi-prototypes match (MPM) is proposed. This method generates multiple prototypes and multiple query feature maps, and then the relationships between prototypes and query feature maps are established. Specifically, the support feature and query feature are first extracted from the high-scale layers of the feature extraction network; subsequently, masked average pooling is used for the support feature to generate prototypes for a similarity match with the query feature. At the same time, we also fuse low-scale features and high-scale features to generate another support feature and query feature that mix detailed features, and then a new prototype is generated through masked average pooling to establish a relationship with the query feature of this scale. Subsequently, in order to solve the shortcoming of traditional cosine similarity and lack of spatial distance awareness, a CES (cosine euclidean similarity) module is designed to establish the relationship between prototypes and query feature maps. To verify the superiority of our method, experiments are conducted on our constructed PDID-5ⁱ dataset, and the mIoU is 40.5%, which is 1.7% higher than that of the original network. Full article