Article
Microbiology
Yelena V. Brazhnikova, Alexander I. Shaposhnikov, Anna L. Sazanova, Andrey A. Belimov, Togzhan D. Mukasheva, Lyudmila V. Ignatova
Summary: A large-scale screening of 848 culturable soil and endophytic filamentous fungi and yeasts was conducted, and five strains with the highest phosphate-mobilizing ability were identified. These strains solubilized calcium, aluminum, iron phosphates, and calcium phytate through acidification of the medium, organic acid release, and phosphatase activity. They also increased available phosphorus concentration in soil and produced phytohormones that promoted plant growth.
CURRENT MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Motofumi Suzuki, Atsumi Urabe, Sayaka Sasaki, Ryo Tsugawa, Satoshi Nishio, Haruka Mukaiyama, Yoshiko Murata, Hiroshi Masuda, May Sann Aung, Akane Mera, Masaki Takeuchi, Keijo Fukushima, Michika Kanaki, Kaori Kobayashi, Yuichi Chiba, Binod Babu Shrestha, Hiromi Nakanishi, Takehiro Watanabe, Atsushi Nakayama, Hiromichi Fujino, Takanori Kobayashi, Keiji Tanino, Naoko K. Nishizawa, Kosuke Namba
Summary: Iron is an essential plant nutrient that is poorly bioavailable in alkaline soils, resulting in reduced agricultural productivity. Here, the authors report the synthesis of stable and cheap iron-chelator, proline-2'-deoxymugineic acid (PDMA), and demonstrate its utility as potential fertilizer.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Dahui Zhu, Yaxin Niu, Keke Fan, Fujun Zhang, Yu Wang, Gejiao Wang, Shixue Zheng
Summary: This study found that the selenium-oxidizing Agrobacterium sp. T3F4 strain can steadily colonize soil and plant tissues, leading to increased absorption of selenium by plants through selenium oxidation in the soil.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
K. S. V. Poorna Chandrika, Dinabandhu Patra, Praduman Yadav, A. Aziz Qureshi, Balaji Gopalan
Summary: Iron and zinc plant nanonutrients in citrate form were prepared by an eco-friendly solid-state grinding method, resulting in nanosize particles after ball-milling. The nanosized Fe and Zn citrates showed significantly increased plant uptake in soybean crops, attributed to their high mobility as nanocitrates. This suggests that nanocitrates can be an excellent source of plant nutrients in agriculture.
Article
Microbiology
Adnane Bargaz, Wissal Elhaissoufi, Said Khourchi, Bouchra Benmrid, Kira A. Borden, Zineb Rchiad
Summary: Research on plant growth promoting bacteria, especially P solubilizing bacteria (PSB), continues to be a priority in agricultural institutions for enhancing efficient phosphorus (P) utilization in crop production. New lines of research are focusing on optimizing the PSB-fertilizer-crop root interaction to improve P efficiency and agricultural performance. The systematic changes caused by PSB on crop roots and the agronomic profitability of PSB co-application with fertilizers in amended soils and inoculated crops are key areas of interest in current research.
MICROBIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Christopher Ngosong, Blaise Nangsingnyuy Tatah, Marie Noela Enyoe Olougou, Christopher Suh, Raymond Ndip Nkongho, Mercy Abwe Ngone, Denis Tange Achiri, Gylaine Vanissa Tchuisseu Tchakounte, Silke Ruppel
Summary: Soybean cultivation is important for its role as a dietary protein source and soil fertility enhancer, but nutrient deficiencies limit its production. Inoculation with plant growth-promoting bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi, along with the addition of NPK fertilizers, can improve soybean performance. These findings highlight the importance of farm management practices and microbial activities in the rhizosphere for soybean yield and quality.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Shuang-Guo Zhu, Zheng-Guo Cheng, Hai-Hong Yin, Rui Zhou, Yu-Miao Yang, Jing Wang, Hao Zhu, Wei Wang, Bao-Zhong Wang, Wen-Bo Li, Hong-Yan Tao, You-Cai Xiong
Summary: The tradeoff between facilitation and competition in a maize-grass pea intercropping system was found to be driven by rhizospheric interactions, and the intensity and type of interaction varied depending on resource availability. Positive plant-plant interactions were observed under all environmental conditions, with higher total yield and biomass net effect. Maize growth was consistently facilitated, while the facilitation of grass pea yield and biomass shifted with different stressors, such as low soil P and moisture conditions.
Article
Agronomy
Daisei Ueno, Yuta Ito, Miho Ohnishi, Chikahiro Miyake, Takayuki Sohtome, Motofumi Suzuki
Summary: PDMA-Fe shows higher availability for cucumber than other synthetic chelates under different soil conditions, with greater reducibility at alkaline pH. Additionally, PDMA-Fe treatment significantly increases shoot iron concentration.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Nicolas Kratena, Tobias Goekler, Lara Maltrovsky, Eva Oburger, Christian Stanetty
Summary: This study presents a concise total synthesis of eight natural products of the mugineic acid and avenic acid families using an innovative assembly approach, resulting in a high degree of divergence and minimal synthetic effort. Chiral pool starting materials and diastereo- and enantioselective methods were utilized to access key building blocks, allowing for the successful preparation of epimeric hydroxyazetidine amino acids and the synthesis of specific target products.
CHEMISTRY-A EUROPEAN JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Qiang Li, Qian Wu, Ting Zhang, Peng Xiang, Zhijie Bao, Wenying Tu, Lijiao Li, Qiangfeng Wang
Summary: Phosphate mining has a significant impact on the diversity and community structure of rhizosphere soil fungi, leading to an increase in the relative abundance of certain fungi. Two efficient phosphate solubilizers were identified from the isolated fungi, which also exhibited tolerance to multiple heavy metals. This study contributes to our understanding of how phosphate mining affects rhizosphere fungal ecology and provides important resources for the remediation of phosphate mining soil pollution.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
D. B. Kumssa, A. W. Mossa, T. Amede, E. L. Ander, E. H. Bailey, L. Botoman, C. Chagumaira, J. G. Chimungu, K. Davis, S. Gameda, S. M. Haefele, K. Hailu, E. J. M. Joy, R. M. Lark, I. S. Ligowe, S. P. McGrath, A. Milne, P. Muleya, M. Munthali, E. Towett, M. G. Walsh, L. Wilson, S. D. Young, I. R. Haji, M. R. Broadley, D. Gashu, P. C. Nalivata
Summary: The dataset includes data on the concentration of 29 mineral micronutrients in cereal grains and soil chemistry properties in Ethiopia and Malawi. The study provides insights into the geospatial variation of micronutrient concentration in staple crops and the influence of soil factors.
Article
Microbiology
Yen Ning Chai, Stephanie Futrell, Daniel P. Schachtman
Summary: This study compares different methods of delivering plant growth-promoting bacteria and finds that the appropriateness of the delivery method depends on the type of bacteria being used. It highlights the importance of using the right inoculation method when testing the potential of different bacteria for promoting plant growth.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Amy Wen, Keira L. Havens, Sarah E. Bloch, Neal Shah, Douglas A. Higgins, Austin G. Davis-Richardson, Judee Sharon, Farzaneh Rezaei, Mahsa Mohiti-Asli, Allison Johnson, Gabriel Abud, Jean-Michel Ane, Junko Maeda, Valentina Infante, Shayin S. Gottlieb, James G. Lorigan, Lorena Williams, Alana Horton, Megan McKellar, Dominic Soriano, Zoe Caron, Hannah Elzinga, Ashley Graham, Rosemary Clark, San-Ming Mak, Laura Stupin, Alice Robinson, Natalie Hubbard, Richard Broglie, Alvin Tamsir, Karsten Temme
Summary: Agricultural productivity heavily relies on synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, but the environmental loss of reactive nitrogen is a major concern. This study introduces a microbial product optimized with synthetic biology tools to enable biological nitrogen fixation for corn, demonstrating its successful commercialization and potential to replace synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. Field trials showed that the product significantly increased nitrogen fixation activity and led to higher yields with reduced variance, highlighting the agronomic benefits of a broad-acre biological nitrogen fixation product.
ACS SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Disha Dasgupta, Anamika Paul, Krishnendu Acharya, Tatiana Minkina, Saglara Mandzhieva, Andrey Vladimirovich Gorovtsov, Nilanjan Chakraborty, Chetan Keswani
Summary: Bio-inoculation involves the association of plants with beneficial microorganisms, specifically Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR), which can directly or indirectly help plants with root development, nitrogen fixation, stress tolerance, and overall soil health improvement. The use of PGPR as biofertilizers and for bioremediation techniques can reduce chemical dependency in agriculture. This review focuses on understanding the convergence strategies of signaling molecules and the ambiguities of signaling activities in plants due to their interaction with PGPR under environmental stressed conditions.
Article
Plant Sciences
Vincent Vadez, Sunita Choudhary, Jana Kholova, C. Tom Hash, Rakesh Srivastava, A. Ashok Kumar, Anand Prandavada, Mukkera Anjaiah
Summary: The study reveals that maize has higher transpiration efficiency overall compared to pearl millet and sorghum, especially in high-clay soil under high vapor pressure deficit conditions. The source-sink balance also plays a significant role in driving variations in transpiration efficiency.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Fiona M. Seaton, Sabine Reinsch, Tim Goodall, Nicola White, Davey L. Jones, Robert I. Griffiths, Simon Creer, Andy Smith, Bridget A. Emmett, David A. Robinson
Summary: The study found significant changes in soil microbial communities in response to long-term climate manipulation, likely influenced by soil pH and electrical conductivity. Changes in microbial communities were more pronounced after an extended period of climate treatment, especially in deeper soil layers. Shifts in plant cover played a key role in influencing the microbial communities, particularly through impacts on soil physicochemical properties like pH.
Article
Mathematics
Esther S. Daus, Mariya Ptashnyk, Claudia Raithel
Summary: This article derives a fractional cross-diffusion system as the rigorous limit of a multispecies system of moderately interacting particles driven by Levy noise. The mutual interaction is motivated by the porous medium equation with fractional potential pressure. The approach is based on techniques developed by previous researchers, showing the convergence of a regularization of the empirical measure to the solution of a correspondingly regularized macroscopic system. Well-posedness and non-negativity of solutions are proved for the regularized macroscopic system, yielding the same results for the non-regularized fractional cross-diffusion system in the limit.
JOURNAL OF DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Matthew J. Wade, Anna Lo Jacomo, Elena Armenise, Mathew R. Brown, Joshua T. Bunce, Graeme J. Cameron, Zhou Fang, Kata Farkas, Deidre F. Gilpin, David W. Graham, Jasmine M. S. Grimsley, Alwyn Hart, Till Hoffmann, Katherine J. Jackson, David L. Jones, Chris J. Lilley, John W. McGrath, Jennifer M. McKinley, Cormac McSparron, Behnam F. Nejad, Mario Morvan, Marcos Quintela-Baluja, Adrian M. I. Roberts, Andrew C. Singer, Celia Souque, Vanessa L. Speight, Chris Sweetapple, David Walkers, Glenn Watts, Andrew Weightman, Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern
Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented pressure on global public health resources, prompting the development of National wastewater surveillance programmes in the UK to monitor the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This work highlights the unique importance of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) for public health protection, with potential value beyond COVID-19 for monitoring a range of health markers.
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
(2022)
Review
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Liang Wei, Tida Ge, Zhenke Zhu, Rongzhong Ye, Josep Penuelas, Yuhong Li, Tin Mar Lynn, Davey L. Jones, Jinshui Wu, Yakov Kuzyakov
Summary: Research shows that microbial biomass content in paddy soils is higher than in upland soils due to factors such as higher root C input by rice plants, lower oxygen availability, higher microbial C assimilation efficiency, and additional C stabilization on iron (oxyhydr)oxides in paddy soils. Despite higher temperatures and better water availability, microbial turnover is slower in paddy soils due to oxygen limitation, leading to nearly double the microbial biomass content compared to upland soils.
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Ecology
I. C. Engelhardt, D. Patko, Y. Liu, M. Mimault, G. de las Heras Martinez, T. S. George, M. MacDonald, M. Ptashnyk, T. Sukhodub, N. R. Stanley-Wall, N. Holden, T. J. Daniell, L. X. Dupuy
Summary: This study used live microscopy techniques to observe collective movement of B. subtilis bacteria in soil, resembling the behavior of bird flocks or fish schools. Genetic analysis suggests that this movement may be driven by diffusion of extracellular signaling molecules and influenced by physical obstacles and hydrodynamics in the soil environment.
Article
Agronomy
Nancy C. Walker, Steven M. White, Dan McKay Fletcher, Siul A. Ruiz, Kathryn E. Rankin, Angelo De Stradis, Maria Saponari, Katherine A. Williams, Chiara Petroselli, Tiina Roose
Summary: In this study, the diameter distributions of xylem vessels in four olive cultivars with varying susceptibility to X. fastidiosa were investigated using X-ray computed tomography. The results suggest that vessel diameter distributions may be correlated with disease resistance and could inform the selection of resistant olive cultivars.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Matthias Mimault, Mariya Ptashnyk, Lionel X. Dupuy
Summary: This study successfully measured the mechanical properties of plant roots using a computational model, revealing the complex adaptability of roots to soil resistance. The results show that particle-based models can compute the growth of an entire organ at cellular resolution, which could significantly advance the studies of plant morphogenesis.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Food Science & Technology
Jesus Castillo, Guy J. D. Kirk, M. Jordana Rivero, Stephan M. Haefele
Summary: This study investigated regional differences in nitrogen balance, nitrogen use efficiency, and nitrogen surplus in the rice-livestock system of Uruguay. The results showed high nitrogen use efficiency for the rice component, but low nitrogen use efficiency for the livestock component. The overall system had good nitrogen use efficiency and nitrogen balance, but attention should be paid to the use of nitrogen fertilizer in rice.
FRONTIERS IN SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Food Science & Technology
Jesus Castillo, Guy J. D. Kirk, M. Jordana Rivero, Guillermo Fabini, Jose A. Terra, Walter Ayala, Alvaro Roel, Pilar Irisarri, Stephan M. Haefele
Summary: Rotational rice systems in temperate South America, such as the rice-pasture-livestock system of Uruguay, have high rice yields and tight nitrogen balances. This study parameterized and tested the DNDC model for N dynamics in rice-non-rice rotations, providing a foundation for future research on nutrient management. The model performed well in simulating crop yields, N uptake, and soil N. The importance of this research is rated 9 out of 10.
FRONTIERS IN SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Andrew Mair, Lionel Dupuy, Mariya Ptashnyk
Summary: This study investigates how root-induced preferential flow redistributes soil water according to the architecture of a root system and how this may influence plant drought resistance. The findings suggest that an optimal preferential flow strength exists for minimizing water loss from the rooted zone and that this optimum differs with soil type. Additionally, a reduction in gravitropic response allows a root system to uptake more of the water that enters the soil.
FIELD CROPS RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Toavintsoa Rajonandraina, Tovohery Rakotoson, Matthias Wissuwa, Yoshiaki Ueda, Tantely Razafimbelo, Andry Andriamananjara, Guy J. D. Kirk
Summary: Iron toxicity in rice leads to reduced yields due to excessive uptake of ferrous iron, which is more soluble in paddy soils. Different tolerance mechanisms, such as reduced uptake and compartmentalization, play different roles at different growth stages. Screening protocols need to capture the individual tolerance mechanisms, considering the effects of growth stage, mineral nutrition, and possible interactions with other factors.
FIELD CROPS RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Marieme Drame, Alison Carswell, William Roberts, Jess Hood, Martin Jemo, Sigrid Heuer, Guy Kirk, Mark Pawlett, Tom Misselbrook
Summary: Global warming is expected to cause hotter and drier summers, as well as more extreme weather events. This has a significant impact on the efficacy of fertilisers and the loss of nutrients into the environment.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
James Le Houx, Siul Ruiz, Daniel McKay Fletcher, Sharif Ahmed, Tiina Roose
Summary: This paper presents an image-based model solver called OpenImpala to estimate bulk-scale effective transport parameters in porous media. By modifying the boundary conditions and equations in OpenImpala, a formal multi-scale homogenisation expansion method is used to estimate the effective diffusivity in an imaged system/geometry. The results show that OpenImpala has faster computing speeds compared to COMSOL and accurately estimates the effective diffusivity values.
TRANSPORT IN POROUS MEDIA
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Toavintsoa Rajonandraina, Yoshiaki Ueda, Matthias Wissuwa, Guy J. D. Kirk, Tovohery Rakotoson, Hanna Manwaring, Andry Andriamananjara, Tantely Razafimbelo
Summary: The addition of magnesium (Mg) can alleviate leaf bronzing symptoms caused by iron (Fe) toxicity in rice. This study found that Mg supplementation reduced leaf bronzing both in field and hydroponic conditions. Gene analysis suggested that the effect of Mg may be mediated by NAC transcription factors. These findings provide insights for mitigating leaf bronzing induced by Fe toxicity in rice.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Dan McKay Fletcher, Siul Ruiz, Katherine Williams, Chiara Petroselli, Nancy Walker, David Chadwick, Davey L. Jones, Tiina Roose
Summary: Nitrogen fertilization is crucial for agriculture and land use efficiency, but around 50% of applied nitrogen is lost to the environment globally, leading to inefficiency, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Changing rainfall patterns could accelerate nitrogen inefficiency. Using a mechanistic modeling platform, this study found that historically, optimal nitrogen fertilization timings and crop nitrogen uptake did not change significantly but exhibited year-to-year variations. However, future changes in precipitation patterns are projected to affect nitrogen uptake and optimal fertilization timings, and the use of customized fertilization timings may help mitigate the reduced nitrogen uptake caused by changing rainfall.
ACS ES&T ENGINEERING
(2022)
