Hedera helix L. (common ivy), grows worldwide and, is an evergreen root-climbing liana commonly used in parks, green belts (Metcalfe 2005), indoor as an ornamental and as a traditional medicinal pl...

T. aestivum (Triticum aestivum) (L.), rich in protein, carbohydrates, and minerals, is one of the world’s most important cereal grain crops, serving as the staple food source for 30% of the human population, underscoring its critical role in global food security. However, adverse environmental conditions such as high temperature and drought can severely restrict its growth, making the improvement of abiotic stress tolerance in T. aestivum a key research priority. The COBRA-like (COBL) gene family is key to regulating plant cell wall formation and abiotic stress responses. So far, a systematic genome-wide identification and functional characterization of the COBL gene family in T. aestivum has not been fully elucidated. Therefore, studying the involvement of the COBL gene family in abiotic stress regulation in T. aestivum could be very informative in showing how this crop deals with such stressful conditions. In this study, 39 TaCOBL gene family members were identified in the genome of T. aestivum genome using a combined approach of the HMMER (E-value threshold of 1e^-5) program and BLASTP (E-value threshold of 1e^-5). Comprehensive analyses were performed on their physicochemical properties, phylogenetic relationships, gene structures, conserved motifs, duplication events, and cis-acting elements. Using MEGA7 software to construct a phylogenetic tree of the COBL gene family revealed that this family can be divided into two Groups (Group I and Group II), which exhibit significant differences in gene structure and conserved motif composition. Analysis of duplication events indicated that whole-genome duplication (WGD) served as the primary mechanism for the expansion of the TaCOBL family. Most of the TaCOBL duplication gene pairs have a Ka/Ks ratio less than 1, except for TaCOBL-5 A/TaCOBL6-D, indicating the presence of purifying selection. The 2 kb upstream promoter region of the TaCOBL family genes revealed an abundance of cis-regulatory elements associated with hormones, stress responses, light signaling, and growth/development. Expression profiling using RNA-seq data demonstrated that TaCOBL genes were significantly differentially expressed in roots, stems, leaves, spikes and grains. Notably, based on log² fold-change cutoff, TaCOBL9-D, TaCOBL14-A and TaCOBL14-D might are candidates genes for wheat heat stress tolerance, and TaCOBL3-B, TaCOBL8-B, TaCOBL9-A and TaCOBL9-B for drought stress tolerance. Overall, this study provides a theoretical foundation for the further function characterization of the TaCOBL gene family and proposes potential candidate genes for breeding stress-resistant T. aestivum. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12870-026-08802-5.

Endophytic fungi are asymptomatic microorganisms that inhabit plant tissues and play pivotal roles in regulating crop growth under field conditions. This review first provides an overview of their taxonomy and ecological functions, emphasizing natural diversity and distribution, then systematically summarizes their core mechanisms: enhancing nutrient uptake, regulating phytohormone biosynthesis, promoting root development, and boosting resistance to abiotic stresses (e.g., drought, salinity). We further discuss the agricultural potential and existing challenges, including stability, persistence, and compatibility with current farming practices. Future research directions are outlined to advance sustainable agriculture, focusing on dissecting molecular interactions between endophytic fungi and crops, optimizing application techniques, and evaluating long-term ecological impacts. This work provides a comprehensive reference for agricultural scientists, ecologists, and researchers to facilitate the practical application of endophytic fungi, encouraging further research, and practical applications in this field.

Accurate monitoring of photosynthetic phenotypes is fundamental for breeding high photosynthetic-efficiency wheat cultivars, and UAV remote sensing provides an effective approach for their large-scale identification. However, single photosynthetic parameters are limited in comprehensively evaluating crop photosynthetic efficiency. This study integrated multiple photosynthetic phenotypic parameters using principal component analysis (PCA) and the CRITIC objective weighting method (PCA-CRITIC) to construct a Comprehensive High Photosynthetic-Efficiency Phenotypic Index (CHPPI) for winter wheat. Concurrently, multispectral vegetation indices (MSVI), RGB vegetation indices (RGBVI), texture features (TF), and their combination, Comprehensive Multispectral-Visible-Texture Features (CMVTF), were extracted from UAV multimodal remote sensing data. Based on these features, four feature selection methods, namely PCC, VIP, SPA, and UVE, were evaluated in combination with five machine learning algorithms, including KNN, DT, SVR, RF, and XGBoost, to precisely estimate the CHPPI across key growth stages. The results demonstrated that the CHPPI exhibited significant cultivar variations across growth stages. Cultivars SH06144 and Liangxing19 consistently maintained high photosynthetic efficiency levels. The fused feature set CMVTF derived from multimodal remote sensing data outperformed individual feature categories, and the feature subset selected by the UVE method most significantly enhanced model accuracy. Regarding algorithms, the ensemble-based XGBoost and RF models markedly surpassed traditional machine learning algorithms. Specifically, the CMVTF-UVE-XGBoost model achieved the optimal comprehensive performance, yielding an R² of 0.862, an RMSE of 0.032, and an MAE of 0.027 on the testing set, with its spatial distribution estimations highly consistent with measured values. This study provides robust technical support for the rapid and large-scale screening of high photosynthetic-efficiency wheat breeding materials.

Cadmium (Cd) contamination poses a significant threat to wheat productivity and food safety. This study demonstrates that TaMAN7-4B, which encodes an endo-β-mannanase involved in the metabolism of cell wall mannans, is significantly upregulated in response to Cd stress, thereby enhancing Cd tolerance by increasing the root cell wall mannan content and facilitating Cd sequestration. Furthermore, we identified the transcription factor TabZIP27 as a direct regulator of TaMAN7-4B expression. TabZIP27 is phosphorylated by the kinase TaCIPK16, which stabilizes TabZIP27 by suppressing its proteasome-dependent degradation. This phosphorylation event subsequently promotes the transcription of TaMAN7-4B, resulting in enhanced Cd binding within the root cell walls and reduced translocation of Cd from roots to shoots. Our findings elucidate a novel regulatory module, TaCIPK16-TabZIP27-TaMAN7-4B, which governs Cd accumulation in wheat, thereby providing potential targets for the breeding of low-Cd cultivars.