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Abstract Potato black scurf caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kühn is widespread worldwide. The exploration and analysis of the infection mechanism of Rhizoctonia solani Kühn has important scientific significance to enhance the disease resistance of potato and other horticultural crops, and then break the restriction of fungal harm to agricultural production. The physiological and biochemical indexes and the expression levels of related genes were measured at 0, 1, 4, 8 and 16 days (T0, T1, T2, T3, T4) after inoculation with pathogenic bacteria. The results showed that the contents of L-phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), peroxidase (POD), lignin, total phenols (TP), and flavonoids increased significantly in potato after infection by Rhizoctonia solani Kühn, with the contents of PAL and POD reaching a peak at 8 d and then decreasing, and the contents of lignin and total phenols changing most significantly, reaching the highest levels at day 8 (T3) and day 16 (T4), respectively. During the infestation, the content of eight phenolic compounds increased, and the genes responsible for the lignin synthesis pathway were upregulated. However, in the later stage of infestation, the expression of two genes (PAL PG0031457 and PG2021549, HCT PG0014959, and COMT PG0011266) was down-regulated. In the correlation analysis, gene expression levels of all the genes, except POD (PG0005062), CCoAOMT (PG0018688), and COMT (PG0011266), were found to be positively correlated with the contents of lignin, total phenols, flavonoids, PAL, POD, and eight phenolic substances. Therefore, based on a sound understanding of the occurrence mechanism of Potato black scurf, this experiment analyzed the effect of Rhizoctonia solani Kühn infestation on the content of relevant metabolites in the lignin synthesis pathway as well as gene expression in potatoes, which provides a scientific basis for the prevention and control management of potato black scurf. Graphical Abstract

Abstract Background Heat and drought stresses usually occur together in nature, and both are expected to increase in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change. The synergistic impacts of these compound climate extremes on potatoes are far from the effects of individual stresses. However, the dynamics of the effects of combined heat and drought stresses on potato physiology and biochemistry have yet to be thoroughly assessed. To elucidate this point, we set up a pot experiment using ‘Atlantic’ potato seedlings as test material. A total of six treatments were set up: CK (normal growth conditions: 21 ℃, 0 PEG), A1B1 (31 ℃, 20% PEG), A1B2 (31 ℃, 10% PEG), A1B3 (31 ℃, 0 PEG), A2B1 (21 ℃, 20% PEG), and A2B2 (21 ℃, 10% PEG), and 15 physiological indices were determined with the stress time of 0, 6, 12 and 18 days. Results After 18 days of stress, the phenotype of potato seedlings was significantly different. Compared with CK, the thickness of potato leaves and palisade tissue increased under heat and drought stress, and the combined stress reduced the photosynthetic efficiency of potato leaves. In all treatments except CK, the chlorophyll content decreased significantly, the antioxidant enzyme activity increased first and then decreased, and the relative conductivity and malondialdehyde content increased significantly. The heat and combined treatment made the content of the osmotic regulator first increase and then decrease, while the treatment of 21 ℃ had no significant change. According to the correlation, principal component and interaction analysis, both heat and drought treatment had significant effects on each index, and the longer the stress time, the greater the effect, and the effect of combined stress was greater than that of single stress. However, after 6 days of stress, the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the content of transparent regulatory substances increased. Conclusions In conclusion, potato can cope with heat, drought and combined stress by adjusting leaf tissue structure, antioxidant enzyme activity and osmotic regulatory substances in a short time. Graphical Abstract

Abstract BackgroundSocial media platforms allow individuals to openly gather, communicate, and share information about their interactions with health care services, becoming an essential supplemental means of understanding patient experience. ObjectiveWe aimed to identify common discussion topics related to health care experience from the public’s perspective and to determine areas of concern from patients’ perspectives that health care providers should act on. MethodsThis study conducted a spatiotemporal analysis of the volume, sentiment, and topic of patient experience–related posts on the Weibo platform developed by Sina Corporation. We applied a supervised machine learning approach including human annotation and machine learning–based models for topic modeling and sentiment analysis of the public discourse. A multiclassifier voting method based on logistic regression, multinomial naïve Bayes, and random forest was used. ResultsA total of 4008 posts were manually classified into patient experience topics. A patient experience theme framework was developed. The accuracy, precision, recall, and F-measure of the method integrating logistic regression, multinomial naïve Bayes, and random forest for patient experience themes were 0.93, 0.95, 0.80, 0.77, and 0.84, respectively, indicating a satisfactory prediction. The sentiment analysis revealed that negative sentiment posts constituted the highest proportion (3319/4008, 82.81%). Twenty patient experience themes were discussed on the social media platform. The majority of the posts described the interpersonal aspects of care (2947/4008, 73.53%); the five most frequently discussed topics were “health care professionals’ attitude,” “access to care,” “communication, information, and education,” “technical competence,” and “efficacy of treatment.” ConclusionsHospital administrators and clinicians should consider the value of social media and pay attention to what patients and their family members are communicating on social media. To increase the utility of these data, a machine learning algorithm can be used for topic modeling. The results of this study highlighted the interpersonal and functional aspects of care, especially the interpersonal aspects, which are often the “moment of truth” during a service encounter in which patients make a critical evaluation of hospital services.

Abstract Background Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) production is seriously threatened by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans (P. infestans). However, it remains unclear how the two potato cultivars, Q9 (moderately resistant) and Atl (susceptible), initiate distinct defense responses after inoculation with P. infestans. To uncover the underlying process, we investigated the dynamic gene expression profiles and the functions of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Results The results showed that the numbers of up-regulated DEGs were 1345, 1063 and 1694 in Q9 and 272, 603 and 2554 in Atl at 1 day post inoculation (dpi), 3 dpi and 5 dpi, respectively. Meanwhile, the down-regulated DEGs were 1557, 1417 and 389 in Q9 and 114, 364 and 2528 in Atl simultaneously. KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that plant-pathogen interaction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and MAPK signaling pathway were significantly enriched in Q9 at the later stage. Furthermore, DEGs associated with plant-pathogen interaction and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis showed higher expression levels in Q9 compared to Atl, especially at the later stage. The expressions of eight DEGs were validated by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), which further verified the accuracy of the transcriptomics analysis. In addition, DEGs that were exclusively up-regulated and down-regulated in Q9 were analyzed, which may contribute to the resistance of Q9. Transient expression analysis revealed that four DEGs, including StHP1, StMYB2, StHSP3 and StNAC5, exhibited increased tolerance to P. infestans, indicating a positive role in enhancing the resistance of Q9. Conclusion Therefore, the DEGs associated with plant-pathogen interaction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and MAPK signaling pathway were involved in regulating late blight, and the expression level of the related genes significantly increased in Q9. In addition, StHP1, StHSP3 and the transcription factors, including StMYB2 and StNAC5, played positive roles in improving the resistance of potato Q9 to P. infestans. These findings provide useful information for further understanding the molecular mechanism of potato resistance to late blight. Furthermore, our study identified novel resistance genes that can be used in resistance breeding and functional research. Graphical abstract

Abstract Background GAox is a key enzyme involved in GA biosynthesis pathway and plays an important role in regulating various processes in plant life cycle. However, it has not been systematic, studies have been conducted in potato, which is the world's fourth largest food crop. Methods In this work, we systematically identified GAox gene family (StGAox) in potato by analyzing the potato genome sequence using a set of bioinformatics approaches, and analyze their physical, chemical properties, distribution on chromosomes, gene structure, conserved motifs, gene duplication events and expression patterns were analyzed. Results The results showed that a total of 33 GAox proteins were identified and unevenly distributed on 10 chromosomes. Based on their protein structure and phylogenetic characteristics, these 33 StGAoxes were divided into 5 distinct subclasses. Collinearity analysis revealed that there were 5 pairs of duplicated genes in the StGAox gene family, and all of which evolved under purifying selection. Analysis of RNA-seq data of double haploid (DM) potatoes under different tissues, abiotic stresses and hormone treatments showed that PG0002068, PG0024249 and PG0027963 were higher expressed in leaves, PG009427, PG0026762, PG0009021 and PG0021095 were higher expressed in tubers, PG2003479, PG0024249, PG0005698, and PG0009021were higher expressed in shoots than those of other tissues. In addition, the expression of PG0002068, PG2003479, PG0032156, PG0024249, and PG0021292 were up-regulated under mannitol and drought stress. Conclusions Comparative genome-wide analysis of StGAox genes and their expression analyses revealed that members of this family may be involved in tissue-specific developmental and abiotic stress responses. Graphical Abstract

Abstract Optimal root system architecture (RSA) is critical for efficient resource capture in soils, hence being an interest in crop breeding. Seminal root angle (SRA) at the seedling stage in durum wheat has been suggested to be a good indicator of RSA. However, research on correlating such laboratory‐based seedling root phenotyping to RSA at later phases of plant growth is limited, resulting in the importance of root trait variation seen in seedlings often being overstated. To explore the role of SRA in modifying RSA at later phases of plant growth, we assessed 11 genotypes contrasting in SRA (wide and narrow), grown in a rhizobox designed for phenotyping root systems of plants during late‐tillering. Aboveground traits and root dry mass in different soil depths and across the entire soil volume were measured manually, while root architectural traits were extracted using image analysis and summarised by multiple factor analysis to describe RSA. When comparing the wide and narrow genotypes, no differences were detected for aboveground traits and total root dry mass. However, differences were observed in the allocation of root dry mass at different depths. The wide and narrow genotypes showed distinct RSAs, particularly in the upper soil (0–30 cm). The wide genotypes exhibited a ‘spread‐out’ root system with dense and thin roots, whereas the narrow genotypes had a compact root system with fewer but thicker roots. Our study demonstrated a clear difference in RSA between the wide and narrow genotypes, highlighting the association between SRA on the direction and distribution of root growth in plants at later growth stages.

Abstract Background With the rapid development of the economy and society, soil pollution is becoming more and more serious. Heavy metal cadmium (Cd) pollution is one of the typical problems, which poses a potentially serious threat to crop production and human health. Cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) is a key enzyme in lignin synthesis and plays an important role in plant resistance to external stress. In this study, combined with bioinformatics analysis and expression pattern analysis, the members of the potato CAD family were identified, and their physical and chemical properties, evolutionary characteristics and chromosome location were clarified, as well as their regulatory effects on Cd tolerance. Results A total of 50 StCAD genes belonging to 6 subfamilies were obtained, and all of them were located in the cytoplasm. Members of the same family had similar gene structures and functional domains. The promoter region of each StCAD family member contains at least 5 or more abiotic stress response elements, indicating that the family had potential functions in regulating stress. According to the expression pattern analysis, most genes in this family were upregulated after Cd stress, further enhanced CAD activity and significantly promoted lignin accumulation in potato roots. Conclusion In summary, the StCAD family plays an important role in potato response to Cd stress. This study lays a foundation for further studies on the functions of the StCAD family and provides candidate genes for Cd resistance molecular breeding in potato. Graphical Abstract

Abstract Background Continuous cropping can reduce soil quality and affect rhizosphere metabolism, ultimately reducing crop yield. Crop rotation can mitigate the damage caused by continuous cropping, but different crop rotation patterns respond differently to soil quality and rhizosphere metabolism. We investigated the effects of different cropping patterns on soil physicochemical properties, enzyme activities, microbial quantity, and rhizosphere metabolism of continuous potato cropping based on a long-term field study from 2018 to 2022. The experiment was set up with the following three treatments: potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)-potato-potato-potato-potato (CK), potato-potato-potato-pea (Pisum arvense L.)-potato (T1), and potato-potato-potato-faba bean (Vicia faba L.)-potato (T2). Results The results showed that pea-potato rotation (T1) and faba bean-potato rotation (T2) significantly improved soil physicochemical properties and microbial quantity, enhanced enzyme activity, and increased yield by 21.19% and 28.38%, respectively, compared with the continuous potato crop. Non-targeted metabolomics analysis showed that the differential metabolites of pea-potato and faba bean-potato rotation were mainly nucleotides, organic acids and derivatives, and flavonoids compared to continuous potato cropping. These differential metabolites are mainly enriched in the ABC transporter, purine metabolism, pyrimidine metabolism, and phenylalanine metabolism pathways. Combined analyses showed that legume-potato rotations improved soil physicochemical properties, enzyme activities, and microbial quantity of continuous potato cropping, ultimately increasing tuber yields. In addition, correlation analyses showed that differential metabolites significantly enriched in purine and phenylalanine metabolism (l-Tyrosine, Trans-Cinnamic acid, Guanine, and Adenine) were also strongly associated with these measurements. Conclusions Therefore, we conclude that legume-potato rotations modulate the abundance and function of rhizosphere metabolites and significantly alter the low molecular metabolite profile of the soil under continuous potato conditions. Some of these important metabolites may play a part in the cycling of nutrients in the soil, making its physicochemical properties and microbial quantity better, raising the activity of soil enzymes, and ultimately increasing the yield of potato tubers. The above results indicate that legume-potato rotation has a positive effect on continuous potato soils. It lays a solid foundation for revealing the complex molecular network and metabolic pathways of microbial communities in soil after legume crop rotation. Graphical Abstract

Abstract Background Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) continuous cropping causes the decrease of tuber yield, deterioration of quality and soil degradation in the semi-arid area. These negative effects can generally be mitigated by legume rotation and mulching. However, little is known about how can mulching and legume rotation alleviate the above damage through altering soil environment. Methods A field experiment was conducted to investigate changes in soil properties and microbial community in response to legume rotation and mulching under six planting patterns: potato continuous cropping without film mulching (PC), potato continuous cropping with film mulching (PCF), potato–broad bean rotation without film mulching (R1), potato–broad bean rotation with film mulching (R1F), potato–pea rotation without film mulching (R2) and potato–pea rotation with film mulching (R2F). Results Compared with the PC, the R1F and R2F had significantly enhanced the contents of alkaline nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), total carbon (TC) and total nitrogen (TN), but reduced soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC). The Shannon index of fungi in R1F and R2 was significantly higher than other treatments. The dominant bacterial and fungal phyla of each treatment was Proteobacteria and Ascomycota. R1, R1F, R2 and R2F enhanced the relative abundance of metabolic fungi and altered key differential microbial species. Soil EC, AN and AK were major factors influencing the soil bacterial and fungal communities. Conclusion Overall, the study demonstrated that potato-broad bean/pea rotation with mulching can be adopted as the preferred cropping systems to alleviate potato continuous cropping obstacles through enhancing soil fertility and regulating soil microbial communities in the semi-arid of Loess Plateau, China. Graphical Abstract

Abstract Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek var. radiata) is a significant food and cash crop grown in tropical and subtropical regions. Mungbean production and consumer demand have increased substantially over the last two decades, owing to its agronomic, nutritional and economic benefits. Despite increased breeding efforts and the expansion of mungbean production in various agro‐climatic regions, further production is hindered by low yield and variability, which is partly attributed to the impacts of abiotic stress. Abiotic stress impacts on the physiology, morphology and reproductive ability of mungbean which influences yield. Exposure to abiotic stresses at the reproductive stage is considered the most critical for yield production. In this review, we evaluate how abiotic stress impacts mungbean growth and productivity when occurring during the reproductive stage and traits that may confer adaptation. We present the limitations of current research including limited number of genotypes, lack of field experiments and detailed experimental information. We highlight the opportunities to exploit new tools and technologies, such as high‐throughput phenotyping platforms, gene editing, and genomic selection, to accelerate breeding efforts to develop more resilient mungbean cultivars for today and tomorrow.

Highlights 1. Glutathione affected the synthesis of phenylpropanoid in the potato. 2. Glutathione affected the levels of plant hormone and the expression of related genes in potato. 3. Glutathione enhanced the tolerance of potato to cadmium stress. 4. Some genes play an important role in potato response to cadmium stress.

Abstract Background The potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important food crop in the alkaline soil area of northwest China. It is abundant in ascorbic acid (vitamin C), which facilitates iron absorption in the body. The large consumption of potato makes it a good food source of iron absorption for human body. However, iron deficiency in alkaline soil regions reduced chlorophyll synthesis in the leaves, resulting in lower photosynthesis and less sugar supply to the plant's healthy organs, significantly restricted crop development and yield, and inflicted major economic losses. Methods In this study, a 2-year (2020–2021) field trial was designed. Under foliar application of five different iron fertilizers: ferric sulfate [(Fe2(SO4)3], T1; ferrous sulfate (FeSO4·7H2O), T2; citric acid/ferric sulfate (CA/Fe2(SO4)3), T3; citric acid/ferrous sulfate (CA/FeSO4·7H2O), T4; ethylenediamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA-Fe·Na), T5, changes in potato plant photosynthesis were compared to no iron fertilization, CK conditions. The effects of various iron fertilizers on the yield, quality, and iron content of potato tubers, their correlations to chlorophyll levels, and the characteristics of photosynthetic fluorescence were studied. Results The results indicated that spraying iron fertilizers increased the yield, quality and Fe content of the tubers, which might be due to the improvement of the plants’ photosynthetic pigment content, gas exchange parameters and chlorophyll fluorescence. In two consecutive years of cultivation, we found that potato tuber yield and Fe content increased in potatoes treated with five iron fertilizer sprays. Among them, tuber yield increased most significantly by T5 and T3 treatments compared to CK, while Fe content was significantly higher by the T5 treatment than by CK and other treatments. Tuber yield was increased by 33.28% and 18.85% in 2020 and 50.74% and 54.48% in 2021 by T5 and T3 treatments, respectively, compared to CK. Fe content was increased by 112.64% and 54.98% in 2020 and 2021 by T5 treatment, respectively, compared to CK. Conclusions EDTA-Fe·Na and CA/Fe2(SO4)3 excelled over the other iron fertilizers. The findings of this study are instructive for developing cost-effective iron fertilizer management systems to maximize the impact of iron biofortification on human health. Graphical Abstract

Abstract Background The growth of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is severely affected by the complex and variable soil environment, and film mulching has been widely used for potato growth in semiarid areas of western China. However, there are few studies on the effects of film mulching on soil quality and tuber yield in potato fields. Methods The effects of four mulching patterns (flat plot without film mulching, FP; flat plot with film mulching, FPM; ridge planting with half mulch, RPHM; ridge planting with full mulch, RPFM) on soil chemical and biological properties and potato tuber yield were investigated during two growing seasons (2018 and 2019) in the field. Results The results showed that compared with FP, the mulching treatments significantly increased the tuber yield of potato, with an increase of 3.7–20.77% and 7.89–26.35% in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and the yield of RPFM was higher than that of other treatments. In both growing seasons, RPFM significantly increased the contents of alkali-hydrolyzed N and available P, and the activities of soil urease, catalase, alkaline phosphatase, and sucrase. Bacterial and actinomycete counts were significantly higher in RPFM than those in the other treatments. Furthermore, RPFM significantly increased large potatoes and decreased small potatoes. Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that soil alkaline dissolved nitrogen and actinomycete populations were the main factors affecting potato yield formation. Conclusions These results indicate that RPFM can improve the soil environment and further increase potato tuber yield, which is a viable option for potato production in semiarid areas. Graphical Abstract

The effect of FP (a flat plot without mulch), FPM (a flat plot with film mulching), RM (on-ridge planting with full film mulching), and FM (on-furrow planting with full film mulching) on the tuber and its storage quality of continuous cropping potatoes was investigated. The results showed that with the increase of continuous cropping years, the potato yield was reduced year by year. The furrow-ridge mulching film can significantly increase potato yield and reduce small tubers. Among them, the yield of RM was the highest. From the perspective of tuber quality, RM had the highest dry matter content and starch content, while FP had the lowest. Meanwhile, the reducing sugar content of FP was always higher than that of other treatments. The amino acid content and vitamin C content of FPM, RM, and FM were higher than FP before and after storage. In addition, with the extension of storage time, the dry matter content, starch content, amino acid content, and vitamin C content of all treatments decreased, while the content of reducing sugar increased significantly. Thus, on-ridge planting with full film mulching (RM) can effectively improve potato yield and tuber quality before and after storage.

Cadmium (Cd) stress is a ubiquitous abiotic stress affecting plant growth worldwide and negatively impacting crop yield and food safety. Potato is the most important non-grain crop globally, but there is limited research available on the response of this crop to Cd stress. This study explored the coping mechanism for Cd stress in potato through analyses of miRNA and mRNA. Tissue culture seedlings (20-day-old) of potato variety 'Atlantic' were cultured for up to 48 h in liquid medium containing 5 mmol/L CdCl2, and phenotypic, physiological, and transcriptomic changes were observed at specific times. With the extension of Cd stress time, the potato leaves gradually wilted and curled, and root salicylic acid (SA), glutathione (GSH), and lignin contents and peroxidase (POD) activity increased, while indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and zeatin (ZT) contents decreased. Using miRNA-seq, 161 existing miRNAs, 383 known miRNAs, and 7361 novel miRNAs were identified, and, 18 miRNAs were differentially expressed in response to Cd stress. Based on mRNA-seq, 7340 differentially expressed mRNAs (DEGs) were found. Through mRNA-miRNA integrated analysis, miRNA-target gene pairs consisting of 23 DEGs and 33 miRNAs were identified. Furthermore, “glutathione metabolism” “plant hormone signal transduction” and “phenylpropanoid biosynthesis” were established as crucial pathways in the Cd stress response of potato. Novel miRNAs novel-m3483-5p and novel-m2893-5p participate in these pathways through targeted regulation of cinnamic alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD; PG0005359) and alanine aminotransferase (POP; PG0024281), respectively. This study provides information that will help elucidate the complex mechanism of the Cd stress response in potato. Moreover, candidate miRNAs and mRNAs could yield new strategies for the development of Cd-tolerant potato breeding.

The effect of ridge and furrow film mulching (RFFM) on soil microbial communities, physicochemical property, enzymatic activity, and tuber yield were studied under the potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) continuous cropping fields managed for one (CY-1), two (CY-2) and four years (CY-4). Experimental treatments included a conventional flat plot without film mulching (FP) and five RFFM treatments: (i) a flat plot with film mulching (T1); (ii) on-ridge planting with full film mulching (T2); (iii) on-furrow planting with full film mulching (T3); (iv) on-ridge planting with half film mulching (T4); and (v) on-furrow planting with half film mulching (T5). Compared with FP, RFFM increased microbial communities, soil electrical conductivity, and enzymatic activities, and decreased pH values to improve the soil environment. Microbial communities of T2 and T5 were relatively higher, while soil urease and alkaline phosphatase activities of T2 and T4 were higher in all the continuous cropping years. In addition, the tuber yields of T2 were also increased by 75.0, 46.4 and 97.3% than FP, respectively. Thus, on-ridge planting with full film mulching (T2) is recommended as an adaptive management strategy for potato cultivation in the semi-arid areas where continuous cropping is necessary.

Lectin receptor-like kinases (LecRLKs) are involved in responses to diverse environmental stresses and pathogenic microbes. A comprehensive acknowledgment of the family members in potato (Solanum tuberosum) genome is largely limited until now. In total, 113 potato LecRLKs (StLecRLKs) were first identified, including 85 G-type, 26 L-type and 2 C-type members. Based on phylogenetic analysis, StLecRLKs were sub-grouped into seven clades, including C-type, L-type, G-I, G-II, G-III G-IV and G-V. Chromosomal distribution and gene duplication analysis revealed the expansion of StLecRLKs occurred majorly through tandem duplication although the whole-genome duplication (WGD)/segmental duplication events were found. Cis-elements in the StLecRLKs promoter region responded mainly to signals of defense and stress, phytohormone, biotic or abiotic stress. Moreover, expressional investigations indicated that the family members of the clades L-type, G-I, G-IV and G-V were responsive to both bacterial and fungal infection. Based on qRT-PCR analysis, the expressions of PGSC0003DMP400055136 and PGSC0003DMP400067047 were strongly induced in all treatments by both Fusarium sulphureum (Fs) and Phytophthora infestans (Pi) inoculation. The present study provides valuable information for LecRLKs gene family in potato genome, and establishes a foundation for further research into the functional analysis.