Physiology and Molecular Ecology of Ratoon Rice

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Molecular Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2025 | Viewed by 7657

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Agroecology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Interests: crop allelopathy; crop physiology; crop cultivation and farming system

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Guest Editor
College of Life Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Interests: o-glycosylation in phytohormone signaling; molecular mechanism of ratoon growth

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ratoon rice is a cropping system, in which we get the promising production of the additional crop from the stubble after the harvest of the main crop. Besides of high grain yields, improved grain quality and better economic efficiency, ratoon rice shows resource efficient, labor saving and environmentally friendly. As an ancient cropping practice with about 1700-year history, ratoon rice infuses fresh vigor into rice production, and becomes more and more popular worldwide, not only on agricultural performance but also on scientific researches. In the past decades, agronomic, physiological and ecological studies have been made significant progresses on characteristics of ratoon rice and underlying mechanism.

Since ratoon rice is taking advantage of regeneration characteristics of dormant axillary buds, ratoon ability has been proved to be fundamental to the yield of ratoon season, which depends the fine regulation of signaling network from both the endogenous phytohormone and environmental factors. Recently, stubble quality is established as a guiding indicator to guarantee substantial ratoon-season yield. Several studies have revealed that stubble height, nitrogen fertilization and dry-wet alternate irrigation would significantly determine the ratoon ability and following ratoon-season growth, which all contribute to stubble quality. In addition, a unique sink-source relationship in the ratoon system, from the stubble to the ratoon tillers, is crucial for the ratoon ability, suggesting nutrient left behind in stubble and related nutrient distribution and transport also play important roles in stubble quality. Ratoon season exhibit higher dry matter accumulation and distribution, specific grain filling pattern and soil enzyme activities and microbial functional diversity in rhizosphere, which privide new sights to the underlying mechanism of ratoon growth. However, there are still lots of challenge of ratoon rice, such as breeding of ideal rice varieties, mechanized harvesting, optimized cultivation management, and molecular mechanism of ratoon ability.

For this Special Issue, we are seeking research and review papers about physiology and molecular ecology of ratoon rice.

Prof. Dr. Wenxiong Lin
Dr. Wenfei Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • ratoon rice
  • ratoon ability
  • grain yield
  • grain quality
  • mechanized harvesting
  • breeding
  • cultivation management
  • physiology and molecular ecology
  • stubble quality
  • ratoon grain filling

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 732 KiB  
Article
Integrating Nitrogen, Water, and Other Management Practices to Improve Grain and Ratoon Forage Yields in Perennial Rice
by Fuxian Xu, Dingbing Wang, Xingbing Zhou, Lin Zhang, Xiaoyi Guo, Mao Liu, Yongchuan Zhu, Hong Xiong, Changchun Guo and Peng Jiang
Plants 2024, 13(22), 3157; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13223157 - 10 Nov 2024
Viewed by 628
Abstract
Perennial rice has recently garnered global attention due to its potential to save on seeds and labor costs and its high production efficiency. The “mid-season rice–ratoon forage” mode is a new planting system that has emerged in recent years. However, detailed information is [...] Read more.
Perennial rice has recently garnered global attention due to its potential to save on seeds and labor costs and its high production efficiency. The “mid-season rice–ratoon forage” mode is a new planting system that has emerged in recent years. However, detailed information is still lacking on the regenerative characteristics, grain and ratoon forage yields, and forage nutrient content of perennial rice under different planting densities, nitrogen (N) rates, stubble heights, and water management practices. Four experiments with perennial rice were conducted in Sichuan Province, Southwest China, from 2017 to 2022. The results show that the rice grain and ratoon forage yields were significantly affected by year, planting density, and N. The grain yield was 28.18% and 60.81% lower in 2018F and 2019F, respectively, than in 2017F; similarly, the ratoon forage yield was 29.01% and 52.74% lower in 2018S and 2019S, respectively, than in 2017S. The low grain yield was mainly associated with lower numbers of spikelets per panicle and panicles per m2, which resulted from a lower regrowth rate, and the low ratoon forage yield was mainly attributed to the lower regrowth rate. The rice grain and ratoon forage yields increased with an increase in the N rate and planting density. The ratoon forage was found to be rich in crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and other nutrients. Moreover, the content of these nutrients increased significantly with an increase in the N rate. The regrowth rate and maximum tillers showed trends of first increasing and then decreasing with an increase in the stubble height under dry and wet alternation irrigation during the winter season. When the relative soil moisture decreased to below 80% during the winter season, the regrowth rate and seedling development index could reach more than 99% and 84%, respectively. Our results suggest that integrating N, water, and other management practices (including the combination of a 150 kg ha−1 N rate, 18.0 hills per m2, 10–20 cm rice stubble height, and alternating dry and wet irrigation during the winter season) is a feasible approach for achieving high grain and ratoon forage yields in perennial rice systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physiology and Molecular Ecology of Ratoon Rice)
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19 pages, 6860 KiB  
Article
Appropriately Reduced Nitrogen and Increased Phosphorus in Ratooning Rice Increased the Yield and Reduced the Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Southeast China
by Yuncheng Yang, Feifei Yao, Yangbo Sun, Zhipeng Yang, Rong Li, Ge Bai, Wenxiong Lin and Hongfei Chen
Plants 2024, 13(3), 438; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13030438 - 2 Feb 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1524
Abstract
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions while improving productivity is the core of sustainable agriculture development. In recent years, rice ratooning has developed rapidly in China and other Asian countries, becoming an effective measure to increase rice production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in these [...] Read more.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions while improving productivity is the core of sustainable agriculture development. In recent years, rice ratooning has developed rapidly in China and other Asian countries, becoming an effective measure to increase rice production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in these regions. However, the lower yield of ratooning rice caused by the application of a single nitrogen fertilizer in the ratooning season has become one of the main reasons limiting the further development of rice ratooning. The combined application of nitrogen and phosphorus plays a crucial role in increasing crop yield and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The effects of combined nitrogen and phosphorus application on ratooning rice remain unclear. Therefore, this paper aimed to investigate the effect of combined nitrogen and phosphorus application on ratooning rice. Two hybrid rice varieties, ‘Luyou 1831’ and ‘Yongyou 1540’, were used as experimental materials. A control treatment of nitrogen-only fertilization (187.50 kg·ha−1 N) was set, and six treatments were established by reducing nitrogen fertilizer by 10% (N1) and 20% (N2), and applying three levels of phosphorus fertilizer: N1P1 (168.75 kg·ha−1 N; 13.50 kg·ha−1 P), N1P2 (168.75 kg·ha−1 N; 27.00 kg·ha−1 P), N1P3 (168.75 kg·ha−1 N; 40.50 kg·ha−1 P), N2P1 (150.00 kg·ha−1 N; 13.50 kg·ha−1 P), N2P2 (150.00 kg·ha−1 N; 27.00 kg·ha−1 P), and N2P3 (150.00 kg·ha−1 N; 40.50 kg·ha−1 P). The effects of reduced nitrogen and increased phosphorus treatments in ratooning rice on the yield, the greenhouse gas emissions, and the community structure of rhizosphere soil microbes were examined. The results showed that the yield of ratooning rice in different treatments followed the sequence N1P2 > N1P1 > N1P3 > N2P3 > N2P2 > N2P1 > N. Specifically, under the N1P2 treatment, the average two-year yields of ‘Luyou 1831’ and ‘Yongyou 1540’ reached 8520.55 kg·ha−1 and 9184.90 kg·ha−1, respectively, representing increases of 74.30% and 25.79% compared to the N treatment. Different nitrogen and phosphorus application combinations also reduced methane emissions during the ratooning season. Appropriately combined nitrogen and phosphorus application reduced the relative contribution of stochastic processes in microbial community assembly, broadened the niche breadth of microbial communities, enhanced the abundance of functional genes related to methane-oxidizing bacteria and soil ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in the rhizosphere, and decreased the abundance of functional genes related to methanogenic and denitrifying bacteria, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the ratooning season. The carbon footprint of ratooning rice for ‘Luyou 1831’ and ‘Yongyou 1540’ decreased by 25.82% and 38.99%, respectively, under the N1P2 treatment compared to the N treatment. This study offered a new fertilization pattern for the green sustainable development of rice ratooning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physiology and Molecular Ecology of Ratoon Rice)
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18 pages, 3467 KiB  
Article
Physiological Properties of Perennial Rice Regenerating Cultivation in Two Years with Four Harvests
by Chunlin Guo, Weiwei Lin, Wujie Gao, Chaojie Lan, Hailong Xu, Jingnan Zou, Nyumah Fallah, Wenfei Wang, Wenfang Lin, Ting Chen and Wenxiong Lin
Plants 2023, 12(22), 3910; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12223910 - 20 Nov 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1785
Abstract
Crop perennialization has garnered global attention recently due to its role in sustainable agriculture. However, there is still a lack of detailed information regarding perennial rice’s regenerative characteristics and physiological mechanisms in crop ratooning systems with different rice stubble heights. In addition, the [...] Read more.
Crop perennialization has garnered global attention recently due to its role in sustainable agriculture. However, there is still a lack of detailed information regarding perennial rice’s regenerative characteristics and physiological mechanisms in crop ratooning systems with different rice stubble heights. In addition, the response of phytohormones to varying stubble heights and how this response influences the regenerative characteristics of ratoon rice remains poorly documented. Here, we explored the regenerative characteristics and physiological mechanisms of an annual hybrid rice, AR2640, and a perennial rice, PR25, subjected to different stubble heights (5, 10, and 15 cm). The response of phytohormones to varying stubble heights and how this response influences the regenerative characteristics of ratoon rice were also investigated. The results show that PR25 overwintered successfully and produced the highest yield, especially in the second ratoon season, mainly due to its extended growth duration, higher number of mother stems, tillers at the basal nodes, higher number of effective panicles, and heavier grain weight when subjected to lower stubble heights. Further analysis revealed that PR25 exhibited a higher regeneration rate from the lower-position nodes in the stem with lower stubble heights. this was primarily due to the higher contents of phytohormones, especially auxin (IAA) and gibberellin (GA3) at an early stage and abscisic acid (ABA) at a later stage after harvesting of the main crop. Our findings reveal how ratoon rice enhances performance based on different stubble heights, which provides valuable insights and serves as crucial references for delving deeper into cultivating high-yielding perennial rice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physiology and Molecular Ecology of Ratoon Rice)
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Review

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12 pages, 2000 KiB  
Review
Ratoon Rice System of Production: A Rapid Growth Pattern of Multiple Cropping in China: A Review
by Wenge Wu, Zhong Li, Min Xi, Debao Tu, Youzun Xu, Yongjin Zhou and Zhixing Zhang
Plants 2023, 12(19), 3446; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12193446 - 30 Sep 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3093
Abstract
In this review, the significance of ratoon rice was introduced, and the research status and development trends of ratoon rice were also summarized. It is pointed out that mechanically harvested ratoon rice is the developing direction of future ratoon rice. On this basis, [...] Read more.
In this review, the significance of ratoon rice was introduced, and the research status and development trends of ratoon rice were also summarized. It is pointed out that mechanically harvested ratoon rice is the developing direction of future ratoon rice. On this basis, we analyzed the relationship between the yield of ratoon rice and many factors, such as variety characteristics, sowing date, water control, fertilizer, and many others. It is important to construct a comprehensive and practical evaluation system for rice regeneration that can provide a basis for high-yield cultivation of machine-harvested ratoon rice. At the same time, it is suggested that combining high-yield cultivation with the green ecological efficiency of rice can achieve better production and improve the quality of rice. Finally, some problems with ratoon rice development were put forward. An in-depth study on the rhizosphere biology and regulation techniques of ratoon rice and the effective ecological compensation mechanism increased the capacity and quality of ratoon rice. Further, the functioning of such research can enhance the planting area for ratoon rice and improve food security. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physiology and Molecular Ecology of Ratoon Rice)
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