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Maize (Zea mays L.) is highly sensitive to drought stress, resulting in large losses in yield; therefore, strategies aimed at enhancing drought tolerance are essential. Melatonin improves stress tolerance in plants; however, its mechanism in maize seedlings under drought stress remains unknown. Therefore, we investigated the effects of foliar-sprayed melatonin (100 umol L−1) on the antioxidant system, photosynthetic gas exchange parameters, stomatal behavior, endogenous melatonin and abscisic acid (ABA)-related gene expression in maize seedling leaves under 20% polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced drought stress. PEG treatment resulted in oxidative stress and stomatal closure, resulting in chlorophyll degradation and inhibition of photosynthesis; thereby, reducing seedling biomass. Melatonin pretreatment significantly improved the relative water content, photosynthetic gas exchange parameters and stomatal behavior; thereby, maintaining chlorophyll contents and photosynthesis. Melatonin also stimulated the antioxidant system, enhancing the clearance of reactive-oxygen species, preventing severe damage under PEG-induced drought. Pre-treatment also increased endogenous melatonin and inhibited up-regulation of NCED1, an ABA synthesis-related gene, as well as selectively up-regulating ABA catabolic genes ABA8ox1 and ABA8ox3, reducing ABA accumulation and inducing stomatal reopening. Overall, these findings suggest that melatonin pre-treatment alleviated the inhibitory effects of drought stress on photosynthesis, enhancing tolerance in maize seedlings.

The challenge of increasing crop productivity and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) has led to a search for novel pathways leading to more sustainable agriculture. Here, we designed a whole‐corn (Zea mays L.) production system based on the local environment, drawing on appropriate crop varieties, sowing dates, densities, and advanced N management on the Loess Plateau in the Northwest of China. A 4 site‐years field experiment was performed to examine this corn system based on grain yield, biomass, N application rate, and NUE. Grain yield with designed crop management varied from 16.1 to 19.1 Mg ha−1 for these 4 site‐years, which attained 98 to 108% of the yield potential (ranging from 15.5–19.3 Mg ha−1). Equally importantly, the optimal N rate ranged from 207 to 222 kg N ha−1 with a high over ratio of 65 to 80 kg grain per kg applied N. Designing an integrated crop management system and N practice is an alternative approach for maximizing the use of solar radiation and periods with favorable temperature, ultimately achieving high yield and high NUE.

Salicylic acid (SA) and nitric oxide (NO) form a new group of plant growth substances that cooperatively interact to promote plant growth and productivity. Water deficit (WD) stress is a major limiting factor for photosynthesis, which in turn limits crop yield. However, the mechanism of SA and NO in stimulating photosynthesis has not yet been elucidated. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the SA-and NO-mediated photosynthetic adaptability of maize seedlings to WD in terms of photosynthetic parameters, activities and mRNA levels of CO 2 assimilation enzymes. Our results showed that SA alleviated the WD-induced reduction of photosynthetic performance. The activities of Rubisco and Rubisco activase enzymes increased significantly due to SA pretreatment. Moreover, higher transcription rates of Rbc L, ZmRCAα and ZmRCAβ mRNA further confirmed the effects of SA on CO 2 assimilation. WD or SA-induced decreases or increases of CO 2 assimilation ability were further decreased after c-PTIO addition.

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Phytohormones are a class of small organic molecules that are widely used in higher plants and microalgae as chemical messengers. Phytohormones play a regulatory role in the physiological metabolism of cells, including promoting cell division, increasing stress tolerance, and improving photosynthetic efficiency, and thereby increasing biomass, oil, chlorophyll, and protein content. However, traditional abiotic stress methods for inducing the accumulation of energy storage substances in microalgae, such as high light intensity, high salinity, and heavy metals, will affect the growth of microalgae and will ultimately limit the efficient accumulation of energy storage substances. Therefore, the addition of phytohormones not only helps to reduce production costs but also improves the efficiency of biofuel utilization. However, accurate and sensitive phytohormones determination and analytical methods are the basis for plant hormone research. In this study, the characteristics of phytohormones in microalgae and research progress for regulating the accumulation of energy storage substances in microalgae by exogenous phytohormones, combined with abiotic stress conditions at home and abroad, are summarized. The possible metabolic mechanism of phytohormones in microalgae is discussed, and possible future research directions are put forward, which provide a theoretical basis for the application of phytohormones in microalgae.

A novel thruster fault identification method for autonomous underwater vehicle is presented in this article. It uses the proposed peak region energy method to extract fault feature and uses the proposed least square grey relational grade method to estimate fault degree. The peak region energy method is developed from fusion feature modulus maximum method. It applies the fusion feature modulus maximum method to get fusion feature and then regards the maximum of peak region energy in the convolution operation results of fusion feature as fault feature. The least square grey relational grade method is developed from grey relational analysis algorithm. It determines the fault degree interval by the grey relational analysis algorithm and then estimates fault degree in the interval by least square algorithm. Pool experiments of the experimental prototype are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods. The experimental results show that the fault feature extracted by the peak region energy method is monotonic to fault degree while the one extracted by the fusion feature modulus maximum method is not. The least square grey relational grade method can further get an estimation result between adjacent standard fault degrees while the estimation result of the grey relational analysis algorithm is just one of the standard fault degrees.