Fusarium pseudograminearum and F.culmorum affect the root system architecture of bread wheat

Yield losses of bread wheat due to crown rot can be more severe when drought conditions occur during the grain-filling period.Root architecture characteristics are important for soil exploration and belowground resource acquisition and are essential for adaptation to water-limited environments.Traits such as root angle,length and density have been strongly associated with acquisition efficiency and contribute to yield stability of the crop.The impact of crown rot pathogens on wheat root architecture is poorly understood.We examined differences in root angle,length and number,as well as dry root weight of the crown rot-susceptible bread wheat cultivar,Livingston inoculated with one of two crown rot pathogens Fusarium culmorum or Fusarium pseudograminearum in a transparent-sided root observation chamber.Significant adverse impacts on plant health and growth were revealed by visual discolouration of the leaf sheaths;fresh and dry shoot weight;leaf area of the oldest and the youngest fully expanded leaf and leaf number.Values of most recorded root system measurements were reduced when inoculated with either F.culmorum or F.pseudograminearum.In contrast,root angle was increased in the presence of F.culmorum but was not significantly changed by F.pseudograminearum.The development of whiteheads and grain losses in bread wheat caused by crown rot have previously been associated with blockages of the vascular systems.The method employed here was able to identify differences in the pathogen impacts on roots,which were not detected using previous systems.This research indicates that in the presence of F.culmorum and F.pseudograminearum infection,not only reductions in the size and biomass of the shoot system but also changes in the length,biomass and architecture of the root system could play an important role in yield loss.

“Dietary fibre”: moving beyond the “soluble/insoluble” classification for monogastric nutrition, with an emphasis on humans and pigs

This review describes dietary fibres originating from a range of foods,particularly in relation to their plant cell walls.It explores the categorization of dietary fibres into "soluble" or "insoluble".It also emphasizes dietary fibre fermentability,in terms of describing how the gastro-intestinal tract(GIT) microbiota respond to a selection of fibres from these categories.Food is categorized into cereals,legumes,fruits and vegetables.Mention is also made of example whole foods and why differences in physico-chemical characteristics between "purified" and "non-purified"food components are important in terms of health.Lastly,recommendations are made as to how dietary fibre could be classified differently,in relation to its functionality in terms of fermentability,rather than only its solubility.

Livestock Feed Marketing in Ethiopia： Challenges and Opportunities for Livestock Development

This paper presents the feed marketing systems of Ethiopia in terms of feed demand and supply, feed quality issues, feed prices and price trends based on qualitative data generated through rapid market appraisal methodology. The results indicate that, the demand for roughages, agro-industrial by-products （AIBP） and compound feeds is showing increasing trend. The use of feed from commercial sources is, however, very limited due to shortage of feed supply and inefficient marketing system. The AIBP mainly from flour and grind mills, oil processing plants and breweries are in short supply and directly marketed to user or through traders. Consequently, most of the exiting feed mixers/processing enterprises are operating under capacity estimated at about 20%-30%. The main marketed roughages, which are mainly cereal straws and baled hay, are also in short supply. Feed prices are increasing from time to time and mainly exacerbated by the increasing trend in export market of AIBP and double taxation in mixed rations. There is no any feed quality control or assurance mechanism in Ethiopia. Precaution needs to be taken in the area of taxation in order to avoid double taxation. Implications to improve the feed marketing systems and opportunities for livestock development are drawn.

Can effectoromics and loss-of-susceptibility be exploited for improving Fusarium head blight resistance in wheat?

Bread wheat(Triticum aestiuum L.),which provides about 20%of daily calorie intake,is the most widely cultivated crop in the world,in terms of total area devoted to its cultivation.Therefore,even small increases in wheat yield can translate into large gains.Reducing the gap between actual and potential grain yield in wheat is a crucial task to feed the increasing world population.Fusarium head blight(FHB)caused by the pathogenic fungus Fusaium graminearum and related Fusarium species is one of the most devastating wheat diseases throughout the world.This disease reduces not only the yield but also the quality by contaminating the grain with mycotoxins harmful for humans,animals and the environment.In recent years,remarkable achievements attained in omics"technologies have not only provided new insights into understanding of processes involved in pathogenesis but also helped develop effective new tools for practical plant breeding.Sequencing of the genomes of various wheat patho gens,including F.graminearum,as well as those of bread and durum wheat and their wild relatives,together with advances made in transcriptomics and bioinformatics,has allowed the identification of candidate pathogen effectors and corresponding host resistance(R)and susceptibility(S)genes.However,so far,FHB effectors and wheat susceptibility genes/factors have been poorly studied.In this paper,we first briefly highlighted recent examples of improving resistance against pathogens via new techniques in different host species.We then propose effective strategies towards developing wheat cultivars with improved resistance to FHB.We hope that the article will spur discussions and interest among researchers about novel approaches with great potential for improving wheat against FHB.

Designing price-contingent vegetable rotation schedules using agent-based simulation

Chinese vegetable production cooperatives supply their members, mostly smallholder farmers, with a rotation schedule for the year. Since vegetable prices are not stable throughout the year, designing a rotation schedule that maximizes expected profits, distributes farmers＇ profits more equitably, maintains the diversity of produce in the market, and reduces the risk of pests and diseases, requires adaptive, price-contingent rotation schedules（here, called ＂self-adaptive adjustment＂）. This study uses an agent-based simulation（ABS） to design self-adaptive rotation schedules that deliver these aims. The selfadaptive adjustment strategy was more profitable for farmers when faced with price volatility, and more equitable as well. This work provides a decision-support tool for managers of Chinese vegetable production cooperatives to provide farmers with more profitable and equitable rotation schedules.

反复冻融处理对大米RS3型抗性淀粉产率的影响

以大米淀粉为原料,采用反复冻融法制备了大米RS3型抗性淀粉,研究了反复冻融处理对大米RS3型抗性淀粉产率的影响,并优化了工艺参数。实验结果表明,大米RS3型抗性淀粉冻融法制备过程中,影响因素依次为:冻融温度>结晶时间>冻融次数>淀粉乳浓度,而且冻融温度对大米RS3型抗性淀粉的产率影响最显著,其次为结晶时间和反复冻融次数,淀粉乳浓度影响最小。大米RS3型抗性淀粉最佳制备工艺参数:冻融温度为-18℃(解冻温度25℃)、反复冻融次数为15次、淀粉乳浓度为20%、结晶时间为48 h,在此条件下大米RS3型抗性淀粉产率最大可达14.97%。研究实验结果可为大米RS3型抗性淀粉加工提供依据。

Exploring and Exploiting Pan-genomics for Crop Improvement

Genetic variation ranging from single-nucleotide polymorphisms to large structural variants (SVs) can cause variation of gene content among individuals within the same species. There is an increasing appreciation that a single reference genome is insufficient to capture the full landscape of genetic diversity of a species. Pan-genome analysis offers a platform to evaluate the genetic diversity of a species via investigation of its entire genome repertoire. Although a recent wave of pan-genomic studies has shed new light on crop diversity and improvement using advanced sequencing technology, the potential applications of crop pan-genomics in crop improvement are yet to be fully exploited. In this review, we highlight the progress achieved in understanding crop pan?genomics, discuss biological activities that cause SVs, review important agronomical traits affected by SVs, and present our perspective on the application of pan-genomics in crop improvement.

Solid-state fermented plant protein sources in the diets of broiler chickens:A review

Protein sources are the second most important component in poultry diets.Due to the fluctuation in price of soybean meal(SBM) and persistent increase in feed prices,nutritionists have been exploring alternative protein sources.Replacement of SBM with alternative protein sources in poultry diets could reduce human-live stock competition for soybean and support the production of more animal protein.However,the use of alternative protein sources is limited to low inclusion due to the presence of antinutritional factors(ANF) such as glucosinolates(rapeseed meal),gossypol(cottonseed meal),nonstarch polysaccharides(NSP) in lupin flour,high fibre(palm kernel cake),total phenolic contents and phytic acid(canola meal) known to impair animal performance,nutrient digestibility and feed utilization.As a processing technique,solid-state fermentation(SSF) has been researched for a long time in the food industry.An important objective of SSF is the production of enzymes,organic acids and other metabolites of economic importance.In recent times,SSF has been employed to enhance nutrient bioavailability,inhibit gut pathogenic bacteria and reduce ANF in plant protein sources resulting in improved nutrient digestibility,thereby improving performance and gut health of broiler chickens.Unlike pigs,there is still a dearth of information on feeding solid-state fermented feed ingredients to broiler chickens.This review aims to describe the nutritional value of the solid-state fermented products of rapeseed meal,canola meal,cottonseed meal,palm kernel cake and lupin flour on performance and intestinal health of broiler chickens.

A Graph-Based Pan-Genome Guides Biological Discovery

The availability of reference genomes has been the foundation for genomics research in the last decade.However,as reports of presence/absenee variations of sequence and genes are growing in various species(Zhang et al.,2016;Sun et al.,,2018)it is increasingly evident that a single reference genome provides an in adequate represe ntation of the whole landscape of sequence diversity within a species.Pan-genome analysis provides a platform to investigate the entire genome repertoire of a biological clade.

A Weakly Supervised Deep Learning Framework for Sorghum Head Detection and Counting

The yield of cereal crops such as sorghum(Sorghum bicolor L.Moench)depends on the distribution of crop-heads in varying branching arrangements.Therefore,counting the head number per unit area is critical for plant breeders to correlate with the genotypic variation in a specific breeding field.However,measuring such phenotypic traitsmanually is an extremely labor-intensive process and suffers from low efficiency and human errors.Moreover,the process is almost infeasible for large-scale breeding plantations or experiments.Machine learning-based approaches like deep convolutional neural network(CNN)based object detectors are promising tools for efficient object detection and counting.However,a significant limitation of such deep learningbased approaches is that they typically require a massive amount of hand-labeled images for training,which is still a tedious process.Here,we propose an active learning inspired weakly supervised deep learning framework for sorghum head detection and counting from UAV-based images.We demonstrate that it is possible to significantly reduce human labeling effort without compromising final model performance(R^(2)between human count and machine count is 0.88)by using a semitrained CNN model(i.e.,trained with limited labeled data)to perform synthetic annotation.In addition,we also visualize key features that the network learns.This improves trustworthiness by enabling users to better understand and trust the decisions that the trained deep learning model makes.

Estimating Photosynthetic Attributes from High-Throughput Canopy Hyperspectral Sensing in Sorghum

Sorghum,a genetically diverse C_(4) cereal,is an ideal model to study natural variation in photosynthetic capacity.Specific leaf nitrogen(SLN)and leaf mass per leaf area(LMA),as well as,maximal rates of Rubisco carboxylation(V cmax),phosphoenolpyruvate(PEP)carboxylation(V pmax),and electron transport(J max),quantified using a C_(4) photosynthesis model,were evaluated in two field-grown training sets(n=169 plots including 124 genotypes)in 2019 and 2020.

Perennial grass and herb options to extend summer–autumn forage in a drought-prone temperate environment

Background:The ability to finish livestock on pasture over the summer–autumn period could improve the profitability of red meat enterprises in drought-prone temperate regions.In south-eastern Australia,traditional perennial options are limited by poor warm-season performance(phalaris,Phalaris aquatica L.)and widespread environmental constraints(lucerne,Medicago sativa L.).We aimed to identify perennial species suitable for summer–autumn finishing.Methods:We tested pure swards of summer-active perennial grasses and herbs(20 cultivars across 14 species)in replicated small-plot experiments at two sites on the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales,Australia.We assessed early persistence,productivity and warm-season nutritive characteristics over 2–3 years.Results:Lucerne and chicory(Cichorium intybus L.)persisted well through drought and produced herbage of high quantity and quality through summer–autumn.Digit grass(Digitaria eriantha Steud.)was highly persistent and productive but nutritive values were generally poor.Cocksfoot(Dactylis glomerata L.),tall fescue(Festuca arundinacea Schreb.),perennial ryegrass(Lolium perenne L.),prairie grass(Bromus willdenowii Kunth.)and plantain(Plantago lanceolata L.)were productive but less persistent through drought,while nutritive values were sometimes inadequate.Conclusions:Chicory is a good alternative to lucerne,given its excellent summer–autumn performance,ability to survive droughts and superior acid soil tolerance.If appropriate management resolves issues with persistence and nutritive value,several of the other species could also be used to close the warm-season feed gap in drought-prone temperate environments.