No-tillage of summer maize after the harvest of winter wheat is the primary agricultural practice on the North China Plain. However, prolonged no-tillage without deep tillage practices negatively impacts soil properties, which is detrimental to the growth and yield of summer maize. In this study, Xianyu 688 and Jifeng 2 were used as test maize materials, no-tillage and surface fertilizing with normal nitrogen (N) (BC240), no-tillage and surface fertilizing with N reduction (BC180), subsoiling layered fertilization with normal N (FC240) and subsoiling layered fertilization with N reduction (FC180)were designed, in order to assess root distribution, N utilization and grain yield of summer maize. In the two maize cultivars, the FC240 and FC180 treatments significantly reduced soil bulk density in the 10–50 cm depth soil layer compared to the other two treatments, and also increased total N content in the 20–50 cm depth soil layer. Compare BC 240 treatment, the FC240 treatment significantly increased root length in the 20–40 cm soil layer and root rap bleeding. Additionally, the FC240 and FC180 treatments enhanced dry matter and N accumulation, grain yield, N uptake efficiency and N fertilizer partial factor productivity. In various treatment, Xianyu 688 exhibited increased grain yield, N uptake efficiency and N fertilizer partial factor productivity compare with Jifeng 2. When employing a total N application level of 180–240 kg N/hm², the synergistic improvement of summer maize grain yield and N efficiency can be achieved by incorporating subsoiling combined with layered nitrogen application.

Investigating starch properties of different adzuki beans provides an important theoretical basis for its application. A comparative study was conducted to evaluate the starch content, processing, digestion, and structural quality of 12 adzuki bean varieties. The variation ranges of the 12 adzuki bean varieties with specific analyzed parameters, including the amylose/amylopectin (AM/AP) ratio, bean paste rate, water separation rate, solubility, swelling power and resistant starch (RS) content level, were 5.52–39.05%, 44.7–68.2%, 45.56–54.29%, 6.79–12.07%, 11.83–15.39%, and 2.02–14.634%, respectively. The crystallinity varied from 20.92 to 37.38%, belonging to type BC(The starch crystal type is mainly type C, supplemented by type B). In correlation analysis, red and blue represent positive and negative correlation, respectively. Correlation analysis indicated that the termination temperature of adzuki bean starch was positively correlated with AM/AP ratio. Therefore, the higher the melting temperature, the better the freeze–thaw stability. The 12 varieties were divided into Class I, Class II, and Class III by cluster analysis, based on application field. Class I was unsuitable for the diabetics’ diet; Class II was suitable for a stabilizer; and Class III was suitable for bean paste, mixtures, and thickeners. The present study could provide a theoretical basis for their application in the nutritional and nutraceutical field.

The flowering characteristics of adzuki bean are influenced by several environmental factors. Light is an important ecological factor that induces flowering in adzuki bean, but to date, there have been few reports on the transcriptomic features of photoperiodic regulation of adzuki bean flowering. This study is based on RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) techniques to elucidate the expression of light-related regulatory genes under short-day photoperiod inducement of adzuki bean flowering, providing an important theoretical basis for its accelerated breeding. Short-day photoperiod inducement of 10 h was conducted for 5 day, 10 day, and 15 day periods on “Tang shan hong xiao dou” varieties, which are more sensitive to short-day photoperiod conditions than the other varieties. Plants grown under natural light (14.5 h) for 5 days, 10 days, and 15 days were used as controls to compare the progress of flower bud differentiation and flowering characteristics. The topmost unfolded functional leaves were selected for transcriptome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis. The short-day photoperiod inducement promoted flower bud differentiation and advanced flowering time in adzuki bean. Transcriptomic analysis revealed 5,608 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) for the combination of CK-5d vs. SD-5d, CK-10d vs. SD-10d, and CK-15d vs. SD-15d. The three groups of the DEGs were analyzed using the Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genomes and Genomes (KEGG) databases; the DEGs were associated with flowering, photosystem, and the circadian rhythm and were mainly concentrated in the hormone signaling and metabolism, circadian rhythm, and antenna protein pathways; So, 13 light-related genes across the three pathways were screened for differential and expression characteristics. Through the functional annotations of orthologs, these genes were related to flowering, which were supposed to be good candidate genes in adzuki bean. The findings provide a deep understanding of the molecular mechanisms of adzuki bean flowering in response to short-day photoperiod inducement, which laid a foundation for the functional verification of genes in the next step, and provide an important reference for the molecular breeding of adzuki bean.

Adzuki bean ( Vigna angularis L.) is a characteristic economic crop with ecological adaptability and industrial potential. During crop production and cultivation, regulating light quality through photo-selective nets or films has become an important environmental control strategy for optimizing their yield and quality. This experiment studied the effects of different color photo-selective nets (red photo-selective net, RN; blue, BN; yellow, YN; green, GN; natural light, CK) on the yield, quality, agronomic traits, photosynthetic characteristics and antioxidant capacity of adzuki beans. The results demonstrate that, compared with CK, RN treatment significantly increased plant height (12.23%) and total dry weight (18.04%), while BN treatment significantly enhanced stem diameter (8.15%), root dry weight (21.62%) and root-shoot ratio (23.53%). RN and BN treatments both optimized the anatomical structure of leaves, showing that palisade tissue and spongy tissue increased significantly by 8.68%, 49.74% and 21.01%, 66.96% respectively compared with CK. This is possibly related to the increased net photosynthetic rate (RN: 23.18% and BN: 14.44% higher than CK) and stomatal conductance (RN: 15.82% and BN: 21.65% higher than CK) to minimize photosynthetic “noon break” depression, and ultimately enhancing the light energy conversion efficiency and actual light energy capture efficiency of the PSII reaction center. Under both RN and BN treatments, the activities of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, POD, CAT) were enhanced to suppress reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation; Meanwhile, the malondialdehyde (MDA) content was correspondingly reduced by 11.62% and 39.08% compared to CK. Crucially, RN treatment significantly enhanced the yield of adzuki beans (15.05%), starch content (4.69%), and total phenol content (20.00%) compared to CK. BN treatment substantially increased yield (10.63%), soluble protein content (7.69%), amino acid content (9.55%), and total flavonoid content (38.05%). Under GN treatment, although the yield of adzuki beans decreased (8.56%) and the net photosynthetic rate reduced (2.25%), the total flavonoid content of adzuki beans significantly increased by 51.21%. In conclusion, the red and blue light treatments enhance both photosynthetic capacity and yield and improve quality traits in adzuki beans, offering novel insights into optimizing light environments in cultivating specialized legume varieties.

Isopentyltransferase (IPT) is a key rate-limiting enzyme in cytokinin synthesis, playing a crucial role in plant growth, development, and response to adverse conditions. Although the IPT gene family has been studied in various plants, comprehensive identification and functional characterization of IPT genes in maize (Zea mays) remain underexplored. In this study, ten IPT gene family members (ZmIPT1–ZmIPT10) were identified in the maize genome, and their gene structure, physicochemical properties, evolutionary relationships, expression patterns, and stress response characteristics were systematically analyzed. The ZmIPT genes were found to be unevenly distributed across six chromosomes, with most proteins predicted to be basic and localized primarily in chloroplasts. Phylogenetic analysis grouped the ZmIPT family into four subfamilies, showing close evolutionary relationships with rice IPT genes. Conserved motif and gene structure analyses indicated that the family members were structurally conserved, with five collinear gene pairs being identified. Ka/Ks analysis revealed that these gene pairs underwent strong purifying selection during evolution.Cis-element analysis of promoter regions suggested that ZmIPT genes are widely involved in hormone signaling and abiotic stress responses. Tissue-specific expression profiling showed that ZmIPT5, ZmIPT7, and ZmIPT8 were highly expressed in roots, with ZmIPT5 exhibiting consistently high expression under multiple abiotic stresses. qRT-PCR validation confirmed that ZmIPT5 expression peaked at 24 h after stress treatment, indicating its key role in long-term stress adaptation. Protein interaction analysis further revealed potential interactions between ZmIPT5 and cytokinin oxidases (CKX1, CKX5), as well as FPP/GGPP synthase family proteins, suggesting a regulatory role in cytokinin homeostasis and stress adaptation. Overall, this study provides comprehensive insights into the structure and function of the ZmIPT gene family and identifies ZmIPT5 as a promising candidate for improving stress tolerance in maize through molecular breeding.

Background No-tillage of summer maize after the harvest of winter wheat is the primary agricultural practice on the North China Plain. However, prolonged no-tillage without deep tillage practices negatively impacts soil properties, which is detrimental to the growth and yield of summer maize. Methods Xianyu 688 and Jifeng 2 were used as test materials, no-tillage and surface fertilizing with normal N (BC240), no-tillage and surface fertilizing with N reduction (BC180), subsoiling layered fertilization with normal N (FC240) were designed, and subsoiling layered fertilization with N reduction (FC180), assess root distribution, dry matter accumulation, N absorption and utilization, and grain yield of summer maize. Results The FC240 and FC180 treatments significantly reduced soil bulk density in the 10-50 cm depth soil layer compared to the BC240 and BC180 treatments, and also increased total N content in the 20-50 cm depth soil layer. Root length in the 20-40 cm soil layer significantly increased with the FC240 treatment, along with a notable increase in root exudates, which improved root vitality during later growth stages. Additionally, the FC240 and FC180 treatments enhanced plant dry matter accumulation, N accumulation, and grain yield. Xianyu 688 exhibited increased N uptake efficiency, N fertilizer partial factor productivity, and N harvest index, while Jifeng 2 showed increased N uptake efficiency and N fertilizer partial factor productivity. Conclusion It provided useful enlightenment for selecting suitable maize varieties, formulating effective management strategies and cultivating high N-efficient varieties under the condition of subsoiling combine with layered N application.