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Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) growth is regulated by intricate gene networks and hormone secretions, positively correlating with sugarcane yield. There is a rising interest in exploring how the candidate genes found in sugarcane respond to plant growth. In this study, we simulated a typical growth environment to obtain accurate phenotypic data and screened for potential genes associated with plant growth through transcriptomics. Compared to Saccharum GuiTang 42, the other variety Saccharum GuiTang 44 exhibited earlier germination, a higher emergence rate, thicker pseudostems, taller plants, and a more extensive root system. The middle buds formed the greatest number of roots, followed by the lower and upper buds. Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and jasmonic acid effectively promoted bud development, while abscisic acid and trans-zeatin exhibited negative correlations with sugarcane bud growth. Transcriptome data from the upper, middle, and lower buds revealed 24,158 differentially expressed genes in all three comparisons, with MAPK signaling emerging as a critical pathway. The photosynthesis–antenna protein pathway is vital for middle and lower bud development during root germination. Lastly, key gene modules related to differences in hormone content between the two varieties were defined through weighted correlation network analysis and identified. The module significantly associated with IAA was enriched in pathways such as Proteasome and Protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum, and the upregulation of key genes involved in this gene module had a highly significant positive correlation with bud outgrowth combined with IAA secretion. In conclusion, we have elucidated the pathways of hormones during sugarcane growth and the interactions between IAA and critical genes. These in-depth findings may guide modern sugarcane breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Under global warming, high temperature (HT) has become a major meteorological factor affecting soybean production. To explore the candidate genes and regulatory mechanism of the soybean bud response to HT stress, previously identified as HT-tolerant ('Handou14'; HD14) and HT-sensitive ('Jiadou36'; JD36) were treated for 5 days in an artificial climate incubator either with HT (43 °C (day)/ 33 °C (night), 16 h light/8 h darkness) or the non-stress growth condition (25 °C, 16 h light/8 h darkness) as the control at the bud stage were used as experimental materials in this study. After HT treatment, changes in physiological indicators including hypocotyl length, enzyme activity and hormone content were detected; at the same time, the cotyledons, hypocotyls, and main roots were collected for transcriptome sequencing analysis. Analyzing the mechanisms of HT stress response in the bud stage of HD14 and JD36 at physiological and transcription levels. Results: Analysis of physiological indicator showed that the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) were significantly increased 47.4% and 41.2% in the cotyledon of HD14 and the main root of JD36, and the contents of peroxidase (POD) were significantly increased 61.5% and 125% in the hypocotyl of HD14 and JD36; the contents of malonaldehyde (MDA) were significantly increased 44.8% and 22.2% in the main root of HD14 and JD36 after HT treatment. The content of abscisic acid (ABA) were significantly increased 1.9 fold and 1.2 fold in the root of HD14 and JD36 in response to HT treatment, whereas the content of gibberellin (GA) were decreased 2.2 fold and 1.3 fold in the cotyledon and root, and increased 1.6 fold in the hypocotyl in HD14 (P < 0.05). Thus, higher SOD and POD activities, higher ABA content, and a smaller increase in MDA content may improve tolerance to HT stress. The HT-tolerant cultivar may have stronger GA signal transduction in the hypocotyl to combat the negative effects of HT. RNA-sequencing was performed to analyze the differential expression of genes in buds of the two cultivars under the HT treatment and control condition. In total, 3,633, 1,964, 9,934, and 3,036 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in the CH (control group of HD14) vs. TH (HT-treatment group of HD14), CJ (control group of JD36) vs. TJ (HT-treatment group of JD36), TJ vs. TH, and CJ vs. CH comparison groups, respectively. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that most DEGs were mainly involved in metabolic processes, catalytic activity, carbohydrate, energy transduction, and signaling pathways. The results of qRT-PCR validation (86.67%) and changes in physiological indicators were consistent with the RNA-sequencing data. Five DEGs were selected as candidate genes in the response to HT stress at the bud stage. Conclusion: In summary, soybean cells are protected from oxidative damage by an increase in antioxidant enzyme activities and accumulation of hormone content under HT stress. Concomitantly, changes in the expression of crucial genes and signal transmission processes are induced, thus initiating adaptive and protective mechanisms. This study provides a theoretical basis for clarification of the physiological and molecular mechanisms in the response to HT stress of soybean bud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Two functional responses largely guide woody plants' survival to winter conditions: cold hardiness and dormancy. Dormancy affects budbreak timing based on chill accumulation. Effects of warming on dormancy may appear time‐shifted: fall and winter warming events decrease chill accumulation, delaying budbreak observed in spring. The same warming events also affect cold hardiness dynamics, having immediate implications. As cold deacclimation rates increase with dormancy progression, the same amount of warming has greater damage risk the later it occurs in the season, depending on return of low temperatures. Should frequency of erratic weather increase with climate change, more instances of risk are expected. However, understanding how plants fare through seasons now and in future climates still requires better knowledge of winter physiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, published in the Journal of Experimental Botany, reinterprets the concept of olive bud dormancy. The authors argue that olive buds do not undergo true physiological dormancy, but rather go through a process of para-dormancy and eco-dormancy. They discuss the challenges of studying bud dormancy in olive trees, which are evergreen and have different growth patterns compared to deciduous trees. The article also explores the relationship between cold temperatures and flowering in olive trees, highlighting the role of the FT gene in promoting flower induction. Overall, the authors suggest that further research is needed to better understand the reproductive biology of olive trees and improve olive production. [Extracted from the article]

Abstract Background Under global warming, high temperature (HT) has become a major meteorological factor affecting soybean production. To explore the candidate genes and regulatory mechanism of the soybean bud response to HT stress, previously identified as HT-tolerant (‘Handou14’; HD14) and HT-sensitive (‘Jiadou36’; JD36) were treated for 5 days in an artificial climate incubator either with HT (43 °C (day)/ 33 °C (night), 16 h light/8 h darkness) or the non-stress growth condition (25 °C, 16 h light/8 h darkness) as the control at the bud stage were used as experimental materials in this study. After HT treatment, changes in physiological indicators including hypocotyl length, enzyme activity and hormone content were detected; at the same time, the cotyledons, hypocotyls, and main roots were collected for transcriptome sequencing analysis. Analyzing the mechanisms of HT stress response in the bud stage of HD14 and JD36 at physiological and transcription levels. Results Analysis of physiological indicator showed that the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) were significantly increased 47.4% and 41.2% in the cotyledon of HD14 and the main root of JD36, and the contents of peroxidase (POD) were significantly increased 61.5% and 125% in the hypocotyl of HD14 and JD36; the contents of malonaldehyde (MDA) were significantly increased 44.8% and 22.2% in the main root of HD14 and JD36 after HT treatment. The content of abscisic acid (ABA) were significantly increased 1.9 fold and 1.2 fold in the root of HD14 and JD36 in response to HT treatment, whereas the content of gibberellin (GA) were decreased 2.2 fold and 1.3 fold in the cotyledon and root, and increased 1.6 fold in the hypocotyl in HD14 (P

Abstract In recent years, significant advancements have been made in the field of smart greenhouses, particularly in the application of computer vision and robotics for pollinating flowers. Robotic pollination offers several benefits, including reduced labor requirements and preservation of costly pollen through artificial tomato pollination. However, previous studies have primarily focused on the labeling and detection of tomato flowers alone. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop a comprehensive methodology for simultaneously labeling, training, and detecting tomato flowers specifically tailored for robotic pollination. To achieve this, transfer learning techniques were employed using well-known models, namely YOLOv5 and the recently introduced YOLOv8, for tomato flower detection. The performance of both models was evaluated using the same image dataset, and a comparison was made based on their Average Precision (AP) scores to determine the superior model. The results indicated that YOLOv8 achieved a higher mean AP (mAP) of 92.6% in tomato flower and bud detection, outperforming YOLOv5 with 91.2%. Notably, YOLOv8 also demonstrated an inference speed of 0.7 ms when considering an image size of $$1920 \times 1080$$ 1920 × 1080 pixels resized to $$640 \times 640$$ 640 × 640 pixels during detection. The image dataset was acquired during both morning and evening periods to minimize the impact of lighting conditions on the detection model. These findings highlight the potential of YOLOv8 for real-time detection of tomato flowers and buds, enabling further estimation of flower blooming peaks and facilitating robotic pollination. In the context of robotic pollination, the study also focuses on the deployment of the proposed detection model on the 3P2R gantry robot. The study introduces a kinematic model and a modified circuit for the gantry robot. The position-based visual servoing method is employed to approach the detected flower during the pollination process. The effectiveness of the proposed visual servoing approach is validated in both un-clustered and clustered plant environments in the laboratory setting. Additionally, this study provides valuable theoretical and practical insights for specialists in the field of greenhouse systems, particularly in the design of flower detection algorithms using computer vision and its deployment in robotic systems used in greenhouses.

In recent years, significant advancements have been made in the field of smart greenhouses, particularly in the application of computer vision and robotics for pollinating flowers. Robotic pollination offers several benefits, including reduced labor requirements and preservation of costly pollen through artificial tomato pollination. However, previous studies have primarily focused on the labeling and detection of tomato flowers alone. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop a comprehensive methodology for simultaneously labeling, training, and detecting tomato flowers specifically tailored for robotic pollination. To achieve this, transfer learning techniques were employed using well-known models, namely YOLOv5 and the recently introduced YOLOv8, for tomato flower detection. The performance of both models was evaluated using the same image dataset, and a comparison was made based on their Average Precision (AP) scores to determine the superior model. The results indicated that YOLOv8 achieved a higher mean AP (mAP) of 92.6% in tomato flower and bud detection, outperforming YOLOv5 with 91.2%. Notably, YOLOv8 also demonstrated an inference speed of 0.7 ms when considering an image size of 1920 × 1080 pixels resized to 640 × 640 pixels during detection. The image dataset was acquired during both morning and evening periods to minimize the impact of lighting conditions on the detection model. These findings highlight the potential of YOLOv8 for real-time detection of tomato flowers and buds, enabling further estimation of flower blooming peaks and facilitating robotic pollination. In the context of robotic pollination, the study also focuses on the deployment of the proposed detection model on the 3P2R gantry robot. The study introduces a kinematic model and a modified circuit for the gantry robot. The position-based visual servoing method is employed to approach the detected flower during the pollination process. The effectiveness of the proposed visual servoing approach is validated in both un-clustered and clustered plant environments in the laboratory setting. Additionally, this study provides valuable theoretical and practical insights for specialists in the field of greenhouse systems, particularly in the design of flower detection algorithms using computer vision and its deployment in robotic systems used in greenhouses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic picking tea buds is ever increasing in the continuous expansion of famous brand tea market at present. However, manual picking cannot fully meet the needs of short-term concentrated harvesting in the large-scale tea production. Mechanical mass picking can also share the very short window period of famous brand tea. Therefore, it is the urgent demand to realize the intelligent and accurate picking of famous tea. Among them, visual identification has been confined to the small target of tea buds and the complex background under the natural environment in the field. Fortunately, Yolov5s-segment network model is suitable to identify tea buds, due to the easy deployment, simple integrated structure and real-time detection. In this study, a novel model was proposed to extract the contour and then locate the picking point of tea bud using improved Yolov5s-segment. The rapid recognition and accurate location of picking points were realized for the tea buds in large field scenes. Firstly, P2 micro-target detection layer was imported into the Neck and Head of the original network. The small targets detection of P3, P4 and P5 layers was achieved in the improved Yolov5s-segment network. Secondly, the contour features of tea bud were extracted in the natural lighting environment. CBAM (convolutional block attention module) was added into the end of Backbone of Yolov5s-segment network for the anti-interference of the improved model. Finally, the position coordinates of the bud stem were extracted, according to the bud contour. The picking points were located accurately for the single bud, one bud with one leaf, and one bud with two leaves. Furthermore, the micro target detection layer and CBAM attention mechanism were gradually added into the original Yolov5s-segment model. In ablation test, the CBAM attention mechanism was replaced with SE, ECA and SimAM. After that, the optimal model was compared with Yolov8s-segment and Yolact. Finally, the positioning test was carried out using the optimal model. The results showed that the best performance was achieved in the model with the micro-target detection layer and CBAM attention mechanism. Compared with the original Yolov5s-segment model, the accuracy, recall rate, F1 score, mean average precision mAP50 and mAP50-95 were improved by 7.0, 8.9, 8.1, 8.3 and 7.3 percentage points, respectively. In the comparison test, the mAP50 of the improved model increased by 4.2 and 9.5 percentage points, respectively, compared with the Yolov8s-segment and Yolact. The positioning test showed that the pixel coordinates of picking points were accurately obtained in the 0° and 45° shooting angles of camera under different states, indicating the high positioning accuracy. The improved model can be used to accurately extract the outline of single bud, one bud with one leaf and one bud with two leaves in large field scenes. The precise location of picking points can be realized at the same time. The findings can provide a theoretical basis for intelligent and rapid picking of famous tea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potatoes have been a versatile food and cash crop to ensure food security and grain planting structure in China. The total planting area has declined in the planting industries at present. Some challenges also remain in the mechanization of the potato planting industry. The current process of seed potato cutting can rely heavily on manual and mechanical blind cutting, leading to labor-intensive and inefficient tasks. Moreover, there is a high rate of blind cuts and significant loss of seed potatoes. Therefore, it is highly urgent to accurately and rapidly identify the potato eyes before cutting. In this study, an improved model was proposed to detect the potato bud eyes using YOLOv5. Dutch 15 potato variety was taken as the experimental material. The high-quality samples of seed potatoes were carefully chosen to be free of diseases, dry rot, disease spots, and worm eyes. The dataset was used for training, verification, and testing. 1 400 pictures of seed potatoes were obtained with a ratio of 8:1:1. Data expansion techniques (such as mirroring, rotating, cropping, and adjusting brightness) were applied to enhance the dataset, thus resulting in a total of 5 600 images. Since the features of seed potato eyes were relatively simple, there was a decrease to even disappear after multiple convolutions. C3 Faster was integrated into the original framework. While the extraction of sprout eye features was enhanced to reduce the parameters. Additionally, the GD structure was incorporated from the Neck component of GOLD-YOLO to improve the detection accuracy of sprout eye. The bounding box loss function CIoU Loss was replaced with WIoU Loss to expedite the convergence of the network model for high detection accuracy. The hyperparameters of the original YOLO model were optimized for the COCO dataset. There were significant differences from the dataset of seed potato sprout eye in this experiment. Therefore, a genetic algorithm (GA) was employed to fine-tune the hyperparameters specifically for the detection of seed potato sprout eye at the end of the experiment. Furthermore, pruning and distillation techniques were used to reduce the running parameters and memory consumption, in order to make the model more suitable for the detection tasks of seed potato bud eye. The optimized model was presented with a size of 8.7 MB, which was only 61.3% of the original model. Params comprised approximately 57.1% of the original model. The final average accuracies of detection were 90.5% and 90.1%, respectively, in the test and validation sets of the self-made potato dataset. Compared with the lightweight networks YOLOv7-tiny, YOLOv8n, YOLOv5n, and YOLOv5s, the average accuracies of the improved model were 0.5, 1.3, 2.8, and 1.1 percentage points higher, respectively, in the test set of seed potato dataset. The average accuracy of the verification set was 2.9, 1.9, 3.2, and 1.6 percentage points higher. The detection speed on a local computer reached 27.5 frames per second, fully meeting the real-time requirements. Substantial benefits were offered to significantly enhance the efficiency and accuracy of seed potato bud eye detection in the potato cultivation industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of testing the effect of virus infection on the frost resistance of sour cherry varieties of Ukrainian breeding. ‘Ksenia’ and ‘Boguslavka’ varieties were used. Damage to the tissues of buds and shoots at temperatures of 4 °C, –25 °С, –30 °С was compared on plants infected with viruses (PNRSV in the variety ‘Ksenia’, PDV in the variety ‘Boguslavka’) and healthy plants. The degree of frost damage was classified on a scale from zero (no damage) to five (100% tissue damage). In each variant, 10–34 buds and 3–14 shoots were tested. It was found that the PDV and PNRSV viruses have a negative effect on the frost resistance of bud tissues. At –25°С, the average degree of bud tissue damage reached 3.2 points in the variety ‘Ksenia’ (PNRSV) and 4.1 points in the variety ‘Boguslavka’ (PDV). At –30 °C, the degree of damage to the buds of both varieties was 4.2 points. The same temperatures had a less impact on the tissues of the shoots. The highest damage was recorded in cambium tissues of the infected ‘Boguslavka’ variety at –30 °С, and the lowest was in bark samples of the infected ‘Ksenia’ variety (0.8 points at –25 °С).

Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.), an economically and nutritionally important tree crop, relies on winter chill for bud endodormancy break and subsequent blooming and nut production. However, insufficient winter chill poses an increasing challenge in pistachio growing regions. To gain a better understanding of the physiological and biochemical responses of endodormant pistachio buds to chilling accumulation, we investigated the global gene expression changes in flower buds of pistachio cv. Kerman that were cultivated at three different orchard locations and exposed to increasing durations of winter chill. The expression of genes encoding β-1,3-glucanase and β-amylase, enzymes responsible for breaking down callose (β-1,3-glucan) and starch (α-1,4-glucan), respectively, increased during the endodormancy break of pistachio buds. This result suggested that the breakdown of callose obstructing stomata as well as the release of glucose from starch enables symplasmic trafficking and provides energy for bud endodormancy break and growth. Interestingly, as chilling accumulation increased, there was a decrease in the expression of nine-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED), encoding an enzyme that uses carotenoids as substrates and catalyzes the rate-limiting step in abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis. The decrease in NCED expression suggests ABA biosynthesis is suppressed, thus reducing inhibition of endodormancy break. The higher levels of carotenoid precursors and a decrease in ABA content in buds undergoing endodormancy break supports this suggestion. Collectively, the temporal transcriptome and biochemical analyses revealed that the degradation of structural (callose) and non-structural (starch) carbohydrates, along with the attenuation of ABA biosynthesis, are critical processes driving endodormancy break in pistachio buds.

Objective: Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) belongs to the Zingiberaceae family and it is one of the most important spices in the world which produces spicy and fragrant flavors and it has many healing properties. This plant does not have the ability to produce seeds due to sterility. The growth of the plant through the rhizome causes the cost of cultivation and the probability of pathogen attack. Therefore, propagation using in vitro tissue culture be effective method for increasing the rate of proliferation and infection control. For obtaining the better results in tissue culture, explants should be prepared from healthy, fresh and strong maternal sources. Somatic embryogenesis usually not used for propagation due to mutation, so it is better to use the rhizome buds as explant to preserve genetic characteristics. Materials and methods: For micropropagation, explants including shoot, leaf, collar and buds of ginger in were used and cultured on MS basal medium supplemented with 9 different hormonal combinations (BAP alone or in combination with NAA) for shoot induction. Shoots were transferred to MS medium containing 1 mg/l NAA or IBA for rooting. Plantlets were transferred to pots and gradually adapted to the greenhouse condition. Results: The best explant for fast and easy multiplication of ginger was the healthy rhizome. MS culture medium supplemented with 2 mg/l BAP and 1 mg/l NAA produced 7 shoots in each rhizome bud. The best treatment for rooting was MS medium containing 1 mg/l NAA which produced 7 roots per shoot. Then, the plantlets were successfully adopted in pots containing garden soil and cocopeat at greenhouse condition. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that micropropagation of ginger plant is affected by the type of growth regulators and their concentration in MS medium and the rhizome buds were the best explants for direct in vitro propagation of ginger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trees and shrubs maintain carbon reserves to support their functions during periods when metabolic demand exceeds carbon supply, such as during the dormant season. To gain a better understanding of carbon storage and utilisation dynamics of eight woody plant species in temperate Central Europe, bud scale and leaf samples were collected to determine the radiocarbon age of fresh sprouts in trees and shrubs, at three background sites avoiding local emissions that may influence affect the observed 14C/12C ratio. The accelerator mass spectrometry-based bomb-radiocarbon approach, to determine the age of the mobilized carbon in the plant bud samples from storage, was complemented by stable carbon isotope measurements. The bomb-radiocarbon dating technique was used to determine the age of the samples, while a northern hemispheric atmosphere 14CO2 dataset was used to calibrate the radiocarbon ages of the plant samples. The youngest observed calibrated radiocarbon age of the buds was over 4 years, and the oldest was even 9 years old. There was no significant difference between the ages of bud scales and embryonal leaf laminas. Our results show that there is a considerable amount of stored older carbon in the woody stems that can be used to produce buds in spring, which is a complex mixture of stored carbon of different ages, but there is no relationship between the radiocarbon age and the stable carbon isotope composition. The observed results show that not only the tree species, but shrubs also can store and use significantly older carbon pools, the carbon storage intensity is similar for trees with trunks and short-stemmed shrubs branching directly above the ground, i.e. carbon storage starts in young twigs and continues in ageing branches.

This research aimed to study the effect of pruning severity, soil application of chicken manure, and foliar application of Kare Combi on productivity and quality of the Zaitouni grape (Vitis vinifera L.), during growing seasons 2021, using a Randomized Complete Design with three replications. Winter pruning with three levels (4, 6, and 8 buds.vine-1) was done in the 2nd week of march, chicken manure was added to the soil with three levels (0, 3, and 6 kg.vine-1), and foliar application of Care-combi with three concentration (0, 6 and 12 mg.L-1). The results showed that No of clusters, counterweight yield per vine as well as TSS, total sugar percentage, and Anthocyanin content, were increased significantly by pruning, chicken manure, and foliar application of kare-combi as compared with control, concerning the interaction, the best results were with the interaction of 4buds.cane-1+6 kg.vine-1 chicken manure+ 12 mg.L-1 Kare-combi for cluster’s weight, TSS % total sugar %, and anthocyanin content, while the best interaction for the number of clusters per vine and total yield per vine resulted from the interaction of 8 buds.cane-1+6 kg.vine-1 chicken manure+ 12 mg.L-1 Kare-combi.

Gemmotherapy, a natural therapy based on bud macerates, has recently gained importance in the field of food supplements. However, two coexisting extraction methods employ a glycerin-based solvent, either in a binary or ternary solvent mixture. The absence of an official method for bud preparation leads to non-standardized bud macerates. Given this context, this study aimed to (i) assess the influence of solvent composition on the chemical profile of olive young shoot macerates obtained using glycerin-based solvents or using different solvent extractions and (ii) to compare the two coexisting traditional bud extraction methods described by Dr Pol Henry and by the European Pharmacopoeia. A comprehensive phytochemical analysis of all macerates was conducted using HPLC-DAD-ELSD-MS2, identifying 50 metabolites divided into 7 classes through dereplication. The extracts obtained with the solvent described by the European Pharmacopoeia (ethanol/glycerin) and by Dr Pol Henry (water/ethanol/glycerin) appeared to be the most diversified in terms of metabolite distribution and possessed higher rates of secondary metabolites. These observations reinforce the interest in a glycerin-based solvent mixture for bud extraction in gemmotherapy. In addition, the difference in composition between the two traditional solvents was highlighted. Indeed, iridoids were predominant in both macerates, representing about 50% of the chemical composition, but differences were observed from one macerate to another regarding the proportions of the other chemical classes. This emphasizes the necessity for standardized gemmotherapy macerates.

Gemmotherapy, a natural therapy based on bud macerates, has recently gained importance in the field of food supplements. However, two coexisting extraction methods employ a glycerin-based solvent, either in a binary or ternary solvent mixture. The absence of an official method for bud preparation leads to non-standardized bud macerates. Given this context, this study aimed to (i) assess the influence of solvent composition on the chemical profile of olive young shoot macerates obtained using glycerin-based solvents or using different solvent extractions and (ii) to compare the two coexisting traditional bud extraction methods described by Dr Pol Henry and by the European Pharmacopoeia. A comprehensive phytochemical analysis of all macerates was conducted using HPLC-DAD-ELSD-MS2, identifying 50 metabolites divided into 7 classes through dereplication. The extracts obtained with the solvent described by the European Pharmacopoeia (ethanol/glycerin) and by Dr Pol Henry (water/ethanol/glycerin) appeared to be the most diversified in terms of metabolite distribution and possessed higher rates of secondary metabolites. These observations reinforce the interest in a glycerin-based solvent mixture for bud extraction in gemmotherapy. In addition, the difference in composition between the two traditional solvents was highlighted. Indeed, iridoids were predominant in both macerates, representing about 50% of the chemical composition, but differences were observed from one macerate to another regarding the proportions of the other chemical classes. This emphasizes the necessity for standardized gemmotherapy macerates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potatos are one of the most important food crops to maintain food security and stability in the world. However, the manual cutting of seed preparation has seriously restricted the development of the potato planting industry, due to the labor)intensive and high labor costs. It is in high demand to rapidly and accurately detect the seed buds for the intelligent cutting of potato seeds. The performance of detection can also directly dominate the quality of potato seed after cutting, which in turn determines the total yield and economic benefits. In this study, a target detection model was proposed for the potato seed buds using improved YOLOv7. The large-scale preparation was then realized to detect the small area occupied by the seed buds and a few extractable features under the complex background of the seed surface in the potato seed-cutting machinery. Firstly, a Contextual Transformer of self-attention mechanism was added into the Backbone part, in order to enhance the target objects and the removal of redundant background. Different weights were also given to the target objects and background region. Secondly, the InceptionNeXt module was selected to replace the original ELAN-H module in the Head part. The loss of high dimensional features was reduced, particularly for the potato seed buds with the increase of network depth. Multi-scale fusion was better performed to improve the detection of potato seed buds. Finally, the bounding box loss function was changed to normalized wasserstein distance(NWD), in order to reduce the loss value and speed up the convergence of the network model. The samples were selected as well-stored surfaces free of insect pests, dry rot and disease spots. The reason was that the quality of training samples depended mainly on the detection of the potato seed buds. Meanwhile, the additional samples with surface damage and soil were utilized for the diversity of the dataset. The total number of 500 samples was obtained in this case. The front and back sides of potato seed were captured at a distance of 30 cm from the samples using a CCD camera. A total of 1 000 JPEG format images were randomly divided into the training set (800 images), validation set (100 images), and test set (100 images), according to the ratio of 8:1:1. At the same time, data augmentation was performed on the dataset, including the mirror, rotate, cropping, brightness adjustment, and the noise addition into the images. Model generalization was then improved beyond the insufficient number of samples. The experimental results indicated that the mean average precision (mAP) of the improved YOLOv7 model reached 95.40%, which was 4.2 percentage points higher than the original. The detection accuracies of improved model were 34.90, 26.32, 27.25, 22.88, 35.92, 17.23, 15.70 percentage points higher than those of similar target detection models, such as Faster-RCNN(ResNet50), Faster-RCNN(VGG), SSD, YOLOv3, YOLOv4, YOLOv5, YOLOX, respectively. Therefore, the missed detection rates of the improved model were 4% and 11% for the potato seed with smooth and soil or damaged surface, respectively, indicating better detection than the rest in the actual application. The finding can provide strong support to the recognition of potato seed buds for the intelligent cutting of potato seed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.), an economically and nutritionally important tree crop, relies on winter chill for bud endodormancy break and subsequent blooming and nut production. However, insufficient winter chill poses an increasing challenge in pistachio growing regions. To gain a better understanding of the physiological and biochemical responses of endodormant pistachio buds to chilling accumulation, we investigated the global gene expression changes in flower buds of pistachio cv. Kerman that were cultivated at three different orchard locations and exposed to increasing durations of winter chill. The expression of genes encoding b-1,3-glucanase and b-amylase, enzymes responsible for breaking down callose (b-1,3-glucan) and starch (a-1,4-glucan), respectively, increased during the endodormancy break of pistachio buds. This result suggested that the breakdown of callose obstructing stomata as well as the release of glucose from starch enables symplasmic trafficking and provides energy for bud endodormancy break and growth. Interestingly, as chilling accumulation increased, there was a decrease in the expression of nine-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED), encoding an enzyme that uses carotenoids as substrates and catalyzes the rate-limiting step in abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis. The decrease in NCED expression suggests ABA biosynthesis is suppressed, thus reducing inhibition of endodormancy break. The higher levels of carotenoid precursors and a decrease in ABA content in buds undergoing endodormancy break supports this suggestion. Collectively, the temporal transcriptome and biochemical analyses revealed that the degradation of structural (callose) and non-structural (starch) carbohydrates, along with the attenuation of ABA biosynthesis, are critical processes driving endodormancy break in pistachio buds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to study the effect of pruning severity, soil application of chicken manure, and foliar application of Kare Combi on productivity and quality of the Zaitouni grape (Vitis vinifera L.), during growing seasons 2021, using a Randomized Complete Design with three replications. Winter pruning with three levels (4, 6, and 8 buds. vine-1 ) was done in the 2nd week of March, chicken manure was added to the soil with three levels (0, 3, and 6 kg. vine-1 ), and foliar application of Carecombi with three concentrations (0, 6 and 12 mg. L-1 ). The results showed that No of clusters, counterweight yield per vine as well as TSS, total sugar percentage, and Anthocyanin content, were increased significantly by pruning, chicken manure, and foliar application of kare-combi as compared with control, concerning the interaction, the best results were with the interaction of 4buds.cane-1+6 kg.vine-1 chicken manure+ 12 mg.L-1 Kare-combi for cluster’s weight, TSS % total sugar %, and anthocyanin content, while the best interaction for the number of clusters per vine and total yield per vine resulted from the interaction of 8 buds.cane-1+6 kg.vine-1 chicken manure+ 12 mg.L-1 Kare-combi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a theory of structure removal based on the operation of Bud. Bud is defined as a variant of External Merge. While External Merge always targets the root of a syntactic object, Bud targets a lower projection. The operation is constrained by minimality and is used to provide a novel account to analytic passive, causative constructions in Italian and infinitival constructions like raising predicates. It also offers an elegant way to account for structure pruning in cases of language disorder, root infinitives in child speech and preference for passive plus subject relativization over object relative clauses.

The study was carried out in the spring of 2020 in the north of the country, variety Grace Star grafted on the rootstock Gisela 6, thin spindle crown shape. Planting distance 4.2x1.8 m. In spring 2021 was organized with the following gradation: 1. Trees trained after the thin spindle crown (control); 2. Solitary incision above the buds and processing the cut with water; 3. Solitary incision above the buds and treatment of the cut with growth regulator Progerbalin LG; 4. Circular incision at 25-30 cm distance on the axis with processing of the cut with Progerbalin LG growth regulator; 5. Extirpation removal of 4-5 axillary buds from top to bottom of the leader while keeping a bud intact. It was established that, to increase the branching potential of the tree axis when training intervened with solitary incisions above the buds and circular incisions at a distance of 25-30 cm on the axis with the processing of the cut with the growth regulator Progerbalin LG in the ratio one part of product to 8-10 parts of latex paint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protective nets are commonly used in orchards to prevent hail damage and sunburns. However, these nets partially prevent sunlight exposure of the trees. Sunlight directly influences plant physiology. In present study, the effects of reduced sunlight on mineral nutrition of trees were investigated. Experimental orchard had protective nets with different shading ratios (0, 32, 42 and 56%) for 7 years. In 8, 9 and 10th year of the orchard, to reveal relationships of protective nets and mineral nutrition, apple trees were sampled from part of leaves, bud, and flower and subjected to mineral analyses. Leaf nutrients were all influenced by light intensity and increasing N, K, Fe, Cu, Mn and B levels were observed with increasing shading ratios. In fruit buds, shading treatments all had more Ca, Fe and Cu concentrations. In flower samples, only P and Mg were significant and the lowest values were obtained from the greatest shading ratio. Nutrient ratios were assessed for each sample group and only the leaf nutrient ratios were significant. It was observed when the common ratios (N:K and K:Mg) were assessed that the greatest N:K ratio was obtained from the control treatment and the other treatments were placed into the same group; the lowest K:Mg ratio was obtained from the control treatment and the other treatments were placed into the same group. It couldn't be detected relationships between decreasing yield, morphological traits and reduced sunlight with nutrient contents based on concentrations under experimental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Camellia oleifera is one of the essential wood oil trees in the world. C.oleifera was propagated by nurse seedling grafting. Since the scion of C.oleifera had a significant regulated effect on the properties of rootstock after grafting and impacted on the growth of the grafted seedlings, it was necessary to understand the characteristics of buds among varieties to cultivate highquality grafted seedlings. The metabolome was thought to be a powerful tool for understanding connecting phenotype-genotype interactions, which has an important impact on plant growth and development. In this study, UPLC-MS was used to determine the metabolites of the apical buds of CL3, CL4, CL40, and CL53 spring shoots after 30 days of sprout and to measure the growth characteristics of roots and stems after grafting. Metabolomics analysis revealed 554 kinds of metabolites were significant differences among four varieties, and 29 metabolic pathways were identified to have significant changes (p< 0.05), including carboxylic acids and derivatives, fatty Acyls, organooxygen compounds, and prenol lipids metabolites. The metabolites appeared in all varieties, including phenethyl rutinoside in glycosyl compounds and hovenidulcioside A1 in terpene glycosides. Metabolite–metabolite correlations in varieties revealed more complex patterns in relation to bud and enabled the recognition of key metabolites (e.g., Glutamate, (±)Catechin, GA52, ABA, and cs-Zeatin) affecting grafting and growth ability. Each variety has a unique metabolite type and correlation network relationship. Differentiated metabolites showed different growth trends for development after grafting. Many metabolites regulate the growth of scions in buds before grafting, which plays a crucial role in the growth of seedlings after grafting. It not only regulates the growth of roots but also affects the development of this stem. Finally, those results were associated with the genetic background of each cultivar, showing that metabolites could be potentially used as indicators for the genetic background, indicating that metabolites could potentially be used as indicators for seedling growth characteristics. Together, this study will enrich the theoretical basis of seedling growth and lay a foundation for further research on the molecular regulation mechanism interaction between rootstock and scion, rootstock growth, and the development of grafted seedlings after grafting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum blooms 2-3 times a year, among which the autumn flowering period has great potential for exploitation, but the number of flowers in the autumn flowering period is much smaller than that in the spring flowering period. Methods: Using 'Hei Zhenzhu' and 'Xiangnong Xiangyun' as experimental materials, the winter growth environment of L. chinense var. rubrum in Changsha, Hunan Province was simulated by setting a low temperature of 6-10°C in an artificial climate chamber to investigate the effect of winter low temperature on the flowering traits and related gene expression of L. chinense var. rubrum. Results: The results showed that after 45 days of low temperature culture and a subsequent period of 25°C greenhouse culture, flower buds and flowers started to appear on days 24 and 33 of 25°C greenhouse culture for 'Hei Zhenzhu', and flower buds and flowers started to appear on days 21 and 33 of 25°C greenhouse culture for 'Xiangnong Xiangyun'. The absolute growth rate of buds showed a 'Up-Down' pattern during the 7-28 days of low temperature culture; the chlorophyll fluorescence decay rate (Rfd) of both materials showed a 'Down-Up-Down' pattern during this period. The non-photochemical quenching coefficient (NPQ) showed the same trend as Rfd, and the photochemical quenching coefficient (QP) fluctuated above and below 0.05. The expression of AP1 and FT similar genes of L. chinense var. rubrum gradually increased after the beginning of low temperature culture, reaching the highest expression on day 14 and day 28, respectively, and the expression of both in the experimental group was higher than that in the control group. The expressions of FLC, SVP and TFL1 similar genes all decreased gradually with low temperature culture, among which the expressions of FLC similar genes and TFL1 similar genes in the experimental group were extremely significantly lower than those in the control group; in the experimental group, the expressions of GA3 similar genes were all extremely significantly higher than those in the control group, and the expressions all increased with the increase of low temperature culture time. Discussion: We found that the high expression of gibberellin genes may play an important role in the process of low temperature promotion of L. chinense var. rubrum flowering, and in the future, it may be possible to regulate L. chinense var. rubrum flowering by simply spraying exogenous gibberellin instead of the promotion effect of low temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Flowers are beautiful due to their perianth which is frequently colourful and conspicuous. The existence of the colourful perianth is closely related to insect pollination in extant angiosperms. The Early Cretaceous (1.25 million years ago) Yixian Formation in Northeastern China is famous for its great diversity of reproductive organs of early angiosperms. However, unlike typical flowers in extant angiosperms, the previously documented fossil flowers are "naked", namely, they do not have typical perianth, suggestive of a strategy different than the extant one adopted in the reproduction of early angiosperms. However, without fossil evidence, whether there is perianth and whether androecium and gynoecium are protected in early flowers are open questions. In this paper, we document the first flower bud fossil, Archaebuda lingyuanensis, from the Yixian Formation. Besides being the first recorded flower bud (which is fragile and unlikely to be fossilized) in the Early Cretaceous, the flower bud does protect its internal parts, which are vulnerable to various attacks and harm, using the perianth. In addition, perianth plays an important role in attracting insects for successful pollination of early angiosperms. This knowledge on the reproduction of early angiosperms is otherwise unavailable if only the previous fossils are taken into consideration. Background: Although various angiosperms (including their flowers) have been reported from the Yixian Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of China, which is famous worldwide for its fossils of early angiosperms, no flower bud has hitherto been seen in the Early Cretaceous. Such a lack of examples hinders our understanding of the evolution of flowers. Methods: The specimen studied in the present paper was collected from an outcrop of the Yixian Formation (the Barremian-Aptian, Lower Cretaceous) of Dawangzhangzi in Lingyuan, Liaoning, China. The specimen was photographed using a Nikon D200 digital camera, its details were observed and photographed using a Nikon SMZ1500 stereomicroscope, and some of its details were observed using a Leo 1530 VP SEM. Results: We report a fossilized flower bud, Archaebuda lingyuanensis gen. et sp. nov, from the Yixian Formation of China. The debut of Archaebuda in the Yixian Formation provides first-hand material for debate on the early evolution of angiosperm flowers and underscores the great diversity of angiosperms in the Yixian Formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trichosanthes anguina L. (family Cucurbitaceae) is a monoecious and diclinous plant that can be consumed as a vegetable and has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. The chemical composition and content of volatile compounds in female and male buds of T. anguina were explored by headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) technology combined with multivariate statistical analysis. The results showed that the content of the volatile compounds was different between female and male buds. 2,2,6-trimethyl-6-vinyltetrahydro-2H-pyran-3-ol and 2,2,6-trimethyl-6-vinyldihydro-2H-pyran-3(4H)-one were the main volatile compounds in both female and male buds. Based on the multivariate statistical analysis of orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and t-test, the content of seven compounds was significantly different between female and male buds. The content of three compounds in male buds was higher than that in female, i.e., (E)-4,8-dimethyl-1,3,7-nonatriene, 1,5,9,9-tetramethyl-1,4,7-cycloundecatriene, and (E)-caryophyllene. Conversely, the content of (Z)-4-hexen-1-ol, (Z)-3-hexenyl benzoate, (Z)-3-hexenyl salicylate, and 2-hexen-1-ol in female buds was higher than that in male buds. This is the first report on the difference in the volatile compounds between female and male buds of T. anguina, which enriches the basic research on the monoecious and diclinous plant and provides a reference for the study of plant sex differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing a plant's nutritional status and fertilizer rates and types that can optimize fruit quality and yield are critical in intensive apple orchards. The aim of this work was to identify correlations between nutrients in the different organs that allow the early diagnosis of the nutritional status and to assess the impact on the optimal nutrient content in apple leaves, as well as in the yield and quality of chemical and organic fertilization. Five orchards of 'Gala' were fertilized with different levels of NPK over a period of four years. Macro and micronutrients of buds, flowers, 45 and 90–110 days after full bloom (DAFB) leaves and 60 DAFB and 15 days before harvest (DBH) fruits were determined. Boron was the only element for which strong correlations, 0.7 < r < 0.9, were observed between all organ pairs. The fertilization treatments did not affect the nutrient concentrations in the leaves of 90–110 DAFB other than P, Ca and Mg and did not affect the macronutrients in the fruit. In one of the five orchards, the yield increased by 26% with double fertilization compared to standard fertilization and, for the other four orchards, the impact depended on the year. Fruit size was more related to crop load than to fertilization and TSS and firmness were not affected by the type or amount of fertilizers. Replacing part of the chemical fertilizer with organic materials did not affect productivity or fruit quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis var. Chinensis) is abundant with vitamin C and is a rapidly developing crop in China, New Zealand, and other countries. It has been widely used as a raw material for food and kiwifruit wine. Among these, A. chinensis var. chinensis and A. chinensis var. deliciosa are the most valuable kiwifruit in production. Kiwifruit is a typical dioecious plant and its female and male plants have different economic values. Therefore, sex identification, especially at the seedling stage, has important implications for the scientific planning of its production and economic benefits. However, the kiwifruit sex regulation mechanism is very complex and molecular studies are in the initial stages. Currently, there is not a universal and effective sex identification method for A. chinensis. Methods In this study, we used a label-free quantitative proteomics approach to investigate differentially accumulated proteins, including their presence/absence and significantly different levels of abundances during A. chinensis var. chinensis male and female flower bud development. Results A total of 6485 proteins were identified, among which, 203 were identified in male buds, which were mainly associated with phenylalanine metabolism, tyrosine metabolism, and plant hormone signal transduction. In female buds, 241 were identified, which were mainly associated with the ErbB signaling pathway, growth hormone synthesis, secretion and action, and mRNA surveillance pathway. A total of 373 proteins were significantly differentially accumulated proteins (fold change > 2; P

Pecan is the only native north American tree nut. The USA produces approximately 80% of the world’s pecans. Pecan trees have an extended juvenility, 10 years to the first nut crop. With mature bearing they begin alternate bearing; alternating large and small crops. Theoretically, a heavy crop inhibits flower induction in the current year resulting in a low crop the following year. The flowering of perennial trees involves a complex interplay of multiple hormones. The possible molecular mechanisms regulating tree flowering can be revealed by endogenous plant hormone quantification, exogenous hormone application and RNA-sequencing. In this review, we synthesize the investigations of transcriptomic analysis and exogenous hormone treatments on bud break and flowering in fruit/nut trees with a focus on pecan. Knowledge of how hormones regulate flowering suggest they are a potential tool for improving return bloom and mitigating alternate bearing.

BACKGROUND Sweet cherry trees (Prunus avium L.) of the cultivar Grace Star were pruned either in dormancy or in summer. The response was studied by analyzing the sugar content in different organs (flower bud, leaf, and fruit) at three sections of the canopy (inner, outer, and upper) using high‐performance liquid chromatography. The effect of summer pruning was evaluated by measuring photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) and leaf chlorophyll content (SPAD). RESULTS: In this study, the timing of pruning had a significant effect on sugar content in flower buds, leaves, and fruit. Trees pruned in summer had higher glucose, fructose, sorbitol, and sucrose content in flower buds, higher glucose and fructose contents in leaves, and lower fructose, sorbitol, and total sugar content in fruit than in trees pruned at dormancy. Higher average PPFD and lower SPAD values were measured in the inner canopy of trees pruned in summer. All measured parameters were influenced by position in the canopy. The lowest fructose and sorbitol contents in the flower bud, the lowest content of glucose, fructose, sorbitol, total sugars and the highest SPAD values in the leaf, while less dark and lighter fruit were measured in the inner part of the canopy. CONCLUSION: Summer pruning affects sugar distribution in the tree by altering irradiation conditions within the canopy. Our results suggest that summer pruning is an effective technological measure to improve sugar content in the buds. A strong, well nourished flower bud is a good indication of high fruit production next season. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[ Objective] The present paper aimed to analyze whether the accumulation of glycoside alkaloids in different potato tissues has influence on human use and food processing, the accumulation levels of glycoside alkaloids in different potato tissues and organs under different storage conditions were summarized. [ Method ] In the present study, the contents of glucoside alkaloids in tuber and bud tissues of potato resources 1-76 and 6-36 (purple bark), 5-36 and 6-1 ( white bark) were determined by HIGH performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry after 60 days of storage in light and cellars. Real-time fluorescence RCR was used to analyze the gene expression of glycoside alkaloid biosynthesis. [ Result ] The detection of glycoalkaloids showed that the content of glycoalkaloids in four kinds of potato sprouts was significantly higher than that in tubers after storage under different conditions, the content of glycoalkaloids in tubers exceeded the safe edible standard ( 0. 2 mg/ g, fresh quality), but whether it was safe to eat and food processing needs more experimental verification ; The detection in the expression of glycoalkaloid biosynthesis-related genes showed that the expression levels of some genes ( StCAS, StSSR2, StGAME4, StSGT I, StSG12) in the glycoalkaloid biosynthesis pathway of different potato resources were closely related to the content of glycoalkaloids, and the expression of other genes in potato had certain tissue specificity. [ Conclusion] By simply and quickly detecting the content of glycoalkaloids in potato tubers and sprouts, this test found that the content of glycoalkaloids in tubers of potato resources ( 1-76, 6-1 ) after storage did not exceed the safety standard, but it was not recommended. The results of this study provided a theoretical reference value for human safe consumption of potatoes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) is widely used to encourage root development in cuttings of general field crops, vegetables, forest trees, fruit trees, and flowers. However, previous studies reported that IBA inhibited the germination of citrus buds via an unknown molecular mechanism. This study aimed to unravel the regulatory mechanisms underlying this inhibition. Citrus apical buds were sprayed with 100 mg ⋅ L−1 IBA. Subsequently, the plant hormone levels were analyzed, and transcriptomic analysis was performed. The results identified 3325 upregulated genes and 2926 downregulated genes in the citrus apical buds. The gene set enrichment analysis method was used to determine the Gene Ontology related to the treatment. Genes were enriched into 157 sets, including 17 upregulated sets and 140 downregulated sets, after indole butyric acid treatment. The upregulated gene sets were related to glucose import, sugar transmembrane transporter activity, and photosynthesis. The downregulated genes were mainly related to the ribosomal subunit and cell cycle process under butyric acid treatment. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis revealed the enrichment of 11 pathways. Of note, genes related to the ribosome and proteasome pathways were significantly downregulated. Only one pathway was significantly upregulated: the autophagy pathway. Overall, these results provided insights into the molecular mechanisms underpinning the IBA-mediated inhibition of citrus bud germination inhibition. Also, the study provided a large transcriptomics dataset that could be used for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Agronomy Journal / Agronomski Glasnik (0002-1954) is the property of Croatian Society of Agronomists and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Although various angiosperms (including their flowers) have been reported from the Yixian Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of China, which is famous worldwide for its fossils of early angiosperms, no flower bud has hitherto been seen in the Early Cretaceous. Such a lack of examples hinders our understanding of the evolution of flowers. Methods: The specimen studied in the present paper was collected from an outcrop of the Yixian Formation (the Barremian-Aptian, Lower Cretaceous) of Dawangzhangzi in Lingyuan, Liaoning, China. The specimen was photographed using a Nikon D200 digital camera, its details were observed and photographed using a Nikon SMZ1500 stereomicroscope, and some of its details were observed using a Leo 1530 VP SEM. Results: We report a fossilized flower bud, Archaebuda lingyuanensis gen. et sp. nov, from the Yixian Formation of China. The debut of Archaebuda in the Yixian Formation provides first-hand material for debate on the early evolution of angiosperm flowers and underscores the great diversity of angiosperms in the Yixian Formation.

Trichosanthes anguina L. (family Cucurbitaceae) is a monoecious and diclinous plant that can be consumed as a vegetable and has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. The chemical composition and content of volatile compounds in female and male buds of T. anguina were explored by headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) technology combined with multivariate statistical analysis. The results showed that the content of the volatile compounds was different between female and male buds. 2,2,6-trimethyl-6-vinyltetrahydro-2H-pyran-3-ol and 2,2,6-trimethyl-6-vinyldihydro-2H-pyran-3(4H)-one were the main volatile compounds in both female and male buds. Based on the multivariate statistical analysis of orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and t-test, the content of seven compounds was significantly different between female and male buds. The content of three compounds in male buds was higher than that in female, i.e., (E)-4,8-dimethyl-1,3,7-nonatriene, 1,5,9,9-tetramethyl-1,4,7-cycloundecatriene, and (E)-caryophyllene. Conversely, the content of (Z)-4-hexen-1-ol, (Z)-3-hexenyl benzoate, (Z)-3-hexenyl salicylate, and 2-hexen-1-ol in female buds was higher than that in male buds. This is the first report on the difference in the volatile compounds between female and male buds of T. anguina, which enriches the basic research on the monoecious and diclinous plant and provides a reference for the study of plant sex differentiation.

Apart from frugivory, we have limited knowledge of the ecological consequences of primate herbivory. We aimed to ascertain the effects of spring folivory and winter bark/bud herbivory by Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) on tree species and succession patterns of cool‐temperate forests with heavy snow. To evaluate the impact of herbivory on individual trees, we assessed the growth and mortality of trees consumed by simulating herbivory on nine tree species over 4 years. Additionally, we assessed the cumulative impacts of bark/bud herbivory observed at the tree community level by monitoring the patterns of natural herbivory for almost a decade and evaluating the structure of tree assemblages in places with different cumulative impacts of herbivory. The results of simulated herbivory showed that the mortality caused by both spring and winter herbivory was limited (<20%) for almost all tree species monitored; however, the simulated folivory led to delayed tree growth and/or weakening of tree architecture. In contrast, the simulated bark/bud herbivory sometimes resulted in overcompensation of the tree consumed. The multiyear monitoring of natural herbivory demonstrated that, while bark/bud herbivory did not reduced the diversity and biomass of tree assemblages, the cumulative impacts of natural herbivory could have affected the tree succession pattern, resulting in increasing the availability of bark/buds preferably fed by macaques. The key cause for this feedback effect of herbivory on available foods of macaques might be heavy snow conditions, which could physically and physiologically restrain the excessive bark/buds herbivory by macaques. Research Highlights: In the multiyear experiments of simulated herbivory, the tree mortality caused by spring folivory and winter bark/bud herbivory by Japanese macaques was limited (<20%).Spring folivory led to delayed tree growth and/or weakening of tree architecture.Winter bark/bud herbivory resulted in affecting the tree succession pattern by increasing the availability of food trees preferred by macaques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was designed to identify and quantify the major phenolic compounds in different Juglans regia L. (common walnut) tissues (leaves, petioles, bark, roots, buds), to define the compositions and contents of phenolic compounds between these tissues. A total of 91 individual phenolic compounds were identified and quantified, which comprised 8 hydroxycinnamic acids, 28 hydroxybenzoic acids, 11 flavanols, 20 flavonols, 22 napthoquinones, and 2 coumarins. Naphthoquinones were the major phenolic group in leaves, petioles, bark, and buds, as >60% of those identified, while hydroxybenzoic acids were the major phenolic group in side roots, as ~50% of those identified. The highest content of phenolic compounds was in the J. regia main root, followed by side roots and buds, leaves, and 1-year-old bark; the lowest content was in petioles and 2-year-old bark. Leaves, roots, and buds of J. regia represent a valuable source of these agro-residues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every winter, temperate woody plants have to cope with freezing stress. Winter hardiness is of crucial importance for pomegranate survival and productivity. A comparative morphological and metabolic study was conducted on the stems and buds of 15 field-grown mature pomegranate genotypes in seven time-points during two developmental cycles. Seasonal changes of frost hardiness, as determined by electrolyte leakage method, and metabolite analysis by HPLC and GC revealed the variability in frost hardiness and metabolic contents result from genetic background and organ, as well as seasonal condition. Morphological adaptations, as well as metabolic remodeling, are the distinct features of the hardy genotypes. Larger buds with a greater number of compressed scales and the higher number of protective leaves, together with the higher number and content of changed metabolites, especially amino acids, seem to provide a higher frost resistance for those trees. We recorded two-times the change in metabolites and several-times accumulation of amino acids in the stem compared with buds. A better potential of stem for metabolome adjustment during the hardening period and a higher level of tolerance to stress is therefore suggested. High levels of arginine, proline, glutamine, and asparagine, and particularly the accumulation of alanine, tryptophan, and histidine are responsible for excellent tolerance of the stem of tolerant genotypes. With regard to the protective roles of amino acids, a relation between stress tolerance and the level of amino acids is proposed. This points both to the importance of amino acids in the winter survival of pomegranate trees, and to the evaluation of frost tolerance in other plants, by these specific markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their ecological and economical importance, conifers genomic resources are limited, mainly due to the large size and complexity of their genomes. Additionally, the available genomic resources lack complete structural and functional annotation. Transcriptomic resources have been commonly used to compensate for these deficiencies, though for most conifer species they are limited to a small number of tissues, or capture only a fraction of the genes present in the genome. Here we provide an atlas of gene expression patterns for conifer Pinus sylvestris across five tissues: embryo, megagametophyte, needle, phloem and vegetative bud. We used a wide range of tissues and focused our analyses on the expression profiles of genes at tissue level. We provide comprehensive information of the per-tissue normalized expression level, indication of tissue preferential upregulation and tissue-specificity of expression. We identified a total of 48,001 tissue preferentially upregulated and tissue specifically expressed genes, of which 28% have annotation in the Swiss-Prot database. Even though most of the putative genes identified do not have functional information in current biological databases, the tissue-specific patterns discovered provide valuable information about their potential functions for further studies, as for example in the areas of plant physiology, population genetics and genomics in general. As we provide information on tissue specificity at both diploid and haploid life stages, our data will also contribute to the understanding of evolutionary rates of different tissue types and ploidy levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Xinjiang Agricultural Sciences is the property of Xinjiang Agricultural Sciences Editorial Department and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many fruit trees undergo cycles of heavy fruit load (ON-Crop) in one year, followed by low fruit load (OFF-Crop) the following year, a phenomenon known as alternate bearing (AB). The mechanism by which fruit load affects flowering induction during the following year (return bloom) is still unclear. Although not proven, it is commonly accepted that the fruit or an organ which senses fruit presence generates an inhibitory signal that moves into the bud and inhibits apical meristem transition. Indeed, fruit removal from ON-Crop trees (de-fruiting) induces return bloom. Identification of regulatory or metabolic processes modified in the bud in association with altered fruit load might shed light on the nature of the AB signalling process. The bud transcriptome of de-fruited citrus trees was compared with those of ON- and OFF-Crop trees. Fruit removal resulted in relatively rapid changes in global gene expression, including induction of photosynthetic genes and proteins. Altered regulatory mechanisms included abscisic acid (ABA) metabolism and auxin polar transport. Genes of ABA biosynthesis were induced; however, hormone analyses showed that the ABA level was reduced in OFF-Crop buds and in buds shortly following fruit removal. Additionally, genes associated with Ca(2+)-dependent auxin polar transport were remarkably induced in buds of OFF-Crop and de-fruited trees. Hormone analyses showed that auxin levels were reduced in these buds as compared with ON-Crop buds. In view of the auxin transport autoinhibition theory, the possibility that auxin distribution plays a role in determining bud fate is discussed.

Assessing a plant’s nutritional status and fertilizer rates and types that can optimize fruit quality and yield are critical in intensive apple orchards. The aim of this work was to identify correlations between nutrients in the different organs that allow the early diagnosis of the nutritional status and to assess the impact on the optimal nutrient content in apple leaves, as well as in the yield and quality of chemical and organic fertilization. Five orchards of ‘Gala’ were fertilized with different levels of NPK over a period of four years. Macro and micronutrients of buds, flowers, 45 and 90–110 days after full bloom (DAFB) leaves and 60 DAFB and 15 days before harvest (DBH) fruits were determined. Boron was the only element for which strong correlations, 0.7 < r < 0.9, were observed between all organ pairs. The fertilization treatments did not affect the nutrient concentrations in the leaves of 90–110 DAFB other than P, Ca and Mg and did not affect the macronutrients in the fruit. In one of the five orchards, the yield increased by 26% with double fertilization compared to standard fertilization and, for the other four orchards, the impact depended on the year. Fruit size was more related to crop load than to fertilization and TSS and firmness were not affected by the type or amount of fertilizers. Replacing part of the chemical fertilizer with organic materials did not affect productivity or fruit quality.

Abstract Blueberry is an important fruit crop, with many health benefits. Despite its importance, much remains to be studied concerning the dormancy dynamics in rabbiteye cultivars growing in a mild winter climate. In this research, the dormancy in blueberry, rabbiteye cultivars ‘Bluegem’, ‘Climax’, ‘Delite’, and ‘Powderblue’, was studied in a mild winter region. The single-node cuttings biological test and the evaluation of the hydric status were performed in dormant winter reproductive buds. These experiments were performed during fall and winter in one year (2016). Moreover, chilling hours under or equal to 7.2 ºC were measured, and chill units were calculated according to Utah Model [1], Modified Utah Model [2], and Blueberry Model [3]. In conclusion, the four cultivars showed a similar pattern, revealing a dormant state in the initial sampling dates and a released dormancy in the final treatments, showing the decrease of dormancy in June and July. However, Delite was earlier than the other cultivars. Bluegem and Delite required 134.0 chilling hours, 127.0 chill units (Utah Model), 198.5 chill units (Modified Utah Model), and 971.5 chill units (Blueberry Model) for 50% of their green tip buds reach the opened bud stage. Climax required 44.0, -11.0, 56.5, and 440.5, respectively. And Powderblue required 44.0, 5.5, 77.0, and 725.0 respectively. This study can bring some insights into crop management and production of this important fruit crop, especially in a global climate-changing scenario, related to flowering and dormancy control, as well as helping to select suitable cultivars to a region, concerning chilling requirements.