The Triticeae provides the important cereal crops, such as wheat, barley, and rye, which produces approximately 9×10⁸ t annually, accounting for about 30% of the total global cereal production. However, Triticeae genomes are relatively difficult to be de novo sequenced and assembled due to their large genome size, a high proportion of repeat sequences, and different ploidy levels. With the rapid development of third-generation long read sequencing technologies and assembly algorithms designed for complex genomes, and also the falling cost of genome sequencing in recent years, more and more Triticeae species have been successfully sequenced. In this study, we reviewed the advances on the whole genome sequencing of 17 Triticeae species (including subspecies), including Triticum, Hordeum, Secale, Elytrigia, and Aegilops, in aspects of sequencing technology, assembly strategy and quality, and the major research contents associated with genomes and gene functions. This review may provide the references for sequencing strategies and genomic studies of other more complex plant genomes.

Heart disease is a major threat to human health due to the high morbidity and mortality rates. As a result, the discovery of adult zebrafish heart regeneration provides a new perspective for the study and treatment of human heart diseases. This study reviewed the zebrafish heart injury models for heart regeneration, such as apex amputation, cryoinjury, genetic ablation of cardiomyocyte models and so on. In addition, we also explored the essential mechanisms underlying heart regeneration, including the spatiotemporal activation of multiple signaling pathways in different cell types, epigenetic reprogramming, coronary revascularization, activation of key development-related transcription factors, and the disassembly and reassembly of cardiomyocyte sarcomeric structure. Analysis of the mechanism of heart regeneration provides more references basis for therapeutic strategies to overcome heart disease in the future.

Poor color stability is the bottleneck, which restricting the development of fermented fruit wines rich in anthocyanins. In this paper, anthocyanins and their derivatives, which are important factors affecting the color loss of fermented fruit wines, were analyzed, and the physical and chemical methods used at home and abroad to improve the color stability of fruit wine were summarized. This review may provide a certain theoretical basis for the research on the color stability of fruit wine, and promote the development of fruit deep processing industries.

Visual inspection of rice leaf blast resistance is time-consuming and labor-intensive with low accuracy. Therefore, this study aims to identify and detect rice leaf blast spots based on RGB imaging of rice canopy combined with mask regions with convolutional neural network (Mask-RCNN), and develop multiple classification models to quantify the number of disease spots and evaluate the association between the number of disease spots and the resistance level by analyzing the quantitative information of different categories of disease spots in RGB images of rice. First, we collected RGB images from different rice breeding lines at the seedling stage, including japonica lines, early indica lines and indica recovery lines. Preprocessing and labeling of the input images were then performed. A Mask-RCNN model for the recognition of rice leaf blast spots was developed to perform the rectangular frame detection, mask segmentation and classification. The classification result of rice leaf blast spots with the mean intersection over union (mIoU) of 0.603 was achieved. The mean average precision (mAP) of the test dataset was 0.716, when the intersection over union (IoU) threshold of 0.5 was used. Among all the classification models, Gaussian process support vector machine obtained the highest prediction accuracy of 94.30% (proportion of disease spots in each category corresponding to different resistances) on the test dataset. The above results demonstrate that RGB images of rice canopy combined with Mask-RCNN have the great potential for the accurate identification of rice leaf blast spots, and the number of detected disease spots is highly correlated with the rice leaf blast resistance level. The proposed method is promising for efficient selection of disease-resistant rice varieties in breeding.

Rice planthoppers, mainly including Nilaparvata lugens, Sogatella furcifera, and Laodelphax striatellus, are one of the most important insect pests of rice in China. In this review, we summarized the latest research progress on the molecular basis of important genetic characteristics (wing-morph differentiation, fecundity, insecticide resistance) of rice planthoppers, interactions among rice, rice planthoppers, natural enemies of rice planthoppers and other organisms, mechanisms underlying rice planthopper outbreak, and management of rice planthoppers. Finally, we suggest that future studies should further dissect the molecular basis of biology and ecology related to rice planthopper outbreak, and find the coordination mechanisms between intensified agriculture and rice ecosystem resistance at the micro level, so as to maintain or improve the rice ecosystem resistance, and achieve sustainable management of rice planthoppers in the context of intensified agriculture.

N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) is one of the most abundant messenger RNA (mRNA) modification methods in eukaryotes, and it plays an important role in RNA metabolism and function. The recent studies have revealed that m⁶A modification play roles in the life cycles of various viruses and in the host response to the viral infection. The interaction between host and virus is affected by m⁶A modification. On the one hand, m⁶A modifies viral RNA and regulate virus replication, gene expression and progeny virus production. On the other hand, changes of m⁶A modification in the cellular mRNAs can regulate viral infection. With the discovery of m⁶A regulatory proteins and the invention of m⁶A sequencing methods, a large number of reports on the viral m⁶A have emerged. However, the mechanisms of m⁶A modification in the viral infection have not been thoroughly elucidated. In this paper, we reviewed the recent advances in the different roles of m⁶A modification in the viral infection and host responses, in order to provide references for further studies on the functions and corresponding mechanisms of m⁶A during viral infection.

In order to more accurately monitor the vertical distribution of the leaf area index (LAI) of maize, we propose a conditionally constrained LAI vertical distribution inversion method based on the simulation dataset constructed by the discrete anisotropic radiative transfer (DART) model. First, the simulation effects of DART model on canopy reflectance and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) were evaluated based on the three-layer vertical distribution scenario, and constructed the corresponding simulation dataset with PAR. Second, a single parameter inversion model for LAI and PAR was built based on the simulated dataset. Finally, using the single parameter inversion model as a priori knowledge, the inversion of the vertical distribution of maize canopy LAI based on the hyperspectral vegetation index was realized by solving the constraint problem. The results showed that the accuracy of the constraint optimization inversion model was higher than that of the single parameter inversion model. The coefficient of determination (R²) of LAI inversion results for top layer of maize increased by 0.022, root-mean-square error (RMSE) decreased by 0.016 m²/m², and normalized root-mean-square error (NRMSE) decreased by 1.3%. The R² of LAI inversion results for middle layer of maize increased by 0.08, RMSE decreased by 0.219 m²/m², and NRMSE decreased by 10.1%. The R² of LAI inversion results for bottom layer of maize increased by 0.069, RMSE decreased by 0.041 m²/m², and NRMSE decreased by 4.6%. Therefore, it can be concluded that the inversion of vertical distribution of LAI in maize canopy using the conditional constraint optimization method can effectively improve the inversion accuracy.

Large yellow croaker(Larimichthys croceus) is a typically marine economical fish in our country, which is very popular with consumers due to its delicious tastes. However, the overfishing resulted in the decreased production of wild large yellow croaker in recent years, and the farmed one was the main way to meet consumers’ demands. Compared with the wild large yellow croaker, some severe problems occurred in the farmed one, such as light skin color, high fat content, and heavy fishy smell, etc. The nutrition regulation may be considered as a safe and effective way to improve the qualities of the farmed large yellow croaker. This review was to present various indicators for fish qualities, including skin color, muscle texture, nutrient components, flavor, etc. Emphasis was placed on a variety of feed additives available to improve fish qualities and the possible influence on related gene expression. This work is expected to guide for developing new feed additives used to improve the qualities of farmed large yellow croaker.

Sensor technology is the foundation of agricultural informatization, and it is one of the core elements and key support to realize agricultural modernization. First, this paper summarizes the current technical status and application of agricultural sensor technology in three areas of intelligent agricultural machinery equipment, agricultural unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based remote sensing, and agricultural internet of things, and conducts an in-depth analysis on the technical demands and market development of agricultural sensor in China. Second, the industrialization, marketization, and future development trends of agricultural sensors were summarized and pointed out through the technical industry analysis. Finally, 16 key technologies in the field of agricultural sensor industry were condensed, and on this basis, a Delphi-based expert questionnaire survey was carried out. The results showed that universality was the most important attribute of agricultural sensors; basic theory and research and development input were the two biggest constraints to the development of agricultural sensor technology. It was proposed that the agricultural sensor technology would develop towards low cost, high stability, high intelligence, portability, and operability in the future. This paper provides a reference for the technical and industrial development of agricultural sensors in China.

Soil moisture is a sensitive factor for crop phenological growth, climate and environment changes, and it plays an important role in the land surface water and atmospheric circulation. In this paper, the soil moisture retrieval algorithms based on active microwave remote sensing, passive microwave remote sensing and Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) technology were firstly sorted, including: 1) active microwave remote sensing-based empirical model, semiempirical model, physical scattering model for bare ground surface, and water cloud model (WCM), Michigan microwave canopy scattering (MIMICS) model for vegetation coverage; 2) passive microwave remote sensing-based Q/H, H_p, Q_p roughness models for bare ground surface and \tau-\omega model for vegetation coverage; 3) spaceborne and ground-based GNSS-R soil moisture retrieval algorithms. Secondly, the research and development of soil moisture retrieval from microwave remote sensing in recent decades were reviewed. It was proposed that the key to improve the accuracy of soil moisture retrieval was to quantify accurately the spatial and temporal variability of soil moisture retrieval factors such as vegetation and surface roughness, especially the uncertainty of vegetation growth process and the resulting electromagnetic wave radiation transmission mechanism. Finally, the application outlook of soil moisture in agricultural production and land-surface moisture circulation was prospected, and it was pointed out that the response and feedback mechanism of soil moisture on global scale to climate change would be a research hotspot in the future.

In recent years, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) system-mediated gene editing technology has become an important research tool in modern plant molecular biology and agricultural breeding due to its simplicity, high efficiency, generality and accuracy. Plant virus disease seriously endangers the normal growth and development of plants, and causes devastating damages to crop production worldwide. CRISPR/Cas gene editing technology can effectively target DNA virus and RNA virus sequences, and improve the resistance of host plants to viruses. In addition, gene editing technology can edit plant endogenous genes which are conducive to viral infection or replication to create new antiviral germplasm resources. This study reviewed the CRISPR/Cas gene editing technology and elaborated the research progress and examples of using this system to achieve antiviral infection. The potential application prospects and limitations of virus-induced gene editing system were also discussed. Finally, the advantages and challenges of CRISPR/Cas gene editing technology in plant antiviral research were pointed out, which will be useful for guiding innovation of germplasms for virus resistance.

In order to comprehensively improve the soil quality of Chinese hickory (Carya cathayensis Sarg.) plantation and promote the sustainable and healthy development of hickory industry, a typical C. cathayensis plantation area (Lin’an District, Zhejiang Province) was selected for this study. Fractional vegetation cover, slope, soil fertility and soil pollution condition as evaluation indexes for soil degradation were considered. The spatial analysis of soil degradation degree for Chinese hickory plantation was carried out by fuzzy logic comprehensive evaluation method combined with geographic information system (GIS), global positioning system (GPS), and remote sensing (RS) technologies, and the corresponding management suggestions were put forward. The results showed that the soil fertility of plantation in the study area mainly belonged to the moderate degradation, and only 1.65% of the area was in a high degradation, which was centered in the north of Longgang Town and the southwest of Qingliangfeng Town. The overall soil pollution of the hickory plantation area was at a low level, only 6.35% of which was at a moderate to high degradation, mainly distributed in Daoshi and Tuankou towns. The comprehensive soil degradation of the hickory plantation mainly belonged to moderate and low degradation degrees, accounting for 66.50% of the study area. The high, moderate to high, moderate and low degradation areas accounted for 0.15%, 2.44%, 27.45% and 3.46% of the study area, respectively. The highly degraded hickory plantation was mainly distributed in the southwest of Qingliangfeng Town and the west of Longgang Town. The results will provide a theoretical basis for improving soil quality and the sustainable development of hickory property.

In order to study the responses of Satsuma mandarin ‘Yura’ plants to different drought treatments and the relative expression levels of flowering related gene FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) and meristem related gene APETALA1 (AP1), two-year-old Satsuma mandarin plants were treated with various degrees of limited water, including well watering (CK), light drought (LD), moderate drought (MD) and severe drought (SD), whose soil moisture were 15%-20%, 12%-15%, 8%-10%, and 4%-6%, respectively, and kept for 20, 30, and 40 d, respectively. After treatments, the plant physiology, flowering physiology and relative expression levels of flowering related genes FT and AP1 were tracked. The results indicated that the treatment of MD for 30 d affected the plant growth slightly and the physiological and morphological differentiations of flower buds were earlier than those of other treatment groups. The relative expression level of FT reached peak under the treatment of MD for 30 d, and the relative expression levels of AP1 in stems and leaves were higher at 30 d after MD treatment. In general, moderate drought for 30 d is the suitable inducement condition of flower bud’s morphological differentiation in Satsuma mandarin, and will not cause serious damage to trees. Also the effect of early flowering has also been further verified at the gene transcription level.

RNA interference (RNAi) is a highly conserved gene-silencing phenomenon, induced by 20-30 nucleotide (nt) small molecules of non-coding RNA in vivo. Three non-coding RNAs, such as small interfering RNA (siRNA), microRNA (miRNA) and PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA), play important roles in RNAi of eukaryotes including insects. The applications of RNAi in pest control are mainly on the research of gene function, transgenic insect-resistant plants and novel nucleic acid pesticides. Before the applications, the safety risks in terms of non-target effects, target pest resistance and environmental persistence of interfering RNAs need to be strictly evaluated. In this paper, the mechanism of RNAi technology, application and safety of RNAi in agro-forestry pest control are described, which provide some theoretical basis for RNAi technology in pest control.

Based on the early transcriptome data of eggplant under cold stress, the 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) synthase gene SmACS was selected out. It was found that the encoded amino acid sequence of SmACS had the highest homology with soybean ACS protein, and included seven conserved domains unique to ACC synthase and 11 invariant amino acid residues. The SmACS gene was located on the chromosome 8, and the full length of this gene was 3 550 bp, whose length of coding sequence (CDS) region was 1 437 bp. It contained three introns and four exons, which belonged to a typical ACS gene structure. The SmACS protein consisted of 478 amino acids, with a molecular mass of 54.03 kDa, isoelectric point of 6.48 and hydrophilic index of －0.206. It was an unstable non-secreted hydrophilic protein located in the cytoplasm. The main components of SmACS protein were α-helix and random coils. It had a conserved Aminotran_1_2 domain and contained 39 phosphorylation sites, of which serine and threonine were the main ones. The SmACS protein mainly interacted with ACC oxidase. The promoter of SmACS gene contained Cis-acting elements related to abscisic acid, ethylene, cold stress, salicylic acid and wound responses. The results of real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) confirmed that the expression of SmACS gene was induced by cold, heat, drought and salt stresses, among which cold stress was the most significant. The above results lay theoretical basis for functional identification of SmACS gene from eggplant.

The vegetative insecticidal protein Vip3 produced by Bacillus thuringiensis is a tetramer composed of five domains. Its N-terminal is mainly related to the stability of the structure, while the C-terminal is a potential specific receptor binding region. The Vip3 family of vegetative insecticidal proteins contains 14 holotypes and more than 110 proteins. The proposed mode of action of Vip3 shares some similarities with that of the crystal proteins (Cry proteins), in that both undergo activation (proteolytic processing) in the insect midgut, bind to receptors on the surface of the midgut cells, make pores that lead to cell lysis, and eventually death of the insect. In consideration of different active mechanisms to insects as well as their insecticidal spectrum complementarity, the stack strategy of two kinds of genes (vip3 and cry) has been widely used in development of new insect-resistant transgenic crops worldwide; and Vip3Aa transgenic crops such as maize and cotton have been commercially planted in the United States, Brazil and other countries, in order to delay and manage the Cry protein resistance from some target pests such as Spodoptera frugiperda and others. It has been reported that a high resistance to Vip3 toxins by some insects could be rapidly evolved under the toxin selective press in the laboratory, and also field monitoring to several species has confirmed resistance occurrence of Vip3 in natural environments. Therefore, monitoring and management of target pest resistance are much necessary for industrialization of Vip3 insect-resistant transgenic crops.

The growth and development of plants require 14 essential mineral nutrient elements, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, iron, etc. Nevertheless, the bioavailability of these elements varies greatly in the different types of soils. In order to adapt to nutrient-deficient environment, plants must sense the changes of external and internal mineral nutrient concentrations, and generate physiological and morphological responses via a series of signal transduction events, to facilitate the nutrient uptake and utilization. Ethylene is an essential gaseous plant hormone, and plays pivotal roles in many aspects of the plant life cycle. In recent years, accumulating studies have shown that ethylene also plays an important part in regulating plant responses to various nutrient deficiency stresses. Here, we comprehensively summarized the molecular mechanisms of ethylene regulating different nutritional stress responses directly or synergistically with other plant hormones/chemical signaling molecules, and gave an outlook for the future research.