Mosaic is one of the most important sugarcane diseases, caused by single or compound infection of Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV), Sorghum mosaic virus (SrMV), and/or Sugarcane streak mosaic virus (SCSMV). The compound infection of mosaic has become increasingly serious in the last few years. The disease directly affects the photosynthesis and growth of sugarcane, leading to a significant decrease in cane yield and sucrose content, and thus serious economic losses. This review covers four aspects of sugarcane mosaic disease management: first, the current situation of sugarcane mosaic disease and its epidemic characteristics; second, the pathogenicity and genetic diversity of the three viruses; third, the identification methods of mosaic and its pathogen species; and fourth, the prevention and control measures for sugarcane mosaic disease and potential future research focus. The review is expected to provide scientific literature and guidance for the effective prevention and control of mosaic through resistance breeding in sugarcane.

A method using LC-ESI-IT-TOF/MS and LC/UV-ELSD was established to qualitatively analyze triterpene saponins obtained from the tea seed pomace (Camellia oleifera Abel). In addition, the quantitative analysis of oleiferasaponin A₁ using LC/UV was developed. The purified total saponins did not exhibit any inhibitory effects at concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 10 mg/mL against the tested bacteria, except for Staphyloccocus aureus and Escherichia coli. By contrast, higher inhibitory activity was seen against the tested fungi, especially against Bipolaris maydis. Following treatment with an MIC value of 250 μg/mL for 24 h, the mycelial morphology was markedly shriveled in appearance or showed flattened and empty hyphae, with fractured cell walls, ruptured plasmalemma and cytoplasmic coagulation or leakage. These structural changes hindered the growth of mycelia.

The leucine-rich repeat receptor-like protein kinase (LRR-RLK) gene family is the largest family of the receptor-like protein kinases (RLKs) superfamily in higher plants, which is involved in regulating the plant growth and development, stress responses, signal transduction and so on. However, no comprehensive analyses of LRR-RLKs have been reported in sugarcane. Here, we performed a comprehensive analysis of the LRR-RLK gene family in sugarcane ancestor species Saccharum spontaneum. A total of 437 LRR-RLK genes were identified and categorized into 14 groups based on a maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree. The chromosome location showed an uneven distribution on all 32 chromosomes in sugarcane. Subsequently, the exon–intron organization structure and conserved motif arrangement were relatively conserved among the same groups or subgroups and between Arabidopsis and S. spontaneum genomes. Furthermore, the promoter sequences analyses showed that sugarcane LRR-RLK genes (SsLRR-RLKs) were strongly regulated by various environmental stimuli, phytohormonal factors and transcription factors (TFs). Eventually, the expression profiles of SsLRR-RLK genes at different stresses were analyzed based on RNA-seq data, suggesting their potential roles in the regulation of sugarcane responses to diverse abiotic and biotic stress. Overall, the findings provide insight into the potential functional roles and lay the foundation for further functional study.

Sugarcane is an important sugar and bioenergy ethanol crop, and the hyperploidy has led to stagnant progress in sugarcane genome decipherment, which also hindered the genome-wide analyses of versatile lectin receptor kinases (LecRKs). The published genome of Saccharum spontaneum, one of the two sugarcane ancestor species, enables us to study the characterization of LecRKs and their responses to sugarcane leaf blight (SLB) triggered by Stagonospora tainanensis. A total of 429 allelic and non-allelic LecRKs, which were classified into evolved independently three types according to signal domains and phylogeny, were identified based on the genome. Regarding those closely related LecRKs in the phylogenetic tree, their motifs and exon architectures of representative L- and G-types were similar or identical. LecRKs showed an unequal distribution on chromosomes and more G-type tandem repeats may come from the gene expansion. Comparing the differentially expressed LecRKs (DELs) in response to SLB in sugarcane hybrid and ancestor species S. spontaneum, we found that the DEL number in the shared gene sets was highly variable among each sugarcane accession, which indicated that the expression dynamics of LecRKs in response to SLB were quite different between hybrids and particularly between sugarcane hybrid and S. spontaneum. In addition, C-type LecRKs may participate in metabolic processes of plant–pathogen interaction, mainly including pathogenicity and plant resistance, indicating their putative roles in sugarcane responses to SLB infection. The present study provides a basic reference and global insight into the further study and utilization of LecRKs in plants.

Sugarcane brown stripe (SBS), caused by the fungal pathogen Helminthosporium stenospilum, is one of the most serious threats to sugarcane production. However, its outbreaks and epidemics require suitable climatic conditions, resulting in the inefficient improvement of the SBS resistance by phenotype selection. The sugarcane F₁ population of SBS-resistant YT93-159 × SBS-susceptible ROC22 was used for constructing the bulks. Bulked segregant RNA-seq (BSR-seq) was then performed on the parents YT93-159 (T01) and ROC22 (T02), and the opposite bulks of 30 SBS-susceptible individuals mixed bulk (T03) and 30 SBS-resistant individuals mixed bulk (T04) collected from 287 F₁ individuals. A total of 170.00 Gb of clean data containing 297,921 SNPs and 70,426 genes were obtained. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) analysis suggested that 7787 and 5911 DEGs were identified in the parents (T01 vs. T02) and two mixed bulks (T03 vs. T04), respectively. In addition, 25,363 high-quality and credible SNPs were obtained using the genome analysis toolkit GATK for SNP calling. Subsequently, six candidate regions with a total length of 8.72 Mb, which were located in the chromosomes 4B and 7C of sugarcane wild species Saccharum spontaneum, were identified, and 279 genes associated with SBS-resistance were annotated by ED algorithm and ΔSNP-index. Furthermore, the expression profiles of candidate genes were verified by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis, and the results showed that eight genes (LRR-RLK, DHAR1, WRKY7, RLK1, BLH4, AK3, CRK34, and NDA2) and seven genes (WRKY31, CIPK2, CKA1, CDPK6, PFK4, CBL2, and PR2) of the 20 tested genes were significantly up-regulated in YT93-159 and ROC22, respectively. Finally, a potential molecular mechanism of sugarcane response to H. stenospilum infection is illustrate that the activations of ROS signaling, MAPK cascade signaling, Ca²⁺ signaling, ABA signaling, and the ASA-GSH cycle jointly promote the SBS resistance in sugarcane. This study provides abundant gene resources for the SBS resistance breeding in sugarcane.

Apples ( Malus domestica ) are among the most widely cultivated and economically valuable fruit tree crops worldwide. Summer pruning, encompassing thinning, branch bending, and ring wounding, is a method of regulating apple production and is important to fruit tree growth. Timely and appropriate application of this measure can control the vigorous growth of new shoots, promoting the differentiation of flower buds, enhancing early fruiting and yield of young trees, improving the ventilation and light conditions of trees, and reducing the occurrence of pests and diseases, thereby achieving superior fruit quality. However, excessive pruning negatively affects the tree’s strength, yield, and fruit quality. In this review, we concisely describe the physiological basis of summer pruning, the main manual pruning methods, the latest robotic pruning technologies, and their specific impacts on fruit quality and yield. We also analyze the main problems in current production, emphasizing the importance of robotic pruning as an important management measure for future large-scale and intelligent development of the apple industry. This information is beneficial to fruit tree researchers and growers and provides a scientific reference for apple production.