ACS agricultural science & technology最新文献

Insects are still the main competitor of humans for food, and combined with other environmental stresses (such as hydric stress), they cause several yield losses and the reduction in crop quality. Therefore, the effects of the herbivory, hydric stress, methyl jasmonate, and the combination of these stresses on Glycine max cultivars resistant and susceptible to Spodoptera cosmioides were investigated. Chemical profile analyses of volatile and nonvolatile compounds from leaves revealed a clear influence of the stress conditions on the plant response according to the cultivar. Plants susceptible to S. cosmioides under hydric stress showed chemical variations characteristic of plant acclimation. Application of methyl jasmonate to the leaves induced resistance responses in both cultivars. The results indicated the activation of pathways such as glycolysis, tricarboxylic acid cycle, oxylipins, phenylpropanoids, and fatty acids. Thus, this study contributes to a molecular understanding of the resistance mechanisms developed in G. max cultivars.

Increasing demand of zinc fertilizers for sustainable food production and low micronutrient fertilizer use efficiency (2–3%) advocate the development of controlled-release fertilizers to enhance the efficacy of inputs and mitigate the environmental pollution caused by leaching losses. In the present work, an ecofriendly zeolite Y-based zinc fertilizer was synthesized via a facile reflux method. The structural and morphological characteristics of the synthesized zinc fertilizer were examined by Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy–energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller techniques. The characterizations confirmed the presence of 4.9% (wt) zinc in the synthesized fertilizer without alteration in the zeolite framework structure. Langmuir and Freundlich models were used to study the zinc adsorption of zeolite. The Langmuir isotherm was found to best fit the experimental data with a maximum zinc adsorption capacity of 130.72 mg/g. The zinc release studies were carried out in water as well as in soil, and the zinc release mechanism was studied by fitting different release kinetic models. About 55% of the zinc was released in water in 10 days, while in soil, it was found that about 0.017% of the zinc was leached out in 21 days. The mechanism of zinc release from the zeolite-based zinc fertilizer followed the Korsmeyer–Peppas model, indicating zinc diffusion from the synthesized fertilizer as a non-Fickian process, and the zinc release in soil followed the Higuchi model, describing the zinc release through dissolution and diffusion, confirming the controlled release properties of the synthesized fertilizer. Hence, the present findings offer new opportunities for the development of zeolite Y-based fertilizers for controlled utilization of plant nutrients for environmentally friendly and sustainable agriculture.

Over the past five decades, heavy reliance on pesticides in global food production has raised concerns regarding the efficiency of pest control and environmental contamination. Consequently, the development of supramolecular drug carriers based on host–guest interactions, particularly cyclodextrins, has shown promise in precision agriculture due to their predictable and adjustable properties. In this study, a series of amphiphilic random copolymers incorporating hydrophilic acrylamide and hydrophobic benzotriazole were designed and synthesized through coprecipitation to form a supramolecular inclusion complex. The copolymer and inclusion complex demonstrated pH-responsive behavior, which enabled the controlled release of benzotriazole for the targeted control of B. cinerea, a destructive phytopathogen that causes gray mold disease. The antimicrobial activity of the complex was observed to be superior in targeting specific SF9 cells compared to HepG2 cells and exhibited favorable biosafety. The biological activity and cytotoxicity of these products were evaluated, demonstrating their potential for protecting plants and fruits against B. cinerea.

To increase the controlled-release performance of film-coated fertilizer granules using polymer latex as a coating reagent, increasing the cross-linking density of the film during spray coating is crucial. In this study, vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES) was incorporated into styrene-acrylate copolymer latex, with film cross-linking achieved by the condensation of silanol groups derived from the hydrolysis of VTES. VTES-copolymerized latex-coated urea granules were prepared by spray coating in a fluidized bed. The film cross-linking density and controlled-release performance were significantly increased. The structural characteristics of the film cross-linked network were theoretically calculated and analyzed. The cross-linked network with high cross-linking density had a smaller size of mesh structure, significantly reducing the free volume of the film and increasing the diffusion resistance of nutrients. The urea diffusion coefficient across the planar film decreased from 2.74 × 10^–15 to 0.125 × 10^–15 m²/s when the VTES copolymerized ratio reached 10%. At a low coating amount of 4 wt %, the release period of the film-coated urea granules increased to 32 days, surpassing that of the reference sample by over 300%.

Wild rocket is a baby-leaf vegetable crop devoted to the high-convenience food chain for the preparation of ready-to-eat salads. Healthiness and ecological management of crops are the requirements increasingly demanded by the market. On the other hand, very intensive cultivations under greenhouse are prone to fungal soil-borne pathogen attacks, such as Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. raphani, the causal agent of wilting. Control strategies currently include chemical and nonchemical means, but the implementation of digital systems able to support detection of outbreaks and promote optimization of interventions may concur to increase efficacy of management strategies. Thermography, based on the recording and analysis of thermal energy emitted by plant canopy in the infrared spectral range, is a well-known imaging technique able to monitor plants at both proximal and remote scales providing information on incipient plant stresses. In this work, wild rocket plants subjected to artificial infection with pathogen conidia performed by a dipping or flooding method were monitored during the pathogenesis by both passive and active thermographic approaches. Canopy temperature changes were compared with symptom severity indices measured by visual inspection on both inoculated and control plants. As key result of this study, depending on the inoculum concentration, passive thermography allowed classifying infected plants 30–48 h post inoculation (hpi) by dipping, and in coherence with the disease symptoms detection by visual inspection. Similar results were found in the case of the flooding inoculation, where infected plants were detected by thermography at 48 h.p.i. Active thermography revealed a decrease in leaf heat capacity attributable to the fungal infection and the subsequent tissue colonization over time. These findings constitute a solid base of knowledge about the thermal imaging applied to wild rocket affected by Fusarium wilting, and they can contribute to the development of new remote sensing systems for the detection of primary outbreaks.

Fomesafen serves as a widely employed selective herbicide for addressing broadleaf weeds, but the short duration of efficacy limits utilization efficiency. There exists an exigent requirement to extend its efficacy through controlled release mechanisms. Fomesafen@SiO₂-starch microspheres with α-amylase responsiveness were synthesized through the direct binding of drug-loaded silica microspheres and modified starch. This fabrication method capitalizes on the enzymatic degradation potential of the outer starch layer by amylase. In contrast with earlier analogous structures that exhibited inferior drug loading efficacy, the prepared fomesafen@SiO₂-starch microspheres demonstrated a significantly enhanced drug loading capacity of up to 35.7%. Furthermore, in comparison to fomesafen technical, the prepared fomesafen@SiO₂-starch microspheres exhibited a notable capacity to mitigate the photolysis of fomesafen through the utilization of the starch outer layer. Additionally, the fomesafen@SiO₂-starch microspheres demonstrated favorable wettability and adhesive properties. At the recommended dosage, the herbicidal efficacy of fomesafen@SiO₂-starch microspheres against Brassica napus L. and Portulaca oleracea L. over 14 days was observed to be comparable to that of the fomesafen technical, concurrently exhibiting a degree of sustained release. These findings underscore the potential of microspheres in regulating the release of fomesafen, thereby presenting a promising avenue for the development of sustainable drug delivery systems in agriculture.

There is a need to develop new and sustainable agricultural technologies to help provide global food security, and nanoscale materials show promising results in this area. In this study, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) and chitosan-coated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (CTS-MSNs) were synthesized and applied to soybeans (Glycine max) by two different strategies in greenhouse and field studies to study the role of dissolved silicic acid and chitosan in enhancing plant growth and suppressing disease damage caused by Fusarium virguliforme. Plant growth and health were assessed by measuring the soybean biomass and chlorophyll content in both healthy and Fusarium-infected plants at harvest. In the greenhouse study, foliar and seed applications with 250 mg/L nanoparticle treatments were compared. A single seed treatment of MSNs reduced disease severity by 30% and increased chlorophyll content in both healthy and infected plants by 12%. Based on greenhouse results, seed application was used in the follow-up field study and MSNs and CTS-MSNs reduced disease progression by 12 and 15%, respectively. A significant 32% increase was observed for chlorophyll content for plants treated with CTS-MSNs. Perhaps most importantly, nanoscale silica seed treatment significantly increased (23–68%) the micronutrient (Zn, Mn, Mg, K, B) content of soybean pods, suggesting a potential sustainable strategy for nano-enabled biofortification to address nutrition insecurity. Overall, these findings indicate that MSN and CTS-MSN seed treatments in soybeans enable disease suppression and increase plant health as part of a nano-enabled strategy for sustainable agriculture.

Numerous similarities exist between the structure–activity relationships of pharmaceutical drugs and pesticides, creating the potential for finding new crop management tools with novel mechanisms of action. Analogues of pyrazinamide and its active metabolite pyrazinoic acid were evaluated on a variety of monocot and dicot species to assess their potential as commercial herbicides. Six analogues, applied postemergence at 3 kg ai/ha, controlled yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus) ≥ the commercial standards bentazon or imazethapyr. The compound 5-fluoropyrazine-2-carboxylic acid provided between 71 and 95% control of barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli) and yellow nutsedge with only modest injury (8–25%) to soybean (Glycine max). A similar compound containing a bromine atom in the 5-position controlled yellow nutsedge greater than bentazon and affected soybean, sweet corn (Zea mays convar. saccharata var. rugosa), and rice (Oryza sativa) in a similar fashion to bentazon as well. The herbicidal sites of action targeted by these analogues of pyrazinamide and pyrazinoic acid are unknown, but it is hypothesized that they may be disrupting targets in the biosynthesis pathways of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and/or ethylene.

Forestry-waste biochar was tested as a commercial substrate (peat:lapillus 1:1 v/v) amendment in growing tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.). Substrates were 0% (control), 5%, 10%, 20%, and 40% (% v/v) biochar-enriched and were characterized for their textural and physicochemical properties. After harvesting, tomato production (i.e., plant and fruits), quality (e.g., nutrition and nutraceutics), and safety (i.e., biochar-related pollutants) were assessed according to the different growing media. 10-to-40% biochar-enriched substrates only exceeded the pH threshold set by L.D. 75/2010. Ni and Mn exhibited a similar trend between substrates and fruits, while Cr, Pb, and Cd were absent. Plant biomass increased (up to 11–29%) according to biochar content, which conversely diminished fruit production (∼25–60% reduction). Only acenaphthene exhibited an increasing profile (11–12 μg kg^–1) according to the treatments, nevertheless complying with the European regulations. PLS-DA confirmed practice suitability by substrate–crop correlation, providing prediction models for quality and safety assessment.