A unique ecological landscape distributed in the Mongolian Plateau, called fairy rings, caused by the growth of the fungus Leucocalocybe mongolica (LM) in the soil could promote plant growth without fertilization. Therefore, this landscape can alleviate fertilizer use and has excellent value for agricultural production. The previous studies only investigated several parameters of the fairy rings, such as soil microbial diversity and some soil chemical properties, thus conclusions based on the studies on fairy rings lack comprehension. Therefore, the present study systematically investigated the chemical properties, metabolome, and metabarcoding of LM-transformed soil. We analyzed fairy ring soils from DARK (FR) and OUT (CK) zone correlated growth promotion with ten soil chemical properties, including N, nitrate-N, inorganic-P, cellulose, available boron, available sulfur, Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu, which were identified as important markers to screen fairy ring landscapes. Metabolomics showed that the accumulation of 17 carbohydrate-dominated metabolites was closely associated with plant growth promotion. Finally, metabarcoding detected fungi as the main components affecting soil conversion. Among the various fungi at the family level, Lasiosphaeriaceae, unidentified_Auriculariales_sp, and Herpotrichiellaceae were markers to screen fairy ring. Our study is novel and systematically reveals the fairy ring soil ecology and lists the key factors promoting plant growth. These findings lay a theoretical foundation for developing the fairy ring landscape in an agricultural system.

Sugarcane is cultivated mainly for its high sucrose content but it can also produce many metabolites with promising antioxidant potential. However, very few studies have been reported on the biosynthesis of metabolites in sugarcane to date. In this study, we have identified a wide range of amino acids and organic acids in the rind of six sugarcane varieties by the LC-MS/MS method. A total number of 72 amino acids and 55 organic acid compounds were characterized; among these, 100 were reported for the first time. Moreover, 13 amino acids and seven organic acids were abundantly distributed in all varieties tested and considered major amino acids and organic acids in sugarcane. The variety Taitang134 (F134) showed the highest content of total amino acids, whereas the varieties ROC16 and Yuetang93/159 (YT93/159) had maximum content of organic acids. The amino acids of the rind extract presented higher antioxidant capacity than the organic acids of the rind extract. In addition, the transcriptomic and metabolic integrated analysis highlighted some candidate genes associated with amino acid biosynthesis in sugarcane. We selected a transcription factor gene, MYB(t), and over-expressed it in Arabidopsis. The transgenic plants showed a higher accumulation of amino acids with higher antiradical activity compared with the wild-type Arabidopsis plants. Thus, we characterize a wide range of amino acids and organic acids and their antiradical activities in different sugarcane varieties and present candidate genes that can be potentially valuable for the genetic improvement of metabolites in sugarcane bagasse

Fenlong-ridging (FL) is a recently proposed conservation tillage technology which has dramatic differences to traditional ones. Previous studies have demonstrated in many crops that FL has yield-increasing effects without additional inputs. However, little is known about the role that microbes play in mediating the growth-promoting effects of FL, which restricts its further application and improvement. Here, we characterized variation in the soil and root microbial diversity of sugarcane (GT44) under FL and traditional turn-over plough tillage (CK) by conducting 16S rRNA and ITS metabarcoding surveys. We also measured several phenotypic traits to determine sugarcane yields and analyzed the chemical properties of soil. We found that: (i) plant height (PH) and total biomass weight (TW) of sugarcane plants were 9.1% and 21.7% greater under FL than those under CK, indicating\increased biomass yield of the sugarcane in FL operation; (ii) contents of organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, and available potassium were lower in soil under FL than those under CK, which indicates the utilization of soil nutrients was greater in FL soil; (iii) FL promoted the activity of endophytic microbes in the roots, and these diverse microbial taxa might have an effect on sugarcane yield and soil chemical properties; and (iv) Sphingomonas, Rhizobium, and Paraburkholderia and Talaromyces, Didymella, and Fusarium were the top three most abundant genera of bacteria and fungi, respectively, in soil and root samples. In addition, strains from Rhizobium and Talaromyces were isolated to verify the results of the metabarcoding survey. Overall, our study provides new insights into the role of microbes in mediating the growth-promoting effects of FL. These findings could be used to further improve applications of this novel conservation tillage technology.

Sugarcane wax has the potential to be utilized as a novel natural insecticide, which could help to reduce the large yield losses caused by agricultural pests. By employing the gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) approach, we conducted a study to analyze the composition of epicuticular wax from the rind of the sugarcane variety YT71210. A total of 157 metabolites, categorized into 15 classes, were identified, with naphthalene, a metabolite with insect-resistant properties, being the most prevalent. The feeding trial experiment suggested that sugarcane wax is toxic to silkworms by impacting the internal organs. Intestinal microbial diversity analysis suggested that the abundance of Enterococcus genus was significantly increased in both ordure and gut of silkworm after wax treatment. The results indicated that the feeding of wax has an adverse effect on the gut microbial composition of silkworms. Our findings lay a foundation for the efficacy of sugarcane waxes as a valuable natural insecticide and for the prediction of promising sugarcane varieties with insect resistance.