Phenolic acids and flavonoids are large groups of secondary metabolites ubiquitous in the plant kingdom. They are currently in the spotlight due to the numerous health benefits associated with their consumption, as well as for their vital roles in plant biological processes and in plant-environment interaction. Tomato, eggplant and pepper are in the top ten most consumed vegetables in the world, and their fruit accumulation profiles have been extensively characterized, showing substantial differences.

Plants are continuously exposed to various biotic and abiotic stresses in the natural environment. To cope with these stresses, they have evolved a multitude of defenses mechanisms. With the rapid development of genome sequencing technologies, a large number of non-coding RNA (ncRNAs) have been identified in tomato, like microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Recently, more and more evidence indicates that many ncRNAs are involved in plant response to biotic and abiotic stresses in tomato.

Brassica napus plants with determinate inflorescence exhibit improved traits in field production, such as lower plant height, improved lodging resistance, and consistent maturity. Compared to plants with indeterminate inflorescence, such features are favorable for mechanized harvesting techniques. Here, using a natural mutant 6138 with determinate inflorescence, it is demonstrated that determinate inflorescence reduces plant height significantly without affecting thousand-grain weight and yield per plant.

Breeding can change the dominance as well as additive genetic value of populations, thus utilizing heterosis. A common hybrid breeding strategy is reciprocal recurrent selection (RRS), in which parents of hybrids are typically recycled within pools based on general combining ability. However, the relative performances of RRS and other breeding strategies have not been thoroughly compared.

Gossypium herbaceum is a species of cotton native to Africa and Asia that is one of the 2 domesticated diploids. Together with its sister-species G. arboreum, these A-genome taxa represent models of the extinct A-genome donor of modern polyploid cotton, which provide about 95% of cotton grown worldwide. As part of a larger effort to characterize variation and improve resources among diverse diploid and polyploid cotton genomes, we sequenced and assembled the genome of G. herbaceum cultivar (cv.)

Soil salinity is a worldwide problem that reduces crop yields, but the development of salt-tolerant crops can help overcome this challenge. This study was conducted with the purpose of evaluating the morpho-physiological and genetic characteristics of a new salt-tolerant mutant KA-1285 developed using gamma-ray irradiation in soybean (Glycine max L.). The morphological and physiological responses of KA-1285 were compared with salt-sensitive and salt-tolerant genotypes after treatment with 150 mM NaCl for two weeks.

Hybrid rice technology offers great promise to further enhance rice production and productivity for global food security. Improving hybrid rice parental lines is the first step in developing heterotic rice hybrids. To improve resistance against blast disease, a maintainer line DRR 9B was fortified with a major broad-spectrum blast resistance gene Pi2 through marker-assisted selection. The rice blast caused by Magnaporthe oryzae is a major disease and can cause severe yield losses upto 100%.

Traditionally, breeders’ selection decisions in early generations are largely based on visual observations in the field. With the advent of affordable genome sequencing and high-throughput phenotyping technologies, enhancing breeders’ ratings with such information became attractive. In this research, it is hypothesized that G× E interactions of secondary traits (i.e., growth dynamics’ traits) are less complex than those of related target traits (e.g., yield).

Folate (vitamin B9) is one of the most essential micronutrients whose deficiencies lead to various health defects in humans. Herein, we mapped the quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying seed folate content in soybean using recombinant inbred lines developed from cultivars, ZH35 and ZH13, across four environments. We identified 61 QTL on 12 chromosomes through composite interval mapping, with phenotypic variance values ranging from 1.68 to 24.68%.

Coral reefs are highly diverse ecosystems of immense ecological, economic, and aesthetic importance built on the calcium-carbonate-based skeletons of stony corals. The formation of these skeletons is threatened by increasing ocean temperatures and acidification, and a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved may assist efforts to mitigate the effects of such anthropogenic stressors.