Oil Crop Science最新文献

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an economically significant crop with aerial cleistogamous flowers and subterranean geocarpic fruit (pods). The formation of peanut pod requires movement of the embryo from air to ground and then development in the soil, which is a complex biological process involving transport and accumulation of sugars. Sugar transport proteins (STP) mediate the transport of monosaccharides in various physiological processes, including fertilization, ovary formation, and seed development. In this study, a total of 36 AhSTP genes (AhSTP1–36) containing the conserved sugar_tr motif were identified in the A. hypogaea genome. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that AhSTP genes were classified into four clades, and the arrangement of motifs in AhSTP proteins was similar within clades. Synteny analysis revealed that segmental duplication events have played an important role in the expansion of STP genes in peanut, and chromosome rearrangements might have facilitated the exchange of STP genes between the A and B sub-genomes. Transcriptome analyses revealed that the expression patterns of AhSTP genes varied among tissues. Hormone and abiotic stress treatments could up-regulate or down-regulate the expression of AhSTP genes, and low temperature had a major effect on the expression of most AhSTP genes. Four AhSTP genes (AhSTP3, AhSTP9, AhSTP19, and AhSTP28) were specifically expressed in the pod, indicating that these genes might be involved in pod formation and development in peanut. The unique expression of these four genes during pod construction and development was confirmed in two different type cultivars using quantitative real-time PCR analysis. Our findings provide new insights into the STP gene family in peanut and will aid future functional studies of AhSTP genes.

Safflower is widely cultivated and used as a dual-purpose medicinal oil worldwide. This research used the incoPat patent database to search the global safflower patents for nearly 20 years, aiming to reveal the development process and current situation of the safflower industry in China and around the world by analyzing patent application trends, patent technology characteristics, advantageous industries and regions, patent quality, etc. The analysis shows that safflower patent applications are generally increasing, and the period 2010-2016 is characterized by the rapid development of patent applications. The technical features of global patents are mainly concentrated in pharmaceutical preparations, cosmetics, food and health care, various beverages, animal feed, safflower cultivation and harvesting equipment, and safflower seed oil. During the rapid development of patent applications, safflower was further developed in cosmetics, edible oil, and harvesting equipment. In addition, patent applications in rheumatism and bone diseases have increased, with the potential for development. China is the leading region for researching and developing medicinal safflower patents, especially Shandong and Henan provinces. Foreign patents are more focused on the value development of safflower seed oil in food and chemicals. Compared to the major countries and organizations that apply for safflower patents on a global scale, the quality of Chinese safflower patents is medium, and more awareness of patent protection is required. This paper provides suggestions for the subsequent development of the safflower industry, summarizes and analyzes the development trend of safflower patents, and provides new ideas to obtain innovative patent results.

Flower color, an important rapeseed character, has great practical value and research significance. It has become an area of intensive research in recent years. This paper summarizes the latest research progress on rape flower color in terms of variety, source, pigment composition, formation mechanism, and omics. Moreover, it provides an overview of rape flower color breeding and omics.

In the last decade, some disease occurred on our experimental farms that had caused serious losses. They were not caused by fungi, bacteria or viruses. By loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technique, the detection results pointed to the possible pathogen as phytoplasma. The investigation results implied that phytoplasmas could cause more than 13 kinds of symptoms in almost all parts of plants in B. napus L., including witches’ broom, multi-stems, aggregate main inflorescences, and flat stems. The incidences of these phytoplasma-associated diseases in our experimental farms rose from 1.61% in 2010 to 6.00% in 2021. Some phytoplasma infected plants died without any growing points. These studies would be helpful for detecting phytoplasmas diseases, selecting disease resistant germplasm and improving varieties with disease resistances in B. napus L.

Fatty acid (FA) desaturases, as the key enzymes in lipid metabolism, are responsible for biosynthesis of the unsaturated fatty FAs, which play important roles in maintaining cell membrane integrity and multiple stress responses. Although attention has been drawn to some plant FA desaturase genes, their global landscape in oil crops is still lacking. Here, we performed systematic characterization and phylogenomic synteny network analyses of the FA desaturase gene family in polyploid oil crop B. napus and other 54 species covering major streptophyte lineages. A total of 1653 FA desaturase genes were identified from these plant genomes. Based on the broad-scale family phylogeny and functional domains, we proposed a unified eight-group classification system for angiosperm FA desaturases, and found that the origin of genes responsible for FA desaturation evolved early and some genes were absent in different species. Phylogenomic analyses revealed deeply conserved syntenic relationships within each of the eight FA desaturase groups. B. napus contains up to 93 FA desaturase genes from the eight groups. Recurrent duplication events in Brassicaceae contributed to the expansion of FA desaturase genes in B. napus, leading to further functional diversification. These FA desaturase genes exhibited spatio-temporal specific expression patterns in different tissues of B. napus, and a set of FA desaturase genes seem to be orchestrated by key transcriptional factors during seed development, such as zf-HD, B3, GATA3, PEI1, NFYA7, YAB1 and YAB2. Altogether, our data have inferred the evolutionary trajectory of this important gene family across distinct plant lineages, providing theoretical basis for future manipulation of FA desaturase genes to improve the seed oil quality of B. napus.

The main advantage of digital PCR (dPCR) is that it facilitates absolute quantification of the target without reference to the standard/calibration curve. Crystal droplet dPCR has a three-color staining detection function, which enables multiplex PCR reaction. In this study, this technique was used to establish triple dPCR detection for the genetically modified soybean MON87708 ​× ​MON89788 with stacked traits. Specific absolute quantitative detection was accomplished for the genomic DNA extracted from the homogenized seeds of GM stack MON87708 ​× ​MON89788 soybean. Our results can serve as a reference for the absolute quantitative detection of stacked events of genetically modified crops.

Oilseed rape is an ideal model crop of great significance for research on agricultural-tourism integration and multi-functional development of agriculture. This paper explores the application of technologies for agricultural tourism based on rape flowers in rural revitalization of China. It includes perspectives of technologies for colorful rape flowers, flowering time regulation, multi-season blooming and farm landscape, aiming to further utilize the industrial potential of the multiple functions of agricultural crops, and promote the development of agriculture and rural economy to serve the strategic need of rural revitalization in China.

Auxin is essential for plant growth and development, also closely related to plant architecture. YUCCA (YUC) proteins catalyse the rate-limiting step for endogenous auxin biosynthesis. In this study, we identified 57 BnYUC genes in Brassica napus (rapeseed) genome, located on 17 chromosomes. Among them, A09 chromosome contained the most BnYUCs as 6. Phylogenetic tree showed that all BnYUC members were divided into 2 evolutionary clusters, including 7 sub-groups. Among the sub-groups, CladeⅠ-C consisted 20 members, evolved independently from Arabidopsis thaliana, and motif 10 was unique. Genomic collinearity analysis showed that YUC collinear gene pairs widely existed in Brassica species, indicating that this family has a high retention rate in the evolution. Expression profile suggested that the BnYUC family genes tended to express in specific growth/development stages as well as suffering stress/hormone treatments. It suggested that dominant expression of specific members existed with each development stage or treatment, indicating that each BnYUC might have a clear division of work, and play a given biological function. This work was expected to build a basis for further study of the involvement of BnYUC in growth, development and stress response.

The chlorophyll content has a direct effect on photosynthesis of crops. In order to explore a quick and convenient method for estimating the chlorophyll content of Brassica napus and facilitate efficient crop monitoring, we measured the actual value of chlorophyll with a SPAD-502 chlorophyll detector, and collected aerial images of B. napus with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) carrying a RGB camera in this study. The total number of 270 samples collected images were divided into regions according to the planting conditions of different B. napus varieties in the field. Then, according to the empirical formula, there were 36 colors’ characteristic parameters calculated and combined. To estimate the chlorophyll content of rape, 189 samples were included in the modeling set, while the other 81 samples were enrolled in the validation set for testing the accuracy of this model. After the combination of R (red), G (green) and B (blue) color channels, the results showed that the color characteristics B/(R ​+ ​G), b, B/G, (G-B)/(G ​+ ​B), g-b were highly connected with the measured value of chlorophyll SPAD, and the correlation coefficient between the combination based on B/(R ​+ ​G) and SPAD value was 0.747. With R² = 0.805, RMSE = 3.343, and RE = 6.84%, the regression model created using random forest had superior outcomes, according to the model comparison. This study offers a new method for quickly estimating the amount of chlorophyll in rapeseed and a workable reference for crop monitoring using the UAV platform.

Sesame and groundnut crops are the major oilseed crops produced for exports and local consumptions in Ethiopia. This study attempted to evaluate land suitability for oilseeds crops using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and multi-criteria evaluation in Diga district of East Wollega zone, western Ethiopia. To support the growing population, sesame and groundnut land suitability evaluations were carried out to ensure the sustainability of agricultural production. Different data inputs were used, including mainly climate data (temperature and rainfall), topography data (slope), soil data (soil texture, soil depth and soil drainage), and infrastructure data (road and market). In this study, sesame and groundnut land suitability areas were categorized into 4 classes: highly suitable, moderately suitable, marginally suitable, and not suitable. The result revealed that, about 252.1 ha (0.4%) and 113.1 ha (0.2%) were highly suitable for sesame and groundnut respectively. Result showed that most parts of the study area were moderately suitable for sesame and groundnut productions. Specially, the central and western parts of the study area were highly suitable and moderately suitable for sesame production. The study recommended the local communities to utilize the existing potential of the study area for sesame and groundnut productions. Moreover, decision makers should promote the suitability of the area for both small- and large-scale investment on sesame and groundnut production.