The completion of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome sequence allows a comparative analysis of transcriptional regulators across the three eukaryotic kingdoms. Arabidopsis dedicates over 5% of its genome to code for more than 1500 transcription factors, about 45% of which are from families specific to plants. Arabidopsis transcription factors that belong to families common to all eukaryotes do not share significant similarity with those of the other kingdoms beyond the conserved DNA binding domains, many of which have been arranged in combinations specific to each lineage. The genome-wide comparison reveals the evolutionary generation of diversity in the regulation of transcription.

Food scarcity, population growth, and global climate change have propelled crop yield growth driven by high-throughput phenotyping into the era of big data. However, access to large-scale phenotypic data has now become a critical barrier that phenomics urgently must overcome. Fortunately, the high-throughput plant phenotyping platform (HT3P), employing advanced sensors and data collection systems, can take full advantage of non-destructive and high-throughput methods to monitor, quantify, and evaluate specific phenotypes for large-scale agricultural experiments, and it can effectively perform phenotypic tasks that traditional phenotyping could not do. In this way, HT3Ps are novel and powerful tools, for which various commercial, customized, and even self-developed ones have been recently introduced in rising numbers. Here, we review these HT3Ps in nearly 7 years from greenhouses and growth chambers to the field, and from ground-based proximal phenotyping to aerial large-scale remote sensing. Platform configurations, novelties, operating modes, current developments, as well the strengths and weaknesses of diverse types of HT3Ps are thoroughly and clearly described. Then, miscellaneous combinations of HT3Ps for comparative validation and comprehensive analysis are systematically present, for the first time. Finally, we consider current phenotypic challenges and provide fresh perspectives on future development trends of HT3Ps. This review aims to provide ideas, thoughts, and insights for the optimal selection, exploitation, and utilization of HT3Ps, and thereby pave the way to break through current phenotyping bottlenecks in botany.

In this study, we carried out an evolutionary, transcriptional, and functional analyses of the trihelix transcription factor family. A total of 319 trihelix members, identified from 11 land plant species, were classified into five clades. The results of phylogeny indicate the binding domains of GT1 and GT2 diverged early in the existence of land plants. Genomic localization revealed that the trihelix family members were highly conserved among cereal species, even though some homeologs generated during the tetraploidy of maize were lost. Three-dimensional structural analyses and an examination of subcellular localization of this family supported the involvement of all five clades in transcriptional regulation. Furthermore, the family members from all clades in sorghum and rice showed a broad and dynamic expression pattern in response to abiotic stresses, indicating regulatory subfunctionalization of their original functions. This finding is further supported by the phenotypes of enhanced tolerance to cold, salt, and drought in transgenic plants overexpressing Sb06g023980 and Sb06g024110. In contrast, few Arobidopsis genes showed inducible expression under abiotic stress conditions, which may indicate a functional shift. Finally, our co-expression analysis points to the involvement of this family in various metabolic processes, implying their further functional divergence.

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The transmission of mobile wound signals along the phloem pathway is essential to the activation of wound-induced systemic response/resistance, which requires an upsurge of jasmonic acid (JA) in the distal undamaged leaves. Among these mobile signals, the electrical signal mediated by the glutamatedependent activation of several clade three GLUTAMATE RECEPTOR-LIKE (GLR3) proteins is involved in the stimulation of JA production in distal leaves. However, whether JA acts as a mobile wound signal and, if so, how it is transmitted and interacts with the electrical signal remain unclear. Here, we show that JA was translocated from the local to distal leaves in Arabidopsis, and this process was predominantly regulated by two phloem-expressed and plasma membrane-localized jasmonate transporters, At-JAT3 and AtJAT4. In addition to the cooperation between AtJAT3/4 and GLR3.3 in the regulation of long-distance JA translocation, our findings indicate that importer-mediated cell-cell JA transport is important for driving the loading and translocation of JA in the phloem pathway in a self-propagating manner.

China is one of the most diverse countries, which have developed 88 indigenous pig breeds. Several studies showed that pigs were independently domesticated in multiple regions of the world. The purpose of this study was to investigate the origin and evolution of Chinese pigs using complete mitochondrial genomic sequences (mtDNA) from Asian and European domestic pigs and wild boars. Thirty primer pairs were designed to determine the mtDNA sequences of Xiang pig, Large White, Lantang, Jinhua and Pietrain. The phylogenetic status of Chinese native pigs was investigated by comparing the mtDNA sequences of complete coding regions and D-loop regions respectively amongst Asian breeds, European breeds and wild boars. The analyzed results by two cluster methods contributed to the same conclusion that all pigs were classified into two major groups, European clade and Asian clade. It revealed that Chinese pigs were only recently diverged from each other and distinctly different from European pigs. Berkshire was clustered with Asian pigs and Chinese pigs were involved in the development of Berkshire breeding. The Malaysian wild boar had distant genetic relationship with European and Asian pigs. Jinhua and Lanyu pigs had more nucleotide diversity with Chinese pigs although they all belonged to the Asian major clade. Chinese domestic pigs were clustered with wild boars in Yangtze River region and South China.

Modern agriculture is facing new challenges in which ecological and molecular approaches are being integrated to achieve higher crop yields while minimizing negative impacts on the environment. The application of biofertilizers could meet this requirement. Biofertilizer is a natural organic fertilizer that helps to provide all the nutrients required by the plants and helps to increase the quality of the soil with a natural microorganism environment. This paper reviewed the types of biofertilizers, the biological basic of biofertilizers in plant growth promotion. This paper also assayed the bidirectional information exchange between plant-microbes in rhizoshpere and the signal pathway of plant growthpromoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and plant growth-promoting fungi (PGPF) in the course of plant infection. At last, the challenges of the application and the promising future of biofertilizers were also discussed.

Three TaLTPs were found to enhance chilling tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis, which were characterized by analyzes of promoter-GUS activity, subcellular localization, chromosomal location and transcriptional profile. Non-specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTP) are abundantly expressed in plants, however, their functions are still unclear. In this study, we primarily characterized the functions of 3 type I TaLTP genes that were localized on chromosomes 3A, 3B, and 5D, respectively. The transcripts of TaLTPIb.1 and TaLTPIb.5 were induced under chilling, wound, and drought conditions, while TaLTPId.1 was only up-regulated by dark treatment. All the 3 TaLTP genes could be stimulated by the in vitro treatment of salicylic acid, while TaLTPId.1 was also positively regulated by methyljasmonic acid. Furthermore, the promoter-reporter assay of TaLTPIb.1 in the transgenic brachypodium showed a typical epidermis-specific expression pattern of this gene cluster. When fused with EGFP, all the 3 proteins were shown to localize on the plasma membrane in transgenic tobacco, although a signal in chloroplasts was also observed for TaLTPId.1. Heterogeneous overexpression of each of the TaLTP genes in Arabidopsis resulted in longer root length compared with wild type plants under chilling condition. These results suggest that type I TaLTPs may have a conserved functionality in chilling tolerance by lipid permeation in the plasma membrane of epidermal cells. On the other hand, the type I TaLTPs may exert functional divergence mainly through regulatory subfunctionalization.