Search

To clarify the influence of climate change on the flowering phenology of Yoshino cherry at its southern distribution limit, we examined the relationship between cold exposure for endodormancy release (chilling requirement) and heat requirement for bud growth on Hachijojima Island, Japan, from 1948 to 2024. Cold exposure and heat requirement had a significant relationship approximated by linear or log-linear functions. In years with less cold exposure, the first flowering dates were much later than normal, in accordance with the higher heat requirement. Our results indicate that the variation in the balance between cold exposure and heat requirement depending on the pattern of annual air temperature change is likely to vary the first flowering date greatly at the distribution limit of Yoshino cherry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Effective control of shot-hole disease in flowering cherries is challenging because of multiple causative pathogens (bacteria and fungi). Bacillus species are well-known for their ability to control plant pathogens; therefore, biological control potential of a Bacillus isolate, B. velezensis 8–2, against SH disease on flowering cherry trees was investigated. Results: This study revealed strong antimicrobial activity of Bacillus velezensis 8–2 against various plant pathogenic bacteria and fungi, particularly focusing on Xanthomonas arboricola pv. pruni (Xap) and Mycosphaerella cerasella (Mc), which cause shot-hole (SH) disease in flowering cherry trees. In vitro assays showed that the fermentation filtrate of B. velezensis 8–2 inhibited bacterial and fungal growth with minimum inhibitory concentrations of 1.25–10% and 2.5–10%, respectively. UPLC-Q–Orbitrap–MS analysis revealed that B. velezensis 8–2 produced antagonistic compounds, including polyketides (difficidin and oxydifficidin) and cyclic lipopeptides (iturin A, fengycin, and surfatin). To enhance antimicrobial activity, fermentation parameters for optimal production of two antibacterial and three antifungal compounds were investigated in a 5 L jar fermenter. By regulating the agitation speed to sustain the state of vegetative cells, the production period was extended by 20 h at 400 rpm, resulting in maximum yields of 86.6 μg/mL for difficidin and 150.0 μg/mL for oxydifficidin within a 72 h fermentation period. In a field trial, a 500-fold diluted 10% suspension concentrate formulation of B. velezensis 8–2 effectively inhibited the development of SH disease, demonstrating 66.6% disease control and a 90.2% disease symptoms reduction. Conclusions: This is the first report to assess the disease control efficacy of B. velezensis for the biocontrol of SH disease in the field. These results suggest that the application of B. velezensis 8–2 could serve as a practical alternative for managing various bacterial and fungal diseases, including the management of SH disease in flowering cherry trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the antagonistic Bacillus subtilis and oregano essential oil (EO) on decay caused by Botrytis cinerea, shelf life, and some quality parameters of sweet cherry (Prunus avium cv. Takdaneh Mashhad). The fruit were inoculated with suspension of pathogenic fungus (1 × 105 spore mL−1), and then were treated with the antagonist bacterial strains at 1 × 108 CFU mL−1 and the EO at 0. 250, 500, 750, and 1000 µL/L. Treated fruit were stored at 0 ± 1 °C for 30 d. Quality parameters including firmness, weight loss, antioxidant activity, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase enzyme activity, marketability, color, total anthocyanins, and decay extension rate were evaluated after 0, 15, and 30 days of storage. The results showed that with an increase in storage time the quality of cherry fruit is significantly decreased and EO and Bacillus treatments significantly maintain fruit marketability, antioxidant activity and anthocyanins content. EO in at 750 µL/L in combination with Bacillus bacteria, significantly reduced fungal decay, retained quality and increased shelf life of sweet cherries. Therefore, the use of Bacillus bacteria and oregano essential oil can be considered as a promising environmental friendly alternative method for maintaining the sweet cherry fruit quality during storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to evaluate the mineral content, and content of bioactive compounds in fruits of Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas L.). Neochlorogenic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, and rutin were determined in the samples. Vitamin C content ranged from 610.36 to 1344 mg kg−1 FW. Content of K, Ca, P, Mg, and Na in samples ranged from 1750.8 to 2645.7 mg kg−1 FW, from 281.14 to 561.62 mg kg−1 FW, from 180.38 to 294.95 mg kg−1 FW, from 68.19 to 115.43 mg kg−1 FW, and from 2.48 to 71.33 mg kg−1 FW respectively. Content of Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Ni, Cr, and Co in samples ranged from 2.77 to 4.88 mg kg−1 FW, from 0.49 to 0.99 mg kg−1 FW, from 0.25 to 0.53 mg kg−1 FW, from 0.07 to 0.17 mg kg−1 FW, from 0.02 to 0.13 mg kg−1 FW, from 0.01 to 0.02 mg kg−1 FW, and from 0.01 to 0.08 mg kg−1 FW respectively. Variations across cultivars were found to be statistically significant, indicating that genetics is a key factor influencing the concentration of bioactive compounds and minerals in Cornelian cherry fruits. Understanding the genetic factors influencing mineral and bioactive compound content in cornelian cherry cultivars is essential for targeted breeding programs, crop improvement, and the development of cultivars with enhanced nutritional and health-promoting attributes. This knowledge contributes to sustainable agriculture and supports the production of crops that align with consumer preferences and health trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nutrient-enriching properties of cyanobacteria were explored to enhance growth and fruit quality in a popular tomato variety Pusa Cherry tomato 1. The dried biomass of plant growth promoting and nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Anabaena laxa (A. laxa) and biofilm (Anabaena torulosa-Trichoderma viride; An-Tr) was used to prime the nursery potting mixes. An-Tr significantly enhanced pigment content and root volume of the nursery-raised seedlings by 27 and 50% respectively. Transplantation after 1-month into beds in a climate regulated polyhouse was done and plant, soil samples analyzed. Sampling after 8 WAT (Weeks after transplanting) illustrated the better performance of An-Tr with 30% increase over control, in terms of leaf pigments. This was followed by soil drenching using formulations and foliar application with water/Fe-EDTA, at weekly intervals, from pre-flowering stage (8 WAT) onwards. An-Tr soil drench + water foliar treatment led to significantly superior quality of fruits, when analyzed at first harvest (21 WAT). Ascorbic acid in fruits reported a significant positive correlation with lycopene content (0.83), fruit fresh weight, soil urease activity (0.71. 0.72, respectively), as also with root volume (0.94) and chlorophyll content (0.9) of nursery potting media. Fruit yield was significantly higher, by 20–30% over control, in treatments receiving soil drench of An-Tr + water as foliar or in A. laxa; water drench + Fe-EDTA as foliar. A promising nutri-fertigation strategy was developed, using cyanobacteria to prime nursery, followed by use as drench, along with water/Fe-EDTA as foliar spray, from flowering stage onwards, to improve growth, yield, and quality of cherry tomato. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aimed to assess the performance of different thermal infrared (TIR)-based physiological indicators (PI) as an alternative to the stem water potential (Ψs) and stomatal conductance (gs) to monitor the water status of grafted drip-irrigated 'Regina' cherry trees. In addition, we evaluated the usefulness of piecewise linear regression for finding PI thresholds that are important for post-harvest regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) management. With this purpose, an irrigation experiment was carried out in the post-harvest period. Trees were submitted to three Ψs-based water-stress treatments: T0 (fruit grower management treatment, or control) (Ψs > − 1.0 MPa, without-to-low water stress); T1 (low-to-mild water-stress treatment = − 1.0 > Ψs > − 1.5 MPa); and T2 (mild-to-severe water-stress treatment = − 1.5 > Ψs > − 2.0 MPa). The results indicated that the trees were more stressed in T2 than in T0. In the former, averages of Ψs and gs were − 1.75 MPa and 372 mmol m−2 s−1, whereas they were − 1.56 MPa and 427 mmol m−2 s−1 in T0. The piecewise model allowed determining the water-stress thresholds of almost all studied PI. The breakpoints yielded by this analysis indicated that trees at Ψs lower than − 1.5 MPa had a gs lower than 484 mmol m−2 s−1. These results also showed that TIR-based PI, whose equations incorporate a temperature normalization, are a better indicator of cherry tree water status than those without normalization. The derived TIR-based PI threshold values could be used as a reference for managing drip-irrigated 'Regina' cherry trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many agricultural products, information technologies are utilized in classification processes at the desired quality. It is undesirable to mix different types of cherries, especially in export-type cherries. In this study on cherries, one of the important export products of Turkey, the classification of cherry species was carried out with ensemble learning methods. In this study, a new dataset consisting of 3570 images of seven different cherry species grown in Isparta region was created. The generated new dataset was trained with six different deep learning models with pre-learning on the original and incremental dataset. As a result of the training with incremental data, the best result was obtained from the DenseNet169 model with an accuracy of 99.57%. The two deep learning models with the best results were transferred to ensemble learning and a 100% accuracy rate was obtained with the Maximum Voting model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spanish cherry (Mimusops elengi) is an underutilized fruit with extensive nutritional and therapeutic properties. The quality of fruit is directly linked to its physical and biochemical characteristics, which are crucial for its utilization and consumer acceptance. This study aims to investigate the physical, biochemical, thermal, colour, and functional properties of Spanish cherry fruits. Additionally, it aims to predict the mass of the fruit at different growth stages (young, premature, mature, pre-ripe, ripe) using various machine learning algorithms, including multilayer perceptron, linear regression, support vector regression, and Gaussian process. Considering these features will be advantageous in designing and developing equipment for various tasks, including grading, sizing, peeling, storage, packing systems, and preservation. All five developmental stages of Spanish cherry fruits exhibited significant (P < 0.05) and sequential changes in their physiological and biochemical properties. The total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, and antioxidant activity of fruits at the young to ripen stages ranged from 304 to 123 mg GAE/100 g, 148 to 88 mg QE/100 g, and 90.8 to 84.3%, respectively. Among the machine learning algorithms, the multilayer perceptron and support vector regression models demonstrated the best fit, with the highest correlation values for predicting the mass of fruits at their respective growth stages. The multilayer perceptron model outperformed other machine learning algorithms, exaggerate the highest correlation coefficient and the lowest RMSE and RRSE values of 0.99, 0.23, and 13.53%, respectively, for predicting the mass of fruit at any developmental stage. This study will be invaluable in providing a unified approach for scientists and local farmers to develop processing machinery that fully harnesses the potential of this fruit crop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes the in vitro regeneration of 'Haruka' plants, a new cultivar of Japanese flowering cherry registered in 2021 by the Japanese statutory authority. As this is a double-flowered cultivar produced by inter-specific hybridization, in vitro regeneration is an effective method for large-scale propagation. To promote proliferation, apical shoots were cultured on half-strength Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with 5 μM 6-benzylaminopurine. The highest average of 7.8 shoots per explant was obtained at 15°C in the dark. Cultures were maintained in continuous darkness for 12 wk and then transferred to lighting conditions under a 16-h photoperiod at 25°C. Subsequently, a 100% rooting rate was obtained with the application of 1 μM indole-3-butyric acid in combination with 0.1 μM naphthaleneacetic acid. Additionally, the number of roots per shoot and the maximum length of roots were significantly higher under exposure to pink light illumination provided by cold cathode fluorescent lamps emitting red- and blue-colored light at a ratio of 80% and 20%, respectively. More than 95% of the regenerated plantlets survived after ex vitro acclimatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overall purpose of this research work was to apply a microwave-assisted digestion process combined with ethanol organosolv as pretreatment for pistachio shells (PS) and cherry tree pruning (CTP) biomasses for cellulose production. This process would reduce the technical and environmental disadvantages of the accumulation of these agricultural wastes. A central composite design based on the Response Surface Methodology was applied to check the effect of reaction time, temperature, and concentration of ethanol acid solution. Adequate models have been obtained for the contents of cellulose and lignin of the treated solids as well as for solubilized cellulose percentage. Best conditions implied 67% ethanol and 30 min at 150 ∘ C, involving the production of a cellulose-enriched material (81.1% and 90.1% for treated CTP and PS, respectively). Finally, enzymatic hydrolysis of these materials was carried out, reaching glucose concentrations of 70 and 100 kg/m 3 for CTP and PS, resulting in enzymatic hydrolysis yields at 12 h of 97.2% and 76.9%. These high values are one of the main novelties and strengths of this work, as show the ease of the process and can have a beneficial influence on its scale-up, reducing both costs and environmental impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since fresh cherry tomatoes have a high likelihood of spoilage during post-harvest transport and storage, assessing the fruit grade based on its firmness or predicting its potential storage time becomes necessary. The study proposes a method for non-destructive fruit firmness detection using a photometric stereo vision-based tactile sensor. The tactile sensor can measure the three-dimensional deformation of cherry tomatoes by mapping between pixel color and surface normal using a gradient prediction network. The summation of the deformation heights measured by a tactile sensor pressing on the cherry tomatoes can accurately describe fruit firmness, which was also verified by a comparative experiment with the Texture Analyzer. To create a model of firmness variation over time, a group of tomatoes of the same variety and origin were measured for firmness at various storage dates following harvest in subsequent experiments. An experiment was conducted to measure and predict the variation in the firmness of cherry tomatoes using a tactile sensor. The results indicate that the firmness of cherry tomatoes decreases linearly over time under similar conditions. The relative prediction errors were found to be mostly within ± 15% and ± 25% during 1 and 2 weeks of storage, respectively. All findings indicate that the proposed method can effectively measure the firmness of cherry tomatoes and accurately predict their short-term variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mining the various records of plant phenology before the era of modern weather observations is an important but challenging task. We mined descriptions of plant phenology in Kanazawa, Japan, during the first half of the nineteenth century in the Kakuson Diary. We retrieved records of full bloom of 28 plant species, appearance of 31 seasonal foods, and peak leaf colouring. In particular, we found more than 10 years of records of plum, peach, cherry blossoms, udo, and bamboo shoots in spring; watermelon in summer; and persimmon, chestnut, and peak leaf colouring in autumn. The records suggest that spring phenology during 1807 to 1838 was later and autumn phenology was earlier than now. Despite spatio-temporal uncertainty in records in old diaries, we need to mine records of plant phenology in more old diaries and publish them in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cherries are spring fruits enriched with nutrients and sweetness, which are widely popular among consumers all over the world. Cherry appearance characteristic is an important indicator for consumers' purchases and robot picking, which is closely related with classifying cherry maturity and monitoring cherry diseases. It is therefore very important to accurately identify the overall appearance quality of cherries. Fruit appearance quality detection has been continuously developed by advanced deep learning techniques. In this paper, an innovative cherry appearance detection method is developed for rapid and accurate classification of different cherry maturity stages and disease status. The different convolutional neural networks are used as a feature extractor to extract the deep features and then the features are imported into nine classifiers to detect the appearance quality of cherries. The fine-tuned method performs quite well with superior accuracy of cherry classification at less computation overhead for training. The experimental results show that: (1) Among the 54 combined models, the accuracy of twenty-two combined models is higher than transfer learning. (2) The training time of all the combined models is tremendously shorter than transfer learning. (3) The best model, Mobilenet_v2 plus support vector machine, have a recognition accuracy of 98.3% and the training time is 73.478 s. The experimental results show that the method of extracting features into classifiers has a good effect on recognizing cherry appearance quality. The successful application of this method provides a new solution for cherry appearance ripeness and disease identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of current work is to develop the uptake of 4-nitrophenol from the liquid phase in a dynamic system by the shaped activated carbon produced through the microwave-assisted technique. The emphasis of research is to understand the effects of production factors on the performance of adsorbents in the dynamic adsorption. Hence, the phosphoric acid ratio, microwave irradiation power, carbonization temperature, and time were changed to identify the suitable conditions for the fabrication of granular and rod-like beds from the cherry, and date stones. It was found that the stone structure and H3PO4/waste ratio significantly affect the adsorption efficiency. The proper acid/waste ratio was determined to be 1.43, and 1.80 for the activation of cherry and date stones to achieve the maximal efficiency in which the power should be fixed at the levels of 600 and 400 W respectively. The equilibrium efficiency increases with the rise in carbonization temperature and time which should be controlled exactly to reach the maximal adsorption capacity, ~ 45 mg g−1 according to the Langmuir isotherm. Owing to the high specific surface area of shaped adsorbents, 350–450 mg g−1, the fabricated beds indicated the appropriate performance for the uptake of nitrophenol due to development of micropores, < 2 nm, in the framework of activated carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Andean black cherry (P. serotina) is an underutilized fruit species that could contribute to the development of sustainable food systems in the Andean region. The species displays gametophytic self-incompatibility (GSI), a mechanism controlled by the multiallelic S-locus which prevents crossbreeding between genetically related individuals and hinders breeding efforts. To design effective crosses, breeders require accurate knowledge of the S-haplotypes of parental lines. However, S-haplotype diversity is commonly evaluated using PCR-based methods that fail to accurately discriminate alleles. To address this limitation, we developed a new method to identify S-alleles in P. serotina using nanopore sequencing technology. Our method uses the Native Barcoding protocol and MinION sequencer from Oxford Nanopore Technologies to enable scalable, multiplex amplicon sequencing. For sequence analysis, we developed a bioinformatic pipeline that uses Porechop for sample demultiplexing, MeshClust for sequence alignment and clustering, and the Ugene Consensus algorithm to determine allelic variants. In this study, we evaluated the S-RNase gene of 24 P. serotina accessions using our nanopore sequencing and bioinformatic workflow. Among these accessions, we identified 12 previously reported and 6 putative new S-alleles that could not be identified with existing S-genotyping methods. Five accessions were classified as homozygous, while the other 19 were heterozygous with two or three alleles. Our results demonstrate that nanopore sequencing provides a cost-effective alternative for S-allele profiling that improves on the accuracy of existing PCR-based methods. Because of the versatility of MinION sequencing, the reported workflow can be used to characterize the diversity of other useful genes in the species, which are of relevance for conservation and breeding efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Duke cherry is a non-climacteric fruit but deteriorates quickly during storage due to thin pericarp and succulent fruit tissue. The application of edible coatings, essential oils, or their combination is an appropriate technique to maintain the quality characteristics and reduce the deterioration of fruits during storage. This research assessed the effect of Aloe vera gel (AVG), thymol, and their combined use on the physicochemical and qualitative properties of duke cherries kept at 5 °C and 80% relative humidity for 28 d. Results: Compared to the uncoated fruits, duke cherries coated with a combination of AVG and thymol, showed more values of firmness (12.76–100.32%), total phenol (9.99–45.09%), antioxidant activity (7.90–84.56%), and sensory scores(50.15–100.00%), as well as the activity of guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) (12.03–185.11%) and catalase (CAT) (10.20–243.66%) enzymes during cold storage. Moreover, duke cherries coated with a combination of AVG and thymol had remarkably lower values of weight loss (32.57–42.67%), respiration rate (34.96–49.78%), stem browning (24.50–50.53%), spoilage percentage (84.55–100%), anthocyanin (14.21–23.16%), and total soluble solids/titratable acidity (TSS/TA) (35.64–50.15%), as well as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) (16.66–32.35%) and malondialdehyde (MDA) (15.23–31.05%). Conclusion: The application of AVG and thymol, particularly their combination, can have a high practical potential to extend shelf-life and preserve the quality of duke cherries during cold storage. This treatment has various advantages including natural, edible, cost-effective, and efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study was aimed at studying the long-term effects of diclofenac on the freshwater shrimp Neocaridina davidi, concerning survival, somatic growth, and reproduction. In this study, both ovigerous females and males of this species were exposed for 63 d to 0 (control), 0.1, or 1 mg/L of diclofenac. At the highest concentration, significant mortality was detected, and the somatic growth of females was significantly decreased. The percentage of females with a second spawn, observable from day 45, significantly increased at 1 mg/L, while the time between spawns was significantly reduced at both concentrations assayed. However, the gonadal analysis made at the end of the assay in the surviving females showed a significantly lower proportion of advanced oocytes in females exposed to 1 mg/L, as compared to control. Concerning hatching, the percentage of ovigerous females that could have successful hatching was reduced at 1 mg/L of diclofenac, especially for the first spawn. For the second spawn, the low number of juveniles hatched from females exposed to 1 mg/L also showed a significantly higher incidence of morphological abnormalities, such as hydropsy and underdeveloped appendages. Taken together, these results showed that even when diclofenac was able to produce earlier spawns, the reproductive output of each spawn was reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diverse categories of defects on the surface of the cherries have different influences on cherries' quality, so simultaneous detection of these defects is essential for their grading. It is a difficult undertaking that requires to investigate the intrinsic category dependencies while taking the category imbalances into account. We treat cherry defect recognition as a multi-label classification task and present a novel identification network called Coupled Graph convolutional Transformer (CoG-Trans). Utilizing the self-attention mechanism and static co-occurrence patterns via our proposed categorical representation extraction Module, we model the relevance of various categories implicitly and explicitly, respectively. Moreover, we design a VI-Fusion module based on the attention mechanism to fuse the visible and infrared information sources. Additionally, we employ asymmetric-contrastive loss to correct the category imbalance and learn more discriminative features for each label. Our experiments are conducted on the VI-Cherry dataset, which consists of 9492 paired visible and infrared cherry images with six defective categories and one normal category manually annotated. The suggested method yields excellent performance compared to previous work, achieving 99.54% mAP on the VI-Cherry dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Digital" agriculture is rapidly affecting the value of agricultural output. Robotic picking of the ripe agricultural product enables accurate and rapid picking, making agricultural harvesting intelligent. How to increase product output has also become a challenge for digital agriculture. During the cherry growth process, realizing the rapid and accurate detection of cherry fruits is the key to the development of cherry fruits in digital agriculture. Due to the inaccurate detection of cherry fruits, environmental problems such as shading have become the biggest challenge for cherry fruit detection. This paper proposes an improved YOLO-V4 deep learning algorithm to detect cherry fruits. This model is suitable for cherry fruits with a small volume. It is proposed to increase the network based on the YOLO-V4 backbone network CSPDarknet53 network, combined with DenseNet The density between layers, the a priori box in the YOLO-V4 model, is changed to a circular marker box that fits the shape of the cherry fruit. Based on the improved YOLO-V4 model, the feature extraction is enhanced, the network structure is deepened, and the detection speed is improved. To verify the effectiveness of this method, different deep learning algorithms of YOLO-V3, YOLO-V3-dense and YOLO-V4 are compared. The results show that the mAP (average accuracy) value obtained by using the improved YOLO-V4 model (YOLO-V4-dense) network in this paper is 0.15 higher than that of yolov4. In actual orchard applications, cherries with different ripeness of cherries in the same area can be detected, and the fruits with larger ripeness differences can be artificially intervened, and finally, the yield of cherry fruits can be increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current fruit production, relays on rootstocks that are size-controlling, productive and precocious. However, facing uneven precipitation distribution and long drought events, rootstocks' breeding goals should shift towards genotypes with roots promptly responding to the water availability. Thus, this study aimed to determine the root anatomical responses to the occurrence of drought episode (39 days) followed by the excessive precipitation event (113.6 mm in four days). Plant material included three cherry species and interspecific hybrid: Prunus cerasus, Prunus fruticosa, Prunus mahaleb and 'Gisela 5' (P. cerasus × Prunus canescens). Detailed anatomical analysis included root samples with the differentiated secondary structure taken from the sampling depth of 10–15 cm. The roots were to varying degrees affected by the precipitation and number of dry days, but all responded with the occurrence of the 'false' outer ring, after the excessive precipitation event. Furthermore, within all three species, a very clear pattern of vessel size production was observed: the inner ˃ the middle < the outer (newly formed) zone vessels, whilst in the interspecific hybrid this pattern could not be determined. Effective crown volumes measured in vegetations preceding (2021) and succeeding the drought episode (2022), indicated that trees grafted on P. cerasus, P. fruticosa and P. mahaleb genotypes fully recovered and achieved normal vegetative growth rates (≈30%), while trees on the 'Gisela 5' ceased their development (less than 10%). Our study indicates that indigenous germplasm can contribute to the substantial selection of genotypes successfully adapting to drought and rain episodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "First report of cherry green ring mottle virus in sweet cherries in Slovenia" published in the Journal of Plant Pathology discusses the detection of the cherry green ring mottle virus (CGRMV) in sweet cherry samples collected from orchards in Slovenia between 2019 and 2023. The study identified CGRMV in five out of 60 samples, making it the second robigovirus found in sweet cherry trees in Slovenia after the discovery of cherry necrotic rusty mottle virus in 2019. The research was supported by The Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Food Safety, Veterinary and Plant Protection and the Slovenian Research Agency. [Extracted from the article]

B Guaraná: How Brazil Embraced the World's Most Caffeine-Rich Plant. b Garfield, Seth. The index, glossary of key plant terms, and additional online resource list, featured at the end of the book, are extremely useful, especially for those who are new to the study of plants. The book features over 400 breathtaking photographs and images of trees, providing a unique understanding of how our humanity is shaped and influenced by the 60,000 tree species that inhabit the earth. The book is a pleasant read and the detail of the places and plants visited should interests both the seasoned botanist and the casual observer of plants in equal measure. [Extracted from the article]

Cherry fruit is a natural food that has been consumed since ancient times due to its remarkable nutritional and therapeutic properties. In this study, total phenolic, total flavonoid, total monomeric anthocyanin contents, total antioxidant capacity and polyphenolic contents of fruit samples belonging to 14 (two of them endemic) different Prunus (cherry) taxa naturally distributed in Turkey were compared. Qualitative and quantitative determination of 23 individual phenolic compounds (fourteen phenolic acids, five flavonols, one flavan-3-ol, one flavone, one dihydrochalcone and one phytoalexin) was performed by LC–MS/MS (liquid chromatography technique coupled with tandem mass spectrometry). Antioxidant activities of fruit samples were determined using CERAC, CUPRAC and ABTS test methods. According to the results obtained, it was found that Prunus mahaleb var. alpina (107.57 mg cyanidin 3-glucoside/100 g FW) and Prunus mahaleb var. mahaleb (90.95 mg cyanidin 3-glucoside/100 g FW) had higher anthocyanin content compared to other fruit samples. It was determined that Prunus incana var. velutina, one of the endemic species, has a remarkable total phenolic content (10.76 mg gallic acid/g FW), individual phenolic content (641.58 mg/ 100 g, a total of individual phenolics with LC–MS/MS) and total antioxidant capacity (25.1 mg Trolox/100 g FW with CERAC assay). This article is the first study to report the comparative phytochemical content of different Prunus taxa in Turkey and the phytochemical properties of Prunus incana var. velutina. It has been concluded that endemic Prunus incana var. velutina has the potential to be used as an alternative to the taxa Prunus mahaleb, Prunus avium and Prunus vulgaris as a health-protective food and as a food additive due to its remarkable polyphenolic content, anthocyanin content and total antioxidant capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chitosan was produced from Hermetia illucens pupal exuviae by heterogeneous and homogeneous deacetylation. Tomato fruits (Solanum lycopersicum), that are one of the most grown and consumed food throughout the world, were coated with 0.5 and 1% chitosan, applied by dipping or spraying, and stored at room temperature or 4 °C, for a storage period of 30 days. Statistical analysis give different results depending on the analysed parameters: heterogeneous chitosan, indeed, had a better effect than the homogenous one in maintaining more stable physico-chemical parameters, while the homogenous chitosan improved the total phenols, flavonoids and antioxidant activity. Chitosan coatings applied by spraying were more effective in all the analyses. Chitosan derived from H. illucens always performed similarly to the commercial chitosan. However, a general better performance of insect-derived chitosan on the concentration of phenolics and flavonoids, and the antioxidant activity was observed as compared to the commercial one. Chitosan coating has already been successfully used for preservation of fresh fruits, as alternative to synthetic polymers, but this is the first investigation of chitosan produced from an insect for this application. These preliminary results are encouraging regarding the validation of the insect H. illucens as a source of chitosan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environment is threatened by a diversity of pollutants, and synthetic dyes are considered a foremost environmental pollutant among them. The characteristics detected for the dye, e.g., toxicity and carcinogenicity, have brought severe problems for humans and aquatic organisms. The present study was done to clarify the potential of activated carbon made from cherry tree wood (CWAC) in the adsorption of cationic red 14 dye. In our experimental-laboratory study, the changes in removal efficiency were assessed by considering the changes in values of pH, concentration, adsorbent dose, contact time, and temperature. In addition, the nature of our prepared adsorbent was defined based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier-transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy techniques. The concentration of dye after the completion of experiments was recorded using a spectrophotometer at 514 nm. Evaluating the attained data by isotherm and kinetic models were also considered. Our results demonstrated the enhancement in the efficiency of the studied process at higher contact times, temperatures, and pH and its decline at higher initial dye concentrations. pH = 11, time of 45 min, dye concentration of 50 mg/L, and AC mass of 0.25 g/l were optimal values in obtaining the highest removal of the studied dye. Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order (PSO) with (R2 = 0.9972) and (R2 = 0.9947) were the best isotherms and kinetic models in the description of the observed data, respectively. Considering the results, CWAC could be effectively utilized for the adsorption of cationic red 14 dye from solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the question of determining the probability of triangle count deviations in the Erdős-Rényi random graphs G(n, m) and G(n, p) with densities larger than n-1/2(logn)1/2\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$n^{-1/2}(\log {n})^{1/2}$$\end{document}. In particular, we determine the log probability logPN▵(G)>(1+δ)p3n3\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\log \mathbb {P}\left( N_{\triangle }(G)\, >\, (1+\delta )p^3n^3\right) $$\end{document} up to a constant factor across essentially the entire range of possible deviations, in both the G(n, m) and G(n, p) model. For the G(n, p) model, we also prove a stronger result, up to a (1+o(1))\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$(1+o(1))$$\end{document} factor, in the non-localised regime. We also obtain some results for the lower tail and for counts of cherries (paths of length 2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raspberry bushy dwarf virus (RBDV) is one of the most important pathogens of raspberries worldwide. In this study, we detected RBDV from 8 out of 50 cherry samples collected from Bursa, Turkey by DAS-ELISA and/or RT-PCR. We also determined the nearly full genome sequences of RBDV RNA2 from two cherry (Prunus avium) trees. The genomes were identical and shared 87.2 to 97.2% similarity to the RBDV RNA2 sequences from Rubus spp. and grapevine isolates available in GenBank, respectively. Phylogenetic analyses of RNA2 and MP gene sequences grouped cherry sequences in a clade more closely related to the grapevine clade (75 and 86% bootstrap value) while the topology based on the CP gene resulted in three separate clusters according host plant identity. Although host-dependent differentiations were confirmed in this study, no obvious geographical differentiation was observed from phylogenetic analysis, and no recombination events were detected. RBDV is found in raspberry and blackberry in many countries, including Turkey, however, here we report the first natural RBDV infection of cherry worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV), prunus virus I (PrVI), and cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) were found using RT-PCR in the clematis (Clematis spp.) cultivar collection of the Nikita Botanical Gardens, Yalta, Russia. PrVI was detected in clematis for the first time that extends both the list of viruses infecting this crop and the information on the geographical distribution and host range of PrVI. Using high-throughput sequencing, the nearly complete genomes of TBSV, PrVI, CMV, and clematis chlorotic mottle virus, which was previously found in the collection, were assembled and characterized. The genome of TBSV was most closely related to the cherry strain of this virus sharing 95.9% identity. Five open reading frames of the PrVI isolate from clematis were 95.8 to 97.7% and 95.6 to 98.6% identical to PrVI from sweet cherry at the nucleotide and amino acid levels, respectively. CMV was revealed in a single plant of the introduced cultivar Valge Daam. Based on phylogeny of complete genomes, RNA1, RNA2, and RNA3 identities, and the size of the proteins 2a and 2b (840 and 100 amino acid residues, respectively), the CMV isolate was shown to belong to subgroup II. TBSV, CMV, and PrVI did not induce visible symptoms on leaves or flowers of at least some clematis cultivars. This is the first report about clematis viruses in Russia and the first molecular characterization of TBSV, PrVI, and CMV isolates from clematis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Central Queensland region of Australia is a large producer of horticultural produce; however, there are limited studies on the phytochemical composition of the produce from this region. Additionally, some crops or cultivars are poorly known in domestic markets; hence are currently only grown for niche markets. There is opportunity to expand production of these crops if they contain higher levels of health-benefiting compounds compared to existing cultivars. Hence this work aimed to elucidate the phytochemical composition of such under-marketed and/or under-utilised crops, including their phenolic acid and flavonoid profiles. The samples included nine cucurbits, two citrus fruits, dragonfruit and Brazilian cherry. The vitamin C (ascorbic acid) content was quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection, while the phenolic profiles were gathered using targeted liquid chromatograph tandem mass spectrometry analysis. Antioxidant activity was quantified using the FRAP and CUPRAC assays, while total phenolic content was measured using the Folin-Ciocalteu assay. The results revealed extensive variation in the levels of health-benefiting compounds between the samples. The phenolic profiles of several species/cultivars are reported for the first time. The highest ascorbic acid content was found in blood orange skin (817 mg/100 g DW), while the highest total phenolic content was found in blood orange skin (1988 mg GAE/100 g). Samples showing high antioxidant capacity included blood orange skin, Brazilian cherry and spaghetti squash. These results may support the prospect of marketing several of the crops/cultivars as functional food crops in domestic or export markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet of medical things (IoMT) plays an important role nowadays to support healthcare system. The hospital equipment's called as medical things are now connected to the cloud for getting many useful services. The data generated from the equipments are sent to the cloud for getting the desired service. In current scenario, most hospitals collect many images using equipments, but these equipments have less computational capability to process the huge generated data. In this work, one such equipment is considered which can take the human eye images and send the images to the cloud for detection of cherry red spot (CRS). CRS disease in eyes is considered as one of the very dangerous disease. The early diagnosis of CRS disease needs to be focused in order to avoid any adverse effect on human body. In this paper, a machine intelligence based model is proposed to detect the CRS disease areas in the human eyes by analyzing several CRS disease images using IoMT. The proposed approach is mainly focused on fuzzy rule-based mechanism to carry out the identification of such affected area in the eyes in cloud layer. From the results, it is observed that the CRS disease areas in the eyes are detected well with better detection accuracy and lower detection error than k-means algorithm. This approach will help the doctors to track the exact position of the affected areas in the eye for its diagnosis. The simulation is performed using socket programming written in Python 3 where a cloud server and a client device are created and images are sent from the client device to the server, and afterwards the detection of CRS is performed at the server using MATLAB R2015b. The proposed method is able to provide better performance in terms of detection accuracy, detection error and processing time as 94.67%, 5.33% and 1.1481% units respectively on an average case scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and methods: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of four AMF inoculation treatments (Funneliformis mosseae, Rhizophagus intraradices, Glomus versiforme and a mixture of these three AMF strains) and Meloidogyne incognita inoculation on the growth and reproductive performance of cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme), and the effect of AMF on M. incognita density in soil under greenhouse conditions. Results: The results showed that AMF colonization could alleviate the biomass decline of cherry tomato caused by M. incognita and could reduce the density of M. incognita in soil. Moreover, AMF colonization promoted the biomass allocation of aboveground parts to alleviate the consumption of photosynthetic products by belowground parts of cherry tomato. Different AMF inoculation treatments had different effects on the uptake of nitrogen and phosphorus in the aboveground and belowground parts after M. incognita infection and they had interactive effects, indicating that AMF played an important role in regulating nutrient uptake of cherry tomato after M. incognita infection, and there were functional differences among different species. Furthermore, AMF colonization increased flower and fruit weight, and the resource investment to seeds under the stress of M. incognita infection. Conclusion: Our results clearly indicated that AMF significantly increased the growth and nitrogen uptake of cherry tomato inoculated by M. incognita. F. mosseae was the most effective treatment enhancing resistance to RKN and improving reproductive capacity of cherry tomato, indicating its application potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cherry trees are one of Chile's most important specialty crop activities. Its commercial orchards have an extensive spatial distribution between the 31° S and 48° S, spreading from semiarid to tundra climates, but the trees appear primarily in the Mediterranean climate. Different extreme weather events, such as frosts, precipitation, and high temperatures, affect this crop at different phenological stages, especially in bloom, ripening, and floral differentiation. Based on a high-resolution climatic-gridded dataset of daily temperature and precipitation data, we defined an integrated risk index (RI) representing the frequency of occurrence of the events throughout the plant development period and considering each type of risk affecting each concrete phenological stage. High RI values indicate high climatic risk. The RI follows a meridional pattern influenced by elevation, with higher values in the highest elevations between 36° S and 40° S, sensitive to the simultaneous occurrence of frosts and precipitation events. The northern coast exhibited the lowest risk values, while a general gradient from low values in coastal areas to higher ones in inland elevated zones revealed an altitudinal pattern. Low-risk areas have a sparse distribution of crops, which can be explained by several factors restricting cherry cultivation such as soil limitations, high slopes, lack of productive support infrastructure, and competition with other profitable forestry and agricultural activities in the north and forest production in the south. These results will help to improve climate impact assessments for production systems, which can be conducted by following an easy-to-understand tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bi-cistronic virus cherry virus Trakiya was detected recently and is related to a group of unclassified viruses in the order Picornavirales, typically with arthropod vectors/hosts. The virus was detected initially by next-generation sequencing (NGS) of total RNA extracts from leaves from symptomatic sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) growing in Bulgaria. The aim of the current study was to ascertain some biological characteristics of CVT. The virus was successfully graft transmitted from Prunus to Prunus, with transmission confirmed using a two-step RT-PCR with the primer pair BuC-1657F/BuC-2095R that amplifies a CVT-coat protein coding region-specific fragment (443-bp product). Symptoms associated with graft transmission and CVT infection of sweet cherry include leaf chlorosis, leaf abnormality and phyllody. Interestingly, symptoms observed in the orchards were similar to symptoms observed on sweet cherry trees infected experimentally by grafting. CVT was mechanically sap-transmitted from sweet cherry to several herbaceous hosts with Chenopodium amaranticolor and Nicotiana clevelandii appearing to be suitable for use as indicator species. Survey analysis of 77 cherry samples collected from four districts of Bulgaria revealed 26 positive samples (34% infection) from three districts. The virus was detected only in symptomatic field trees of tested cherry cultivars and never in asymptomatic trees. Detection of CVT in buds, flowers and leaves from the four cardinal points of field-infected sweet cherry plants proved its systemic distribution in infected trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was the production of green extracts from Cornelian cherry pomace and the valorization of their anthocyanin content for their potential use as food colorants. Aqueous solutions of β-cyclodextrin were used both as green extraction solvents as well as means of anthocyanins' stabilization. The extracts were analyzed by a novel liquid chromatographic method coupled to triple quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry analytical methodology (LC-QTOF-MS) to assess their anthocyanin content. FTIR spectroscopy was used to investigate possible interactions between cyclodextrin and Cornelian cherry's anthocyanins. The stability of anthocyanins was evaluated under different pH conditions and in the presence of metal ion Fe+2. The extracts were finally evaluated as colorants in two different food systems. The results showed that the color of β-cyclodextrin extract was preserved through storage. Additionally, the combination of β-cyclodextrin extraction and storage at low temperature contributes to the development of a stable acidic non-carbonated red beverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detection of cherry tomatoes has a great significance for robotic harvesting. However, uneven environment conditions, such as branch and leaf occlusion, cluster of fruits, and so on, have made the cherry tomatoes detection very challenging. This paper proposes an effective cherry tomato detection algorithm called YOLOX-Dense-CT to solve these problems. To be specific, the DenseNet network is treated as the basic backbone of the original YOLOX to make the whole network suitable for the cherry tomatoes. Moreover, the convolutional block attention module (CBAM) attention mechanism is applied to make the features from the backbone more fused with the Neck part. As suggested by the experimental results, the proposed YOLOX-Dense-CT model is effective in detecting cherry tomatoes, with the mean average precision (mAP) reaching 94.80%, which is 4.02% higher than the original YOLOX-L model. Meanwhile, the number of parameters is only 34.6 M, which is 19.6 M lower than the YOLOX-L. Furthermore, the YOLOX-Dense-CT is compared to general target detection models and it has the best detection performance. In summary, the proposed method can well meet the requirements of high accuracy detection and provide a strategy for the cherry tomato detection system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the pits of cherries, which are often consumed as fruits, jams and fruit juices, are generally used as waste, these pits contain beneficial components such as oil, protein, crude fibers, vitamins, minerals, etc. In this context, the determination of pits according to cultivars is important in the food industry since pits with different cultivars contain different compositions. This study is aimed to classify sour cherry pits with different cultivars using modern deep learning-based methods. In this context, four sour cherry cultivars were harvested and the pits extracted from these cherries were used in the study. Cherry pits' images were acquired by bringing the pits of each cultivar together. In the next pre-processing step, each pit was cropped with the help of thresholding to handle each pit in the images separately. The next step was data augmentation, which provided data diversity and robust learning, to increase the cherry pit images. In the last step, cherry pits were classified using four different state-of-the-art convolutional neural network (CNN) models: GoogleNet, ResNet18, ResNet50, MobileNetv2. The obtained classification accuracies were 94.51%, 98.41%, 99.29% and 97.35%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2024 edition of Contemporary Jewry extends gratitude to volunteer reviewers for their contributions to the journal. The list of reviewers includes a diverse group of individuals who have dedicated their time and effort to enhancing the quality of the publication. The journal acknowledges their valuable critiques and appreciates their goodwill in improving the content. [Extracted from the article]

To enhance the water pre-cooling rate, postharvest quality, and prolong the shelf life of fruit and vegetables, static magnetic field-assisted water pre-cooling technology (SM-WPT) was proposed. The study investigated the effects of static magnetic field (0–100 Gs) on the cherry cooling rate during water pre-cooling process and evaluated the physicochemical properties during its 21-day storage (T = 4 ℃). Moreover, the analytical hierarchy process combined with entropy weight method (AHP-EWM) was utilized to analyze the optimal parameters of SM-WPT for preserving cherries. Results demonstrated that SM-WPT significantly prevented the deterioration of postharvest cherry quality during storage. The cherry for the SM40 group (40 Gs) reduced the cooling time by up to 40% compared to non-magnetic field treatment, alleviated changes in color difference and weight loss with 22.70% and 12.90%, respectively, and an obvious decrease in respiration rate and decay rate. Meanwhile, the SM80 group (80 Gs) was the best treatment for improving antioxidant enzyme activity and inhibiting malondialdehyde accumulation. The AHP-EWM comprehensive evaluation indicated that the SM40 group had the best overall preservation effect on cherries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a growing context of green and circular economy, gaining knowledge of the composition of every crop is crucial, as this will allow for their full exploitation. Cherry (Prunus avium L.) is a widespread tree of particular interest for its fruits and its valuable timber. Its wood is rich in extractives and its characterization will allow to consider other applications for this feedstock. In this study, chipped cherry wood was extracted and chemically analysed to determine its total phenolic content, total condensed tannin, antioxidant capacity, and polysaccharide content through wet chemistry analysis. These investigations were coupled with 13C-NMR and FTIR spectrometry, with HPLC as well as elemental analysis to conduct a comprehensive chemical characterization. Thermogravimetric measurements were also taken to understand the behaviour of the extract when exposed to high temperature. The registered findings were benchmarked against commercial mimosa (Acacia mearnsii De Wild.) and chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) tannins which were selected as template for condensed and hydrolysable tannins, respectively. Cherry extract was found to be the poorest in phenolics which are mainly constituted of pyrogallic flavonoids strongly interconnected with significant amounts of polysaccharides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Host plant resistance (HPR) is the most promising alternative to aphidicides used to control bird cherry-oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi L. infestation in wheat. A variety of experiments including locomotory, olfactometry (antixenosis), nymphiposition, relative growth and development bioassay (antibiosis), and tolerance studies were conducted to underpin the category of HPR for R. padi resistance in diploid Aegilops tauschii Coss. accessions pau 14232 and 14576 along with susceptible hexaploid Triticum aestivum L. variety HD 2967. R. padi nymphs showed a lower intrinsic rate of increase (0.192), weight gain (46.41–49.50 µg), mean relative growth rate (0.026–0.029), nymphal survival (43–48%), adult longevity (10.7–11.17 days), total development period (25.45–25.65 days) with a prolonged nymphal duration (13.4 days) on Ae. tauschii accessions as compared to susceptible check (HD 2967). Bird cherry-oat aphid also showed reduced locomotory and nymphiposition behaviour on Ae. tauschii. In the olfactometry assay, R. padi indicated less preference for diploid Ae. tauschii accessions. However, no significant difference observed in tolerance parameters viz. percentage proportional fresh plant loss index and percentage proportional dry plant loss index between Ae. tauschii accessions and HD 2967. Results showed that the R. padi resistance in Ae. tauschii pau accessions are governed by a combination of antixenosis and antibiosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioactive compounds of cornelian cherry (Cornus mas L.) fruits were extracted by green extraction methods including ultrasound-assisted (with three solvents: water, water/ethanol 50:50 v/v, and ethanol), supercritical fluid, and subcritical water extraction. Evaluation of the flavonoid and tocopherol compounds, β-carotene/linoleic acid test, and oil oxidative stability index assay were used to quantify the antioxidant power of cornelian cherry extracts. In β-carotene/linoleic acid test, a strong antioxidant activity of 85.84% was observed in the water/ethanol (50:50, v/v) ultrasound assisted extract, which also had the highest extraction yield and total flavonoid and tocopherol contents achieved by this method. In oil oxidative stability index assay, cornelian cherry extracts had higher resistance to oxidation than the tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) synthetic antioxidant. Among the extracts, the longest induction time of 4.50 h belonged to water/ethanol (50:50, v/v) ultrasound-assisted extract. High and significant correlation was found between the extracted components and antioxidant capacity. This research demonstrated that the cornelian cherry fruit can be used as a potential source of natural antioxidant in food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated the potential of cultural management practices (CMPs) to service sustainable social and ecological adaptation to the invasive fruit fly spotted wing drosophila (SWD). We sampled SWD and parasitoids under different CMPs in tart cherry orchards in Michigan to assess the efficacy and ecological costs of CMPs. Additionally, we interviewed Michigan tart cherry growers to understand their adaptation behaviors in response to SWD. We found no difference in SWD or parasitoid abundances among the CMPs and no effect of parasitoids on SWD abundances. Growers generally saw CMPs as supplementary to chemical sprays without the potential to reduce or replace spraying. While CMPs showed low efficacy in SWD management and growers expressed limited confidence in their efficacy, diverse cultural pest management practices should continue to be explored for their potential to support ecological diversity and adaptive agricultural systems under the threat of invasive species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of post-zygotic hybrid incompatibility is essential to understand speciation. Although the genes and molecular mechanisms involved in hybrid incompatibility are being elucidated in model plants and crops, the information on woody non-model plants is lacking. In the seedlings of a cross between the most famous ornamental cherry cultivar Cerasus × yedoensis 'Somei-yoshino' and its closely related wild species Cerasus itosakura, we discovered a hybrid incompatibility characterized by a phenotype in which growth stops after the expansion of the first true leaves and the seedling eventually dies. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms related to this seedling necrosis, we performed a comprehensive expressed gene analysis on normal-growth and necrotic weak-growth (SW) hybrid seedlings. The RNA-seq results showed over 1500 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) specified for the SW. Numerous genes associated with plant defense response, such as pathogenesis-related genes, and several receptor-like protein kinases were included in SW-specific upregulated DEGs. The Gene Ontology enrichment analysis also showed the significant association of "defense response" in SW seedlings. These upregulated defense-related gene expressions were particularly observed in the hypocotyls. On the contrary, the reduction of photosynthesis-related gene expression and reduction in the gene expressions of cell division and cell cycle at specific parts of seedlings were also observed in the SW. Our results suggest that an upregulated defense-related gene expression suppresses the meristem growth and deviation, resulting in growth failure as an autoimmune response in hybrid cherry seedlings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mahaleb cherry (Prunus mahaleb L.), an introduced variety in Central China, is generally planted for seed propagation while their fruit pulps were wasted. This study investigated the phytochemical and volatile composition of mahaleb cherry. The results showed it is rich in mineral elements, especially trace ones as like iron, copper, and zinc etc., with 5–10 times the content higher than sweet cherry. In addition, the extract of mahaleb cherry showed strong antioxidant capacity, and 62 components were identified through the UPLC–ESI–MS/MS, which contained three kinds of organic acids and 45 polyphenol compounds. Particularly, 29 compounds were first reported in cherry varieties. While for its strong aroma-related volatile composition, a SPME–GC/MS analysis indicated that aldehydes were the major volatile compounds (36.7%) with a content of 5.67 μg/100 g FW. Furthermore, coumarin and hydrocoumarin are first found in cherry fruit pulp as its unique aroma compounds. The clear identification of the basic compounds in mahaleb cherry is of great significance to reduce the waste of resources and promote its further rational processing and utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to assess the stem anatomical structure of divergent cherry germplasm and estimate genetic variation and heritability as well as hybrid enhancement for anatomical traits of cherry interspecific hybrids. Plant material included 18 cherry genotypes representing seven species and species hybrids. Analyses included detailed anatomical investigations of 1- and 2-year-old stems' macro and micro cross-sectional characteristics, theoretical hydraulic conductance calculations, as well as estimations of genotypic and phenotypic variances, coefficients of variation, broad sense heritability, hybrid enhancement, and potence ratio. Average vessel lumen areas and percentages of vessels belonging to different size classes exhibited moderate to high heritability (more than 60%). In contrast, macro-anatomical characteristics—cambial-induced secondary thickening and production of secondary wood (xylem) and secondary cortex (phloem), appeared to be more environmentally sensitive. The high heritability of xylem vessel properties and low heritability of cross-sectional traits, along with previous knowledge regarding cambial-induced secondary thickening observed in the same germplasm, could be used to inform parentage choice for rootstock breeding crosses. The results support the hypothesis that xylem vessel size is primarily under genetic control and exhibits different degrees of dominance—partial (very close to better parent), full, and overdominance. It is presumed that the MSU rootstocks 'Cass' and 'Clare', followed by 'Benzie' and 'Lake' would have the greatest size-controlling effect on grafted cherry varieties, while Prunus maackii, the P. maackii × 'Montmorency' hybrid , and 'Montmorency' × 'Colt' hybrid would act as invigorating rootstocks. Our findings suggest that future hybrids between Prunus cerasus and Prunus fruticosa, the 'weaker' parental species characterized by smaller vessels, would result in rootstock candidates with better size-controlling effect, while crossings between P. fruticosa and Prunus mahaleb should have well-balanced vessel lumen areas and cambial activity, which is a prerequisite for successful adaptation to changing environmental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological and molecular properties of five Prune dwarf virus cherry isolates were studied. Double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) proved PDV infection in the respective source trees and absence of six other viruses infecting the cherry. Two of infected source trees were symptomless, and the other three trees showed deformed and elongated leaves with chlorotic lines and spots. The reaction of greenhouse-grown seedlings of 22 herbaceous test plant species was investigated. The woody indicators Prunus tomentosa and Prunus cerasifera were chip-budded. Cucumis sativus cv. Amelia, C. sativus cv. Levina, C. sativus cv. Tessa and Prunus tomentosa appeared as the most suitable test plants for bioassay of studied PDV isolates. The nucleotide sequences corresponding to the full-length coat protein (CP) of 657 bp were obtained. The identity among studied isolates in CP was 95.5–100% and 97.4–100% at nucleotide and amino acid levels, respectively. The movement protein (MP) sequences were 753 nucleotides long, translating 251 amino acids and shared 94.1–98.4% nucleotide and 96.8–99.2% amino acid identity. Constructed trees with the nucleotide sequences of both MP and CP genes of studied isolates and referent PDV cherry variants showed the formation of two phylogroups in the two genomic regions. All studied isolates separated into two clusters in group I. No correlation between the phylogenetic grouping and the biological properties, as well the geographical origin, was observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In guideline development the evidence is more and more coming exclusively from randomized-controlled trials (RCTs), while all other evidential levels are too easily brushed aside. This adopted creed is based on the radical ideas of Archibald Cochrane. Randomize until it hurts—which should presumably be read as a stimulus to perform better research—was the initial suggestion of Cochrane. Methods: This commentary is based on quotes from Cochrane's original work. Results: Cochrane's statements were figured out in a long-gone era in which medical and social inequality prevailed. Adhering to the orthodoxy nowadays hurts both clinicians and patients. I doubt that this was ever Cochrane's intention. Conclusion: In my opinion, the most important part of guideline development should be making inferences of the total medical content (all available evidence including expert opinion); a process that can only be done by subject experts. Methodological assessment, which is undoubtedly the most essential point in the planning of future studies, should come only second place in guideline development and should be used for grading of the evidential level, not for the decision to reject studies completely. Otherwise, far too much relevant evidence is ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the safety and risk of fosthiazate as a nematicide against root-knot nematode in tomato and cherry tomato were evaluated. The dissipation and residue of fosthiazate for 28 days in tomatoes and cherry tomatoes were determined and studied by HPLC after simple, rapid pre-treatment. The mean recovery was 83.79~94.18%, and the relative standard deviations were 3.97~7.40%. Results showed that the half-lives of fosthiazate in tomatoes (4.81~5.37 days) were significantly lower than that in cherry tomatoes (5.25~5.73 days). At the pre-harvest interval (PHI) of 21 days, the residues of tomatoes and cherry tomatoes were 0.032~0.046 mg/kg, which were lower than the maximum residue level (MRL) established in China. The potential risks of fosthiazate exposure through the dietary intake of tomatoes and cherry tomatoes to different populations were also studied. According to the results of dietary risk assessment, the residual levels of fosthiazate were within the acceptable range of long-term dietary risk in different populations in China within the sampling interval of 21 days after the application of fosthiazate. Our results show that fosthiazate at 2250 g.a.i./ha in the field control of root-knot nematode has high safety and low risk, and can provide a reference for the safe and reasonable use of fosthiazate as a nematicide in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During a nematode survey to examine infected cherry orchards from Balochistan Pakistan in 2019-2020, a high population (~1000 nematodes/50 g of soil) of Merlinius brevidens has been recovered. The investigation of this nematode species constitutes new host records from Pakistan. Morphometric and molecular data based on 18S rDNA and ITS rDNA of this nematode are also provided. The nblast result of 18S rDNA indicated 99 % identity with the same species from The Netherlands (AY284597). Besides, ITS rDNA also showed 99 % identity with the Indian population of M. brevidens (MK981336). Phylogenetic analysis using 18S and ITS rDNA placed Pakistanis population of M. brevidens together with the other M. brevidens in a clade. Measurements, drawing, LM, and phylogenetic position are provided for M. brevidens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light is a limiting resource for crops within integrated land use systems especially those including woody perennials. The amount of available light at ground level can be modified by artificially pruning the overstory. Aiming to increase the understanding of light management strategies, we simulated the pruning of wild cherry trees and compared the shading effects of the resulting tree structures over a complete growing season, with fine spatiotemporal resolution. Original 3D-tree structures were retrieved employing terrestrial laser scanning and quantitative structure models, and subjected to two pruning treatments at low and high intensities. By using the 'shadow model', the analogous tree structures created diverse shaded scenarios varying in size and intensity of insolation reduction. Conventional pruning treatments reduced the crown structure to the uppermost portion of the tree bole, reducing the shading effects, and thus, shrinking the shaded area on the ground by up to 38%, together with the shading intensity. As an alternative, the selective removal of branches reduced the shading effects, while keeping a more similar spatial distribution compared to the unpruned tree. Hence, the virtual pruning of tree structures can support designing and selecting adequate tending operations for the management of light distribution in agroforestry systems. The evidence assembled in this study is highly relevant for agroecosystems and can be strategically used for maintaining, planning and designing integrated tree-crop agricultural systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]