Papaya is widely grown in tropical and subtropical climates due to its high yield potential and high returns. The vital hormone melatonin, regulating various biological processes in plants, is eco-friendly and less harmful to humans than other chemicals. This study aims to enhance the quality and antioxidant enzyme activities and lessen postharvest senescence in papaya cv. CO 8 fruits during both ambient (32 ± 2 °C and 55 ± 5% RH) and cold storage (10 ± 2 °C and 90–95% RH) as exogenous melatonin (EMT) is applied in varying concentrations. An optimum melatonin dose of 1.5 mM was applied as a pre-harvest spray 15 days before harvest and a postharvest dip proved effective in prolonging shelf life (under ambient it prolonged to day 9 and under cold storage up to 28 days) and delaying ripening and softening. Exogenous melatonin application enhanced antioxidant activity, reduced weight loss, maintained firmness, delayed ripening enzymes, and lowered ethylene and CO₂ levels. For instance, control fruits had weight losses between 7.42% and 10.09%, while fruits treated with 1.5 mM melatonin showed 5.74% and 9.06% weight loss under ambient and cold storage, respectively. In conclusion, applying EMT (1.5 mM) could be an economically viable and environmentally benign way to lessen senescence after harvest and preserve the qualities of the papaya fruit during ambient and cold storage.

Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is a highly nutritious fruit crop cultivated commercially in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Being a shallow rooted fruit crop, it requires frequent application of nutrients. Papaya is highly remunerative due to its high productivity and responds positively to nutrient application. Papaya Ring Spot Virus (PRSV) is a major threat to papaya production, which causes severe yield loss and reduces fruit quality. To combat PRSV and enhance productivity, a nutrient formulation was developed by combining organic, inorganic nutrient sources with biocontrol agents to improve the health and vigor of the plants. Experiments were conducted to standardize the application time and evaluate the efficacy of nutrient formulation in enhancing yield, and to combat papaya ring spot virus (PRSV) incidence in papaya from January 2021 to December 2023 at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. The results revealed that foliar application of nutrient formulation at monthly intervals from the 3rd to the 7th month after planting (MAP) along with regular application of recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) at bimonthly intervals from the 3rd MAP significantly increased the yield (37.79% and 30.57% in TNAU Papaya CO 8 and Red Lady, respectively) and reduced PRSV disease incidence (22.49% in TNAU Papaya CO 8 and 16.53% in Red Lady). Metabolomics study indicates that foliar spray of nutrient formulation enhanced the activators and precursors of defense enzymes, viz., peroxidase (PO), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), phenyl ammonia lyase (PAL), catalase (CAT) and nitrate reductase (NRase) in the sprayed plants over unsprayed control. Therefore, the sprayed plants exhibited tolerance to PRSV incidence by maintaining vigor and induced systemic resistance by the defense enzymes.

Moringa is customarily cultivated in the Indian house backyards due to its richness in medicinal, nutritional, environmental and fodder value. The perennial trees, maintained with biannual pruning, are photo-insensitive and flower year-round regardless of light or temperature variations. From a human diet perspective, tender leaves are consumed as green leafy vegetables due to their high nutrient value and are also known to cure various human diseases. Pods are widely used in various culinary recipes. Environmentally, moringa can remove wastewater-based pollutants, making it ideal for areas lacking proper drainage systems by cleaning soil soaked in household wastewater. On small-scale farms, where livestock are raised based on the availability of crop residues or excess vegetation from non-arable lands or soils of poor fertility, moringa provides nutrient-rich foliage for animal feed. Incorporating moringa foliage and its byproduct into animal diet improves animal health and reduces the calving gap in dairy animals. Moringa also can impart plant resistance to various abiotic stresses and control plant diseases in an eco-friendly way. The antimicrobial (antifungal and antibacterial) properties of moringa are numerous and deserve noteworthy mention. This manuscript aims to provide comprehensive information on moringa utilities, promote further scientific research to explore its potential as a nutritionally rich food and feed, phytoremediation and pharmaceutical applications and provide sustainable environmental solutions to enhance agricultural productivity and combat malnutrition effectively.

Plant systems have gained increased attention as an alternative platform for producing heterologous proteins, particularly for industrially relevant proteins. The Cynara cardunculus L. flower extract is traditionally used in cheese production across Mediterranean countries due to its milk‐clotting properties. To address the growing demand for plant‐based milk‐clotting enzymes, we investigated the heterologous production of cyprosin B (CYPB), a key milk‐clotting enzyme, in Nicotiana benthamiana . We also examined the role of its plant‐specific insert (PSI) domain in enzymatic activity, protein yield and subcellular localisation. Full‐length CYPB and a PSI domain‐deleted variant (CYPBΔPSI) were transiently expressed in N. benthamiana leaves using agroinfiltration. Proteins were purified 9 days post‐infiltration, yielding ~81 mg/kg (CYPB) and ~60 mg/kg (CYPBΔPSI) fresh weight. CYPBΔPSI showed higher proteolytic activity (~168 IU/mg) than CYPB (~57 IU/mg) and exhibited faster milk‐clotting times, suggesting that PSI removal may contribute to enhanced enzymatic efficiency. However, additional factors such as altered glycosylation or localisation may also play a role. Subcellular localisation indicated that CYPB and its PSI domain targeted the vacuole and endocytic vesicles, while CYPBΔPSI predominantly localised to the endoplasmic reticulum and tonoplast. This suggests that the PSI domain's vital role in vacuolar targeting and membrane permeabilisation ultimately influences protein yield. Our study shows N. benthamiana as a scalable platform for producing recombinant CYPB variants with improved enzymatic activity. It highlights the PSI domain's role in vacuolar sorting without impairing function. These findings contribute to the development of plant‐based systems for milk‐clotting enzymes for cheese‐making.

Fermented foods have gained increasing scientific interest for their potential to modulate gut microbiota and provide probiotic microorganisms with possible health benefits. This intervention trial examined the impact of daily consumption of water kefir, a sustainable plant-based fermented beverage, on gut microbiota composition in 40 healthy adults. Participants consumed 200 mL of homemade water kefir daily for 14 days, with fecal samples collected before and after the intervention. Some participants reported mild, transient gastrointestinal effects such as flatulence (32%) and bloating (24%), which are common when introducing live microorganisms, while others experienced reduced abdominal pain (28%), and most (66%) reported no noticeable change in symptoms. 16S rRNA sequencing revealed significant shifts in microbial composition, including a 6.5% decrease in Firmicutes and increases in Bacteroidetes (+ 21.6%) and Actinobacteria (+ 14.8%). At the species level, beneficial taxa such as Blautia spp. and Roseburia faecis increased, along with commensals including Bacteroides fragilis , Bacteroides uniformis , Gemmiger formicilis , Prevotella copri , and Parabacteroides distasonis ( p < 0.01). Although α- diversity remained unchanged, β -diversity differed significantly between pre- and post-intervention samples ( p = 0.025). By comparing the relative abundance of dominant genera in participants’ gut microbiota and in water kefir, overlapping genera such as Lactobacillus , Bifidobacterium , Prevotella , Coprococcus , and Faecalibacterium were identified. Among these, Bifidobacterium and Prevotella increased, Coprococcus decreased, and Lactobacillus and Faecalibacterium remained stable. Genera exclusive to the gut microbiota also exhibited differential changes. These findings suggest that water kefir consumption is associated with modulation of the gut microbiota, including increases in saccharolytic and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA)-producing taxa, potentially influenced by its exopolysaccharides and microbial community. Some genera from water kefir may transiently affect the gut microbiome, and the concurrent increase in Bifidobacterium and Prevotella may suggest a potential probiotic-like effect. However, causality cannot be established, and further studies are needed to assess the persistence of these changes and their long-term clinical relevance.

Background: Plant-microbe interactions in two root compartments - the rhizosphere and endosphere - play vital roles in maintaining plant health and ecosystem dynamics. The microbial communities in these niches are shaped in complex ways by factors including the plant’s developmental stage and cultivar, and the compartment where the interactions occur. Different plant cultivars provide distinct nutritional and ecological niches and may selectively enrich specific microbial populations through the secretion of root exudates. This gives rise to complex and dynamic plant-microbe interactions; some cultivars promote the recruitment of beneficial symbionts while others may deter pathogens. To clarify these processes, this work investigated the structure of the endosphere and rhizosphere microbial communities of wild type finger millet and five domesticated cultivars across two plant developmental stages. Results: Our results showed that the plant developmental stage, compartment, and cultivar have varying degrees of impact on root-associated microbiomes. The dominant bacterial phyla in all samples were Proteobacteria , Actinobacteria , and Bacteroidetes , while the dominant fungal phyla were Ascomycota and Basidiomycota . All of these phyla exhibited pronounced variations in abundance. In general, an increased abundance of Actinobacteria in the endosphere was accompanied by a reduced abundance of Proteobacteria . The most pronounced changes in microbial community structure were observed in the rhizosphere during the flowering stage. Changes in the microbiome patterns of the rhizosphere were driven predominantly by the genus Pseudomonas. Moreover, the host plant’s developmental stage strongly influenced the microbial communities, suggesting that plants can recruit specific taxa based on their need for particular soil consortia. Conclusions: Our results show that both host developmental stage and domestication strongly affect the assembly and structure of the plant microbiome. Moreover, plant root compartments can selectively recruit specific taxa from associated core microbial communities to fulfill their needs in a manner that depends on both the plant’s developmental stage and the specific root compartment that is involved. These findings show that deterministic selection pressures exerted by plants during their growth and development can significantly affect their microbial communities and have important implications for efforts to create tools for manipulating the microbiome to sustainably improve primary productivity.