Identifying the factors influencing farmers’ adoption of low-carbon technologies (FA) and understanding their impacts are essential for shaping effective agricultural policies amied at emission reduction and carbon sequestration in China.  This study employs a meta-analysis of 122 empirical studies, delves into 23 driving factors affecting FA and addresses the inconsistencies present in the existing literature.  We systematically examine the effect size, source of heterogeneity, and time-accumulation effect of the driving factors on FA.  We find that significant heterogeneity in the factors influencing FA, except for farming experience, sources of heterogeneity from the survey zone, methodology model, technological attributes, report source, financial support, and the sampling year.  Additionally, age, farming experience, and adoption cost negatively correlate with FA.  In contrast, educational level, health status, technical training, economic and welfare cognition, land contract, soil quality, terrain, information accessibility, demonstration, government promotion, government regulation, government support, agricultural cooperatives member, peer effect, and agricultural income ratio demonstrate a positive correlation.  Especially, demonstration and age show a particularly strong correlation.  Finally, the effect of demonstration, age, economic and welfare cognition, farming experience, land contract, soil quality, information accessibility, government promotion, and support, as well as agricultural cooperative membership and peer effects on FA, are generally stable but exhibit varying degrees of attenuation over time.  The effect of village cadre, family income, farm scale, gender, health status, technical training, and off-farm work on FA show notable temporal shifts and maintain a weak correlation with FA.  This study contributes to shaping China’s current low-carbon agriculture policies across various regions.  It encourages policymakers to comprehensively consider the stability of key factors, other potential factors, technological attributes, rural socio-economic context, and their interrelations.

Fusarium pseudograminearum is a devastating pathogen that causes Fusarium crown rot (FCR) in wheat and poses a significant threat to wheat production in terms of grain yield and quality.  However, the mechanism by which F. pseudograminearum infects wheat remains unclear.  In this study, we aimed to elucidate these mechanisms by constructing a T-DNA insertion mutant library for the highly virulent strain WZ-8A of F. pseudograminearum.  By screening this mutant library, we identified nine independent mutants that displayed impaired pathogenesis in barley leaves.  Among these mutants, one possessed a disruption in the gene FpRCO1 that is an ortholog of Saccharomyces cerevisiae RCO1, encoding essential component of the Rpd3S histone deacetylase complex in F. pseudograminearum.  To further investigate the role of FpRCO1 in F. pseudograminearum, we employed a split-marker approach to knock out FpRCO1 in F. pseudograminearum WZ-8A.  FpRCO1 deletion mutants exhibit reduced vegetative growth, conidium production, and virulence in wheat coleoptiles and barley leaves, whereas the complementary strain restores these phenotypes.  Moreover, under stress conditions, the FpRCO1 deletion mutants exhibited increased sensitivity to NaCl, sorbitol, and SDS, but possessed reduced sensitivity to H₂O₂ compared to these characteristics in the wild-type strain.  RNA-seq analysis revealed that deletion of FpRCO1 affected gene expression (particularly the downregulation of TRI gene expression), thus resulting in significantly reduced deoxynivalenol (DON) production.  In summary, our findings highlight the pivotal role of FpRCO1 in regulating vegetative growth and development, asexual reproduction, DON production, and pathogenicity of F. pseudograminearum.  This study provides valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying F. pseudograminearum infection in wheat and may pave the way for the development of novel strategies to combat this devastating disease.

Red walnut has broad market prospects because it is richer in anthocyanins than ordinary walnut.  However, the mechanism driving anthocyanin biosynthesis in red walnut is still unknown.  We studied two types of red walnut, called red walnut 1 (R1), with a red pericarp and seed coat, and red walnut 2 (R2), with a red seed coat only.  R1 mostly contained cyanidin-3-O-galactoside, while R2 contained a various amounts of cyanidin-3-O-galactoside, cyanidin-3-O-arabinoside, and cyanidin-3-O-glucoside.  The LDOX-2 (LOC109007163) and LDOX-3 (LOC109010746) genes, which encode leucoanthocyanidin dioxygenase/anthocyanidin synthase (LDOX/ANS), were preliminarily indicated as the crucial genes for anthocyanin biosynthesis in R1 and R2, respectively.  The MYB differential genes analysis showed that MYB27 and MYB113 are specifically expressed in the red parts of R1 and R2, respectively, and they are regarded as candidate regulatory genes.  Ectopic expression in Arabidopsis and transient injection in walnut showed that both MYB27 and MYB113 were located in the nucleus and promoted anthocyanin accumulation, while MYB27 promoted the expression of LDOX-2, and MYB113 promoted the expression of LDOX-3 and UAGT-3.  Yeast one-hybrid and electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that MYB27 could only bind to the LDOX-2 promoter, while MYB113 could bind to the promoters of both LDOX-3 and UAGT-3.  In addition, we also identified an HD-Zip transcription factor, ATHB-12, which is specifically expressed in the pericarp.  After silencing the expression of ATHB-12, the R2 pericarp turned red, and MYB113 expression increased.  Further experiments showed that ATHB-12 could specifically interact with MYB113 and bind to its promoter.  This suggests that MYB27 controls R1 coloration by regulating LDOX-2, while MYB113 controls R2 coloration by regulating LDOX-3 and UAGT-3, but ATHB-12 can specifically bind to and inhibit the MYB113 of the R2 pericarp so that it becomes unpigmented.  This study reveals the anthocyanin biosynthetic mechanisms in two different types of red walnut and provides a scientific basis for the selection and breeding of red walnut varieties.

Understanding the genetic and metabolic elements that impact meat quality is crucial to improving production and meeting consumer demands in the beef sector.  Differences in meat quality among various muscle areas in beef cattle can impact pricing in the market.  Despite progress in genomics, the specific genes and metabolites that affect meat quality characteristics in Qinchuan cattle remain inadequately understood.  Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the meat quality characteristics of four specific muscle locations (tenderloin, striploin, high rib, and ribeye muscles) in Qinchuan bulls, including 10 traits (total protein content (TPC), intramuscular fat (IMF), non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA), meat color (L*, a*, and b*), shear force (SF), cooking loss (CL), pH₀, and pH₂₄).  This experiment uses transcriptome, metabolome sequencing, and sophisticated analytical methodologies such as weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and protein–protein interaction networks (PPI) to identify the key genes and metabolites associated with specific traits.  The findings highlight three notable genes (NDUFAB1, NDUFA12, and NDUFB7) linked to intramuscular fat (IMF), three key genes (CSRP3, ACAA3, and ACADVL) correlated with non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), and one crucial gene (CREBBP) influencing meat color.  In conclusion, this investigation offers a new perspective on the differences in bovine muscle locations and contributes to the molecular understanding of bovine meat quality.  Future research endeavors could delve deeper into the identified genes and pathways to enhance beef cattle’s quality and yield.

Tea’s popularity and flavor are influenced by factors like cultivation and processing methods and shaping techniques also have an impact on tea flavor.  This study employed targeted metabolomics and chemometrics to investigate how shaping techniques affect the flavor of milk-flavored white tea (MFWT).  The results showed that the tea cake sample with the shortest pressing time (Y90) has the highest amino acid content and milky aroma intensity.  There were variations in amino acids, catechins, and soluble sugars among MFWT samples with different shaping techniques.  The total contents of amino acids and catechins in tea cake sample (Y90) were significantly lower than those in the loose tea sample (SC) and bundle-like tea sample (SG), while the total sugar content was significantly higher than that in SC (P<0.05).  Additionally, the content of volatiles presenting milky aroma (VIP&OAV>1) in Y90 remained lower relative to SC and SG (P<0.05), but the proportion was not different from that in SC and SG, minimally affecting the overall flavor.  The short-time pressing method might be suitable for mass production of MFWT.  These findings provide insights into improving the tightness of the appearance of MFWT with minimal impact on tea flavor.