The team began with stringent quality control at both the marker and accession levels. From that filtering, 6,829 chromosome-anchored SNPs were retained across 94 accessions, with an overall genotype call rate of 96.65 percent. Principal component and ancestry analyses flagged two accessions, VI048152 and VI050629, as highly divergent from the rest of the collection. Once these two outliers were excluded, 2,026 SNPs remained polymorphic among the remaining 92 accessions, and independent clustering resolved two genetic groups: G1, containing 31 accessions, and G2, containing 61. Discriminant analysis of principal components clearly separated the two groups.

The diversity statistics point to a limited reservoir of variation. Overall expected heterozygosity was low, at He = 0.0215. An analysis of molecular variance attributed 18.44 percent of molecular variation to differences between the two groups and 81.56 percent to variation within groups, with a fixation index of Φ = 0.1844 (p < 0.001). Pairwise FST between G1 and G2 was 0.1421, confirming measurable but moderate differentiation between the clusters.

Linkage disequilibrium behaved in an unusual way across the genome. Rather than showing a consistent decline with physical distance, LD was highly variable and lacked a distance-dependent decay pattern, which prevented the authors from estimating a robust genome-wide LD half-decay distance. This irregularity matters for breeding applications, because the pace at which LD breaks down determines how finely association studies can map traits, and it suggests that marker density or recombination patterns in this collection warrant closer attention in future work.

To locate regions of differentiation, the researchers scanned 180 eligible 100-kilobase windows against empirical thresholds. Two windows exceeded the empirical 99th-percentile FST threshold: one on chromosome 6 at 35.4–35.5 Mb with FST = 0.907, and one on chromosome 2 at 44.1–44.2 Mb with FST = 0.301. However, neither window exceeded the empirical nucleotide-diversity-ratio thresholds, so the authors interpreted them as regions of elevated differentiation rather than confirmed selective sweeps. This distinction is important: elevated differentiation between groups does not by itself prove that natural or artificial selection has acted on these loci, and the team was careful not to overstate the evidence.

Within those two differentiated regions, the analysis identified 28 annotated genes and seven candidate SNPs, five of them intronic and two coding. These variants directly intersect five priority positional genes encoding proteins with diverse predicted functions: a pTAC5-like protein, a GBA2-type β-glucosidase, a UPL5-like E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase, an NTF2-like protein, and a SWIB/BAF60 domain-containing protein. The authors present these genes as testable targets for subsequent genomic and functional investigation rather than as validated determinants of any trait.

The practical implications follow from the combination of a narrow genetic base and substantial differentiation among accessions and groups. The two highly divergent accessions, VI048152 and VI050629, represent genetically distinctive germplasm that the authors say can be prioritized for further evaluation, potentially carrying alleles absent from the main clusters. Meanwhile, the two differentiated genomic regions and the five priority positional genes offer concrete starting points for breeders and geneticists interested in the evolutionary history and breeding value of white jute, one of the two cultivated jute species and a fiber crop of major economic importance in South Asia.

The authors are explicit about the limits of the current evidence. Denser genomic data, phenotypic evaluation, and functional validation will be required to establish the evolutionary and breeding significance of the differentiated regions and candidate genes. Until such validation is complete, the study’s contribution lies in mapping the structure of the collection, quantifying its limited diversity, and narrowing the search space for traits that could matter for jute improvement, from fiber quality to stress tolerance.

For germplasm curators, the findings also carry a curation message: a collection of 94 accessions with low expected heterozygosity may benefit from targeted acquisition of genetically distinct material, and the divergent accessions already in hand should be evaluated before new acquisitions are sought. For the wider plant-genomics community, the irregular linkage disequilibrium landscape and the chromosome-anchored SNP set provide a reference framework for association mapping in white jute, a crop whose genomic resources remain far less developed than those of major cereals. The study thus delivers both a caution about the crop’s narrow genetic foundation and a short list of genomic neighborhoods worth pursuing in the next round of research.

Subject of Research: Genetic diversity and population structure of white jute germplasm analyzed with DArTseq SNP markers

Article Title: Genetic diversity, population structure, and candidate regions of differentiation in Corchorus capsularis L. germplasm collection

Article References: Shango, A. J., Omondi, E. O., N’Danikou, S., Tchokponhoué, D. A., Ozimati, A. A., Schranz, M. E., Achigan-Dako, E. G., Venkataramana, P., Philipo, M. L., & van Zonneveld, M. (2026). Genetic diversity, population structure, and candidate regions of differentiation in Corchorus capsularis L. germplasm collection. BMC Plant Biology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-026-10235-z

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12870-026-10235-z

Keywords: white jute, Corchorus capsularis, genetic diversity, population structure, SNP markers, linkage disequilibrium, germplasm, selective sweeps, BMC Plant Biology, World Vegetable Center, Genetic, diversity

The team examined arils, branches, and fresh leaves from both species, measuring total flavonoid content, total phenolic content, total polysaccharides, total acids, and antioxidant activity in each tissue. A clear spatial pattern emerged: total flavonoids and total phenolics generally followed the order of fresh leaves, then branches, then arils, meaning the photosynthetic tissues accumulated the highest levels of these secondary metabolites. Across all tissues, Taxus × media showed significantly higher levels of both flavonoids and phenolics than the corresponding tissues of T. cuspidata. Total polysaccharides told a different story, being particularly enriched in the arils of the hybrid species.

Antioxidant performance tracked the phytochemical profile closely. The study’s antioxidant indices showed strong positive correlations with both total phenolic and total flavonoid content, and the fresh leaves and branches of Taxus × media exhibited relatively higher antioxidant activities than those of T. cuspidata. The authors are careful to frame these as in vitro measurements, so the results describe chemical scavenging behavior in laboratory assays rather than demonstrated health effects in humans or animals. Even so, the correlation structure suggests that phenolic and flavonoid compounds are the principal drivers of the measured antioxidant differences between the two species and among their tissues.

To test whether the overall chemical fingerprints could serve as an identification tool, the researchers applied a sequence of multivariate statistical methods. Principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis both effectively discriminated the two species and the different tissue types based on their combined chemical characteristics, without any morphological input. That separation is significant for germplasm management, because it means a chemically defined boundary exists even when the plants look identical in the field or nursery. The more targeted question was which individual indicators carry the discrimination. Orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis, combined with variable importance in projection analysis and permutation testing, preliminarily identified total phenolics and total acids as candidate indicators. Univariate analysis then confirmed that these two parameters differ significantly between the two species, supporting their status as candidate composite chemical markers for interspecific discrimination. The word candidate is important: the authors position TPC and TA as preliminary markers that provide baseline data for subsequent germplasm identification based on multiple indicators and specific compounds, rather than as a finished diagnostic kit.

The practical implications reach beyond taxonomy. Taxus species are valued for their bioactive constituents, and being able to route material from the correct species and tissue to the correct use could improve the efficiency of resource utilization. The finding that fresh leaves and branches of the hybrid carry higher phenolic and flavonoid loads, while its arils concentrate polysaccharides, gives a tissue-level map of where different compound classes accumulate. At the same time, the study’s conclusions remain at the level of comparative chemistry; the authors explicitly describe the work as revealing differences in the distribution of bioactive components and antioxidant activities among tissues, and as providing baseline data, not as establishing pharmacological superiority. For plant science readers, the study also illustrates a methodological template: pairing broad phytochemical screening with PCA, HCA, and OPLS-DA, then validating candidate markers through VIP analysis, permutation testing, and univariate confirmation. Whether total phenolics and total acids hold up as robust markers across more populations, growing conditions, and seasons will determine whether the chemical fingerprint becomes a routine tool for telling these two yews apart when their branches and leaves offer no visual clues.

Subject of Research: Comparative phytochemical analysis and interspecific marker screening between Taxus cuspidata and Taxus × media

Article Title: Comparative analysis of bioactive constituents, antioxidant activities, and interspecific marker screening between Taxus cuspidata and Taxus × media

Article References: Chen, Y., Xing, J., Liu, Q., Jin, J., Liu, J., Meng, F., Piao, H., & Jin, X. (2026). Comparative analysis of bioactive constituents, antioxidant activities, and interspecific marker screening between Taxus cuspidata and Taxus × media. BMC Plant Biology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-026-10257-7

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12870-026-10257-7

Keywords: Taxus cuspidata, Taxus × media, total phenolics, total flavonoids, antioxidant activity, chemical markers, OPLS-DA, principal component analysis, germplasm identification, BMC Plant Biology, comparative analysis, Comparative

The researchers established five transects spaced 400 meters apart, running systematically from the upper to the lower slope of the forest. A total of 48 plots, each measuring 20 by 20 meters, were positioned at 100-meter intervals along these transects. Within the plots, the team recorded species abundance, cover, diameter at breast height, height, and a range of environmental variables.

The data were analyzed using R statistical packages, yielding measures of the Shannon-Wiener diversity index, evenness, density, frequency, and the importance value index. The diversity and evenness of woody species in Getete Forest came out at 3.34 and 0.83, respectively. Among the recorded species, 5.26 percent were identified as endemic to Ethiopia, while 3.51 percent were classified as near-endemic.

Eight families were equally represented in the survey, each with three species, or 5.26 percent of the total: Lamiaceae, Rubiaceae, Oleaceae, Myrtaceae, Fabaceae, Anacardiaceae, Asteraceae, and Solanaceae. The total density of woody plant individuals with a diameter at breast height of at least 2 centimeters was 1,839.06 individuals per hectare. The diameter distribution of the vegetation formed an inverted "J" shape, a pattern in which many small individuals taper off into relatively few large ones.

The study reports this as a measured observation of the forest's size-class distribution. The authors also tested which environmental variables tracked variation in species composition across the forest. Altitude and aspect were significantly associated with compositional differences, at a significance threshold of p less than 0.05.

Alongside the ecological measurements, the study documented pressures on the forest. Getete Forest supports diverse indigenous and endemic woody plants, but it is subject to anthropogenic pressures including grazing, agricultural expansion, and tree cutting. The findings highlight the need for coordinated conservation actions involving government institutions, local communities, forest protection personnel, and other stakeholders.

The authors frame such coordination as the route to reducing anthropogenic threats, strengthening forest protection and monitoring, conserving biodiversity, and promoting the sustainable use of forest resources. As a single-forest assessment, the study documents the composition, structure, and environmental associations of one dry afromontane patch in central Ethiopia; its contribution lies in filling a documented information gap for a forest patch where woody plant diversity, regeneration, and environmental relationships had not previously been characterized in detail.

Subject of Research: Woody species diversity, floristic composition, vegetation structure, and environmental associations in Getete dry afromontane forest, Central Ethiopia

Article Title: Woody species diversity, floristic composition, vegetation structure, and environmental associations in Getete dry afromontane forest, Central Ethiopia

Article References: Abebe, M., & Lulekal, E. (2026). Woody species diversity, floristic composition, vegetation structure, and environmental associations in Getete dry afromontane forest, Central Ethiopia. BMC Plant Biology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-026-10260-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12870-026-10260-y

Keywords: Woody, species, diversity, floristic, composition, vegetation, structure, environmental, associations, Getete, afromontane, forest

The economic stakes are considerable. In Tripura and neighboring regions of North East India, high-yielding tomato varieties such as Sakthi, TPS, Loknath, Udaipur Local and RCMT-6 are routinely devastated by the wilt bacterium, with losses to the rural agricultural economy estimated at 70 to 80 percent in affected fields. Ralstonia solanacearum is notorious for its wide host range among solanaceous crops and its ability to persist in soil independent of a living host plant. Infection typically enters through cuts and wounds, and the disease is favored by high humidity and temperature. A telltale diagnostic sign is a whitish ooze of bacterial slime from the cut end of an infected stem when placed in pure water. Chemical control has struggled to keep pace, both because of cost and because of concerns that the pathogen will develop resistance to synthetic pesticides.

The research team, led by Sandeep Acharya and Kananbala Sarangthem, began by preparing aqueous and methanolic extracts from the inner bark of trees growing in a cultivated garden in West Tripura, with the botanical identity confirmed by a university botanist. In laboratory assays on tetrazolium chloride agar, the crude methanolic bark extract produced clear zones of inhibition against Ralstonia solanacearum, demonstrating direct antibacterial toxicity. Distilled water served as the negative control, and the antibiotic gentamycin at one part per million achieved complete inhibition of colony-forming units, providing a benchmark for comparison.

Chemical characterization of the bark extract was carried out using high performance liquid chromatography on a C18 column with an acetonitrile and formic acid gradient, followed by a battery of spectral techniques including infrared and ultraviolet spectroscopy, proton nuclear magnetic resonance and electron impact mass spectrometry. From six phytoconstituents isolated from the bark, two emerged as the most bioactive: kaempferol, a flavonoid that crystallized as yellow granules with a melting point of 271 to 273 degrees Celsius, and beta-sitosterol, a plant sterol that formed colorless needles melting at 135 to 137 degrees Celsius. Both compounds were identified by matching their spectral data and physical constants against authentic reference samples and published literature.

When kaempferol and beta-sitosterol were applied together in a one-to-one combination, they produced the largest inhibition zones against the bacterium in vitro, outperforming either compound alone and rivaling the full methanolic bark extract. This effect carried over into living plants. In greenhouse experiments, six-week-old tomato plants of the susceptible Sakthi variety received a soil drench of 50 milliliters per pot of either the aqueous bark extract or the combined active compounds, and two days later their stems were injected with a bacterial suspension calibrated to 10 to the power of 8 colony-forming units per milliliter. Disease severity was scored six weeks after inoculation on a five-category scale based on the percentage of infected leaves per plant.

The results were consistent across two successive growing seasons, 2024 and 2025, and across both greenhouse and open field conditions laid out in a randomized complete block design with six replications. Treated plants showed significantly lower disease severity indices than inoculated control plants that received only distilled water, with the combined kaempferol and beta-sitosterol treatment followed by the methanolic bark extract proving most effective. Bacterial populations recovered from stem tissues confirmed the pattern, with the combination treatment yielding the lowest pathogen counts in planta. Non-inoculated control plants sprayed with water remained disease-free throughout.

Crucially, the protective effect was not purely a matter of killing bacteria. The researchers tracked the activity of key defense enzymes in tomato leaves at intervals of 0, 48, 96, 144 and 192 hours after treatment, in plants that were either challenged with the pathogen or left unchallenged. Peroxidase activity rose significantly in treated plants and peaked eight days after application, remaining elevated for up to ten days. Phenylalanine ammonia lyase, an enzyme gateway to the phenylpropanoid pathway that produces lignin and other defensive compounds, climbed from two days after treatment and reached a maximum at day eight before declining slightly. Polyphenol oxidase and beta-1,3-glucanase, a pathogenesis-related protein, followed similar trajectories, both peaking at day eight and then stabilizing.

The accumulation of total phenolic substances, measured with Folin-Ciocalteau reagent, also increased dramatically in treated leaves regardless of whether the plants were subsequently inoculated. This pattern is the signature of induced systemic resistance: the plant’s defenses are activated preemptively by the extract and remain armed even before the pathogen arrives. Peroxidase contributes to defense through lignin formation, cross-linking of cell wall proteins and generation of reactive oxygen species, while elevated PAL and PPO activity is associated with the reinforcement of cell walls and the accumulation of phytoalexins. The authors note that protection was generally strongest when extracts were applied two days before inoculation, giving the induced defenses time to build.

The findings align with earlier work showing that plant extracts can suppress bacterial diseases in both greenhouse and field settings. Previous studies documented enhanced peroxidase activity in potato plants treated with extracts of Hibiscus sabdariffa, Punica granatum and Eucalyptus globulus, and combinations of resistance-inducing chemicals have been shown to reduce bacterial populations in apple seedlings. What distinguishes the new study is the identification of the specific active principles in L. glutinosa bark and the demonstration that a simple botanical preparation can elicit a full suite of pathogenesis-related responses in a major vegetable crop.

The authors argue that botanical disease management addresses several shortcomings of synthetic agrochemicals: rising costs, environmental toxicity, harm to beneficial soil microorganisms, and the erosion of the plant’s own acquired resistance. Litsea glutinosa is already woven into rural life in Tripura, where it serves as a host for muga silk moth production, a traditional treatment for livestock injuries, a source of timber for farm tools and an organic binding agent, making it an accessible and low-cost resource for smallholder farmers. Practical deployment still requires further work: the researchers state that quantification of kaempferol and beta-sitosterol for per-hectare field application is in progress, along with trials across different climatic zones, soil conditions and seasons. For now, the study establishes that a bark extract long valued in traditional practice carries measurable, reproducible and chemically traceable power to prime a crop plant’s immune system against one of agriculture’s most stubborn pathogens.

Subject of Research: Induction of systemic resistance in tomato against Ralstonia solanacearum using Litsea glutinosa bark extracts

Article Title: Bark extracts of Litsea glutinosa induces systemic resistance for controlling wilt of tomato caused by Ralstonia solanacearum

Article References: Acharya, S., & Sarangthem, K. (2026). Bark extracts of Litsea glutinosa induces systemic resistance for controlling wilt of tomato caused by Ralstonia solanacearum. Discover Plants, 3(1), Article 480. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44372-026-00938-w

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44372-026-00938-w

Keywords: Litsea glutinosa, Ralstonia solanacearum, bacterial wilt, tomato, kaempferol, beta-sitosterol, systemic acquired resistance, plant defense enzymes, botanical pesticides, plant pathology, Tripura, HPLC

Brassinosteroids are steroid hormones that shape many traits of direct agronomic value in cereals, including stem elongation, leaf angle and grain size. By driving cell elongation at the lamina joint, the hinge-like region where a leaf blade meets its sheath, these hormones determine how far a leaf tilts away from the stem. When brassinosteroid activity drops, leaves stand more upright. But broad suppression of the pathway has repeatedly proven costly: brassinosteroid-deficient and brassinosteroid-insensitive plants in rice, barley and maize often show reduced fertility and shrunken grains, drawbacks that have limited their usefulness in breeding programmes.

The research team, whose author list includes Manpartik S. Gill, Andrew L. Phillips, Stephen G. Thomas and Peter Hedden among others, took a more surgical approach. Rather than dampening the whole hormone pathway, they targeted individual biosynthesis enzymes. In the brassinosteroid pathway, DWARF1 encodes a C-24 reductase that converts 24-methylenecholesterol to campesterol, the first committed sterol precursor of the hormones, while DWARF4 and DWF11 encode 22α-hydroxylase cytochrome P450 enzymes that catalyse rate-limiting steps later in the pathway and, in cereals, partially back each other up. Because two enzymes share the later step, removing only one might trim brassinosteroid levels in specific tissues without collapsing the entire pathway.

To test this idea, the researchers mined an EMS-mutagenesis population of the spring bread wheat cultivar Cadenza for premature stop codons in each of the three homoeologous copies of DWF1 and DWF4, which bread wheat carries on its A, B and D genomes. The dwf1 mutant alleles encode truncated proteins lacking either the flavin adenine dinucleotide-binding or transmembrane domains, while the dwf4 alleles lack the conserved heme-binding domain required for enzymatic activity. They combined single mutations into double and triple knockouts, backcrossed twice to non-mutagenized Cadenza to purge background mutations, and generated lines lacking functional copies of all three homoeologues of either gene. The resulting triple mutants, dwf1-abd and dwf4-abd, were then compared against wild-type null segregants and Cadenza in glasshouse and field experiments, with genotyping confirmed by homoeologue-specific PCR and KASP assays.

Both triple mutants produced dramatically more upright leaves. Flag leaf angles at anthesis were significantly reduced in both lines relative to controls, and anatomical work explained why. Scanning electron microscopy and laser ablation tomography revealed that cells in the auricle region of the lamina joint were significantly shorter in both mutants, likely restricting the longitudinal elongation that normally lets a leaf bend away from the stem. The lamina joint was also significantly thicker, with more cell layers adjacent to both the abaxial and adaxial surfaces, echoing features reported in erect-leaf brassinosteroid mutants of rice and maize. The leaf blade was also more tightly packed around the ligule in both mutants, a phenotype resembling the wheat compact plant architecture mutant, in which loss of TaSPL8 downregulates genes in the brassinosteroid and auxin signalling pathways.

The similarities ended there. The dwf1-abd mutant was severely compromised: in the 2022 field trial it stood roughly 50 percent shorter than Cadenza, produced fewer tillers and spikelets per spike, and yielded grains that were significantly smaller and lighter. High-throughput imaging under the Field Scanalyzer at Rothamsted Research confirmed that dwf1-abd plots carried lower canopy cover throughout the growing season, including during flowering, and lower spike density at the end of flowering, with height reductions of about 30 percent at mid-flowering and 25 percent at maturity in the winter-sown experiment. Metabolite profiling by UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS showed why: concentrations of campesterol in dwf1-abd seedlings were 126-fold lower than in the null segregant, with downstream precursors campestanol and 6-oxocampestanol reduced 12.8-fold and 3.7-fold respectively. The bioactive brassinosteroids castasterone and brassinolide fell below the detection limit, and the mutant responded hypersensitively to exogenous 24-epibrassinolide in lamina joint inclination assays, all hallmarks of deep brassinosteroid deficiency.

The dwf4-abd mutant told a very different story. It showed a significant reduction in flag leaf angle and a modest height reduction of about 14 percent in the field, driven mainly by a shorter peduncle and spike, yet grain area and thousand grain weight did not differ significantly from Cadenza. Tiller number was only slightly reduced. Consistent with this mild phenotype, brassinosteroid precursor levels in dwf4-abd seedlings were not reduced; the substrate campestanol was unchanged, and the products 6-deoxocathasterone and 6-deoxytyphasterol actually accumulated to significantly higher levels, a pattern the authors attribute to functional redundancy with DWF11. In rice, knocking out both OsDWF4 and OsDWF11 produces severe dwarfism and malformed leaves, but the single osdwf4 mutant alters leaf angle alone, and the wheat data mirror that division of labour.

The result builds on encouraging precedents in other cereals. In maize, a null allele of the DWF4 orthologue called lac1 maintains photosynthetic efficiency at high planting densities and delivers higher yields than the wild type in densely sown plots. In wheat itself, a haploblock loss affecting the ZnF-B gene, which encodes a RING-type E3 ligase that targets a brassinosteroid-signalling repressor, confers a compact upright canopy and higher grain yields without pleiotropic costs. Similarly, rice lines carrying a mutation that activates the brassinosteroid catabolic gene BRD3 specifically in developing panicles show increased panicle branching and grain number without effects on grain size. The new study extends this logic from signalling and catabolic components to biosynthesis enzymes, and the authors note that DWF4’s low expression in developing grains, in contrast to DWF1, may explain why grain development escaped unscathed in the dwf4 mutant.

Several caveats temper the enthusiasm. Residual EMS-induced mutations may still have contributed to the observed phenotypes despite the backcrossing, and the researchers could not reliably quantify castasterone, brassinolide, typhasterol or dolichosterone because they fell below the detection limit. It also remains unclear how campesterol and later intermediates are produced at all in the absence of DWF1, although the shrinking difference in precursor concentrations between dwf1-abd and its null segregant along the pathway suggests compensatory homeostatic mechanisms involving up-regulation of multiple biosynthesis genes. Whole-seedling brassinosteroid measurements likewise failed to detect the changes that the dwf4 leaf phenotype implies; the authors suggest that brassinosteroid depletion in dwf4-abd may be confined to the lamina joint itself, as seen in the maize lac1 mutant’s ligule region, and call for spatially and temporally resolved metabolite analysis across a broad range of organs. Environmental conditions also matter, since the height deficit of dwf1-abd in the spring 2022 field trial was roughly double that seen in the earlier winter-sown experiment.

The most important test still lies ahead. The dwf4 mutation did not increase thousand grain weight relative to Cadenza in the field trial, so any yield benefit would have to come from improved light capture and photosynthesis at high sowing densities rather than from heavier grains per spike. The authors state that large-plot field experiments comparing dwf4-abd and null segregant yields across different planting densities will be needed to confirm whether the erect canopy translates into harvestable gains, and space limitations meant the dwf4 line could not be assessed for canopy cover under the Field Scanalyzer. If those trials succeed, introducing natural or induced allelic variation in DWF4 could offer breeders a rare combination: an architecture optimised for the crowded fields of modern intensive wheat production, achieved by editing a single biosynthetic step and leaving the grain untouched.

Subject of Research: Effects of knocking out brassinosteroid biosynthesis genes DWARF1 and DWARF4 on wheat canopy architecture, plant height and grain traits

Article Title: Knocking-out the brassinosteroid biosynthesis genes DWARF1 or DWARF4 produces upright canopy architecture in wheat

Article References: Gill, M. S., Phillips, A. L., Tarkowská, D., Addy, J., Virlet, N., Foulkes, M. J., Wells, D. M., Atkinson, J. A., Pearce, S., Thomas, S. G., & Hedden, P. (2026). Knocking-out the brassinosteroid biosynthesis genes DWARF1 or DWARF4 produces upright canopy architecture in wheat. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 139(11), 313. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-026-05418-z

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s00122-026-05418-z

Keywords: wheat, brassinosteroids, DWARF4, DWARF1, leaf angle, canopy architecture, lamina joint, plant hormones, crop breeding, high-density planting, grain weight, mutagenesis

The findings speak directly to a paradox with global resonance. Agriculture is a dominant pressure on freshwater worldwide: annual global withdrawals exceed four trillion cubic metres, with groundwater supplying between 21 and 30 percent of that total, a share that keeps growing. More than a quarter of the world’s population and over 40 percent of global agricultural production already depend on unsustainable groundwater extraction. Groundwater depletion, the excess of withdrawal over recharge, is projected to reach 887 cubic kilometres by 2050, roughly 61 percent more than in 2021, with consequences including saltwater intrusion, stream depletion, land subsidence as aquifers compact, and degradation of groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Against that backdrop, Campo de Dalías offers an unusually complete record of what happens when innovation, markets, and governance collide over decades.

The region’s transformation began in the 1940s, when state-led agricultural colonisation after the Spanish Civil War framed newly discovered groundwater as an instrument of national economic development. Early abstraction was modest, around 5 to 6 million cubic metres per year, constrained by poverty, shallow wells, and limited infrastructure. From the 1950s to the 1980s, everything changed. Irrigation infrastructure expanded, pumping technology improved, and the introduction of enarenado soil-mulching techniques and plastic greenhouses turned Campo de Dalías into a year-round production system, effectively decoupling water demand from seasonal rainfall. Electrified pumping and a proliferation of wells drove abstraction up sixfold by the 1960s, reaching nearly 100 million cubic metres by the mid-1980s. That marked a transition from adaptive groundwater use to structural overuse, with extraction exceeding natural recharge even in non-drought years.

Crucially, the study argues, overexploitation was not driven by demand alone but enabled by access and infrastructure. Landowners effectively controlled the groundwater beneath their properties, and extraction was largely unregulated. Spain’s 1985 Water Law moved water into the public domain and introduced a concessional system, which slowed greenhouse construction until 1989, but weak enforcement, illegal wells, inconsistent fee collection, and limited monitoring severely blunted its effect. Later infrastructure, including the Benínar Reservoir, deep community wells, and eventually desalination plants, layered new supplies onto an already stressed system, reinforcing a path dependency rather than curbing over-abstraction. Water quality degradation compounded the problem: seawater intrusion and nitrate pollution exceeding 100 milligrams per litre shrank the volume of usable groundwater, prompting farmers to drill deeper wells and blend sources, which intensified pressure rather than relieving it.

The 1990s and 2000s brought a wave of efficiency investment. Drip irrigation, fertigation, soilless cultivation, and closed-loop systems reduced water use per unit of output so substantially that Campo de Dalías became one of Europe’s most water-efficient intensive agricultural regions. But the gains were largely absorbed by production intensification and spatial expansion rather than absolute reductions in water use. Greenhouse coverage expanded inland and along the coast until nearly all available land was occupied. The quantitative analysis, covering 1975 to 2018, puts numbers on this divergence: water consumption per tonne of produce fell by 59 percent and yields per hectare rose by 131 percent, yet greenhouse area expanded by 231 percent, total production by 666 percent, and total water consumption by 213 percent. This pattern is consistent with the rebound effect, also known as the irrigation efficiency paradox or Jevons’ paradox, in which efficiency functions primarily as a mechanism of economic resilience rather than conservation.

The efficiency gains did, however, change the economics of water. Before modernization, producing one tonne of melons required roughly 673 cubic metres of water, costing farmers about €108 per tonne at a groundwater price of €0.16 per cubic metre. Modernised systems need only about 65 cubic metres of desalinated water per tonne; even at €1 per cubic metre, the water cost falls to roughly €65 per tonne. Overall, the study estimates a 75 to 90 percent reduction in water consumption per tonne of horticultural output compared with early greenhouse monoculture. Because the volume required per tonne fell so sharply, the total water cost of production remained stable or even declined despite the unit price of water rising more than sixfold, and subsidies and blended supplies reduced it further. Higher water prices, the analysis suggests, provided the price signal that drove adoption of water-saving techniques.

Desalination itself arrived only after alternatives had been exhausted. Spain’s AGUA programme, launched in 2004, shifted national policy from large inter-basin transfers to desalination, and the Campo Dalías Desalination Plant, completed in 2015, uses a two-step reverse osmosis process to treat seawater and reduce toxic boron levels. But energy costs of €0.60 to €1.00 per cubic metre discouraged exclusive reliance, so farmers blended desalinated water with groundwater and rainwater, masking scarcity signals and allowing continued extraction. Desalinated water’s share of the region’s irrigation supply rose from 50 percent to 80 percent in just over two decades, yet energy-intensive reverse osmosis accounts for over half of operating costs, keeping the water expensive, up to €1.20 per cubic metre in March 2022. Farmers actually pay less than €0.60 per cubic metre, with the difference subsidised, a further example of pricing that mutes the incentives demand-side reform would require.

To test whether earlier efficiency investment could have changed history, the authors ran a counterfactual using a mean annual aquifer recharge estimate of about 50 million cubic metres, with a range of 30 to 60 million cubic metres, and recalculated historical water demand assuming post-modernization consumption rates but the same production levels and crop mix. Reconstructed abstraction rose from 7.45 million cubic metres per year in 1975 to roughly 60 million cubic metres by 2008. Under the counterfactual, annual abstraction would have been reduced by about 14 million cubic metres, delaying the crossing of the sustainability threshold, estimated around 2009 using linear interpolation between observations from 2008 and 2012, into the late 2000s. The authors are explicit that this estimate is conditional on a fixed production trajectory; it illustrates the effect of irrigation efficiency rather than predicting how an alternative development path would have unfolded.

The environmental and social ledger of the Almería model extends well beyond the aquifer. Monoculture expansion sharply reduced vulnerable habitats, including scrubland supporting Maytenus senegalensis subsp. europaea, while plastic greenhouse coverings degrade rapidly in the coastal climate, generating agricultural plastic waste that risks soil and water contamination. Desalination shifts burdens to coastal and energy systems through brine discharge and greenhouse gas emissions, and planned capacity expansions risk reinforcing what the authors call an illusion of abundance that delays demand-side reform. The study also documents serious labour concerns: the sector depends heavily on migrant workers from Africa, Eastern Europe, and Roma communities, who face documented abuses including irregular contracts, wage theft, unsafe housing, pesticide exposure, and, disproportionately affecting women, gender-based exploitation. As water costs rose, economic pressures were frequently shifted onto labour rather than resolved through reduced resource use.

The wider lesson, the authors argue, is that technological interventions are necessary but insufficient. Comparable patterns of field-level efficiency gains without basin-scale reductions have been reported in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin, the United States’ High Plains Aquifer, northern and western China, and Pakistan’s Indus Basin. What distinguishes Campo de Dalías is its closed groundwater system and export-oriented horticulture embedded in global supply chains, which make the divergence unusually visible. The study recommends integrated, participatory water governance that pairs efficiency with demand management, abstraction limits grounded in robust water accounting and ecological thresholds, ecosystem service valuation through natural capital accounting, and reuse of reclaimed wastewater, a technique Spain already leads in. Evidence from Colorado’s San Luis Valley shows that even politically difficult measures such as self-imposed pumping fees can gain acceptance when water users help design the institutions themselves. Without such systemic approaches, efficiency gains may continue to paradoxically facilitate the very intensification that depletes the resource on which agriculture, and the communities it sustains, ultimately depend.

Subject of Research: Water-use efficiency, aquifer depletion, and the rebound effect in intensive greenhouse agriculture in Campo de Dalías, Almería, Spain

Article Title: Campo de Dalías and the “Almeria miracle”: a cautionary tale of the value of water in agriculture

Article References: Wan Rosely, W. I. H., & Voulvoulis, N. (2026). Campo de Dalías and the “Almeria miracle”: a cautionary tale of the value of water in agriculture. npj Sustainable Agriculture, 4(1), Article 87. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44264-026-00196-z

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1038/s44264-026-00196-z

Keywords: groundwater depletion, irrigation efficiency, rebound effect, desalination, greenhouse agriculture, Almería, Spain, water governance, drip irrigation, Jevons paradox, water scarcity, sustainable agriculture

The original GWAS, conducted by Vashisht and colleagues, had associated genetic markers with two measures of submergence tolerance: the median lethal time, or LT50, meaning the number of days of dark submergence after which half of an ecotype’s population died, and the hazard ratio, or HR, which normalizes the response by accounting for each ecotype’s tolerance to dark stress alone. At the time, the study reported 30 SNPs and 145 candidate genes. Since then, genomic resources available to Arabidopsis researchers have expanded dramatically, most notably through the 1001 Genomes high-density SNP collection and the 250k SNP diversity database. The new reassessment hypothesized that these denser panels could reveal tolerance mechanisms that were previously obscured by the smaller number of sequenced genotypes available ten years ago.

Methodologically, the team digitized the original published figures to extract LT50 and hazard ratio values for the 86 reported ecotypes, then optimized numeric identifier codes for each ecotype to maximize coverage against the 250k SNP dataset v3.06 and the 1001 Full Sequence Dataset TAIR 9. This optimization yielded 75 to 78 matched sequenced genotypes for each of the four analysis combinations: LT50 and HR, each tested against both SNP panels. The researchers ran their GWAS through the GWA-portal and easyGWAS online platforms, using all available panels, including the 250k SNP panel with 214,051 SNPs, the 1001 Genomes panel with roughly 10 million SNPs, and a combined imputed panel. Crucially, they kept the original statistical thresholds, a significance cutoff of -log10(P value) of 4 and a minor allele count of 10, to allow a direct comparison with the earlier findings.

The reanalysis identified a total of 395 SNPs associated with 119 candidate tolerance-related genes. For the LT50 phenotype, the pipeline recovered 7 of 9 previously reported SNP signals and their candidate genes, plus 44 new candidates, for a total of 208 polymorphisms linked to 51 genes. For the hazard ratio, all 11 previously reported candidate gene clusters were detected, though only 8 remained above the significance threshold, yielding 187 SNPs in 78 candidate genes. One of the most striking results was the discovery of ten overlapping genetic signals between the LT50 and HR analyses. No such overlap had been found in the original study. The researchers calculated that the probability of obtaining this overlap by chance between a list of 51 and a list of 78 genes in the roughly 27,000-gene Arabidopsis genome is 3.8 × 10⁻¹⁶ under a hypergeometric distribution, a figure that lends strong statistical confidence to the value of the reanalysis.

The ten overlapping signals point to what the authors describe as putative integrative nodes in the submergence response. They include an uncharacterized ethylene-responsive transcription factor, ERF17, which connects to the ethylene signaling pathway that plants use to sense rising water; a histidyl-tRNA synthetase, HRS1, which carried multiple significant SNPs in both protein-coding and non-coding regions and was expressed constitutively in shoot tissues of all ecotypes regardless of tolerance; a nuclear RING zinc-finger protein; a ribosomal protein; a threonine aldolase involved in amino acid catabolism; a purine ribohydrolase tied to nucleotide salvage; a DUF506 repressor associated with low-phosphate response; a nitrile specifier protein involved in stress-related secondary metabolism; an uncharacterized pentatricopeptide protein; and an uncharacterized intrinsically disordered peptide. The histidyl-tRNA synthetase is particularly noteworthy because tRNA synthetases are increasingly recognized as hubs where amino acid availability, energy sensing, and protein synthesis can be coordinated.

Beyond the overlapping signals, the broader functional categorization of the candidate genes revealed signatures consistent with known submergence survival strategies. Cell wall and cytoskeleton remodeling appeared through a pectin lyase-like protein, an actin cross-linking protein, a myosin-like protein, a neurofilament protein, and a cell-wall associated kinase. Defense-related signaling, a common feature of the submergence response, was represented by a peroxidase, a glutaredoxin, and four additional genes annotated as defense response elements, whose products may also matter during reoxygenation when reactive oxygen species surge. Energy management emerged as another major theme, with two ubiquitination factors, a chaperone, the histidyl-tRNA synthetase, and a ribosomal protein pointing to translational control, a key energy-saving mechanism when oxygen scarcity limits ATP production.

Perhaps the most novel thread involves nucleotide metabolism, a dimension of flood tolerance that has been far less described in plants than protein-level energy saving. The candidate list includes uridine-ribohydrolase 2, linked to nucleotide salvage; a NAD kinase; and a cluster of apyrases, enzymes that suggest the removal of extracellular ATP. The authors note that in other biological systems, such as mammalian hypoxic and tumorigenic contexts, nucleotide control is of high importance, and the Arabidopsis data now suggest something similar may operate during plant submergence stress. Hormone signaling also featured prominently in the hazard ratio analysis, where the previously reported ACC oxidase 2 was complemented by the ethylene-sensitive ERF17, an ABA-responsive transcription factor, and an auxin efflux carrier, together spanning the ethylene, abscisic acid, and auxin pathways that orchestrate downstream carbon and nitrogen management genes.

Cross-species comparison added further weight to the candidate list. The researchers filtered their candidates against expression data from Arabidopsis and from Brachypodium distachyon, a model monocot, using an Arabidopsis submergence expression dataset and the Brachytonalli submergence database. A large fraction of the candidates changed expression in response to submergence in at least one organ: 37.3 percent for LT50 and 30.8 percent for HR candidates in Arabidopsis, and 54.4 percent and 34.6 percent respectively in Brachypodium. This represents a marked enrichment, since Arabidopsis differentially regulates only about 500 of its 35,000 genes under submergence, roughly 1.42 percent, and Brachypodium about 2,000 of 31,000, or 6.45 percent. Six genes showed the same expression pattern in both species, four up-regulated and two down-regulated, leading the authors to hypothesize that these may constitute a core hub conserved between monocot and dicot plants.

The reassessment also revealed how sensitive GWAS outcomes are to environmental conditions and genetic panels. No SNPs or genes correlated exactly between this reanalysis and either of the two previously published submergence GWAS analyses, a divergence the authors attribute to differences in ecotypes, growing locations, and environmental contexts, underscoring the plasticity of plant stress responses. Yet a functional crossover persisted across all three studies, with genes involved in cyclins, myosins, magnesium transporters, ribosomal proteins, tRNAs, and electron transport chain components appearing in each. Additionally, a chromosomal region around genes At5g51000 through At5g53000 produced common signals, and the long arm of Chromosome 5, which harbors two broad quantitative trait loci associated with submergence tolerance, emerged as a recurring hotspot.

The study’s authors frame the work as a demonstration that re-examining public datasets with updated analytical tools, cross-platform validation, and transcriptional filtering can meaningfully expand biologically relevant gene lists ahead of experimental validation. They emphasize that the associations remain candidate-level findings requiring functional follow-up, particularly for the uncharacterized and unknown-function proteins and for the role of nucleotide management during stress. The practical stakes are considerable: the only demonstrated case of submergence-tolerance genetics translated into field yield improvement remains the Sub1A locus in rice, an ethylene-responsive factor transferred to intolerant cultivars through marker-assisted breeding with substantial benefits in Asia. A richer catalogue of candidate hubs in Arabidopsis, validated against the original data and enriched across species, offers plant breeders a broader genetic framework for the difficult task of improving crop resilience to excess water in a changing climate.

Subject of Research: Reanalysis of a GWAS of submergence survival in Arabidopsis thaliana identifying new candidate genes and pathways for flood stress tolerance

Article Title: Reassessment of a GWAS study of submergence survival in Arabidopsis highlights new genetic hubs and pathways involved in stress tolerance

Article References: Zilli-Gutiérrez, S., Abad-Alfonso, K. D., Huerta-Heredia, A. A., Barrera-Figueroa, B. E., & Peña-Castro, J. M. (2026). Reassessment of a GWAS study of submergence survival in Arabidopsis highlights new genetic hubs and pathways involved in stress tolerance. Discover Plants, 3(1), Article 479. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44372-026-00956-8

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44372-026-00956-8

Keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana, GWAS, submergence tolerance, SNP, stress tolerance, ethylene signaling, candidate genes, nucleotide salvage, Brachypodium distachyon, flood stress, plant genetics, bioinformatics

The study focused on Brassica chinensis L., a leafy vegetable widely grown in Asia, and exposed its seedlings to three soil treatments: no microplastics, 0.5 percent PVC microplastics, and 2 percent PVC microplastics by weight. The dose-dependent pattern that emerged was consistent across the measured traits. The low dose acted as a mild stimulus, while the high dose suppressed development after an early phase in which plant height was initially stimulated but subsequently inhibited.

The authors traced the low-dose benefit to changes below ground. Exposure to 0.5 percent PVC microplastics was associated with root morphological adjustment, in particular proliferation of lateral roots. More lateral roots can improve the efficiency of water and nutrient uptake, and the seedlings paired this root modification with enhanced assimilation, which translated into greater shoot elongation and biomass accumulation. Elevated foliar chlorophyll at this dose is consistent with that photosynthetic boost.

The high-dose response followed a different physiological route. At 2 percent PVC microplastics, the seedlings accumulated proline in their leaves, a classic osmoregulatory response that plants use to protect cells under stress. At the same time, stem starch reserves dropped markedly. The authors interpret this as starch being converted to soluble sugars, which serve as osmolytes, meaning the plants drew on their stored carbohydrate reserves to cope with the microplastic-induced stress rather than investing those reserves in growth. Photosynthetic machinery also took a hit at the high dose: the study reports that chloroplast damage compromised photosynthetic performance under 2 percent exposure, undermining the carbon fixation that fuels biomass production. Together, the proline accumulation, starch depletion and impaired photosynthesis describe a coordinated stress response that ended in growth inhibition, in sharp contrast to the growth promotion seen at the lower concentration.

The findings carry caveats tied to the experimental design. The work was a controlled experiment on seedlings, so the responses describe an early life stage rather than mature plants, and only one polymer type, polyvinyl chloride, was tested at two concentrations in soil. Within that scope, the study demonstrates that dose, not merely the presence of microplastics, determines the outcome for young pak choi plants: a low dose of PVC particles stimulated lateral root formation, chlorophyll content and biomass accumulation, while a high dose damaged chloroplasts, depleted starch reserves and triggered osmoregulatory stress responses that constrained growth. The distinct concentration-dependent mechanisms the authors describe, root-driven promotion at 0.5 percent and stress-driven inhibition at 2 percent, offer a physiological framework for interpreting how PVC microplastics shift from stimulant to stressor as their soil concentration rises.

Subject of Research: Growth and physiological responses to microplastics exposure in Brassica chinensis L. seedlings

Article Title: Growth and physiological responses to microplastics exposure in Brassica chinensis L. seedlings

Article References: Lin, X., Huang, Y., Wen, S., & Li, Q. (2026). Growth and physiological responses to microplastics exposure in Brassica chinensis L. seedlings. BMC Plant Biology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-026-10236-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12870-026-10236-y

Keywords: Growth, physiological, responses, microplastics, exposure, Brassica, chinensis, seedlings, scientific research

The stakes for coastal agriculture are substantial. Bangladesh’s coastal region spans 19 districts, covers 32 percent of the country’s total area, and is home to more than 35 million people. Salinity-affected land was recorded at 0.833 million hectares in 1973, rising to 1.020 million hectares in 2000 and 1.056 million hectares by 2009, and researchers have observed that soil salinity rose by more than 60 percent during dry seasons in the south-central coastal region between 1973 and 2021. Between 1970 and 2017, approximately 10 percent of total crop yield losses in these areas were attributed to salinity. As a result, much of the cultivable coastal land remains fallow during the dry season from November to May, when freshwater scarcity and high soil salinity restrict cropping, leaving many farms with only one wet-season rice crop per year.

The research team designed the work as a comparative and applied crop-screening investigation rather than a mechanistic study of salinity tolerance. They selected 14 economically important crops from vegetable, pulse, food and fodder, and fibrous groups: three vegetables, three pulses, one kenaf variety and five jute cultivars, and two food and fodder crops. Selection prioritized non-rice crops with potential for dry-season diversification of salinity-affected coastal land, based on their contribution to household food supply, nutrition, livestock feeding, fiber production, and livelihood diversification. Seeds were sourced from the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute, the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture, the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, and local sources near the university. The authors noted that the selection was not statistically representative of all species or cropping systems in coastal Bangladesh, but was intended to compare early-stage salinity responses among contrasting and locally relevant crop-use categories.

The first phase of the experiment took place in petri dishes in the university’s central laboratory. Twenty seeds of each crop were placed on sterile cotton beds in 90-millimeter dishes and exposed to four salinity levels of 0, 4.50, 8.65, and 13.07 dS m⁻¹, delivered as NaCl solutions. For context, most vegetable crops have salinity thresholds ranging from 1 to 2.5 dS m⁻¹, so the highest treatment represented a severe challenge. The team measured germination percentage, shoot and root length, fresh and dry weight, the salinity tolerance index, the sensitivity index, and the Na⁺:K⁺ ratio in seedlings. A completely randomized design with three replications per treatment was used, and factorial analysis of variance with Tukey’s honestly significant difference test at p < 0.05 separated treatment effects. The authors noted that no independent seed viability or vigor test was conducted before the experiment, so the control treatment served as the experimental baseline.

Germination generally decreased with increasing salinity, but five species—kenaf, mung bean, snake bean, triticale, and cucumber—maintained average germination rates exceeding 80 percent across the salinity gradient. Snake bean posted the highest average germination percentage at 92.92 percent, while lentil recorded the lowest at 36.67 percent. Among the jute cultivars, germination declined progressively with increasing salinity, with Deshi Shak Pat-1 and BJRI Deshi-8 showing the lowest germination percentages, while Corchorus olitorius cv. O-9897 maintained 80 percent germination at salinity levels up to 8.65 dS m⁻¹. The researchers attributed reduced germination under salt stress to increased seed dormancy, low external osmotic potential, and the toxic effects of sodium and chloride ions, which restrict water uptake and may interfere with the activation of hydrolytic enzymes. Notably, lentil and millet showed low germination even under control conditions, at 40.0 and 48.3 percent respectively, suggesting lower initial seed viability or vigor in those seed lots.

The five best-performing species from the petri dish phase—mung bean, kenaf cv. HC-3, snake bean, triticale, and cucumber—were then advanced to pot culture using saline clay loam soil sourced from the Patabunia riverbank in Dumki, Patuakhali. The soil had a pH of 7.71 and a baseline electrical conductivity of 0.73 dS m⁻¹, and was mixed with NaCl to achieve treatment levels of 0.73, 4.26, 8.21, 11.44, and 15.42 dS m⁻¹. Seventy-five pots were arranged in a net house, each containing 10 kilograms of processed soil and ten seeds per pot, with three replications. Germination in pot culture exceeded 87 percent, higher than the petri dish results across the tested salinity gradients.

The contrast between the two screening systems proved informative. In petri dishes, seeds are directly exposed to NaCl solutions, resulting in immediate contact with dissolved salts and potentially higher ionic stress around the germinating seed surface. Soil, by contrast, acts as a heterogeneous buffering medium that regulates salt availability through adsorption, ion exchange processes, and uneven salt distribution within the soil matrix, reducing the immediate exposure of germinating seeds to soluble Na⁺ and Cl⁻ ions. Soil also provides a larger rooting environment in which water movement and salt diffusion create spatial variability in salinity exposure, potentially allowing developing roots to explore microsites with comparatively lower salt concentrations. Despite these differences, the ranking of crop performance remained generally consistent between the two approaches, suggesting that in vitro screening can serve as an efficient preliminary method for identifying salt-tolerant crops, although pot and field evaluations remain essential for confirming tolerance under realistic growing environments.

Based on salinity tolerance index values, cucumber and snake bean were classified as salt-tolerant at all salinity levels, with tolerance index values greater than 1.0, while gima kalmi received the same designation at 4.50 and 8.65 dS m⁻¹. Mung bean, grass pea, BJRI Deshi-8, BJRI Tosha-8, kenaf, and lentil were classified as moderately salt-tolerant, with tolerance index values from 0.5 to less than 1.0. Cucumber showed strong tolerance following seedling establishment, with positive sensitivity index values for dry weight of at least 66 percent recorded up to 13.07 dS m⁻¹. The fresh and dry weights of snake bean and cucumber increased with increasing salinity in the petri dish experiment, reaching maximum values at 8.65 dS m⁻¹, while other crops showed declining trends. However, the researchers issued an important caveat regarding millet: although it maintained or apparently increased germination under some salinity treatments compared with control, its low control germination of approximately 48 percent means the response may reflect seed viability or vigor, so millet was not considered a reliable indicator of salinity tolerance in this study and requires further evaluation with seed lots of confirmed viability.

Ionic analysis provided an associated pattern worth noting. Sodium accumulation in seedlings increased with increasing salinity, and the Na⁺/K⁺ ratio of cucumber, snake bean, triticale, kenaf, and mung bean remained within 4.0 under saline conditions. These same species exhibited relatively higher germination performance in both petri dish and pot culture experiments, indicating an association between maintaining a lower Na⁺/K⁺ ratio and improved salinity tolerance during early seedling establishment, while other species showed Na⁺/K⁺ ratios ranging from 4 to 16, likely contributing to low germination through electrolyte imbalance. Pearson correlation analysis, conducted on species-level means with n = 14, reinforced this descriptive pattern: at 13.07 dS m⁻¹, germination percentage was strongly and positively correlated with the tolerance index (r = 0.774, p = 0.001), while the Na⁺/K⁺ ratio showed significant negative correlations with both germination percentage (r = −0.668, p = 0.009) and the tolerance index (r = −0.821, p < 0.001). The authors emphasized that these correlations describe associations among species responses and should not be interpreted as evidence of causal relationships or independent physiological mechanisms, since whole-seedling Na⁺ and K⁺ measurements cannot determine the specific processes responsible.

The researchers framed their findings as preliminary evidence of early-stage salinity responses rather than confirmation of complete crop-cycle tolerance. The study did not assess flowering, reproductive development, final yield, product quality, or economic performance under salinity stress, and environmental factors such as irrigation-water quality, rainfall, soil-water interactions, and nutrient availability may influence crop responses under field conditions. Electrical conductivity was not monitored continuously during the experiments, limiting assessment of actual salt exposure, and independent seed viability and vigor tests were not conducted. Recognized tolerance mechanisms, including selective K⁺ retention, reduced Na entry into metabolically active tissues, and vacuolar Na⁺ sequestration, were not directly evaluated, and explanations involving osmotic adjustment through compatible solutes or enhanced antioxidant defense remain hypothetical because the relevant measurements were not taken. Nevertheless, the study delivers a locally relevant dataset for prioritizing candidate crops for more comprehensive agronomic and field-level evaluation, and the authors call for multi-location and multi-season field trials with periodic electrical conductivity monitoring to validate crop performance in saline coastal conditions.

Subject of Research: Salinity tolerance screening of 14 crop species at the germination stage under laboratory and pot conditions in coastal Bangladesh

Article Title: Salinity tolerance dynamics in selected crop species at germination stage under in vitro and in situ conditions in Patuakhali, Bangladesh

Article References: Islam, M. S., Roy, A., Mondal, S., Uddin, M. N., Bhuyan, M. I., Al Zabir, A., Kabir, M. A., Uddin, M. E., Kumar, G. M., Bruning, B., & de Vos, A. (2026). Salinity tolerance dynamics in selected crop species at germination stage under in vitro and in situ conditions in Patuakhali, Bangladesh. Discover Plants, 3(1), Article 478. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44372-026-00952-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44372-026-00952-y

Keywords: salinity tolerance, germination, coastal Bangladesh, snake bean, cucumber, gima kalmi, Na+/K+ ratio, soil salinity, crop screening, Patuakhali, dry-season cropping, salinity tolerance index

The survey covered Aksaray, Kayseri, Kırıkkale, Kırşehir, Nevşehir, Niğde, Sivas, and Yozgat. Both the proportion of orchards with at least one symptomatic tree and the incidence of symptomatic trees varied significantly among provinces, indicating a spatially heterogeneous disease landscape. From trees showing perennial canker, twig dieback, or fruit rot symptoms, the researchers collected 1,283 tissue samples, from which 666 Botryosphaeriaceae isolates were obtained, corresponding to 51.9 percent of sampled tissues.

Molecular and morphological characterization identified five species: Diplodia seriata accounted for 37.4 percent of isolates, Neofusicoccum parvum for 29.0 percent, Botryosphaeria dothidea for 17.4 percent, Lasiodiplodia theobromae for 8.6 percent, and Lasiodiplodia pseudotheobromae for 7.7 percent. To confirm species boundaries, the team performed multilocus phylogenetic analyses of 56 representative isolates using three DNA loci: the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), the beta-tubulin gene (TUB2), and the translation elongation factor 1-alpha gene (TEF1-α). These analyses supported the five species-level groups identified in the collection, providing a taxonomic framework for the isolates recovered from Central Anatolian walnuts.

Isolate-level species composition was significantly associated with both symptom type and province. That means the particular mix of fungal species recovered differed depending on whether the sampled tissue came from a canker, dieback, or fruit rot symptom, and also depending on which province the orchard was located in. The study design documents these associations rather than proving causal roles for each species in each symptom.

Pathogenicity was tested using 15 multilocus-confirmed isolates, three per species, inoculated onto both detached and attached walnut branches. All five species caused disease in these tests. The highest pathogenicity was generally observed in isolates of L. theobromae and L. pseudotheobromae, while the lowest was recorded in D. seriata isolates. The researchers also examined how mycelial growth responded to temperature, and species differences emerged: L. pseudotheobromae reached its highest growth at 30 degrees Celsius, and both L. theobromae and L. pseudotheobromae maintained higher growth at 35 degrees Celsius compared with the other species tested. The authors conclude that the Botryosphaeriaceae disease complex in Central Anatolian walnut orchards is widespread and heterogeneous, with spatial variation in isolate composition, and that the high pathogenicity of the tested Lasiodiplodia isolates and their comparatively strong in vitro growth at the upper end of the tested temperature range warrant further investigation.

Subject of Research: Botryosphaeriaceae species associated with canker, twig dieback, and fruit rot of walnut in Central Anatolia, Türkiye

Article Title: Species composition, distribution, and pathogenicity of Botryosphaeriaceae species associated with canker, twig dieback, and fruit rot of walnut in Central Anatolia, Türkiye

Article References: Eser, Y. K., & Endes, A. (2026). Species composition, distribution, and pathogenicity of Botryosphaeriaceae species associated with canker, twig dieback, and fruit rot of walnut in Central Anatolia, Türkiye. BMC Plant Biology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-026-10197-2

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12870-026-10197-2

Keywords: walnut, Botryosphaeriaceae, Lasiodiplodia, Diplodia seriata, Neofusicoccum parvum, canker, twig dieback, fruit rot, Central Anatolia, plant pathology, phylogenetics, pathogenicity