Insights Into Genetic and Molecular Elements for Transgenic Crop Development

Manipulation of insect behavior can provide the foundation for effective strategies for control of insect crop pests. A detailed understanding of life cycles and the behavioral repertoires of insect pests is essential for development of this approach. A variety of strategies have been developed based on behavioral manipulation and include mass trapping, attract-and-kill, auto-dissemination, mating and host plant location disruption, and push-pull. Insight into application of these strategies for insect pests within Diptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and Hemiptera/Thysanoptera are provided, but first with an overview of economic damage and traditional control approaches, and overview of relevant behavioral/ecological traits. Then examples are provided of how these different control strategies are applied for each taxonomic group. The future of these approaches in the context of altered crop development for repellency or as anti-feedants, the effects of climate change and the risks of behaviorally-based methods are discussed.

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A Metabolic Choreography of Maize Plants Treated with a Humic Substance-Based Biostimulant under Normal and Starved Conditions

Metabolites ◽

10.3390/metabo11060403 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 403

Author(s):

Kgalaletso Othibeng ◽

Lerato Nephali ◽

Anza-Tshilidzi Ramabulana ◽

Paul Steenkamp ◽

Daniel Petras ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Humic Substance ◽

Metabolic Networks ◽

Molecular Mechanisms ◽

Plant Cell Wall ◽

Growth Promotion ◽

Redox Homeostasis ◽

Metabolic Reprogramming ◽

Sustainable Food ◽

Crop Development ◽

Maize Plants

Humic substance (HS)-based biostimulants show potentials as sustainable strategies for improved crop development and stress resilience. However, cellular and molecular mechanisms governing the agronomically observed effects of HS on plants remain enigmatic. Here, we report a global metabolic reprogramming of maize leaves induced by a humic biostimulant under normal and nutrient starvation conditions. This reconfiguration of the maize metabolism spanned chemical constellations, as revealed by molecular networking approaches. Plant growth and development under normal conditions were characterized by key differential metabolic changes such as increased levels of amino acids, oxylipins and the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) intermediate, isocitric acid. Furthermore, under starvation, the humic biostimulant significantly impacted pathways that are involved in stress-alleviating mechanisms such as redox homeostasis, strengthening of the plant cell wall, osmoregulation, energy production and membrane remodelling. Thus, this study reveals that the humic biostimulant induces a remodelling of inter-compartmental metabolic networks in maize, subsequently readjusting the plant physiology towards growth promotion and stress alleviation. Such insights contribute to ongoing efforts in elucidating modes of action of biostimulants, generating fundamental scientific knowledge that is necessary for development of the biostimulant industry, for sustainable food security.

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Outlier Detection at the Parcel-Level in Wheat and Rapeseed Crops Using Multispectral and SAR Time Series

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13050956 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 956

Author(s):

Florian Mouret ◽

Mohanad Albughdadi ◽

Sylvie Duthoit ◽

Denis Kouamé ◽

Guillaume Rieu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Outlier Detection ◽

Experimental Validation ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Multispectral Images ◽

Vegetation Indexes ◽

Crop Development ◽

Different Types ◽

Selection Of ◽

Sentinel 2

This paper studies the detection of anomalous crop development at the parcel-level based on an unsupervised outlier detection technique. The experimental validation is conducted on rapeseed and wheat parcels located in Beauce (France). The proposed methodology consists of four sequential steps: (1) preprocessing of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and multispectral images acquired using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites, (2) extraction of SAR and multispectral pixel-level features, (3) computation of parcel-level features using zonal statistics and (4) outlier detection. The different types of anomalies that can affect the studied crops are analyzed and described. The different factors that can influence the outlier detection results are investigated with a particular attention devoted to the synergy between Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data. Overall, the best performance is obtained when using jointly a selection of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 features with the isolation forest algorithm. The selected features are co-polarized (VV) and cross-polarized (VH) backscattering coefficients for Sentinel-1 and five Vegetation Indexes for Sentinel-2 (among us, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and two variants of the Normalized Difference Water). When using these features with an outlier ratio of 10%, the percentage of detected true positives (i.e., crop anomalies) is equal to 94.1% for rapeseed parcels and 95.5% for wheat parcels.

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A pragmatic approach to the planning of crop development projects in less developed countries with particular reference to the procurement of goods and services and the calculation of benefits and costs

Agricultural Administration and Extension ◽

10.1016/0269-7475(88)90122-5 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 143-157 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

H.D. Akroyd

Keyword(s):

Developed Countries ◽

Development Projects ◽

Less Developed Countries ◽

Pragmatic Approach ◽

Goods And Services ◽

Crop Development ◽

Benefits And Costs

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Effects on Crop Development, Yields and Chemical Composition of Celeriac (Apium graveolens L. var. rapaceum) Cultivated Underneath an Agrivoltaic System

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11040733 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 733

Author(s):

Axel Weselek ◽

Andrea Bauerle ◽

Sabine Zikeli ◽

Iris Lewandowski ◽

Petra Högy

Keyword(s):

Aboveground Biomass ◽

Root Biomass ◽

Crop Production ◽

Vegetation Period ◽

Apium Graveolens ◽

Land Productivity ◽

Common Root ◽

Crop Development ◽

On Farm ◽

Organically Managed

Agrivoltaic (AV) systems increase land productivity through the combined production of renewable energy and food. Although several studies have addressed their impact on crop production, many aspects remain unexplored. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of AV on the cultivation of celeriac, a common root vegetable in Central Europe. Celeriac was cultivated in 2017 and 2018 as part of an organically managed on-farm experiment, both underneath an AV system and in full-sun conditions. Under AV, photosynthetic active radiation was reduced by about 30%. Monitoring of crop development showed that in both years, plant height increased significantly under AV. Fresh bulb yield decreased by about 19% in 2017 and increased by about 12% in 2018 in AV, but the changes were not significant. Aboveground biomass increased in both years under AV, but only increased significantly in 2018. As aboveground biomass is a determinant of root biomass at harvest in root vegetables, bulb yields may be further increased by a prolonged vegetation period under AV. Compound analysis of celeriac bulbs did not show any clear effects from treatment. As harvestable yields were not significantly reduced, we concluded that celeriac can be considered a suitable crop for cultivation under AV.

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