Targeted Genome Editing of the ACC Deaminase Gene in Bradyrhizobium: Toward Enhanced Plant Growth and Stress Tolerance.

Ensuring sufficient crop yields in an era of rapid population growth and limited arable land requires innovative strategies to enhance plant resilience and sustain, or even improve, growth and productivity despite environmental stress. Besides symbiotic nitrogen fixation, rhizobia may play a central role in sustainable agriculture by alleviating the detrimental effects of ethylene-a key stress hormone in plants-especially under conditions like drought through the deamination of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC). In this study, we focused on genetically engineering a new Bradyrhizobium sp.

High-Efficiency CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing Unveils Biofilm Insights and Enhances Antimicrobial Activity in Bacillus velezensis FZB42.

Bacillus velezensis FZB42 is a prominent plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium and biocontrol agent known for producing a wide array of antimicrobial compounds. The capability to genetically manipulate this strain would facilitate understanding its metabolism and enhancing its sustainable agriculture applications. In this study, we report the first successful implementation of high-efficiency CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing in B.

Modeling Nitrogen Fate and Water and Nitrogen Use Efficiencies under Different Greenhouse Vegetable Production Systems Using the WHCNS-Veg Model.

Quantitative evaluation of the effects of diverse greenhouse vegetable production systems (GVPS) on vegetable yield, soil water consumption, and nitrogen (N) fates could provide a scientific basis for identifying optimum water and fertilizer management practices for GVPS. This research was conducted from 2013 to 2015 in a greenhouse vegetable field in Quzhou County, North China. Three production systems were designed: conventional (CON), integrated (INT), and organic (ORG) systems.

Net greenhouse gas balance in U.S. croplands: How can soils be part of the climate solution?

Agricultural soils play a dual role in regulating the Earth's climate by releasing or sequestering carbon dioxide (CO ) in soil organic carbon (SOC) and emitting non-CO greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as nitrous oxide (N O) and methane (CH ). To understand how agricultural soils can play a role in climate solutions requires a comprehensive assessment of net soil GHG balance (i.e.

Ground Cover Rice Production System Affects Soil Water, Nitrogen Dynamics and Crop Growth Differentially with or without Climate Stress.

The ground cover rice production system (GCRPS) has been proposed as a potential solution to alleviate seasonal drought and early low-temperature stress in hilly mountainous areas; clarifying its impact on crop growth is crucial to enhance rice productivity in these areas. A two-year (2021-2022) field experiment was conducted in the hilly mountains of southwest China to compare the effects of the traditional flooding paddy (Paddy) and GCRPS under three different nitrogen (N) management practices (N1, zero-N fertilizer; N2, 135 kg N ha-1 as a urea-based fertilizer; and N3, 135 kg N ha-1 with a 3:2 base-topdressing ratio as urea fertilizer for the Paddy or a 1:1 basal application ratio as urea and manure for GCRPS) on soil water storage, soil mineral N content and crop growth parameters, including plant height, tiller numbers, the leaf area index (LAI), aboveground dry matter (DM) dynamics and crop yield. The results showed that there was a significant difference in rainfall between the two growth periods, with 906 mm and 291 mm in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Future climate change impacts on wheat grain yield and protein in the North China Region.

The threat of global climate change on wheat production may be underestimated by the limited capacity of many crop models to predict grain quality and protein composition. This study aimed to integrate a wheat quality module of protein components into the CROPSIM-CERES-Wheat model to investigate the impact of climate change on wheat grain yield and protein quality in the North China Region (NCR) using five Global Climate Models (GCMs) from CMIP6 under three shared socioeconomic pathways. The CERES-Wheat model with a quality module was developed and calibrated and validated using data from several sites in the NCR.

Correction: Sensitivity analysis of the CROPGRO-Canola model in China: A case study for rapeseed.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Integrating crop redistribution and improved management towards meeting China's food demand with lower environmental costs.

China feeds 19.1% of the world's population with 8.6% of the arable land.

Identification and Functional Analysis of lncRNA by CRISPR/Cas9 During the Cotton Response to Sap-Sucking Insect Infestation.

Sap-sucking insects cause severe damage to cotton production. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play vital regulatory roles in various development processes and stress response, however, the function of lncRNAs during sap-sucking insect infection in cotton is largely unknown. In this study, the transcriptome profiles between resistant (HR) and susceptible (ZS) cotton cultivars under whitefly infestation at different time points (0, 4, 12, 24, and 48 h) were compared.

Effects of nitrogen topdressing and paclobutrazol at different stages on spike differentiation and yield of winter wheat.

Background: Optimal nitrogen (N) application and plant growth regulators can improve wheat productivity. This can help to improve yield level and ensure food security with limited resources in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain of China (HPC).

Methods: A 2-year field experiment was conducted using a randomized block design with four treatments (TS-N topdressing at pseudostem erection stage ; TPS-N topdressing combined with paclobutrazol application at pseudostem erection stage; TJ-N topdressing at jointing stage; TPJ-N topdressing at combined with paclobutrazol application at jointing stage) in 2011-2013.

Sensitivity analysis of the CROPGRO-Canola model in China: A case study for rapeseed.

Increasing domestic rapeseed production is an important national goal in China. Researchers often use tools such as crop models to determine optimum management practices for new varieties to increased production. The CROPGRO-Canola model has not been used to simulate rapeseed in China.

Exploring Factors Influencing Farmers' Continuance Intention to Crop Residue Retention: Evidence from Rural China.

Over the past decade, crop residue burning after harvest is prevalent in developing countries. Promoting crop residue retention to replace residue burning is effective in improving air quality and contributing to the mitigation of global climate change. This study examines farmers' continuance intention of crop residue retention, using the expectation confirmation model (ECM) and survey data from 542 rice farmers in Hubei Province, P.

Optimization of China's maize and soy production can ensure feed sufficiency at lower nitrogen and carbon footprints.

China purchases around 66% of the soy that is traded internationally. This strains the global food supply and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Here we show that optimizing the maize and soy production of China can improve its self-sufficiency and also alleviate adverse environmental effects.

Analysis of melatonin regulation of germination and antioxidant metabolism in different wheat cultivars under polyethylene glycol stress.

Melatonin is effective in enhancing various abiotic stress resistances of plants. However, its underlying mechanisms in drought-resistance in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is not clear.

Crop Phenomics and High-Throughput Phenotyping: Past Decades, Current Challenges, and Future Perspectives.

Since whole-genome sequencing of many crops has been achieved, crop functional genomics studies have stepped into the big-data and high-throughput era. However, acquisition of large-scale phenotypic data has become one of the major bottlenecks hindering crop breeding and functional genomics studies. Nevertheless, recent technological advances provide us potential solutions to relieve this bottleneck and to explore advanced methods for large-scale phenotyping data acquisition and processing in the coming years.

Global ammonia emissions from synthetic nitrogen fertilizer applications in agricultural systems: Empirical and process-based estimates and uncertainty.

Excessive ammonia (NH ) emitted from nitrogen (N) fertilizer applications in global croplands plays an important role in atmospheric aerosol production, resulting in visibility reduction and regional haze. However, large uncertainty exists in the estimates of NH emissions from global and regional croplands, which utilize different data and methods. In this study, we have coupled a process-based Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model (DLEM) with the bidirectional NH exchange module in the Community Multiscale Air-Quality (CMAQ) model (DLEM-Bi-NH ) to quantify NH emissions at the global and regional scale, and crop-specific NH emissions globally at a spatial resolution of 0.

Evaluation of limited irrigation strategies to improve water use efficiency and wheat yield in the North China Plain.

The North China Plain is one of the most important grain production regions in China, but is facing serious water shortages. To achieve a balance between water use and the need for food self-sufficiency, new water efficient irrigation strategies need to be developed that balance water use with farmer net return. The Crop Environment Resource Synthesis Wheat (CERES-Wheat model) was calibrated and evaluated with two years of data which consisted of 3-4 irrigation treatments, and the model was used to investigate long-term winter wheat productivity and water use from irrigation management in the North China Plain.

An integrated soil-crop system model for water and nitrogen management in North China.

An integrated model WHCNS (soil Water Heat Carbon Nitrogen Simulator) was developed to assess water and nitrogen (N) management in North China. It included five main modules: soil water, soil temperature, soil carbon (C), soil N, and crop growth. The model integrated some features of several widely used crop and soil models, and some modifications were made in order to apply the WHCNS model under the complex conditions of intensive cropping systems in North China.