Duckweed Evolution: from Land back to Water.

Terrestialization is an important evolutionary process that plants experienced. However, little is known about how land plants acquired aquatic growth behaviors. Here we integrate multiproxy evidence to elucidate the evolution of the aquatic plant duckweed.

Duckweed: a starch-hyperaccumulating plant under cultivation with a combination of nutrient limitation and elevated CO.

Introduction: The increasing global demand for starch has created an urgent need to identify more efficient and sustainable production methods. However, traditional starch sources, such as crop-based options, experience significant bottlenecks due to limitations in land use, water consumption, and the impacts of climate change. Therefore, there is a pressing need to explore and develop new sources of starch.

Genome Resequencing for Autotetraploid Rice and Its Closest Relatives Reveals Abundant Variation and High Potential in Rice Breeding.

Polyploid rice and its reverted diploid show rich phenotypic variation and strong heterosis, showing great breeding value. However, the genomic differences among tetraploids, counterpart common diploids, tetraploid-revertant diploids, and hybrid descendants are unclear. In this work, we bred a new excellent two-line hybrid rice variety, (HTRM12), using Haitian tetraploid self-reverted diploid (HTRM2).

Regulates Grain Quality, Gene Expressions, and Regulatory Networks of Starch and Storage Protein Metabolisms in Rice.

plays a vital role in regulating floret development and grain shape, but whether it regulates rice grain quality still remains largely unknown. Therefore, we used comprehensive molecular genetics, plant biotechnology, and functional omics approaches, including phenotyping, mapping-by-sequencing, target gene seed-specific RNAi, transgenic experiments, and transcriptomic profiling to answer this biological and molecular question. Here, we report the characterization of the 'Oat-like rice' mutant, with poor grain quality, including chalky endosperms, abnormal morphology and loose arrangement of starch granules, and lower starch content but higher protein content in grains.

Improving the quality of barren rocky soil by culturing sweetpotato, with special reference to plant-microbes-soil interactions.

Biological process is an effective strategy to improve soil quality in agroecosystems. Sweetpotato has long been cultivated in barren rocky soil (BRS) to improve soil fertility and obtain considerably high yield. However, how sweetpotato cultivation affects soil quality is still unclear.

Cell Wall Matrix Polysaccharides Contribute to Salt-Alkali Tolerance in Rice.

Salt-alkali stress threatens the resilience to variable environments and thus the grain yield of rice. However, how rice responds to salt-alkali stress at the molecular level is poorly understood. Here, we report isolation of a novel salt-alkali-tolerant rice (SATR) by screening more than 700 germplasm accessions.

Effects of various spectral compositions on micro-polluted water purification and biofuel feedstock production using duckweed.

The purification of micro-polluted water for drinking water can play an important role in solving water crisis. To investigate the effects of spectral composition on nutrient removal and biofuel feedstock production using duckweed, Landoltia punctata was cultivated in different spectral compositions in micro-polluted water. Results showed that the nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiency were 99.

Low Nitrogen Fertilization Alter Rhizosphere Microorganism Community and Improve Sweetpotato Yield in a Nitrogen-Deficient Rocky Soil.

Sweetpotato can be cultivated in the reclaimed rocky soil in Sichuan Basin, China, which benefits from the release of mineral nutrients in the rocky soil by microorganisms. Shortage of nitrogen (N) in the rocky soil limits sweetpotato yield, which can be compensated through N fertilization. Whereas high N fertilization inhibits biological N fixation and induces unintended environmental consequences.

Unraveling the Contribution of High Temperature Stage to Jiang-Flavor Daqu, a Liquor Starter for Production of Chinese Jiang-Flavor Baijiu, With Special Reference to Metatranscriptomics.

Jiang-flavor (JF) daqu is a liquor starter used for production of JF baijiu, a well-known distilled liquor in China. Although a high temperature stage (70°C) is necessary for qualifying JF daqu, little is known regarding its active microbial community and functional enzymes, along with its role in generating flavor precursors for JF baijiu aroma. In this investigation, based on metatranscriptomics, fungi, such as and , were identified as the most active microbial members and 230 carbohydrate-active enzymes were identified as potential saccharifying enzymes at 70°C of JF daqu.

OsSPL18 controls grain weight and grain number in rice.

Grain weight and grain number are two important traits directly determining grain yield in rice. To date, a lot of genes related to grain weight and grain number have been identified; however, the regulatory mechanism underlying these genes remains largely unknown. In this study, we studied the biological function of OsSPL18 during grain and panicle development in rice.

Frond transformation system mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens for Lemna minor.

The Lemnaceae, known as duckweed, the smallest flowering aquatic plant, shows promise as a plant bioreactor. For applying this potential plant bioreactor, establishing a stable and efficient genetic transformation system is necessary. The currently favored callus-based method for duckweed transformation is time consuming and genotype limited, as it requires callus culture and regeneration, which is inapplicable to many elite duckweed strains suitable for bioreactor exploitation.

The DTH8-Hd1 Module Mediates Day-Length-Dependent Regulation of Rice Flowering.

Photoperiodic flowering is one of the most important pathways to govern flowering in rice (Oryza sativa), in which Heading date 1 (Hd1), an ortholog of the Arabidopsis CONSTANS gene, encodes a pivotal regulator. Hd1 promotes flowering under short-day conditions (SD) but represses flowering under long-day conditions (LD) by regulating the expression of Heading date 3a (Hd3a), the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) ortholog in rice. However, the molecular mechanism of how Hd1 changes its regulatory activity in response to day length remains largely unknown.

OsELF3-1, an ortholog of Arabidopsis early flowering 3, regulates rice circadian rhythm and photoperiodic flowering.

Arabidopsis thaliana early flowering 3 (ELF3) as a zeitnehmer (time taker) is responsible for generation of circadian rhythm and regulation of photoperiodic flowering. There are two orthologs (OsELF3-1 and OsELF3-2) of ELF3 in rice (Oryza sativa), but their roles have not yet been fully identified. Here, we performed a functional characterization of OsELF3-1 and revealed it plays a more predominant role than OsELF3-2 in rice heading.