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Although plant-based culture media enhances in vitro cultivation of rhizobacteria, studies assessing their biomass potential for large-scale applications are lacking. Here, we advance plant pellets (PPs) as a novel technology to unlock the potential of such vegan culture media for biomass production of Rhizobium leguminosarum. PP formulations were based on mixtures of Egyptian clover powder and the agro-byproducts glycerol and molasses. These mixtures were either contained or not contained in teabags during culture media preparation. Metrics of biomass included colony forming units, optical density (OD600nm), and cell dry weight (DW). Biomass comparisons between culture media based on PPs and standard yeast extract mannitol (YEM) revealed that the following PPs composition, contained in teabags, cultivated rhizobia at levels comparable to YEM: 16 g clover powder, 5% molasses, and 0.8% glycerol. This PPs composition enabled shorter generation times of rhizobia (PP: 3.83 h, YEM: 4.28 h). Strikingly, PPs mixtures supplemented with 10% molasses and not contained in teabags promoted rhizobia without apparent lag phases and produced 25% greater DW than YEM. PPs potentiate the use of dehydrated vegan feedstocks for both plant microbiota cultivation and biomass production and appear as cost- and labor-effective tools, easy to handle and store for plant-based culture media preparation.

This experiment was conducted to investigate the variation of nitrogen efficiency (NE), nitrogen uptake efficiency (UE), physiological nitrogen use efficiency (PUE) among Indian mustard genotypes, grown under N-insufficient and N-sufficient conditions. Nitrogen efficiency varied from 52.7 to 92.8. Seed yield varied from 1.14 t ha(-1) to 3.21 t ha(-1) under N-insufficient condition, while 2.14 t ha(-1)-3.33 t ha(-1) under N-sufficient condition. Physiological basis of this difference was explained in terms of nitrogen uptake efficiency and physiological nitrogen use efficiency, and their relationship with the growth and yield characteristics. While nitrogen uptake efficiency was positively correlated with plant biomass (0.793**), leaf area index (0.664*), and leaf nitrogen content (0.783**), physiological nitrogen use efficiency is positively correlated with photosynthetic rate (0.689**) and yield (0.814**). This study suggests that genotype having high nitrogen uptake efficiency and high physiological nitrogen use efficiency might help in reducing the nitrogen load on soil without any penalty on the yield.

Sustaining crop production and productivity in sub-Saharan Africa requires the availability and use of quality seed of improved varieties by smallholder farmers. The private sector has been considered as the best way to sustain seed supply and crop productivity. Unfortunately, the private sector’s share in the seed production and delivery in sub-Saharan Africa countries has not been very substantial for decades. As a consequence, farmer access to quality seed of recently released varieties remains very low. This manuscript analyzes the experiences of informal seed producers who graduated to formal private seed enterprises to understand the effectiveness of the support they receive to become viable seed ventures. We used comparative research methods to analyze the qualitative and quantitative data collected to understand the underlying mechanisms. The findings showed that the analyzed seed enterprises started with as little as about USD 300 and have already multiplied over tenfold their initial capital. They benefited from a wide variety of supports, e.g., quality seed production, marketing, partnerships, and value chain development trainings and infrastructures, from extension workers, research centers, national and international NGOs, and the other private seed enterprise operators like large public seed enterprises and agro-dealers. The seed enterprises are producing pre-basic, basic, and certified seed of cereals and self-pollinated legume crops delivered directly to farmers, institutional markets, and agro-dealers. The seed production data have been increasing for the past three years with an area expanding from about 30 ha to over 150 ha per year for chickpea. The seed production and delivery practices being employed are smallholder farmer-based practices that are environmentally friendly. For sustainable and reliable seed production and delivery systems in sub-Saharan Africa, a bold step is needed whereby the informal seed production entities are nurtured and upgraded into formal certified seed production ventures that deliver social and economic benefits to the promotors and the communities.

Abstract Polyploidization is an important approach in crop breeding for agronomic trait improvement, especially for biomass production. Cytochimera contains two or more mixed cells with different levels of ploidy, which is considered a failure in whole genome duplication. Using colchicine treatment with diploid (Dip) potato (Solanum chacoense) seedlings, this study generated tetraploid (Tet) and cytochimera (Cyt) lines, which respectively contained complete and partial cells with genome duplication. Compared to the Dip potato, we observed remarkably enhanced plant growth and biomass yields in Tet and Cyt lines. Notably, the Cyt potato straw, which was generated from incomplete genome doubling, was of significantly higher biomass yield than that of the Tet with a distinctively altered cell wall composition. Meanwhile, we observed that one layer of the tetraploid cells (about 30 %) in Cyt plants was sufficient to trigger a gene expression pattern similar to that of Tet, suggesting that the biomass dominance of Cyt may be related to the proportion of different ploidy cells. Further genome-wide analyses of co-expression networks indicated that down-regulation (against Dip) of spliceosomal-related transcripts might lead to differential alternative splicing for specifically improved agronomic traits such as plant growth, biomass yield and lignocellulose composition in Tet and Cyt plants. In addition, this work examined that the genome of Cyt line was relatively stable after years of asexual reproduction. Hence, this study has demonstrated that incomplete genome doubling is a promising strategy to maximize biomass production in potato and beyond.

Databases were constructed to determine ME requirements for maintenance (MEm) and BW gain (MEg) of preweaning, growing and mature goats by regressing ME intake (MEI) against ADG. Goats were categorized as dairy, meat (≥ 50% Boer) or indigenous biotypes. The preweaning database included 98 treatment means representing 1016 goats and the growing goat database consisted of 333 treatment means. Because of differences among biotypes of growing goats in intercepts and slopes (P < 0.05), separate regressions were performed. The meat subset included 60 observations from 11 publications, representing 548 goats; the dairy subset had 116 observations from 25 publications with 1851 goats; and the indigenous subset consisted of 157 observations from 34 publications and 1024 goats. Dairy and indigenous subsets were randomly split into independent sets for equation development and evaluation. The mature goat database included 69 treatment means from 23 publications and represented 495 goats. Small numbers of observations removed after initial regressions to improve fit did not markedly alter intercepts or slopes. Equations were as follows: preweaning: MEI (kJ/kg BW 0.75 ) = 484.6 (S.E. = 61.46) + (13.37 [S.E. = 1.95] × ADG [g/kg BW 0.75 ]) (n = 61; R 2 = 0.44); meat: MEI (kJ/kg BW 0.75 ) = 457.0 (S.E. = 22.30) + (25.23 [S.E. = 1.74] × ADG [g/kg BW 0.75 ]) (n = 57; R 2 = 0.79); dairy: MEI (kJ/kg BW 0.75 ) = 573.7 (S.E. = 46.20) + (23.56 [S.E. = 3.10] × ADG [g/kg BW 0.75 ]) (n = 56; R 2 = 0.52); indigenous: MEI (kJ/kg BW 0.75 ) = 500.0 (S.E. = 11.94) + (18.59 [S.E. = 1.64] × ADG [g/kg BW 0.75 ]) (n = 76; R 2 = 0.63); and mature: MEI (kJ/kg BW 0.75 ) = 462.2 (S.E. = 24.95) + (28.52 (S.E. = 5.05) × ADG [g/kg BW 0.75 ]) [n = 69; R 2 = 0.32]. Intercepts and slopes from regressions of observed against predicted MEI with evaluation data sets, based on equations for preweaning and growing dairy and indigenous goats, were not different from 0 to 1, respectively. When final equations for the different growing goat biotypes were tested, the intercept for dairy goats differed (P < 0.05) from that of meat and indigenous goats, and the slope for indigenous goats tended (P = 0.16) to differ from that of meat and dairy goats. Therefore, the following dummy variable equation was obtained (I1 = 1 for dairy and 0 for others; I2 = 1 for indigenous and 0 for others): MEI (kJ/kg BW 0.75 ) = 488.5 (S.E. = 14.4) + (91.5 (S.E. = 18.69) × I1)

Endophytes and rhizospheric microorganisms support invasive species’ adaptation to environmental stresses. Here, we review the impacts of endophytes, rhizospheric microbes (particularly symbiotic nitrogen-fixers), mycorrhiza and pathogens on plant invasion in arid and semi-arid areas. Endophytes and soil microorganisms either enhance nutrient acquisition for enhancing the invasive plant immune system and/or negatively affect native plants. In addition, the positive feedback between mycorrhizal fungi and invasive plants enhances the competitive ability of the aliens, providing them more opportunities for success, establishment, and dominance. The microbes and their secondary metabolites promote invasive plant species by changing soil microbial community structure and carbon biomass as well as enzyme activity, which improves soil properties and processes. The negative impact of invasive exotic plants on the associated biota and the role of allelochemicals are also discussed. It could be concluded that endophytes interact with rhizosphere microbes to promote invasive plant species in arid and semi-arid areas in a way similar to what happens in other ecosystems; the differences are in the pathways and reactions, which depend upon the prevailing abiotic factors. More interdisciplinary field experiments integrating microbial, biotechnological, and molecular approaches are needed to understand the role of symbiotic microbes in invasion biology.

Abstract The fungal kingdom represents an extraordinary diversity of organisms with profound impacts across animal, plant, and ecosystem health. Fungi simultaneously support life, by forming beneficial symbioses with plants and producing life-saving medicines, and bring death, by causing devastating diseases in humans, plants, and animals. With climate change, increased antimicrobial resistance, global trade, environmental degradation, and novel viruses altering the impact of fungi on health and disease, developing new approaches is now more crucial than ever to combat the threats posed by fungi and to harness their extraordinary potential for applications in human health, food supply, and environmental remediation. To address this aim, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund convened a workshop to unite leading experts on fungal biology from academia and industry to strategize innovative solutions to global challenges and fungal threats. This report provides recommendations to accelerate fungal research and highlights the major research advances and ideas discussed at the meeting pertaining to 5 major topics: (1) Connections between fungi and climate change and ways to avert climate catastrophe; (2) Fungal threats to humans and ways to mitigate them; (3) Fungal threats to agriculture and food security and approaches to ensure a robust global food supply; (4) Fungal threats to animals and approaches to avoid species collapse and extinction; and (5) Opportunities presented by the fungal kingdom, including novel medicines and enzymes.