In the face of agricultural labor shortages, reducing labor and costs in rice production while meeting demand or increasing yield is crucial for sustainable agricultural development.  Using crop straw boards and raising seedlings at a high-density can reduce labor demand and enhance rice yield.  This study investigated the effects of seeding density and transplanting age on tillering patterns, panicle formation rates, and yield to determine the optimal cultivation practices for maximizing rice yield.  Two-year field experiments were conducted in Sihong County, Jiangsu Province, China, using the japonica rice variety Nanjing 5718.  Five seeding densities (150–350 g/tray) and four transplanting ages (10–25 days) were evaluated to assess their impacts on tillering patterns, panicle formation rates, and yield.  Innovative crop straw boards were employed to enhance planting efficiency and reduce dependence on soil for raising seedlings.  This approach also lessened tillage layer destruction, promoting sustainable practices.  The results indicated that increasing seeding density significantly altered tillering and panicle formation patterns by reducing the occurrence and panicle formation rates of lower-position tillers.  Although the occurrence of middle- and high-position tillers increased, the overall number of panicles per hill decreased, especially at higher densities, negatively affecting yield.  Reducing the transplanting age promoted the emergence and panicle formation of lower-position tillers, thus mitigating these negative effects.  Specifically, compared to traditional methods (150 g/tray, 20-day seedlings), the higher seeding density (300 g/tray) and reduced transplanting age (15-day seedlings) increased total panicle number by 3.79–4.73% and yield by 3.38–5.05%.  Combining higher seeding densities with reduced transplanting ages offers significant advantages over conventional practices by enhancing resource utilization and improving tillering efficiency.  These findings provide actionable recommendations for optimizing rice cultivation practices and contribute to sustainable agricultural development.

Plant roots interact with diverse fungi that are essential for maintaining the productivity and sustainability of pasture ecosystems, but how these root-associated fungi (RAF) differ between forage species and how they respond to nutrient enrichment and fungicide application are not well understood.  Here, we constructed an 11-year experiment involving fungicide application (with or without) nested within four levels of experimental nitrogen (N) addition treatments in an alpine pasture, and the RAF communities, root traits, tissue nutrients, and shoot biomass of two dominant forage species (Carex capillifolia and Elymus nutans) were analyzed.  The RAF community composition showed striking differences between the plant species and was strongly affected by both N addition level and fungicide applications.  Fungicide, but not N application, dramatically reduced the RAF richness of all functional guilds in both plant species, and fungicide also simplified the co-occurrence network of the RAF for C. capillifolia.  The RAF community correlated strongly with root traits, whereas their relationships became weakened or even vanished at the level of the individual plant species.  The importance of RAF to plant nutrients and productivity varied between plant species, with significant contributions in C. capillifolia but not in E. nutans.  This is the first report elucidating the long-term effect of fungicides on RAF in alpine pastures, and our findings emphasize the host-specific responses of RAF community structure and function to anthropogenic disturbances.

The high labor demand during rice seedling cultivation and transplantation poses a significant challenge in advancing machine-transplanted rice cultivation.  This problem may be solved by increasing the seeding rate during seedling production while reducing the number of seedling trays.  This study conducted field experiments from 2021 to 2022, using transplanting seedling ages of 10 and 15 days to explore the effects of 250, 300, and 350 g/tray on the seedling quality, mechanical transplantation quality, yields, and economic benefits of rice.  The commonly used combination of 150 g/tray with a 20-day seedling age in rice production was used as CK.  The cultivation of seedlings under a high seeding rate and short seedling age significantly affected seedling characteristics, but there was no significant difference in seedling vitality compared to CK.  The minimum number of rice trays used in the experiment was observed in the treatment of 350–10 (300 g/tray and 10-day seedling age), only 152–155 trays ha–1, resulting in a 62% reduction in the number of trays needed.  By increasing the seeding rate of rice, missed holes during mechanical transplantation decreased by 2.8 to 4%.  The treatment of 300–15 (300 g/tray and 15-day seedling age) achieved the highest yields and economic gains.  These results indicated that using crop straw boards can reduce the application of seedling trays.  On that basis, rice yields can be increased by raising the seeding rate and shortening the seedling age of rice without compromising seedling quality.

Biaxial rotary tillage in dryland (DBRT) can complete biaxial rotary tillage with straw incorporation, secondary suppression, and ditching, and it has been previously studied in direct-seeded rice and wheat.  However, the effects of DBRT on the mechanically transplanted rice yield and greenhouse gas emissions remain unclear.  To evaluate the effects of DBRT on improving the food security of mechanically transplanted rice and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions, we conducted an experiment for two years with wheat straw incorporation.  Three tillage methods were set up: DBRT, uniaxial rotary tillage in dryland and paddy (DPURT), and uniaxial rotary tillage in paddy (PURT).  The results showed that compared with DPURT and PURT, DBRT increased the yield of machine-transplanted rice by 7.5–11.0% and 13.3–26.7%, respectively, while the seasonal cumulative CH₄ emissions were reduced by 13.9–21.2% and 30.2–37.0%, respectively, and the seasonal cumulative N₂O emissions were increased by 13.5–28.6% and 50.0–73.1%, respectively.  Consequently, DBRT reduced the global

Breeding of male-sterile lines has become the mainstream for the heterosis utilization in foxtail millet, but the genetic basis of most male-sterile lines used for the hybrid is still an area to be elucidated. In this study, a highly male-sterile line Gao146A was investigated. Genetic analysis indicated that the highly male-sterile phenotype was controlled by a single recessive gene a single recessive gene. Using F2 population derived from cross Gao146A/K103, one gene controlling the highly male- sterility, tentatively named as ms1, which linked to SSR marker b234 with genetic distance of 16.7 cM, was mapped on the chromosome VI. These results not only laid the foundation for fine mapping of this highly male-sterile gene, but also helped to accelerate the improvement of highly male-sterile lines by using molecular marker assisted breeding method.