Chinese Cabbage Research Articles

Comprehensive Analysis of Phenotypic Traits in Chinese Cabbage Using 3D Point Cloud Technology

Studies on the phenotypic traits and their associations in Chinese cabbage lack precise and objective digital evaluation metrics. Traditional assessment methods often rely on subjective evaluations and experience, compromising accuracy and reliability. This study develops an innovative, comprehensive trait evaluation method based on 3D point cloud technology, with the aim of enhancing the precision, reliability, and standardization of the comprehensive phenotypic traits of Chinese cabbage. By using multi-view image sequences and structure-from-motion algorithms, 3D point clouds of 50 plants from each of the 17 Chinese cabbage varieties were reconstructed. Color-based region growing and 3D convex hull techniques were employed to measure 30 agronomic traits. Comparisons between 3D point cloud-based measurements of the plant spread, plant height, leaf area, and leaf ball volume and traditional methods yielded R2 values greater than 0.97, with root mean square errors of 1.27 cm, 1.16 cm, 839.77 cm3, and 59.15 cm2, respectively. Based on the plant spread and plant height, a linear regression prediction of Chinese cabbage weights was conducted, yielding an R2 value of 0.76. Integrated optimization algorithms were used to test the parameters, reducing the measurement time from 55 min when using traditional methods to 3.2 min. Furthermore, in-depth analyses including variation, correlation, principal component analysis, and clustering analyses were conducted. Variation analysis revealed significant trait variability, with correlation analysis indicating 21 pairs of traits with highly significant positive correlations and 2 pairs with highly significant negative correlations. The top six principal components accounted for 90% of the total variance. Using the elbow method, k-means clustering determined that the optimal number of clusters was four, thus classifying the 17 cabbage varieties into four distinct groups. This study provides new theoretical and methodological insights for exploring phenotypic trait associations in Chinese cabbage and facilitates the breeding and identification of high-quality varieties. Compared with traditional methods, this system provides significant advantages in terms of accuracy, speed, and comprehensiveness, with its low cost and ease of use making it an ideal replacement for manual methods, being particularly suited for large-scale monitoring and high-throughput phenotyping.

Integrated Analysis of Metabolome and Transcriptome Reveals the Effect of Burdock Fructooligosaccharide on the Quality of Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. Pekinensis)

Burdock fructooligosaccharide (BFO) is fructose with a low polymerization degree, which could improve the immunity to pathogens, quality, and stress resistance of vegetables. Still, there are no studies on applying BFO in Chinese cabbage. In this study, the effects of exogenous BFO sprayed with different concentrations (0, 5, 10, 20, 30 g·L−1) on the growth and soluble sugar content of Chinese cabbage seedlings were determined. The result showed that 10 g·L−1 was the appropriate spraying concentration. Based on metabolome analysis, a total of 220 differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) were found, among which flavonoid metabolites, glucosinolate metabolites, and soluble sugar-related metabolites were the key metabolites involved in improving the quality of Chinese cabbage caused by BFO. Further combination analysis with transcriptome, trans-cinnamate 4-monooxygenase (CYP73A5), and chalcone synthase 1 (CHS1) were more closely associated with the DAMs of flavonoid biosynthesis. Sulfotransferases 18 (SOT18), Branched-chain amino acid amino transferases 6 (BCAT6), and cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (CYP83A1) were the key genes in glucosinolate biosynthesis. Hexokinase (HxK1), beta-glucosidase 8 (BGL08), invertase 3 (INV3), beta-glucosidase 3B (BGL3B), and sucrose phosphate synthase 1 (SPS1) were significantly upregulated, potentially playing crucial roles in the soluble sugar metabolism. In conclusion, these results provided an understanding of the effects of BFO on the expression of genes and the accumulation of metabolites related to quality formation in Chinese cabbage.

Autonomous Self-Propelled Napa Cabbage Harvester: Cutting, Attitude Control, and Loading Modules

This paper introduces an autonomous self-propelled Napa cabbage harvester, designed to significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the traditionally labor-intensive harvesting process. The harvester integrates three key modules: a cutting, an attitude control, and a loading module. The cutting module is equipped with an attitude control module that ensures precise severance of the Napa cabbage stems, minimizing damage to the crop and maintaining product quality. The attitude control module employs a backstepping-based force control that continuously adjusts the cutting angle and height to ensure consistent cutting precision, even on uneven terrain, thereby optimizing the quality of the Napa cabbages. The loading module automates the collection and transfer of harvested Napa cabbages into storage, significantly reducing the physical burden on workers and improving operational efficiency. Field experiments demonstrated improvements, including a 42–66% reduction in task time compared to manual harvesting, as well as a 37% increase in cutting accuracy through the use of autonomous control. The proposed system presents a comprehensive solution for enhancing productivity, reducing labor demands, and maintaining high crop quality in Napa cabbage harvesting, offering a practical approach to modernizing agricultural practices.

Influence of Spatial Scale Effect on UAV Remote Sensing Accuracy in Identifying Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. Pekinensis) Plants

The exploration of the impact of different spatial scales on the low-altitude remote sensing identification of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. Pekinensis) plants offers important theoretical reference value in balancing the accuracy of plant identification with work efficiency. This study focuses on Chinese cabbage plants during the rosette stage; RGB images were obtained by drones at different flight heights (20 m, 30 m, 40 m, 50 m, 60 m, and 70 m). Spectral sampling analysis was conducted on different ground backgrounds to assess their separability. Based on the four commonly used vegetation indices for crop recognition, the Excess Green Index (ExG), Red Green Ratio Index (RGRI), Green Leaf Index (GLI), and Excess Green Minus Excess Red Index (ExG-ExR), the optimal index was selected for extraction. Image processing methods such as frequency domain filtering, threshold segmentation, and morphological filtering were used to reduce the impact of weed and mulch noise on recognition accuracy. The recognition results were vectorized and combined with field data for the statistical verification of accuracy. The research results show that (1) the ExG can effectively distinguish between soil, mulch, and Chinese cabbage plants; (2) images of different spatial resolutions differ in the optimal type of frequency domain filtering and convolution kernel size, and the threshold segmentation effect also varies; (3) as the spatial resolution of the imagery decreases, the optimal window size for morphological filtering also decreases, accordingly; and (4) at a flight height of 30 m to 50 m, the recognition effect is the best, achieving a balance between recognition accuracy and coverage efficiency. The method proposed in this paper is beneficial for agricultural growers and managers in carrying out precision planting management and planting structure optimization analysis and can aid in the timely adjustment of planting density or layout to improve land use efficiency and optimize resource utilization.

Effects of Different LED Spectra on the Antioxidant Capacity and Nitrogen Metabolism of Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. Pekinensis)

Light quality optimization is a cost-effective method for increasing leafy vegetable quality in plant factories. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that enable the precise modulation of light quality were used in this study to examine the effects of red-blue (RB), red-blue-green (RBG), red-blue-purple (RBP), and red-blue-far-red (RBF) lights on the growth, antioxidant capacity, and nitrogen metabolism of Chinese cabbage leaves, while white light served as the control (CK). Results showed that the chlorophyll, carotenoid, vitamin C, amino acid, total flavonoid, and antioxidant levels of Chinese cabbage were all significantly increased under RBP combined light treatment. Meanwhile, RBG combined light treatment significantly increased the levels of amino acids but decreased the nitrite content of Chinese cabbage. In addition, RBF combined light treatment remarkably increased the amino acid levels but decreased the antioxidant capacity of Chinese cabbage. In conclusion, the addition of purple light to red-blue light was effective in improving the nutritional value and antioxidant capacity of Chinese cabbage. This light condition can be used as a model for a supplemental lighting strategy for leafy vegetables in plant factory production.

Hexanoic acid production from anaerobic fermentation of Chinese cabbage waste with exogenous lactic acid as electron donor

The lack of electron donors is one of the key factors hindering hexanoic acid production from anaerobic fermentation. In this study, three different types of lactic acids were supplemented as exogenous electron donors to the anaerobic fermentation system of Chinese cabbage waste (CCW). The yields of hexanoic acid in the reactors supplemented with CCW lactic acid pre-fermentation broth (PFB), lactic acid diluent (LAD) and chemical lactic acid (LA) were 6996.8 mg COD/L, 4534.8 mg COD/L and 6777.1 mg COD/L, respectively. Compared with the reactor supplemented with LA, the electron efficiency of hexanoic acid in reactor supplemented with PFB increased by 188 %. Supplementing PFB shifted the microbial communities towards a direction favorable to hydrolysis and chain elongation, thereby facilitating the synthesis of hexanoic acid.

First Report of Bacterial Soft Rot of Potato Caused by Pectobacterium aroidearum strains in China.

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a globally important staple crop, and China has contributed more than 20% of the world's production. In Guangdong Province, potato has become one of the most important winter crops, increased the farmer income. However, the potato were seriously affected by soft rot disease caused by Pectobacterium spp. in the past decade. In February 2024, typical symptoms of potato soft rot were observed on the plants of cultivar "Daxiyang" in Enping City, Guangdong Province, where the disease incidences ranged 3%-5% in the investigated fields. The stems adjacent to the tubes showed typical inky black symptoms, and the plants appeared yellow. The interior of the tubes appeared water-soaked and had developed to overall decay, with an evident smell. Eleven symptomatic plants were collected and used to isolate the causal agents. Pieces of tube tissue (about 5×5 mm) were removed between the rot-symptomatic and non-symptomatic margins, and surface sterilized using 75% ethanol for 30 s and 2% NaClO for 1 min. The pieces were rinsed in sterile water for three times, and then plated on Luria-Bertani (LB) medium agar for 36 h at 30°C. The produced colonies were selected for hypersensitive test on tobacco, and the colonies with a positive reaction were subcultured three times. Two representative strains, EP51-2 and EP51-3, were processed for gene sequencing, including house-keeping genes, danX, leuS, and recA (Portier et al. 2019). The gene sequences (GenBank accessions no. PP870934 to PP870939) of these two representative strains were matched with Pectobacterium aroidearum strain NCPPB 929 (CP166097.1) with identities ranging from 97.15 to 100% and the coverage of 100%. The sequences of three genes were concatenated and used for phylogenetic analyses, along with representative strains from 19 other Pectobacterium species. Phylogenetic analyses supported that EP51-2 and EP51-3 were grouped into P. aroidearum with the representative strains. Koch's postulates were applied to determine the pathogenicity of P. aroidearum strain EP51-2. According to the external inoculation method on potato stems (Czajkowski et al. 2010), each of six pots of healthy potato plants was inoculated at the basal stem with 100 µl of bacterial suspension (108 CFU/ml), while six pots inoculated with LB served as controls. The plants were then kept at 30°C and maintained at 95% humidity. After 2 days, all six plants inoculated with the bacteria exhibited typical symptoms on the stems, which progressed to the collapse of the whole plant; the controls remained symptom-free during the observation. Single colonies reisolated from the symptomatic stem of the inoculated plants were confirmed using PCR and sequencing with recA primers as described above, and the causal agent was identified as P. aroidearum strains, fulfilling Koch's postulates. P. aroidearum has been reported on Chinese cabbage (Xie et al. 2018) and leaf mustard (Chu et al. 2024) in China, as well as on crops in the family Araceae, such as konjac (Wei et al. 2021), taro (Zhou et al. 2022), and Pinellia ternata (Du et al. 2024). To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. aroidearum causing potato soft rot in China. This pathogen has been prevalent in the taro fields in Guangdong Province and has caused severe losses. This report highlights an expansion of the host range for this pathogen. Attention should be focused on this newly emerging pathogen affecting potatoes, and immediate measures should be implemented to control its spread.

Efficient genetic transformation and gene editing of Chinese cabbage using Agrobacterium rhizogenes.

A method using Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated callus production and plant regeneration enables efficient genetic transformation and gene editing in Chinese cabbage.

SSA4 Mediates Cd Tolerance via Activation of the Cis Element of VHS1 in Yeast and Enhances Cd Tolerance in Chinese Cabbage.

Identifying key genes involved in Cadmium (Cd) response pathways in plants and developing low-Cd-accumulating cultivars may be the most effective and eco-friendly strategy to tackle the problem of Cd pollution in crops. In our previous study, Stressseventy subfamily A 4 (SSA4) was identified to be associated with Cd tolerance in yeast. Here, we investigated the mechanism of SSA4 in regulating Cd tolerance in yeast. ScSSA4 binds to POre Membrane 34 (POM34), a key component of nuclear pore complex (NPC), and translocates from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, where it regulates the expression of its downstream gene, Viable in a Hal3 Sit4 background 1 (VHS1), resulting in reduced Cd accumulation in yeast cells. Additionally, we identified a Chinese cabbage SSA4 gene, BrSSA4c, which could enhance the Cd tolerance in Chinese cabbage. This study offers new insights into the regulatory mechanisms of Cd tolerance in yeast, a model organism, and paves the way for the genetic enhancement of Cd tolerance in Chinese cabbage.

Dual signal amplification strategy-based electrochemical aptasensor utilizing redox molecule/MOF composites for multi-pesticide detection

Electrochemical aptasensor is a great tool for simultaneously assessing harmful pesticide residues in agricultural products and foods. This study ingeniously designed an electrochemical aptasensor based on dual signal amplification strategies for concurrent detection of various pesticide residues. Firstly, poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (PR) and Au-Pt-Pd trimetallic nanoflowers supported on HP-UiO66-NH2 were creatively employed together as substrates to load more aptamers, ascribed to the improved conductivity, abundant sites and a large electrochemical effective surface area. Secondly, ferrocene-cysteine gold nanoparticles supported on CeMOF(Ⅲ, Ⅳ) and methylene blue-loaded MOF235 were innovatively engineered to build two distinctive signal labels, which displayed comparable large and stable signal currents among other redox molecule/MOF composites. Additionally, PR contributed further signal amplification. Consequently, the constructed aptasensor showed superior performance for simultaneous detection of acetamiprid (AD) and malathion (ML), with linear ranges from 10 pM to 0.1 μM and detection limits of 4.8 pM for AD and 0.51 pM for ML. Moreover, the aptasensor performed well in the assay of AD and ML in Chinese cabbage samples with high accuracy compared with a high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method. Overall, the strategies proposed herein provided a useful and potential route for general development of electrochemical aptasensors to simultaneously detect multiple pesticide residues.

Comparative analysis of crop rotation systems: the impact of ginger (Zingiber officinale) and sponge gourd (Luffa aegyptiaca) residues on growth of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa var. chinensis).

Continuous cropping in greenhouse cultivation often leads to increased pest and disease problems, reducing crop quality and yield. Crop rotation is a common strategy to address these issues. This study compared the growth of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa var. chinensis) following rotations with ginger (Zingiber officinale) and sponge gourd (Luffa aegyptiaca). The Chinese cabbage exhibited normal growth following ginger rotation but showed abnormal growth after sponge gourd rotation. The study investigated the underlying causes by analyzing soil physicochemical properties and rhizosphere microbial communities of Chinese cabbage using 16S rRNA and ITS sequencing. The results revealed that soil from ginger-Chinese cabbage rotation had higher levels of soil organic carbon (SOC) and available phosphorus (AP), but lower total nitrogen (TN) and available potassium (AK). Despite similar alpha-diversity for both bacterial and fungal communities, distinct bacterial and fungal community structures between two rotation cropping systems were observed. This suggests that even if the alpha-diversity does not change, the composition of the microbial community can shift in ways that might influence soil health and plant growth. Furthermore, redundancy analysis revealed a significant correlation between microbial community structures and soil physicochemical properties of two rotation cropping systems. The SOC and TN were revealed to be the most significant of the investigated soil physicochemical parameters with respect to the variation of both bacterial and fungal assemblages, respectively. The identified biomarkers in bacterial community composition further emphasize the potential for specific microbes to influence crop health positively or negatively. We found that the indicator genera of the bacterial community composition of the ginger-Chinese cabbage rotation system were Amycolatopsis (genus), Pseudonocardiales (order), Pseudonocardiaceae (family), and Amycolatopsis mediterranei, which are known as producers of secondary metabolites, such as antibiotics. These findings highlight the importance of crop selection in rotation strategies for optimizing agricultural outcomes.

Effects of Combined Biochar and Chemical Fertilizer Application on Soil Fertility and Properties: A Two-Year Pot Experiment

A two-year pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of the combined application of biochar and chemical fertilizer on soil quality and vegetable growth by adding different proportions of chemical fertilizer and biochar to the soil in 2022 and no fertilizer in 2023. It was concluded that the combined treatment improved the soil’s properties. After two consecutive years of planting vegetables, the improvement of soil properties was the most significant with the 1.5 g biochar + 80% chemical fertilizer optimal fertilizer application (BCF6) treatment. In comparison to the control (CK), soil pH, electrical conductivity, and dissolved organic carbon increased by 0.59 units, 166.6%, and 282.6%, respectively. Soil fertility also improved significantly, indicating that the combined treatments resulted in the slow release of nutrients to enhance the effectiveness of the fertilizers. Co-application significantly increased the yield of the edible parts of Chinese cabbage and improved its quality. The most significant effects of vitamin C content and soluble protein were observed in Chinese cabbage under BCF6 treatment, which were 3.33 and 1.42 times more than the CK, respectively. Utilizing biochar as a partial substitute for chemical fertilizers can improve soil structure and fertility over the long term while reducing the reliance on chemical fertilizers, ultimately providing sustained economic and ecological benefits for agricultural production.

Portable paper-based multicolor sensor for sensitive on-site detection of organophosphorus pesticides using a high-efficiency Au+-induced gold nanobipyramids aspect ratio regulation strategy

On-site visual detection of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) is crucial for safeguarding environmental and food safety. This study presents a robust, sensitive, and portable paper-based multicolor sensor (PMS) for the on-site detection of OPs. The PMS involves a novel Au+-induced gold nanobipyramids (AuNBPs) morphology transformation reaction within a paper-based analytical device (PAD) coupled with a bienzymatic hydrolysis system. The Au+-induced reaction sensitively regulates the aspect ratio of AuNBPs through Au+ disproportionation, which decreases the length of AuNBPs and simultaneously increases the width, accompanied by distinct multicolor changes. Upon performing in the PAD incorporating easily-prepared AuNBPs-deposited nylon membranes, a metal heater, and an oscillator, the Au+-induced reaction exhibits excellent reaction sensitivity, efficiency, reproducibility, AuNBPs stability, and color uniformity. In the bienzymatic hydrolysis system, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and choline oxidase hydrolyze acetylcholine to product H2O2, which consumes tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine hydrochloride (TCEP), maintaining free Au+ for the disproportionation in the Au+-induced system, while the presence of OPs inhibits AChE activity, preserving TCEP to chelate Au+ and hindering the disproportionation. Under optimized conditions, the PMS exhibited eight dichlorvos concentration-corresponding color changes with a visual detection limit of 30 μg/L and a spectrometry detection limit of 8.1 μg/L. It achieved recoveries of 85.4–101.9 % in river water, drinking water, rice, and Chinese cabbage samples with relative standard deviations (n = 5) < 6 %. Thus, this study offers a portable, sensitive, reliable, and practical on-site detection method for OPs. Additionally, the proposed Au+-induced AuNBPs morphology transformation system within the PAD offers promising alternative strategies for developing other AuNBPs-based colorimetric sensors.

Integrated pest management farmer field school of Chinese cabbage for young farmers in Batu City

The Abinaya Milenial Youth Farmers Group in Sumber Brantas Village, Bumiaji District, Batu City, faces significant challenges in cultivating Chinese cabbage due to a high incidence of clubroot disease caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae, with infection rates reaching 50–80 percent, leading to crop failure. The overuse of synthetic pesticides has resulted in pathogen resistance. Therefore, we adopted an integrated pest management (IPM) approach focusing on long-term prevention by integrating ecologically-based control techniques. The principles of IPM include managing healthy plants, preserving natural enemies, monitoring, and enhancing farmers' ecological understanding to become IPM experts. Through the IPM Farmer Field School (IPM-FFS), we aimed to implement ecological IPM, improve agroecosystem health, and support sustainable agriculture through participatory extension methods. Activities were conducted from June to November 2023 in Sumber Brantas Village, Bumiaji District, Batu City. The activities included surveys, planning, socialization, teaching, training, and follow-up. The IPM-FFS successfully developed standard operating procedures for Chinese cabbage management, increasing farmers' knowledge of IPM by 85 percent. The adoption of IPM reduced the incidence of clubroot disease to 20 percent, increased production by 420 kg, and reduced production costs by IDR 403,000 on an area of 400 m2. Farmers independently produce compost, compost tea, botanical pesticides, mycorrhizae, and fungicides through the IPM-FFS, empowering them in sustainable agriculture.

Exploiting Brassica rapa L. subsp. pekinensis Genome Research

Chinese cabbage, Brassica rapa L. subsp. pekinensis is a crucial and extensively consumed vegetable in the world, especially Eastern Asia. The market demand for this leafy vegetable increases year by year, resulting in multiple challenges for agricultural researchers worldwide. Multi-omic approaches and the integration of functional genomics helps us understand the relationships between Chinese cabbage genomes and phenotypes under specific physiological and environmental conditions. However, challenges exist in integrating multi-omics for the functional analysis of genes and for developing potential traits for Chinese cabbage improvement. However, the panomics platform allows for the integration of complex omics, enhancing our understanding of molecular regulator networks in Chinese cabbage agricultural traits. In addition, the agronomic features of Chinese cabbage are significantly impacted by the environment. The expression of these agricultural features is tightly regulated by a combination of signals from both the internal regulatory network and the external growth environment. To comprehend the molecular process of these characteristics, it is necessary to have a prior understanding of molecular breeding for the objective of enhancing quality. While the use of various approaches in Chinese cabbage is still in its early stages, recent research has shown that it has the potential to uncover new regulators both rapidly and effectively, leading to updated regulatory networks. In addition, the utilization of the efficient transformation technique in conjunction with gene editing using CRISPR/Cas9 will result in a reduction in time requirements and facilitate a more precise understanding of the role of the regulators. Numerous studies about Chinese cabbage have been conducted in the past two decades, but a comprehensive review about its genome still limited. This review provides a concise summary of the latest discoveries in genomic research related to Brassica and explores the potential future developments for this species.

Genomic Analysis and Expression Dynamics of GH3 Genes Under Abiotic Stresses in Brassica rapa

ABSTRACTIn silico characterization of the Gretchen Hagen3 (GH3) gene family is required for understanding phytohormone regulation and stress responses in Brassica rapa to develop the improved stress‐tolerant cultivars. The main objective of this research was to identify the key BrGH3 genes under different abiotic stresses. Using bioinformatics tools, a total of 27 BrGH3 genes were identified in B. rapa for which phylogenetic relationship, syntenic pairing, conserved motifs, miRNA regulation, and cis‐regulatory elements of BrGH3s were also studied. BrGH3 gene expression has been examined in numerous tissues and under various abiotic and phytohormone stressors. Phylogenetic studies separated BrGH3 genes into three major classes and nine subclasses based on gene functional evolution. Collinearity analysis demonstrated that all BrGH3 genes had syntenic linkage with AtGH3, BnaGH3, and BolGH3, indicating that genome duplication mechanisms were crucial to BrGH3 gene evolution. The expression dynamics of BrGH3 under diverse phytohormonal stresses methyl jasmonate (MeJA), auxin (IAA), abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellic acid (GA), and salicylic acid (SA) at different time intervals suggest that BrGH3‐5.1 has a consistently greater expression than other BrGH3 genes. Under salt, drought, and low temperature stress, BrGH3‐1 and BrGH3‐4 genes expressed comparatively higher. The findings suggest that five genes (BrGH3‐5.1, BrGH3‐5.2, BrGH3‐15, BrGH3‐17.2, and BrGH3‐19) have a key role in inducing broad stress resilience. These results can be beneficial in developing stress‐tolerant varieties of Chinese cabbage.

Improved Multi-Size, Multi-Target and 3D Position Detection Network for Flowering Chinese Cabbage Based on YOLOv8.

Accurately detecting the maturity and 3D position of flowering Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa var. chinensis) in natural environments is vital for autonomous robot harvesting in unstructured farms. The challenge lies in dense planting, small flower buds, similar colors and occlusions. This study proposes a YOLOv8-Improved network integrated with the ByteTrack tracking algorithm to achieve multi-object detection and 3D positioning of flowering Chinese cabbage plants in fields. In this study, C2F-MLCA is created by adding a lightweight Mixed Local Channel Attention (MLCA) with spatial awareness capability to the C2F module of YOLOv8, which improves the extraction of spatial feature information in the backbone network. In addition, a P2 detection layer is added to the neck network, and BiFPN is used instead of PAN to enhance multi-scale feature fusion and small target detection. Wise-IoU in combination with Inner-IoU is adopted as a new loss function to optimize the network for different quality samples and different size bounding boxes. Lastly, ByteTrack is integrated for video tracking, and RGB-D camera depth data are used to estimate cabbage positions. The experimental results show that YOLOv8-Improve achieves a precision (P) of 86.5% and a recall (R) of 86.0% in detecting the maturity of flowering Chinese cabbage. Among them, mAP50 and mAP75 reach 91.8% and 61.6%, respectively, representing an improvement of 2.9% and 4.7% over the original network. Additionally, the number of parameters is reduced by 25.43%. In summary, the improved YOLOv8 algorithm demonstrates high robustness and real-time detection performance, thereby providing strong technical support for automated harvesting management.

Effects of decomposed and undecomposed straw of three crops on clubroot disease of Chinese cabbage and soil nutrients

Aims: Straw turnover plays an important role in reducing soil diseases, improving the ecological environment of plowland and realizing the effective ecological utilization of straw. Methods: Pot and field experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of maize, rice and wheat straws on the growth, clubroot disease of Chinese cabbage and soil nutrients. Undecomposed and decomposed maize, rice and wheat straws were quantitatively added to the monocultural soil of Chinese cabbage, and the crops without straw were taken as the control. Results: The results showed that the addition of maize, wheat and rice straws could promote the growth of monocultural Chinese cabbage, inhibit the occurrence of clubroot disease, increase soil pH value, the content of soil organic matter, alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen and available potassium in pot experiment. Exogenous straw application could reduce the incidence rate by 22.54 ~ 47.85%, increase the plot yield of field 95.15 ~ 365.81%. Conclusions: In terms of inhibiting clubroot disease and improving soil properties, undecomposed rice straw is superior to maize and wheat straw, while decomposed maize straw is superior to rice and wheat straw.

The S-nitrosylation of monodehydroascorbate reductase positively regulated the low temperature tolerance of mini Chinese cabbage

One of the main environmental stresses that considerably reduced vegetable yields are low temperature stress. Brassinosteroids (BRs) is essential for controlling a number of physiological functions. Protein S-nitrosylation is thought to be a crucial process in plants that use NO to carry out their biological functions. The exact process by which the mini Chinese cabbage responded to low temperature stress through BR-mediated S-nitrosylation modification of the monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR) is still unknown. BR significantly increased the S-nitrosoylation level and antioxidant capacity at low temperature. One noteworthy development was the in vitroS-nitrosylation of the MDHAR protein. The overexpressed lines exhibited considerably high nitric oxide (NO) and S-nitrosothiol (SNO) contents at low temperature compared to the WT lines. Treatment of the WT and OE-BrMDHAR lines with BR at low temperature increased the antioxidant capacity. According to the biotin signaling, BR considerably enhanced the silenced lines total S-nitrosylation level in vivo at low temperature. Furthermore, BrMDHAR, BrAAO, and BrAPX gene transcript levels were dramatically up-regulated by BR, which in turn reduced the H2O2 content in the silenced lines. These findings demonstrated that the S-nitrosylation of MDHAR was essential to the improvement of BR on low-temperature tolerance in the mini Chinese cabbage.

First Report of Gibellulopsis nigrescens Causing Yellow Wilt on Chinese Cabbage in China.

Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis), in the family Brassicaceae, is a widely planted crop in China valued for its nutritional benefits. In May 2023, wilt symptoms on Chinese cabbage (cv. 'Dongtian118') were observed in several commercial fields located in Sheqi County, (32.47ºN, 112.46ºE), Nanyang, Henan Province, China. A disease survey noted that disease incidence on plants was approximately 20% to 50% within observed fields. Symptoms included yellowing and wilting leaves, and vascular discoloration of the stem bases. To isolate the pathogen, ten symptomatic leaves collected from different diseased cabbage in two field were cut into small pieces (5 × 5 mm), surface disinfected with 75% ethanol for 30 s, then washed three times in sterile water. After drying, tissues were transferred onto potato dextrose agar (PDA). Plates were incubated at 28℃ for 7 days in the dark. Twelve morphologically similar fungal isolates were obtained by single-spore subculture. The mycelia on PDA were originally white, later becoming dark gray due to the formation of masses of melanized chlamydospores after 15 days of culture. Conidiophores were hyaline and most had secondary branches. In addition, verticillate branches had three to four phialides in each whorl. The conidia were hyaline, elliptical or nearly circular, measuring from 3.2 to 9.5 × 2.6 to 3.8 μm (n=40). These morphological characteristics were similar to those described for Gibellulopsis nigrescens (Zare et al. 2007). The isolates were further identified based on PCR amplification. The ITS, GAPDH, and TEF1 genes were amplified using primers ITS1/ITS4, VGPDf2/VGPDr (Inderbitzin et al. 2011) and EF-2/EF1-728F (O'Donnell et al. 1998). BLAST analysis revealed 12 isolates were highly similar to G. nigrescens, with 99.82% similarity for ITS (OR818474, KJ534578), 93.17% similarity for GAPDH (JN188192.1, JN188166.1) and 91.07% similarity for TEF1 (EF543798.1, EF543804.1). Sequences of the representative isolate BC230515 were deposited into NCBI GenBank with accession nos. OR889646 for ITS and PP135039 for GAPDH. Pathogenicity of all 12 isolates was tested on potted Chinese cabbage plants (cv. 'Dongtian118'). Twenty-four healthy Chinese cabbage plants were inoculated by applying a 10 mL conidial suspension (1×107 conidial/mL) at the artificially wounded root region of each plant. Twenty-four control plants wounded similarly were treated with sterile distilled water. All plants were kept in a growth chamber at 22~25°C (day)/18~20°C (night) , 85% relative humidity and a photoperiod of 12 h per day. After 15 days, inoculated plants exhibited wilting symptoms similar to those observed in the field, whereas control plants remained healthy. The pathogenicity test was repeated three times. The associated fungus on the artificially inoculated plants was reisolated from the symptomatic leaves, and its identity was confirmed by PCR with the primers described above. Reisolated G. nigrescens had identical morphological and molecular characteristics to the original isolates, confirming Koch's postulates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of G. nigrescens causing yellowing and wilt of Chinese cabbage in China. G. nigrescens is a destructive pathogen with multiple hosts such as beet (Zhou et al. 2017), alfalfa (Hu et al. 2011), prevention and control measures should be taken in advance.