The conventional method of raising seedlings with plastic trays has drawbacks, including large plastic tray consumption, difficulty in recycling and potential farmland white pollution, along with high labor input and production costs. To clarify the effects of tray-free simplified rice seedling raising technology, which uses biodegradable biomass seedling films to replace traditional plastic trays on rice grain yield and its components, large-scale comparative field experiments were conducted in seven major rice-producing counties of Heilongjiang Province from 2022 to 2024. Independent-sample t-tests, linear mixed-effects models and structural equation modeling were applied to systematically evaluate the application effects of this technology. The results showed that the average grain yield of the treatment group reached 9032 kg/ha, which was a significant increase of 5.93% compared with the 8526.0 kg/ha of the control group. Compared with the conventional method, this technology markedly increased the effective panicle number, the filled grain number per panicle and 1000-grain weight, and reduced the percentage of unfilled grains, presenting positive yield performance across different regions, although the magnitude of increase varied (2.7–9.5%). Based on the previous literature, this technology has the potential to reduce plastic use and its associated environmental impacts, although direct measurements of carbon emissions and degradation rates were not conducted in this study. Featuring potential ecological benefits and simplified cultivation with prominent yield-increasing effects, it is worthy of popularization and application in cold-region rice planting areas.

Soybean (Glycine max L.) yield is critically influenced by the number of nodes on the main stem (MSN), which serves as the primary site for pods and seeds. To elucidate the genetic mechanisms underlying MSN, we conducted a multi-omics analysis integrating bulk segregant analysis sequencing (BSA-seq), phytohormone, and transcriptome profilings in a soybean mutant, LSD914, which exhibits a significantly increased MSN number compared to its wild-type parent, HN48. BSA-seq of an F2 population identified 27 candidate genomic regions spanning 2.92 Mb, primarily on chromosome 18. Within these regions, 149 genes harbored non-synonymous SNPs and 26 genes contained frameshift InDels, with functional enrichment pointing to pathways in plant hormone signal transduction and developmental regulation. Phytohormone profiling revealed a distinct shift in LSD914, characterized by down-regulation of jasmonates, salicylates, and auxins, alongside specific accumulation of cis-zeatin. Integrative transcriptome analysis identified Glyma.18G259400, a gene encoding a gibberellin-regulated protein (GmGASA32), which was consistently and significantly down-regulated in LSD914 across all developmental stages and tissues. This finding contrasts with previous reports of its overexpression promoting plant height, suggesting a nuanced, context-dependent regulatory role. Our integrated approach identifies a key set of candidate genes and highlights GmGASA32 as a pivotal node in a hormone signaling network that orchestrates soybean node number, providing valuable targets for breeding high-yield soybean varieties with optimized plant architecture.