Search Results (887)

The slopes of Mount Etna (Sicily, Italy) are home to an extraordinary viticultural heritage, comprising several vine genotypes at risk of extinction, whose oenological potential remains largely unexplored. This study aims to provide an aromatic characterization of red wines produced from five old-vine genotypes (Barbarossa Etna, Madama Nera, Moscatella Nera, Minnella Nera, and Terribile), comparing them with local and international cultivars. The wines were produced using standardized microvinification techniques; physicochemical parameters were measured according to OIV methods, volatile aromatic compounds were analyzed using HS-SPME/GC-MS, and sensory analysis was carried out using quantitative descriptive analysis. The wines from old-vine genotypes exhibited physicochemical characteristics in line with Etna DOC standards. The profiling of volatile organic compounds revealed clear cultivar-specific aromatic characteristics, with Moscatella Nera exhibiting the most complex and terpene-rich content. The sensory analysis confirmed a distinctive aroma for each old-vine genotype wine, with substantial differences from traditional and international wines. These results support the oenological significance of these old-vine genotypes and their potential reintroduction into production to enhance the biodiversity and identity of Etna wines. Full article

Shanghai-native vegetable soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merril) landraces are valuable germplasms, but their systematic evaluation for agronomic and nutritional traits remains insufficient. This study aimed to assess their phenotypic and nutritional diversity to explore their potential for breeding and meeting dietary needs. Twenty-nine local landraces and one control cultivar (‘Qingsu 7’) were evaluated for key agronomic traits, yield components, nutritional traits, and isoflavone profiles, using hierarchical clustering, principal component analysis (PCA), and correlation analysis. Substantial phenotypic diversity was found, with the germplasm classified into four groups. First pod height and effective pods per plant were highly variable. Nutritional traits showed low variability for crude protein but high diversity for crude fat, soluble sugars (dominated by sucrose), vitamin C, and free amino acids. Total isoflavone content in dry seeds varied widely, with genistin, daidzin, and daidzein as the main forms. ‘Xiangshui Maodou’ had high free amino acids and vitamin C, ‘Heiyan Susudou’ showed superior soluble sugar content, and two landraces exceeded 1500 μg/g DW total isoflavones. The landraces possess rich phenotypic diversity and nutritional diversity. This germplasm represents a valuable resource for breeding programs to enhance crop quality and address global nutritional demands. Full article

The soybean aphid (Aphis glycines) and soybean cyst nematode (Heterodera glycines) are major aboveground and belowground pests of soybean (Glycine max) in the U.S. Midwest, but the molecular basis of their combined effects on soybean defense remains poorly understood. This study examines how soybean genotypes influence demographic and root-transcriptomic responses to single and combined pest infestation. Soybean cyst nematode reproduction increased under combined infestation in the susceptible cultivar but remained unchanged in the resistant cultivar, whereas soybean aphid populations declined when plants were also infested with nematodes. Root RNA-seq revealed strong time-dependent transcriptional responses, with substantially more differentially expressed genes at 30 days post-infestation than at 5 days post-infestation. Co-expression and enrichment analyses showed that early responses were associated with defense signaling, plant–pathogen interaction, and cutin, suberin, and wax biosynthesis, whereas later responses involved redox processes, isoflavonoid biosynthesis, phenylpropanoid metabolism, and one-carbon metabolism. Several differentially expressed soybean genes co-localized with known soybean cyst nematode resistance quantitative trait loci, including genes near the rhg1 region. Together, these results suggest that soybean genotypes strongly influence soybean aphid–soybean cyst nematode interactions and identify candidate genes and pathways that may contribute to durable resistance against interacting aboveground and belowground pests. Full article

Accurate spray timing is essential for reducing unnecessary pesticide use in irrigated cotton production. This study developed and evaluated a locally calibrated six-stage Spraying Phase (SP) scale for the Karshi/Qashqadaryo production context. The scale was established through a two-round moderated consensus process involving 16 expert panelists representing this production context. A screened dataset of 14,400 non-standardized smartphone images was used to train and evaluate a ResNet-50 convolutional neural network (CNN) for SP-stage classification. Field validation was conducted at the Karshi Engineering and Economics Institute during the 2023 and 2024 seasons using an internally controlled randomized complete block design (RCBD)-style paired comparison of SP-based and BBCH-based spray timing. The CNN achieved 93.0% test accuracy. The mean number of pesticide applications was descriptively lower under SP-guided scheduling than under BBCH-based scheduling (3.75 versus 4.88 applications per season; −23.1%). For the inferentially evaluated outcomes, crop-protection cost decreased by 21.2%, the Environmental Risk Index decreased by 21.6%, and plot-level lint-equivalent yield increased by 4.5%. These findings support SP-guided timing as a promising locally calibrated decision-support approach under the tested Karshi/Qashqadaryo conditions; broader use requires multi-site, multi-cultivar, multi-season, device-stratified, and BBCH-level validation, together with technical deployment testing and implementation-cost assessment. Full article

Improving soybean plant architecture is critical for enhancing yield potential. To dissect the genetics of related traits, a recombinant inbred line population of 175 F₉:₁₂ families (derived from Glycine max cultivars Jidou 12 [female] × Ji NF58 [male]) was used for quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping. Four key traits—plant height, bottom pod height, node number on main stem, and branch number—were analyzed across six environments (two growing seasons × three locations) via two methods: composite interval mapping (CIM, QTL Cartographer v2.5) and mixed-model-based composite interval mapping (MCIM, QTLNetwork 2.0). A total of 22 stable QTLs were detected, with phenotypic variation explained (PVE) of 1.2–52.5%. Co-localized QTLs (due to significant trait correlations) concentrated in three genomic intervals: Satt286-Sat_251 (LG C2/chromosome 06), Satt156-Satt229 (LG L/chromosome 19), and Satt581-Sat_190 (LG O/chromosome 10). A novel QTL (qBPH-O-2) for bottom pod height was identified on LG O. Major QTLs with QTL-by-environment (QE) interactions were found on LG A1 (plant height, node number on main stem) and qBN-C2-1 (branch number, high additive effects + QE interactions). These findings support marker-assisted selection (MAS), targeted plant architecture improvement, and gene pyramiding in soybean breeding. Full article

Brassica napus L. is a major oilseed crop whose productivity is significantly affected by abiotic stresses such as drought. PYR/PYL/RCAR (PYL) proteins act as key abscisic acid (ABA) receptors and play central roles in stress responses. However, a comprehensive genome-wide analysis of the PYL gene family in B. napus is still lacking, limiting our understanding of their functions in plant and stress adaptation. This study reports the first comprehensive genome-wide analysis of the PYL gene family in B. napus (rapeseed), cultivar ZS11, identifying 25 BnPYL genes grouped into four subfamilies, I (four genes), I-II (five genes), II (five genes), III (11 genes), and their encoded proteins were predicted to be mainly localized in the chloroplast. Structural analysis revealed diverse exon–intron organization and 10 conserved motifs. All identified BnPYLs contained Polyketide_cyc2 domains (PF10604), supporting their annotation as members of the PYL family. Promoter analysis identified cis-regulatory elements related to light response, stress regulation, and hormonal signaling. Computational analysis of post-translational modifications suggested that phosphorylation sites are mainly localized at serine and threonine residues. Tertiary structure modelling revealed conserved three-dimensional architectures among BnPYL proteins, suggesting potential functional conservation. Expression profiling and RT-qPCR analyses revealed that several BnPYL genes respond to ABA-mediated drought stress, with BnPYL15 and BnPYL22 exhibiting the highest induction (4–5-fold) and BnPYL2, BnPYL5, BnPYL6, BnPYL17, BnPYL18, and BnPYL25 showing significant upregulation (2.0–4.5-fold), suggesting potential roles in enhancing drought tolerance in B. napus. Full article

Breeding programmes increasingly rely on head-to-head comparisons to inform stakeholders about the optimal cultivar for local conditions. This study implemented and evaluated a practical, transparent Excel^® framework for assessing cotton cultivar competitiveness by evaluating seven cultivars against a commercial check at three winning margins (exceeding the check and beating it by more than 2.5% and 10% of the environment mean) over 36 environments. By utilising non-parametric statistical formulas in Microsoft Excel^®, we calculated three competitiveness indices (W₀, W_2.5, and W₁₀) to measure the probability of cultivars outperforming the commercial check. Additionally, scores were calculated to determine how often each cultivar ranked in the top, middle, and bottom third in each test, leading to the creation of two indices, namely Top and Mid. Two genotypes showed a higher probability of winning (≥53% of the time). On the other hand, for the minor (2.5%) yield difference, only one cultivar (cv. G3) outperformed the check in 19 of the 36 environments (53% of the time) and occurred mostly in the top third (58% of the time). Because the 10% threshold proved unrealistic for near-commercial cultivars, we propose replacing it with a user-defined economic threshold. This methodology effectively quantified the probability of the cultivar’s specific and general competitiveness in a format easily interpretable by decision-makers. The three indices W₀, W_2.5, and Top were associated with the dynamic concept of stability, whereas the index Mid was related to static and dynamic concepts. Full article

The common fig (Ficus carica L.) is susceptible to mycotoxin contamination, raising food safety concerns given the strict maximum levels for aflatoxins (AF) and ochratoxin A (OTA) established by Regulation (EU) 2023/915 for dried figs. We characterized the susceptibility of three commercially relevant cultivars from the Jerte Valley (‘Calabacita’, ‘Cuello Dama Blanco’, and ‘Granito’) to Aspergillus section Flavi colonization under controlled and orchard conditions. These findings were integrated with an industry surveillance dataset (2014–2023; 326 batches), with cultivar comparisons restricted to the comparable period 2020–2023 (184 batches), from a local fig-processing cooperative. Under controlled inoculation, ‘Calabacita’ consistently showed the highest internal colonization and proportion of figs colonized, whereas ‘Granito’ showed the lowest values. Sealing the ostiole reduced colonization across cultivars and abolished cultivar differences, thereby supporting the ostiole as the primary entry route. Fruit susceptibility increased with fruit size across all three cultivars. Dry conidial inoculation, emulating natural airborne spread, resulted in substantially higher colonization than inoculation with an aqueous conidial suspension, both in severity (100% vs. 3.7%) and incidence (100% vs. 7.3%). Orchard assays were consistent with the controlled inoculation results: ‘Calabacita’ showed higher section Flavi colonization than ‘Cuello Dama Blanco’ and ‘Granito’, which did not differ from each other. Fruit position did not affect colonization by section Flavi, but it significantly affected colonization by section Nigri, which was higher in dropped fruits across cultivars. AF-OTA co-occurrence was restricted to ‘Granito’ (3 batches; 2.6%) and was absent in ‘Calabacita’. Surveillance data (2020–2023) were consistent with the experimental findings. ‘Calabacita’ showed predominantly AF-related non-compliance (with AFB₁ and AFTA exceedances reaching 25.7%), whereas ‘Granito’ showed higher OTA exceedance (10.5% vs. 1.4%), reflecting distinct contamination profiles between cultivars. This study informs AF and OTA management strategies in dried figs based on cultivar susceptibility profiling, prescreening systems prior to commercialization, and reduction in fruit–soil contact during drying. Full article

Cultivar portfolio decisions and postharvest quality management in Kazakhstani fresh apple markets are made without locally validated consumer sensory benchmarks, limiting producers’ and breeders’ ability to align product design with regional consumer expectations. This exploratory study develops and pilot-tests a consumer sensory evaluation framework for fresh apple cultivars among young adults in an urban Kazakhstani context. Twenty-eight untrained adults evaluated firmness, crispness, juiciness, mealiness, sweetness, acidity, and aroma, alongside overall liking, using a 100 mm unstructured line scale, with reference-based calibration and triangle discrimination tests. Discrimination accuracy was high (96.4%; p < 0.001; d′ = 2.59), with no evidence of systematic anchoring bias, though this cannot be fully ruled out given the study design. Significant cultivar differences were observed for seven attributes (p < 0.01), with aroma showing no significant variation (p = 0.265). Crispness (⍴ = 0.44), sweetness (⍴ = 0.43), and juiciness (⍴ = 0.41) were the attributes most strongly and positively associated with overall liking, while mealiness exerted a negative influence (⍴ = −0.36). Exploratory factor analysis revealed three latent sensory dimensions—texture, taste, and aroma—explaining 71.22% of variance. Sex-based differences were limited to mealiness, acidity, and aroma. Given the small sample size and the absence of instrumental physicochemical measurements, these findings should be interpreted as exploratory and hypothesis-generating rather than definitive. As one of the first consumer sensory evaluation frameworks piloted in a Kazakhstani population, this study provides preliminary insights and a methodological foundation for future, larger-scale research on cultivar selection, postharvest management, and consumer-oriented product development. Full article

Climate change is intensifying soil salinization, posing a major threat to crop establishment and productivity, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), one of the most salt-tolerant cereals, offers valuable genetic resources for improving salinity resilience at early growth stages. This study exploited the genetic diversity of the Nested Association Mapping (NAM) population Halle Exotic Barley-25 (HEB-25) to dissect salinity tolerance during germination and seedling developmental stages. First, the HEB-25 parental lines (25 wild barley genotypes and cv. Barke) were evaluated under salinity treatment to identify contrasting responses. Based on this screening, four HEB families (01, 04, 09, and 22) were selected out of 25 HEB families for detailed phenotypic and genomic analysis. Seeds of the selected HEB families were subjected to 40% seawater salinity stress and control treatments to assess germination percentage and seedling traits, including shoot length, root length, fresh weight (FW), dry weight (DW), DW/FW ratio, root–shoot ratio, and salt tolerance index (STI). Substantial variation was observed among families for all measured traits under salinity stress. STI values enabled clear differentiation among families: Family 01 exhibited the most consistent overall tolerance profile, Family 22 showed the strongest sensitivity in biomass traits, and Family 04 displayed a trait-specific response with sensitivity at the family-mean level but exceptional within-family diversity, harboring some of the highest individual TI values across the population. A genome-wide association study was conducted using 32,995 SNP markers. A total of 27 significant SNPs were identified, corresponding to 20 quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Of these, 12 QTLs were detected under control conditions, 16 under seawater treatment, and 21 based on tolerance indices, indicating both constitutive and stress-responsive genetic effects. Gene annotation within these regions revealed approximately 23 candidate genes associated with abiotic stress tolerance, including genes involved in ion transport, osmotic adjustment, kinases and stress signaling pathways. HEB_22_003, HEB_04_087, and HEB_01_013 represent the most promising genotypes for salinity breeding. These findings highlight the effectiveness of combining precise phenotyping with high-resolution genomic analysis in the HEB-25 population to uncover the genetic architecture of salinity tolerance at early developmental stages. We identified 20 salinity-responsive QTLs, including five major-effect loci on chromosomes 2H, 4H, 5H, and 7H that consistently explained the largest share of phenotypic variation. These loci co-localized with candidate genes linked to ion homeostasis, Ca²⁺-mediated signaling, protein glycosylation, epigenetic regulation, and root system plasticity, revealing key mechanisms underlying early-stage salt adaptation in barley. The strong and contrasting responses of Family 01 and Family 04 provide an excellent genetic framework for functional validation of tolerance alleles. Collectively, these genomic resources establish a robust foundation for QTL pyramiding, marker-assisted breeding, and the development of climate-resilient barley cultivars for saline agroecosystems. Full article

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a globally important vegetable crop and a major dietary source of bioactive compounds, including lycopene, ascorbic acid, phenolics, and minerals. Modern tomato breeding has substantially improved yield, uniformity, and postharvest performance; however, these gains have often been accompanied by reduced flavor quality, lower nutritional value, and narrowing of the genetic base. This review synthesizes available evidence on Lithuanian tomato germplasm and evaluates its relevance for future breeding strategies aimed at enhancing genetic gain under Northern European conditions. The review integrates published data on genetic diversity, molecular characterization, morphological traits, fruit quality parameters, and yield performance of Lithuanian cultivars and hybrids developed in Lithuania. SSR-based studies indicate moderate genetic diversity, with mean expected heterozygosity of approximately 0.51 and mean PIC values of 0.47 in cultivars and 0.45 in hybrids, while also confirming a relatively narrow breeding pool. Lithuanian cultivars display substantial variation in fruit morphology, dry matter, soluble solids, firmness, lycopene, ascorbic acid, and yield. Traditional cultivars such as ‘Svara’, ‘Milžinai’, ‘Slapukai’, and ‘Balčiai’ show valuable nutritional and technological traits, whereas hybrids such as ‘Auksiai H’, ‘Adas H’, and ‘Ainiai H’ demonstrate improved productivity and firmness. The available evidence suggests persistent yield–quality trade-offs, particularly between productivity, soluble solids content, antioxidant accumulation, and postharvest performance. Although Lithuanian germplasm does not represent exceptionally broad genetic diversity, it contains regionally adapted material with stabilized trait combinations useful for breeding resilience, nutritional quality, and adaptation to temperate environments. Future progress will require broadening the genetic base and integrating traditional breeding with marker-assisted selection, genomic selection, GWAS, genome editing, multi-omics, and pangenomic approaches. Overall, Lithuanian tomato germplasm represents a locally adapted regional resource for translating genetic diversity into genetic gain in modern tomato breeding. Full article

Research on the cataloging of microstructures and chemical compound localization in peanut hulls in relation to fungal tolerance remains limited. The hull (pericarp) is the first physical interface with the soil environment and may contribute to defense against fungal invasion. Here, hull microstructure and histochemical localization of alkaloid-like compounds, cellulose, lignin, starch, and total proteins were characterized across reproductive developmental stages R3–R6 in three commercially grown cultivars (Georgia-06G, Georgia-12Y, and Georgia-18RU). Stained sections were examined by light and fluorescence microscopy, and images were quantified in Fiji-ImageJ as stained area percentage. Among the compounds studied, the highest area percentages were observed at later stages (R5 and R6). Alkaloid-like compounds, cellulose, and starch were higher at the R5 stages of G-18 (9.61 ± 0.75), G-12Y (22.96 ± 5.84), and G-06 (6.31 ± 1.13) respectively, while lignin and total proteins were highest at the R6 stage of G-18 (respectively, 14.49 ± 1.43 and 13.90 ± 1.45). The lowest histochemical presence for most metabolites occurred in the early stages (R3–R4). This indicates that hull maturation is accompanied by increased physical (sclerenchyma and lignified cells) and biochemical (alkaloid-like compounds, proteins) features consistent with protective roles. As the analysis was based on representative sections and regions of interest (ROI)-level quantification, the results are intended to guide future studies on hull-mediated defense and breeding for Aspergillus tolerance. Full article

Berry thinning is a fundamental operation in modern vineyard management, and future robotic thinning systems have the potential to reduce labor intensity and improve operational consistency. However, automated berry thinning under field conditions is still constrained by insufficient berry-level segmentation accuracy, difficulty in recognizing occluded berries, and high missed-detection rates for small berries. These limitations mainly arise from dense berry arrangements, severe mutual occlusion, and the subtle visual features of small targets. To address these challenges, this study developed a lightweight grape berry instance segmentation and thinning decision-support method based on YOLOv8n-seg. A two-stage knowledge distillation strategy, using Mask R-CNN and YOLOv8l-seg as teacher models, was combined with 30% backbone pruning to improve the recognition of occluded and small berries while maintaining model efficiency. Subsequently, the DBSCAN clustering algorithm was used to analyze berry centroid coordinates and equivalent diameters extracted from instance segmentation masks, thereby generating preliminary thinning-target recommendations based on local berry density and berry size. The model was trained and evaluated on a self-constructed dataset containing 330 valid grape bunch images collected in 2025 from Yongming Vineyard, Lin’an District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. The results showed that the optimized YOLOv8n-seg model achieved a box $mAP50\text{-}95$ of 0.8945 and a mask $mAP50\text{-}95$ of 0.7910, with an inference speed of 119.19 $FPS$ and 3.26 M parameters on an NVIDIA RTX 3060 Laptop GPU. Compared with the original YOLOv8n-seg model, the optimized model improved mask $mAP50\text{-}95$ by 1.20 percentage points, increased inference speed by 71.79 $FPS$, and reduced the number of parameters by 2.38 M. These results indicate that the proposed method improves grape berry instance segmentation performance while achieving a favorable balance among segmentation accuracy, lightweight characteristics, and inference efficiency. The proposed framework provides an offline RGB-based visual perception and preliminary thinning decision-support method for future grape berry thinning robots. However, because the current dataset was collected from Shine Muscat grape bunches at the berry enlargement stage in a single vineyard using the same imaging setup, the results should be interpreted as preliminary evidence under the specific cultivar, growth stage, vineyard, and imaging conditions of this study. Further validation across different grape cultivars, growth stages, vineyards, production seasons, camera systems, embedded platforms, and real robotic thinning operations is still required. Full article

In Inner Mongolia, a major potato-producing region of China, suboptimal potassium (K) fertilization often compromises tuber quality and affects yield. A two-year field study (2022–2023) evaluated the effects of different K application rates and blending ratios with polyhalite (POLY4) on the mid-to-late maturing cultivar ‘Dafeng 10′. In 2022, five treatments were established: no K (2T1); conventional K (K₂O 300 kg hm⁻²) with 13% (2T2) or 37% (2T3) POLY4; and reduced K (K₂O 200 kg hm⁻²) with 18.5% (2T4) or 31.5% (2T5) POLY4. In 2023, four treatments were set: no K (3T1); conventional K (K₂O 315 kg hm⁻², 3T2); and two reduced K treatments (K₂O 240 kg hm⁻², 3T3; and the same blend as 2T4, 3T4). Reduced K treatments enhanced K partial factor productivity and agronomic efficiency. Specific blends (e.g., 2T3, 2T4, 3T3, 3T4) significantly (p < 0.05) improved photosynthetic parameters at 70–90 days after planting. Critically, a moderate K reduction combined with a low POLY4 ratio (18.5% in 2T4/3T4) achieved the highest yield increases (35.6% in 2022, 22.6% in 2023) without a significant yield penalty, while promoting stem K accumulation. Thus, tailored K-POLY4 blending with 18.5% POLY4 under a reduced total K rate (200 kg K₂O ha⁻¹, i.e., approximately 33–36% less than the conventional rate) is an optimal strategy for synergistically improving yield, K use efficiency, and sustainability in local potato production. Full article

Sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) is an economically important fruit species with considerable genetic variability, particularly among autochthonous cultivars. This study aimed to evaluate the genetic diversity and population structure of six indigenous sweet cherry cultivars from the Ohrid region in North Macedonia using whole-genome resequencing. A total of approximately 2.27 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 263 thousand insertions and deletions (InDels) were identified, indicating high genomic variability. Population structure and phylogenetic analyses revealed two distinct genetic clusters among the studied cultivars. The Ohridska bela cultivar showed the highest level of genetic differentiation, highlighting its importance as a valuable genetic resource. Functional annotation of genetic variants demonstrated significant variability in genes associated with flowering time, dormancy, and stress response, suggesting adaptation to local environmental conditions, while genes related to fruit ripening were highly conserved. Additionally, the rapid linkage disequilibrium decay confirmed the high genetic diversity within the population. These findings emphasize the importance of Macedonian autochthonous sweet cherry germplasm for breeding programs, conservation efforts, and future adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Full article