The lncDR1 enhances drought tolerance in barley via the ceRNA mechanism of sponging miR4339 to induce stomatal closure.

The regulation of stomatal closure as a key factor to benefit from rising atmospheric [CO2] in rice (Oryza sativa L.).

Oxalic acid enhances wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) resilience to combined abiotic stresses through integrated physiological and rhizospheric microbial modulation.

Genome-wide association mapping reveals pleiotropic loci coupling antioxidant defense with redox homeostasis in barley under combined drought and salinity.

Soybean mosaic virus (SMV) causes substantial yield losses of soybean worldwide. Although Pseudomonas chlororaphis IRHB3 is known to promote soybean growth and suppress fungal diseases, however, its efficacy against SMV has remained unclear. This study evaluated IRHB3 impacts on SMV infection and explored the underlying physiological and molecular mechanism. Foliar application of IRHB3 significantly reduced SMV disease index, with control efficacy of 52.69%, and decreased viral accumulation in inoculated and systemic leaves. IRHB3 also alleviated SMV-induced growth inhibition and partially rescued yield-related traits. Mechanistically, IRHB3 preserved chloroplast ultrastructure and mitigated photosynthetic damage, increasing net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, chlorophyll contents by 29.95%, 36.11%, and 24.31%, respectively, relative to SMV-infected plants, while also improving chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (effective quantum yield of photosystem II (ΦPSII), electron transport rate (ETR), non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), and the maximum quantum yield of photosystem II (Fv/Fm)). In parallel, IRHB3 elevated antioxidant enzyme activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT), and reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation, and thereby alleviated oxidative damage. IRHB3 also up-regulated photosynthesis-related genes and activated defense-associated genes in the jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA) signaling pathways. These results indicate that IRHB3 protects soybean against SMV through coordinated effects on viral accumulation, chloroplast integrity, photosynthetic performance, redox homeostasis, and hormone-mediated immunity, highlighting its potential as a biocontrol agent for viral diseases management in soybean. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.

The objective of this study is to enhance the efficiency of pruning techniques in soil-less tomato cultivation, a process that constitutes a substantial proportion of labour costs. The study evaluated several pruning strategies, including leaf pruning after harvest (T1), leaf pruning after fruit color break (T2), and single leaf pruning between clusters (T3). The study also integrated fruit thinning and sucker pruning into treatments T4 through T6. Moreover, T0 pruning was performed as part of the routine maintenance procedure. The highest fruit number (number/cluster and total), yield, and relative profit values were obtained in the control (T0) application. The application of T1 was found to have a significant impact on various parameters, including leaf chlorophyll index, average fruit weight, firmness, SSC, and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) values. The T5 treatment was found to be the most effective in increasing plant height, cluster number, stomatal conductance, photosynthesis rate, colouration rate, total flavonoid, and lycopene values. The initial colour change in fruits and the total phenolic content exhibited elevated levels in the T6 treatment. Excessive pruning has a detrimental effect on plant physiology and yield. It has been determined that the execution of these practices must be conducted with the utmost caution, taking into account the prevailing environmental conditions. In terms of yield maximization and economic profitability, the T0 treatment was found to be the most effective pruning strategy. In terms of quality factors such as fruit weight and firmness, the T1 treatment also yielded the most successful results.

A viral infection reshapes Arabidopsis water management via root hydraulics, aquaporin downregulation and osmotic adjustment.

The terrestrial ecosystem is simultaneously facing multiple stresses, such as drought and microplastics (MPs), which are negatively affecting humans, crop productivity, and environmental quality. Biochar (BC) is a widely used soil amendment that enhances crop productivity and mitigates stress. In this study, we examined how BC alleviates the harmful effects of combined drought and MPs on alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) plants. The study contained seven treatments: control, DS (60% water holding capacity: WHC), MPs (1%), DS + MPs, DS + BC (2%), MPs + BC (2%), and DS + MPs + BC (2%). Both individual stresses, and particularly their co-exposure, markedly reduced alfalfa growth and biomass yield (44.99%) by decreasing root growth, chlorophyll contents, relative water contents (RWC), and soil nutrient availability, and by increasing malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) production. Biochar effectively mitigated the adverse effects of the individual stresses and their combined exposure. Notably, BC under co-exposure to DS and MPs enhanced biomass yield (39.38%) by increasing photosynthetic pigments, leaf photosynthetic rate (Pn: 21.41%), transpiration rate (Tr: 39.28%), stomatal conductance (gs: 41.10%), and soil nutrient availability (N: 37.17%, P: 34.42%, and K: 34.89%), while decreasing MDA (51.04%) and H₂O₂ (38.84%) production. Biochar also reduced H₂O₂ in alfalfa plants by increasing antioxidant activities (APX: 34.80%, CAT: 55.97%, POD: 59.82%, and SOD: 31.17%) and by increasing the expression of antioxidant genes such as MtAPX (24.27%), MtCAT (17.72%), MtPOD (12.80%), and MtSOD (27.46%). Collectively, these findings suggest that BC mitigates the toxic impacts of combined DS and MPs by modulating antioxidant activities, gene expression, and nutrient availability. Thus, BC appears to be an effective and eco-friendly soil amendment for enhancing crop productivity under combined abiotic stresses. These findings lay the foundation for developing sustainable solutions to counteract multi-stress conditions and enhance crop productivity.

As a result of the changing climate, water scarcity poses a significant threat to crop and pasture production. Although soil water content can indicate drought, its measurements often provide limited spatial resolution and are weakly correlated with plant water status, producing misleading drought assessments. Accurately measuring plant water status is essential to understand nutrient uptake, thermal regulation and stomatal behavior. Water status, primarily determined by turgor pressure and its crucial component of leaf water potential regulate plant physiological functions. These variables depend on the energy state of water, determining essential processes such as stomatal conductance and cell expansion. Becaus directly measuring turgor pressure may be impractical, leaf water content and relative water content are reliable proxies for assessing water status. In Part 1 of a two-part review, we provide insights into using leaf water content as a reliable proxy for assessing water status and synthesize classical, destructive methods for measuring plant water status, encompassing gravimetric techniques, Scholander pressure chamber and psychrometric techniques. These classical approaches provide direct, physically interpretable and mechanically based measurements of water content, water potential and turgor-related parameters. Operational principles, procedural considerations and physiological insights accompany each method. These destructive measurements determine water status accurately, forming the essential calibration and validation backbone for modern non-destructive approaches discussed in Part 2. Integrating these classical measurements with concurrent soil moisture data provides reliable guidance for irrigation management, optimizing water usage and improving crop resilience in the face of increasingly variable climatic conditions. © 2026 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

It is generally believed that CO2 physiological forcing can partially mitigate land surface drying under global warming by reducing stomatal conductance and evapotranspiration. Most of this type of study focuses on the direct regulation by vegetation physiology, overlooking interactive feedback from the atmosphere. Using fully coupled earth system model simulations, we find that the physiological benefit may have been optimistically overestimated. Vegetation-induced energy change may in turn further affect atmospheric vapor pressure deficit (VPD), exerting extra evapotranspiration demand indirectly. Indirect VPD feedback over northern mid-high latitudes could offset 54% (±26%) of evapotranspiration reduction driven by stomatal closure under current CO2 condition, and that proportion increases to 68% (±18%) at 4 × CO2. The enhanced VPD feedback is largely driven by vegetation-mediated albedo decline and temperature rise in northern mid-high latitudes, which intensifies evapotranspiration loss as stomatal constraints are minimal. These are important findings, substantially limiting the physiological benefits of CO2 with extra pressure on surface aridification and water resources.

Dehydration-responsive element-binding (DREB) transcription factors play an important role in plant responses to drought. DREB subfamily A4 contains a subgroup named TINY. Previous studies in Arabidopsis suggest that TINYs suppress plant growth and mediate abscisic acid (ABA)-induced stomatal closure. In this study, we investigated the function of the tomato drought-induced TINY1. Under drought conditions, the tiny1 mutant lost turgor and wilted more rapidly than control M82 plants. However, this sensitivity was attributed to its larger leaf area, rather than intrinsic differences in drought response. Measurements of stomatal conductance, leaf temperature, and osmotic adjustment revealed no significant differences between tiny1 and M82. Furthermore, whole-plant daily transpiration of M82 and tiny1 with a similar leaf area showed no differences. Interestingly, the growth-promoting effect of tiny1 was confined to early developmental stages; enhanced embryo growth and hypocotyl elongation, and accelerated emergence of the first true leaves-a trait that later contributed to increased leaf area. At later stages, the mutation had no observable impact on growth rate. Our results show increased gibberellin (GA) activity in the mature tiny1 embryo and suggest that TINY1 suppresses embryonic growth by repressing GA biosynthesis through down-regulation of GA 20-oxidase 4 (GA20ox4) gene expression.

Xylem embolism persists long after drought has ended and should thus have a lasting effect on plants' ability to recover from severe drought. This assumption has rarely been tested, as quantifying the amount of embolism in individual intact trees is difficult, and following recovery would require long-term monitoring, specifically when studying trees. Our goal was to test the effect of embolism on recovery from drought in a broad population. We exposed 210 carob seedlings (Ceratonia siliqua), a species with high resistance to embolism, to a gradient of drought durations and monitored their ability to recover over five months with respect to their embolism level (assessed using micro-computed tomography). Seedlings that suffered 38% embolism had a 50% chance of dying. In the surviving seedlings, stomatal conductance was still inhibited a month after rehydration (i.e., 82% lower than in the irrigated control, even in plants that sustained only 10% embolism) but recovered to pre-drought levels after five months, regardless of the embolism levels. The hydraulic limitations were mostly noticed in the canopy size, as five months after rehydration, canopy area and the ability to resprout were strongly correlated with embolism level sustained during drought (but not with water potential). Our results suggest that embolism can be fatal even at levels below 50% and that maintaining the integrity of the hydraulic system is critical for rapid drought recovery.

Organic viticulture is expanding across Mediterranean wine regions, driven by EU sustainability policies and increasing consumer demand. However, comparative studies assessing both physiological performance and productivity of grapevines under organic and conventional management while maintaining similar soil and climatic conditions remain limited, particularly in dry-farmed warm Mediterranean environments. This study evaluated the physiological and agronomic responses of the grapevine cultivar 'Pedro Ximénez' over two consecutive seasons (2022-2023) in a commercial dry-farmed vineyard in south-western Spain managed under certified organic and conventional management systems. Leaf gas-exchange parameters including net photosynthetic rate (AN), stomatal conductance (gs), intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE), and the stomatal stress integral (SIgs) were monitored alongside agronomic parameters such as bunch number, bunch weight, and pruning weight. Across both seasons, organically managed vines showed lower cumulative stomatal stress (SIgs reduced by 37% in 2022 and 14% in 2023) while maintaining similar seasonal iWUE values. During high vapor pressure deficit episodes, electron transport rate (ETR) remained comparable between management systems whereas AN declined, indicating that photosynthetic reductions were mainly associated with CO₂ diffusional or biochemical limitations rather than photochemical impairment. Yield components were comparable between systems, although organic vines produced more clusters per plant in 2023 (17 ± 0.9 vs 15 ± 0.8; Tukey test, P < 0.05). Under the conditions of this commercial, warm Mediterranean vineyard, organic management was associated with reduced seasonal stomatal stress while maintaining comparable productivity, suggesting that organic viticulture may represent a viable strategy for dry-farmed vineyards in warm Mediterranean regions. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.

Salvia splendens adapted to moderate ozone concentration by growth compensatory rather than defense.

Sowing date acts as a deterministic regulator of plant-pest phenological alignment, however, its mechanistic role in restructuring host physiological and metabolic networks remains inadequately resolved. This study deciphers how sowing time restructures photosynthetic performance, structural composition, and biochemical metabolism to mediate stem borer (Chilo partellus) infestation in sweet sorghum. Four genotypes, categorised as susceptible (SUGARGRAZE, CSV 2455) and tolerant (SPV 3078, SPV 3083), were evaluated under three different dates of sowing during the 2024kharifseason: 8th June (D1), 22nd June (D2), and 6th July (D3). Delayed sowing elevated mean infestation by 65.92%, from 41.67% (D1) to 69.17% (D3). Tolerant genotypes maintained photosynthetic stability, exhibiting higher net assimilation (23.45 µmol CO₂ m-2 s-1) and stomatal conductance (0.26 mol H₂O m-2 s-1) alongside reduced internal CO₂, concurrent with enhanced deposition of structural carbohydrates (cellulose, hemicellulose) and lignification. In contrast, susceptible genotypes displayed a metabolic shift toward nutritional enrichment, characterised by elevated accumulations of total soluble sugars, starch, protein, and free amino acids, traits strongly correlated with infestation severity (r = 0.97). Principal component analysis revealed two antagonistic trait assemblies; a defense module integrating photosynthetic performance, structural polymers, and secondary metabolites (phenolics, tannins, and saponins), and a susceptibility module comprising primary nutritional metabolites. The defense module was negatively correlated with infestation (r = -0.72 to -0.95). Early sowing promoted an integrated resistance phenotype through regulated carbon partitioning toward physical and biochemical defenses, whereas delayed sowing disrupted metabolic homeostasis, enhancing host nutritional quality and stem borer suitability. These results establish a physiological and metabolic framework in which sowing date directly modulates host plant resistance trajectories, providing a mechanistic basis for agronomic optimisation and trait-based selection in sweet sorghum.

Agriculture in hilly regions holds significant potential but is often undervalued in the context of food production due to the distinct terrain, microclimate, and subsistence farming practices. This study explores long-term water and energy fluxes across the years 2017-2021, over a rainfed rice-wheat system using the eddy covariance technique to evaluate evapotranspiration (ET) dynamics. Seasonal variation in ET during rice and wheat growing seasons closely follows the daily magnitude of available net energy, relative canopy cover and the supply of soil moisture. The total ET during the rice and wheat growing seasons ranged from 319.39-403.82mm and 341.81-458.29mm, respectively, with maximum daily ET values of 7.21mm day-1 for rice and 6.79mm day-1 for wheat. Path analysis was used to examine the direct and indirect effects of environmental and biophysical factors on ET, including net radiation (Rn), air temperature (Tair), vapor pressure deficit (VPD), soil water content (SWC), stomatal conductance (Gs), and leaf area index (LAI). VPD was the dominant driver of ET during the rice season, while both VPD and Rn significantly influenced ET during the wheat season. Gs was also a key factor, with stronger control during the wheat season. Notably, VPD had a negative impact on ET through Gs in both seasons. Overall, this study highlights how ET ET in rainfed rice-wheat systems interacts with environmental and biophysical factors, providing insights into crop-water relations and land-atmosphere interactions.

Polyploidization disrupts drought priming in the desert wild potato species Solanum kurtzianum.

Uncovering the Central Role of GhSPL13 in Vegetative Growth, Root Architecture, and Stress Responses in Cotton.

Cadmium (Cd) is a highly toxic and mobile heavy metal in soils, adversely affecting rice quality and productivity. Innovations in technology/techniques are needed to reduce Cd accumulation in rice while improving its resilience to contamination. The current study focused on preparing, characterizing, and evaluating silicon dioxide nanoparticles (SIONPs), iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs), and iron-doped silicon nanoparticles (IDSNPs) for their potential to improve rice resilience to Cd contamination. Soil was supplemented with SIONPs, IONPs and IDSNPs at 1% and 2% w/w. Results illustrated that the most significant improvements in plant growth were observed with 2% IDSNPs, where shoot dry weight, root dry weight, root length, and shoot length increased by 38%, 42%, 53.3%, and 27%, respectively. In a similar manner, the same treatment led to significant increases in photosynthesis rate, internal CO2 levels, stomatal conductance, and transpiration rates, with increases of 20.9%, 18.8%, 126.6%, and 22.8%, respectively. T6 treatment suppressed Cd-induced oxidative stress in rice plants by boosting APX, SOD, and CAT activities by 36.3%, 76.8%, and 41.5%, respectively. Moreover, T6 treatment modulated phytohormone levels and reduced gene expression associated with Cd transport. It was noteworthy that OsNRAMP5 levels decreased significantly both in roots and shoots, with decreases of 49.5% in roots and 53.7% in shoots in T6-treated plants. Soil supplementation with the highest level of IDSNPs significantly reduced the uptake of Cd by rice. The Cd uptake in rice roots treated with T6 decreased by 19.3%, whereas the reduction in stems and leaves was 31.2% and 29.9%, respectively. Our study demonstrated that IDSNPs represent an environmentally friendly and sustainable approach for in-situ remediation of Cd contaminated soils. This method supports continued agricultural production on Cd-affected lands without costly or disruptive practices. Globally, such nanotechnology-based interventions can promote safer food production, improved soil health, reduced public health risks, and sustainable agricultural development.

Plant growth-promoting microorganisms (PGPMs) and biochar are increasingly recognized as sustainable strategies to enhance crop performance; however, their comparative and integrative effects on carbon-water coordination and leaf thermal regulation under soilless substrate conditions remain poorly resolved. We investigated the physiological responses of Vigna radiata L. to bacterial biostimulant (BB), arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, their co-inoculation (BA), and BA combined with biochar (BiB). All treatments enhanced biomass relative to the uninoculated control, but through distinct physiological mechanisms. BB reduced leaf temperature (LT) primarily via increased stomatal conductance and transpiration, supporting higher net photosynthesis. In contrast, AM enhanced plant water status, as reflected by higher relative water content, and maintained intrinsic water-use efficiency comparable to the control but greater than in the other inoculation treatments. The reduction in LT under AM, despite unchanged transpiration, may reflect differences in plant water relations rather than purely evaporative cooling. BA integrated these complementary functions, resulting in the lowest LT, and maximum biomass. BiB further enhanced photosynthetic rate and maintained intrinsic water-use efficiency, although biomass was slightly lower than in BA. Collectively, the results demonstrate that the distinct physiological roles of bacterial and mycorrhizal inoculants, stomatal-driven carbon acquisition versus hydraulic stabilization, become functionally complementary under co-inoculation, enabling coordinated regulation of carbon assimilation, water balance, and leaf thermal dynamics to maximize biomass production. By reducing leaf temperature, PGPMs could contribute to maintaining photosynthetic efficiency under potential heat stress.