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Rapeseed is an important edible oil crop that is cultivated in temperate regions worldwide. Rapeseed is a heat-sensitive crop in the pre- and post-flowering stages; however, in the face of global climate change and rising global temperatures, it poses a great challenge to productivity. It is pivotal to determine the dynamics of the rapeseed response to long-term heat stress, particularly during flowering, to accelerate research on heat tolerance in rapeseed. The present study investigated transcriptomic alterations in rapeseed plants subjected to continuous heat stress (33 °C) from the pre-flowering phase to the onset of blooming. Heat stress leads to pronounced phenotypic abnormalities, including the development of smaller flowers, nonviable pollen, and impaired pistil receptivity. Of the 11,582 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), 5,588 were significantly upregulated and 5,994 were downregulated. KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that the differentially expressed genes were associated with hormone signal transduction pathways, energy metabolism (starch and sucrose metabolism, and glutathione metabolism), and plant-specific MAPK signaling pathways. In contrast, genes functioning as ROS scavengers and heat shock transcription factors were also significantly expressed under heat stress. This study provides preliminary insights into the mechanisms underlying heat tolerance in rapeseed and is of great significance for breeding heat-tolerant rapeseed varieties through genetic improvement.

Frigida (FRI) plays diverse roles in regulating plant flowering and drought tolerance. The biological importance of FRIGIDA-like proteins (FRL) has been well established in Arabidopsis and soybean; however, systemic analysis of the FRL gene in rapeseed in response to phytohormones is still in its infancy. The present study predicted 28 FRL proteins in rapeseed that were unevenly distributed across the entire chromosome set of rapeseeds. Phylogenetically, all BnaFRL proteins were clustered into four distinct clades along with Arabidopsis, rice, and soybean. Our study indicated that rapeseed BnaFRL arose from segmental duplication alongside single tandem duplication events. Moreover, gene structure analysis, such as Frigida domain presence, intron-exon distribution, and conserved domain analysis, validated the phylogenetic conservation of all the BnaFRL genes. Additionally, promoter analysis revealed several cis -regulatory elements related to hormones, suggesting their significant role in rapeseed hormone response mechanisms. Spatial expression across different tissues exhibited variable expression, whereas subcellular localization and temporal expression of selected BnaFRLs to exogenous hormone application (IAA, ABA, and GA) further supported their role in hormone responsiveness in rapeseed. In summary, our comprehensive analysis offers valuable insights into the evolution and potential functions of BnaFRL genes, emphasizing their significance in phytohormone responses, and establishing a foundation for further research on the BnaFRL family.

Volume II of “Salinity and Drought Stress in Plants: Understanding Physiological, Biochemical and Molecular Responses” builds on the foundation laid by the first Research Topic, focusing on integrative, translational research that bridges basic “omics” discoveries with applied breeding and biotechnology. 3.3 Fulvic acid and metabolomic shifts Fulvic acid application in oats under drought increased the leaf water content and antioxidant enzyme activity, whereas integrated transcriptome–metabolome profiling revealed that the phenylpropanoid and glutathione pathways are central to FA-mediated protection (Zhu et al.). In another experiment, a caffeic acid O-methyltransferase gene from Ligusticum chuanxiong boosted both lignin production and melatonin synthesis in Arabidopsis, enhancing drought tolerance through stronger antioxidant defenses (Huang et al.). 5.2 Dynamic salt stress regulation in maize How do salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive maize varieties react differently to stress? A time-based study comparing the resilient SPL02 line and the sensitive Mo17 line under high salt conditions showed nearly 9,000 unique gene activity changes in each.

[...]research should focus on exploration at the genetic, molecular, biochemical, and physiological levels for the development of sustainable agriculture in the era of climate change. 2 Genome-wide functional analysis Genome-wide gene functional analysis is a valuable tool for identifying key stress-related genes, which can then be characterized to better understand how plants are adapted to salinity and drought. To address this challenge, screening of agricultural crop germplasm could be conducted using integrated high-throughput techniques in order to develop crops with desirable traits.Kim et al.conducted a study on the quality and nutrition of tomato fruit under water stress with varying nutrient status. In another study,Ji et al.showed that that the miR169b/NFYA1 module in the halophyte Halostachys capsica enhances salinity and drought tolerance by enhancing ABA biosynthesis, modulating ABA signal transduction pathways, and maintaining ROS homeostasis. 5 Exploration of underlying salinity/drought tolerance mechanisms In the current era of global climatic change, the relationship between climate and crop yield is evolving, especially for global food security crops such as wheat. [...]Hussain et al.demonstrated that selenium seed priming in Brassica rapa mitigates salinity stress by activating stress-responsive genes and improving the ROS system.

Sugarcane ( Saccharum spp. hybrids) is a worldwide acclaimed important agricultural crop used primarily for sugar production and biofuel. Sugarcane’s genetic complexity, aneuploidy, and extreme heterozygosity make it a challenging crop in developing improved varieties. The molecular breeding programs promise to develop nutritionally improved varieties for both direct consumption and commercial application. Therefore, to address these challenges, the development of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) has been proven to be a powerful molecular tool in sugarcane. This study involved the collection of 285216 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from sugarcane, resulting in 23666 unigenes, including 4547 contigs. Our analysis identified 4120 unigenes containing a total of 4960 SSRs, with the most abundant repeat types being monomeric (44.33%), dimeric (13.10%), and trimeric (39.68%). We further chose 173 primers to analyze the banding pattern in 10 sugarcane accessions by PAGE analysis. Additionally, functional annotation analysis showed that 71.07%, 53.6%, and 10.3% unigenes were annotated by Uniport, GO, and KEGG, respectively. GO annotations and KEGG pathways were distributed across three functional categories: molecular (46.46%), cellular (33.94%), and biological pathways (19.6%). The cluster analysis indicated the formation of four distinct clusters among selected sugarcane accessions, with maximum genetic distance observed among the varieties. We believe that these EST-SSR markers will serve as valuable references for future genetic characterization, species identification, and breeding efforts in sugarcane.

Cadmium (Cd) is a highly toxic trace element that occurs in large quantities in agricultural soils. The cultivation of industrial crops with high phytoremediation potential, such as kenaf, could effectively reduce soil Cd contamination, but the mechanisms of toxicity, tolerance, and detoxification remain unclear. In this study, the effects of different Cd concentrations (0, 100, 250, and 400 µM) on growth, biomass, Cd uptake, physiological parameters, metabolites and gene expression response of kenaf were investigated in a hydroponic experiment. The results showed that Cd stress significantly altered the ability of kenaf to accumulate and transport Cd; increased the activity of hydrogen peroxide (H O ), superoxide anion (O ), and malondialdehyde (MDA); reduced the activities of superoxide dismutase SOD) and catalase (CAT); and decreased the content of photosynthetic pigments, resulting in significant changes in growth and biomass production. Exposure to Cd was found to have a detrimental effect on the ascorbate-glutathione (AsA-GSH) cycle in the roots, whereas it resulted in an elevation in AsA levels and a reduction in GSH levels in the leaves. The increased content of cell wall polysaccharides under Cd stress could contribute to Cd retention in roots and limited Cd transport to above-ground plant tissues. Metabolomic analyses revealed that alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism, oxidative phosphorylation, ABC transporter, and carbon metabolism were the major metabolic pathways associated with Cd stress tolerance. Cd stress increased gene expression of and in roots, which resulted in kenaf roots accumulating high Cd concentrations. This study extends our knowledge of the factors regulating the response of kenaf to Cd stress. This work provided a physiological and metabolomic perspective on the mechanism controlling the response of kenaf to Cd stress.

( . ) is a catastrophic fungal pathogen that threatens fruit production worldwide. Secreted peptidases like serine carboxypeptidases ( ) are well known to be involved in fungal virulence, but their role in is unknown. Here, we identified and functionally characterized , a homolog of found in , which is a member of the S10 family, using a split marker strategy for gene knockout and complementation. Mutants exhibited substantial phenotypic changes, including reduced radial growth and compromised biomass production, as well as altered pathogenicity and stress tolerance in response to multiple stress conditions. In contrast, complementation restored these traits, suggesting a functional role of . Particularly, contributes to maintaining growth, cell wall integrity and adaptation to host-induced stresses, highlighting its involvement in fungal survival and pathogenicity. This study provides the first functional evidence that secreted peptidases in are a key factor in vegetative growth, pathogenicity, and stress tolerance. The identification and functional characterization of led us to believe that it is a promising molecular target for eco-friendly strategies to manage diseases caused by and related pathogens.

Trichome is important for help plant resist adversity and external damage. However, it often affects the appearance and taste of vegetables. In the present study, the trichome density of leaves from two Chinese cabbage cultivars with and without trichomes treated at low temperature are analyzed by biological microscope, and the differentially expressed genes related to trichomes formation were screened through transcriptome sequencing. The results showed that the number of leaves trichomes was reduced by 34.7% at low temperature compared with room temperature. A total of 661 differentially expression genes effecting trichomes formation were identified at the CT vs C, LCT vs LC, CT vs LCT. Several differentially expression genes from every comparison group were enriched in plant hormone signal transduction and amino acid biosynthesis pathway. Combined with the central genes obtained by WGCNA analysis, five candidate genes Bra029778 , Bra026393 , Bra030270 , Bra037264 and Bra009655 were screened. qRT-PCR analysis verified that the gene expression differences were in line with the trend of transcriptome data. This study not only found possible new key genes and laid a foundation for revealing the molecular mechanism regulating the formation of trichome in Chinese cabbage, but also provided a new way to study plant surface trichomes.

Trichome is important for help plant resist adversity and external damage. However, it often affects the appearance and taste of vegetables. In the present study, the trichome density of leaves from two Chinese cabbage cultivars with and without trichomes treated at low temperature are analyzed by biological microscope, and the differentially expressed genes related to trichomes formation were screened through transcriptome sequencing. The results showed that the number of leaves trichomes was reduced by 34.7% at low temperature compared with room temperature. A total of 661 differentially expression genes effecting trichomes formation were identified at the CT vs C, LCT vs LC, CT vs LCT. Several differentially expression genes from every comparison group were enriched in plant hormone signal transduction and amino acid biosynthesis pathway. Combined with the central genes obtained by WGCNA analysis, five candidate genes Bra029778, Bra026393, Bra030270, Bra037264 and Bra009655 were screened. qRT-PCR analysis verified that the gene expression differences were in line with the trend of transcriptome data. This study not only found possible new key genes and laid a foundation for revealing the molecular mechanism regulating the formation of trichome in Chinese cabbage, but also provided a new way to study plant surface trichomes.

Rapeseed yield is directly and indirectly influenced by the silique-traits, such as silique length ( SL ), seeds per silique ( SS ), seed weight ( SW ), because the silique is an organ which produced yield and a major photosynthesis organ as well. In this study, a linkage map comprising 150 simple sequence repeat and 195 amplified fragment length polymorphism markers covering 1,759.6 cM was constructed in a doubled haploid population from a cross between two genotypes of ‘HZ396’ and ‘Y106’. In field experiments across three seasons and two locations in China 140 doubled haploid lines and their corresponding parents were evaluated for silique-traits. In total, 26 quantitative trait loci (QTL) were detected, of which 15 were clustered and integrated into 5 pleiotropic unique QTL by meta-analysis. These unique QTL, which in a certain sense reflected the significant positive correlation between SS and SL and the significant negative correlation between SW and SS by the genomic location and effects of QTL detected, were mapped on linkage groups N7, N8 and N13. A trait-by-trait meta-analysis revealed 5, 2 and 3 consensus QTL for SL, SS and SW , respectively. Epistatic effects varied according to the specific traits performed. All the epistatic interactions showed significant additive by additive effects while no significant epistasis by environment effect was identified. These findings provided a better understanding of the genetic factors controlling silique-traits and gained insights into the gene networks affecting silique-traits at QTL level in rapeseed.