Defined synthetic microbial communities colonize and benefit field-grown sorghum.

The rhizosphere constitutes a dynamic interface between plant hosts and their associated microbial communities. Despite the acknowledged potential for enhancing plant fitness by manipulating the rhizosphere, the engineering of the rhizosphere microbiome through inoculation has posed significant challenges. These challenges are thought to arise from the competitive microbial ecosystem where introduced microbes must survive, and the absence of adaptation to the specific metabolic and environmental demands of the rhizosphere.

Metabolomic, photoprotective, and photosynthetic acclimatory responses to post-flowering drought in sorghum.

Climate change is globally affecting rainfall patterns, necessitating the improvement of drought tolerance in crops. is a relatively drought-tolerant cereal. Functional stay-green sorghum genotypes can maintain green leaf area and efficient grain filling during terminal post-flowering water deprivation, a period of ~10 weeks.

High resolution fluorescence bio-imaging upconversion nanoparticles in insects.

Imaging fluorescent markers with brightness, photostability, and continuous emission with auto fluorescence background suppression in biological samples has always been challenging due to limitations of available and economical techniques. Here we report a new approach, to achieve high contrast imaging inside small and difficult biological systems with special geometry such as fire ants, an important agricultural pest, using a homemade cost-effective optical system. Unlike the commonly used rare-earth doped fluoride nanoparticles, we utilized nanoparticles with a high upconversion efficiency in water.