Frontiers In Plant Science[JOURNAL]
Sun
200 papers
Integrated metabolomics, network pharmacology and molecular docking to reveal the effects of drying processes on the antioxidant activity of mulberry ( L.) leaves.
Liu Y, Chi W, Liu Q
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42339391 · Full text
INTRODUCTION: Mulberry ( L.) leaves (MLs), a well-known food-medicine homologous substance, possess potent properties against oxidative stress. However, the impact of industrial drying methods on their antioxidant activi...
INTRODUCTION: Mulberry ( L.) leaves (MLs), a well-known food-medicine homologous substance, possess potent properties against oxidative stress. However, the impact of industrial drying methods on their antioxidant activity is still not completely clear. METHODS: A comprehensive approach based on UPLC-MS/MS metabolomics, network pharmacology and molecular docking was employed to find the active compounds in MLs treated by different drying methods and their potential antioxidant mechanisms in this study. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: A total of 1467 metabolites were detected through UPLC-MS/MS analysis, and differential metabolites of MLs were searched by multivariate statistical analysis. Hot-air dried MLs exhibited the highest DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging capacities, as well as the strongest ferric reducing antioxidant power. This enhanced activity might be attributed to the maximal hydrolysis of kaempferol glycosides, leading to the significant accumulation of free kaempferol. Network pharmacology analysis further revealed that the bioactive compounds in MLs exerted their antioxidant effects by targeting key proteins, including AKT1, TNF, ALB, IL-1B, and BCL2. These findings provided valuable insights into how different drying methods influenced the antioxidant property of MLs.
Soil function reshaping and crop yield driving mechanisms in saline-alkali soil under freezing saline water irrigation.
Li J, Qu Z, Wang L … +4 more , Tang P, Gao X, Hasi G, Zhang D
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42339390 · Full text
INTRODUCTION: Freshwater scarcity and soil salinization constrain agricultural production in arid and semi-arid regions. Freezing saline water irrigation (FSWI) offers a potential strategy for using saline water during t...
INTRODUCTION: Freshwater scarcity and soil salinization constrain agricultural production in arid and semi-arid regions. Freezing saline water irrigation (FSWI) offers a potential strategy for using saline water during the freeze-thaw period, but the optimal irrigation amount and its yield-driving mechanisms remain unclear. METHODS: Here, a three-year field experiment was conducted from 2022 to 2024 in Dalad Banner, Inner Mongolia, China, with four FSWI treatments of 0, 90, 180 and 270 mm. We evaluated pre-sowing soil hydrothermal, salinity and microbial functional indicators, and assessed sunflower growth, yield and seed quality under uniform agronomic management. RESULTS: Among the treatments, FSWI180 showed the best overall performance. It maintained favorable pre-sowing soil moisture and salinity conditions, increased yield by 93% relative to the non-irrigated control, and improved seed oil content to 43.96%. It also achieved the highest comprehensive growth and quality indices, with mean GI and QI values of 2.126 and 1.182, respectively. XGBoost-SHAP analysis identified soil moisture, total salinity, electrical conductivity and community robustness as the main yield-driving factors, together accounting for 74.75% of the total contribution. DISCUSSION: These results indicate that 180 mm FSWI can coordinate soil water storage, salinity regulation and microbial functional stability, thereby supporting stable yield improvement and high-quality sunflower production in cold arid saline-alkali regions.
A nanotechnology-based approach to enhance caraway ( L.) productivity, chemical, biochemical and essential oil under salinity stress.
El-Mahrouk EM, Tayaa AM, Gaber MK … +5 more , Atef EA, Cristiano G, Loconsole D, De Lucia B, Ahmed MAA
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42339389 · Full text
Salt stress is an abiotic stressor that adversely affects the growth and productivity of caraway, an important aromatic plant. A randomized complete split-plot design was used to determine the nanoparticles of zinc oxide...
Salt stress is an abiotic stressor that adversely affects the growth and productivity of caraway, an important aromatic plant. A randomized complete split-plot design was used to determine the nanoparticles of zinc oxide (ZnO NPs) effects at levels of 0, 0.2, and 0.4 g L on fruit yield, chemical and biochemical composition, and essential oil (EO) productivity of caraway plants subjected to saline irrigation water containing 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 g L sodium chloride (NaCl). The results indicated that increasing NaCl concentrations significantly reduced yield traits, relative water content, salinity tolerance index, leaf pigment concentrations, N, P, K, and Zn concentrations, fruits' total proteins and total carbohydrates and percentage and yield/plant of essential oil (EO) in comparison to the untreated plants. Conversely, proline content, Na% and Cl%, and the activities of catalase, peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and polyphenol oxidase increased with increasing NaCl concentrations relative to the control. Foliar application of ZnO NPs significantly increased the parameters relative to the untreated control except proline content, Na%, and Cl%, which were in comparison to respective control significantly reduced. Moreover, utilization of ZnO NPs positively affected the traits mentioned above under all NaCl concentrations tested compared to treatments without ZnO NPs. Different combinations of NaCl and ZnO NPs concentrations had varying effects on EO composition. A total of 32 compounds were identified across all treatment combinations, with the highest number (14) observed in the control. The major EO compounds were carvone (up to 49.71%) in the 2 g L NaCl + 0.2 g L ZnO NPs treatment, limonene (up to 28.68%) in the 2 g L NaCl + 0.4 g L ZnO NPs treatment, and D-limonene (up to 25.95%) in the 4 g L NaCl + 0 g L ZnO NPs treatment. These results suggest that the application of ZnO NPs may provide a sustainable approach to caraway cultivation under saline conditions.
Multivariate analysis of yield, physiological, and biochemical traits in peanut ( L.) cultivars.
Beycioglu T
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42339388 · Full text
INTRODUCTION: This study was carried out for two years to determine the performance of different peanut ( L.) cultivars in terms of yield, quality, physiological parameters, and bioactive compounds, and to identify the r...
INTRODUCTION: This study was carried out for two years to determine the performance of different peanut ( L.) cultivars in terms of yield, quality, physiological parameters, and bioactive compounds, and to identify the relationships among these traits using multivariate analysis methods. METHODS: In the study, the pod yield, oil and protein content, fatty acid composition, leaf area index (LAI), chlorophyll content, total phenolic content, flavonoid content, and antioxidant activity parameters of 10 different peanut cultivars were examined. RESULTS: Analysis of variance results indicated that for all parameters examined, the effects of cultivar, year, and the C × Y interaction were statistically significant ( < 0.01). The highest pod yield was obtained from the Osmaniye 2005 (4815.70 kg ha⁻¹) and Sultan (4683.50 kg ha⁻¹) cultivars, while the highest oil content (54.95%) and oleic acid percentage (68.44%) were obtained from the Brantley cultivar. The negative correlation observed between oleic and linoleic acid ratios indicated that cultivars with high oleic acid content exhibited higher oxidative stability. Physiological analyses revealed that chlorophyll content during the pod development stage had a more pronounced positive effect on yield components compared to the flowering stage. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Heat Map results showed that the cultivars were grouped into two main clusters focused on yield and quality. Osmaniye 2005 and Sultan cultivars were identified as the most superior parental candidates for breeding programs in terms of yield, while Brantley was identified as the most superior candidate for high oil quality. Additionally, 3D surface response modeling revealed a strong correlation between yield increase and high photosynthetic capacity and antioxidant activity. DISCUSSION: Consequently, this study may provide critical selection criteria and genetic materials for the development of new peanut cultivars with both high yield and superior oil quality.
ESE-PWDNet: an efficient early-stage pine wilt disease detection network.
Ma Z, Wang F, Lin H
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42339387 · Full text
To address the challenge of difficult small target recognition in the early detection of Pine Wilt Disease (PWD), this study proposes an efficient Unmanned Aerial Vehicle remote sensing detection model named ESE-PWDNet (...
To address the challenge of difficult small target recognition in the early detection of Pine Wilt Disease (PWD), this study proposes an efficient Unmanned Aerial Vehicle remote sensing detection model named ESE-PWDNet (Efficient Small-scale Early PWD Detection Network). Using a DJI Air3 UAV platform, a multi-temporal and multi-view high-resolution dataset of early-stage PWD was independently constructed in the Tangshan Forest Area, Jiangning District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province. Based on this dataset, a key module-the Efficient Visual Linear Unit (EFVLU)-was designed. Serving as the foundational building block of ESE-PWDNet, the EFVLU combines with convolutional modules (Conv) to form the backbone network, which efficiently captures global dependencies and improves the detection of small targets through global context while reducing computational complexity. Furthermore, inspired by the PANet architecture and utilizing the Attention State Space Block (ASSB), a novel neck network was designed to empower the model with efficient high-resolution image processing capabilities while maintaining high computational efficiency. In the prediction head, the introduction of the Efficient Multi-scale Attention (EMA) mechanism and the Lightweight Shared Detail Enhanced Convolutional Detection Head (LSDECD) comprehensively enhances the model's perception and localization capabilities for small targets with almost no additional inference computational cost. Experiments on the constructed multi-environment early PWD dataset demonstrate that ESE-PWDNet significantly improves the recognition performance of tiny disease targets in complex scenes. The final model maintains high inference efficiency, achieving a Precision (P) of 75.9% and a Recall (R) of 75.1%, with a low computational complexity of 6.5 GFLOPs and 2.6M parameters. Its comprehensive performance outperforms mainstream comparative models. This research provides a reliable technical solution and data foundation for the early and precise UAV remote sensing monitoring of forestry pests.
Drought adaptation in spring wheat seedlings relies on coordinated deep root architecture and cortical tissue allocation.
Li X, Guo C, Bai C … +7 more , Wang S, Gao X, Huo J, Cui F, Fan H, Bao X, Zhao C
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42339386 · Full text
INTRODUCTION: Root anatomical traits and spatial architecture play a critical role in crop water acquisition and utilization, directly impacting drought tolerance. However, comprehensive studies examining the synergistic...
INTRODUCTION: Root anatomical traits and spatial architecture play a critical role in crop water acquisition and utilization, directly impacting drought tolerance. However, comprehensive studies examining the synergistic effects of deep root configuration and cortical tissue organization under drought stress during the seedling stage remain scarce. Additionally, the underlying physiological mechanisms are not yet well understood. METHODS: In this study, we utilized a high-throughput, paper-based phenotyping platform to simulate drought stress using 10% PEG. An efficient, multi-trait evaluation framework was employed to classify the 28 tested genotypes into five drought tolerance categories. RESULTS: This approach enabled the identification of drought-tolerant cultivars "Ruichun 1," "Ningchun 11," and "Ningchun 57," as well as the drought-sensitive cultivar "Dingxi 48." Root traits, including maximum depth, convex hull area, and plant height, demonstrated strong explanatory power and could serve as valuable phenotypic indicators for seedling stage screening. Our findings suggest that drought adaptation in spring wheat involves a strategic coupling in which specific cortical configurations facilitate the development of deep root architecture. While previous studies have often focused on individual parameters, we show that drought-tolerant genotypes optimize root growth in deeper segments of the growth medium by adjusting cortical tissue proportions, potentially minimizing metabolic costs. DISCUSSION: This integrated perspective offers a detailed physiological framework for understanding drought resilience and moves toward a mechanism-based interpretation of resource reallocation. However, it is important to note that these results were obtained using a paper-based phenotyping platform under PEG-induced osmotic stress, reflecting the genotypic potential at the seedling stage rather than actual field drought tolerance. In conclusion, combining the paper-based high-throughput phenotyping platform with a multi-trait evaluation framework allows for the accurate classification of drought tolerance types and the efficient identification of representative spring wheat cultivars. The findings emphasize the importance of deep root configuration and optimized cortical allocation as fundamental components of the root structural basis for drought adaptation in spring wheat. These results provide clear phenotypic targets for early-stage screening, which should be further validated at later developmental stages and under field conditions before being applied in breeding programs.
Double-stage insect recognition model based on synergistic localization of key parts.
Chen D, Shi Y, Zhang S … +2 more , Huang J, Zhang J
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42339385 · Full text
INTRODUCTION: Currently, pests and diseases have caused great losses in global agricultural production systems. However, the Solenopsis invicta has a high degree of interspecific similarity and often pose a great challen...
INTRODUCTION: Currently, pests and diseases have caused great losses in global agricultural production systems. However, the Solenopsis invicta has a high degree of interspecific similarity and often pose a great challenge in the accurate identification of insects. METHODS: In order to distinguish closely related species of small insects, this study proposes a Double-stage Insect Recognition Model (DIRM) based on the synergistic localization of key anatomical sites. The model uses the object detection network to pinpoint and crop the key part regions of the target object, and then feed these regions into the classification network and fuse the centroid information, the Global Context Enhancer (GCE) module, and the adaptive synergistic mechanism to linearly synthesis the features of each part in order to efficiently and accurately identify morphologically similar ant species. RESULTS: Experimental results demonstrate that this approach substantially improves the classification accuracy of morphologically similar ant species, achieving over 95% accuracy on the constructed Ant7C dataset. Compared with conventional single-stage deep learning classifiers, the proposed DIRM method exhibits greater robustness in handling small targets, complex backgrounds, and closely related species. DISCUSSION: Beyond its applicability to ant identification, the model holds potential for broader applications in the recognition of insects and ecological monitoring.
From green to red: metabolic reprogramming and bacterial community succession underpin cherry tomato fruit ripening and quality formation.
Hussain M, Ahmed N, Yang Z … +5 more , Xie X, Xing W, Su H, Peng Q, Zhu Z
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42339384 · Full text
Tomato fruit ripening is accompanied by profound biochemical and microbial-associated changes that collectively shape fruit flavor, quality, and susceptibility to (a)biotic stresses. However, integrated insights into the...
Tomato fruit ripening is accompanied by profound biochemical and microbial-associated changes that collectively shape fruit flavor, quality, and susceptibility to (a)biotic stresses. However, integrated insights into the co-varying effect of metabolic reprogramming and fruit-associated microbiome across ripening stages remain limited. Here, we employed a multi-omics approach to investigate stage-dependent shifts in the metabolome and bacteriome of cherry tomato fruits across three ripening stages: mature green, pink, and red ripe. Fruit quality analysis revealed a significant increase in soluble sugars, lycopene, and ascorbic acid from the green to the red stage. Untargeted metabolomics showed extensive metabolic reprogramming during ripening, characterized by the marked accumulation of lipids, amino acids, carbohydrates, terpenoids, and flavonoids in red ripe fruits, alongside a decline in defensive alkaloids such as tomatine. High-throughput 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing showed that bacterial diversity and community composition shifted significantly with ripening, with red ripe fruits harboring higher diversity and enrichment of gram-positive taxa, including , , , , , and , whereas was enriched in the mature green stage. Correlation analysis revealed a strong association between specific bacterial taxa and ripening-related metabolites, suggesting a link between microbial succession and metabolic remodeling. Together, these findings demonstrate that tomato fruit ripening involves tightly coupled metabolic and microbial dynamics, providing new insights into fruit quality formation and postharvest ecology for sustainable agriculture.
Phase separation in plants: mechanisms, functions, and a simplified workflow for investigation.
Shen H, Zou X, Li P … +3 more , Huang X, Zheng S, Ren Z
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42339383 · Full text
Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) has emerged as a fundamental mechanism organizing membrane-less compartments within cells, driving crucial biological processes. In plants, LLPS facilitates the spatiotemporal regula...
Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) has emerged as a fundamental mechanism organizing membrane-less compartments within cells, driving crucial biological processes. In plants, LLPS facilitates the spatiotemporal regulation of diverse functions, from growth and development, such as hormone signaling, photo-perception, and floral transition, to adaptive responses against abiotic and biotic stresses. This review outlines the properties and major driving forces governing LLPS, emphasizing multivalent interactions mediated by intrinsically disordered regions, repeated domains, and nucleic acids. Key influencing factors, including concentration, temperature, and ionic conditions, are discussed. We further describe a streamlined experimental workflow for studying plant LLPS, encompassing prediction, assessment, and validation. Understanding LLPS dynamics offers profound insights into plant adaptation and resilience, positioning phase separation as a pivotal regulatory paradigm in plant biology.
Pangenome-scale analysis of the PYL gene family reveals evolutionary conservation, regulatory diversification and salt-responsive haplotypes in .
Liu X, Nie Y, Chen X … +7 more , Ding X, Chen T, Zhao Y, Zhao X, Yan Y, Zhang M, Liu M
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42339382 · Full text
Abscisic acid (ABA) signaling is a central determinant of plant stress adaptation, yet the evolutionary and functional diversity of its receptor family remains poorly understood at the pangenome scale in polyploid crops....
Abscisic acid (ABA) signaling is a central determinant of plant stress adaptation, yet the evolutionary and functional diversity of its receptor family remains poorly understood at the pangenome scale in polyploid crops. We analyzed the PYL ABA receptor family across eight high-quality genomes and identified 405 genes, revealing a predominantly conserved core repertoire together with a limited but dynamic dispensable fraction. Although retained a highly conserved phylogenetic framework, gene gain and loss varied among clades, and structural diversification was concentrated in non-core members. Promoter and transposable-element analyses indicated that regulatory-region variation may have contributed to family diversification, with the presence of putative MYB/MYC, ABA- jasmonate, and light-responsive cis-elements and widespread transposable-element accumulation in flanking regions. Copy number, structural variation and duplication analyses showed that the family was shaped primarily by ancient whole-genome duplication, followed by localized copy-number changes and asymmetric structural remodeling between subgenomes. Despite this genomic plasticity, remained under pervasive purifying selection and displayed strong syntenic conservation across accessions. Expression profiling uncovered substantial transcriptional divergence, including widespread root-preferential expression and selective induction of specific under salt stress. Four salt-responsive genes were validated by qRT-PCR, and haplotype analysis further showed that natural allelic variation at these loci is associated with yield performance under saline-alkaline conditions. These findings establish a pangenome framework for understanding the evolutionary stability and functional diversification of ABA receptors in rapeseed, and provide candidate allelic resources for future functional validation and breeding improvement of stress resilience and yield stability.
Reframing fruit biofortification for sustainable micronutrient security: from crop innovation to nutritional impact.
Bashir T, Rashid R, Malik AR … +6 more , Sundouri AS, Bhat KM, Mir MA, Rehman MU, Masood M, Tehleelah
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42339381 · Full text
Micronutrient malnutrition, commonly referred to as "hidden hunger, " remains a persistent global health challenge, particularly in regions with limited dietary diversity. Although agricultural intensification has substa...
Micronutrient malnutrition, commonly referred to as "hidden hunger, " remains a persistent global health challenge, particularly in regions with limited dietary diversity. Although agricultural intensification has substantially improved caloric availability, it has not ensured adequate micronutrient density in food systems, highlighting the urgent need for nutrition-sensitive crop improvement strategies. Biofortification has emerged as a sustainable and cost-effective approach to enhance the micronutrient content of food crops through agronomic, genetic, and biotechnological interventions. While biofortification research has predominantly focused on staple cereals and legumes, horticultural fruit crops have received comparatively limited attention despite their widespread consumption, high consumer acceptance, and natural richness in bioactive compounds. This review advances beyond existing overviews by providing a critical and comparative evaluation of agronomic, conventional breeding, and biotechnological approaches for fruit crop biofortification, with particular emphasis on their effectiveness, scalability, limitations, and translational potential. Current advances aimed at enhancing iron, zinc, iodine, selenium, and provitamin A concentrations are comprehensively synthesized. Special attention is given to the physiological and molecular mechanisms regulating micronutrient uptake, transport, accumulation, and storage in fruit tissues. In addition, advanced biotechnological tools, including CRISPR/Cas-mediated genome editing, are critically assessed in relation to biosafety, regulatory considerations, and practical applicability. Evidence from major fruit crops, including apple, banana, mango, pomegranate, strawberry, and papaya, demonstrates that integrated biofortification strategies can improve micronutrient density while maintaining fruit yield and quality. Importantly, this review addresses a major knowledge gap by linking crop-level nutrient enhancement with micronutrient bioavailability and human nutritional outcomes, emphasizing the influence of food matrix interactions and nutrient absorption efficiency. Key constraints, including genotype × environment interactions, postharvest nutrient instability, climate-driven variability, and limited clinical validation, are also discussed. Finally, a systems-level framework integrating plant science, human nutrition, postharvest biology, and policy perspectives is proposed to support the large-scale adoption of nutrition-sensitive fruit biofortification. Collectively, fruit crop biofortification represents a promising strategy for improving global micronutrient security and advancing sustainable food systems.
Functional integration of LCIB, a component of the algal carbon-concentrating mechanism, enhances carbon assimilation, nitrogen-use efficiency, and biomass in tobacco.
Barsoum M, Buntru M, Schillberg S … +1 more , Nölke G
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42328090 · Full text
Engineering carbon-concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) into C3 crops is a promising strategy to improve photosynthetic efficiency by increasing the availability of CO near the active site of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxy...
Engineering carbon-concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) into C3 crops is a promising strategy to improve photosynthetic efficiency by increasing the availability of CO near the active site of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO), the enzyme responsible for carbon fixation. The biophysical CCM of the green alga includes stromal limiting CO-inducible protein B (LCIB) protein, which contributes to inorganic carbon retention. Here, we accumulated LCIB in the stroma of tobacco chloroplasts to evaluate its effect on carbon assimilation and plant productivity. LCIB was exclusively localized in the stroma and remained biologically active, leading to a ~3-fold increase in total carbonic anhydrase activity and a lower apparent CO compensation point (-10%). This resulted in a significantly 12% higher net CO assimilation rate under ambient conditions, reflecting an increase in photochemical performance including a higher electron transport rate and effective quantum yield of PSII (+14%). Consistent with improved assimilation, LCIB lines accumulated higher levels of soluble sugars and end-of-day starch. Untargeted metabolomics revealed widespread increases in the levels of amino acids and tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates, suggesting enhanced integration of fixed carbon into nitrogen metabolism. LCIB lines also accumulated twice as much biomass as wild-type counterparts during early development, resulting in up to 19% more fresh weight (FW) and 15.4% more dry weight (DW) at the end of vegetative growth. These lines also maintained higher chlorophyll levels and elevated nitrate reductase activity under limiting nitrogen conditions, and accumulated substantially more shoot (+ 79% FW; + 55% DW) and root (61% FW; 46% DW) biomass while C/N ratios remained similar to wild-type plants. Together, these findings demonstrate that stromal expression of the algal CCM protein LCIB enhances photosynthetic carbon assimilation, supports coordinated carbon-nitrogen metabolism, and improves biomass accumulation in a C3 plant without reconstructing a complete CCM. The targeted enhancement of stromal inorganic carbon retention is therefore a useful incremental strategy to improve C3 photosynthetic performance.
An end-to-end detection and classification model for tea leaf grading in complex orchard environments.
Hong W, Wang T, Zu W … +4 more , Huan M, Liang L, Jia L, Yao C
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42328089 · Full text
INTRODUCTION: Existing detection models for automatic tea-grade determination in open-field, complex habitats suffer from insufficient feature robustness, weak suppression of background interference, and difficulty in ba...
INTRODUCTION: Existing detection models for automatic tea-grade determination in open-field, complex habitats suffer from insufficient feature robustness, weak suppression of background interference, and difficulty in balancing lightweight design with accuracy. To address these limitations, this study proposes Tea-DETR, a model tailored for open-air tea garden scenarios based on the end-to-end RT-DETR detection paradigm. METHODS: The proposed method enhances feature representation and attention allocation from two aspects: backbone optimization and feature interaction enhancement. First, a lightweight backbone module is designed to strengthen long-range dependency modeling and improve suppression of complex background interference, thereby enhancing the robustness and discriminability of multi-scale tea-leaf features under occlusion and illumination variations. Second, an efficient attention-enhancement mechanism is introduced to reduce redundant feature interactions and enable adaptive focus on critical target regions, improving the model's ability to capture subtle semantic differences among tea grades while maintaining computational efficiency. To validate the approach, Anji white tea from Zhejiang Province was selected as the experimental subject, and a single-leaf tea dataset containing 6,542 images was constructed. The dataset was split into training, validation, and test sets at a ratio of 8:1:1, based on which comparative experiments and convergence analyses were conducted. RESULTS: With the number of parameters reduced to 14.65M, Tea-DETR achieves an accuracy of 92.2% and improves mAP@0.5 to 82.0%, reducing parameters by 26.8% compared with the baseline model. In addition, Tea-DETR exhibits markedly improved convergence stability and substantially enhanced capability in distinguishing subtle semantic differences among tea grades, effectively alleviating ambiguous discrimination under complex backgrounds. DISCUSSION: Overall, the proposed method enhances the stability of fine-grained feature capture for small tea-leaf targets in open-field environments while maintaining real-time inference efficiency, providing a robust solution for real-time, non-destructive automatic tea-grade determination in field scenarios.
The multichromosomal structure evolution of mitogenomes and new insights into interrelationships of recently radiated tribes in Epidendroideae (Orchidaceae).
Wang M, Jiang J, Liang H … +8 more , Lei L, Chen Y, Li Y, Hua Y, Ma T, Ding W, Li X, Niu Z
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42328088 · Full text
INTRODUCTION: Epidendroideae is the largest subfamily in Orchidaceae, comprising over 20,000 species in 16 tribes, which are renowned for their remarkable morphological diversity and beautiful flowers. Although phylogene...
INTRODUCTION: Epidendroideae is the largest subfamily in Orchidaceae, comprising over 20,000 species in 16 tribes, which are renowned for their remarkable morphological diversity and beautiful flowers. Although phylogenetic relationships have been well-resolved in most tribes of Epidendroideae, controversies remain among some recently radiated tribes. To advance the knowledge of Epidendroideae relationships, we used complete mitochondrial sequences to reconstruct the phylogeny of 10 orchid species from the six recently radiated tribes of Epidendroideae. METHODS: We first assembled the complete mitogenome of using Illumina and Nanopore data. A comparative analysis was then conducted on nine mitogenomes from three orchid subfamilies. Additionally, we newly assembled 10 mitochondrial genomes of orchid species from six Epidendroideae tribes for phylogeny reconstruction and reconstructed both the mitochondrial and plastid phylogenies for these tribes. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The mitogenome of was 638,041 bp long with a multichromosomal structure. The comparative analysis of nine orchid mitogenomes revealed great variations in the structure and genome size, while sequence similarities among these mitogenomes were closely related to the phylogenetic affinity. Most clades were resolved in mitochondrial and plastid phylogenies. Moreover, the comparative analysis of phylogenetic topology showed discordances between the plastid and mitochondrial phylogenies. Our findings enriched the mitogenome database and the knowledge of evolutionary features of orchid mitogenomes. The whole genomic sequences of mitogenomes provided new insights into the interrelationships of Epidendroideae (Orchidaceae).
Genome editing of susceptibility gene enhances resistance in .
Bibi A, Ullah I, Aftab S … +3 more , Amin I, Bibi B, Schneiter R
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42328087 · Full text
Potato ( cultivation is severely constrained by multiple pathogens, among which late blight caused by the oomycete remains the most destructive disease. Developing pathogen-resistant cultivars can enhance productivity a...
Potato ( cultivation is severely constrained by multiple pathogens, among which late blight caused by the oomycete remains the most destructive disease. Developing pathogen-resistant cultivars can enhance productivity and reduce fungicide use in potato, where R-gene-based resistance is often overcome by evolving pathogen populations. Targeting susceptibility (S) genes represents a promising alternative strategy for improving disease resistance. Here, we employed CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to introduce a targeted missense single-nucleotide polymorphism in the susceptibility gene , a putative susceptibility-associated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel family gene showing sequence similarity to , to evaluate its association with late blight resistance. The sequence was retrieved from the Spud DB database, and guide RNAs targeting the first exon were designed, Cas-OFFinder was used for off-target assessment. -mediated transformation generated kanamycin-resistant edited lines, which were confirmed by PCR amplification of the Cas9 transgene. Resistance was evaluated using detached leaf assays following inoculation with , and lesion areas were measured at 7 days post-inoculation. Edited lines showed significantly reduced lesion sizes (~74% lower infection rates) compared with empty-vector control plants, without obvious visible developmental abnormalities under the tested growth conditions after visual inspection. These findings provide preliminary evidence that CRISPR/Cas9-mediated editing of is associated with reduced late blight severity in potato under controlled experimental conditions and support further evaluation in advanced generations and field environments.
Field evaluation of maize genotypes for resistance to pre-harvest ear rot and aflatoxin contamination under natural inoculation in Eastern and Northern Tanzania.
Abdallah MM, Madege RR, Chilagane LA
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42328086 · Full text
Maize, a staple for billions of people, is highly vulnerable to aflatoxin contamination caused by . Aflatoxins pose serious threats and risks to food safety, public health, and trade. This study aimed to evaluate and ide...
Maize, a staple for billions of people, is highly vulnerable to aflatoxin contamination caused by . Aflatoxins pose serious threats and risks to food safety, public health, and trade. This study aimed to evaluate and identify superior maize genotypes as potential sources of resistance for sustainable breeding programmes focused on high yield and aflatoxin resistance, ultimately reducing aflatoxin exposure. Twelve (12) genotypes were evaluated under natural aflatoxin-prone conditions using a 4 × 3 alpha lattice design across three locations: Ilonga-Kilosa, SUA-Morogoro, and Kirusix-Babati. Phenological, agronomic, and yield-related data were collected, and harvested ears were visually scored for ear rot (AER). Aflatoxin levels in kernels were analysed using Ultra High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC). Genotype (G) and environment (E) significantly influenced ear rot (ER), grain moisture (GM), and field weight (FW) (p < 0.05). G × E interactions were significant for ER and GM but not FW. Grain yield ranged from 1.63 to 5.54 t/ha (mean: 3.59 t/ha), with SUA recording the highest yield and lowest aflatoxin levels. Aflatoxin contamination varied from 0.16 to 14.34 µg/kg (mean: 4.225 µg/kg), with 50% of samples exceeding the EU safety limit of 4 µg/kg. Correlations between aflatoxin levels and agronomic traits/parameters related to aflatoxin contamination differed across environments, highlighting strong genotype and environmental effects. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) identified plant height, ear height, and flowering time as key contributors to aflatoxin contamination. These findings emphasise the need for breeding high-yielding, AER-resistant genotypes with reduced aflatoxin levels to enhance maize productivity and food safety.
Tropical fruits in the Mediterranean Basin: current research status, priorities, and knowledge gaps. A systematic review.
Massaad M, Scuderi D, Andolina F … +8 more , Bellitti S, Buscaglia A, Gugliuzza G, La Sala G, Mezzano M, Salsi G, Tinebra I, Farina V
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42328085 · Full text
Mediterranean Basin has recently emerged as a viable region for tropical fruit cultivation, as reflected by the expansion and increase of dedicated agricultural areas. However, research on these species remains scattered...
Mediterranean Basin has recently emerged as a viable region for tropical fruit cultivation, as reflected by the expansion and increase of dedicated agricultural areas. However, research on these species remains scattered, limited, and not always easily accessible. In this context, evidence-based synthesis is fundamental to assess the current research status and to identify knowledge gaps. In this study, we conduct a comprehensive systematic review to highlight research trends on major tropical fruit crops (mango, avocado, papaya, guava, litchi, dragon fruit, passion fruit, and cherimoya) across countries of the Mediterranean basin. The objective is to summarise key findings and pinpoint gaps that require further investigation. A final dataset of 517 publications was obtained following a PRISMA search protocol. Information, including studied species, varieties, year, geographic location, and thematic area, was retrieved and quantitatively analysed. Subsequently, a summary was compiled for each species based on the most relevant findings. Avocado (n = 200) and mango (n = 166) were the most studied species, whereas litchi, passionfruit, and guava were the least studied. Over the past 90 years, an average of five articles were published annually, with an increase to 17 per year in the last decade. A geographical research bias was evident, with most publications originating from the European part of the Mediterranean. Spain, Italy, and Egypt accounted for the highest number of publications, while Cyprus and Algeria had the fewest. Most studies were focused on pests and pathology, whereas ecosystem services and ethnobotany were the least explored thematic areas. Although grey literature and national reports may not have been fully captured due to indexing limitations, this review serves as both a compendium and a baseline for future research on tropical fruit cultivation in the Mediterranean Basin.
Coordinated regulation of nitrogen transport and assimilation drives high nitrogen use efficiency in sugarcane.
Qin CX, Chen ZL, Li AM … +5 more , Wang M, Chen JY, Pan YQ, Liao F, Huang DL
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42328084 · Full text
Improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is essential for sustainable sugarcane production. Breeding high-NUE varieties enables high yields under low nitrogen (N) input, and identifying NUE-related genes is a critical ste...
Improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is essential for sustainable sugarcane production. Breeding high-NUE varieties enables high yields under low nitrogen (N) input, and identifying NUE-related genes is a critical step for molecular breeding. In this study, we compared two sugarcane genotypes, AS108 (high NUE) and GT11 (low NUE), under normal N (NN) and low N (LN) conditions. AS108 maintained significantly higher biomass, nitrogen content, and NUE under nitrogen limitation. Integrative analyses of enzyme activity, gene expression, and correlation networks indicated that its superior performance results from coordinated, organ-specific enhancement of nitrogen transport and assimilation. AS108 displayed consistently higher Glutamine synthetasec (GS) and glutamate synthase (GOGAT) activities, earlier and stronger induction of high-affinity transporters NRT2 and NRT2.2, and dynamic network reorganization under low nitrogen conditions. Network analysis identified NRT2/NRT2.2 as central hubs coupling nitrate uptake with GS/GOGAT-mediated assimilation. Notably, key nitrate transporter genes peaked 30-60 days earlier in AS108, highlighting the importance of temporal coordination. Together, these findings define a systems-level mechanism in which early-activated nitrate transport drives downstream assimilation to sustain growth under nitrogen limitation, providing molecular targets for breeding high NUE sugarcane cultivars.
A desirability index framework for the bioprospecting of carrots grown in the Andean region for fresh, feed, cosmetic and nutraceutical applications.
Henao-Rojas JC, Umbacia-Ramirez C, Rodriguez-Quiroz T … +2 more , Ramirez-Gil JG, Osorio E
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42328083 · Full text
INTRODUCTION: Carrot agrobiodiversity encompasses a broad range of compositional, sensory, technological, and biofunctional attributes. However, its industrial valorization remains constrained by the lack of quantitative...
INTRODUCTION: Carrot agrobiodiversity encompasses a broad range of compositional, sensory, technological, and biofunctional attributes. However, its industrial valorization remains constrained by the lack of quantitative decision criteria capable of translating sector-specific quality priorities into operational specifications for raw-material selection. This study proposes an application-driven bioprospecting framework for Andean carrot materials by integrating multidimensional quality data into phenotypically coherent typologies and industry-tailored desirability indices. METHODS: Fourteen carrot materials grown under uniform Andean agronomic conditions were characterized using physicochemical, nutritional, colorimetric, safety-related, and biofunctional variables. Multivariate clustering, including PCA, K-means, and hierarchical clustering, was combined with univariate inference to identify statistically supported phenotypic contrasts. A mathematical framework implementing four sector-specific desirability indices-fresh consumption, functional foods, wet pet feed, and natural cosmetics-was developed using weighted utility functions, min-max normalization, and Gaussian penalty terms. RESULTS: The analysis resolved four contrasting phenotypic groups: an extreme purple phenotype with elevated phenolic content and antioxidant capacity; a pale group with reduced carotenoid levels; and two differentiated orange groups showing variation in pigment density, soluble solids, dry matter content, and morphometric uniformity. The industry-specific indices produced differentiated rankings across value chains, identifying 6KUR and 5BER as promising materials for fresh consumption, 13FLA for functional foods and natural cosmetics, and 9NAN, 13FLA, and 8NAN for wet pet feed. These results also revealed structural trade-offs, as no single genotype simultaneously maximized performance across all evaluated sectors. DISCUSSION: Overall, the proposed cluster-index-valorization workflow provides a reproducible quantitative framework linking agrobiodiversity characterization with industry-oriented raw-material selection. The approach supports early-stage portfolio design, sourcing decisions, and bioprospecting strategies for agro-industrial value chains prior to product-scale validation, while offering a transferable decision-support logic for plant matrices with relevant intra-specific variability.
One-year-old wood morphology and colorimetric indicators of cold hardiness in 'Frontenac' and 'Prairie Star' grapevines.
Delavar H, Hatterman-Valenti H, Kaya O
Front Plant Sci · 2026 · PMID 42328082 · Full text
Cold hardiness is a critical trait for grapevine survival and productivity in cold climates. This study examined the relationships among cane morphological characteristics, shoot color parameters, and cold hardiness in t...
Cold hardiness is a critical trait for grapevine survival and productivity in cold climates. This study examined the relationships among cane morphological characteristics, shoot color parameters, and cold hardiness in two grapevine cultivars ('Prairie Star' and 'Frontenac') across four dormant-season sampling times (ST 1-ST 4) and three internode diameter classes (small, normal, and large). Morphological traits, including internode length, shoot diameter, and cross-sectional area, did not show a consistent temporal trend across sampling periods, suggesting that the observed variation was primarily associated with sampling time and cane class rather than progressive structural change during dormancy. In contrast, colorimetric traits showed a clear seasonal pattern, with shoots becoming darker and redder from ST 1 to ST 4, consistent with advancing lignification and cane maturation. Cold hardiness, assessed using low-temperature exotherms of bud, phloem, and xylem tissues, increased substantially from early to mid-dormancy, with xylem tissues reaching the greatest freezing tolerance by ST 3-ST 4. 'Prairie Star' showed slightly greater xylem cold hardiness than 'Frontenac', while bud survival remained consistently high across all treatments. Strong associations between shoot color and LTE values indicate that color traits, particularly at the fifth internode, may serve as reliable non-destructive indicators of cold hardiness status. Sampling time was the primary source of multivariate variation, with cultivar and internode class contributing secondary effects. These findings demonstrate that observable cane traits, especially shoot color, reflect the progression of seasonal cold acclimation and may support the evaluation and selection of cold-hardy grapevine germplasm.
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