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    Possible source and migration pathway for early-summer immigrants of the oriental armyworm, Mythimna separata, arriving in northern Japan
    Akira OTUKA, Tokumitsu NIIYAMA, JIANG Xingfu
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.06.001 Online: 05 June 2023
    Abstract4)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    The first generation of the oriental armyworm, Mythimna separata (Walker), arrives every year in northern Japan in mainly late May to early June. Analyses of weather maps suggested that this moth's immigration source could be eastern China, but the accuracy of those analyses was very limited due to the lack of a current standard trajectory analysis. The management of migratory insect pests such as M. separata benefits from the identification of the pests' migration source(s) and pathway(s). The present study was a trajectory analysis for M. separata. Backward trajectories from trap sites in northern Japan were calculated with the HYSPLIT system developed by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, taking the moth's flight speed and the limitation of low ambient temperature at flight height into account. The ending times of the moth's short and long trajectories were set at dusk on the day before and 2 days before the possible arriving date, respectively. The results suggested two types of possible migration pathway: a multi-step pathway from Northeast China, the Korean Peninsula, and eastern Russia, which are destination areas of the first-generation's migration, and a direct pathway from seasonal main emigration areas in eastern China such as Jiangsu and Shandong provinces. These findings contribute to our understanding of M. separata's migration ecology and can be used for the development of methods to predict the migration of this insect.

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    Thelytokous Diglyphus wani: A more promising biological control agent against agromyzid leafminers than its arrhenotokous counterpart
    DU Su-jie, YE Fu-yu, XU Shi-yun, WAN Wei-jie, GUO Jian-yang, YANG Nian-wan, LIU Wan-xue
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.06.002 Online: 05 June 2023
    Abstract3)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Diglyphus wani (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) is a dominant parasitoid that attacks agromyzid leafminers. Two reproductive types occur in D. wani: arrhenotoky (in which virgin females produce only male offspring; and virgin females mate with males to produce bisexual offspring) and thelytoky (in which virgin females produce female offspring). As a potential biological control agent, exploring the differences in the relevant biological parameters of both strains is necessary. In this study, comparisons between the two strains of D. wani were performed by evaluating the life table and host-killing rate. The thelytokous strain exhibited significantly better life table parameters than its arrhenotokous counterpart. Higher values for the intrinsic rate of increase, finite rate of increase, net reproductive rate, and fecundity were found in the thelytokous strain. The thelytokous strain also performed better than the arrhenotokous strain in terms of net parasitism, host-feeding, host-stinging, and total host-killing rates. Thus, populations of the thelytokous strain could grow fast and kill more hosts. In conclusion, the thelytokous strain of D. wani may be the more promising biological agent against agromyzid leafminers compared to its arrhenotokous counterpart. Also, since the thelytokous strain of D. wani is only known to produce females, it should be given priority in future biocontrol applications owing to the cost savings of breeding only females.

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    Untargeted UHPLC-Q-Exactive-MS-based metabolomics reveals associations between pre- and post-cooked metabolites and the taste quality of geographical indication rice and regular rice
    SHI Shi-jie, ZHANG Gao-yu, CAO Cou-gui, JIANG Yang
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.06.003 Online: 05 June 2023
    Abstract10)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Geographical indication (GI) rice refers to the rice of specific geographical origin, which tends to have a good taste quality and a high commodity price. Rice is favored for its soft texture and chewiness after cooking. However, GI rice is also plagued by rice fraud. Understanding the reasons for the excellent taste quality of GI rice and identifying its geographical origin can help maintain the stability of the rice market and promote the development of the rice industry. In this study, we determined the taste quality of rice. Untargeted metabolomics based on UHPLC-Q-Exactive-MS was used to identify metabolites in GI and regular rice before and after cooking. Our findings suggested that GI rice showed lower protein and amylose content, resulting in higher starch gelatinization properties and taste quality. This study identified 520 metabolites, among which 142 and 175 were significantly different between GI and regular rice, before and after cooking, respectively. The increased variety of metabolites after cooking was significantly negatively correlated with the taste quality of rice. GI rice was lower in amino acids and lipid metabolite content before and after cooking, which may be the reason for the excellent taste quality. Through linear discriminant analysis, we found that the differential metabolites of rice after cooking were more accurate in discriminating rice from different geographic origins, up to 100%. This work gained new insights into the metabolites of GI rice, which explains its excellent taste quality. The rice metabolites after cooking could be used for more accurate geographical identification of rice.

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    Effects of methionine treatment on storage quality and antioxidant activity of postharvest jujube fruit
    LIU Yao, LEI Xing-meng, GUO Yu-xiao, YAO Shi-xiang, ZENG Kai-fang
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.06.004 Online: 05 June 2023
    Abstract6)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Jujube fruits usually suffer from physiological disorders or infectious diseases during storage, leading to quality deterioration, softening, or rotting. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of methionine soaking treatment on the postharvest jujube fruit decay rate and storage quality. Methionine treatment significantly reduced the decay rate of postharvest jujube fruit and effectively maintained fruit color and titratable acid. Methionine treatment effectively delayed the decrease of firmness, soluble solids, ascorbic acid, and lignin contents in jujube fruit. Methionine treatment reduced the content of alanine and phenylalanine, and increased the content of glycine in jujube fruit, but displayed no significant effect on total amino acid content. In addition, jujube fruits in the methionine treatment group had a higher total phenolic and flavonoid content and antioxidant capacity, both in free and bound forms. Compared with the control, methionine treatment also significantly increased the content of individual phenolic acid fractions (gallic acid, vanillic acid, and syringic acid) and flavonoid fractions (catechin, epicatechin, rutin) in free form as well as individual phenolic acid fractions in bound form (gallic acid and ferulic acid) in jujube fruits. Overall, this study suggested that the methionine treatment could be used as a prospective preservative to reduce the postharvest decay of jujube fruit and alleviate its nutritional quality deterioration during cold storage at 4℃.

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    Quantifying the agreement and accuracy characteristics of four satellite-based LULC products for cropland classification in China
    XUE Jie, ZHANG Xiang-lin, CHEN Song-chao, HU Bi-feng, WANG Nan, SHI Zhou
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.06.005 Online: 05 June 2023
    Abstract7)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Various land use and land cover (LULC) products have been produced over the past decade with the development of remote sensing technology. Despite the differences in LULC classification schemes, there is a lack of research on assessing the accuracy of their application to croplands in a unified framework. Thus, this study evaluated the spatial and area accuracies of cropland classification for four commonly used global LULC products (i.e., MCD12Q1 V6, GlobCover2009, FROM-GLC and GlobeLand30) based on the harmonised FAO criterion, and quantified the relationships between four factors (i.e., slope, elevation, field size and crop system) and cropland classification agreement. The validation results indicated that MCD12Q1 and GlobeLand30 performed well in cropland classification regarding spatial consistency, with overall accuracies of 94.90 and 93.52%, respectively. The FROM-GLC showed the worst performance, with an overall accuracy of 83.17%. Overlaying the cropland generated by the four global LULC products, we found the proportions of complete agreement and disagreement were 15.51 and 44.72% for the cropland classification, respectively. High consistency was mainly observed in the Northeast China Plain, the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain and the northern part of the Middle-lower Yangtze Plain. In contrast, low consistency was detected primarily on the eastern edge of the Northern and semiarid region, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and southern China. Field size was the most important factor for mapping cropland. For area accuracy, compared with China Statistical Yearbook data at the provincial scale, the accuracies of different products in descending order were: GlobeLand30, FROM-GLC, MCD12Q1, and GlobCover2009. The cropland classification schemes mainly caused large area deviations among the four products, and they also resulted in the different ranks of spatial accuracy and area accuracy among the four products. Our results can provide valuable suggestions for selecting cropland products at the national or provincial scale and help cropland mapping and reconstruction, which is essential for food security and crop management, so they can also contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals issued by the United Nations.

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    Dynamic regulation of the irrigation-nitrogen-biochar nexus for the synergy of yield, quality, carbon emission and resource use efficiency in tomato
    ZHANG Ping-an, LI Mo, FU Qiang, Vijay P. Singh, DU Chang-zheng, LIU Dong, LI Tian-xiao, YANG Ai-zheng
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.06.006 Online: 05 June 2023
    Abstract6)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Integrated water and fertilizer management is important for promoting the sustainable development of facility agriculture, and biochar plays an important role in guaranteeing food production, as well as alleviating water shortages and the overuse of fertilizers. A multi-objective synergistic irrigation-nitrogen-biochar application system for improving tomato yield, quality, water and nitrogen use efficiency, and greenhouse emissions was developed by integrating the techniques of experimentation and optimization. First, a coupled irrigation-nitrogen-biochar plot experiment was arranged. Then, tomato yield and fruit quality parameters were determined experimentally to establish the response relationships between irrigation-nitrogen-biochar dosage and yield, comprehensive quality of tomatoes (TCQ), irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE), nitrogen fertilizer partial productivity (PFPN), and net greenhouse gas emissions (NGE). Finally, a multi-objective dynamic optimization regulation model of irrigation-nitrogen-biochar resource allocation at different growth stages of tomato was constructed which was solved by the fuzzy programming method. The results showed that the application of irrigation and nitrogen to biochar promoted increase in yield, IWUE and PFPN, while it had an inhibitory effect on NGE. In addition, the optimal allocation amounts of water and fertilizer were different under different scenarios. The yield of the S1 scenario increased by 8.31% compared to the T2 treatment; TCQ of the S2 scenario increased by 5.14% compared to the T5 treatment; IWUE of the S3 scenario increased by 10.01% compared to the T3 treatment; PFPN of the S4 scenario increased by 9.35% compared to the T2 treatment; and NGE of the S5 scenario decreased by 11.23% compared to the T5 treatment. The optimization model showed that the coordination of multiple objectives by considering yield, TCQ, IWUE, PFPN, and NGE was improved on average by 4.44 to 69.02% on average compared to each treatment alone when the irrigation, nitrogen and biochar dosage were 205.18 mm, 186 kg ha-1 and 43.31 t ha-1, respectively. This study provides a guiding basis for the sustainable management of water and fertilizer in greenhouse tomato production under drip irrigation fertilization conditions.

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    The underlying mechanism of variety-water-nitrogen-stubble damage interaction on yield formation of ratoon rice with low stubble height under mechanized harvesting
    ZOU Jing-nan, PANG Zi-qin, LI Zhou, GUO Chun-lin, LIN Hong-mei, LI Zheng, CHEN Hong-fei, HUANG Jin-wen, CHEN Ting, XU Hai-long, QIN Bin, LETUMA Puleng, LIN Wei-wei, LIN Wen-xiong
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.038 Online: 29 May 2023
    Abstract24)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Agronomic measures are the key to promoting the sustainable development of ratoon rice by reducing the mechanically crushing damage to the residual stubbles of the main crop, thereby mitigate the impact on axillary bud sprout and yield formation of ratoon rice.  This study used widely recommended conventional rice Jiafuzhan and hybrid rice Yongyou 2640 as materials to conduct a four factor block design field experiment in a greenhouse of Fujian Agricultural and Forestry University Experimental Farm from 2018 to 2019, including fertilizer and no fertilization, alternate wetting and drying irrigation and continuous water flooding irrigation, and artificially crushing damage on rice stubbles and non-artificially crushing damage on rice stubbles experiments.  At the same time, a 13C stable isotope in-situ detection technology was used to fertilize the pot experiment.   The results displayed that there was significant interaction among varieties, water management, nitrogen application and stubble status.  Relative to the long-term water flooding treatment, sequential application of nitrogen fertilizer coupled with moderate field drought for root-vigor and tiller promoting before and after harvesting the main crop, significantly improved the effective tillers from low position nodes.  This in turn increased the effective panicles per plant and grains per panicle through reducing the influence of artificially crushing damage on rice stubbles and achieving high yield of the regenerated rice.  Furthermore, the partitioning of 13C assimilates to the left stubble and its axillary bud was significantly improved at the mature stage of the main crop, while the translocation rate to roots and rhizosphere soil was reduced at the later growth stage of ratooning season rice, which was triggered by the metabolism of hormones and polyamines at the stem base regulated by the interaction of water and fertilizer in this time.  We therefore infer that to achieve high yield of ratoon rice with stubble height under mechanized harvesting, timely application of nitrogen fertilizer is fundamental, coupled with moderate field drying for root-vigor preservation and tiller promotion before and after mechanically harvesting of the main crop. 

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    Creating large EMS populations for functional genomics and breeding in wheat
    WANG Wen-qiang, GUAN Xi-zhen, GAN Yong, LIU Guo-jun, ZOU Chun-hao, WANG Wei-kang, ZHANG Ji-fa, ZHANG Hui-fei, HAO Qun-qun, NI Fei, WU Jia-jie, EPSTEIN Lynn, FU Dao-lin
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.039 Online: 29 May 2023
    Abstract12)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Wheat germplasm is a fundamental resource for basic research, applied studies, and wheat breeding, which can be enriched normally by several paths such as collecting natural lines, accumulating breeding lines, and introducing mutagenesis materials.  Ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) as an alkylating agent can effectively introduce genetic variations in a wide variety of plant species.  In this study, we created a million-scale EMS population (MEP) that started with the Chinese wheat cultivars ‘Luyan 128’, ‘Jimai 38’, ‘Jimai 44’, and ‘Shannong 30’.  In the M1 generation, the MEP had huge phenotypical variations, for instance, >3000 chlorophyll-deficient mutants, 2519 compact spikes, and 1692 male sterile spikes; there were also rare mutations, including 30 independent tillers each with double heads.  Some M1 variations of chlorophyll-deficiency and compact spikes were inheritable, appearing in the M2 or M3 generations.  To advance the entire MEP to higher generations, we adopted a single-seed descendent (SSD) approach; all other seed composites of M2 were used to screen other agronomically important traits, such as for tolerance to the herbicide quizalofop-P-methyl.  The MEP is available for collaborative projects, and provides a valuable toolbox for wheat genetics and breeding for sustainable agriculture.

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    Manure substitution improves maize yield by promoting soil fertility and mediating the microbial community in lime concretion black soil
    CAO Ming-hui, DUAN Yan, LI Ming-hao, Tang Cai-guo, KAN Wen-jie, LI Jiang-ye, ZHANG Hui-lan, ZHONG Wen-ling, WU Li-fang
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.040 Online: 29 May 2023
    Abstract10)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer has made a great contribution to the improvement of soil fertility and productivity, but excessive application of synthetic N fertilizer may cause agroecosystem risks, such as soil acidification, groundwater contamination and biodiversity reduction. Meanwhile, organic substitution has received increasing attention for its ecologically and environmentally friendly and productivity benefits. However, the linkages between manure substitution, crop yield and the underlying microbial mechanisms remain uncertain. To bridge this gap, a three-year field experiment was conducted with five fertilization regimes: i) Control, no fertilizer; ii) CF, no manure substitution; iii) CF1/2M1/2, 50% manure substitution; iv) CF1/4M3/4, 75% manure substitution; and v) M, 100% manure substitution. All fertilization treatments were designed to have  equal N input. Our results showed that all manure substituted treatments achieved high soil fertility indexes (SFI) and productivities by increasing the soil organic carbon (SOC), total N (TN) and available phosphorus (AP) concentrations, and by altering the bacterial community diversity and composition compared with CF. SOC, AP, and the soil C:N ratio were mainly responsible for microbial community variations. The co-occurrence network revealed that SOC and AP had strong positive associations with Rhodospirillales and Burkholderiales, while TN and C:N ratio had positive and negative associations with Micromonosporaceae, respectively. These specific taxa are implicated in soil macroelement turnover. Random forest analysis predicted that both biotic (bacterial composition and Micromonosporaceae) and abiotic (AP, SOC, SFI, and TN) factors had significant effects on crop yield. The present work strengthens our understanding of the effects of manure substitution on crop yield and provides theoretical support for optimizing fertilization strategies.

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    The auxin transporter OsAUX1 regulates tillering in rice (Oryza sativa)
    JIA Lu-qi, DAI Yong-dong, PENG Zi-wei, CUI zhi-bo, ZHANG Xue-Fei, LI Yang-yang, TIAN Wei-jiang, HE Guang-hua, LI Yun, SANG Xian-chun
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.041 Online: 29 May 2023
    Abstract8)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Tillering is an important agronomic trait of rice (Oryza sativa) that affect the number of seffective panicle, thereby affecting yields.  The phytohormone auxin plays a key role in tillering.  Here we identified the high tillering and semi-dwarf 1 (htsd1) mutant, whose roots exhibit auxin-deficiency characteristics, such as shortened lateral roots, reduced lateral root density, and enlarged root angles.  htsd1 showed reduced sensitivity to auxin, but the external application of auxin inhibited its tillering.  We identified the mutated gene in htsd1 as AUXIN1 (OsAUX1, LOC_Os01g63770), encoding an auxin influx transporter.  The promoter sequence of OsAUX1 contained many SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) binding sites.  We demonstrate that SPL7 binds to the OsAUX1 promoter. TEOSINTE BRANCHED1 (OsTB1), a key gene that negatively regulates tillering, was significantly downregulated in htsd1.  Tillering was enhanced in the OsTB1 knockout mutant, and the external application of auxin inhibited tiller elongation in this mutant.  Overexpressing OsTB1 restored the multi-tiller phenotype of htsd1.  These results suggest that SPL7 directly binds to the OsAUX1 promoter and regulates tillering in rice by altering OsTB1 expression to modulate auxin signaling.

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    Optimized tillage methods increased mechanically transplanted rice yield and reduced greenhouse gas emissions
    CHENG Shuang, XING Zhi-peng, TIAN Chao, LIU Meng-zhu, FENG Yuan, ZHANG Hong-cheng
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.033 Online: 25 May 2023
    Abstract14)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Dryland biaxial rotary tillage can complete biaxial rotary tillage with straw incorporation, twice suppression, and ditching, which has been roughly studied in direct-seeded rice and wheat.  However, the effects of dryland biaxial rotary tillage (DBRT) on the mechanically transplanted rice yield and greenhouse gas emissions is unclear.  To evaluate the effects of DBRT on improving the food security of mechanically transplanted rice and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions, we conducted this experiments for 2 years with wheat straw incorporation. Three tillage methods were set up: biaxial rotary tillage in dryland (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 decreased by 13.9-21.2% and 30.2-37.0%, respectively, and the seasonal cumulative N2O emissions increased by 13.5-28.6% and 50.0-73.1%, respectively.  Consequently, DBRT decreased the global warming potential by 10.7-15.5% and 23.7-28.6%, respectively, and decreased the yield-scaled global warming potential by 18.2-21.8% and 36.4-39.3%, respectively, related to DPURT and PURT.  These results were mainly related to the fact that DBRT significantly reduced soil bulk density and increased soil Eh.  Therefore, it is feasible to implement DBRT in machine-transplanted rice fields, which can not only increase rice yield, but also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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    The first factor affecting dryland winter wheat grain yield under mulching measures: spike number
    DOU Ying-xia, ZHAO Hu-bing, YANG Hui-min, WANG Tao, LIU Guan-fei, WANG Zhao-hui, Malhi Sukhdev
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.034 Online: 25 May 2023
    Abstract5)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Water is the key factor limiting dryland wheat grain yield.  Mulching affects crop yield and yield components through affecting soil moisture.  Further research is needed to determine the factors relationships between yield components and soil moisture with yield and identify the most important factors affecting grain yield under mulching measures.  Long term 9-year field experiment in the Loess Plateau of Northwest China was carried out with a total of three treatments: no mulch (CK), plastic mulch (MP) and straw mulch (MS).  Yield factors and soil moisture was measured, and relationships between them was explored by correlation analysis, structural equation model and significance analysis.  The results showed that compared with CK, the average grain yield of MP and MS increased by 13.0 and 10.6%, respectively.  The average annual grain yield of MP treatment was 134 kg ha-1 higher than the MS treatment.  There was no significant difference in yield components among the three treatments (P<0.05).  Soil water storage of MS treatment was greater than the MP treatment, although the differences were not statistically significant. Soil water storage during the summer fallow period (SWSSF) and soil water storage before sowing (SWSS) of MS were significantly higher than CK, which increased by 38.5 and 13.6%, respectively.  The relationship between MP and CK was not statistically significant for SWSSF, but SWSS in MP was significantly higher than CK.  In terms of soil water storage after harvest (SWSH) and water consumption in the growth period (ET), there were no significant differences among the three treatments.  Based on the three analysis methods, we found that spike number and ET were positively correlated with grain yield.  However, the relative importance of spike number to yield was the greatest in the MP and MS treatments, while that of ET was the greatest in CK.  Sufficient SWSSF could indirectly increase spike number and ET in the three treatments.  Mulch can improve yield and soil water storage.  The most important factor affecting grain yield of dryland wheat was spike number under mulching, and ET in no mulch.  The findings may help to understand the main factor to influence dryland wheat grain yield under mulching measures compared to no mulch.

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    A phenology-based vegetation index for improving ratoon rice mapping using harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 data
    CHEN Yun-ping, HU Jie, CAI Zhi-wen, YANG Jing-ya, ZHOU Wei, HU Qiong, WANG Cong, YOU Liang-zhi, XU Bao-dong
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.035 Online: 25 May 2023
    Abstract7)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Ratoon rice, which refers to a second harvest of rice obtained from regenerated tillers originating from the stubbles of the first harvested crop, plays an important role in both food security and agroecology while requiring minimal agricultural inputs.  However, it is challenging to accurately identify ratoon rice crops due to the similar spectral features with other rice cropping systems (e.g., double rice).  Moreover, images with a high spatiotemporal resolution are essential since ratoon rice is generally cultivated in fragmented croplands within regions frequently exhibiting cloudy and rainy weather.  In this study, adopting Qichun county in Hubei province as an example, we proposed a new phenology-based ratoon rice vegetation index (PRVI) for the purpose of ratoon rice mapping at a 30-m spatial resolution using a robust time series generated from harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) images.  The PRVI that ingested the red, near-infrared, and shortwave infrared 1 bands was developed based on the analysis of spectro-phenological separability and feature selection.  Based on the field samples, the performance of the PRVI for ratoon rice mapping was carefully evaluated by comparing it to several vegetation indices, including normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and land surface water index (LSWI).  Results suggested that the PRVI could sufficiently capture the specific characteristics of ratoon rice, leading to a favorable separability between ratoon rice and other land cover types.  Furthermore, the PRVI showed the best performance for identifying ratoon rice in the phenological phases characterized by grain filling and harvesting to tillering of the ratoon crop (GHS-TS2), indicating that only several images are required to obtain an accurate ratoon rice map.  Finally, the PRVI performed better than the NDVI, EVI, LSWI and their combination at GHS-TS2 stages, with producer’s accuracy and user’s accuracy of 92.22 and 89.30%, respectively.  These results demonstrate that the proposed PRVI based on HLS data can effectively identify ratoon rice in fragmented croplands at crucial phenological stages, which is promising for identifying the earliest timing of ratoon rice planting and can provide a fundamental dataset for crop management activities.

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    Spectral purification improves monitoring accuracy of the comprehensive growth evaluation index for film-mulched winter wheat
    CHENG Zhi-kai, GU Xiao-bo, DU Ya-dan, ZHOU Zhi-hui, LI Wen-long, ZHENG Xiao-bo, CAI Wen-jing, CHANG Tian
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.036 Online: 25 May 2023
    Abstract5)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    In order to further improve the ability of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote-sensing for quickly and accurately monitoring the growth of winter wheat under film mulching, this research used treatments of ridge mulching, ridge–furrow full mulching, and flat cropping full mulching winter wheat.  Based on the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) method, four agronomic parameters (leaf area index, aboveground biomass, plant height, and leaf chlorophyll content) were used to calculate the comprehensive growth evaluation index (CGEI) of winter wheat, and 14 visible and near-infrared spectral indices were calculated using spectral purification technology to process the remote-sensing image data of winter wheat obtained by multispectral UAV.   Four machine learning algorithms, partial least squares, support vector machines, random forests, and artificial neural network networks (ANN), were used to build the winter wheat growth monitoring model under film mulching, with accuracy evaluation and mapping of the spatial and temporal distribution of winter wheat growth status.  The results showed that the CGEI of winter wheat under film mulching constructed based on the FCE method could objectively and comprehensively evaluate crop growth status, and the accuracy of remote-sensing inversion of the CGEI based on the ANN model was higher than for single agronomic parameters, with coefficient of determination of 0.75, root mean square error of 8.40, and mean absolute value error of 6.53.  Spectral purification could eliminate the interference of background effects caused by mulching and soil, effectively improving the accuracy of remote-sensing inversion of winter wheat under film mulching, with the best inversion effect achieved on the ridge–furrow full mulching area after spectral purification.  The results provided a theoretical reference for UAV remote-sensing to monitor the growth status of winter wheat with film mulching.

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    GbLMI1 over-expressing improved cotton aboveground vegetative growth
    CHONG Zhi-li, WEI Yun-xiao, LI Kai-li, Muhammad Aneeq Ur Rahman, LIANG Cheng-zhen, MENG Zhi-gang, WANG Yuan, GUO San-dui, HE Liang-rong, ZHANG Rui
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.037 Online: 25 May 2023
    Abstract3)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Leaves are the main places for photosynthesis and organic synthesis of cotton.  Leaf shape has important effects on the photosynthetic efficiency and canopy formation, thereby affecting cotton yield.  Previous studies have shown that LMI1 is the main gene regulating leaf shape. In this study, the LMI1 gene (LATE MERISTEM IDENTITY1) was inserted into the 35S promoter expression vector, and cotton plants overexpressing LMI1(OE) were obtained through genetical transformation.  Statistical analysis of the biological traits of T1 and T2 populations showed that compared to wild type (WT), OE plants had significant larger leaves, thicker stems and significantly increased dry weight.  Furthermore, plant sections of the main vein and petiole showed that the number of cell in those tissues of OE plants increased significantly.  In addition, RNA-seq analysis revealed differential expression of genes related to gibberellin synthesis and NAC gene family (genes containing the NAC domain) in OE and WT plants, suggesting that LMI1 is involved in secondary wall formation and cell proliferation, and promotes stem thickening.  Moreover, GO (Gene Ontology) analysis enriched the terms of calcium ion binding, and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) analysis enriched the terms of fatty acid degradation, phosphatidylinositol signal transduction system, and cAMP signal pathway.  These results suggested that LMI1 OE plants were responsive to gibberellin hormone signals, and altered messenger signal (cAMP, Ca2+) which amplified this function, to promote the stronger above ground vegetative growth.  This study found the LMI1 soared the nutrient growth in cotton, which is the basic for higher yield.

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    circRNA3669 promotes goat endometrial epithelial cells proliferation via miR-26a/RCN2 to activate PI3K/AKT-mTOR and MAPK pathways
    LIU Xiao-rui, CUI Jiu-zeng, WEI Meng-yao, WANG Xiao-fei, LIU Yue-xia, ZHU Zhong-shi, Zhou Min, BA Gui, SUO Lang-da, SONG Yu-xuan, ZhANG Lei
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.029 Online: 22 May 2023
    Abstract16)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    The development of receptive endometrium (RE) from pre-receptive endometrium (PE) for successful embryo implantation is a complex dynamic process in which the morphology and physiological states of the endometrial epithelium undergo a series of significant changes, including cell proliferation and apoptosis. However, the molecular mechanisms are not yet fully understood. In this study, a higher circRNA3669 level was observed in PE than in RE of goats. Functional assays revealed that this overexpression promoted the proliferation of goat endometrial epithelial cells (GEECs) by activating the expression of genes related to the PI3K/AKT-mTOR and MAPK pathways, thereby inhibiting apoptosis in vitro. Furthermore, circRNA3669 functioned as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to upregulate Reticulocalbin-2 (RCN2) expression at the post-transcriptional level by interacting with and downregulating miR-26a in GEECs. In addition, RCN2, which is highly expressed in the PE of goats, was found to be regulated by β-estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P4). Our results demonstrated that RCN2 also affected the key proteins PI3K, AKT, mTOR, JNK, and P38 in the PI3K/AKT-mTOR and MAPK pathways, thereby facilitating GEECs proliferation and suppressing their apoptosis in vitro. Collectively, we constructed a new circRNA3669-miR-26a-RCN2 regulatory network in GEECs, which further provides strong evidence that circRNA could potentially play a crucial regulatory role in the development of RE in goats. 

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    Identifying the critical phosphorus balance for optimizing phosphorus input and regulating soil phosphorus effectiveness in a typical winter wheat-summer maize rotation system in North China
    XU Meng-ze, WANG Yu-hong, NIE Cai-e, SONG Gui-pei, XIN Su-ning, LU Yan-li, BAI You-lu, ZHANG Yin-jie, WANG Lei
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.030 Online: 22 May 2023
    Abstract11)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Phosphorus (P) is a nonrenewable resource and a critical element for plant growth that plays an important role in improving crop yield. Excessive P fertilizer application is widespread in agricultural production, which not only wastes phosphate resources but also causes P accumulation and groundwater pollution. Here, we hypothesized that the apparent P balance of a crop system could be used as an indicator for identifying the critical P input in order to obtain a high yield with high phosphorus use efficiency (PUE). A 12-year field experiment with P fertilization rates of 0, 45, 90, 135, 180, and 225 kg P2O5 ha-1 was conducted to determine the crop yield, PUE, and soil Olsen-P value response to P balance, and to optimize the P input. Annual yield stagnation occurred when the P fertilizer application exceeded a certain level, and high yield and PUE levels were achieved with annual P fertilizer application rates of 90-135 kg P2O5 ha-1. A critical P balance range of 2.15-4.45 kg P ha-1 was recommended to achieve optimum yield with minimal environmental risk. The critical P input range estimated from the P balance was 95.7-101 kg P2O5 ha-1, which improved yield and PUE (90.0-94.9%). In addition, the P input-output balance helps in assessing future changes in Olsen-P values, which increased by 4.07 mg kg-1 of P for every 100 kg of P surplus. Overall, the P balance can be used as a critical indicator for P management in agriculture, providing a robust reference for limiting P excess and developing a more productive, efficient and environmentally friendly P fertilizer management strategy.

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    Discovery and structure–activity relationship studies of novel tetrahydro-β-carboline derivatives as apoptosis initiators for treating bacterial infections1
    SU Shan-shan, LIU Hong-wu, ZHANG Jun-rong, QI Pu-ying, DING Yue, ZHANG Ling, YANG Lin-li, LIU Li-wei, ZHOU Xiang, YANG Song
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.031 Online: 22 May 2023
    Abstract12)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Developing and excavating new agrochemicals with highly active and safe is an important tactic for protecting crop health and food safety. In this paper, to discover the new bactericide candidates, we designed, prepared a new type of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-β-carboline (THC) derivatives and evaluated the in vitro and in vivo bioactivities against the Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri (Xac), and Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa). The in vitro bioassay results exhibited that most title molecules possessed good activity toward the three plant pathogenic bacteria, the compound A17 showed the most active against Xoo and Xac with EC50 values of 7.27 and 4.89 mg mL-1 respectively, and compound A8 exhibited the best inhibitory activity against Psa with EC50 value of 4.87 mg mL-1. Pot experiments showed that compound A17 exhibited excellent in vivo antibacterial activities to manage rice bacterial leaf blight and citrus bacterial canker, with protective efficiency es of 52.67 and 79.79% at 200 mg mL-1, respectively. Meanwhile, compound A8 showed good control efficiency (84.31%) against kiwifruit bacterial canker at 200 mg mL-1. Antibacterial mechanism suggested that these compounds could interfere with the balance of the redox system, damage the cell membrane, and induce the apoptosis of Xoo cells. Taken together, our study revealed that tetrahydro-β-carboline derivatives could be a promising candidate model for novel broad-spectrum bactericides.

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    A hybrid CNN-LSTM model for diagnosing rice nutrient levels at the rice panicle initiation stage
    LIAO Fu-bing, FENG Xiang-qian, LI Zi-qiu, WANG Dan-ying, XU Chun-mei, CHU Guang, MA Heng-yu, YAO Qing, CHEN Song
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.032 Online: 22 May 2023
    Abstract10)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) are two key mineral nutrient elements involved in rice growth. Accurate diagnosis of N and K status is very important for the rational application of fertilizers at a specific rice growth stage. Therefore, we propose a hybrid model for diagnosing rice nutrient levels at the early panicle initiation stage (EPIS), which combines a convolutional neural network (CNN) with an attention mechanism and a long short-term memory network (LSTM). The model was validated on a large set of sequential images collected by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from rice canopies at different growth stages during a two-year experiment. Compared with VGG16, AlexNet, GoogleNet, DenseNet, and inceptionV3, ResNet101 combined with LSTM obtained the highest average accuracy of 83.81% on the dataset of Huanghuazhan (HHZ, an indica cultivar). When tested on the datasets of HHZ and Xiushui 134 (XS134, a japonica rice variety) in 2021, the ResNet101-LSTM model enhanced with the Squeeze-and-Excitation (SE) block achieved the highest accuracies of 85.38% and 88.38%, respectively. Through the cross-dataset method, the average accuracies on the HHZ and XS134 datasets tested in 2022 were 81.25% and 82.50%, respectively, showing a good generalization. Our proposed model works with the dynamic information of different rice growth stages and can efficiently diagnose different rice nutrient status levels at EPIS, which are helpful for making practical decisions regarding rational fertilization treatments at the panicle initiation stage.

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    A mite parasitoid Pyemotes zhonghuajia negatively impacts the fitness traits and immune response of the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda
    SONG Yan-fei, TIAN Tai-an, CHEN Yi-chai, ZHANG Ke-shi, YANG Mao-fa, LIU Jian-feng
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.05.022 Online: 19 May 2023
    Abstract16)      PDF in ScienceDirect      

    Parasitoids are key regulators in ecological communities and widely used agents in biocontrol programmes. The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, recently invaded multiple continents and caused substantial economic losses in agriculture. Pyemotes zhonghuajia, a newly focused mite parasitoid, has shown potential in controlling various agricultural insect pests. Therefore, this study tested the performance of P. zhonghuajia in parasitising S. frugiperda. We also investigated the sublethal parasitism of P. zhonghuajia on host fitness traits, transgenerational impact, and cellular and humoral immunity. Our result showed that the fifth instar larvae of S. frugiperda parasitised by 40 P. zhonghuajia were dead (i.e., lethal). The parasitism by 5 and 10 P. zhonghuajia was considered sublethal since many S. frugiperda survived to adulthood and reproduced offspring after mating. The sublethal influences from the parasitism of P. zhonghuajia have resulted in a reduced pupal weight, adult emergence rate and fecundity, but an increased developmental time and longevity. Parasitism at both lethal (40 mites) and sublethal (10 mites) levels impaired the cellular and humoral immunity of S. frugiperda. This study presents the first empirical evidence that mite parasitoids negatively influence host immunity. Moreover, it provides insights into the biocontrol potential of mite parasitoids and their interaction with hosts.

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