Constant global warming is one of the most detrimental environmental factors for agriculture causing significant losses in productivity as heat stress (HS) conditions damage plant growth and reproduction. In flowering plants such as tomato, HS has drastic repercussions on development and functionality of male reproductive organs and pollen. Response mechanisms to HS in tomato anthers and pollen have been widely investigated by transcriptomics; on the contrary, exhaustive proteomic evidences are still lacking. In this context, a differential proteomic study was performed on tomato anthers collected from two genotypes (thermo-tolerant and thermo-sensitive) to explore stress response mechanisms and identify proteins possibly associated to thermo-tolerance. Results showed that HS mainly affected energy and amino acid metabolism and nitrogen assimilation and modulated the expression of proteins involved in assuring protein quality and ROS detoxification. Moreover, proteins potentially associated to thermo-tolerant features, such as glutamine synthetase, S-adenosylmethionine synthase and polyphenol oxidase, were identified.

Statistical downscaling of climate data has been widely described in the literature, with the aim of improving the reliability of local climatic parameters from coarse-resolution (often >20 km) global datasets. In this article, we present ClimateDT, a dynamic downscaling web tool for monthly historical and future time series at a global scale. The core of ClimateDT is the 1 km 1981–2010 climatology from CHELSA Climate (version 2.1), where the CRU-TS layers for the period 1901-current are overlayed to generate a historic time series. ClimateDT also provides future scenarios from CMIP5 using UKCP18 projections (rcp2.6 and rcp8.5) and CMIP6 using 5 GCMs, also available on the CHELSA website. The system can downscale the grids using a dynamic approach (scale-free) by computing a local environmental lapse rate for each location as an adjustment for spatial interpolation. Local predictions of temperature and precipitation obtained by ClimateDT were compared with climate time series assembled from 12,000 meteorological stations, and the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and the explained variance (R²) were used as indicators of performance. The average MAEs for monthly values on the whole temporal scale (1901–2022) were around 1.26 °C for the maximum monthly temperature, 0.80 °C for the average monthly temperature, and 1.32 °C for the minimum monthly temperature. Regarding monthly total precipitation, the average MAE was 19 mm. As for the proportion of variance explained, average R² values were always greater than 0.95 for temperatures and around 0.70 for precipitation due to the different degrees of temporal autocorrelation of precipitation data across time and space, which makes the estimation more complex. The elevation adjustment resulted in very accurate estimates in mountainous regions and areas with complex topography and substantially improved the local climatic parameter estimations in the downscaling process. Since its first release in November 2022, more than 1300 submissions have been processed. It takes less than 2 min to calculate 45 locations and around 8 min for the full dataset (512 records).

Kale (Brassica oleracea L. var. acephala) is a widely appreciated vegetable with a century-old history of cultivation in Italy. The present study was addressed to the collection and characterization of kale germplasm traditionally cultivated in Apulia, Southern Italy, nowadays at risk of genetic erosion. In total, nineteen Apulian kale accessions were acquired. Genotyping by means of simple sequence repeat (SSR) DNA markers led to the identification of highly informative primer combinations and highlighted significant patterns of molecular variation among accessions. Consistently, significant differences were observed with respect to morpho-agronomic traits, including yield and harvesting time, and the content of bioactive compounds, namely total phenols, flavonoids, and anthocyanins, associated with antioxidant activity. Overall, this study led to the establishment of an ex situ collection of great importance to preserve endangered Apulian kale germplasm and to provide seed access to potential growers. Meanwhile, it offers a first characterization of Apulian kale, useful to promote its consumption and valorisation through breeding programmes.

Powdery mildew (PM) is a widespread fungal disease of plants in temperate climates, causing significant economic losses in agricultural settings. Specific homologs of the MLO gene family are PM susceptibility factors, as their loss-of function results in durable PM resistance (mlo resistance) in several plant species. The role of MLO susceptibility genes in plant-pathogen interactions is still elusive, however it is known that they are strongly upregulated following PM infection. In this study, we investigated the structure of 414 Putative Promoter Regions (PPRs) of MLO genes and highlighted motif and regulatory element patterns related to genomic relationships among species and phylogenetic distance among homologs. A TC box-like motif and a thymine-rich motif were found to be overrepresented in MLO genes transcriptionally upregulated upon infection with PM fungi. As proof of concept, we showed that the expression of a melon (Cucumis melo L.) gene enriched for the motifs above mentioned was strongly upregulated upon infection with the PM fungus Podosphaera xanthii. While identifying a candidate MLO susceptibility gene in melon, this study provides insight on the transcriptional control of MLO genes and indicates diagnostic features useful to identify MLO susceptibility genes across species affected by the PM disease.

Plant-derived biostimulants are gaining interest as sustainable tools to improve crop performance and quality. However, the potential of many wild plant species remains largely unexplored. This study characterized the biochemical composition of Silene vulgaris (syn. Silene inflata) leaves and roots and evaluated the biostimulant effects of their crude extracts, applied by irrigation at 1 and 10 mL/L, on greenhouse-grown lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Canasta). S. vulgaris leaves showed higher contents of proteins, chlorophylls, phenolic compounds, ascorbic acid and saponins than roots. The effects on lettuce varied according to the S. vulgaris organ used to prepare extracts, extract concentration and lettuce trait assessed. Leaf extract at 1 mL/L increased dry biomass, chlorophyll, protein, soluble sugar and phenolic contents, as well as antioxidant activity in lettuce, whereas at 10 mL/L it increased dry biomass and phenolic content. Fresh biomass remained unaffected. Root extract at 1 mL/L increased dry biomass, phenolic content and antioxidant activity, whereas at 10 mL/L it enhanced soluble sugar and phenolic contents. Overall, both leaf and root extracts influenced lettuce growth-related and biochemical traits in a concentration- and trait-dependent manner. These findings support further investigation of S. vulgaris as a potential source of plant-derived biostimulants for horticultural applications.

Plant-derived biostimulants are gaining interest as sustainable tools to improve crop per-formance and quality. However, the potential of many spontaneous plant species remains largely unexplored. This study evaluated the biochemical composition of leaf and root tissues of Silene vulgaris (syn. Silene inflata) and assessed the biostimulant activity of their extracts on lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Canasta). Leaf tissues showed substantially higher contents of proteins, phenolic compounds, ascorbic acid and saponins than roots, highlighting clear biochemical differences between the two organs. When applied as biostimu-lants, the leaf extract at lower concentration significantly increased dry biomass, chlorophyll, protein, soluble sugar and phenolic contents, as well as antioxidant activity in lettuce, whereas fresh biomass was unaffected. In contrast, root extracts induced weaker physiological responses, suggesting that additional bioactive constituents in leaves may contribute to their higher efficiency. Overall, the results indicate that S. vulgaris leaf extracts act primarily as metabolic biostimulants, enhancing plant physiological performance and nutritional quality rather than promoting biomass accumulation. These findings identify S. vulgaris as a promising source of plant-derived biostimulants with poten-tial applications in sustainable strategies aimed at improving the nutritional and func-tional quality of horticultural crops.