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<jats:p>Longan (<jats:italic>Dimocarpus Longan</jats:italic>) is one of the most important fruit crops in Southern China. Lack of available Mg in acidic soil conditions is a limitation to further increasing longan yield. Magnesium transporter (MGT/MRS2) mediates the uptake, transport, and redistribution of Mg2+ in higher plants. To understand the role of MGTs family members in longan Mg deficiency. We identified and analyzed the protein characteristics, phylogeny, expression changes, subcellular localization, and transcriptional regulation of DlMGTs members. The results showed that, twelve DlMGTs are localized in the cell membrane, chloroplast, and nucleus. The evolutionary differences in MGTs between herbaceous and woody species in different plants. The DlMGTs promoters contained many cis-acting elements and transcription factor binding sites related to the hormone, environmental, and stress response. Subcellular localization assays showed that DlMGT1 localizes in the cell membrane of <jats:italic>Arabidopsis</jats:italic> protoplasts. The candidate transcription factor DlGATA16, which may regulate the expression of DlMGT1, was localized in the nucleus of tobacco leaves. Dual luciferase analysis demonstrated that DlGATA16 is a potential factor regulating the transcriptional activity of DlMGT1. In this study, we identified and analyzed DlMGTs on a genome-wide scale and the subcellular localization and interaction of DlMGT1 and DlGATA16, which has important implications for further functional analysis studies of MGTs and the use of MGT for longan genetic improvement.</jats:p>

<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction</jats:title><jats:p>Current aerial plant protection with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) usually applies full coverage route planning, which is challenging for plant protection operations in the orchards in South China. Because the fruit planting has the characteristics of dispersal and irregularity, full-coverage route spraying causes re-application as well as missed application, resulting in environmental pollution. Therefore, it is of great significance to plan an efficient, low-consumption and accurate plant protection route considering the flight characteristics of UAVs and orchard planting characteristics.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>This study proposes a plant protection route planning algorithm to solve the waypoint planning problem of UAV multi-objective tasks in orchard scenes. By improving the heuristic function in Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), the algorithm combines corner cost and distance cost for multi-objective node optimization. At the same time, a sorting optimization mechanism was introduced to speed up the iteration speed of the algorithm and avoid the influence of inferior paths on the optimal results. Finally, Multi-source Ant Colony Optimization (MS-ACO) was proposed after cleaning the nodes of the solution path.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>The simulation results of the three test fields show that compared with ACO, the path length optimization rate of MS-ACO are 3.89%, 4.6% and 2.86%, respectively, the optimization rate of total path angles are 21.94%, 45.06% and 55.94%, respectively, and the optimization rate of node numbers are 61.05%, 74.84% and 75.47%, respectively. MS-ACO can effectively reduce the corner cost and the number of nodes. The results of field experiments show that for each test field, MS-ACO has a significant optimization effect compared with ACO, with an optimization rate of energy consumption per meter of more than 30%, the optimization rate of flight time are 46.67%, 56% and 59.01%, respectively, and the optimization rate of corner angle are 50.76%, 61.78% and 71.1%, respectively.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion</jats:title><jats:p>The feasibility and effectiveness of the algorithm were further verified. The algorithm proposed in this study can optimize the spraying path according to the position of each fruit tree and the flight characteristics of UAV, effectively reduce the energy consumption of UAV flight, improve the operating efficiency, and provide technical reference for the waypoint planning of plant protection UAV in the orchard scene.</jats:p></jats:sec>

<jats:p>Although grain size is an important quantitative trait affecting rice yield and quality, there are few studies on gene-by-environment interactions (GEIs) in genome-wide association studies, especially, in main crop (MC) and ratoon rice (RR). To address these issues, the phenotypes for grain width (GW), grain length (GL), and thousand grain weight (TGW) of 159 accessions of MC and RR in two environments were used to associate with 2,017,495 SNPs for detecting quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) and QTN-by-environment interactions (QEIs) using 3VmrMLM. As a result, 64, 71, 67, 72, 63, and 56 QTNs, and 0, 1, 2, 2, 2, and 1 QEIs were found to be significantly associated with GW in MC (GW-MC), GL-MC, TGW-MC, GW-RR, GL-RR, and TGW-RR, respectively. 3, 4, 7, 2, 2, and 4 genes were found to be truly associated with the above traits, respectively, while 2 genes around the above QEIs were found to be truly associated with GL-RR, and one of the two known genes was differentially expressed under two soil moisture conditions. 10, 7, 1, 8, 4, and 3 candidate genes were found by differential expression and GO annotation analysis to be around the QTNs for the above traits, respectively, in which 6, 3, 1, 2, 0, and 2 candidate genes were found to be significant in haplotype analysis. The gene <jats:italic>Os03g0737000</jats:italic> around one QEI for GL-MC was annotated as salt stress related gene and found to be differentially expressed in two cultivars with different grain sizes. Among all the candidate genes around the QTNs in this study, four were key, in which two were reported to be truly associated with seed development, and two (<jats:italic>Os02g0626100</jats:italic> for GL-MC and <jats:italic>Os02g0538000</jats:italic> for GW-MC) were new. Moreover, 1, 2, and 1 known genes, along with 8 additional candidate genes and 2 candidate GEIs, were found to be around QTNs and QEIs for GW, GL, and TGW, respectively in MC and RR joint analysis, in which 3 additional candidate genes were key and new. Our results provided a solid foundation for genetic improvement and molecular breeding in MC and RR.</jats:p>

<jats:p>The establishment of defense reactions to protect plants against pathogens requires the recognition of invasion patterns (IPs), mainly detected by plasma membrane-bound pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). Some IPs, also termed elicitors, are used in several biocontrol products that are gradually being developed to reduce the use of chemicals in agriculture. Chitin, the major component of fungal cell walls, as well as its deacetylated derivative, chitosan, are two elicitors known to activate plant defense responses. However, recognition of chitooligosaccharides (COS) in <jats:italic>Vitis vinifera</jats:italic> is still poorly understood, hampering the improvement and generalization of protection tools for this important crop. In contrast, COS perception in the model plant <jats:italic>Arabidopsis thaliana</jats:italic> is well described and mainly relies on a tripartite complex formed by the cell surface lysin motif receptor-like kinases (LysM-RLKs) AtLYK1/CERK1, AtLYK4 and AtLYK5, the latter having the strongest affinity for COS. In grapevine, COS perception has for the moment only been demonstrated to rely on two PRRs VvLYK1-1 and VvLYK1-2. Here, we investigated additional players by overexpressing in Arabidopsis the two putative <jats:italic>AtLYK5</jats:italic> orthologs from grapevine, <jats:italic>VvLYK5-1</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>VvLYK5-2</jats:italic>. Expression of <jats:italic>VvLYK5-1</jats:italic> in the <jats:italic>atlyk4/5</jats:italic> double mutant background restored COS sensitivity, such as chitin-induced MAPK activation, defense gene expression, callose deposition and conferred non-host resistance to grapevine downy mildew (<jats:italic>Erysiphe necator)</jats:italic>. Protein-protein interaction studies conducted <jats:italic>in planta</jats:italic> revealed a chitin oligomer-triggered interaction between VvLYK5-1 and VvLYK1-1. Interestingly, our results also indicate that VvLYK5-1 mediates the perception of chitin but not chitosan oligomers showing a part of its specificity.</jats:p>

<jats:p>The RAV (related to ABI3 and VP1) transcription factors are specific and exist in plants, which contain a B3 DNA binding domain and/or an APETALA2 (AP2) DNA binding domain. <jats:italic>RAVs</jats:italic> have been extensively studied in plants, and more and more evidences show that <jats:italic>RAVs</jats:italic> are involved in various aspects of plant growth and development, stress resistance and hormone signal transduction. However, the systematic analysis of <jats:italic>RAV</jats:italic> family in cucumber is rarely reported. In this study, eight <jats:italic>CsRAV</jats:italic> genes were identified in cucumber genome and we further comprehensively analyzed their protein physicochemical properties, conserved domains, gene structure and phylogenetic relationships. The synteny analysis and gene duplications of <jats:italic>CsRAV</jats:italic> genes were also analysed. <jats:italic>Cis</jats:italic>-element analysis revealed that the <jats:italic>CsRAVs</jats:italic> promoter contained several elements related to plant hormones and abiotic stress. Expression analysis showed that NaCl and ABA could significantly induce <jats:italic>CsRAV</jats:italic> genes expression. Subcellular localization revealed that all CsRAVs were localized in the nucleus. In addition, <jats:italic>35S</jats:italic>:<jats:italic>CsRAV1</jats:italic> transgenic <jats:italic>Arabidopsis</jats:italic> and cucumber seedlings enhanced NaCl and ABA tolerance, revealing <jats:italic>CsRAV1</jats:italic> may be an important regulator of abiotic stress response. In conclusion, comprehensive analysis of <jats:italic>CsRAVs</jats:italic> would provide certain reference for understanding the evolution and function of the <jats:italic>CsRAV</jats:italic> genes.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Anthocyanins are a major group of red to blue spectrum plant pigments with many consumer health benefits. Anthocyanins are derived from the flavonoid pathway and diversified by glycosylation and methylation, involving the concerted action of specific enzymes. Blueberry and bilberry (<jats:italic>Vaccinium</jats:italic> spp.) are regarded as ‘superfruits’ owing to their high content of flavonoids, especially anthocyanins. While ripening-related anthocyanin production in bilberry (<jats:italic>V. myrtillus</jats:italic>) and blueberry (<jats:italic>V. corymbosum</jats:italic>) is regulated by the transcriptional activator MYBA1, the role of specific structural genes in determining the concentration and composition of anthocyanins has not been functionally elucidated. We isolated three candidate genes, <jats:italic>CHALCONE SYNTHASE</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>VmCHS1</jats:italic>), <jats:italic>ANTHOCYANIDIN SYNTHASE</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>VmANS</jats:italic>) and <jats:italic>UDP-GLUCOSE : FLAVONOID-3-O-GLYCOSYLTRANSFERASE</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>VcUFGT2</jats:italic>), from <jats:italic>Vaccinium</jats:italic>, which were predominantly expressed in pigmented fruit skin tissue and showed high homology between bilberry and blueberry. <jats:italic>Agrobacterium</jats:italic>-mediated transient expression of <jats:italic>Nicotiana benthamiana</jats:italic> showed that overexpression of <jats:italic>VcMYBA1</jats:italic> in combination with <jats:italic>VmANS</jats:italic> significantly increased anthocyanin concentration (3-fold). Overexpression of <jats:italic>VmCHS1</jats:italic> showed no effect above that induced by <jats:italic>VcMYBA1</jats:italic>, while <jats:italic>VcUFGT2</jats:italic> modulated anthocyanin composition to produce delphinidin-3-galactosylrhamnoside, not naturally produced in tobacco. In strawberry (<jats:italic>Fragaria × ananassa</jats:italic>), combined transient overexpression of <jats:italic>VcUFGT2</jats:italic> with a <jats:italic>FLAVONOID 3</jats:italic>´<jats:italic>,5´-HYDROXYLASE</jats:italic> from kiwifruit (<jats:italic>Actinidia melanandra</jats:italic>) modulated the anthocyanin profile to include galactosides and arabinosides of delphinidin and cyanidin, major anthocyanins in blueberry and bilberry. These findings provide insight into the role of the final steps of biosynthesis in modulating anthocyanin production in <jats:italic>Vaccinium</jats:italic> and may contribute to the targeted breeding of new cultivars with improved nutritional properties.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Precipitation amount and seasonality can profoundly impact ecosystem carbon (C) and water fluxes. Water use efficiency (WUE), which measures the amount of C assimilation relative to the amount of water loss, is an important metric linking ecosystem C and water cycles. However, how increasing precipitation at different points in the growing season affects ecosystem WUE remains unclear. A manipulative experiment simulating increasing first half (FP+) and/or second half (SP+) of growing-season precipitation was conducted for 4 years (2015-2018) in a temperate steppe in the Mongolian Plateau. Gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) and evapotranspiration (ET) were measured to figure out ecosystem WUE (WUE = GEP/ET). Across the four years, FP+ showed no considerable impact on ecosystem WUE or its two components, GEP and ET, whereas SP+ stimulated GEP but showed little impact on ET, causing a positive response of WUE to FP+. The increased WUE was mainly due to higher soil water content that maintained high aboveground plant growth and community cover while ET was stable during the second half of growing season. These results illustrate that second half of growing-season precipitation is more important in regulating ecosystem productivity in semiarid grasslands and highlight how precipitation seasonality affects ecosystem productivity in the temperate steppe ecosystem.</jats:p>

<jats:p>In recent times, the demand for food and feed for the ever-increasing population has achieved unparalleled importance, which cannot afford crop yield loss. Now-a-days, the unpleasant situation of abiotic stress triggers crop improvement by affecting the different metabolic pathways of yield and quality advances worldwide. Abiotic stress like drought, salinity, cold, heat, flood, etc. in plants diverts the energy required for growth to prevent the plant from shock and maintain regular homeostasis. Hence, the plant yield is drastically reduced as the energy is utilized for overcoming the stress in plants. The application of phytohormones like the classical auxins, cytokinins, ethylene, and gibberellins, as well as more recent members including brassinosteroids, jasmonic acids, etc., along with both macro and micronutrients, have enhanced significant attention in creating key benefits such as reduction of ionic toxicity, improving oxidative stress, maintaining water-related balance, and gaseous exchange modification during abiotic stress conditions. Majority of phytohormones maintain homeostasis inside the cell by detoxifying the ROS and enhancing the antioxidant enzyme activities which can enhance tolerance in plants. At the molecular level, phytohormones activate stress signaling pathways or genes regulated by abscisic acid (ABA), salicylic acid (SA), Jasmonic acid (JA), and ethylene. The various stresses primarily cause nutrient deficiency and reduce the nutrient uptake of plants. The application of plant nutrients like N, K, Ca, and Mg are also involved in ROS scavenging activities through elevating antioxidants properties and finally decreasing cell membrane leakage and increasing the photosynthetic ability by resynthesizing the chlorophyll pigment. This present review highlighted the alteration of metabolic activities caused by abiotic stress in various crops, the changes of vital functions through the application of exogenous phytohormones and nutrition, as well as their interaction.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Autophagy is a highly conserved system that delivers cytoplasmic components to lysosomes/vacuoles. Plastids are also degraded through autophagy for nutrient recycling and quality control; however, the involvement of autophagic degradation of plastids in plant cellular differentiation remains unclear. Here, we investigated whether spermiogenesis, the differentiation of spermatids into spermatozoids, in the liverwort <jats:italic>Marchantia polymorpha</jats:italic> involves autophagic degradation of plastids. Spermatozoids of <jats:italic>M. polymorpha</jats:italic> possess one cylindrical plastid at the posterior end of the cell body. By fluorescently labeling and visualizing plastids, we detected dynamic morphological changes during spermiogenesis. We found that a portion of the plastid was degraded in the vacuole in an autophagy-dependent manner during spermiogenesis, and impaired autophagy resulted in defective morphological transformation and starch accumulation in the plastid. Furthermore, we found that autophagy was dispensable for the reduction in plastid number and plastid DNA elimination. These results demonstrate a critical but selective role of autophagy in plastid reorganization during spermiogenesis in <jats:italic>M. polymorpha</jats:italic>.</jats:p>

<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction</jats:title><jats:p>Sweet potato is an important staple food crop in the world and contains abundant secondary metabolites in its underground tuberous roots. The large accumulation of several categories of secondary metabolites result in colorful pigmentation of the roots. Anthocyanin, is a typical flavonoid compound present in purple sweet potatoes and it contributes to the antioxidant activity.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>In this study, we developed joint omics research via by combing the transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying the anthocyanin biosynthesis in purple sweet potato. Four experimental materials with different pigmentation phenotypes, 1143-1 (white root flesh), HS (orange root flesh), Dianziganshu No.88 (DZ88, purple root flesh), and Dianziganshu No.54 (DZ54, dark purple root flesh) were comparably studied.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results and discussion</jats:title><jats:p>We identified 38 differentially accumulated pigment metabolites and 1214 differentially expressed genes from a total of 418 metabolites and 50893 genes detected. There were 14 kinds of anthocyanin detected in DZ88 and DZ54, with glycosylated cyanidin and peonidin as the major components. The significantly enhanced expression levels of multiple structural genes involved in the central anthocyanin metabolic network, such as chalcone isomerase (CHI), flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H), dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR), anthocyanidin synthase/leucocyanidin oxygenase (ANS), and glutathione S-transferase (GST) were manifested to be the primary reason why the purple sweet potatoes had a much higher accumulation of anthocyanin. Moreover, the competition or redistribution of the intermediate substrates (i.e. dihydrokaempferol and dihydroquercetin) between the downstream production of anthocyanin products and the flavonoid derivatization (i.e. quercetin and kaempferol) under the regulation of the flavonol synthesis (FLS) gene, might play a crucial role in the metabolite flux repartitioning, which further led to the discrepant pigmentary performances in the purple and non-purple materials. Furthermore, the substantial production of chlorogenic acid, another prominent high-value antioxidant, in DZ88 and DZ54 seemed to be an interrelated but independent pathway differentiated from the anthocyanin biosynthesis. Collectively, these data from the transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of four kinds of sweet potatoes provide insight to understand the molecular mechanisms of the coloring mechanism in purple sweet potatoes.</jats:p></jats:sec>