Vegetable soybean ((Glycine max (L.) Merr.), commonly referred to as edamame, holds significant agricultural importance in China as a legume vegetable harvested at the pod-filling stage (R6).  The visual appeal of vegetable soybeans is crucial for consumer preference and marketability, and it depends on factors such as pod length, pod width, and pod color.  This study cultivated 264 vegetable soybeans in Nanjing, Huai’an, and Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China to assess pod traits using PlantPhenoM, a system for pod phenotypic identification and analysis.  The results revealed a variability range of 8.64 to 30.00% in appearance quality traits among the vegetable soybeans.  Leveraging phenotypic data and employing a genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified 525 SNPs significantly linked to the appearance quality traits in different regions.  In addition, five candidate genes (Glyma.04G004700, Glyma.15G051600, Glyma.18G225700, Glyma.18G225900, and Glyma.18G272300) associated with target traits were identified, and KASP markers for S04_372771 (pod length), S18_51477324 (pod width), and S18_55553200 (pod color) were developed.  This study offers valuable insights for breeding superior vegetable soybean varieties and lays the groundwork for exploring candidate genes and molecular markers related to appearance and quality traits in vegetable soybeans.

Global climate change is increasing the frequency of concurrent heat and drought events, highlighting the urgent need to elucidate their synergistic effects on crop root function and nutrient uptake. We subjected maize plants to normal condition (CK), heat stress (H), drought stress (D), and combined heat and drought stress (HD) at the 12^th fully expanded leaf stage (V12) for five days. The root-to-shoot ratio decreased under H but increased under D. Both single stresses induced “low-cost” root anatomical changes. Under HD, however, these anatomical alterations were most pronounced. They coincided with the strongest oxidative damage, the greatest suppression of root respiration, and the most severe cellular energy deficit. This energy limitation downregulated key nitrogen assimilation enzymes (NR, GS, and GOGAT) and impaired the compensatory upregulation of glutamate dehydrogenase observed under single stresses. Consequently, root nitrogen uptake efficiency declined by 9.0%, 10.4%, and 18.0% under H, D, and HD, respectively. Total plant nitrogen accumulation was lowest under HD, with nitrogen allocation increasingly skewed toward the shoot. Grain yield also lowest under HD. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that combined heat and drought cause oxidative damage, which in turn worsens the energy deficit in roots and suppresses nitrogen assimilation, thereby reducing nitrogen acquisition efficiency in maize.