
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany is an international journal that publishes research on all aspects of plant science. This journal welcomes original and exciting submissions that provide new and key insights into the origins, growth and development of plants from the molecular to the whole organism and its interactions with the biotic and abiotic environments.
Science Citation Index Expanded (Clarivate Analytics); Journal Citation Report/Science Edition (JCR); Impact Factor (2024): 1.2; 5-Year Impact Factor: 1.3; Biological Abstracts; BIOSIS Previews; Scopus; EMBiology; Latindex; Field Crop Abstracts; CAB Abstracts; CABI Full Text; Periódica; TEEAL, The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library; Núcleo Básico de Revistas Científicas Argentinas (Agosto 2013–Julio 2015); SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online); Portal de Revistas en Biodiversidad; Portico, etc...
Open Access
REVIEW
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 3749-3803, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.072135 - 29 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Adaptation Mechanisms of Grapevines to Growing Environments and Agricultural Strategies)
Abstract Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) cultivation has progressed from early domestication and clonal propagation to modern, data-driven breeding that is reshaping viticulture and wine quality. Yet climatic and biotic constraints still impose heavy losses—downy mildew can reduce yields by ≈75% in humid regions and gray mold by 20–50%—sustaining the need for resistant cultivars. Producer selection, interspecific crossing, and formal improvement programs have generated ~10,000 varieties, although only a few dozen dominate global acreage. Conventional breeding has delivered fungus-resistant “PIWI” cultivars that retain ≥85% of the V. vinifera genome; in Austria, national PIWI varieties are gaining acceptance for combined… More >
Open Access
REVIEW
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 3805-3826, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.069827 - 29 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Ethnobotany: Value and Conservation)
Abstract Cannabis sativa is highly valued for its use in fiber production, medicine, and recreational products. Its secondary metabolites (SM) are renowned for their wide range of health benefits and psychoactive properties. While much of the existing research has focused on cannabinoid production in the plant’s aerial parts, particularly the leaves and flowers, the root system remains understudied in terms of its SM profile. One promising in vitro approach for metabolite production involves the use of ‘hairy roots (HRs)’. These roots mimic the phytochemical profile of native roots but grow more efficiently and yield higher quantities of metabolites.… More >
Open Access
REVIEW
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 3827-3843, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.071555 - 29 December 2025
Abstract Citrus viroids are small non-coding RNA pathogens that pose a significant threat to global citrus production by reducing fruit yield, quality, and tree longevity. Several viroids, including Citrus exocortis viroid (CEVd), Hop stunt viroid (HSVd), Citrus bent leaf viroid (CBLVd), and newly identified members such as Citrus Viroid VI (CVd-VI) and Citrus Viroid VII (CVd-VII) have been reported from diverse citrus-growing regions. These pathogens are transmitted mainly through vegetative propagation, contaminated tools, and occasionally via seed or pollen, making their management complex. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the biology, structural diversity, transmission, symptomatology, detection,… More >
Open Access
REVIEW
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 3845-3860, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.073163 - 29 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Advances in Ornamental Plants: Micropropagation, Plant Biotechnology, Chromosome Doubling, Mutagenesis, Plant Breeding, Environmental Stress Tolerance, and Postharvest Physiology)
Abstract Plants are continuously exposed to abiotic and biotic stresses that threaten their growth, reproduction, and survival. Adaptation to these stresses requires complex regulatory networks that coordinate physiological, molecular, and ecological responses. However, such adaptation often incurs significant costs, including reduced growth, yield penalties, and altered ecological interactions. This review systematically synthesizes recent advances published between 2018 and 2025, following PRISMA criteria, on plant responses to abiotic and biotic stressors, with an emphasis on the trade-offs between adaptation and productivity. It also highlights major discrepancies in the literature and discusses strategies for enhancing plant stress tolerance More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 3861-3877, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.070988 - 29 December 2025
Abstract Circadian biorhythms are fundamental in plant adaptability and development. To reveal the effect of organic and inorganic forms of Se, foliar treatments of dandelion with 0.26 mM Se solutions were practiced in two contrasting day times: in the morning with the highest levels of leaf Se and polyphenol (TP) and the lowest dry matter, and in the evening with the opposite characteristics. Compared to the control, the morning Se supply demonstrated a higher increase of root biomass (1.27–1.37 times), Se (1.82–2.85 times), TP content (1.42–1.44 times), and antioxidant activity (AOA) (1.47–1.48 times) than the evening… More >
Graphic Abstract
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 3879-3892, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.073229 - 29 December 2025
Abstract To investigate endogenous hormone changes in “Hongyang” kiwifruit from overwintering buds to floral morphogenesis (bell-shaped flowering stage), systematic observations were conducted during the undifferentiated stage, axillary bud differentiation stage, and floral morphogenesis stage from late November 2023 to early April 2024. Paraffin sectioning was employed to examine floral bud morphology, while LC-MS targeted metabolomics quantified changes in 15 endogenous hormones across 8 classes. Results indicated floral bud differentiation commenced from late January to early February and concluded by mid-April, spanning approximately 70 days. Approximately 33 days after axillary bud initiation marked the axillary bud primordium… More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 3893-3912, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.073736 - 29 December 2025
Abstract UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) play essential roles in plant secondary metabolism and stress responses, yet their composition and functions in Sorghum bicolor, a model C4 plant, remain inadequately characterized. This study identified 196 SbUGT genes distributed across all 10 chromosomes and classified them into 16 subfamilies (A–P) through phylogenetic analysis. Among these, 61.2% were intronless, and 10 conserved motifs, including the UGT-specific PSPG box, were identified. Synteny analysis using MCScanX revealed 12 segmental duplication events and conserved syntenic relationships with other Poaceae species (rice, maize, and barley). Promoter analysis uncovered 125 distinct cis-acting elements, predominantly associated with stress and… More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 3913-3924, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.072229 - 29 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Advances in Plant Breeding and Genetic Improvement: Leveraging Molecular Markers and Novel Genetic Strategies)
Abstract Wheat grain morphology, particularly grain length (GL) and width (GW), is a key determinant of yield. To improve the suboptimal grain dimensions of the local anthocyanin-rich variety Guizi 1 (GZ1), we crossed it with Zhongyan 96-3 (ZY96-3), an elite germplasm known for faster grain filling and superior grain size. A genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach was applied to an F2 population of 110 individuals derived from GZ1 × ZY96-3, resulting in the identification of 23,134 high-quality SNPs. Most of the SNPs associated with GL and GW were clustered on chromosomes 2B, 3A, and 3B. QTL mapping for GL… More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 3925-3943, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.073382 - 29 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants: Physio-biochemical and Molecular Mechanisms)
Abstract The productivity of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), an economically important legume, is severely hindered by drought stress. While melatonin (Mel) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) are known to alleviate abiotic stresses, their combined effects in mitigating drought-induced oxidative stress are unknown. Here, we examined the synergistic effects of Mel and MeJA in alleviating drought-associated oxidative damage in common bean. Compared with well-watered controls, drought stress caused a significant decline in plant biomass, photosynthetic pigments, and photosystem II efficiency (Fv/Fm). Drought also significantly increased hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) accumulation, which likely contributed to membrane lipid peroxidation, as indicated by… More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 3945-3960, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.072520 - 29 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Advances in Plant Nutrition-Mechanisms, Regulation, and Sustainable Applications)
Abstract The use of organic fertilizers can be an opportunity to increase crop yield and improve soil fertility in semi-arid regions, since soils from these regions usually have unfavourable conditions for plant growth. This research investigates the effects of organic and mineral fertilization on the impact of soil properties (pH, electrical conductivity and organic matter), availability of macro- (N, P and K), micro-nutrients (Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn) and the accumulation of heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr) in soil and potato tubers grown under semiarid conditions. A field experiment was conducted in Raqqa Governorate (Syria) using… More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 3961-3973, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.072536 - 29 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Advances in Molecular Insights of Plant Secondary Metabolites: Biosynthesis, Regulation, and Applications)
Abstract Selenium (Se) deficiency is a global health problem affecting more than 500 million people; crop biofortification is a sustainable strategy for its mitigation. This study investigated the effect of the application of selenate nanoparticles (SeO42−) and the combination of selenate (SeO42−) and chitosan (CS) (forming a SeO42−-CS complex) on the antioxidant profile, growth, biomass, bioactive compounds, enzymes, and Se accumulation of wheat (Triticum spp.) sprouts. Fourteen treatments were applied using a factorial design combining seven concentrations and two formulations: SeO42− and SeO42−-CS. It was identified that chitosan increased Se uptake efficiency by 30% versus conventional selenate. The optimal… More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 3975-3989, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.073210 - 29 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Fungal and Bacterial Disease Management in Agricultural Crops Through Biological Control, Disease Resistance, and Transcriptomics Approaches)
Abstract Essential oils (EOs) derived from medicinal plants are gaining recognition as sustainable alternatives to synthetic fungicides in the management of plant pathogens. This study investigates the chemical composition, chromatographic profile, and antifungal of Mentha rotundifolia essential oil against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. albedinis (Foa), the pathogen responsible for Bayoud disease in date palm. The oil was extracted through hydrodistillation and characterized using thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), revealing multiple fractions corresponding to terpenoid constituents and 23 chemical constituents, predominantly oxygenated monoterpenes (68.51%), with piperitenone oxide as the major component (62.53%). The antifungal efficacy was evaluated… More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 3991-4019, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.074153 - 29 December 2025
Abstract Gilia capitata Sims (Polemoniaceae) is an annual herbaceous plant widely distributed in western North America and cultivated as an ornamental flower. The detailed chemical composition and pharmacological properties of this plant have not been previously reported. This study aimed to investigate the chemical composition and pharmacological activity of aqueous-ethanolic extracts derived from different plant parts (herb, flowers, stems, roots, and fruits). HPLC analysis identified 12 phenolic compounds and 16 amino acids in the aqueous-ethanolic extracts obtained from these plant parts. The biological effects of the extracts were evaluated in vitro, including cytotoxicity, anti-inflammatory response, and wound-healing potential.… More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 4021-4057, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.073354 - 29 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Application of Digital Agriculture and Machine Learning Technologies in Crop Production)
Abstract Turmeric Leaf diseases pose a major threat to turmeric cultivation, causing significant yield loss and economic impact. Early and accurate identification of these diseases is essential for effective crop management and timely intervention. This study proposes DenseSwinGNNNet, a hybrid deep learning framework that integrates DenseNet-121, the Swin Transformer, and a Graph Neural Network (GNN) to enhance the classification of turmeric leaf conditions. DenseNet121 extracts discriminative low-level features, the Swin Transformer captures long-range contextual relationships through hierarchical self-attention, and the GNN models inter-feature dependencies to refine the final representation. A total of 4361 images from the… More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 4059-4078, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.074422 - 29 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Application of Digital Agriculture and Machine Learning Technologies in Crop Production)
Abstract The frequent outbreaks of crop diseases pose a serious threat to global agricultural production and food security. Data-driven forecasting models have emerged as an effective approach to support early warning and management, yet the lack of user-friendly tools for model development remains a major bottleneck. This study presents the Multi-Scenario Crop Disease Forecasting Modeling System (MSDFS), an open-source platform that enables end-to-end model construction-from multi-source data ingestion and feature engineering to training, evaluation, and deployment-across four representative scenarios: static point-based, static grid-based, dynamic point-based, and dynamic grid-based. Unlike conventional frameworks, MSDFS emphasizes modeling flexibility, allowing… More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 4079-4090, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.072856 - 29 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Plant Protection and Pest Management)
Abstract To identify the pathogen responsible for fruit rot disease in Rosa roxburghii Tratt. from Guiding County, Guizhou Province, China, diseased fruit samples were collected. The pathogen was isolated, purified, and identified through morphological, molecular, and pathogenic analyses. Subsequently, its biological characteristics were evaluated. Furthermore, to determine the agent with the strongest toxicity against the identified pathogen, the antifungal activity of six chemical and biological agents was evaluated through indoor toxicity assays. Finally, Neopestalotiopsis clavispora was identified as the pathogen responsible for fruit rot disease in R. roxburghii Tratt. The diameter of the pathogen grown under different carbon and… More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 4091-4115, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.074891 - 29 December 2025
Abstract Calophyllum inophyllum is a tropical plant that could have useful medicinal properties for pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications. The present study extracted the flower, fruit, leaf, twig, and bark of the plant by maceration in different organic solvents. The correlation between bioactive compounds and their biological activities was investigated, with emphasis on their therapeutic relevance through in silico pharmacokinetic predictions using SwissADME. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted to determine the total phenolic, flavonoid, and saponin contents of the extracts. Spectral analysis of the extracts revealed –OH, C=O, C=C, and C–H functional groups. The antioxidant activity of the… More >
Graphic Abstract
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 4117-4137, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.074131 - 29 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Recent Research Trends in Genetics, Genomics, and Physiology of Crop Plants–Volume II)
Abstract Heavy metal accumulation in agricultural soil is primarily driven by pesticides, polluted water, and industrial gas emissions, which pose threats to sustainable crop production. Chromium (Cr) stress has an adverse impact on plant development and metabolism, but approaches to reduce its toxicity and enhance plant resistance remain limited. Melatonin is a potent antioxidant involved in regulating various morpho-physiological functions of plants under different abiotic stresses. In this study, we investigated the impact of exogenous melatonin to mitigate the negative effects of potassium dichromate (PD) stress in melon plants and analyzed genetic modulation of morphological, physiological,… More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 4139-4153, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.072328 - 29 December 2025
Abstract Despite their remarkable content of biologically active compounds, highly valuable for human health, wild relatives of Umbelliferous plants show limited utilization. The aim of the present work was the evaluation of the antioxidant status of Anthriscus, Chaerophyllum, and Myrrhoides species gathered in different climatic zones (from Mediterranean to Arctic) and of their suitability to produce valuable functional food for optimizing the human Se status. Among the Crimean plants, A. sylvestris, C. bulbosis, and M. nososa showed the highest antioxidant status, while the lowest was recorded in A. cerefolium and A. caucalis, displaying a significant correlation between the antioxidant activity (AOA) and polyphenols… More >
Open Access
ARTICLE
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.12, pp. 4155-4171, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.073438 - 29 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Advances in Molecular Insights of Plant Secondary Metabolites: Biosynthesis, Regulation, and Applications)
Abstract Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play an important role in plant survival and adaptation. They contribute to defense against pests and pathogens, tolerance to abiotic stress, and the mediation of essential ecological interactions such as pollination and attraction of dispersal agents. The complex mixture of VOCs produced by an organism, known as volatilome, varies across species, populations, and individuals, making VOCs a major factor in crop diversification and adaptation. In this context, characterizing the volatilome of crop genotypes can provide insight into their ecological associations and potential relationships with agronomic traits. In this study, the volatilome… More >