Special lssues

Plant–Environment Interactions

Submission Deadline: 01 October 2022 (closed)

Guest Editors

Dr. Heba Ibrahim Mohamed, Ain Shams University, Egypt. hebaibrahim79@gmail.com
Prof. Eman M. Fawzi, Ain Shams University, Egypt. emanfawzy@hotmail.com

Summary

Plant-environment interactions are important determinants of agroecosystem performance. Unraveling the intricacy of these interconnections is a big scientific problem, especially for optimizing agroecosystem systems. We highlight recent advances and new techniques in this special issue that contribute to the knowledge of the interactions between crops and their environment (biotic and abiotic factors, management practices, climate change, and so on) in order to improve crop yield and quality, soil sustainability, and water quality. Plant physiology, metabolism, and soil fertility are all likely to be impacted by climate change. Plant growth, fertility, and production are all hampered as a result of this. To ensure the long-term viability of ecosystems, we must improve our understanding of molecules that drive important processes and may play a role in plant stress resilience mechanisms.


Keywords

Abiotic Stress (Drought, Heat, Salinity, Cold, Flooding); Biotic Stress (Bacteria, Viruses, Fungi, Parasites, Insects, Weeds); Physiological/Biochemical Responses; Phytohormones (Stigmasterol, Brassinosteroids, Ethylene); Gaseous Molecules (Like Hydrogen Sulphide and Nitic Oxide); Polyamines

Published Papers


  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Pollination Biology of the Endangered Herbal Medicines Dendrobium chrysotoxum (Orchidaceae)

    Kai Luo, Yanbing Bai, Yan Jiang, Guiling Li, Min Jia, Yongguo He, Zhijun Yao, Ziwei Xiao, Xiaoqiong Liu, Wenjie Liu, Shanshan Yin, Zesheng Li
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.7, pp. 1975-1986, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2023.028232
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract Pollination biology studies of the endangered herbal medicines Dendrobium chrysotoxum were conducted in natural pollination conditions using flower observation, pollinator observation and artificial pollination experiments. Populations of D. chrysotoxum with fragrance and nectar were pollinated by Ctenoplectra davidi Valhalla (Hymenoptera: Apidae) species. The floral structure of D. chrysotoxum adapted precisely to its pollinators. Flowers had a low capsule setting (0.17%) under natural conditions. However, compared to open pollination, artificial pollination experiments showed a significant increase in capsule setting, and D. chrysotoxum was cross-compatible and self-compatible, but there was pollinator limitation also. This study will provide important information for the preservation… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Photoprotective Effects of D1 Protein Turnover and the Lutein Cycle on Three Ephemeral Plants under Heat Stress

    Minmin Xiao, Moxiang Cheng, Shuangquan Xie, Xiushuang Wang, Xingming Hao, Li Zhuang
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.6, pp. 1841-1857, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2023.027369
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract To clarify the characteristics of photoinhibition and the primary defense mechanisms of ephemeral plant leaves against photodestruction under high temperature stress, inhibitors and the technology to determine chlorophyll fluorescence were used to explore the protective effects of D1 protein turnover and the lutein cycle in the high temperature stress of the leaves of three ephemeral plants. The results showed that the maximum light conversion efficiency (Fv/Fm) of the ephemeral plant leaves decreased, and the initial fluorescence (Fo) increased under 35°C ± 1°C heat stress for 1–4 h or on sunny days in the summer. Both Fv/Fm and Fo could be… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Soil Moisture Rather than Soil Nutrient Regulates the Belowground Bud Bank of Rhizomatous Species Psammochloa villosa in Arid Sand Dunes

    Yawei Dong, Ziyue Guo, Qun Ma, Zhiming Xin, Jin Tao, Jiatai Tian, Jinlei Zhu, Zhiming Zhang, Jianqiang Qian
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.5, pp. 1301-1309, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2023.027043
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract In arid and semi-arid sand dune ecosystems, belowground bud bank plays an important role in population regeneration and vegetation restoration. However, the responses of belowground bud bank size and composition to sand burial and its induced changes in soil environmental factors have been rarely studied. In arid sand dunes of Northwestern China, we investigated belowground bud bank size and composition of the typical rhizomatous psammophyte Psammochloa villosa as well as three key soil environmental factors (soil moisture, total carbon and total nitrogen) under different depths of sand burial. Total buds and rhizome buds increased significantly with increasing burial depth, whereas… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Anatomical and Molecular Identification of Ornamental Plant Ficus L. Species

    Abtisam Binnoubah, Rim Hamdy, Osama G. Ragab, Ahmed M. El-Taher, Ahmed Abou El-Yazied, Fatmah A. Safhi, Hala A. Elzilal, Ashwaq T. Althobaiti, Salha M. ALshamrani, Diaa Abd El Moneim, Ahmed El-Banhawy
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.5, pp. 1329-1347, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2023.026888
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract This present study includes twelve species that represent the Ficus genus, namely; aspera, carica, tinctoria subsp. gibbosa, hirta, hispida, neriifolia, palmata, pumila, racemosa, septica, sur, and sycomorus, belonging to the Moraceae family. The species samples were collected from various locations in Egypt. The study focused on the anatomical and molecular characteristics of mature foliage leaves. Since the identification and classification of taxa are highly dependent on the anatomical features of leaves, the anatomical characteristics were recorded in the form of a comparison between the examined plants in the data matrix. This study aims to contribute to the identification of the… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Research on Plant Species Identification Based on Improved Convolutional Neural Network

    Chuangchuang Yuan, Tonghai Liu, Shuang Song, Fangyu Gao, Rui Zhang
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.4, pp. 1037-1058, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2023.025343
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract Plant species recognition is an important research area in image recognition in recent years. However, the existing plant species recognition methods have low recognition accuracy and do not meet professional requirements in terms of recognition accuracy. Therefore, ShuffleNetV2 was improved by combining the current hot concern mechanism, convolution kernel size adjustment, convolution tailoring, and CSP technology to improve the accuracy and reduce the amount of computation in this study. Six convolutional neural network models with sufficient trainable parameters were designed for differentiation learning. The SGD algorithm is used to optimize the training process to avoid overfitting or falling into the… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Improvement of Early Maturing and Climate Resilient Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Cultivars Suitable for Multiple Environments in Bangladesh

    Md. Aktar-Uz-Zaman, Md. Ariful Islam, Md. Shahin Iqbal, Md. Jahangir Alam, Debashish Sarkar, Bander Albogami, Ahmed Gaber, Akbar Hossain
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.3, pp. 883-899, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2023.025022
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract Ensuring food security for the rapidly increasing population and changing climatic scenarios are requisites for exploiting the genetic divergence of food crops. A study was undertaken to sort out an early maturing chickpea variety for fitting easily between rice-rice cropping systems in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain of Bangladesh. The trial was comprised of eight elite lines of chickpea and executed at various localities in Bangladesh from 2014– 15 to 2017–18. The result explored the chickpea genotype, BARI Chola-11 remained superior to the rest of the elite genotypes for having a short maturity period (100–106 days), and lesser days to 50%… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Nucleotide Sequence Assessment of Four ORFs of Citrus Tristeza Virus: Evidence of Recombination

    Adel A. Rezk, Hala A. Amin
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.3, pp. 691-705, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.024208
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract Citrus Tristeza Virus (CTV), usually occurs in nature as a mixture of genotypes. Six naturally infected citrus (Citrus sinensis) trees grafted on sour orange rootstock were collected from three citrus growing governorates in Egypt (Sharqia, Qalyubia and Garbia). In this study, RT-PCR, Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism (SSCP) and nucleotide sequence analysis were used for four independent CTV genomic regions (p65, p18, p20, and p23) to detect and assess the sequence and genetic variabilities among CTV Egyptian isolates. RTPCR products (650 bp) for the CTV p23 gene obtained from the selected isolates were used for the SSCP analysis and DNA sequencing. SSCP… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Conventional Breeding and Molecular Markers for Blast Disease Resistance in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

    Adel A. Rezk, Mohamed M. El-Malky, Hossam S. El-Beltagi, Mohammed Al-daej, Kotb A. Attia
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.3, pp. 725-746, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.024645
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract Monogenic lines, which carried 23 genes for blast resistance were tested and used donors to transfer resistance genes by crossing method. The results under blast nursery revealed that 9 genes from 23 genes were susceptible to highly susceptible under the three locations (Sakha, Gemmeza, and Zarzoura in Egypt); Pia, Pik, Pik-p, Piz-t, Pita, Pi b, Pi, Pi 19 and Pi 20. While, the genes Pii, Pik-s, Pik-h, Pi z, Piz-5, Pi sh, Pi 3, Pi 1, Pi 5, Pi 7, Pi 9, Pi 12, Pikm and Pita-2 were highly resistant at the same locations. Clustering analysis confirmed the results, which… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Biochemical and Physiological Responses of Arabidopsis thaliana Leaves to Moderate Mechanical Stimulation

    Iva Šutevski, Klara Krmpotić, Sandra Vitko, Nataša Bauer, Eva Fancev, Mario Cifrek, Željka Vidaković-Cifrek
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.3, pp. 901-920, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2023.025165
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract Mechanical stimulation of plants can be caused by various abiotic and biotic environmental factors. Apart from the negative consequences, it can also cause positive changes, such as acclimatization of plants to stress conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to study the physiological and biochemical mechanisms underlying the response of plants to mechanical stimulation. Our aim was to evaluate the response of model plant Arabidopsis thaliana to a moderate force of 5 N (newton) for 20 s, which could be compared with the pressure caused by animal movement and weather conditions such as heavy rain. Mechanically stimulated leaves were sampled 1 h… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Leaf Wettability Difference Among Tea Leaf Ages and Analysis Based on Microscopic Surface Features

    Qingmin Pan, Yongzong Lu, Liang Xue, Yongguang Hu
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.2, pp. 411-421, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.023437
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract The wettability of leaf surface, commonly represented by contact angle (CA), affects various physiological and physical processes. The present study aims to better understand the wettability of tea leaves and elucidate its influence on the energy barrier of the droplet condensation process. The CA values of different leaf ages (young, mature and old) of five famous tea cultivars (Maolu, longjing 43, Huangjinya, Zhongcha 108 and Anji Baicha) were measured via the sessile drop method, and the micro-morphology of two cultivars leaves (Maolu, Zhongcha 108) was investigated by a 3D super depth-of-field digital microscope. Specifically, two radically distinctive types of CA… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Do Geographically Isolated Grasslands Follow the Principle of Island Biogeography in a Landscape Scale? Taking Poyang Lake Grassland as an Example

    Shiqi Luo, Wenbo Chen, Lei He, Qiongbing Xiong
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.2, pp. 455-470, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.022466
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract As one of the basic theories of biodiversity conservation, island biogeography has been widely accepted in the past decades. Originally, island biogeography was put forward and applied in oceanic environments. But later on, it was found out that the application was not only limited to oceanic islands, but also in terrestrial environments with relatively isolated conditions. In terms of biodiversity level, island biogeography generally focuses on a small scale, such as species diversity and genetic diversity. The studies of biodiversity on a large-scale based on island biogeography, such as ecosystem and landscape scales, were seldomly conducted. Taking Poyang Lake, the… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Effect of Water Stress Induced by Polyethylene Glycol on Growth, Proline Accumulation in Agave americana L.

    Alfaro-Corres Arnoldo Enrique, Lecona-Guzman Carlos Alberto, Gutiérrez-Miceli Federico Antonio, Martínez-Esteves Manuel, Silverio-Gómez María del Carmen, Medina-Lara María de Fátima, Ruiz-Lau Nancy
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.2, pp. 629-643, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.023970
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract The effect of water deficit was determined on both in vitro and soil seedling as well as in cells in suspension of Agave americana L. In order to do the establishment of cells, the formation of callus was induced; for it two auxins were evaluated: 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 4-mino-3,5,6-trichloropicolinic acid (picloram) at three concentrations (0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 mg L−1) in three explants (leaf, root and meristems) cultured in MS semisolid medium. The callogenesis response was related to the type and section of the explant, as well as the regulator used, and a cell suspension was established using 0.5… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Colonization at Different Succession Stages in Songnen Saline-Alkali Grassland

    Yajie Liu, Yunhui Zhou, Linlin Fang, Chunxue Yang
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.1, pp. 297-310, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.023152
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract

    Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi can form symbiosis with 90% of the vascular plants and play important roles in ecosystem. To realize the AM fungal colonization at different succession stages in saline-alkali land and screen AM fungi species with great functions, roots and soil samples were collected from the three succession stages of Songnen saline-alkali grassland. The soil properties and AM fungal colonization were measured, and the fungus distributed extensively in three stages was annotated by sequencing for AML1/AML2 target, subsequently, maize was selected as the host to verify its colonization. The results showed that the soil properties improved with the… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Characterization and Pathogenicity of Pseudopestalotiopsis vietnamensis Causing Gray Blight of Wuyi Rock Tea (Camellia sinensis) in China and Specific Mechanisms of Disease Infection

    Guangheng Wu, Lu Rui, Xiang Lu, Libo Han, Gan Lv, Xianyu Fu, Jinxian Liu, Nong Zhou, Chuanhai Zhang
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.1, pp. 131-147, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.021919
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract Gray blight disease (GBD) causes significant losses in tea production in China. Although genes and biological processes involved in resistance to fungal disease in tea plants have been identified, specific mechanisms of the GBD infection process remain unknown. In this study, morphological and multi-gene (TEF-TUB-ITS) phylogenetic characteristics were used to identify isolate CLBB1 of Pseudopestalotiopsis vietnamensis. Pathogenicity tests confirmed that isolate CLBB1 from tea leaves caused GBD in the susceptible tea cultivar Wuyi Rock (Camellia sinensis var. sinensis cv. Shuixian). Spores began to germinate 24 h after infection (hai), and after 48 h, elongated fungal hyphae formed from a single conidium. Transcriptome… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Transcriptome Analysis via RNA Sequencing Reveals the Molecular Mechanisms Underlying the Hedera helix Response to High Temperature

    Ting Zhang, Ping Li, Jiali Wei
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.91, No.11, pp. 2403-2417, 2022, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.022421
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract Hedera helix is an evergreen ornamental plant that is resistant to cool but not high temperature and deserves to be further researched for improving its adaptability to heat stress. Two Hedera helix cultivars, heat-tolerant (HT) ‘Jessica’ and heat-sensitive (HS) ‘Shamrock’, were used for differences analyses of transcriptome. We detected 6179 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 5992 DEGs in ‘Jessica’ and ‘Shamrock’ to heat stress, respectively. Among these, 1983 upregulated DEGs and 1400 downregulated DEGs were shared between both varieties, resulting in enhancement of various pathways such as biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, glyoxylate dicarboxylate metabolism, and protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Predicted Functional Shifts Due to Type of Soil Microbiome and Watering of Two Wild Plants in Western Region of Saudi Arabia

    Lina Baz, Aala A. Abulfaraj, Manal A. Tashkandi, Hanadi M. Baeissa, Mohammed Y. Refai, Aminah A. Barqawi, Ashwag Shami, Haneen W. Abuauf, Ruba A. Ashy, Rewaa S. Jalal
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.91, No.10, pp. 2249-2268, 2022, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.021922
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract The present study aimed to predict differential enrichment of pathways and compounds in the rhizosphere microbiomes of the two wild plants (Abutilon fruticosum and Nitrosalsola vermiculata) and to predict functional shifts in microbiomes due to water. Amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA region V3–V4 was done and gene-based microbial compositions were enrolled in PICRUSt to predict enriched pathways and compounds. The results indicated that “ABC transporters” and “Quorum sensing” pathways are among the highest enriched pathways in rhizosphere microbiomes of the two wild plants compared with those of the bulk soil microbiomes. The highest enriched compounds in soil microbiomes of the… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Tea Plantation Frost Damage Early Warning Using a Two-Fold Method for Temperature Prediction

    Zhengyu Wu, Kaiqiang Li, Lin Yuan, Jingcheng Zhang, Xianfeng Zhou, Dongmei Chen, Kaihua Wei
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.91, No.10, pp. 2269-2282, 2022, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.022607
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract As the source and main producing area of tea in the world, China has formed unique tea culture, and achieved remarkable economic benefits. However, frequent meteorological disasters, particularly low temperature frost damage in late spring has seriously threatened the growth status of tea trees and caused quality and yield reduction of tea industry. Thus, timely and accurate early warning of frost damage occurrence in specific tea garden is very important for tea plantation management and economic values. Aiming at the problems existing in current meteorological disaster forecasting methods, such as difficulty in obtaining massive meteorological data, large amount of calculation… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Changes in Florets’ Vertical Direction within Inflorescence Affects Pollinator Behavior, and Fitness in Trifolium repens

    Qinzheng Hou, Wenjuan Shao, Nurbiye Ehmet, Taihong Wang, Yifan Xu, Kun Sun
    Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.91, No.8, pp. 1617-1628, 2022, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.020768
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
    Abstract Ecological interactions between flowers and pollinators greatly affect the reproductive success. To facilitate these interactions, many flowers are known to display their attractive qualities, such as scent emission, flower rewards and floral vertical direction, in a rhythmic fashion. However, less is known about how plants regulate the relationship between these flower traits to adapt to pollinator visiting behavior and increase reproduction success. Here we investigated the adaptive significance of the flower bending from erect to downward in Trifolium repens. We observed the flowering dynamic characteristics (changes of vertical direction of florets, flowering number, pollen grain numbers, pollen viability and stigma… More >

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