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<jats:p>Sandalwood (<jats:italic>Santalum album</jats:italic>) is a high-value multifunctional tree species that is rich in aromatic substances and is used in medicine and global cosmetics. Due to the scarcity of land resources in tropical and subtropical regions, land in temperate regions is a potential resource for the development of S. album plantations in order to meet the needs of <jats:italic>S. album</jats:italic> production and medicine. The R2R3-MYB transcription factor family is one of the largest in plants and plays an important role in the response to various abiotic stresses. However, the R2R3-MYB gene family of <jats:italic>S. album</jats:italic> has not been studied. In this study, 144 R2R3-MYB genes were successfully identified in the assembly genome sequence, and their characteristics and expression patterns were investigated under various durations of low temperature stress. According to the findings, 31 of the 114 R2R3-MYB genes showed significant differences in expression after cold treatment. Combining transcriptome and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) revealed three key candidate genes (<jats:italic>SaMYB098</jats:italic>, <jats:italic>SaMYB015</jats:italic>, and <jats:italic>SaMYB068</jats:italic>) to be significantly involved in the regulation of cold resistance in <jats:italic>S. album</jats:italic>. The structural characteristics, evolution, and expression pattern of the R2R3-MYB gene in <jats:italic>S. album</jats:italic> were systematically examined at the whole genome level for the first time in this study. It will provide important information for future research into the function of the R2R3-MYB genes and the mechanism of cold stress response in <jats:italic>S. album</jats:italic>.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Biotic stresses threaten to destabilize global food security and cause major losses to crop yield worldwide. In response to pest and pathogen attacks, plants trigger many adaptive cellular, morphological, physiological, and metabolic changes. One of the crucial stress-induced adaptive responses is the synthesis and accumulation of plant secondary metabolites (PSMs). PSMs mitigate the adverse effects of stress by maintaining the normal physiological and metabolic functioning of the plants, thereby providing stress tolerance. This differential production of PSMs is tightly orchestrated by master regulatory elements, Transcription factors (TFs) express differentially or undergo transcriptional and translational modifications during stress conditions and influence the production of PSMs. Amongst others, microRNAs, a class of small, non-coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally, also play a vital role in controlling the expression of many such TFs. The present review summarizes the role of stress-inducible TFs in synthesizing and accumulating secondary metabolites and also highlights how miRNAs fine-tune the differential expression of various stress-responsive transcription factors during biotic stress.</jats:p>

<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction</jats:title><jats:p>Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation has been widely used for the identification of functional genes and regulatory and developmental mechanisms in plants. However, there are still some problems of low genetic transformation efficiency and high genotype dependence in cruciferous crops.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>In this study, broccoli, a worldwide Brassica crop, was used to investigate the effects of genotype, explant type, concentration of hygromycin B used during seedling selection, overexpression vector type, RNAi and CRISPR/cas9 on the genetic transformation efficiency. At the same time, two vectors, PHG-031350 and PHG-CRa, were used for subcellular localization of the glucoraphanin synthesis-related gene FMOGS-OX5 and clubroot resistance gene by a PEG-Ca2+-mediated transient transformation system for broccoli protoplasts. Finally, the Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation system of broccoli was optimized and improved.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results and Discussion</jats:title><jats:p>This study showed that hypocotyl explants are more suitable for Agrobacterium-mediated transgene and CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing of broccoli. In contrast to previous studies, we found that 5 mg/L hygromycin B was more advantageous for the selection of resistant broccoli sprouts, and genotype 19B42 reached the highest transformation rate of 26.96%, which is higher than that in Brassica oleracea crops. In addition, the inbred line 19B42 successfully achieved high genetic transformation of overexpression, RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 vectors; thus, it is powerful recipient material for the genetic transformation of broccoli. Subcellular localization proved that the glucoraphanin metabolism-related gene Bol031350 and clubroot resistance gene CRa were both expressed in the cytoplasm and nucleus, which provided a scientific basis for studying the regulation of glucosinolate metabolism and clubroot resistance in cruciferous crops. Therefore, these findings will provide new insight into the improvement of the genetic transformation and molecular breeding of Brassica oleracea crops.</jats:p></jats:sec>

<jats:p>Three different herbivore grazing assemblages, namely, yak grazing (YG), Tibetan sheep grazing (SG) and yak and Tibetan sheep co-grazing (MG), are practiced in alpine meadows on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), but the effects of the different herbivore assemblages on soil microbes are relatively unknown. The microbial community plays an important role in the functional stability of alpine grassland ecosystems. Therefore, it is important to understand how the microbial community structure of grassland ecosystems changes under different herbivore grazing assemblages to ensure their sustainable development. To fill this gap, a field study was carried out to investigate the effects of YG, SG, and MG on plant communities, soil physico-chemical properties and microbial communities under moderate grazing intensity in alpine meadows. Grazing increased the β-diversity of the bacteria community and decreased the β-diversity of the fungal community. The herbivore assemblage affected the microbial community diversity, but not the plant community diversity. Total phosphorus, soil bulk density, root biomass, and plant α-diversity were correlated with both the bacterial and fungal community composition, available phosphorus and soil moisture were correlated only with the bacterial community composition, while available potassium and above-ground net primary production (ANPP) were correlated only with the fungal community composition. Soil available nitrogen, soil available phosphorus and soil bulk density were highest in SG, while ANPP was highest in MG. It was concluded that MG can improve ANPP and stabilize the soil microbial community, suggesting that MG is an effective method for sustainable use and conservation of alpine meadows on the QTP.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Male sterility is a valuable trait for watermelon breeding, as watermelon hybrids exhibit obvious heterosis. However, the underlying regulatory mechanism is still largely unknown, especially regarding the related non-coding genes. In the present study, approximately 1035 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), as well as 80 DE-lncRNAs and 10 DE-miRNAs, were identified, with the overwhelming majority down-regulated in male-sterile floral buds. Enrichment analyses revealed that the general phenylpropanoid pathway as well as its related metabolisms was predicted to be altered in a mutant compared to its fertile progenitor. Meanwhile, the conserved genetic pathway <jats:italic>DYT1</jats:italic>-<jats:italic>TDF1</jats:italic>-<jats:italic>AMS</jats:italic>-<jats:italic>MS188</jats:italic>-<jats:italic>MS1</jats:italic>, as well as the causal gene <jats:italic>ClAMT1</jats:italic> for the male-sterile mutant Se18, was substantially disrupted during male reproductive development. In addition, some targets of the key regulators <jats:italic>AMS</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>MS188</jats:italic> in tapetum development were also down-regulated at a transcriptional level, such as <jats:italic>ABCG26</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>Cla004479</jats:italic>), <jats:italic>ACOS5</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>Cla022956</jats:italic>), <jats:italic>CYP703A2</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>Cla021151</jats:italic>), <jats:italic>PKSA</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>Cla021099</jats:italic>), and <jats:italic>TKPR1</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>Cla002563</jats:italic>). Considering lncRNAs may act as functional endogenous target mimics of miRNAs, competitive endogenous RNA networks were subsequently constructed, with the most complex one containing three DE-miRNAs, two DE-lncRNAs, and 21 DEGs. Collectively, these findings not only contribute to a better understanding of genetic regulatory networks underlying male sterility in watermelon, but also provide valuable candidates for future research.</jats:p>

<jats:p>California poppy or golden poppy (<jats:italic>Eschscholzia californica</jats:italic>) is the iconic state flower of California, with native ranges from Northern California to Southwestern Mexico. It grows well as an ornamental plant in Mediterranean climates, but it might be invasive in many parts of the world. California poppy was also highly prized by Native Americans for its medicinal value, mainly due to its various specialized metabolites, especially benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs). As a member of the Ranunculales, the sister lineage of core eudicots it occupies an interesting phylogenetic position. California poppy has a short-lived life cycle but can be maintained as a perennial. It has a comparatively simple floral and vegetative morphology. Several genetic resources, including options for genetic manipulation and a draft genome sequence have been established already with many more to come. Efficient cell and tissue culture protocols are established to study secondary metabolite biosynthesis and its regulation. Here, we review the use of California poppy as a model organism for plant genetics, with particular emphasis on the evolution of development and BIA biosynthesis. In the future, California poppy may serve as a model organism to combine two formerly separated lines of research: the regulation of morphogenesis and the regulation of secondary metabolism. This can provide insights into how these two integral aspects of plant biology interact with each other.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Accurate and efficient crop classification using remotely sensed data can provide fundamental and important information for crop yield estimation. Existing crop classification approaches are usually designed to be strong in some specific scenarios but not for multi-scenario crop classification. In this study, we proposed a new deep learning approach for multi-scenario crop classification, named Cropformer. Cropformer can extract global features and local features, to solve the problem that current crop classification methods extract a single feature. Specifically, Cropformer is a two-step classification approach, where the first step is self-supervised pre-training to accumulate knowledge of crop growth, and the second step is a fine-tuned supervised classification based on the weights from the first step. The unlabeled time series and the labeled time series are used as input for the first and second steps respectively. Multi-scenario crop classification experiments including full-season crop classification, in-season crop classification, few-sample crop classification, and transfer of classification models were conducted in five study areas with complex crop types and compared with several existing competitive approaches. Experimental results showed that Cropformer can not only obtain a very significant accuracy advantage in crop classification, but also can obtain higher accuracy with fewer samples. Compared to other approaches, the classification performance of Cropformer during model transfer and the efficiency of the classification were outstanding. The results showed that Cropformer could build up <jats:italic>a priori</jats:italic> knowledge using unlabeled data and learn generalized features using labeled data, making it applicable to crop classification in multiple scenarios.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Fusarium wilt of banana, especially Tropical Race 4 (TR4) is a major factor restricting banana production. Developing a resistant cultivar and inducing plant defenses by elicitor application are currently two of the best options to control this disease. Isotianil is a monocarboxylic acid amide that has been used as a fungicide to control rice blast and could potentially induce systemic acquired resistance in plants. To determine the control effect of elicitor isotianil on TR4 in different resistant cultivars, a greenhouse pot experiment was conducted and its results showed that isotianil could significantly alleviate the symptoms of TR4, provide enhanced disease control on the cultivars ‘Baxi’ and ‘Yunjiao No.1’ with control effect 50.14% and 56.14%, respectively. We compared the infection processes in ‘Baxi’ (susceptible cultivars) and ‘Yunjiao No.1’ (resistant cultivars) two cultivars inoculated with pathogen TR4. The results showed that TR4 hyphae could rapidly penetrate the cortex into the root vascular bundle for colonization, and the colonization capacity in ‘Baxi’ was significantly higher than that in ‘Yunjiao No.1’. The accumulation of a large number of starch grains was observed in corms cells, and further analysis showed that the starch content in ‘Yunjiao No. 1’ as resistant cultivar was significantly higher than that in ‘Baxi’ as susceptible cultivar, and isotianil application could significantly increase the starch content in ‘Baxi’. Besides, a mass of tyloses were observed in the roots and corms and these tyloses increased after application with isotianil. Furthermore, the total starch and tyloses contents and the control effect in the corms of ‘Yunjiao No.1’ was higher than that in the ‘Baxi’. Moreover, the expression levels of key genes for plant resistance induction and starch synthesis were analyzed, and the results suggested that these genes were significantly upregulated at different time points after the application of isotianil. These results suggest that there are significant differences between cultivars in response to TR4 invasion and plant reactions with respect to starch accumulation, tyloses formation and the expression of plant resistance induction and starch synthesis related genes. Results also indicate that isotianil application may contribute to disease control by inducing host plant defense against TR4 infection and could be potentially used together with resistant cultivar as integrated approach to manage this destructive disease. Further research under field conditions should be included in the next phases of study.</jats:p>