Agronomy, Volume 6, Issue 1

The NRT2 transporters mediate High Affinity Nitrate/NitriteTransport (HAN/NiT), which are essential for nitrogen acquisition from these inorganic forms. The NRT2 proteins are encoded by a multigene family in plants, and contain 12 transmembrane-spann...

Rhizoremediation is a bioremediation technique whereby microbial degradation of organic contaminants occurs in the rhizosphere. It is considered to be an effective and affordable “green technology” for remediating soils contaminated with petroleum hy...

Ascochyta blight (AB) caused by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Labr. is an important and widespread disease of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) worldwide. The disease is particularly severe under cool and humid weather conditions. Breeding for host resistance...

Rhizodeposition is considered a primary reason for the plant identity effect. However, the detection of distinct rhizosphere bacterial communities (RBC) with different plant species has been variable. The aim of this study was to examine the potentia...

Soybean is the most produced and consumed oil seed crop worldwide. In 2013, 226 million metric tons were produced in over 70 countries. Organically produced soybean represents less than 0.1% of total world production. In the USA, the certified organi...

Barley is a cereal of primary importance for forage and human nutrition, and is a useful model for wheat. Autophagy genes first described in yeast have been subsequently isolated in mammals and Arabidopsis thaliana. In Arabidopsis and maize it was re...

Extremes in soil mineral supply alter the metallome of seeds much less than that of their herbage. The underlying mechanisms of mineral homeostasis and the “puzzle of seed filling” are not yet understood. Field crops of wheat, rye, pea, and the mushr...

Lentil plays a major role in the food and nutritional security of low income Ethiopian families because of the high protein content of their seed; however, their productivity typically is low largely due to soil fertility limitations. Field and pot e...

The bioenergy industry produces a wide range of byproducts varying in their chemical composition depending on type of technology employed. In particular, pyrolysis and transesterification conversion processes generate C-rich byproducts of biochar (BC...

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of ASN3-encoded asparagine synthetase (AS, EC 6.3.5.4) during vegetative growth, seed development and germination of Arabidopsis thaliana. Phenotypic analysis of knockout (asn3-1) and knockdown (asn3-...

In the Sahel zone of West Africa that extends from Senegal to Chad, temperatures can vary from less than 15 °C to 25 °C from November to February. These low temperatures affect the growth, development and yield of rice plants, and therefore constitut...

Sugarcane, Saccharum spp., in the United States is attacked by a number of different arthropod pests. The most serious among those pests are two stalk boring moths in the Family Crambidae: the sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis (F.), and the Mexic...

Enhanced efficiency nitrogen (N) fertilizers (EEFs) may improve crop recovery of fertilizer-N, but there is evidence that some EEFs cause a lag in crop growth compared to growth with standard urea. Biomass and mineral nutrient accumulation was invest...

The editors of agronomy would like to express their sincere gratitude to the following reviewers for assessing manuscripts in 2015. [...]

Crop system models are generally parametrized with daily air temperatures recorded at 1.5 or 2 m height. These data are not able to represent temperatures at the canopy level, which control crop growth, and the impact of heat stress on crop yield, wh...

Soil and water pollution by metals and other toxic chemicals is difficult to measure and control, and, as such, presents an ongoing global threat to sustainable agriculture and human health. Efforts to remove contaminants by plant-mediated pathways,...

Stripe rust (caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) of wheat (Triticum aestivum) is a devastating disease in temperate regions when susceptible varieties are grown and environmental conditions sustain high disease pressures. With frequent and...

Field experiments at Oakes, ND, USA in 2010 and Carrington, ND, USA in 2011 were conducted to evaluate the potential for cover crops grown in the Northern Great Plains, USA in order to reduce weed emergence and density in irrigated potatoes. Treatmen...

Genotypic variation in N efficiency defined as high grain yield under limited nitrogen (N) supply of winter oilseed-rape line-cultivars has been predominantly attributed to N uptake efficiency (NUPT) through maintained N uptake during reproductive gr...

Since silage maize is the main crop grown for biogas production (biomass crop) in Germany; its increasing cultivation is critically discussed in terms of social and agronomical aspects. To investigate if sugar beet is suitable as an alternative bioma...