Sugarcane breeding: a fantastic past and promising future driven by technology and methods

Sugarcane is the most important sugar and energy crop in the world. During sugarcane breeding, technology is the requirement and methods are the means. As we know, seed is the cornerstone of the development of the sugarcane industry. Over the past century, with the advancement of technology and the expansion of methods, sugarcane breeding has continued to improve, and sugarcane production has realized a leaping growth, providing a large amount of essential sugar and clean energy for the long-term mankind development, especially in the face of the future threats of world population explosion, reduction of available arable land, and various biotic and abiotic stresses. Moreover, due to narrow genetic foundation, serious varietal degradation, lack of breakthrough varieties, as well as long breeding cycle and low probability of gene polymerization, it is particularly important to realize the leapfrog development of sugarcane breeding by seizing the opportunity for the emerging Breeding 4.0, and making full use of modern biotechnology including but not limited to whole genome selection, transgene, gene editing, and synthetic biology, combined with information technology such as remote sensing and deep learning. In view of this, we focus on sugarcane breeding from the perspective of technology and methods, reviewing the main history, pointing out the current status and challenges, and providing a reasonable outlook on the prospects of smart breeding

Soil Bacteria Mediate Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration under Different Tillage and Straw Management in Rice-Wheat Cropping Systems

Soil organic carbon (SOC) largely influences soil quality and sustainability. The effects of no-till (NT) and crop straw return practices (SR) on soil organic carbon sequestration have been well documented. However, the mechanism of soil bacterial community in regulating soil organic carbon under NT and SR remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the impacts of tillage (conventional tillage (CT) and NT) and crop straw return practices (crop straw removal (NS) and SR) on topsoil layer (0–5 cm) bacterial community, CH4 and CO2 emissions and SOC fractions in rice-wheat cropping system. Overall, in the wheat season following the annual rice-wheat rotation in two cycles, NT significantly increased SOC by 4.4% for 1–2 mm aggregates in the 0–5 cm soil layer, but decreased CO2 emissions by 7.4%. Compared with NS, SR notably increased the contents of SOC in the topsoil layer by 6.5% and in macro-aggregate by 17.4% in 0–5 cm soil layer, and promoted CH4 emissions (by 22.3%) and CO2 emissions (by 22.4%). The combination of NT and NS resulted in relatively high SOC and low CH4 emissions along with high bacterial community abundance. The most abundant genus under different treatments was Gp6, which significant impacted SOC and MBC. Bacterial communities like Subdivision3 had the most impact on CH4 emissions. Structural equation modeling further suggested that the soil bacterial community indirectly mediated the SOC through balancing SOC in 1–2 mm aggregates and CH4 emissions. This study provides a new idea to reveal the mechanism of short-term tillage and straw return on SOC

Soil Bacteria Mediate Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration under Different Tillage and Straw Management in Rice-Wheat Cropping Systems

Soil organic carbon (SOC) largely influences soil quality and sustainability. The effects of no-till (NT) and crop straw return practices (SR) on soil organic carbon sequestration have been well documented. However, the mechanism of soil bacterial community in regulating soil organic carbon under NT and SR remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the impacts of tillage (conventional tillage (CT) and NT) and crop straw return practices (crop straw removal (NS) and SR) on topsoil layer (0–5 cm) bacterial community, CH4 and CO2 emissions and SOC fractions in rice-wheat cropping system. Overall, in the wheat season following the annual rice-wheat rotation in two cycles, NT significantly increased SOC by 4.4% for 1–2 mm aggregates in the 0–5 cm soil layer, but decreased CO2 emissions by 7.4%. Compared with NS, SR notably increased the contents of SOC in the topsoil layer by 6.5% and in macro-aggregate by 17.4% in 0–5 cm soil layer, and promoted CH4 emissions (by 22.3%) and CO2 emissions (by 22.4%). The combination of NT and NS resulted in relatively high SOC and low CH4 emissions along with high bacterial community abundance. The most abundant genus under different treatments was Gp6, which significant impacted SOC and MBC. Bacterial communities like Subdivision3 had the most impact on CH4 emissions. Structural equation modeling further suggested that the soil bacterial community indirectly mediated the SOC through balancing SOC in 1–2 mm aggregates and CH4 emissions. This study provides a new idea to reveal the mechanism of short-term tillage and straw return on SOC

Comprehensive Evaluation of Appreciation of <i>Rhododendron</i> Based on Analytic Hierarchy Process

Qinting Lake Park has effectively imported Rhododendron varieties from Zhejiang Province. The analytic hierarchy process was employed to devise an evaluation framework to evaluate the ornamental and adaptive features of these species. Subsequently, we conducted a standardized evaluation of 24 species for their ornamental and adaptive traits under controlled cultivation conditions. The findings indicated that the percentage of ornamental flowers in the first-level index was significantly greater than the other two factors, indicating that the ornamental value of flowers was the most important in the evaluation of Rhododendron ornamental value. Among the secondary indicators, the proportion of flower color and flower weight was significantly higher than that of other factors, which had the greatest impact on the evaluation results. The 24 Rhododendron species were classified into two grades based on their ornamental value, as determined by index weights and scoring standards. Rhododendron ‘Xueqing’, Rhododendron ‘Big Qinglian’, and Rhododendron ‘Jinyang No. 9’ exhibited superior ornamental value and demonstrated more favorable suitability for garden applications