Irradiance level and elevation shape the soil microbiome communities of Coffea arabica L.

Background: The nexus plant-microbe-environment is essential to understand the ecosystem processes shaping plant health and fitness. Within this triangle, soils and associated microflora are among the key ecosystem's drivers, underpinning plant productivity and evolution. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis (physicochemical properties, enzyme activities, and taxonomic diversity) of soils under the canopy projection of Coffea arabica trees along a gradient of elevation (600, 800, and 900 m) and shade (0, 50, 100%).

Transcriptomic Analyses Reveal That and Have More Complex Responses under Combined Heat and Drought than under Individual Stressors.

Increasing exposure to unfavorable temperatures and water deficit imposes major constraints on most crops worldwide. Despite several studies regarding coffee responses to abiotic stresses, transcriptome modulation due to simultaneous stresses remains poorly understood. This study unravels transcriptomic responses under the combined action of drought and temperature in leaves from the two most traded species: cv.

Uncovering the wide protective responses in spp. leaves to single and superimposed exposure of warming and severe water deficit.

Climate changes boosted the frequency and severity of drought and heat events, with aggravated when these stresses occur simultaneously, turning crucial to unveil the plant response mechanisms to such harsh conditions. Therefore, plant responses/resilience to single and combined exposure to severe water deficit (SWD) and heat were assessed in two cultivars of the main coffee-producing species: cv. Icatu and cv.

Plant Responses to Climate Change.

Ongoing climate change poses a great risk to the natural environment and the sustainability of agriculture [...

Genomic Evaluation of and Its Wild Relative in Mozambique: Settling Resilience Keys for the Coffee Crop in the Context of Climate Change.

Climate change is negatively affecting the coffee value chain, with a direct effect on approximately 100 million people from 80 countries. This has been attributed to the high vulnerability of the two-mainstream species, and , to extreme weather events, with notable uneven increases in market prices. Taking into account the narrow genetic plasticity of the commercial coffee cultivars, wild-relatives and underutilized species are valuable genetic resources.

The relative role of soil, climate, and genotype in the variation of nutritional value of fruits and leaves.

Pers is a multipurpose tree species valued for food and medicinal uses in Africa. Although there have been attempts to document the proximate composition of fruits and leaves, little is known about the relative role of soil, climate, and genotype on the nutritional quality. The present study evaluated the variation of the proximate composition of fruits and leaves in populations from Benin and Mozambique.

Genetic and morphological diversity in populations of Pers. occurring in Western (Benin) and Southern (Mozambique) Africa.

Background: Understanding morpho-genetic diversity and differentiation of species with relatively large distributions is crucial for the conservation and sustainable management of their genetic resources. The present study focused on Pers., an important multipurpose wild plant, distributed exclusively in natural ecosystems but facing several threats.

Salt Stress Tolerance in : Insights from the Branchlets Transcriptome.

Climate change and the accelerated rate of population growth are imposing a progressive degradation of natural ecosystems worldwide. In this context, the use of pioneer trees represents a powerful approach to reverse the situation. Among others, N-fixing actinorhizal trees constitute important elements of plant communities and have been successfully used in land reclamation at a global scale.

Protective Responses at the Biochemical and Molecular Level Differ between a L. Hybrid and Its Parental Genotypes to Supra-Optimal Temperatures and Elevated Air [CO].

Climate changes with global warming associated with rising atmospheric [CO] can strongly impact crop performance, including coffee, which is one of the most world's traded agricultural commodities. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to understand the mechanisms of heat tolerance and the potential role of elevated air CO (eCO) in the coffee plant response, particularly regarding the antioxidant and other protective mechanisms, which are crucial for coffee plant acclimation. For that, plants of cv.

Food and medicinal uses of Annona senegalensis Pers.: a country-wide assessment of traditional theoretical knowledge and actual uses in Benin, West Africa.

Background: The growing interest for more natural products in food and health industries has led to increasing research on traditional knowledge related to plants. While theoretical knowledge (TK) on the uses of a species informs on the wide spectrum of potential uses of that species, actual uses (AU) highlight their potential being actually used. Distinguishing between the two is important when reporting ethnobotanical studies.

Will Stress Resilience Be Maintained in the Face of Climate Change?

Actinorhizal plants have been regarded as promising species in the current climate change context due to their high tolerance to a multitude of abiotic stresses. While combined salt-heat stress effects have been studied in crop species, their impact on the model actinorhizal plant, , has not yet been fully addressed. The effect of single salt (400 mM NaCl) and heat (control at 26/22 °C, supra optimal temperatures at 35/22 °C and 45/22 °C day/night) conditions on branchlets was characterised at the physiological level, and stress-induced metabolite changes were characterised by mass spectrometry-based metabolomics.

The Nexus between Fire and Soil Bacterial Diversity in the African Miombo Woodlands of Niassa Special Reserve, Mozambique.

(1) Background: the Miombo woodlands comprise the most important vegetation from southern Africa and are dominated by tree legumes with an ecology highly driven by fires. Here, we report on the characterization of bacterial communities from the rhizosphere of in different soil types from areas subjected to different regimes. (2) Methods: bacterial communities were identified through Illumina MiSeq sequencing (16S rRNA).

A Transcriptomic Approach to Understanding the Combined Impacts of Supra-Optimal Temperatures and CO Revealed Different Responses in the Polyploid and Its Diploid Progenitor .

Understanding the effect of extreme temperatures and elevated air (CO) is crucial for mitigating the impacts of the coffee industry. In this work, leaf transcriptomic changes were evaluated in the diploid and its polyploid , grown at 25 °C and at two supra-optimal temperatures (37 °C, 42 °C), under ambient (aCO) or elevated air CO (eCO). Both species expressed fewer genes as temperature rose, although a high number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were observed, especially at 42 °C.

Transcriptomic Leaf Profiling Reveals Differential Responses of the Two Most Traded Coffee Species to Elevated [CO].

As atmospheric [CO] continues to rise to unprecedented levels, understanding its impact on plants is imperative to improve crop performance and sustainability under future climate conditions. In this context, transcriptional changes promoted by elevated CO (eCO) were studied in genotypes from the two major traded coffee species: the allopolyploid (Icatu) and its diploid parent, (CL153). While Icatu expressed more genes than CL153, a higher number of differentially expressed genes were found in CL153 as a response to eCO.

Intrinsic non-stomatal resilience to drought of the photosynthetic apparatus in Coffea spp. is strengthened by elevated air [CO2].

Growing water restrictions associated with climate changes constitute daunting challenges to crop performance. This study unveils the impacts of moderate (MWD) or severe (SWD) water deficit, and their interaction with air [CO2], on the photosynthetic apparatus of Coffea canephora Pierre ex A. Froehner cv.

The genetic legacy of fragmentation and overexploitation in the threatened medicinal African pepper-bark tree, Warburgia salutaris.

The pepper-bark tree (Warburgia salutaris) is one of the most highly valued medicinal plant species worldwide. Native to southern Africa, this species has been extensively harvested for the bark, which is widely used in traditional health practices. Illegal harvesting coupled with habitat degradation has contributed to fragmentation of populations and a severe decline in its distribution.

Mining the Microbiome of Key Species from African Savanna Woodlands: Potential for Soil Health Improvement and Plant Growth Promotion.

(1) Aims: Assessing bacterial diversity and plant-growth-promoting functions in the rhizosphere of the native African trees and in three landscapes of the Limpopo National Park (Mozambique), subjected to two fire regimes. (2) Methods: Bacterial communities were identified through Illumina Miseq sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene amplicons, followed by culture dependent methods to isolate plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB). Plant growth-promoting traits of the cultivable bacterial fraction were further analyzed.

Rice Biofortification With Zinc and Selenium: A Transcriptomic Approach to Understand Mineral Accumulation in Flag Leaves.

Human malnutrition due to micronutrient deficiencies, particularly with regards to Zinc (Zn) and Selenium (Se), affects millions of people around the world, and the enrichment of staple foods through biofortification has been successfully used to fight hidden hunger. Rice ( L.) is one of the staple foods most consumed in countries with high levels of malnutrition.

Resilient and Sensitive Key Points of the Photosynthetic Machinery of spp. to the Single and Superimposed Exposure to Severe Drought and Heat Stresses.

This study unveils the single and combined drought and heat impacts on the photosynthetic performance of cv. Icatu and cv. Conilon Clone 153 (CL153).

Comparative Proteomic Analysis of Nodulated and Non-Nodulated Sieb. ex Spreng. Grown under Salinity Conditions Using Sequential Window Acquisition of All Theoretical Mass Spectra (SWATH-MS).

displays high levels of salt tolerance, but very little is known about how this tree adapts to saline conditions. To understand the molecular basis of C. glauca response to salt stress, we have analyzed the proteome from branchlets of plants nodulated by nitrogen-fixing Frankia Thr bacteria (NOD) and non-nodulated plants supplied with KNO (KNO), exposed to 0, 200, 400, and 600 mM NaCl.

Experimental Design and Sample Preparation in Forest Tree Metabolomics.

Appropriate experimental design and sample preparation are key steps in metabolomics experiments, highly influencing the biological interpretation of the results. The sample preparation workflow for plant metabolomics studies includes several steps before metabolite extraction and analysis. These include the optimization of laboratory procedures, which should be optimized for different plants and tissues.

Field data on Vegetation Structure and Effects of Human Use of the Dambos Ecosystem in Northern Mozambique.

The data content of this paper is related to the original research article entitled that was published in the . Woody and grass vegetation was inventoried in the dambos wetlands of the Niassa National Reserve (NNR), the largest Protected Area (PA) in Mozambique and the third largest in Africa. The six dambos assessed were selected through Google Earth, MODIS satellite images and exploratory field visits.