Viral infections generate yield losses in alfalfa due to the impact on growth but also stimulate production of coumestrol, which can exhibit oestrogenic activity in both livestock and human consumers. We investigated the responses of two alfalfa cultivars, focusing on changes in coumestrol content and their relationship with morphological and productivity plant traits. Coumestrol content was highly variable and increased in 3 of 13 genotypes in response to viral infections. High coumestrol content was correlated with low viral infection symptoms.

Iron deficiency is prevalent worldwide, causing anaemia in millions of people, but biofortification offers a potential solution. This greenhouse study evaluated the biofortification potential of broccoli, a highly nutritious crop, revealing that foliar application of iron, especially in combination with nitrogen, significantly increased floret weight and diameter while enhancing iron content, antioxidant activity and polyphenol levels. These findings pave the way for biofortification programs.

Lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) is a highly nutritious fodder legume and its breeding requires a genetically divergent gene pool. As lucerne has been introduced in India, limited germplasm is available. A high biomass-producing line has been mutagenised with a chemical mutagen, ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS), to introduce variability. The resulting mutant population showed wide variations for most morphological characters which can be further utilised in breeding programs to improve the lucerne for various traits.

This paper discusses the nutritive herbage value of tropical forage legumes with different growth habits subject to 60 and 90-day harvest regimes. Compared to the butterfly pea herb and the sub-shrub stylo cv. Campo Grande, the shrub hedge lucerne was characterised by higher contents of insoluble proteins and carbohydrates and enormous concentrations of secondary metabolites, even greater when harvested at 90 days. Prolonged harvest intervals must be avoided in shrub hedge lucerne management for animal feeding.

The use of products natural origin has gained great prominence to produce agricultural species. Considering the importance of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), and that it is a crop sensitive to water deficit, we show that the combined use of humic and fulvic acid provides good agronomic performance in common bean plants under severe water stress. The results obtained showed a good performance of the legume, these results can help in decision making in agricultural production in dry regions.

Wheat is vital to meeting human dietary needs and enhancing worldwide food security. This research focused on two crucial traits, plant height and spike length, which directly impact wheat yield potential. By identifying specific genomic regions and candidate genes associated with these traits, this study paves the way for future targeted breeding efforts and the development of molecular marker-assisted techniques, offering hope for improved wheat varieties to enhance global food security.

Unlocking the full potential of soybean for improved nutrition is a critical issue in agriculture. Addressing the challenge of inherent antinutritional factors and to aiming to boost nutrient content in soybean, our research focuses on leveraging both traditional plant breeding and cutting-edge biotechnological interventions. Our findings showcase a significant breakthrough in enhancing the nutritional profile of soybean, offering a promising path towards addressing global food security and nutrition challenges.

Landraces are a potential source of genetic diversity and provide useful genetic resources to cope with current and future challenges in crop breeding. A worldwide diversity panel of 200 durum wheat accessions were evaluated under drought and irrigated conditions. Ideal accessions with good levels of agronomic traits, and high mean yield and stability were identified. The findings are useful for selective breeding for specific traits as well as for enhancing the genetic basis of durum wheat breeding programs.

Soybean isoflavone is an important quality component of soybean. We examined the genes of enzymes having influence on the synthesis and accumulation of soybean isoflavone. The results of this study confirm the effectiveness of enzymes related to the soybean isoflavone synthesis pathway and provide a basis for further exploration of new synthetic pathways.

Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR) is one of the diseases that seriously affect soybean yield, leading to heavy losses all over the world. In this study, transcriptome sequencing analysis of resistant variety ‘Maple Arrow’ and susceptible variety ‘Hefeng25’ was conducted to understand the resistance mechanism of resistant and susceptible soybean varieties to SSR and to look for candidate genes. In total, 31 haplotypes of 12 genes were screened. The result provides new ideas for future research on SSR resistance of soybean.

Replacing canola with lupins as the break crop in rotations at a range of locations in Western Australia’s grainbelt is found to be environmentally attractive, due to lower emissions of greenhouse gases in crop sequences that include lupins. However, the higher gross margins from canola production cause lupins to not be a preferred break crop option in a majority of locations. Even in the face of various reasonable and plausible incentives to favour lupin production, lupins still remain economically unattractive at most locations.

Changes in light intensity and nitrogen availability influenced the growth of C₄ forage species in a silvopastoral system, which is a diverse and sustainable land use alternative that aggregates value to end-products. The five species compared in the current study adopted different mechanisms involving shoot traits, when resources, light and nitrogen all varied, with different impacts on yield. Agroforestry practitioners may want to choose forages that are more likely to maintain biomass yield as trees grow.

Can we reduce yield gaps in quinoa by adjusting the plant population density for the most adapted genotype for a given environment? An optimal plant population density is hard to find in quinoa due to its phenotypic plasticity. In Northwest Argentina, Andean genotypes achieved the highest yields in the Highlands at conventional plant population density, whereas Coastal genotypes showed higher yields than Andean genotypes in the Dry Valleys, even when maintained at half the conventional plant population density in both locations.

Heat waves are projected to become more frequent during reproductive development of wheat, reducing grain yield. In experiments involving sowing late and using auricle distance to identify tillers exposed to heat events, we found substantial genetic variation for tolerance of grain set to natural heat waves. A validation study with durum wheat lines showed good agreement in ranking at the extremes of tolerance. The protocol could provide a low-cost method for evaluating wheat heat tolerance under commercial field production conditions.

Tall fescue is a valuable temperate forage grass, commonly associated with a beneficial fungus, and can be found in flood-prone areas. We found no evidence that the presence of the fungus improves the performance of young plants under flooding. However, given that the frequency of infected plants tends to increase with time, further research should explore whether beneficial effects are found with longer flooding, different plant developmental status, or co-occurrence of flooding with other stress factors.

We used a combination of machine learning approaches and the SSM-iCrop2 simulation model to identify critical climate and management factors affecting soybean yield. The XGBoost models adequately described the observed changes in soybean yield, with 15 climatic and management variables identified as affecting soybean yield. The results indicate that water limitation is the most important factor causing yield gap in the study area.

Kikuyu grass is an introduced species in Colombia that supports dairy and beef production feeding systems at high altitudes. It has shown broad phenotypic variation, and to enable proper management, we sought to determine the importance of genetic diversity and/or environmental variables in explaining this variation. The effect of genetic structure was negligible; rather, location, altitude and 13 covariables of pasture management and soil traits explained 40% of the variation.

Plants respond to various abiotic stress (drought) tolerance through physiological, biochemical and molecular mechanisms. RNA interference (RNAi) plays a crucial role in regulating molecular response to stress. This review discusses, in addition to RNAi, the fine tuning of miRNAs using CRISPR/Cas9 to enhance the precision of gene expression regulation and increase plant tolerance to drought stress.

This article belongs to the collection Abiotic Stress Tolerance vs Climate Change.

Forage cultivation is essential for feeding ruminants, especially in resource-limited ecosystems, and these forages should be grown within environmentally sustainable systems. Organic forage mixtures meet this requirement and offer the possibility of simultaneously reaching higher forage yields and better nutritional quality. By assessing the viability of six organic forage mixtures in an oak grassland environment, we provide farmers with information to choose the best option to fit their specific agroclimatic conditions.