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IntroductionFood safety issues pose a significant threat to humanity. Precision agriculture leverages advanced technologies for real-time monitoring and management, improving agricultural productivity and sustainability while safeguarding food security. Nonetheless, acquiring a thorough comprehension of this continually shifting panorama remains of vital significance.MethodsThis study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric review of precision agriculture and food safety, utilizing quantitative methods to identify past, current, and future evolution. It includes citation, co-authorship, co-citation, and co-words analyses.ResultsPublications emerged in 1994 and began to rise significantly since 2019. Citation analysis verified influencing works and journals, whereas co-authorship analysis identified how authors, institutions, and countries collaborate in this field. Co-citation analysis then classified past and current hotspots into four clusters: remote vegetation monitoring techniques, technological innovations and agricultural decision-making, precision agriculture and sustainable development, and deep learning in agriculture. After that, the co-occurrence of keywords revealed emerging trends, such as precision cultivation and yield prediction, smart agricultural technology and food management, precision information for climate change adaptation, and precision agriculture and food security.DiscussionThe findings provide insights for scholars, policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and industry stakeholders. They guide future research directions and address pressing challenges in agriculture and food safety.

The juvenile-to-adult phase change with first flowering as the indicator plays a crucial role in the lifecycle of fruit trees. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying phase change in fruit trees remain largely unknown. Shikimic acid (ShA) pathway is a main metabolic pathway closely related to the synthesis of hormones and many important secondary metabolites participating in plant phase change. So, whether ShA regulates phase change in plants is worth clarifying. Here, the distinct morphological characteristics and the underlying mechanisms of phase change in jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.), an important fruit tree native to China with nutritious fruit and outstanding tolerance abiotic stresses, were clarified. A combined transcriptome and metabolome analysis found that ShA is positively involved in jujube (‘Yuhong’ × ‘Xing 16’) phase change. The genes in the upstream of ShA synthesis pathway (ZjDAHPS, ZjDHQS and ZjSDH), the contents of ShA and the downstream secondary metabolites like phenols were significantly upregulated in the phase change period. Further, the treatment of spraying exogenous ShA verified that ShA at a very low concentration (60 mg · L−1) can substantially speed up the phase change and flowering of jujube and other tested plants including Arabidopsis, tomato and wheat. The exogenous ShA (60 mg · L−1) treatment in jujube seedlings could increase the accumulation of endogenous ShA, enhance leaf photosynthesis and the synthesis of phenols especially flavonoids and phenolic acids, and promote the expression of genes (ZjCOs, ZjNFYs and ZjPHYs) involved in flowering pathway. Basing on above results, we put forward a propose for the underlying mechanism of ShA regulating phase change, and a hypothesis that ShA could be considered a phytohormone-like substance because it is endogenous, ubiquitous, movable and highly efficient at very low concentrations. This study highlights the critical role of ShA in plant phase change and its phytohormone-like properties.