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Topic Review
Genome Size and Life Forms of Araceae
The genome size of an organism is an important trait that has predictive values applicable to various scientific fields, including ecology. The main source of plant C-values is the Plant DNA C-values database of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, which currently contains 12,273 estimates. However, it covers less than 3% of known angiosperm species and has gaps in the life form and geographic distribution of plants. New C-values for the aroid family (Araceae), collected in the Piedras Blancas National Park area in southern Costa Rica, including terrestrial, epiphytic and aquatic life forms are combined with C-value entries in the RBGK database for Araceae. The analysis reveals a wider range of C-values for terrestrial aroids, consistent with other terrestrial plants, a trend toward slightly lower C-values for epiphytic forms, which is more consistent for obligate epiphytes, and comparatively low C-values for aquatic aroids.
  • 874
  • 08 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Genome Editing for Sustainable Crop Improvement
Climate change poses a serious threat to global agricultural activity and food production. Plant genome editing technologies have been widely used to develop crop varieties with superior qualities or can tolerate adverse environmental conditions. Unlike conventional breeding techniques (e.g., selective breeding and mutation breeding), modern genome editing tools offer more targeted and specific alterations of the plant genome and could significantly speed up the progress of developing crops with desired traits, such as higher yield and/or stronger resilience to the changing environment. 
  • 874
  • 24 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Phytochemicals as Antimicrobials
Among all available antimicrobials, antibiotics hold a prime position in the treatment of infectious diseases. However, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has posed a serious threat to the effectiveness of antibiotics, resulting in increased morbidity, mortality, and escalation in healthcare costs causing a global health crisis. The overuse and misuse of antibiotics in global healthcare setups have accelerated the development and spread of AMR, leading to the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens, which further limits treatment options. This creates a critical need to explore alternative approaches to combat bacterial infections. Phytochemicals have gained attention as a potential source of alternative medicine to address the challenge of AMR. Phytochemicals are structurally and functionally diverse and have multitarget antimicrobial effects, disrupting essential cellular activities.
  • 873
  • 28 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Phyto-Beneficial Traits of Rhizosphere Bacteria
Beneficial interactions between plants and some bacterial species have been long recognized, as they proved to exert various growth-promoting and health-protective activities on economically relevant crops. As well, rhizosphere bacteria direct activity against some phytopathogenic fungal species (such as Aspergillus and Fusarium spp.) have been also observed, resulting highly interesting since these pathogens cause major yield losses in cereal crops and are well-known mycotoxin producers.
  • 871
  • 20 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Myrtus communis L. subsp. communis
Myrtus communis subsp. communis is an evergreen shrub or a small tree, growing spontaneously throughout the Mediterranean basin. The stem is branched from the basal portion and the bark is brownish or reddish in color. The leaves are simple, opposite, sessile or sub-sessile, glossy, and dark green in color, lanceolate or ovoid-elliptical in shape with entire or slightly revolute margins and acute apices; they are very aromatic due to the presence of numerous secretory cavities. The flowers, white in color with yellowish streaks, are solitary or coupled at the leaf axil. The fruits are ellipsoidal or subspherical berries, red-violet or blackish in color at maturity, with persistent calyx residues.
  • 871
  • 21 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Carbon&Amino Acid Metabolism in Plants
Over the past few decades, considerable effort has been made to understand plant primary metabolism. While the biochemistry and the underlying genetics of central carbon and nitrogen metabolism have been thoroughly studied, there is still a lack of knowledge on how these metabolic branches are regulated and regulate and interact with each other. Improving our current understanding of such regulatory loops is of particular interest given that all oxygenic phototrophs are frequently exposed to environmental changes, including periods of unfavorable conditions that distinctly lower plant growth and yield. To understand how adjustments of metabolism towards a fluctuating environment are achieved on the short- and long-term timescale will also facilitate genetic engineering approaches. One major goal of such attempts is to produce more robust plant varieties that are able to sustain high photosynthetic efficiencies and yields during persistent phases of abiotic stresses. This Special Issue of Plants aims to highlight the metabolic acclimation and signaling mechanisms of plant central carbon and nitrogen metabolism towards environmental changes, particularly involving alterations in CO2 and O2 concentration, light availability and intensity, as well as fluctuations in temperature and water supply during different stages of plant development. Thus, the major focus will be on the acclimation and the regulatory interplay that, among others, involve the operation and interaction of photosynthesis, photorespiration and respiration.
  • 870
  • 10 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Fungal Endophytes: Sources of Medicines
Fungal endophytes are well-established sources of biologically active natural compounds with many producing pharmacologically valuable specific plant-derived products.
  • 869
  • 25 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Improvement of Salinity Tolerance in WDR
 Rice is one of the most economically important staple food crops in the world. Soil salinization and drought seriously restrict sustainable rice production. Drought aggravates the degree of soil salinization, and, at the same time, increased soil salinity also inhibits water absorption, resulting in physiological drought stress. Salt tolerance in rice is a complex quantitative trait controlled by multiple genes. The recent research developments on salt stress impact on rice growth, rice salt tolerance mechanisms, the identification and selection of salt-tolerant rice resources, and strategies to improve rice salt tolerance are discussed. The increased cultivation of water-saving and drought-resistance rice (WDR) has shown great application potential in alleviating the water resource crisis and ensuring food and ecological security. An innovative germplasm selection strategy of salt-tolerant WDR is presented, using a population that is developed by recurrent selection based on dominant genic male sterility. The efficient genetic improvement can be referenced and germplasm innovation of complex traits (drought and salt tolerance) that can be translated into breeding all economically important cereal crops.
  • 869
  • 31 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Lead and Zinc Uptake and Toxicity in Maize
Among heavy metals, zinc (Zn) and lead (Pb) are common soil co-pollutants from anthropogenic activities, such as severe soil degradation, automobile emissions, mining, and others. Pb is one of the most toxic and widely reported metals in farmlands. Pb accumulation in soils affects environmental health and can impact human health and food quality.
  • 867
  • 03 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Plant Transcription Factors and Drought
Transcription factors (TFs) play a significant role in signal transduction networks spanning the perception of a stress signal and the expression of corresponding stress-responsive genes. TFs are multi-functional proteins that may simultaneously control numerous pathways during stresses in plants—this makes them powerful tools for the manipulation of regulatory and stress-responsive pathways.
  • 865
  • 08 Jun 2021
Topic Review
miRNAs to Cu Toxicity
Environmental metal pollution is a common problem threatening sustainable and safe crop production. Heavy metals (HMs) cause toxicity by targeting key molecules and life processes in plant cells. Plants counteract excess metals in the environment by enhancing defense responses, such as metal chelation, isolation to vacuoles, regulating metal intake through transporters, and strengthening antioxidant mechanisms. microRNAs (miRNAs), as a small non-coding RNA, have become the central regulator of a variety of abiotic stresses, including HMs.
  • 864
  • 20 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Glyphosate-Resistant Weeds
Agro-industries should adopt effective strategies to use agrochemicals such as glyphosate herbicides cautiously in order to protect public health. This entails careful testing and risk assessment of available choices, and also educating farmers and users with mitigation strategies in ecosystem protection and sustainable development.
  • 860
  • 02 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Integrated Disease Management of Cannabis at Stock Cultivation Stage
The increased cultivation of high THC-containing Cannabis sativa L. (cannabis), particularly in greenhouses, has resulted in a greater incidence of diseases and molds that can negatively affect the growth and quality of the crop. Among them, the most important diseases are root rots (Fusarium and Pythium spp.), bud rot (Botrytis cinerea), powdery mildew (Golovinomyces ambrosiae), cannabis stunt disease (caused by hop latent viroid), and a range of microbes that reduce post-harvest quality. An integrated management approach to reduce the impact of these diseases/microbes requires combining different approaches that target the reproduction, spread, and survival of the associated pathogens, many of which can occur on the same plant simultaneously. These approaches will be discussed in the context of developing an integrated plan to manage the important pathogens of greenhouse-grown cannabis at different stages of plant development. These stages include the maintenance of stock plants, propagation through cuttings, vegetative growth of plants, and flowering. The cultivation of cannabis genotypes with tolerance or resistance to various pathogens is a very important approach, as well as the maintenance of pathogen-free stock plants. 
  • 858
  • 25 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Pinus Massoniana and Drought Stress
Pinus massoniana Lamb. is an important coniferous tree species in ecological environment construction and sustainable forestry development. The function of gene gradual change and coexpression modules of needle and root parts of P. massoniana under continuous drought stress is unclear. The physiological and transcriptional expression profiles of P. massoniana seedlings from 1a half-sibling progeny during drought stress were measured and analyzed. As a result, under continuous drought conditions, needle peroxidase (POD) activity and proline content continued to increase. The malondialdehyde (MDA) content in roots continuously increased, and the root activity continuously decreased. The needles of P. massoniana seedlings may respond to drought mainly through regulating abscisic acid (ABA) and jasmonic acid (JA) hormone-related pathways. Roots may provide plant growth through fatty acid β-oxidative decomposition, and peroxisomes may contribute to the production of ROS, resulting in the upregulation of the antioxidant defense system. P. massoniana roots and needles may implement the same antioxidant mechanism through the glutathione metabolic pathway
  • 857
  • 20 Apr 2021
Topic Review
SmSPL6 and Salvia miltiorrhiza's Root
Salvia miltiorrhiza is a renowned model medicinal plant species for which 15 SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) family genes have been identified; however, the specific functions of SmSPLs have not been well characterized as of yet. For this study, the expression patterns of SmSPL6 were determined through its responses to treatments of exogenous hormones, including indole acetic acid (IAA), gibberellic acid (GA3), methyl jasmonic acid (MeJA), and abscisic acid (ABA). To characterize its functionality, we obtained SmSPL6-ovexpressed transgenic S. miltiorrhiza plants and found that overexpressed SmSPL6 promoted the accumulation of phenolic acids and repressed the biosynthesis of anthocyanin. Meanwhile, the root lengths of the SmSPL6-overexpressed lines were significantly longer than the control; however, both the fresh weights and lateral root numbers decreased. Further investigations indicated that SmSPL6 regulated the biosynthesis of phenolic acid by directly binding to the promoter regions of the enzyme genes Sm4CL9 and SmCYP98A14 and activated their expression. We concluded that SmSPL6 regulates not only the biosynthesis of phenolic acids, but also the development of roots in S. miltiorrhiza.
  • 856
  • 10 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Genetic Variability for Maize Mesocotyl
The possibility of developing deep-sowing tolerant (DST) maize to absorb moisture from subsoil zones is crucial to maize adaptation to water-stressed environments. The function of the mesocotyl in field emergence of seedlings is established in grasses. However, information is scarce on the extent of genetic variability for mesocotyl length (ML) in maize. Sixty-eight maize genotypes were studied using Completely Randomised Design in a laboratory experiment to investigate the extent of genetic variability for ML, and the relationship of seed biochemical components with ML. Ten seeds of each genotype were germinated for 10 days in the dark. Mesocotyl length was determined by placing cut mesocotyl against a flexible measuring tape. Biochemical contents of seeds were determined at a standard diagnostic laboratory. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant (p ≤ 0.01) genotype mean square, indicating sufficient variability for genetic improvement. Broad-sense heritability and genetic advance were high and implied that ML was heritable. Mean ML for genotypes ranged from 0.58 to 9.02 cm; thus, planned crosses can be made for ML improvement. A dendrogram from cluster analysis based on Ward’s minimum variance cluster analysis classified 65 of the genotypes into clusters I, II, and III with ML (mean ± standard deviation) of 0.49 ± 0.18, 4.25 ± 0.96, and 9.16 ± 0.93 cm, respectively. All the measured biochemical parameters, except selenium, showed significant (p ≤ 0.05/0.01) associations with ML. Crosses can be planned involving genotypes from clusters 1 and III, to exploit heterosis for ML in a hybrid program. The results obtained from this study provide a basis for the development of DST maize for drought-prone environments. 
  • 855
  • 13 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Tomato ADK Gene Family
Adenylate kinase (ADK) is widely distributed in organisms and plays an important role in cellular energy homeostasis. In plants, ADK has important functions in plant growth and development regulation as well as in adaptation to the environment. However, little information is available about the ADK genes in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), an important economic crop.
  • 853
  • 05 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Technological Advancements on Biopesticides
Plant-based biopesticides are attracting considerable attention in this context due to their target specificity, ecofriendliness, biodegradability, and safety for humans and other life forms. Among all the relevant biopesticides, plant essential oils (PEOs) or their active components are being widely explored against weeds, pests, and microorganisms. 
  • 853
  • 02 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Actin and Myosin XI Function in Vesicle Tethering
In plants, secretion of cell wall components and membrane proteins plays a fundamental role in growth and development as well as survival in diverse environments. Exocytosis, as the last step of the secretory trafficking pathway, is a highly ordered and precisely controlled process involving tethering, docking, and fusion of vesicles at the plasma membrane (PM) for cargo delivery. Here, by using the delivery of functional, fluorescent-tagged cellulose synthase (CESA) complexes (CSCs) to the PM as a model system for secretion, as well as single-particle tracking in living cells, we describe a quantitative approach for measuring the frequency of vesicle tethering events. Genetic and pharmacological inhibition of cytoskeletal function, reveal that the initial vesicle tethering step of exocytosis is dependent on actin and myosin XI. In contrast, treatments with the microtubule inhibitor, oryzalin, did not significantly affect vesicle tethering or fusion during CSC exocytosis but caused a minor increase of transient or aborted tethering events. With data from this new quantitative approach and improved spatiotemporal resolution of single particle events during secretion, we generate a revised model for the role of the cortical cytoskeleton in CSC trafficking.
  • 852
  • 17 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Desiccation Tolerance in Resurrection Plants
To survive in the dry state, orthodox seeds acquire desiccation tolerance. As maturation progresses, the seeds gradually acquire longevity, which is the total timespan during which the dry seeds remain viable. The desiccation-tolerance mechanism(s) allow seeds to remain dry without losing their ability to germinate. This adaptive trait has played a key role in the evolution of land plants. Understanding the mechanisms for seed survival after desiccation is one of the central goals still unsolved. That is, the cellular protection during dry state and cell repair during rewatering involves a not entirely known molecular network(s).
  • 850
  • 19 Jan 2022
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