ACS agricultural science & technology最新文献

Maize (Zea mays L.) is an important grain crop worldwide and is also a crucial plant for basic research on biological agriculture. Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) oxidizes endogenous or exogenous aldehydes into carboxylic acids to reduce the toxicity of aldehydes and respond to stress. Here, a total of 35 members of the ALDH gene were reidentified and renamed in the maize genome. These genes were distributed on 10 chromosomes with uneven distribution and divided into 9 ALDH families. The gene structure and protein domain were found to be mostly conserved in separate classes. The analysis of promoter cis-elements showed that ZmALDHs are involved in different biological processes of plant development. Further, the 15 ZmALDH genes with high expression levels in maize anthers were identified, implying their potential roles in male fertility. Our research provides potential value for discovering male sterility genes that can contribute to maize hybrid seed production.

Grain loss and waste (GLW) presents formidable challenges to global food security, sustainability, and efforts to combat climate change. This study delves into the evolution of GLW research themes spanning from 1996 to 2022, employing bibliographic couplings, keyword co-occurrence, and keyphrase analysis to examine 1,570 articles sourced from the Web of Science (WOS) database. Our investigation encompasses bibliometric indicators, the temporal progression of publications and citations, the impact of international collaborations among countries and institutions, influential publications, and the leading contributors on the global stage. By harnessing data from scholarly publications, this study offers a comprehensive exploration of GLW’s multifaceted dimensions, scrutinizing thematic shifts, regional variations, and the key stages of GLW from production to consumption within the food value chain. Our findings underscore the pivotal roles of technological innovations, dietary awareness, and the principles of a circular economy in curtailing GLW. As governments worldwide commit to sustainability objectives, addressing GLW emerges as a momentous opportunity for climate mitigation, enhanced food security, and the advancement of circular economy practices. This research contributes valuable insights for guiding future endeavors aimed at minimizing GLW within the food value chain.

Traditional cooling strategies for greenhouses commonly result in significant electricity consumption and a substantial release of carbon dioxide emissions. Considering the industrial fabrication process for the greenhouse covering film and the thermal management theory, we developed a composite greenhouse covering film that incorporates titanium dioxide into polyethylene to achieve near-infrared reflection. The film demonstrates an impressive near-infrared reflectance of 54.4% within the wavelength range of 780–2500 nm. A tunnel-type greenhouse demo comparative test results show that the composite film can effectively decrease the average temperature inside the greenhouse by 6.7 °C in comparison to the pure polyethylene film. The reduction implies a significant annual saving in cooling electricity at the national level of 2151912.3 MW h, along with an annual CO₂ emission reduction by 1250261.1 tons.

Recently, China released its first 5-year plan for bioeconomy development, in which bioagriculture was identified as one of the five key development areas. It not only aims to cultivate new momentum for ensuring food security in China but also outlines a new direction for agro-biotechnology innovation and the development of the bioindustry. This paper elaborates on the significance of agriculture as a crucial application scenario in the future bioeconomy and analyzes the demand for agricultural biotechnology in the context of China’s food security. Additionally, it summarizes the development experiences of countries and regions, such as the United States and the European Union in the field of bioeconomy, including their strategic policies, leading technologies, and policy impacts. The paper further proposes specific ways to fully leverage the supportive role of bioeconomy in ensuring China’s food security. These methods encompass the enhancement of agricultural biotechnology innovation capabilities, the application of biotechnological achievements in agriculture, and the refinement of the regulatory framework for biotechnology.

As one of the essential nutrients plants need to grow, phosphorus presents the drawback of immobilizing in high-Fe and Al soils. Therefore, it is necessary to properly manage P-containing fertilizers to optimize the crop nutrient amount and synchronize their plant uptake with the release of nutritional composition. Coated fertilizers can improve the availability of nutrients by reducing losses due to fixation or leaching. The present study investigated the effects of monoammonium phosphate (MAP) granules coated with a green and biodegradable castor oil-based polyurethane layer film (2 to 8% by weight) on plant development and P absorption. A greenhouse experiment with two crops as the test plants was performed. The study found a well-adjusted nutrition profile in both cultures with a continuous nutrient supply when mixing the different MAP-coated granules. Combining particles with different release rates can balance the slow-release effect of coating and nutrient absorption by plants, thereby allowing for a continuous nutrient supply from a single fertilization. Our results can support the design of more efficient controlled-released systems, providing a new approach to reducing the application and increasing the efficiency of phosphorus fertilizer. The presence of a coating improves the nutrient absorption of plants. At the same time, the coating used has good biocompatibility.

Sugar beet, an important sugar crop utilized for the production of beet sugar, fulfills the world’s sugar demands to about 25%, accompanying cane sugar. The production of sugar beet encounters significant challenges attributed to devastating diseases that result in a decreased crop yield. Disease-resistant varieties are key to mitigating productivity losses traditionally developed through conventional breeding. However, the advent of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing has accelerated the creation of resistant sugar beet varieties by enabling precise genetic modifications. This advanced technology offers an effective approach to combat bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogens, leading to the development of sugar beet varieties with varying degrees of resistance. The paper elucidates the revolutionary impact of CRISPR/Cas9 on sugar beet, revealing essential regulators of disease resistance and providing insights into interactions with pathogens and the sugar beet microbiome. The integration of CRISPR/Cas9 with other techniques opens novel avenues for understanding and developing disease-resistant sugar beet varieties, marking a significant advancement in the field.

In this study, we investigated the effects of molybdenum (Mo)-based nanofertilizer and copper (Cu)-based nanopesticide exposure on wheat through a multifaceted approach, including physiological measurements, metal uptake and translocation analysis, and targeted proteomics analysis. Wheat plants were grown under a 16 h photoperiod (light intensity 150 μmol·m^–2·s^–1) for 4 weeks at 22 °C and 60% humidity with 6 different treatments, including control, Mo, and Cu exposure through root and leaf. The exposure dose was 6.25 mg of element per plant through either root or leaf. An additional low-dose (0.6 mg Mo/plant) treatment of Mo through root was added after phytotoxicity was observed. Using targeted proteomics approach, 24 proteins involved in 12 metabolomic pathways were quantitated to understand the regulation at the protein level. Mo exposure, particularly through root uptake, induced significant upregulation of 16 proteins associated with 11 metabolic pathways, with the fold change (FC) ranging from 1.28 to 2.81. Notably, a dose-dependent response of Mo exposure through the roots highlighted the delicate balance between nutrient stimulation and toxicity as a high Mo dose led to robust protein upregulation but also resulted in depressed physiological measurements, while a low Mo dose resulted in no depression of physiological measurements but downregulations of proteins, especially in the first leaf (0.23 < FC < 0.68) and stem (0.13 < FC < 0.68) tissues. Conversely, Cu exposure exhibited tissue-specific effects, with pronounced downregulation (18 proteins involved in 11 metabolic pathways) particularly in the first leaf tissues (root exposure: 0.35 < FC < 0.74; leaf exposure: 0.49 < FC < 0.72), which indicated the quick response of plants to Cu-induced stress in the early stage of exposure. By revealing the complexities of plants’ response to engineered nanomaterials at both physiological and molecular levels, this study provides insights for optimizing nutrient management practices in crop production and advancing toward sustainable agriculture.

Sweet corn is cultivated worldwide in tropical and temperate regions, and it is consumed favorably due to its sweet taste, but it is poor in provitamin A carotenoids. For these reasons, by adopting a marker-assisted backcross breeding (MABB) approach, we aimed to enhance the β-carotene concentration in sweet corn inbreds (USC1-2-3-1, SC1107, and 12039-1), which are the parents of popular sweet corn hybrids. β-carotene-rich inbred lines UMI1230β⁺ crossed with these inbreds and progenies are selected based on the gene-specific markers (foreground selection) and SSR markers (background selection). As a result, four improved lines from each cross, viz., USC1-2-3-1 × UMI1230β⁺, SC1107 × UMI1230β⁺, and 12039-1 × UMI1230β⁺ with high β-carotene concentration and good agronomic performance (>80%) were obtained. These lines were used to produce hybrids with improved vitamin A content. Furthermore, the improved lines were used to develop the hybrids and tested along with the original hybrids. The hybrids produced by crossing improved lines were on par with the original hybrids regarding grain yield and sweetness with an added advantage of β-carotene. These improved β-carotene-rich sweet corn inbreds and hybrids have enormous potential to reduce malnutrition in a sustainable and economical way.

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) is an economically important leafy vegetable crop with an annual global production of 32 million tons. However, it is vulnerable to chewing as well as sucking insects. In vitro plant regeneration can significantly contribute to efforts toward crop improvement. This study is aimed at developing a highly efficient protocol for direct in vitro regeneration of S. oleracea from five different explants (cotyledons, leaves, petioles, hypocotyls, and root segments) and five different regeneration media. Results intimated that only petioles exhibited a response for direct regeneration; hence, they were used in further experiments. More than 35% of the petioles regenerated directly into shoots, which were later separated and cultured onto a rooting medium. All other explants showed variable responses; however, none of them could regenerate in vitro. As far as the role of plant growth regulators is concerned, gibberellic acid (GA₃) appeared to be the most imperative one for direct in vitro regeneration and bringing about maximum regeneration in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium augmented with 2 mg L^–1 gibberellic acid (GA₃), 0.4 mg L^–1 naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), and 1 mg L^–1 benzyl amino purine (BAP). The resultant plants were acclimatized in the greenhouse and resulted in healthy, fleshy leaves. For the first time, the protocol describes efficient direct in vitro regeneration from green tissues of S. oleracea. As this is an efficient in vitro regeneration system, it may be a step forward to engineer/edit the genome of this green vegetable for valuable traits including agronomic traits improvement, biofortification, and biopharmaceutical production in the future.

Turmeric plants produce a wide range of important and unique chemical compounds, such as curcumin, oleoresin, and essential oils, which are all the most important sources for turmeric-based industrial products. In this respect, the assessment of genetic diversity among available turmeric genotypes and germplasm core collections is an essential step to accelerate the genetic improvement process of production of its compounds and productivity. To this end, 22 turmeric genotypes selected from the germplasm collected from different regions were examined in the current study using the DNA-based simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker technique to investigate their genetic diversity, relation, and geographical distribution. Hence, 22 turmeric genotypes were evaluated by 26 SSR markers to determine the genetic variability. Among them, 5 primers showed 100% polymorphism, viz., CuMiSat 19, CuMiSat 24, Clon 1, CSSR 14, and CSSR 18. On the other hand, among the studied turmeric genotypes, CL 258, CL 202, and CL 125 were identified as the most deviating and potentially useful genotypes for any further breeding program of turmeric plants. In addition to that, the linkage and divergence of these genotypes were further designed with unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) cluster analysis and obtained SSR primer data. As a result, based on the analysis of SHAN matrix using UPGMA, the estimated turmeric genotypes were divided into several clusters due to the significant relationships as well as the considerable genetic diversity among them. Then, the comprehensive UPGMA dendrogram was generated using Jaccard’s similarity index based on SSR data. Notably, cluster-I and cluster-II shared a common node with a coefficient of 0.82%. Collectively, the obtained results of this investigation demonstrated that the SSR markers could be a useful tool in the introduction process of new and modern turmeric cultivars possessing tailor-made essential traits such as better adaptation and resilience to current climatic change scenarios along with high performance in terms of productivity as well as production of curcumin, oleoresin, and essential oil compounds which together make turmeric a promising industrial crop in the near future.