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This work aimed to study the effects in tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum L.) of foliar applications of a novel calcium-based biostimulant (SOB01) using an omics approach involving transcriptomics and physiological profiling. A calcium-chloride fertilizer (SOB02) was used as a product reference standard. Plants were grown under well-watered (WW) and water stress (WS) conditions in a growth chamber. We firstly compared the transcriptome profile of treated and untreated tomato plants using the software RStudio. Totally, 968 and 1,657 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (adj- p -value < 0.1 and |log2(fold change)| ≥ 1) were identified after SOB01 and SOB02 leaf treatments, respectively. Expression patterns of 9 DEGs involved in nutrient metabolism and osmotic stress tolerance were validated by real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) on RT-qPCR results highlighted that the gene expression profiles after SOB01 treatment in different water regimes were clustering together, suggesting that the expression pattern of the analyzed genes in well water and water stress plants was similar in the presence of SOB01 treatment. Physiological analyses demonstrated that the biostimulant application increased the photosynthetic rate and the chlorophyll content under water deficiency compared to the standard fertilizer and led to a higher yield in terms of fruit dry matter and a reduction in the number of cracked fruits. In conclusion, transcriptome and physiological profiling provided comprehensive information on the biostimulant effects highlighting that SOB01 applications improved the ability of the tomato plants to mitigate the negative effects of water stress., Competing Interests: FM is employed by Sipcam Italia S.p.A. belonging together with Sofbey SA to the Sipcam Oxon S.p.A. Group (Pero, Italy). The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Della Lucia, Baghdadi, Mangione, Borella, Zegada-Lizarazu, Ravi, Deb, Broccanello, Concheri, Monti, Stevanato and Nardi.)

The identification of efficient molecular markers related to low bolting tendency is a priority in sugar beet ( Beta vulgaris L.) breeding. This study aimed to identify SNP markers associated with low bolting tendency by establishing a genome-wide association study. An elaborate 3-year field trial comprising 13 sugar beet lines identified L14 as the one exhibiting the lowest bolting tendency along with an increased survival rate after autumnal sowing. For SNP discovery following phenotyping, contrasting phenotypes of 24 non-bolting and 15 bolting plants of the L14 line were sequenced by restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq). An association model was established with a set of 10,924 RAD-based single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. The allelic status of the most significantly associated SNPs ranked based on their differential allelic status between contrasting phenotypes ( p < 0.01) was confirmed on three different validation datasets comprising diverse sugar beet lines and varieties adopting a range of SNP detection technologies. This study has led to the identification of SNP&#95;36780842 and SNP&#95;48607347 linked to low bolting tendency and can be used for marker-assisted breeding and selection in sugar beet., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Ravi, Campagna, Della Lucia, Broccanello, Bertoldo, Chiodi, Maretto, Moro, Eslami, Srinivasan, Squartini, Concheri and Stevanato.)

The present study aimed to explore the effects of foliar application of a leonardite-based product on sugar beet ( Beta vulgaris L.) plants grown in the field. The approach concerned the evaluation of the community compositional structure of plant endophytic bacteria through a metabarcoding approach, the expression level of a gene panel related to hormonal metabolism and signaling, and the main sugar beet productivity traits. Results indicated that plants treated with leonardite (dosage of 2,000 ml ha -1 , dilution 1:125, 4 mg C l -1 ) compared with untreated ones had a significant increase ( p < 0.05) in (i) the abundance of Oxalicibacterium spp., recognized to be an endophyte bacterial genus with plant growth-promoting activity; (ii) the expression level of LAX2 gene, coding for auxin transport proteins; and (iii) sugar yield. This study represents a step forward to advance our understanding of the changes induced by leonardite-based biostimulant in sugar beet., Competing Interests: FM was employed by company Sipcam Oxon S.p.A. GCa was employed by company COPROB. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Della Lucia, Bertoldo, Broccanello, Maretto, Ravi, Marinello, Sartori, Marsilio, Baglieri, Romano, Colombo, Magro, Campagna, Concheri, Squartini and Stevanato.)

In this study, a system based on omics profiling was set-up for sugar beet ( Beta vulgaris L. subsp. vulgaris ) evaluation after changes in sulfate availability. Seedlings were grown on sulfate-deprived Hoagland solution. Six days after germination, 100 μM MgSO 4 was added to the solution. Root samples were collected 36 h after treatments. WinRHIZO root-scanning approach was used for the automated image analysis of plant root morphology. Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometry (ICP-OES) and quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (Q-TOF) were used for ionomic and metabolic analysis, respectively. Nanofluidic real-time PCR (OpenArray system) was used for molecular profiling. OpenArray chips were designed with TaqMan probes for 53 sugar beet genes putatively involved in sulfate nutrition. At morphological level treated seedlings showed significantly higher values ( P < 0.01) than untreated plants for root traits related to soil exploration and nutrient uptake, such as total root length, fine roots length and root tips number. ICP-OES, Q-TOF and transcriptomic data revealed changes due to sulfate availability in sugar beet samples. Two key results are highlighted in sulfate-supplied roots and leaves. Firstly, high expression levels of auxin efflux carrier component 1 (PIN) and 5-phosphoribosyl-anthranilate, precursor of tryptophan and auxin synthesis, were observed in roots. Secondly, high levels of 2-Cys peroxiredoxin BAS1, chloroplastic, thioredoxin reductase (NADPH) and cysteine synthase, chloroplastic/chromoplastic, O- acetylserine sulfhydrylase, involved in protection against oxidative stress and cysteine synthase activity, respectively, were observed in leaves. Based on our findings, the combination of evaluated omics approaches could become a key system for the evaluation of the nutritional status of sugar beet under different nutrient availability conditions.