Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science最新文献

{"title":"Quantifying the Association Between Aerosols and Rice Yields in Eight Major Cities of Bangladesh Using Meteorological and Geospatial Data","authors":"Farhana Akter Jannat,&nbsp;Md. Rakib Hasan Rony,&nbsp;Md. Zakiur Rahman,&nbsp;Md. Mostafizur Rahman","doi":"10.1111/jac.70221","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jac.70221","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Atmospheric aerosols impact agricultural productivity via complex radiative and meteorological pathways, but their specific effects on irrigated rice systems in Bangladesh are poorly quantified. This study examines how aerosol optical depth (AOD) affects Boro rice yields across Bangladesh's eight districts from 2007 to 2023, using MODIS AOD, satellite FAPAR, FAO ET₀, and meteorological data within a regression and indirect-pathway framework. Results show a spatially varied yield response: Khulna, Barisal, Rangpur, Mymensingh, and Sylhet had net positive effects (up to +7.05 in Khulna), while Chattogram, Dhaka, and Rajshahi had net negative effects (down to −0.36), indicating region-specific aerosol impacts. Across districts, aerosols showed stronger associations with minimum temperatures (<i>R</i>² up to 0.625 in Chattogram) than with maximum temperatures, implicating nocturnal thermal modification as a key mediating pathway alongside FAPAR. Seasonal analysis shows the AOD-ET₀ relationship flips between seasons: negative correlations during the dry Boro season in six districts (<i>r</i> = −0.21 to −0.69), whereas Chattogram and Sylhet remain positive year-round, influenced more by local winds and humidity than by aerosol effects. Mann-Kendall trend analysis showed increases in ET₀ and decreasing precipitation in Chattogram and Barisal during the growing period. The aridity index-yield regression identified Chattogram as most water-stress-vulnerable (<i>R</i>² = 0.826, <i>β</i> = −0.523) during the growing period, while Khulna and Mymensingh exhibited contrasting positive aridity–yield relationships. These findings challenge the idea that aerosols uniformly reduce agricultural productivity and show that region-specific aerosol-climate-crop interactions need consideration in South Asia's food security and air quality strategies.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":14864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science","volume":"212 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148355767","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Overexpression of ZmPEBP Improves Drought Tolerance in Maize (Zea mays L.)","authors":"Xinrui Ma,&nbsp;Lina Zhao,&nbsp;Siying Luan,&nbsp;Jiaqi Feng,&nbsp;Yiyong Ma,&nbsp;Siyan Liu,&nbsp;Shuyan Guan,&nbsp;Peng Jiao","doi":"10.1111/jac.70219","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jac.70219","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Phosphatidylethanolamine-binding proteins (PEBPs) play crucial roles in regulating plant responses to abiotic stress. In this study, we systematically investigated the maize PEBP gene family using transgenic technology and bioinformatics approaches. We identified the phylogenetic relationships of 25 PEBP genes in the maize genome and classified them into four subfamilies comprising five branches: MFT-like, TFL1-like, FT-like-1, FT-like-2 and PEBP-like. Analysis of promoter cis-regulatory elements revealed that ZmPEBP genes contain MYB-binding sites associated with drought induction and response. Gene duplication and collinearity analyses identified 23 pairs of homologous PEBP genes between maize and rice, indicating that ZmPEBPs are closely related to OsPEBPs. Real-time quantitative PCR results demonstrated that drought stress induced the differential expression of ZmZCN3, ZmZCN6, ZmZCN10, ZmZCN11, ZmPEBP, ZmZCN2, and ZmZCN17. Correlation analysis revealed that most PEBP genes exhibited expression patterns similar to those of the stress-responsive transcription factors. Physiological and biochemical assessments revealed that compared with wild-type plants, ZmPEBP-overexpressing lines exhibited significantly higher germination rates, fresh weight and chlorophyll content, whereas malondialdehyde levels were significantly lower. In addition, the accumulation of reactive oxygen species, such as H₂O₂ and O₂⁻, in the leaves decreased, resulting in enhanced drought tolerance. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the maize ZmPEBP gene family, offering a theoretical foundation for the functional characterisation of drought tolerance within this gene family and guiding future research in this field.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":14864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science","volume":"212 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148342496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Combined Effects of Water Shortage and CO2 Enrichment on Yield and Water Use Properties of Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Genotypes","authors":"Balázs Varga,&nbsp;Zsuzsanna Farkas,&nbsp;Máron György,&nbsp;Emese Varga-László,&nbsp;Ottó Veisz","doi":"10.1111/jac.70215","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jac.70215","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A selection of winter barley genotypes was investigated for their responses to water shortage under different CO₂ concentrations in a greenhouse. The experiment was conducted in a 2*2 factorial design. Plants were grown either with optimum water supply or simulated drought in the BBCH 59 stage at current (~400 ppm CO₂) or elevated CO₂ concentrations (~700 ppm CO₂) with identical climatic conditions. Yield parameters (aboveground biomass and grain yield), water use and water use efficiency (WUE; kg m⁻³) were calculated. Drought stress induced a decrease in yield production, and the rate of yield reduction was higher at 700 ppm CO₂ concentration. On average for the genotypes studied, water withdrawal resulted in a 20.01% and 22.0% reduction in grain yield at 400 ppm and 700 ppm CO₂ levels, respectively. Under optimum irrigation, BCC570, BCC607, Ketos, BCC887, HOR12808 and Kaskade showed significant positive CO₂ responses. Under a limited water supply, positive CO₂ reactions were only observed for BCC570, Ketos and BCC1585 genotypes; however, a significant positive CO₂ reaction regarding the yield production was observed for Panda. The carbon dioxide enrichment significantly increased water use efficiency under optimum watering conditions by 24.57% and drought-stressed conditions by 21.72%. However, the water shortage significantly increased water use efficiency under both 400 ppm (10.48%) and 700 ppm (12.36%) CO₂.</p>","PeriodicalId":14864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science","volume":"212 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jac.70215","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148299501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Correction to ‘Growth, Photosynthesis and Root Metabolome Responses to Graded Hypoxia in Contrasting Rice Cultivars’","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/jac.70220","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jac.70220","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000 <span>Viana, J. S.</span>, <span>L.S. Lopes</span>, <span>F. L. P. Cavalcante</span>, et al. “ <span>Growth, Photosynthesis and Root Metabolome Responses to Graded Hypoxia in Contrasting Rice Cultivars</span>.” <i>Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science</i> <span>212</span>, no. <span>3</span>: e70201. https://doi.org/10.1111/jac.70201.\u0000 </p><p>The second author's name has been corrected from ‘Lineker de Sousa opes’ to ‘Lineker de Sousa Lopes’.</p><p>The online version of this article has been corrected accordingly.</p><p>We apologize for this error.</p>","PeriodicalId":14864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science","volume":"212 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jac.70220","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148299500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of Shallow Groundwater Salinity on the Field Performance of Rainfed Soybean (Glicine max), maize (Zea mays) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) in the Argentine Pampas","authors":"Marcelo Daniel Nosetto,&nbsp;María Eugenia Beget,&nbsp;Juan Ignacio Whitworth-Hulse,&nbsp;Javier Houspanossian,&nbsp;Esteban Gabriel Jobbágy","doi":"10.1111/jac.70218","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jac.70218","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;div&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;p&gt;While shallow groundwater can buffer rainfed crops against drought, its usefulness depends critically on water quality, as groundwater salinity can limit this contribution. In the Chaco–Pampas plain, widespread shallow water tables are increasingly regarded as a water source by farmers, yet field-based evidence on how groundwater salinity affects crop performance under real production conditions remains limited. Most of the existing knowledge comes from controlled experiments using ‘top-down’ saline irrigation, which do not adequately represent the ‘bottom-up’ capillary contribution of saline groundwater typical of rainfed field settings. Understanding these responses and their interaction with rainfall variability is essential to guide adaptive management in these agroecosystems. We took advantage of a natural gradient of groundwater salinity (≈2–11 dS m&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt;) with uniformly shallow depths (&lt; 2 m) under real field conditions in the western Pampas (temperate sub-humid climate, coarse-textured soils) to evaluate its effects on rainfed soybean, maize, and wheat. Manual yield sampling and yield-component analysis (grain number m&lt;sup&gt;−2&lt;/sup&gt;, thousand-grain weight) were complemented with ecophysiological measurements (leaf temperature and stomatal conductance) and time series of the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (&lt;i&gt;fAPAR&lt;/i&gt;) derived from Sentinel-2 NDVI. Relative yields were modelled using a curvilinear, exponential-type function to estimate the salinity level causing a 50% yield reduction (C&lt;sub&gt;50&lt;/sub&gt;) and the Salinity Tolerance Index (ST-index). Groundwater salinity significantly reduced the yields of the three crops, following a clear tolerance ranking: wheat (C&lt;sub&gt;50&lt;/sub&gt; = 8.4 dS m&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt;) &gt; maize (C&lt;sub&gt;50&lt;/sub&gt; = 5.0 dS m&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt;) &gt; soybean (average C&lt;sub&gt;50&lt;/sub&gt; = 4.8 dS m&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt;). Observations in multiple growing seasons for soybean revealed some inter-annual variability, with tolerance (&lt;i&gt;C&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;50&lt;/sub&gt;) tending to increase under wetter conditions (&lt;i&gt;R&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; = 0.98, &lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 4, &lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 0.009). Yield reductions were primarily associated with decreases in grain number (56%–98% variability explanation), while grain weight was mainly affected in maize and in soybean during dry seasons (36%–43% variability explanation). Higher groundwater salinity also impaired plant water status (lower stomatal conductance, higher leaf temperature) and reduced &lt;i&gt;fAPAR&lt;/i&gt;, more markedly in maize and soybean under dry conditions. Crop response thresholds to groundwater salinity should not be regarded as a fixed physiological attribute but rather as a dynamic ecohydrological property modulated by rainfall inputs. Depending on its salinity and the prevailing climatic conditions, shallow groundwater can act either as a resource or as a stress factor for crops. These findings highlight the need for adaptive management strategies that integrate grou","PeriodicalId":14864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science","volume":"212 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148299498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Interplay of Genotype × Environment and Multi-Trait Stability in Early-Generation F2 Soybean Populations","authors":"Sâmela Beutinger Cavalheiro,&nbsp;Dthenifer Cordeiro Santana,&nbsp;Elber Vinicius Martins Silva,&nbsp;Jorge Gonzalez Aguilera,&nbsp;Francisco Eduardo Torres,&nbsp;Paulo Carteri Coradi,&nbsp;Larissa Pereira Ribeiro Teodoro,&nbsp;Paulo Eduardo Teodoro","doi":"10.1111/jac.70217","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jac.70217","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Soybean breeding faces the ongoing challenge of developing genotypes that combine high yield performance, nutritional and grain quality, with phenotypic stability and adaptation to different environmental conditions. The objective of this study was to investigate genetic variability, genotype × environment interaction and phenotypic stability to ensure the relationship among nutritional, agronomic and industrial traits in soybean for the selection of superior parents and genotypes. Thirty-six genotypes, including 28 F₂ genotypes and eight parental lines, were evaluated in two environments. Nutritional traits (P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Mn, Zn, Cu, Fe), agronomic traits (days to maturity, plant height, grain yield) and industrial traits (protein, oil, fibre, ash content) were analysed. Variance analyses indicated genetic variability and genotype × environment interaction for most traits. The first two canonical variables (45.9%) showed that genotype P16 was associated with oil content, while genotypes P20, P21 and G4 were related to Fe, K, Zn, protein content and grain yield. Genotypes P1, G2 and G6 were associated with Mg content and days to maturity, whereas genotype P23 was linked to Cu, fibre and Ca content. Adaptability and stability were estimated using the Lin and Binns index and the multivariate <i>P</i>_im index. The multivariate index combined with the GT-biplot explained 77.5% of the total results. Three genotypes were selected: P20 exhibited good averages and stability for the group of nutritional and agronomic traits, while P2 and P4 were indicated for the group of industrial traits. These three genotypes can be developed and utilized in breeding blocks for multiple traits, meeting the demands of producers, industry and consumers.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":14864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science","volume":"212 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148299499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Salinity Effects on Agro-Physiological Characteristics and Yield Formation of Rice Differing in Salinity Tolerance in Saline Lands","authors":"Huanhe Wei,&nbsp;Yue Jiang,&nbsp;Qingqing Ma,&nbsp;Jizou Zhu,&nbsp;Xiang Zhang,&nbsp;Yinglong Chen,&nbsp;Pinglei Gao,&nbsp;Chenchen Zhao,&nbsp;Qigen Dai,&nbsp;Tianyao Meng","doi":"10.1111/jac.70216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jac.70216","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Saline fields hold great promise for boosting rice production in China. Salinity-tolerant/susceptible rice cultivars respond differently to salinity, yet limited research has focused on how salinity modulates their agro-physiological traits and grain yield of rice under saline field conditions. This research aimed to explore how salinity affects rice yield formation and identify key agro-physiological characteristics underlying differential tolerance responses. Field experiments were conducted with salinity-tolerant rice (Yannongjing 3426 and Nanjingyan 1) and salinity-susceptible rice (Wuyunjing 30 and Huajing 5) under low salinity (LS) and high salinity (HS) over 2 years. Rice grain yield was reduced by 34.2%–54.9% at HS across 2 years, compared with LS. The increased salinity stress led to lower shoot biomass and stem non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) content, accompanied by higher harvest index and NSC reserve remobilization. Meanwhile, the increased salinity stress brought higher leaf (sodium) Na⁺ concentration and Na⁺/(potassium) K⁺ ratio, accompanied by reductions in post-heading leaf SPAD value and photosynthetic rate, and total accumulation of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and K. Salinity-tolerant rice yielded 10.1% (LS) and 27.1% (HS) more than salinity-susceptible rice. Salinity-tolerant rice at HS maintained lower leaf Na⁺ concentration and Na⁺/K⁺ ratio, but higher shoot biomass and harvest index, post-heading leaf SPAD value and photosynthetic rate, stem NSC content and remobilization, K⁺ concentration in leaf, and total N, P, and K accumulation than salt-susceptible rice. The present study indicated that salinity stress reduced rice grain yield by 34.2%–54.9%. The superior yield of salinity-tolerant rice over salinity-susceptible rice under HS was attributed to larger sink size and higher sink-filling efficiency, driven by the favourable agro-physiological traits.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":14864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science","volume":"212 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148282275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing Suitability of Various Morphological and Ionic Traits as Proxies for Barley Tolerance to Combined Salinity and Waterlogging Stress","authors":"Md. Hasanuzzaman,&nbsp;Meixue Zhou,&nbsp;Ping Yun,&nbsp;Sergey Shabala","doi":"10.1111/jac.70214","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jac.70214","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Waterlogging and salinity stresses significantly affect crop productivity and often coincide in nature. While adaptive responses to each of the individual stresses have been studied in detail, the traits conferring tolerance to combined stresses (and thus the most appropriate targets for breeding) remain poorly understood. In the present work, we studied the morphological and ionic responses of 11 barley varieties contrasting in salinity (NaCl) stress tolerance under waterlogging (WL) and combined waterlogging and salinity (WL + NaCl) stresses. Stress damage responses were much higher in plants under combined WL + NaCl stress than those under either stress alone. The adverse effect of combined stress was much greater in salt-sensitive varieties than in more tolerant varieties. As shown by PCA analysis, growth traits such as shoot and root biomass, number and length of adventitious roots, and K⁺ concentration contributed strongly to PC1. Under NaCl stress, PC1 (47%) and PC2 (24.2%) accounted for 71.2% of the variance, with growth-related traits strongly correlated with PC1, while Na⁺ concentration and salt damage index contributed positively to PC2. A significant negative correlation (<i>r</i> = −0.86 and −0.96, respectively) was found between aerenchyma score and salt damage index under WL and combined stress, respectively. Overall, PCA, membership function value analysis, and correlation matrix analysis consistently identified the number of adventitious roots, percentage formation of aerenchyma, and shoot K⁺ content as the traits most strongly associated with the stress damage index, highlighting their suitability as key phenotyping proxies for selection in breeding programmes.</p>","PeriodicalId":14864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science","volume":"212 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jac.70214","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148282293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Optimizing Planting Density to Enhance Soil Heat Utilization and Its Effect on Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) Biomass and Yield Formation Under Varied Climate Conditions","authors":"Madjebi Collela Be,&nbsp;Zhang Jie,&nbsp;Beifang Yang,&nbsp;Yingchun Han,&nbsp;Yaping Lei,&nbsp;Hamad Khan,&nbsp;James E. Kanneh,&nbsp;Xiaoyu Zhi,&nbsp;Shiwu Xiong,&nbsp;Yahui Jiao,&nbsp;Shilong Shang,&nbsp;Yunzhen Ma,&nbsp;Tao Lin,&nbsp;Yabing Li","doi":"10.1111/jac.70213","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jac.70213","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The relationship between planting density and resource utilization, including water and light, has been extensively studied concerning cotton (<i>Gossypium hirsutum L</i>.) biomass and yield. However, understanding the effect of planting density on soil heat resource utilization remains limited. This study investigates the impact of planting density on soil heat utilization across different soil layers and growth stages, focusing on cotton biomass, yields and soil heat conversion efficiency (PE_soil). Conducted over 3 years (2022–2024), the experiment utilized various planting densities (D1:15,000, D2:33,000, D3:51,000, D4:69,000, D5:87,000 and D6: 105,000 plants ha⁻¹) in a randomized complete block design. Our findings indicated that biomass accumulation showed a significant positive correlation with the effective accumulated temperature (EAT) in 2022, but this relationship turned negative in 2023 and 2024. PE_soil correlated positively with yield across treatments. Under warmer temperature conditions, D5 achieved the highest yield, exceeding D3 and D4 by 5% and 7%, respectively. In contrast, under moderate temperature conditions with well-distributed rainfall, D3 and D4 outperformed D5 by 4% and 3%, respectively. These findings suggest that excessively high planting densities did not further improve yield or PE_soil. Instead, optimizing planting density according to climatic conditions is critical for maximizing cotton productivity and soil heat conversion efficiency. Moderate planting densities (D3–D4) are recommended under normal climatic conditions, whereas slightly higher density (D5) may improve yield under warmer conditions. This climate-adaptive density management strategy provides a practical pathway for improving sustainable cotton production in the North China Plain.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":14864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science","volume":"212 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2026-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148238206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Molecular Markers and GWAS for Thermotolerance in Maize: Integrating Gene Expression, Epigenetic Regulation and Yield Stability Under Climate Change","authors":"Alfi Sophian","doi":"10.1111/jac.70212","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jac.70212","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Rising temperatures driven by climate change threaten global maize (<i>Zea mays</i> L.) production, with heat stress projected to reduce yields by up to 10 million metric tons annually by 2050. This review synthesises current knowledge on molecular markers, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), transcriptomics and genotype-by-environment (GxE) interactions as integrated frameworks for thermotolerance improvement in maize. Key quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and candidate genes—including the ZmHSF–ZmHSP regulatory module, ZmbZIP60 and ZmCDPK7—are discussed in relation to heat stress signalling and reproductive-stage tolerance. We examine how RNA-seq, WGCNA and single-cell transcriptomics have resolved cell-type-specific heat stress responses, and highlight epigenetic mechanisms—H3K4me3-mediated heat stress memory and DNA methylation dynamics—as emerging regulatory layers with breeding relevance. Integration of GWAS-derived SNP markers with multi-environment yield stability analysis using AMMI and GGE biplot models enables identification of broadly adapted thermotolerant genotypes. Applications of marker-assisted selection, genomic selection and CRISPR-based epigenome editing for developing climate-resilient maize cultivars are critically evaluated. This molecular–agronomic synthesis provides actionable targets for breeding programmes aimed at narrowing the yield gap under thermal stress.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":14864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science","volume":"212 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2026-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148237965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}