Salt stress is a major abiotic stress that has severe adverse effects on the growth, development, yield and quality of crop plants. Molecular regulatory mechanisms underlying salt stress response in maize are still elusive. Understanding salt stress tolerance mechanisms is essential for the development of high-yielding maize cultivars with improved salt tolerance. Here, we identified a gene, INCREASED LEAF INCLINATION1 (ZmILI1), encoding a bHLH transcription factor, which positively regulates maize response to salt stress. Salt stress induces the expression of ZmILI1, and the overexpression of ZmILI1 enhances catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities, thus enhancing salt stress tolerance. DNA affinity purification sequencing (DAP-Seq), RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq), dual-luciferase (LUC), yeast one hybrid, and Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assays revealed that ZmILI1 positively regulates salt stress response in maize by modulating the expression of the transcription factor family genes (ZmAP2–197), hormone-related genes (ZmLOX6, ZmDHN1, ZmCaDK2C) and antioxidant enzyme system-related genes (ZmPOD5), thus maintaining cellular homeostasis. Moreover, ZmILI1 is directly or indirectly implicated in maize response to salt stress by regulating the expression of genes involved in jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis, such as ZmLOX6, leading to elevated levels of JA hormone in maize under salt-stressed conditions. Our findings not only provide genetic evidence for the role of the bHLH protein family in agricultural production but also reveal potential regulatory mechanisms for the development of salt-tolerant genetic resources, offering new insights into the breeding of salt-tolerant maize varieties.

The increasing trend of using agricultural wastes follows the concept of “waste to wealth” and is closely related to the themes of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Carbon-neutral technologies for waste management have not been critically reviewed yet. This paper reviews the technological trend of agricultural waste utilization, including composting, thermal conversion, and anaerobic digestion. Specifically, the effects of exogenous additives on the contents, fractionation, and fate of phosphorus (P) and potentially toxic elements (PTEs) during the composting process have been comprehensively reviewed in this article. The composting process can transform biomass-P and additive-born P into plant available forms. PTEs can be passivated during the composting process. Biochar can accelerate the passivation of PTEs in the composting process through different physiochemical interactions such as surface adsorption, precipitation, and cation exchange reactions. The addition of exogenous calcium, magnesium and phosphate in the compost can reduce the mobility of PTEs such as copper, cadmium, and zinc. Based on critical analysis, this paper recommends an eco-innovative perspective for the improvement and practical application of composting technology for the utilization of agricultural biowastes to meet the circular economy approach and achieve the SDGs.

Drought stress is one of the most limiting factors of maize productivity and can lead to a sharp reduction in the total biomass when it occurs at the seedling stage. Improving drought tolerance at the seedling stage is of great importance for maize breeding. The AP2/ERF transcription factor family plays a critical role in plant response to abiotic stresses. Here, we used a preliminary previously-generated ranscriptomic dataset to identify a highly drought-stress-responsive AP2 gene, i.e., ZmEREB24. Compared to the wild type, the overexpression of ZmEREB24 in maize significantly promotes drought tolerance of transgenic plants at the seedling stage. CRISPR/Cas9-based ZmEREB24-knockout mutants showed a drought-sensitive phenotype. RNA-seq analysis and EMSA assay revealed AATGG.CT and GTG.T.GCC motifs as the main binding sites of ZmEREB24 to the promoters of downstream target genes. DAP-seq identified four novel target genes involved in proline and sugar metabolism and hormone signal transduction of ZmEREB24. Our data indicate that ZmEREB24 plays important biological functions in regulating drought tolerance by binding to the promoters of drought stress genes and modulating their expression. The results further suggest a role of ZmEREB24 in regulating drought adaptation in maize, indicating its potential importance for employing molecular breeding in the development of high-yield drought-tolerant maize cultivars.

Puccinia porri (previously known as Puccinia allii) is one of the most important rust fungi that cause rust disease on garlic, onions, leek and chives. It usually appears as bright orange spots on infected plants. Typical symptoms of the rust disease on Egyptian leek were observed in Nubaria, El-Behera, Egypt, in March and April 2021. This is the first report on observing symptoms of rust disease caused by P. porri on Egyptian leek in Egypt. The aim of this research was to investigate antifungal properties of bergamot (Citrus bergamia L.) essential oil against Puccinia porri in vitro and under greenhouse experiments. The impact of various bergamot oil concentrations (100, 250, 500, 750 and 1000 µl/L) on the germination of urediniospores of the causing fungus was investigated in laboratory conditions. The results showed that bergamot oil reduced the percentage of urediniospores germination at all concentrations …

Assessment of certain plant extracts for controlling potato tuber soft rot disease caused by Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum

Postharvest diseases, such as black spots caused by Alternaria alternata, have caused huge economic losses to the tomato industry and seriously restricted its development. In recent years, biological control has become a new method to control postharvest diseases of fruits and vegetables. Our research group screened W. anomalus, a yeast demonstrating a promising control effect on a postharvest black spot disease of tomatoes, and explored its physiological mechanism of prevention and control. Therefore, this study investigated the prevention and control effect of metabolites of W. anomalus on tomato black spot disease and the inhibition effect of main components on A. alternata. A GC-MS analysis found that isoamyl acetate was the main component of W. anomalus that played an inhibitory role. The results showed that isoamyl acetate could inhibit the growth of A. alternata and had a certain control effect on postharvest black spots in tomatoes. Our findings suggest that isoamyl acetate could be a promising alternative to fungicides for controlling postharvest black spots in tomatoes.

The study was designed to monitor the cleavage rate (CR) and in-vitro cultivation rate (IVC) after addition of energy sources, non-essential amino acids, and antioxidants to the Synthetic oviductal fluid (SOF) and FertiCult. After in-vitro maturation and in-vitro fertilization, presumptive zygotes were cultured in one of two culture media: FertiCult media and SOF medium, supplemented with pyruvate, glucose, and sodium lactate as energy sources, as well as 10, 20, 250, 500, and 750 mg non-essential amino acids, and antioxidants. All stages of cleavage rate (CR), and in-vitro cultivation rate (IVC) of embryonic development including morula stage (MOR) and blastocyst (BLAS) have been assessed. The findings revealed that there were no significant differences in the CR between the control and other treated groups with sources of energy when added to SOF media (P > 0.05), while there were significant differences (P < 0.05) in the IVC of embryonic development between groups (The percentages of MOR stage in the control, pyruvate, glucose and mixture of source of energy (MIX) were at 50%, 62.5%, 60%, and 63.6%, respectively). The highest percentage of the BLAS was recorded after SOF supplementation with glucose (40%). Similarly, there were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in the CR between control and FertiCult supplemented with sources of energy, while the IVC stages increased significantly (P < 0.05) in the FertiCult media supplemented with glucose, pyruvate, sodium lactate, and MIX. The percentages of the MOR stage in the control, pyruvate, glucose and mix media were at 50%, 55.6%, 55.6%, 54.5%, 57.1% respectively. The lowest percentage of the BLAS was recorded after FertiCult supplementation with pyruvate (11.1%). Replenishing the SOF maturation media with 20 mg of non-essential amino acids significantly (P < 0.05) enhanced the MOR stage (100%). There was also an improvement in the development of BLAS stage, where it reached 31.2% and 47.4% in the SOF maturation media supplemented with 10, and 750 mg non-essential amino acids, respectively. There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in neither CR nor IVC between control and FertiCult supplemented with antioxidants. There were significant differences (P < 0.05) in the MOR stages (control, 42.9% & treated, 57.9%) and BLAS stages (control, 21.4% & treated, 42.1%) in antioxidant supplemented SOF maturation media compared to control. In conclusion, supplementation of SOF cultivation medium with energy sources, 20 mg of non-essential amino acids and antioxidant addition may improve the cleavage rate (CR) and in vitro cultivation rate (IVC) of buffalos’ embryonic development.