To develop a lower-cost, excellent-performance, and environmentally friendly phenol–formaldehyde (PF) resin, soybean meal was used to modify PF resin, and soybean meal–phenol–formaldehyde (SMPF) resins were prepared. This reveals the effect of soybean meal on the structural, bonding, and curing properties of PF resin, which are very important for its applications in the wood industry. The resins’ physicochemical properties and curing performance were investigated, showing that SMPF resins have higher curing temperatures than PF resin. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results indicated that a cross-linking reaction occurred between the amino groups of soybean protein and the hydroxymethyl phenol. Moreover, with the addition of soybean meal, the viscosity of SMPF increased while the gel time decreased. It is worth mentioning that SMPF-2 resin has favorable viscosity, short gel time, low curing temperature (135.78 °C), and high water resistance and bonding strength (1.01 MPa). Finally, all the plywoods bonded with SMPF resins have good water resistance and bonding strength, which could meet the standard (GB/T 17657-2013, type I) for plywood. The optimized SMPF resins showed the potential for application to partially replace PF resin in the wood industry.

Malus is one of the most widespread genera of Rosaceae and includes several economically and ornamentally significant plants (e.g., apple and crabapple). The extensive genome and transcriptome data for Malus available in public databases offer a great opportunity for phylogenomic, biogeographical, and character evolution analyses in this group. We utilized nuclear genes from 45 transcriptomes/genomes, comprising 32 ingroup taxa (Malus and related species), to reconstruct a comprehensive and well-supported phylogeny and to investigate biogeography and character evolution. Our coalescent-based phylogenies from 12,835 gene families and 1,597 orthologs indicate that Malus encompasses Eriolobus and Docynia, and they identified six well-supported clades within Malus. Malus originated in Northern and Southern East Asia during the early Miocene (~ 20 Ma) and subsequently dispersed to other regions. The persistent calyx in the fruit, lobed leaves, and stone cells represent ancestral traits. A strong phylogenetic signal was detected in three traits: calyx, leaf morphology, and stone cell. Additionally, fruit size showed a significant correlation with calyx morphology. Our findings offer new insights into the phylogeny of Malus, its biogeography, and morphological evolution.

This study fabricated choline–acrylic acid deep eutectic solvent (DES) hydrogels via in situ free-radical polymerization and systematically investigated the individual and co-optimization effects of lignin dosage and water content on the chemical structure, micromorphology, compressive mechanical properties, swelling behavior, and thermal stability of the hydrogels. This work quantitatively uncovers the co-optimization mechanism between the two variables in modulating crosslink density and pore architecture, thereby filling a research gap in the dual-factor co-optimization of biomass-based DES hydrogels. The results reveal that a moderate lignin dosage (0.02 g) generates abundant dynamic hydrogen bonds, densifying the crosslinked network and raising the maximum compressive stress from 0.378 MPa to 0.426 MPa, whereas excessive lignin triggers molecular aggregation and deteriorates mechanical performance. Higher water content dilutes crosslinking sites, reduces network compactness, boosts the swelling ratio while lowering compressive strength, and exerts negligible impacts on thermal degradation characteristics. FTIR analysis confirms that lignin participates in network formation solely through non-covalent hydrogen bonds, without forming new covalent bonds. A comprehensive performance evaluation identifies the optimal formulation as 0.02 g lignin and 60 g water. Although this two-factor optimization strategy provides clear experimental and theoretical guidance for designing sustainable soft materials, the present work still has limitations, including the use of only static laboratory characterizations, with no cyclic mechanical measurements or aging assessments. This study advances the customized performance tuning of lignin-derived DES hydrogels and facilitates the high-value valorization of lignin, which is promising for multifunctional green-material applications, including adsorption, flexible electronics, and biological carriers.

Confronted with severe global challenges, including water scarcity, excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and heavy metal contamination in soils, conventional agricultural technologies exhibit marked limitations in integrated water–fertilizer management and non-point source pollution control. Leveraging their excellent water retention capacity, intelligent sustained-release properties, and environmental responsiveness, hydrogels offer innovative solutions to advance sustainable agricultural development. This review comprehensively outlines the fundamental types, crosslinking mechanisms, and key functional properties of hydrogels, with a focused discussion on their agricultural deployment as high-efficiency soil conditioners, fertilizer vectors, and pesticide carriers; it deciphers the microscopic water-holding mechanisms under the tristate water model, delineates the divergent water-uptake and retention behaviors between ionic and non-ionic hydrogels, and clarifies the cyclic water-holding and release mechanisms of hydrogels during soil amelioration. Thise paper further synthesizes hydrogel-enabled environmental remediation applications, in which heavy metals and pesticide residues in soils and aquatic systems are removed via functional-group coordination adsorption or photocatalytic degradation; concurrently, hydrogels have been shown to activate plant systemic immunity through calcium-signaling pathways, thereby inducing broad-spectrum antiviral defense responses. Moreover, hydrogels can be integrated into precision agriculture frameworks to enable real-time monitoring of crop physiological status and to support targeted irrigation and fertilization management. This work also evaluates the role of hydrogels in promoting seed germination, root system development, crop metabolic regulation, and stress resilience, while introducing tailored application strategies across distinct plant growth stages. Their documented economic advantages include water conservation, enhanced crop yields, reduced dependence on synthetic fertilizers, and lower labor costs. Nevertheless, the large-scale implementation of hydrogels continues to face multifaceted challenges—particularly poor degradability and latent ecological risks, as conventional polyacrylamide (PAM)-based gels resist soil mineralization and retain potentially neurotoxic monomers, leaving a critical gap in multi-annual field data concerning their non-target interference with native soil aggregate evolution, pore distribution, and rhizospheric carbon–nitrogen footprints. Mechanistically, many hydrogels with tensile strengths below 1 MPa are highly susceptible to three-dimensional network collapse under high-salinity osmotic shock and tillage mechanical stress, exhibiting a precipitous drop in water retention after more than three wet–dry cycles due to deficient long-term structural stability. Compounding these technical gaps are elevated production costs and low farmer adoption, driven by the absence of texture-specific performance thresholds—such as an available water increment ≥ 40% for sandy soils—and the lack of established life-cycle cost models and farmer incentive mechanisms for bio-based hydrogels. Moving forward, hydrogel technology should pivot toward materials innovation and cost-reduction engineering to broaden its applicability, employ ≥3-year, multi-habitat regional trials to delineate ecological benefit–risk boundaries, and ultimately position hydrogels as pivotal enablers of sustainable, green agricultural paradigms.

To address the limitations of conventional polymer hydrogels in terms of sustainability and functionality, green soy protein (SP)-based hydrogels (SPHs) demonstrate significant potential. As an abundant, renewable plant protein, SP provides an ideal molecular platform for constructing high-performance, multifunctional hydrogels. This review systematically consolidates recent progress in SPHs. Firstly, the molecular fundamentals and gelation mechanisms of soy protein are analyzed in depth. Subsequently, key construction strategies, including physical, chemical, and enzymatic crosslinking, as well as composite/hybrid approaches, are comprehensively reviewed with respect to their mechanisms, advantages, and limitations. Following this, innovative applications of SPHs in biomedical, food and nutrition, environmental/agricultural, and smart material fields are highlighted. Finally, the current challenges facing research in mechanical properties, structure–property relationships, and scalable production are identified. Future directions include developing novel green crosslinking systems, deepening multi-scale structural control, and advancing smart integrated design. This review aims to provide researchers with a systematic knowledge framework spanning from “molecular understanding” to “functional customization,” thereby propelling soy protein hydrogels toward higher toughness, intelligence, and sustainability.