Search Results (31)

As a globally significant food crop, the assessment of wheat quality is essential for ensuring food security and enhancing the processing quality of agricultural products. Conventional methods for assessing wheat kernel quality are often inefficient and markedly subjective, which hampers their ability to accurately distinguish the complex and diverse phenotypic characteristics of wheat kernels. To tackle the aforementioned issues, this study presents an enhanced recognition method for defective wheat kernels, based on the EfficientNet-B1 architecture. Building upon the original EfficientNet-B1 network structure, this approach incorporates the lightweight attention mechanism known as CBAM (Convolutional Block Attention Module) to augment the model’s capacity to discern features in critical regions. Simultaneously, it modifies the classification head structure to facilitate better alignment with the data, thereby enhancing accuracy. The experiment employs a self-constructed dataset comprising five categories of wheat kernels—perfect wheat kernels, insect-damaged wheat kernels, scab-damaged wheat kernels, moldy wheat kernels, and black germ wheat kernels—which are utilized for training and validation purposes. The results indicate that the enhanced model attains a classification accuracy of 99.80% on the test set, reflecting an increase of 2.6% compared to its performance prior to the enhancement. Furthermore, the Precision, Recall, and F1-score all demonstrated significant improvements. The proposed model achieves near-perfect performance on several categories under controlled experimental conditions, with particularly high precision and recall for scab-damaged and insect-damaged kernels. This study demonstrates the efficacy of the enhanced EfficientNet-B1 model in the recognition of defective wheat kernels and offers novel technical insights and methodological references for intelligent wheat quality assessment. Full article

Aimed at the problem of the difference between intra-class and inter-class pathogenic spores of Wheat Scab image being small and difficult to distinguish, in this paper, we propose a lightweight decoupled Wheat Scab spore detection network based on Yolov7-tiny (GSD-YOLO). Specifically, considering the limitations of the storage space and power consumption of actual field detection equipment, the original detection head is optimized as a decoupled head, and the GSConv lightweight module is embedded to reduce the parameters of the model and the number of calculations required. In addition, we utilize an improved Spore–Copy data augmentation strategy to improve the detection performance and generalization ability of the algorithm to fit the large numbers, morphology, and variety of wheat disease spores in the actual field and to improve the efficiency of constructing a large data set of diverse spores. The experimental results show that the mAP of the proposed algorithm reaches 98.0%, which is 3.9 percentage points higher than that of the original model. At the same time, the detection speed of the algorithm is 114 f/s, and the memory is 13.1 MB, which meets the application requirements of hardware deployment and real-time detection. It can provide some technical support to the prevention and grading of Wheat Scab in actual farmland. Full article

Wheat scab can reduce wheat yield and quality. Currently, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widely used for monitoring field crops. However, UAV is constrained by limited computational resources on-board the platforms. In addition, compared to ground images, UAV images have complex backgrounds and smaller targets. Given the aforementioned challenges, this paper proposes a lightweight wheat scab detection network based on UAV. In addition, overlapping cropping and image contrast enhancement methods are designed to preprocess UAV remote-sensing images. Additionally, this work constructed a lightweight wheat scab detection network called LWSDNet using mixed deep convolution (MixConv) to monitor wheat scab in field environments. MixConv can significantly reduce the parameters of the LWSDNet network through depthwise convolution and pointwise convolution, and different sizes of kernels can extract rich scab features. In order to enable LWSDNet to extract more scab features, a scab feature enhancement module, which utilizes spatial attention and dilated convolution, is designed to improve the ability of the network to extract scab features. The MixConv adaptive feature fusion module is designed to accurately detect lesions of different sizes, fully utilizing the semantic and detailed information in the network to enable more accurate detection by LWSDNet. During the training process, a knowledge distillation strategy that integrates scab features and responses is employed to further improve the average precision of LWSDNet detection. Experimental results demonstrate that the average precision of LWSDNet in detecting wheat scab is 79.8%, which is higher than common object detection models and lightweight object detection models. The parameters of LWSDNet are only 3.2 million (M), generally lower than existing lightweight object detection networks. Full article

The wheat scab caused by Fusarium graminearum (F. graminearum) has seriously affected the yield and quality of wheat in China. In this study, gallic acid (GA), a natural polyphenol, was used to synthesize three azole-modified gallic acid derivatives (AGAs1–3). The antifungal activity of GA and its derivatives against F. graminearum was studied through mycelial growth rate experiments and field efficacy experiments. The results of the mycelial growth rate test showed that the EC₅₀ of AGAs–2 was 0.49 mg/mL, and that of AGAs–3 was 0.42 mg/mL. The biological activity of AGAs–3 on F. graminearum is significantly better than that of GA. The results of field efficacy tests showed that AGAs–2 and AGAs–3 significantly reduced the incidence rate and disease index of wheat scab, and the control effect reached 68.86% and 72.11%, respectively. In addition, preliminary investigation was performed on the possible interaction between AGAs–3 and F. graminearum using density functional theory (DFT). These results indicate that compound AGAs–3, because of its characteristic of imidazolium salts, has potential for use as a green and environmentally friendly plant-derived antifungal agent for plant pathogenic fungi. Full article

Applying plant-derived fungicides is a safe and sustainable way to control wheat scab. In this study, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of wheat cultivars with and without the resistance gene Fhb1 were analyzed by GC-MS, and 2-phenylethanol was screened out. The biocontrol function of 2-phenylethanol on Fusarium graminearum was evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Metabolomics analysis indicated that 2-phenylethanol altered the amino acid pathways of F. graminearum, affecting its normal life activities. Under SEM and TEM observation, the mycelial morphology changed, and the integrity of the cell membrane was destroyed. Furthermore, 2-phenylethanol could inhibit the production of mycotoxins (DON, 3-ADON, 15-ADON) by F. graminearum and reduce grain contamination. This research provides new ideas for green prevention and control of wheat FHB in the field. Full article

The study provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of imaging and non-imaging spectroscopy for wheat scab (INISWS) using CiteSpace. Therefore, we underpinned the developments of global INISWS detection at kernel, spike, and canopy scales, considering sensors, sensitive wavelengths, and algorithmic approaches. The study retrieved original articles from the Web of Science core collection (WOSCC) using a combination of advanced keyword searches related to INISWS. Afterward, visualization networks of author co-authorship, institution co-authorship, and country co-authorship were created to categorize the productive authors, countries, and institutions. Furthermore, the most significant authors and the core journals were identified by visualizing the journal co-citation, top research articles, document co-citation, and author co-citation networks. The investigation examined the major contributions of INISWS research at the micro, meso, and macro levels and highlighted the degree of collaboration between them and INISWS knowledge sources. Furthermore, it identifies the main research areas of INISWS and the current state of knowledge and provides future research directions. Moreover, an examination of grants and cooperating countries shows that the policy support from the People’s Republic of China, the United States of America, Germany, and Italy significantly benefits the progress of INISWS research. The co-occurrence analysis of keywords was carried out to highlight the new research frontiers and current hotspots. Lastly, the findings of kernel, spike, and canopy scales are presented regarding the best algorithmic, sensitive feature, and instrument techniques. Full article

Aspergillus westerdijkiae, known as the major ochratoxin A (OTA) producer, usually occurs on agricultural crops, fruits, and dry-cured meats. Microorganisms produce OTA to adapt to the high osmotic pressure environment that is generated during food processing and storage. To investigate the relationship between OTA biosynthesis and the high osmolarity glycerol (HOG) pathway, the transcription factor AwHog1 gene in A. westerdijkiae was functionally characterised by means of a loss-of-function mutant. Our findings demonstrated that the growth and OTA production of a mutant lacking AwHog1 decreased significantly and was more sensitive to high osmotic media. The ΔAwHog1 mutant displayed a lower growth rate and a 73.16% reduction in OTA production in the wheat medium compared to the wild type. After three days of culture, the growth rate of the ΔAwHog1 mutant in medium with 60 g/L NaCl and 150 g/L glucose was slowed down 19.57% and 13.21%, respectively. Additionally, the expression of OTA biosynthesis genes was significantly reduced by the deletion of the AwHog1 gene. The infection ability of the ΔAwHog1 mutant was decreased, and the scab diameter of the pear was 6% smaller than that of the wild type. These data revealed that transcription factor AwHog1 plays a key role in the osmotic response, growth, OTA production, and pathogenicity in A. westerdijkiae. Full article

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a major threat for wheat production worldwide. Most reviews focus on Fusarium graminearum as a main causal agent of FHB. However, different Fusarium species are involved in this disease complex. These species differ in their geographic adaptation and mycotoxin profile. The incidence of FHB epidemics is highly correlated with weather conditions, especially rainy days with warm temperatures at anthesis and an abundance of primary inoculum. Yield losses due to the disease can reach up to 80% of the crop. This review summarizes the Fusarium species involved in the FHB disease complex with the corresponding mycotoxin profiles, disease cycle, diagnostic methods, the history of FHB epidemics, and the management strategy of the disease. In addition, it discusses the role of remote sensing technology in the integrated management of the disease. This technology can accelerate the phenotyping process in the breeding programs aiming at FHB-resistant varieties. Moreover, it can support the decision-making strategies to apply fungicides via monitoring and early detection of the diseases under field conditions. It can also be used for selective harvest to avoid mycotoxin-contaminated plots in the field. Full article

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is primarily caused by Fusarium graminearum and severely reduces wheat yield, causing mycotoxin contamination in grains and derived products. F. graminearum-secreted chemical toxins stably accumulate in plant cells, disturbing host metabolic homeostasis. We determined the potential mechanisms underlying FHB resistance and susceptibility in wheat. Three representative wheat varieties (Sumai 3, Yangmai 158, and Annong 8455) were inoculated with F. graminearum and their metabolite changes were assessed and compared. In total, 365 differentiated metabolites were successfully identified. Amino acids and derivatives, carbohydrates, flavonoids, hydroxycinnamate derivatives, lipids, and nucleotides constituted the major changes in response to fungal infection. Changes in defense-associated metabolites, such as flavonoids and hydroxycinnamate derivatives, were dynamic and differed among the varieties. Nucleotide and amino acid metabolism and the tricarboxylic acid cycle were more active in the highly and moderately resistant varieties than in the highly susceptible variety. We demonstrated that two plant-derived metabolites, phenylalanine and malate, significantly suppressed F. graminearum growth. The genes encoding the biosynthetic enzymes for these two metabolites were upregulated in wheat spike during F. graminearum infection. Thus, our findings uncovered the metabolic basis of resistance and susceptibility of wheat to F. graminearum and provided insights into engineering metabolic pathways to enhance FHB resistance in wheat. Full article

The AP1 complex is a highly conserved clathrin adaptor that plays important roles in regulating cargo protein sorting and intracellular vesicle trafficking in eukaryotes. However, the functions of the AP1 complex in the plant pathogenic fungi including the devastating wheat pathogen Fusarium graminearum are still unclear. In this study, we investigated the biological functions of FgAP1^σ, a subunit of the AP1 complex in F. graminearum. Disruption of FgAP1^σ causes seriously impaired fungal vegetative growth, conidiogenesis, sexual development, pathogenesis, and deoxynivalenol (DON) production. The ΔFgap1^σ mutants were found to be less sensitive to KCl- and sorbitol-induced osmotic stresses but more sensitive to SDS-induced stress than the wild-type PH-1. Although the growth inhibition rate of the ΔFgap1^σ mutants was not significantly changed under calcofluor white (CFW) and Congo red (CR) stresses, the protoplasts released from ΔFgap1^σ hyphae were decreased compared with the wild-type PH-1, suggesting that FgAP1^σ is necessary for cell wall integrity and osmotic stresses in F. graminearum. Subcellular localization assays showed that FgAP1^σ was predominantly localized to endosomes and the Golgi apparatus. In addition, FgAP1^β-GFP, FgAP1^γ-GFP, and FgAP1^μ-GFP also localize to the Golgi apparatus. FgAP1^β interacts with FgAP1^σ, FgAP1^γ, and FgAP1^μ, while FgAP1^σ regulates the expression of FgAP1^β, FgAP1^γ, and FgAP1^μ in F. graminearum. Furthermore, the loss of FgAP1^σ blocks the transportation of the v-SNARE protein FgSnc1 from the Golgi to the plasma membrane and delays the internalization of FM4-64 dye into the vacuole. Taken together, our results demonstrate that FgAP1^σ plays vital roles in vegetative growth, conidiogenesis, sexual reproduction, DON production, pathogenicity, cell wall integrity, osmotic stress, exocytosis, and endocytosis in F. graminearum. These findings unveil the functions of the AP1 complex in filamentous fungi, most notably in F. graminearum, and lay solid foundations for effective prevention and control of Fusarium head blight (FHB). Full article

Smi1 is a protein required for cell cycle progression, morphogenesis, stress response and life span of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. FaSmi1 was identified as a Smi1 homolog in a wheat scab pathogenic fungus Fusarium asiaticum strain 2021. The deletion of FaSmi1 leads to defects in mycelial growth, asexual reproduction, and virulence. The FaSmi1 deletion mutant also exhibited increased sensitivity to osmotic stresses generated by NaCl and KCl, but increased tolerance to oxidative stresses and cell wall integrity inhibitors. All of these defects were restored by genetic complementation of the mutant with the whole parental FaSmi1 gene. Interestingly, the antioxidant system-associated genes exhibit a lower expression level and the mycotoxins’ DON content was decreased in the FaSmi1 deletion mutant compared with the parental strain 2021. These results indicate that FaSmi1 plays a critical role in the vegetative development, asexual reproduction, DON production and virulence of F. asiaticum. Full article

This study took the wheat grown in the experimental area of Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences as the research object and used the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to carry the Rededge-MX multispectral camera to obtain the wheat scab image with different spatial resolutions (1.44 cm, 2.11 cm, 3.47 cm, 4.96 cm, 6.34 cm, and 7.67 cm). The vegetation indexes (VIs) and texture features (TFs) extracted from the UAV multispectral image were screened for high correlation with the disease index (DI) to investigate the impact of spatial resolution on the accuracy of UAV multispectral wheat scab monitoring. Finally, the best spatial resolution for UAV multispectral monitoring of wheat scab was determined to be 3.47 cm, and then, based on the 3.47 cm best resolution image, VIs and TFs were used as input variables, and three algorithms of partial least squares regression (PLSR), support vector machine regression (SVR), and back propagation neural network (BPNN) was used to establish wheat scab, monitoring models. The findings demonstrated that the VIs and TFs fusion model was more appropriate for monitoring wheat scabs by UAV remote sensing and had better fitting and monitoring accuracy than the single data source monitoring model during the wheat filling period. The SVR algorithm has the best monitoring effect in the multi-source data fusion model (VIs and TFs). The training set was identified as 0.81, 4.27, and 1.88 for the coefficient of determination (R²), root mean square error (RMSE), and relative percent deviation (RPD). The verification set was identified as 0.83, 3.35, and 2.72 for R², RMSE, and RPD. In conclusion, the results of this study provide a scheme for the field crop diseases in the UAV monitoring area, especially for the classification and variable application of wheat scabs by near-earth remote sensing monitoring. Full article

Serine/arginine (SR) proteins are essential pre-mRNA splicing factors in eukaryotic organisms. Our previous studies have shownthat the unique SR-specific protein kinase Srk1 is important for RNA splicing and gene transcription in Fusarium graminearum, and interacts with two SR proteins, FgSrp1 and FgSrp2. In this study, we have identified an SR-like protein called Sgh1 in F. graminearum, which is orthologous to budding yeast paralogous Gbp2 and Hrb1. Our data have shownthat the Sgh1 is involved in vegetative growth, conidiation, sexual reproduction, DON synthesis, and plant infection. Moreover, the Sgh1 is mainly localized to the nucleus. RNA-seq analysis has shownthat the expression of over 1100 genes and the splicing efficiency in over 300 introns were affected in the Δsgh1 mutant. Although the RS domain and all three of the RRM domains are important for the Sgh1 functions, only the RS domain is responsible for its nuclear localization. Finally, we verified that the Sgh1 interacts with the unique SR-specific kinase Srk1 in F. graminearum by the yeast-two hybrid (Y2H) and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assays. Taken together, our results have revealed that the Sgh1 regulates the fungal development, plant infection, and the pre-mRNA processing, and the RS domain regulates the function of the Sgh1 by modulating its nucleocytoplasmic shuttling. Full article

Fusarium graminearum causing head scab (HS) or head blight (HB) disease in wheat is one of the nasty fungi reported to cause significant grain quality and yield loss. Biological control using endophytic bacteria has emerged as a prospective option for containing fungal diseases in an environmentally benevolent, durable, and sustainable manner. In this regard, 112 endophytic bacilli were isolated from the anthesis stage (Zadok’s growth stage 65) from five different wheat genotypes with an aim to identify prospective antagonistic strains against F. graminearum. The molecular identity of the strains was confirmed by matching 16S rRNA sequences of bacterial strains with the gene sequences of type strains available in the National Center for Biotechnology Information database and reported 38 different species of Bacillus in all the five wheat cultivars. Further, it has been observed that only fourteen strains (B. clarus NOK09, B. mojavensis NOK16, B. subtilis NOK33, B. rugosus NOK47, B. mojavensis NOK52, B. clarus NOK59, B. coahuilensis NOK72, B. cabrialesii NOK78, B. cabrialesii NOK82, B. rugosus NOK85, B. amyloliquefaciens NOK89, B. australimaris NOK95, B. pumilus NOK103, and B. amyloliquefaciens NOK109) displayed in-vitro antagonistic effect against Fusarium graminearum fungus. Furthermore, the three endophytic Bacillus strains showing the strongest antagonistic effect (>70% of growth inhibition of fungal mycelium) under in-vitro antagonistic assay were selected for field experiments. In a two-year consecutive field study, a combination of three strains (B. clarus NOK09 + B. subtilis NOK33 + B. amyloliquefaciens NOK109) displayed a remarkable reduction in HS disease index by 81.47% and 77.85%, respectively. Polymerase chain reaction assay detected three genes (ituD, bmyC, and srfA) involved in antibiotic biosynthesis pathways. Additional attributes such as potassium solubilization, siderophore release, and hydrolytic enzyme (protease, lipase, amylase, chitinase, and pectinase) synthesis have been observed in these strains. Overall, the present study was successful in profiling endophytic bacilli and selecting the combination of effective antagonistic endophytic Bacillus strains that could be the best alternative for the sustainable and ecological sound management of HS disease in wheat under field conditions. Full article

Fusarium head blight (FHB), caused by the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum, is a destructive disease worldwide. Ascospores are the primary inoculum of F. graminearum, and sexual reproduction is a critical step in its infection cycle. In this study, we characterized the functions of FgCsn12. Although the ortholog of FgCsn12 in budding yeast was reported to have a direct interaction with Csn5, which served as the core subunit of the COP9 signalosome, the interaction between FgCsn12 and FgCsn5 was not detected through the yeast two-hybrid assay. The deletion of FgCSN12 resulted in slight defects in the growth rate, conidial morphology, and pathogenicity. Instead of forming four-celled, uninucleate ascospores, the Fgcsn12 deletion mutant produced oval ascospores with only one or two cells and was significantly defective in ascospore discharge. The 3′UTR of FgCsn12 was dispensable for vegetative growth but essential for sexual reproductive functions. Compared with those of the wild type, 1204 genes and 2240 genes were up- and downregulated over twofold, respectively, in the Fgcsn12 mutant. Taken together, FgCsn12 demonstrated an important function in the regulation of ascosporogenesis in F. graminearum. Full article