Abiotic stress reduces plant yield and quality.WRKY transcription factors play key roles in abiotic stress responses in plants,but the molecular mechanisms by which WRKY transcription factors mediate responses to drou...Abiotic stress reduces plant yield and quality.WRKY transcription factors play key roles in abiotic stress responses in plants,but the molecular mechanisms by which WRKY transcription factors mediate responses to drought and osmotic stresses in apple(Malus×domestica Borkh.)remain unclear.Here,we functionally characterized the apple GroupⅢWRKY gene MdWRKY115.qRT-PCR analysis showed that MdWRKY115 expression was up-regulated by drought and osmotic stresses.GUS activity analysis revealed that the promoter activity of MdWRKY115 was enhanced under osmotic stress.Subcellular localization and transactivation assays indicated that MdWRKY115 was localized to the nucleus and had a transcriptional activity domain at the N-terminal region.Transgenic analysis revealed that the overexpression of MdWRKY115 in Arabidopsis plants and in apple callus markedly enhanced their tolerance to drought and osmotic stresses.DNA affinity purification sequencing showed that MdWRKY115 binds to the promoter of the stress-related gene MdRD22.This binding was further verified by an electrophoretic mobility shift assay.Collectively,these findings suggest that MdWRKY115 is an important regulator of osmotic and drought stress tolerance in apple.展开更多
Apple leaf spot,caused by the Alternaria alternata apple pathotype(AAAP),is an important fungal disease of apple.To understand the molecular basis of resistance and pathogenesis in apple leaf spot,the transcriptomes o...Apple leaf spot,caused by the Alternaria alternata apple pathotype(AAAP),is an important fungal disease of apple.To understand the molecular basis of resistance and pathogenesis in apple leaf spot,the transcriptomes of two apple cultivars‘Hanfu'(HF)(resistant)and‘Golden Delicious'(GD)(susceptible)were analyzed at 0,6,18,24 and 48 h after AAAP inoculation by RNA-Seq.At each time point,a large number of significantly differentially expressed genes(DEGs)were screened between AAAP-inoculated and uninoculated apple leaves.Analysis of the common DEGs at four time points revealed significant differences in the resistance of‘HF'and‘GD'apple to AAAP infection.RLP,RNL,and JA signal-related genes were upregulated in both cultivars to restrict AAAP development.However,genes encoding CNLs,TNLs,WRKYs,and AP2s were only activated in‘HF'as part of the resistance response,of which,some play major roles in the regulation of ET and SA signal transduction.Further analysis showed that many DEGs with opposite expression trends in the two hosts may play important regulatory roles in response to AAAP infection.Transient expression of one such gene MdERF110 in‘GD'apple leaves improved AAAP resistance.Collectively,this study highlights the reasons for differential resistance to AAAP infection between‘HF'and‘GD'apples which can theoretically assist the molecular breeding of disease-resistant apple crops.展开更多
Apple replant disease(ARD)negatively affects plant growth and reduces yields in replanted orchards.In this study,biochar was applied to apple replant soil with Fusarium oxysporum.Our aim was to investigate whether bio...Apple replant disease(ARD)negatively affects plant growth and reduces yields in replanted orchards.In this study,biochar was applied to apple replant soil with Fusarium oxysporum.Our aim was to investigate whether biochar could promote plant growth and alleviate apple replant disease by reducing the growth of harmful soil microorganisms,changing soil microbial community structure and improving the soil environment.This experiment included five treatments:apple replant soil(CK),methyl bromide fumigation apple replant soil(FM),replant soil with biochar addition(2%),replant soil with F.oxysporum spore solution(8×10^(7)spores·mL^(-1)),and replant soil with biochar and F.oxysporum spore solution addition.Seedling biomass,the activity of antioxidant enzymes in the leaves and roots,and soil environmental variables were measured.Microbial community composition and community structure were analyzed using 16SrDNA and ITS2 gene sequencing.Biochar significantly reduced the abundance of F.oxysporum and increased soil microbial diversity and richness.Biochar also increased the soil enzyme activities(urease,invertase,neutral phosphatase,and catalase),the biomass(plant height,fresh weight,dry weight)and the activity of antioxidant enzymes(superoxide dismutase,peroxidase,and catalase).The root indexes of apple seedlings was also increased in replant soil by biochar.In sum,biochar promoted the growth of plants,improved the replant soil environment,and alleviated apple replant disease.展开更多
Apples often exhibit bitter pits in response to metabolic disorders during ripening and storage;however,the mechanisms underlying the bitter pit(BP)development remain unclear.Here,metabolome and transcriptome analyses...Apples often exhibit bitter pits in response to metabolic disorders during ripening and storage;however,the mechanisms underlying the bitter pit(BP)development remain unclear.Here,metabolome and transcriptome analyses were performed to investigate BP pulp of‘Fuji’.Two auxin-response genes,MdGH3.1 and MdSAUR36,were screened.Their expression as well as the auxin content in BP pulp were found to be higher than those in healthy pulp(P<0.01).In the field,excess CO(NH2)2 increased the incidence of BP.Moreover,the auxin content and MdGH3.1 expression increased in apples after nitrogen fertilization.On Day 30 before harvest,the two genes were transiently transferred to the fruit,and 20.69%and 23.21%of BP fruits were harvested.After 10 mmol$L1 auxin was infiltrated at low pressure into postharvest fruit,the increase in MdGH3.1 expression occurred earlier than that in MdSAUR36.MdGH3.1 increased the expression of MdSAUR36,but MdSAUR36 did not increase expression of MdGH3.1.Therefore,we suggest that MdGH3.1 acts upstream of MdSAUR36 during BP formation and that these genes induce BP formation by regulating auxin and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis.展开更多
Apple replant disease(ARD)has led to severe yield and quality reduction in the apple industry.Fusarium solani(F.solani)has been identified as one of the main microbial pathogens responsible for ARD.Auxin(indole-3-acet...Apple replant disease(ARD)has led to severe yield and quality reduction in the apple industry.Fusarium solani(F.solani)has been identified as one of the main microbial pathogens responsible for ARD.Auxin(indole-3-acetic acid,IAA),an endogenous hormone in plants,is involved in almost all plant growth and development processes and plays a role in plant immunity against pathogens.Gretchen Hagen3(GH3)is one of the early/primary auxin response genes.The aim of this study was to evaluate the function of MdGH3-2 and MdGH3-12 in the defense response of F.solani by treating MdGH3-2/12 RNAi plants with F.solani.The results show that under F.solani infection,RNAi of MdGH3-2/12 inhibited plant biomass accumulation and exacerbated root damage.After inoculation with F.solani,MdGH3-2/12 RNAi inhibited the biosynthesis of acid-amido synthetase.This led to the inhibition of free IAA combining with amino acids,resulting in excessive free IAA accumulation.This excessive free IAA altered plant tissue structure,accelerated fungal hyphal invasion,reduced the activity of antioxidant enzymes(SOD,POD and CAT),increased the reactive oxygen species(ROS)level,and reduced total chlorophyll content and photosynthetic ability,while regulating the expression of PR-related genes including PR1,PR4,PR5 and PR8.It also changed the contents of plant hormones and amino acids,and ultimately reduced the resistance to F.solani.In conclusion,these results demonstrate that MdGH3-2 and MdGH3-12 play an important role in apple tolerance to F.solani and ARD.展开更多
Self-rooted apple stock is widely used for apple production.However,the shallowness of the adventitious roots in self-rooted apple stock leads to poor performance in the barren orchards of China.This is because of the...Self-rooted apple stock is widely used for apple production.However,the shallowness of the adventitious roots in self-rooted apple stock leads to poor performance in the barren orchards of China.This is because of the considerable difference in the development of a gravitropic set-point angle(GSA)between self-rooted apple stock and seedling rootstock.Therefore,it is crucial to study the molecular mechanism of adventitious root GSA in self-rooted apple stock for breeding self-rooted and deep-rooted apple rootstock cultivars.An apple auxin response factor MdARF19 functioned to establish the adventitious root GSA of self-rooted apple stock in response to gravity and auxin signals.MdARF19 bound directly to the MdPIN7 promoter,activating its transcriptional expression and thus regulating the formation of the adventitious root GSA in 12-2 self-rooted apple stock.However,MdARF19 influenced the expression of auxin efflux carriers(MdPIN3 and MdPIN10)and the establishment of adventitious root GSA of self-rooted apple stock in response to gravity signals by direct activation of MdFLP.Our findings provide new information on the transcriptional regulation of MdPIN7 by auxin response factor MdARF19 in the regulation of the adventitious root GSA of self-rooted apple stock in response to gravity and auxin signals.展开更多
Accurate diagnosis of apple leaf diseases is crucial for improving the quality of apple production and promoting the development of the apple industry. However, apple leaf diseases do not differ significantly from ima...Accurate diagnosis of apple leaf diseases is crucial for improving the quality of apple production and promoting the development of the apple industry. However, apple leaf diseases do not differ significantly from image texture and structural information. The difficulties in disease feature extraction in complex backgrounds slow the related research progress. To address the problems, this paper proposes an improved multi-scale inverse bottleneck residual network model based on a triplet parallel attention mechanism, which is built upon ResNet-50, while improving and combining the inception module and ResNext inverse bottleneck blocks, to recognize seven types of apple leaf(including six diseases of alternaria leaf spot, brown spot, grey spot, mosaic, rust, scab, and one healthy). First, the 3×3 convolutions in some of the residual modules are replaced by multi-scale residual convolutions, the convolution kernels of different sizes contained in each branch of the multi-scale convolution are applied to extract feature maps of different sizes, and the outputs of these branches are multi-scale fused by summing to enrich the output features of the images. Second, the global layer-wise dynamic coordinated inverse bottleneck structure is used to reduce the network feature loss. The inverse bottleneck structure makes the image information less lossy when transforming from different dimensional feature spaces. The fusion of multi-scale and layer-wise dynamic coordinated inverse bottlenecks makes the model effectively balances computational efficiency and feature representation capability, and more robust with a combination of horizontal and vertical features in the fine identification of apple leaf diseases. Finally, after each improved module, a triplet parallel attention module is integrated with cross-dimensional interactions among channels through rotations and residual transformations, which improves the parallel search efficiency of important features and the recognition rate of the network with relatively small computational costs while the dimensional dependencies are improved. To verify the validity of the model in this paper, we uniformly enhance apple leaf disease images screened from the public data sets of Plant Village, Baidu Flying Paddle, and the Internet. The final processed image count is 14,000. The ablation study, pre-processing comparison, and method comparison are conducted on the processed datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method reaches 98.73% accuracy on the adopted datasets, which is 1.82% higher than the classical ResNet-50 model, and 0.29% better than the apple leaf disease datasets before preprocessing. It also achieves competitive results in apple leaf disease identification compared to some state-ofthe-art methods.展开更多
In this study,the effect of yeast strains(X16 and RMS2),fruit seed,and pectinase on the quality of apple distilled spirits were investigated with apple as material.The results showed that pectinase shortened the ferme...In this study,the effect of yeast strains(X16 and RMS2),fruit seed,and pectinase on the quality of apple distilled spirits were investigated with apple as material.The results showed that pectinase shortened the fermentation period.The strain X16,fruit seed remaining,and pectinase addition groups had higher yields of crude distilled spirits than the strain RMS2,fruit seed removal,and without pectinase groups,respectively.Regarding the first-grade distilled spirits quality,the X16 group had higher content of total acids,total esters,higher alcohols,and alcohol content than the RMS2 group;the group with fruit seeds had higher total acids but lower alcohol content and total esters than the group with fruit seed removal;the group with pectinase addition had higher total acids and alcohol content than the group without pectinase addition.Regarding the second-grade distilled spirits quality,the X16 group had higher total acids,total esters,and alcohol content than the RMS2 group;the group without fruit seeds had higher alcohol content than the group with fruit seeds;the group with pectinase addition showcased higher total acids but lower alcohol content than the group without pectinase addition.In summary,yeast strains and pectinase affected the quality of apple distilled spirits,and strain X16 was more suitable for brewing apple distilled spirits.Pectinase affected the quality of apple distilled spirits by affecting fermentation rate and temperature.展开更多
Auxin is throughout the entire life process of plants and is involved in the crosstalk with other hormones,yet its role in apple disease resistance remains unclear.In this study,we investigated the function of auxin/i...Auxin is throughout the entire life process of plants and is involved in the crosstalk with other hormones,yet its role in apple disease resistance remains unclear.In this study,we investigated the function of auxin/indole-3-acetic acid(IAA)gene Md IAA24 overexpression in enhancing apple resistance to Glomerella leaf spot(GLS)caused by Colletotrichum fructicola(Cf).Analysis revealed that,upon Cf infection,35S::Md IAA24 plants exhibited enhanced superoxide dismutase(SOD)and peroxidase(POD)activity,as well as a greater amount of glutathione(reduced form)and ascorbic acid accumulation,resulting in less H_(2)O_(2)and superoxide anion(O_(2)^(-))in apple leaves.Furthermore,35S::Md IAA24 plants produced more protocatechuic acid,proanthocyanidins B1,proanthocyanidins B2 and chlorogenic acid when infected with Cf.Following Cf infection,35S::Md IAA24 plants presented lower levels of IAA and jasmonic acid(JA),but higher levels of salicylic acid(SA),along with the expression of related genes.The overexpression of Md IAA24 was observed to enhance the activity of chitinase andβ-1,3-glucanase in Cfinfected leaves.The results indicated the ability of Md IAA24 to regulate the crosstalk between IAA,JA and SA,and to improve reactive oxygen species(ROS)scavenging and defense-related enzymes activity.This jointly contributed to GLS resistance in apple.展开更多
There is a close relationship between potassium(K)and nitrogen(N).However,the roles of K under high N conditions remain unclear.Using a hydroponics approach,we monitored the morphological,physiological,and molecular c...There is a close relationship between potassium(K)and nitrogen(N).However,the roles of K under high N conditions remain unclear.Using a hydroponics approach,we monitored the morphological,physiological,and molecular changes in M9T337 apple(Malus domestica)rootstocks under different nitrate(10 and 30 mmol·L^(-1)NO_(3)^(-))and K supply(0.5,6,10,and 20 mmol·L_(-1)K^(+))conditions.Results revealed that high nitrate inhibited the root growth of M9T337 rootstocks,downregulated the expressions of K transporter genes(MdPT5,MdHKT1,and MdATK1),and reduced the net NO3-and K+influx at the surface of roots,thereby resulting in an N/K imbalance in rootstocks.Further investigation showed that 10 mmol·L^(-1)K increased the activity of N metabolic enzymes(NR,GS,NiR,and GOGAT),upregulated the expressions of genes related to nitrate uptake and transport(MdNRT1.1,MdNRT1.2,MdNRT1.5,and MdNRT2.4),promoted15N transport from the roots to the shoots,optimized leaf N distribution,and improved photosynthetic N utilization efficiency under high nitrate conditions.These results suggest that the negative effects of high nitrate may be related to the N/K imbalance and that reducing N/K in plants by increasing K supply level can effectively alleviate the inhibition of N assimilation by high nitrate stress.展开更多
Crunch!Apples are a sweet and delicious fruit.There are over 7,500 different kinds!The fruit is usually red,but it can be green or other colors.Applesaren't expensive.They make a great snack.You can eat a whole ap...Crunch!Apples are a sweet and delicious fruit.There are over 7,500 different kinds!The fruit is usually red,but it can be green or other colors.Applesaren't expensive.They make a great snack.You can eat a whole apple.You can slice it,too.They're also good with other foods.Do you like apples?展开更多
Apple ring rot,which is caused by Botryosphaeria dothidea,severely affects apple production.The mechanisms employed in apple cells against B.dothidea remain unknown.In this research,the pathogen infection mode and the...Apple ring rot,which is caused by Botryosphaeria dothidea,severely affects apple production.The mechanisms employed in apple cells against B.dothidea remain unknown.In this research,the pathogen infection mode and the relationship between cell death and disease resistance in‘Fuji’/B.dothidea interaction pathosystem were investigated.By using transmission electron microscopy(TEM),our research showed that the pathogen infects apple cells both intracellularly and extracellularly.However,compared with that in immature fruit,the incidence of hyphae in the interior of mature apple fruit cells increased dramatically,suggesting that cell wall-mediated penetration resistance could be important in apple resistance against B.dothidea.TEM ultrastructural characterization identified the nuclear morphology of programmed cell death induction in both apple fruit and callus cells under B.dothidea infection.Overexpression of MdVDAC2(MDP0000271281),which encodes an outer-membrane localized anion channel protein in mitochondria,significantly promoted cell death under B.dothidea infection and simultaneously inhibited pathogen infection,suggesting that cell death represents a disease resistance mechanism in apple against B.dothidea infection.Furthermore,BdCatalase(KAF4307763),a cytochromeP450 family protein BdCYP52A4(KAF4300696),and subtilisin-domain containing proteinswere identified fromB.dothidea-secreted proteins,which suggested the potential involvement of active oxygen species and phytoalexins in combating B.dothidea infection and triggering or dampening apple resistance.Collectively,our research suggested that cell wall-mediated penetration resistance,programmed cell death machinery and microbial effector-interrelated signaling were among strategies recruited in apple to combat B.dothidea.The current research laid the foundation for further investigations into resistance mechanisms in apple.展开更多
Sugar plays an important role in apple fruit development,appearance and quality as well as contributing to a plant’s water stress response.Trehalose and the trehalose biosynthetic metabolic pathways are part of the s...Sugar plays an important role in apple fruit development,appearance and quality as well as contributing to a plant’s water stress response.Trehalose and the trehalose biosynthetic metabolic pathways are part of the sugar signaling system in plants,which are important regulator of water stress response in apple.The effect of water stress treatments applied to apple trees and the corresponding effects of ABA on developmental fruit quality were examined for indicators of fruit quality during fruit development.The results indicated that the severe water stress treatment(W2)occurring after the last stage of fruit cell division caused a decrease in the color and size of fruit.The moderate water stress(W1)occurring after the last stage of fruit cell enlargement(S2)caused an increase in the content of fructose and sorbitol while the apple fruit shape was not affected.These changes in sugar are related to the activity of sugar metabolic enzymes.While the enzymatic activity of vacuolar acid invertase(vAINV)was higher,that of sucrose-phosphate synthase(SPS)was lower in water stress treated fruit throughout the developmental period.This indicates that enhanced sucrose degradation and reduced sucrose synthesis leads to an overall reduced sucrose content during times of drought.Thus,water stress reduced sucrose content.Whereas the content of endogenous trehalose and ABA were the highest in water stress treated fruit.A moderate water stress(W1)imposed on apple trees via water restriction(60%–65%of field capacity)after the fruit cell enlargement phase of fruit development yielded sweeter fruit of higher economic value.展开更多
Freezing injury in winter is an important abiotic stress that seriously affects plant growth and development.Deciduous fruit trees resist freezing injury by inducing dormancy.However,different cultivars of the same sp...Freezing injury in winter is an important abiotic stress that seriously affects plant growth and development.Deciduous fruit trees resist freezing injury by inducing dormancy.However,different cultivars of the same species have different cold resistance strategies.Little is known about the molecular mechanism of apple trees in response to freezing injury during winter dormancy.Therefore,in this study,1-year-old branches of the cold-resistant cultivar‘Hanfu’(HF)and the cold-sensitive cultivar‘Changfuji No.2’(CF)were used to explore their cold resistance through physiological,biochemical,transcriptomics,and metabolomics analyses.Combining physiological and biochemical data,we found that HF had a stronger osmotic regulation ability and antioxidant enzyme activity than CF,as well as stronger cold resistance.The functional enrichment analysis showed that both cultivars were significantly enriched in pathways related to signal transduction,hormone regulation,and sugar metabolism under freezing stress.In addition,the differentially expressed genes(DEGs)encoding galactinol synthase,raffinose synthase,and stachyose synthetase in raffinose family oligosaccharides(RFOs)metabolic pathways were upregulated in HF,and raffinose and stachyose were accumulated,while their contents in CF were lower.HF accumulated 4-aminobutyric acid,spermidine,and ascorbic acid to scavenge reactive oxygen species(ROS).While the contents of oxidized glutathione,vitamin C,glutathione,and spermidine in CF decreased under freezing stress,consequently,the ability to scavenge ROS was low.Furthermore,the transcription factors apetala 2/ethylene responsive factor(AP2/ERF)and WRKY were strongly induced under freezing stress.In summary,the difference in key metabolic components of HF and CF under freezing stress is the major factor affecting their difference in cold resistance.The obtained results deepen our understanding of the cold resistance mechanism in apple trees in response to freezing injury during dormancy.展开更多
We isolated and identified a bacterium that could produce IAA and degrade phloridzin in the rhizosphere soil of healthy replanted apple(the rootstock is M9T337 and the scion is Yanfu 3),providing a theoretical basis f...We isolated and identified a bacterium that could produce IAA and degrade phloridzin in the rhizosphere soil of healthy replanted apple(the rootstock is M9T337 and the scion is Yanfu 3),providing a theoretical basis for reducing the obstacles associated with apple replant disease(ARD).Isolates were screened using Salkowski colorimetry and screening medium for phloridzin.The isolate of interest(W6)was identified as Ochrobactrum haematophilum based on morphological analysis,physiological and biochemical tests,and 16S rDNA sequencing.In a laboratory experiment,W6 produced auxin and promoted the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana roots,and its degradation rate of 100 mg.L^(-1 )phloridzin was 62.0%.In a pot experiment,W6 significantly reduced the phenolic acid contents of replanted soil,lowered the abundance of the harmful fungus Fusarium solani,and increased soil enzyme activities,thereby improving the micro-ecological environment of replant soil.W6 increased the root antioxidant enzyme activity and leaf photosynthetic pigment content of replanted Malus hupehensis Rehd.seedlings,effectively alleviating the decrease in net photosynthetic rate,transpiration rate and stomatal conductance caused by ARD.In a field experiment,W6 also promoted the growth of replanted apple(the rootstock is M9T337 and the scion is Yanfu 3)saplings.Therefore,W6 can promote apple growth and degrade phenolic acids,and it can be used as an effective treatment for the reduction of ARD.展开更多
Sugar content is a determinant of apple(Malus×domestica Borkh.)sweetness.However,the molecular mechanism underlying sucrose accumulation in apple fruit remains elusive.Herein,this study reported the role of the s...Sugar content is a determinant of apple(Malus×domestica Borkh.)sweetness.However,the molecular mechanism underlying sucrose accumulation in apple fruit remains elusive.Herein,this study reported the role of the sucrose transporter MdSUT2.1 in the regulation of sucrose accumulation in apples.The MdSUT2.1 gene encoded a protein with 612 amino acid residues that could be localized at the plasma membrane when expressed in tobacco leaf protoplasts.MdSUT2.1 was highly expressed in fruit and was positively correlated with sucrose accumulation during apple fruit development.Moreover,complementary growth assays in a yeast mutant validated the sucrose transport activity of MdSUT2.1.MdSUT2.1 overexpression in apples and tomatoes resulted in significant increases in sucrose,fructose,and glucose contents compared to the wild type(WT).Further analysis revealed that the expression levels of sugar metabolism-and transport-related genes SUSYs,NINVs,FRKs,HXKs,and TSTs increased in apples and tomatoes with MdSUT2.1 overexpression compared to WT.Finally,unlike the tonoplast sugar transporters MdTST1 and MdTST2,the promoter of MdSUT2.1 was not induced by exogenous sugars.These findings provide valuable insights into the molecular mechanism underlying sugar accumulation in apples.展开更多
The research aimed to understand farmers’willingness to adopt(WTA)and willingness to pay(WTP)for precision pesticide technologies and analyzed the determinants of farmers’decision-making.We used a two-stage approach...The research aimed to understand farmers’willingness to adopt(WTA)and willingness to pay(WTP)for precision pesticide technologies and analyzed the determinants of farmers’decision-making.We used a two-stage approach to consider farmers’WTA and WTP for precision pesticide technologies.A survey of 545 apple farmers was administered in Bohai Bay and the Loess Plateau in China.The data were analyzed using the double-hurdle model.The results indicated that 78.72%of respondents were willing to apply precision pesticide technologies provided by service organizations such as cooperatives and dedicated enterprises,and 69.72%were willing to buy the equipment for using precision pesticide technologies.The results of the determinant analysis indicated that farmers’perceived perceptions,farm scale,cooperative membership,access to digital information,and availability of financial services had significant and positive impacts on farmers’WTA precision pesticide technologies.Cooperative membership,technical training,and adherence to environmental regulations increased farmers’WTP for precision pesticide technologies.Moreover,nonlinear relationships between age,agricultural experience,and farmers’WTA and WTP for precision pesticide technology services were found.展开更多
基金supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province(Grant No.C2022204086)the Hebei Apple Innovation Team of Modern Agricultural Industry Technology System(Grant No.HBCT2021100211)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.32072524).
文摘Abiotic stress reduces plant yield and quality.WRKY transcription factors play key roles in abiotic stress responses in plants,but the molecular mechanisms by which WRKY transcription factors mediate responses to drought and osmotic stresses in apple(Malus×domestica Borkh.)remain unclear.Here,we functionally characterized the apple GroupⅢWRKY gene MdWRKY115.qRT-PCR analysis showed that MdWRKY115 expression was up-regulated by drought and osmotic stresses.GUS activity analysis revealed that the promoter activity of MdWRKY115 was enhanced under osmotic stress.Subcellular localization and transactivation assays indicated that MdWRKY115 was localized to the nucleus and had a transcriptional activity domain at the N-terminal region.Transgenic analysis revealed that the overexpression of MdWRKY115 in Arabidopsis plants and in apple callus markedly enhanced their tolerance to drought and osmotic stresses.DNA affinity purification sequencing showed that MdWRKY115 binds to the promoter of the stress-related gene MdRD22.This binding was further verified by an electrophoretic mobility shift assay.Collectively,these findings suggest that MdWRKY115 is an important regulator of osmotic and drought stress tolerance in apple.
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.32202463)China Agriculture Research System(Grant No.CARS-27)the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program(Grant No.CAAS-ASTIP-2021-RIP-02)。
文摘Apple leaf spot,caused by the Alternaria alternata apple pathotype(AAAP),is an important fungal disease of apple.To understand the molecular basis of resistance and pathogenesis in apple leaf spot,the transcriptomes of two apple cultivars‘Hanfu'(HF)(resistant)and‘Golden Delicious'(GD)(susceptible)were analyzed at 0,6,18,24 and 48 h after AAAP inoculation by RNA-Seq.At each time point,a large number of significantly differentially expressed genes(DEGs)were screened between AAAP-inoculated and uninoculated apple leaves.Analysis of the common DEGs at four time points revealed significant differences in the resistance of‘HF'and‘GD'apple to AAAP infection.RLP,RNL,and JA signal-related genes were upregulated in both cultivars to restrict AAAP development.However,genes encoding CNLs,TNLs,WRKYs,and AP2s were only activated in‘HF'as part of the resistance response,of which,some play major roles in the regulation of ET and SA signal transduction.Further analysis showed that many DEGs with opposite expression trends in the two hosts may play important regulatory roles in response to AAAP infection.Transient expression of one such gene MdERF110 in‘GD'apple leaves improved AAAP resistance.Collectively,this study highlights the reasons for differential resistance to AAAP infection between‘HF'and‘GD'apples which can theoretically assist the molecular breeding of disease-resistant apple crops.
基金supported by the earmarked fund for National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.31801816)National Modern Agro-industry Technology Research System(Grant No.CARS-27)Taishan scholar funded project(Grant No.TS20190923)。
文摘Apple replant disease(ARD)negatively affects plant growth and reduces yields in replanted orchards.In this study,biochar was applied to apple replant soil with Fusarium oxysporum.Our aim was to investigate whether biochar could promote plant growth and alleviate apple replant disease by reducing the growth of harmful soil microorganisms,changing soil microbial community structure and improving the soil environment.This experiment included five treatments:apple replant soil(CK),methyl bromide fumigation apple replant soil(FM),replant soil with biochar addition(2%),replant soil with F.oxysporum spore solution(8×10^(7)spores·mL^(-1)),and replant soil with biochar and F.oxysporum spore solution addition.Seedling biomass,the activity of antioxidant enzymes in the leaves and roots,and soil environmental variables were measured.Microbial community composition and community structure were analyzed using 16SrDNA and ITS2 gene sequencing.Biochar significantly reduced the abundance of F.oxysporum and increased soil microbial diversity and richness.Biochar also increased the soil enzyme activities(urease,invertase,neutral phosphatase,and catalase),the biomass(plant height,fresh weight,dry weight)and the activity of antioxidant enzymes(superoxide dismutase,peroxidase,and catalase).The root indexes of apple seedlings was also increased in replant soil by biochar.In sum,biochar promoted the growth of plants,improved the replant soil environment,and alleviated apple replant disease.
基金the Agricultural Variety Improvement Project of Shandong Province(Grant No.2019LZGC007)Taishan Scholar Foundation of Shandong Province(Grant No.tstp20221134)China Agriculture Research System Foundation(Grant No.CARS-27).
文摘Apples often exhibit bitter pits in response to metabolic disorders during ripening and storage;however,the mechanisms underlying the bitter pit(BP)development remain unclear.Here,metabolome and transcriptome analyses were performed to investigate BP pulp of‘Fuji’.Two auxin-response genes,MdGH3.1 and MdSAUR36,were screened.Their expression as well as the auxin content in BP pulp were found to be higher than those in healthy pulp(P<0.01).In the field,excess CO(NH2)2 increased the incidence of BP.Moreover,the auxin content and MdGH3.1 expression increased in apples after nitrogen fertilization.On Day 30 before harvest,the two genes were transiently transferred to the fruit,and 20.69%and 23.21%of BP fruits were harvested.After 10 mmol$L1 auxin was infiltrated at low pressure into postharvest fruit,the increase in MdGH3.1 expression occurred earlier than that in MdSAUR36.MdGH3.1 increased the expression of MdSAUR36,but MdSAUR36 did not increase expression of MdGH3.1.Therefore,we suggest that MdGH3.1 acts upstream of MdSAUR36 during BP formation and that these genes induce BP formation by regulating auxin and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis.
基金supported by the Earmarked Fund for the China Agriculture Research System(CARS-27)the Key Science and Technology Special Projects of Shaanxi Province,China(2020zdzx03-01-02).
文摘Apple replant disease(ARD)has led to severe yield and quality reduction in the apple industry.Fusarium solani(F.solani)has been identified as one of the main microbial pathogens responsible for ARD.Auxin(indole-3-acetic acid,IAA),an endogenous hormone in plants,is involved in almost all plant growth and development processes and plays a role in plant immunity against pathogens.Gretchen Hagen3(GH3)is one of the early/primary auxin response genes.The aim of this study was to evaluate the function of MdGH3-2 and MdGH3-12 in the defense response of F.solani by treating MdGH3-2/12 RNAi plants with F.solani.The results show that under F.solani infection,RNAi of MdGH3-2/12 inhibited plant biomass accumulation and exacerbated root damage.After inoculation with F.solani,MdGH3-2/12 RNAi inhibited the biosynthesis of acid-amido synthetase.This led to the inhibition of free IAA combining with amino acids,resulting in excessive free IAA accumulation.This excessive free IAA altered plant tissue structure,accelerated fungal hyphal invasion,reduced the activity of antioxidant enzymes(SOD,POD and CAT),increased the reactive oxygen species(ROS)level,and reduced total chlorophyll content and photosynthetic ability,while regulating the expression of PR-related genes including PR1,PR4,PR5 and PR8.It also changed the contents of plant hormones and amino acids,and ultimately reduced the resistance to F.solani.In conclusion,these results demonstrate that MdGH3-2 and MdGH3-12 play an important role in apple tolerance to F.solani and ARD.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.32102310,32202484,and 32072520)the Shandong Key Research and Development Program,China(Grant Nos.2021LZGC007 and 2022TZXD009).
文摘Self-rooted apple stock is widely used for apple production.However,the shallowness of the adventitious roots in self-rooted apple stock leads to poor performance in the barren orchards of China.This is because of the considerable difference in the development of a gravitropic set-point angle(GSA)between self-rooted apple stock and seedling rootstock.Therefore,it is crucial to study the molecular mechanism of adventitious root GSA in self-rooted apple stock for breeding self-rooted and deep-rooted apple rootstock cultivars.An apple auxin response factor MdARF19 functioned to establish the adventitious root GSA of self-rooted apple stock in response to gravity and auxin signals.MdARF19 bound directly to the MdPIN7 promoter,activating its transcriptional expression and thus regulating the formation of the adventitious root GSA in 12-2 self-rooted apple stock.However,MdARF19 influenced the expression of auxin efflux carriers(MdPIN3 and MdPIN10)and the establishment of adventitious root GSA of self-rooted apple stock in response to gravity signals by direct activation of MdFLP.Our findings provide new information on the transcriptional regulation of MdPIN7 by auxin response factor MdARF19 in the regulation of the adventitious root GSA of self-rooted apple stock in response to gravity and auxin signals.
基金supported in part by the General Program Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of 2022,China(2022JJ31022)the Undergraduate Education Reform Project of Hunan Province,China(HNJG-20210532)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62276276)。
文摘Accurate diagnosis of apple leaf diseases is crucial for improving the quality of apple production and promoting the development of the apple industry. However, apple leaf diseases do not differ significantly from image texture and structural information. The difficulties in disease feature extraction in complex backgrounds slow the related research progress. To address the problems, this paper proposes an improved multi-scale inverse bottleneck residual network model based on a triplet parallel attention mechanism, which is built upon ResNet-50, while improving and combining the inception module and ResNext inverse bottleneck blocks, to recognize seven types of apple leaf(including six diseases of alternaria leaf spot, brown spot, grey spot, mosaic, rust, scab, and one healthy). First, the 3×3 convolutions in some of the residual modules are replaced by multi-scale residual convolutions, the convolution kernels of different sizes contained in each branch of the multi-scale convolution are applied to extract feature maps of different sizes, and the outputs of these branches are multi-scale fused by summing to enrich the output features of the images. Second, the global layer-wise dynamic coordinated inverse bottleneck structure is used to reduce the network feature loss. The inverse bottleneck structure makes the image information less lossy when transforming from different dimensional feature spaces. The fusion of multi-scale and layer-wise dynamic coordinated inverse bottlenecks makes the model effectively balances computational efficiency and feature representation capability, and more robust with a combination of horizontal and vertical features in the fine identification of apple leaf diseases. Finally, after each improved module, a triplet parallel attention module is integrated with cross-dimensional interactions among channels through rotations and residual transformations, which improves the parallel search efficiency of important features and the recognition rate of the network with relatively small computational costs while the dimensional dependencies are improved. To verify the validity of the model in this paper, we uniformly enhance apple leaf disease images screened from the public data sets of Plant Village, Baidu Flying Paddle, and the Internet. The final processed image count is 14,000. The ablation study, pre-processing comparison, and method comparison are conducted on the processed datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method reaches 98.73% accuracy on the adopted datasets, which is 1.82% higher than the classical ResNet-50 model, and 0.29% better than the apple leaf disease datasets before preprocessing. It also achieves competitive results in apple leaf disease identification compared to some state-ofthe-art methods.
文摘In this study,the effect of yeast strains(X16 and RMS2),fruit seed,and pectinase on the quality of apple distilled spirits were investigated with apple as material.The results showed that pectinase shortened the fermentation period.The strain X16,fruit seed remaining,and pectinase addition groups had higher yields of crude distilled spirits than the strain RMS2,fruit seed removal,and without pectinase groups,respectively.Regarding the first-grade distilled spirits quality,the X16 group had higher content of total acids,total esters,higher alcohols,and alcohol content than the RMS2 group;the group with fruit seeds had higher total acids but lower alcohol content and total esters than the group with fruit seed removal;the group with pectinase addition had higher total acids and alcohol content than the group without pectinase addition.Regarding the second-grade distilled spirits quality,the X16 group had higher total acids,total esters,and alcohol content than the RMS2 group;the group without fruit seeds had higher alcohol content than the group with fruit seeds;the group with pectinase addition showcased higher total acids but lower alcohol content than the group without pectinase addition.In summary,yeast strains and pectinase affected the quality of apple distilled spirits,and strain X16 was more suitable for brewing apple distilled spirits.Pectinase affected the quality of apple distilled spirits by affecting fermentation rate and temperature.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.2018YFD1000307)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.32172529)+2 种基金the Special Funds for Major Scientific and Technological Innovation from Shaanxi Province(Grant No.2020zdzx03-0101)the Earmarked Fund for China Agriculture Research System(Grant No.CARS-27)China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(Grant Nos.2017M610657,2018T111108)。
文摘Auxin is throughout the entire life process of plants and is involved in the crosstalk with other hormones,yet its role in apple disease resistance remains unclear.In this study,we investigated the function of auxin/indole-3-acetic acid(IAA)gene Md IAA24 overexpression in enhancing apple resistance to Glomerella leaf spot(GLS)caused by Colletotrichum fructicola(Cf).Analysis revealed that,upon Cf infection,35S::Md IAA24 plants exhibited enhanced superoxide dismutase(SOD)and peroxidase(POD)activity,as well as a greater amount of glutathione(reduced form)and ascorbic acid accumulation,resulting in less H_(2)O_(2)and superoxide anion(O_(2)^(-))in apple leaves.Furthermore,35S::Md IAA24 plants produced more protocatechuic acid,proanthocyanidins B1,proanthocyanidins B2 and chlorogenic acid when infected with Cf.Following Cf infection,35S::Md IAA24 plants presented lower levels of IAA and jasmonic acid(JA),but higher levels of salicylic acid(SA),along with the expression of related genes.The overexpression of Md IAA24 was observed to enhance the activity of chitinase andβ-1,3-glucanase in Cfinfected leaves.The results indicated the ability of Md IAA24 to regulate the crosstalk between IAA,JA and SA,and to improve reactive oxygen species(ROS)scavenging and defense-related enzymes activity.This jointly contributed to GLS resistance in apple.
基金supported by the Special Fund for the National Key R&D Program of China(Grant No.2023YFD2301000)the earmarked fund for CARS(Grant No.CARS-27)the Taishan Scholar Assistance Program from Shandong Provincial Government(Grant No.TSPD20181206)。
文摘There is a close relationship between potassium(K)and nitrogen(N).However,the roles of K under high N conditions remain unclear.Using a hydroponics approach,we monitored the morphological,physiological,and molecular changes in M9T337 apple(Malus domestica)rootstocks under different nitrate(10 and 30 mmol·L^(-1)NO_(3)^(-))and K supply(0.5,6,10,and 20 mmol·L_(-1)K^(+))conditions.Results revealed that high nitrate inhibited the root growth of M9T337 rootstocks,downregulated the expressions of K transporter genes(MdPT5,MdHKT1,and MdATK1),and reduced the net NO3-and K+influx at the surface of roots,thereby resulting in an N/K imbalance in rootstocks.Further investigation showed that 10 mmol·L^(-1)K increased the activity of N metabolic enzymes(NR,GS,NiR,and GOGAT),upregulated the expressions of genes related to nitrate uptake and transport(MdNRT1.1,MdNRT1.2,MdNRT1.5,and MdNRT2.4),promoted15N transport from the roots to the shoots,optimized leaf N distribution,and improved photosynthetic N utilization efficiency under high nitrate conditions.These results suggest that the negative effects of high nitrate may be related to the N/K imbalance and that reducing N/K in plants by increasing K supply level can effectively alleviate the inhibition of N assimilation by high nitrate stress.
文摘Crunch!Apples are a sweet and delicious fruit.There are over 7,500 different kinds!The fruit is usually red,but it can be green or other colors.Applesaren't expensive.They make a great snack.You can eat a whole apple.You can slice it,too.They're also good with other foods.Do you like apples?
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.2018YFD1000307)the Natural Science Foundation in China(Grant Nos.31672136 and 31272132).
文摘Apple ring rot,which is caused by Botryosphaeria dothidea,severely affects apple production.The mechanisms employed in apple cells against B.dothidea remain unknown.In this research,the pathogen infection mode and the relationship between cell death and disease resistance in‘Fuji’/B.dothidea interaction pathosystem were investigated.By using transmission electron microscopy(TEM),our research showed that the pathogen infects apple cells both intracellularly and extracellularly.However,compared with that in immature fruit,the incidence of hyphae in the interior of mature apple fruit cells increased dramatically,suggesting that cell wall-mediated penetration resistance could be important in apple resistance against B.dothidea.TEM ultrastructural characterization identified the nuclear morphology of programmed cell death induction in both apple fruit and callus cells under B.dothidea infection.Overexpression of MdVDAC2(MDP0000271281),which encodes an outer-membrane localized anion channel protein in mitochondria,significantly promoted cell death under B.dothidea infection and simultaneously inhibited pathogen infection,suggesting that cell death represents a disease resistance mechanism in apple against B.dothidea infection.Furthermore,BdCatalase(KAF4307763),a cytochromeP450 family protein BdCYP52A4(KAF4300696),and subtilisin-domain containing proteinswere identified fromB.dothidea-secreted proteins,which suggested the potential involvement of active oxygen species and phytoalexins in combating B.dothidea infection and triggering or dampening apple resistance.Collectively,our research suggested that cell wall-mediated penetration resistance,programmed cell death machinery and microbial effector-interrelated signaling were among strategies recruited in apple to combat B.dothidea.The current research laid the foundation for further investigations into resistance mechanisms in apple.
基金supported by the National Key Technology R&D Program(Grant No.2014BAD16B06)the project of the China Agriculture Research System(Grant No.CARS-28)。
文摘Sugar plays an important role in apple fruit development,appearance and quality as well as contributing to a plant’s water stress response.Trehalose and the trehalose biosynthetic metabolic pathways are part of the sugar signaling system in plants,which are important regulator of water stress response in apple.The effect of water stress treatments applied to apple trees and the corresponding effects of ABA on developmental fruit quality were examined for indicators of fruit quality during fruit development.The results indicated that the severe water stress treatment(W2)occurring after the last stage of fruit cell division caused a decrease in the color and size of fruit.The moderate water stress(W1)occurring after the last stage of fruit cell enlargement(S2)caused an increase in the content of fructose and sorbitol while the apple fruit shape was not affected.These changes in sugar are related to the activity of sugar metabolic enzymes.While the enzymatic activity of vacuolar acid invertase(vAINV)was higher,that of sucrose-phosphate synthase(SPS)was lower in water stress treated fruit throughout the developmental period.This indicates that enhanced sucrose degradation and reduced sucrose synthesis leads to an overall reduced sucrose content during times of drought.Thus,water stress reduced sucrose content.Whereas the content of endogenous trehalose and ABA were the highest in water stress treated fruit.A moderate water stress(W1)imposed on apple trees via water restriction(60%–65%of field capacity)after the fruit cell enlargement phase of fruit development yielded sweeter fruit of higher economic value.
基金funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.2020YFD1000201)China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA(Grant No.CARS-27)+1 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.31972359)the Agricultural Research and Industrialization Project of Liaoning Province(Grant No.2020JH2/10200028).
文摘Freezing injury in winter is an important abiotic stress that seriously affects plant growth and development.Deciduous fruit trees resist freezing injury by inducing dormancy.However,different cultivars of the same species have different cold resistance strategies.Little is known about the molecular mechanism of apple trees in response to freezing injury during winter dormancy.Therefore,in this study,1-year-old branches of the cold-resistant cultivar‘Hanfu’(HF)and the cold-sensitive cultivar‘Changfuji No.2’(CF)were used to explore their cold resistance through physiological,biochemical,transcriptomics,and metabolomics analyses.Combining physiological and biochemical data,we found that HF had a stronger osmotic regulation ability and antioxidant enzyme activity than CF,as well as stronger cold resistance.The functional enrichment analysis showed that both cultivars were significantly enriched in pathways related to signal transduction,hormone regulation,and sugar metabolism under freezing stress.In addition,the differentially expressed genes(DEGs)encoding galactinol synthase,raffinose synthase,and stachyose synthetase in raffinose family oligosaccharides(RFOs)metabolic pathways were upregulated in HF,and raffinose and stachyose were accumulated,while their contents in CF were lower.HF accumulated 4-aminobutyric acid,spermidine,and ascorbic acid to scavenge reactive oxygen species(ROS).While the contents of oxidized glutathione,vitamin C,glutathione,and spermidine in CF decreased under freezing stress,consequently,the ability to scavenge ROS was low.Furthermore,the transcription factors apetala 2/ethylene responsive factor(AP2/ERF)and WRKY were strongly induced under freezing stress.In summary,the difference in key metabolic components of HF and CF under freezing stress is the major factor affecting their difference in cold resistance.The obtained results deepen our understanding of the cold resistance mechanism in apple trees in response to freezing injury during dormancy.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.31672104)the earmarked fund for China Agriculture Research System(Grant No.CARS-27)+4 种基金Shandong Agricultural Major Applied Technology Innovation Project(Grant No.SD2019ZZ008)Taishan Scholar Funded Project(Grant No.20190923)Qingchuang Science and Technology Support Project of Shandong Colleges and Universities(Grant No.2019KJF020)Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province(Grant No.ZR2020MC131)the National Key Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.2020YFD1000201).
文摘We isolated and identified a bacterium that could produce IAA and degrade phloridzin in the rhizosphere soil of healthy replanted apple(the rootstock is M9T337 and the scion is Yanfu 3),providing a theoretical basis for reducing the obstacles associated with apple replant disease(ARD).Isolates were screened using Salkowski colorimetry and screening medium for phloridzin.The isolate of interest(W6)was identified as Ochrobactrum haematophilum based on morphological analysis,physiological and biochemical tests,and 16S rDNA sequencing.In a laboratory experiment,W6 produced auxin and promoted the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana roots,and its degradation rate of 100 mg.L^(-1 )phloridzin was 62.0%.In a pot experiment,W6 significantly reduced the phenolic acid contents of replanted soil,lowered the abundance of the harmful fungus Fusarium solani,and increased soil enzyme activities,thereby improving the micro-ecological environment of replant soil.W6 increased the root antioxidant enzyme activity and leaf photosynthetic pigment content of replanted Malus hupehensis Rehd.seedlings,effectively alleviating the decrease in net photosynthetic rate,transpiration rate and stomatal conductance caused by ARD.In a field experiment,W6 also promoted the growth of replanted apple(the rootstock is M9T337 and the scion is Yanfu 3)saplings.Therefore,W6 can promote apple growth and degrade phenolic acids,and it can be used as an effective treatment for the reduction of ARD.
基金supported by the earmarked fund for China Agriculture Research System(CARS-27)。
文摘Sugar content is a determinant of apple(Malus×domestica Borkh.)sweetness.However,the molecular mechanism underlying sucrose accumulation in apple fruit remains elusive.Herein,this study reported the role of the sucrose transporter MdSUT2.1 in the regulation of sucrose accumulation in apples.The MdSUT2.1 gene encoded a protein with 612 amino acid residues that could be localized at the plasma membrane when expressed in tobacco leaf protoplasts.MdSUT2.1 was highly expressed in fruit and was positively correlated with sucrose accumulation during apple fruit development.Moreover,complementary growth assays in a yeast mutant validated the sucrose transport activity of MdSUT2.1.MdSUT2.1 overexpression in apples and tomatoes resulted in significant increases in sucrose,fructose,and glucose contents compared to the wild type(WT).Further analysis revealed that the expression levels of sugar metabolism-and transport-related genes SUSYs,NINVs,FRKs,HXKs,and TSTs increased in apples and tomatoes with MdSUT2.1 overexpression compared to WT.Finally,unlike the tonoplast sugar transporters MdTST1 and MdTST2,the promoter of MdSUT2.1 was not induced by exogenous sugars.These findings provide valuable insights into the molecular mechanism underlying sugar accumulation in apples.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2017YFE0122500)the UK BBSRC-Innovate UK–China Agritech Challenge Funded Project(RED-APPLE,BB/S020985/1)the project supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,China(2662022JGQD001).
文摘The research aimed to understand farmers’willingness to adopt(WTA)and willingness to pay(WTP)for precision pesticide technologies and analyzed the determinants of farmers’decision-making.We used a two-stage approach to consider farmers’WTA and WTP for precision pesticide technologies.A survey of 545 apple farmers was administered in Bohai Bay and the Loess Plateau in China.The data were analyzed using the double-hurdle model.The results indicated that 78.72%of respondents were willing to apply precision pesticide technologies provided by service organizations such as cooperatives and dedicated enterprises,and 69.72%were willing to buy the equipment for using precision pesticide technologies.The results of the determinant analysis indicated that farmers’perceived perceptions,farm scale,cooperative membership,access to digital information,and availability of financial services had significant and positive impacts on farmers’WTA precision pesticide technologies.Cooperative membership,technical training,and adherence to environmental regulations increased farmers’WTP for precision pesticide technologies.Moreover,nonlinear relationships between age,agricultural experience,and farmers’WTA and WTP for precision pesticide technology services were found.