Heat and drought events often occur concurrently as a consequence of climate change and have a severe impact on crop growth and yield. Besides, the accumulative increase in the atmospheric CO₂ level is expected to be doubled by the end of this century. It is essential to understand the consequences of climate change combined with the CO₂ levels on relevant crops such as wheat. This study evaluated the physiology and metabolite changes and grain yield in heat-sensitive (SF29) and heat-tolerant (LM20) wheat genotypes under individual heat stress or combined with drought applied during anthesis at ambient (aCO₂) and elevated CO₂ (eCO₂) levels. Both genotypes enhanced similarly the WUE under combined stresses at eCO₂. However, this increase was due to different stress responses, whereas eCO₂ improved the tolerance in heat-sensitive SF29 by enhancing the gas exchange parameters, and the accumulation of compatible solutes included glucose, fructose, β-alanine, and GABA to keep water balance; the heat-tolerant LM20 improved the accumulation of phosphate and sulfate and reduced the lysine metabolism and other metabolites including N-acetylornithine. These changes did not help the plants to improve the final yield under combined stresses at eCO₂. Under non-stress conditions, eCO₂ improved the yield of both genotypes. However, the response differed among genotypes, most probably as a consequence of the eCO₂-induced changes in glucose and fructose at anthesis. Whereas the less-productive genotype LM20 reduced the glucose and fructose and increased the grain dimension as the effect of the eCO₂ application, the most productive genotype SF29 increased the two carbohydrate contents and ended with higher weight in the spikes. Altogether, these findings showed that the eCO₂ improves the tolerance to combined heat and drought stress but not the yield in spring wheat under stress conditions through different mechanisms. However, under non-stress conditions, it could improve mainly the yield to the less-productive genotypes. Altogether, the results demonstrated that more studies focused on the combination of abiotic stress are needed to understand better the spring wheat responses that help the identification of genotypes more resilient and productive under these conditions for future climate conditions.

Although there is an increasing awareness of the suitability of using compositional data methodology in public health research, classical methods of statistical analysis have been primarily used so far. The present study aims to illustrate the potential of robust statistics to model movement behaviour using Czech adolescent data. We investigated: (1) the inter-relationship between various physical activity (PA) intensities, extended to model relationships by age; and (2) the associations between adolescents’ PA and sedentary behavior (SB) structure and obesity. These research questions were addressed using three different types of compositional regression analysis—compositional covariates, compositional response, and regression between compositional parts. Robust counterparts of classical regression methods were used to lessen the influence of possible outliers. We outlined the differences in both classical and robust methods of compositional data analysis. There was a pattern in Czech adolescents’ movement/non-movement behavior—extensive SB was related to higher amounts of light-intensity PA, and vigorous PA ratios formed the main source of potential aberrant observations; aging is associated with more SB and vigorous PA at the expense of light-intensity PA and moderate-intensity PA. The robust counterparts indicated that they might provide more stable estimates in the presence of outlying observations. The findings suggested that replacing time spent in SB with vigorous PA may be a powerful tool against adolescents’ obesity.

The physical dormancy of seeds is likely to be mediated by the chemical composition and the thickness of the seed coat. Here, we investigate the link between the content of phenylpropanoids (i.e., phenolics and flavonoids) present in the chickpea seed coat and dormancy. The relationship between selected phenolic and flavonoid metabolites of chickpea seed coats and dormancy level was assessed using wild and cultivated chickpea parental genotypes and a derived population of recombinant inbred lines (RILs). The selected phenolic and flavonoid metabolites were analyzed via the LC-MS/MS method. Significant differences in the concentration of certain phenolic acids were found among cultivated (Cicer arietinum, ICC4958) and wild chickpea (Cicer reticulatum, PI489777) parental genotypes. These differences were observed in the contents of gallic, caffeic, vanillic, syringic, p-coumaric, salicylic, and sinapic acids, as well as salicylic acid-2-O-β-d-glucoside and coniferaldehyde. Additionally, significant differences were observed in the flavonoids myricetin, quercetin, luteolin, naringenin, kaempferol, isoorientin, orientin, and isovitexin. When comparing non-dormant and dormant RILs, significant differences were observed in gallic, 3-hydroxybenzoic, syringic, and sinapic acids, as well as the flavonoids quercitrin, quercetin, naringenin, kaempferol, and morin. Phenolic acids were generally more highly concentrated in the wild parental genotype and dormant RILs. We compared the phenylpropanoid content of chickpea seed coats with related legumes, such as pea, lentil, and faba bean. This information could be useful in chickpea breeding programs to reduce dormancy.

This study is the first to use compositional data analysis to investigate movement behaviors of elderly women and their relationships with fat mass percentage (FM%). The focus of the study is on the associations of time reallocations from sedentary behavior (SB) to light physical activity (LIPA) or moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) with adiposity. Over 400 older adult women were recruited as part of the cross-sectionally conducted measurements of older adults aged 60+ in Central European countries. An accelerometer was used to assess daily movement behaviors. Body mass index (BMI) and fat mass percentage (FM%) were assessed as adiposity indicators using InBody 720 MFBIA. Using LS-regression, we found positive relationships of BMI and FM% with SB (relative to remaining movement behaviors) (p < 0.001 for both), while their relationship with MVPA (relative to remaining movement behaviors) were negative (p < 0.001 for both). The estimated BMI and FM% associated with a 30-min SB-to-MVPA reallocation were reduced by 1.5 kg/m² and 2.2 percentage points, respectively, whereas they were not reduced significantly with the reallocation of 30 min from SB to LIPA. The findings highlight that SB and MVPA, but not LIPA, are significantly associated with adiposity in elderly women. The reallocation of time from SB to MVPA could be advocated in weight loss interventions in older women.

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is one of the most consumed leafy green vegetables in the world, and is a good source of important bioactive compounds. However, environmental stress factors, such as salinity or drought, cause physiological and biochemical changes in plants and influence the yields and levels of both primary and secondary metabolites, which drastically changes the nutritional value and quality of the crop. In the present work, six typical Czech cultivars/landraces of various lettuce morphotypes (Altenbursky, Dubacek, Kamenac, Jupiter, Prazan, and Robin) were grown under driven conditions and then analyzed for the content of sugars, fatty acids, amino acids, phenolics, and vitamins. Obtained data were subjected to compositional tables statistical analysis, which provided not only information on general trends in the changes in their nutritional value but also how these changes affected each particular variety. Overall, drought caused the largest relative increase in phenolic compounds and some amino acids. Conversely, drought caused overall the largest relative decrease in vitamin C, but also in fatty acids. In addition, salt stress caused a larger decrease in many metabolites, especially the amino acid arginine, while fatty acids were only slightly increased, together with vitamin E. In addition, the interpretation of data from statistical analysis showed that varieties Prazan and Altenbursky had the least changes in their chemical composition when subjected to drought stress. Again, var. Altenbursky showed the least variability in comparison to other varieties when subjected to salt stress. These findings confirm the fact that landraces and old cultivars do not change their chemical profiles significantly, as is the case for improved cultivars, and they emphasize the need for their cultivation when raising the productivity of staple food crops.

The aims of this study were to examine the prospective compositional associations between sedentary behaviour (SB) patterns and longitudinal changes in body composition parameters, and to use compositional isotemporal substitution modelling to analyse the longitudinal changes in body composition parameters associated with time reallocation from SB to physical activity (PA) in older women. The study included women aged 60 years and older (n = 182) with valid data at baseline and at the subsequent 7-year follow-up. For both time points, the ActiGraph GT1M accelerometer was used for SB and PA assessments and multi-frequency bioimpedance analysis was used to assess the body composition parameters related to adiposity and muscle mass. Compositional regression models were used to analyse the associations between proportion of time spent in sedentary bouts of different duration and longitudinal changes in body composition parameters. A compositional isotemporal substitution model was created to estimate the differences in body composition parameters associated with one-to-one time reallocations between baseline SB and PA. A significant increase in fat mass index (βilr1 = 0.61, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.18, 1.04) and visceral adipose tissue (βilr1 = 6.01, 95% CI: 1.52, 10.5) was associated with a higher baseline proportion of time spent in long sedentary bouts (i.e. sedentary bout of ≥30 min). Reallocating 1 h/week and 3.5 h/week from the time spent in long sedentary bouts in favour of light PA was associated with a significant decrease in fat mass index by 0.78% (95% CI: 0.24, 1.32) and 3.13% (95% CI: 0.97, 5.29), respectively. No association was found for indicators of muscle mass. This study suggests that long-term adiposity status could be improved by increasing the proportion of time spent in light PA at the expense of time spent in prolonged SB. This finding may help in designing more effective and feasible interventions for the maintenance of healthy body composition in advanced age.