Search Results (2,590)

Climate change has emerged as a crucial global issue that significantly threatens the survival of plants. In particular, low temperature (LT) is one of the critical environmental factors that influence plant morphological, physiological, and biochemical changes during both the vegetative and reproductive growth stages. LT, including abrupt drops in temperature, as well as winter conditions, can cause detrimental effects on the growth and development of tomato plants, ranging from sowing, transplanting, truss appearance, flowering, fertilization, flowering, fruit ripening, and yields. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the comprehensive mechanisms underlying the adaptation and acclimation of tomato plants to LT, from the morphological changes to the molecular levels. In this review, we discuss the previous and current knowledge of morphological, physiological, and biochemical changes, which contain vegetative and reproductive parameters involving the leaf length (LL), plant height (PH) stem diameter (SD), fruit set (FS), fruit ripening (FS), and fruit yield (FY), as well as photosynthetic parameters, cell membrane stability, osmolytes, and ROS homeostasis via antioxidants scavenging systems during LT stress in tomato plants. Moreover, we highlight recent advances in the understanding of molecular mechanisms, including LT perception, signaling transduction, gene regulation, and fruit ripening and epigenetic regulation. The comprehensive understanding of LT response provides a solid basis to develop the LT-resistant varieties for sustainable tomato production under the ever-changing temperature fluctuations. Full article

Reclaiming marginal lands such as saline soils or mining waste for livestock grazing through Technosols and phytostabilisation can provide a solution to the growing food demand. This study evaluated the enhancement of soil properties by two Technosol constructions, along with pasture development. The experimental set-up consisted of gossan waste (G), Fluvisol (VF), Technosol/gossan (TG), and Technosol/Fluvisol (TVF), both Technosols consisting of G and VF, respectively, mixed with organic and inorganic amendments. These substrates were sown in pasture in pots (1.5 dm³) that was cut one and two months after sowing to simulate grazing. Both Technosols improved soils properties, with the acidity of G neutralising in TG. Yet, in TVF, a 65% reduction in salinity and a 60% drop in exchangeable Na occurred compared with VF. Nutrient pool, aggregate stability, and microbiological activity were also improved. Dehydrogenase activity was practically 0 in G, while in TG it was 15 times higher, and with pasture it increased 6-fold. In FV, some activity was already present, but in TVF it was six times higher and even increased with pasture. Finally, these improvements allowed the establishment of a healthy pasture, with twice the biomass and less accumulation of potentially hazardous elements in TG, and considerable growth in TVF. Thus, the co-application of Technosols and pasture may be effective in converting marginal lands into productive areas (grazing, foraging, biomass energy). Full article

Crocus sativus L. is a widely cultivated traditional plant for obtaining dried red stigmas known as “saffron,” the most expensive spice in the world. The response of C. sativus to pre-sowing processing of corms with cold plasma (CP, 3 and 5 min), vacuum (3 min), and electromagnetic field (EMF, 5 min) was assessed to verify how such treatments affect plant performance and the quality and yield of herbal raw materials. The results show that applied physical stressors did not affect the viability of corms but caused stressor-dependent changes in the kinetics of sprouting, growth parameters, leaf trichome density, and secondary metabolite content in stigmas. The effect of CP treatment on plant growth and metabolite content was negative, but all stressors significantly (by 42–74%) increased the number of leaf trichomes. CP3 treatment significantly decreased the length and dry weight of flowers by 43% and 60%, respectively, while EMF treatment increased the length of flowers by 27%. However, longer CP treatment (5 min) delayed germination. Vacuum treatment improved the uniformity of germination by 28% but caused smaller changes in the content of stigma compounds compared with CP and EMF. Twenty-six compounds were identified in total in Crocus stigma samples by the HPLC-DAD method, including 23 crocins, rutin, picrocrocin, and safranal. Processing of Crocus corms with EMF showed the greatest efficiency in increasing the production of secondary metabolites in saffron. EMF increased the content of marker compounds in stigmas (crocin 4: from 8.95 to 431.17 mg/g; crocin 3: from 6.27 to 164.86 mg/g; picrocrocin: from 0.4 to 1.0 mg/g), although the observed effects on growth were neutral or slightly positive. The obtained findings indicate that treatment of C. sativus corms with EMF has the potential application for increasing the quality of saffron by enhancing the amounts of biologically active compounds. Full article

The sustainable development of the hog industry has significant implications for agricultural development, farmers’ income, and the daily lives of residents. Precise hog supply forecasts are essential for both government to ensure food security and industry stakeholders to make informed decisions. This study proposes an integrated framework for hog supply forecast. Granger causality analysis is utilized to simultaneously investigate the causal relationships among piglet, breeding sow, and hog supply, as well as to ascertain the uncertain time lags associated with these variables, facilitating the extraction of valuable time lag features. The Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess (STL) is leveraged to decompose hog supply into three components, and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and Xtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) are utilized to forecast the trends, i.e., seasonality and residuals, respectively. Extensive experiments are conducted using monthly data from all the large-scale pig farms in Chongqing, China, covering the period from July 2019 to November 2023. The results demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms the other five baseline models with more than 90% reduction in Mean Squared Logarithm (MSL) loss. The inclusion of the piglet feature can enhance the accuracy of hog supply forecasts by 42.1% MSL loss reduction. Additionally, the findings reveal statistical time lag periods of 4–6 months for piglet and 11–13 months for breeding sow, with significance levels of 99%. Finally, policy recommendations are proposed to promote the sustainability of the pig industry, thereby driving the sustainable development of both upstream and downstream sectors of the swine industry and ensuring food security. Full article

The cultivation or ‘tillage’ system is one of the most important elements of agrotechnology. It affects the condition of the soil, significantly modifying its physical, chemical, and biological properties, and the condition of plants, starting from ensuring appropriate conditions for sowing and plant growth, through influencing the efficiency of photosynthesis and ultimately, the yield. It also affects air transmission and the natural environment by influencing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions potentially. Ultimately, the cultivation system also has an impact on the farmer, providing the opportunity to reduce production costs. The described experiment was established in 1998 at the Brody Agricultural Experimental Station belonging to the University of Life Sciences in Poznań (Poland) on a soil classified as an Albic Luvisol, while the described measurements were carried out in the 2022/2023 season, i.e., 24 years after the establishment of the experiment. Two cultivation methods were compared: Conventional Tillage (CT) and No Tillage (NT). Additionally, the influence of two factors was examined: nitrogen (N) fertilization (0 N—no fertilization, and 130 N–130 kg N∙ha⁻¹) and the growth phase of the winter wheat plants (BBCH: 32, 65 and 75). The growth phase of the plants was assessed according to the method of the Bundesanstalt, Bundessortenamt and CHemische Industrie (BBCH). We present the results of soil properties, soil respiration, wheat plants chlorophyll fluorescence, and grain yield. In our experiment, due to low rainfall, NT cultivation turned out to be beneficial, as it was a key factor influencing the soil properties, including soil organic carbon (SOC) content and soil moisture, and, consequently, creating favorable conditions for plant nutrition and efficiency of photosynthesis. We found a positive effect of NT cultivation on chlorophyll fluorescence, but this did not translate into a greater yield in NT cultivation. However, the decrease in yield due to NT compared to CT was only 5% in fertilized plots, while the average decrease in grain yield resulting from the lack of fertilization was 46%. We demonstrated the influence of soil moisture as well as the growth phase and fertilization on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from the soil. We can clearly confirm that the tillage system affected all the parameters discussed in the work. Full article

Herbaceous plants influence soil hydraulic conductivity by changing soil macropore structure through their root systems, but the effects of different root types on macropore structure have yet to be clarified. In this study, soil column experiments were conducted to investigate temporal variations in soil macropores and saturated hydraulic conductivity, as influenced by herbaceous plants with fibrous roots (Cynodon dactylon) and taproots (Medicago sativa L.). Computed tomography (CT) scanning was used to quantify soil macropore indices, and the saturated hydraulic conductivity (K_s) was measured from April to November after 3, 5, and 7 months of sowing. The results showed that both soil macropore indices and K_s increased with grass growth. The taproots had macroporosity (MP), macropore diameter (MD), and global connectivity (Γ) values that were 1.94, 2.76, and 2.45 times higher than fibrous roots, which are more efficient at increasing the number of soil macropores (PN). This resulted in higher K_s values for the fibrous roots during the experimental period than for the taproot herbs. For both plants, the top 5 cm of soil had a higher macropore index and K_s values than the bottom layer. The K_s for fibrous roots was most closely related to PN. On the other hand, K_s for the taproot soil column was most closely related to MP and MD. Based on a combination of soil macropore indices, functions were established to predict K_s values for fibrous root and taproot herbaceous plants. Full article

In order to accurately obtain the seedling emergence rate of breeding sunflower and to assess the quality of sowing as well as the merit of sunflower varieties, a method of extracting the sunflower seedling emergence rate using multi-source remote sensing information from unmanned aerial vehicles is proposed. Visible and multispectral images of sunflower seedlings were acquired using a UAV. The thresholding method was used to segment the excess green image of the visible image into vegetation and non-vegetation, to obtain the center point of the vegetation to generate a buffer, and to mask the visible image to achieve weed removal. The components of color models such as the hue–saturation value (HSV), green-relative color space (YCbCr), cyan-magenta-yellow-black (CMYK), and CIELAB color space (L*A*B) models were compared and analyzed. The A component of the L*A*B model was preferred for the optimization of K-means clustering to segment sunflower seedlings and mulch using the genetic algorithm, and the segmentation accuracy was improved by 4.6% compared with the K-means clustering algorithm. All told, 10 geometric features of sunflower seedlings were extracted using segmented images, and 10 vegetation indices and 48 texture features of sunflower seedlings were calculated based on multispectral images. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient method was used to filter the three types of features, and the geometric feature set, the vegetation index set, the texture feature set, and the preferred feature set were constructed. The construction of a sunflower plant number estimation model using the crested porcupine optimizer–support vector machine is proposed and compared with the sunflower plant number estimation models constructed based on decision tree regression, BP neural network, and support vector machine regression. The results show that the accuracy of the model based on the preferred feature set is higher than that of the other three feature sets, indicating that feature screening can improve the accuracy and stability of models; assessed using the CPO-SVR model, the accuracy of the preferred feature set was the highest, with an R² of 0.94, an RMSE of 5.16, and an MAE of 3.03. Compared to the SVR model, the value of the R² is improved by 3.3%, the RMSE decreased by 18.3%, and the MAE decreased by 18.1%. The results of the study can be cost-effective, accurate, and reliable in terms of obtaining the seedling emergence rate of sunflower field breeding. Full article

The region along the Great Wall is a typical dryland agricultural zone, serving as both a potential area for staple grain production and a key region for specialty crops like coarse grains and cool-climate vegetables. Studying the characteristics of drought during the spring sowing period is crucial for developing diversified planting strategies and ensuring food security. This study analyzes the drought conditions along the Great Wall from 1960 to 2023, revealing the spatial and temporal distribution of drought in the region and quantifying the impact of climate change on drought frequency and intensity. By doing so, it fills a gap in the existing drought research, which often lacks the long-term, multi-dimensional analysis of spring sowing drought characteristics. Using daily meteorological data from April 20 to May 20 during the spring sowing period between 1960 and 2023, the study employs the Meteorological Composite Drought Index (MCI) to quantitatively identify drought conditions and examine the spatial and temporal evolution of drought in the region. The results show that, on a daily scale, the frequency of mild and moderate droughts is 60.45% and 25.19%, respectively, with no occurrences of severe or extreme drought. On an annual scale, the intensity of drought and the ratio of affected stations show an increasing trend, with a decrease in mild drought frequency and an increase in moderate and severe drought occurrences. Additionally, the spatial distribution of drought frequency follows a pattern of “higher in the east than in the west” and “higher in the north than in the south”. The study also finds that the migration of drought frequency centers shows a clear temporal evolution, with the center shifting southwestward from the 1960s to the 2000s, and then moving northeastward from the 2000s to 2023. These findings provide critical data support for optimizing agricultural drought resistance strategies and offer new insights for future research on the relationship between drought and climate change. It is suggested that agricultural practices and water resource management policies should be adjusted according to the spatial migration of drought centers, with a particular focus on optimizing drought mitigation measures during the spring sowing period. Full article

Microgreens are young plants grown from vegetables, grain, or herb seeds in a controlled environment with artificial lighting. LED modules are the preferred option for indoor and vertical farming. Light intensity (LI) is crucial for plant growth and the synthesis of phytochemicals. The study aimed to assess whether growing microgreens under low light intensity but with the addition of algae would produce plants with similar parameters (biometric, active compound content) to those grown under higher light intensity. The experiment evaluated LED white light at two intensity levels: 115 µmol m⁻² s⁻¹ (low light, LL) and 230 µmol m⁻² s⁻¹ (high light, HL). Pea seeds were soaked in a 10% solution of Chlorella vulgaris algae or water before sowing, and the plants were watered or sprayed during growth with the same solutions. The results showed no positive effect of algae on plant biometric traits. However, plants treated with algae had a significantly higher chlorophyll and carotenoid content index. Light significantly influenced pea growth, with plants grown under high light (HL) showing greater weight, height, and plant area. Additionally, changes in the photosynthetic apparatus and light stress were observed in microgreens watered with water (AW and WW) under high light during the vegetative phase. Raman spectra also indicated changes in the chemical composition of microgreens’ leaves based on light intensity and treatment. Microgreens treated with algae solution during seed soaking and water during the vegetative phase produced much more carotenoids compared to other variants. Full article

The profitability of growing soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) is largely determined by the successful elimination of weeds and the weather conditions, the adverse effect of which can be minimized by the use of biostimulants. This study aims to evaluate the effect of several herbicides and biostimulants on the seed yield and contents of protein, fat, amino acids, and fatty acids in soybean seeds. The results demonstrate that the yield and quality of soybean seeds were most beneficially affected by the use of prosulfocarb immediately after sowing in combination with a subsequent foliar application of bentazone and imazamox with an adjuvant containing methyl oleate and fatty alcohol. This treatment ensured the highest seed yield (3.32 t ha⁻¹⁾, the highest contents in seeds of protein (342.4 g kg⁻¹ DM), phenylalanine (15.65 g kg⁻¹ DM), leucine (23.54 g kg⁻¹ DM), and most of the endogenous amino acids. All herbicide treatments increased the contents of tryptophan, serine, and glutamic acid compared to the seeds without herbicide treatment. The study results indicate that soybean responded positively to all biostimulants, as indicated by a higher seed yield (from 5.3% to 11.3%), plant height, and contents of tryptophan, serine, glutamic acid, cysteine, tyrosine, and C18:1n9c + C18:1n9t acids in the seeds. Full article

The high tillage resistance of agricultural soil-engaging tools (TASTs) in farmland operations (e.g., tillage, sowing, crop management, and harvesting) increases fuel consumption and harmful gas emissions, which negatively affect the development of sustainable agriculture. Biomimetic methods are promising and effective technologies for reducing the TASTs and have been developed in the past few years. This review comprehensively summarizes the typical agricultural soil-engaging tools (ASETs) and their characteristics and presents existing biomimetic methods for decreasing TASTs. The introduction of TAST reduction was performed on aspects of tillage, sowing, crop management, and harvesting. The internal mechanisms and possible limitations of current biomimetic methods for various ASETs were investigated. The tillage resistance reduction rates of ASETs, as affected by various biomimetic methods, were quantitatively compared under different soil conditions with statistical analyses. Additionally, three future research directions were recommended in the review to further reduce TASTs and encourage the development of sustainable agriculture. Full article

Polygonum cuspidatum, alternatively known as Fallopia japonica or Reynoutria japonica, is a perennial herb belonging to the Polygonaceae family. Commonly called Japanese knotweed or Asian knotweed, this plant is native to East Asia, particularly in regions such as Korea, China, and Japan. It has successfully adapted to a wide range of habitats, resulting in it being listed as a pest and invasive species in several countries in North America and Europe. This study focuses on analysing the composition of the bacterial and fungal endophytic communities associated with Japanese knotweed growing in the Russian Far East, employing next-generation sequencing (NGS) and a cultivation-based method (microbiological sowing). The NGS analysis showed that the dominant classes of endophytic bacteria were Alphaproteobacteria (28%) and Gammaproteobacteria (28%), Actinobacteria (20%), Bacteroidia (15%), and Bacilli (4%), and fungal classes were Agaricomycetes (40%), Dothideomycetes (24%), Leotiomycetes (10%), Tremellomycetes (9%), Pezizomycetes (5%), Sordariomycetes (3%), and Exobasidiomycetes (3%). The most common genera of endophytic bacteria were Burkholderia-Caballeronia-Parabukholderia, Sphingomonas, Hydrotalea, Methylobacterium-Metylorubrum, Cutibacterium, and Comamonadaceae, and genera of fungal endophytes were Marasmius, Tuber, Microcyclosporella, Schizothyrium, Alternaria, Parastagonospora, Vishniacozyma, and Cladosporium. The present data showed that the roots, leaves, and stems of P. cuspidatum have a greater number and diversity of endophytic bacteria and fungi compared to the flowers and seeds. Thus, the biodiversity of endophytic bacteria and fungi of P. cuspidatum was described and analysed for the first time in this study. Full article

The feeding mode is an important factor affecting the reproductive performance of pigs. The composition and expression of the intestinal microbiota are closely related to the physiological and biochemical indicators of animals. Therefore, to explore the impact of different feeding patterns on the reproductive performance of pigs, this study collected reproductive performance data from 1607 Yorkshire pigs raised under different feeding patterns and conducted a fixed-effect variance analysis. Among them, 731 were in the artificial feeding (AM) group and 876 were in the feeding station feeding (SM) group. Additionally, 40 Yorkshire sows in the late gestation period were randomly selected from each feeding mode for intestinal microbiota analysis. The results of the analysis showed that, in the AM group, both the number of birth deformities (NBD) and the number of stillbirths (NSB) were significantly greater than they were in the SM group (p < 0.05). Additionally, the total number born (TNB) in the AM group was significantly lower than that in the SM group (p < 0.05). The results of the intestinal microbiota analysis revealed that at the phylum level, there were significant differences in nine bacterial taxa between the AM and SM groups (p < 0.05). At the genus level, the abundance of a variety of beneficial bacteria related to reproductive performance in the SM group was significantly greater than that in the AM group. Finally, fecal metabolomic analysis revealed that the contents of butyric acid, isovaleric acid, valeric acid, and isobutyric acid, which are associated with reproductive performance, in the feces of sows in the SM group were significantly higher than those in the AM group (p < 0.05). These results indicate that different feeding methods can affect the gut microbiota composition of Yorkshire pigs and further influence the reproductive performance of pigs through the gut microbiota–metabolic product pathway. The results of this study provide valuable insights for further exploring the relationships between feeding modes, intestinal microbial composition, and host phenotypes. Full article

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) causes abortions, stillbirths, and dummy pregnancies. Previous studies found that PRRSV can promote secondary bacterial infections and elevate bacterial endotoxin levels, further increasing the abortion rate in sows. However, the pathways by which bacterial endotoxins invade the bodies of PRRSV(+) sows and aggravate their clinical symptoms are unknown. In this study, we established a model of PRRSV and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) working together on porcine endometrial epithelial cells (PEECs). We speculate that PRRSV and LPS affect PEECs through viral protein interaction with cytokines and cytokine receptors, natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity, and regulation of actin cytoskeleton signaling pathways by analyzing seq-RNA. The PRRSV proteins act on inflammatory factors and their receptors to activate chemokines-5 (CCL5), chemokines-4 (CCL4), and chemokines-8 (CCL8) mRNA expression, causing severe inflammatory reactions. In addition, the elevation of MEK1/2 factors and the integrins acting on NK cells promote the upregulation of VAV1/Tiam1, RAC, and IRSp53, leading to increased expression of Arp2/3 and F-actin in PEECs in the PRRSV + LPS(+) groups. However, the highly expressed cell microfilaments and cytoskeleton disrupt the original network structure, causing changes in the original physiological function of the PEECs. In summary, the PRRSV protein interacts with cytokines and cytokine receptors of PEECs, thereby enhancing virus-mediated chemokine factors and their receptor activity, accelerating bacterial endotoxin entry into the body and the invasion of cells. They destroy the cytoskeletal structure of the cells and increase damage to uterine tissue. Full article

Studies to improve the use of subsurface drippers in pasture formation are needed. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the germination and emergence of Sabia grass as a function of drippers installed at different depths. The study was conducted in pots in Viçosa, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The experiment was conducted using a completely randomized design with four replicates. The experimental layout featured split plots over time, where the main plots consisted of three cultivation cycles and the subplots represented various dripper installation depths. The three sowing dates were 26 March, 12 April, and 29 April 2022. Drip tapes were installed at seven different depths: 0 (superficial), 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 cm. The results showed that the reduction in water potential, associated with increased temperature, resulted in lower performance of Sabia grass seeds. Seed germination and parameters related to germination speed were negatively impacted by the increase in dripper installation depth, with a 30–40% reduction in germination speed observed at depths greater than 15 cm. Drippers installed at 15–20 cm depth in clayey soil were ideal, providing a balance between reducing soil water evaporation and maintaining seedling emergence rates. Compared to surface installation, this depth improved seed performance by up to 25%, while enhancing operability and minimizing water loss. It is recommended to install drippers at a depth of 15–20 cm in subsurface drip irrigation systems in clayey soil areas to achieve benefits such as decreased soil water evaporation and improved operability compared to surface systems. Full article