Geronimo Ferreira da Silva

Salinity in irrigation water limits cherry tomato production in arid and semiarid regions, making physiological stress-mitigation strategies essential. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate postharvest quality and bioactive compounds of cherry tomato in response to silicon management under salt stress. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse using a randomized complete block design in a 5 × 2 factorial arrangement, consisting of five irrigation-water electrical conductivities (0.3, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, and 4.5 dS m⁻¹) and two foliar silicon rates (0 and 1%), evaluated over two growing cycles. Increasing salinity from 0.3 to 4.5 ds m⁻¹ decreased fruit pH from 4.33 to 4.19 in cycle 1 and from 4.24 to 4.12 in cycle 2. Total chlorophyll decreased by 88.5% and 66.8%, and total carotenoids by 76.5% and 40.0%, in cycles 1 and 2, respectively. In contrast, soluble solids (SS) increased from 5.1 to 8.1 °Brix in cycle 1 and from 5.5 to 9.6 °Brix in cycle 2, while flavonoids increased from 2.4 to 4.4 and from 1.0 to 2.5 mg 100 g⁻¹, respectively. Foliar silicon increased mean fruit color values from 45.09 to 47.86 in cycle 1 and from 45.07 to 49.84 in cycle 2, and also increased the SS/TA ratio. Salinity × silicon interaction affected titratable acidity (TA) and anthocyanins. Overall, salinity altered the postharvest chemical and pigment profile, reduced pH and pigment, and increased SS and flavonoid contents. Foliar silicon was associated with the maintenance of fruit color and a higher SS/TA ratio, indicating its potential for maintaining postharvest quality under saline conditions.

Plant diseases impose major constraints on global crop productivity and pose a major threat to food security. Here, we review transcription factors (TFs) as central orchestrators of plant defense, consolidating recent advances in how these regulators connect pathogen perception to immune signaling, transcriptional reprogramming, and durable defense responses. Initially, we combined a literature-based synthesis with a natural language processing (NLP) analysis of 1647 PubMed abstracts published between 2021 and 2026 to map dominant and underexplored TF families associated with plant immunity. WRKY, MYB, AP2/ERF, bHLH/MYC, and NAC dominated the recent literature, whereas families such as NF-Y, Trihelix, PLATZ, TCP, and GRAS represent emerging regulatory actors. Across these and other families, TFs integrate pattern- and effector-triggered immunity, hormone crosstalk, chromatin dynamics, non-coding RNA regulation, post-translational modifications, and metabolic remodeling, in addition to cell-type-specific expression. Further evidence indicates that pathogens frequently manipulate TFs to weaken host defense, underscoring their central position in plant molecular physiology and plant-pathogen coevolution. The data emphasize that TF function is context-dependent and influenced by multilayered regulation, cell type, pathogen lifestyle, and host genetic background. This review provides a framework for understanding TFs in plant immune control and highlights TF-centered strategies for engineering durable crop resistance, along with future challenges.

Water scarcity is one of the main constraints on maize production in semiarid regions, making it essential to adopt management strategies that reconcile water savings, crop resilience, and economic viability. This study evaluated the effects of deficit irrigation strategies integrated with the use of bioinputs on physiological, productive, and economic parameters of maize grown under field conditions in the Brazilian semiarid region over two growing seasons (2023 and 2024). The experiment was conducted using a randomized complete block design with a split-plot arrangement. Irrigation strategies comprised full irrigation (FI; 100% of crop water requirements), continuous deficit irrigation (RD50%; 50% throughout the crop cycle), and stage-specific controlled deficit irrigation (50%) imposed during the vegetative (CDV50%), flowering/grain formation (CDF50%), and grain-filling (CDG50%) stages, while seed treatments involved inoculation with Bacillus aryabhattai, coinoculation with B. aryabhattai + Azospirillum brasilense, and control treatments. Physiological variables, yield components, water use efficiency, the crop sensitivity coefficient to water deficit (Ky), and economic indicators were assessed. Controlled deficits irrigation, particularly under CDV50%, maintained grain yield comparable to FI (6465.80 kg ha⁻¹, in second growing season), whereas RD50% reduced yield in 26%. Inoculation treatments enhanced gas exchange, carboxylation efficiency, and water use efficiency, resulting in higher agricultural income under specific production systems. The CDV50% strategy combined with coinoculation showed the greatest potential as a sustainable approach for maize production in semiarid environments and reduced the water use by up to 18.9%.

In irrigated areas around the world, the recommendation for the use of subsurface drainage is also associated with controlling salinity problems. Due to the high implementation cost, the search for solutions that make this requirement more flexible is necessary. Among the options to be investigated is the hypothesis that the height and salinity of the water table in plots located at the highest points of a toposequence are lower and do not compromise plant development, even without underground drainage systems. In this context, the present work was developed to monitor and evaluate the variation in water level or mottling over twelve months, as well as to measure and analyze the electrical conductivity and average pH of the water table during this period and its possible impact on plants. For this purpose, three lots in toposequence were selected in the Senador Nilo Coelho Public Irrigation Project, Petrolina—PE, with previously defined characteristics: soil classification (Plinthic Yellow—Ultisol), crop planted (Mangifera indica L.) and irrigation system used (micro-sprinkler). Precipitation, reference evapotranspiration and volume of water applied via irrigation were monitored by an automatic weather station and hydrometers in each lot. In each plot, nine observation wells were installed, distributed in a grid, with the aim of make monthly measurements of the water table level or mottling. The electrical conductivity and pH of the groundwater were also measured to obtain the average monthly value for each lot. Illustrative 3D maps of the water table level in relation to the ground surface were created using the simple kriging method, in the UTM SIRGAS 2000 24S projection system. The absence and presence of groundwater in the upper and lower hillslope lots, respectively, were favored by the toposequence. The decision to install underground drainage or not can be made on a case-by-case basis; this must take into account, among other aspects, changes in physical characteristics along the soil profile, possible occurrence of mottling, the quality of water for irrigation, the irrigation management adopted and the position of the lot in the toposequence.

MÉTODO PARA PROJETAR LINHAS LATERAIS PAREADAS DE MICROIRRIGAÇÃO COM VARIAÇÃO DE DIÂMETROS COMERCIAIS JOÃO AUDIFAX CÉZAR DE ALBUQUERQUE FILHO1; JOSÉ LUCAS PEREIRA DA SILVA2; CERES DUARTE GUEDES CABRAL DE ALMEIDA3; MANASSÉS MESQUITA DA SILVA4; JOSÉ AMILTON SANTOS JÚNIOR5 E ALEXSANDRO OLIVEIRA DA SILVA6 1 Prof. Doutor, Depto de Engenharia Agrícola, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco - UFRPE, Rua Dom Manuel de Medeiros, s/n - Dois Irmãos, Recife – PE, Brasil. E-mail: joao.albuquerquefo@ufrpe.br; ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5064-3237). 2 Doutorando do programa de Engenharia Agrícola, UFRPE, Rua Dom Manuel de Medeiros, s/n - Dois Irmãos, Recife – PE, Brasil. E-mail: jose.lucaspereira@ufrpe.br; ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5566-4144). 3 Prof(a). Doutora, Colégio Agrícola Dom Agostinho Ikas (CODAI) da UFRPE, Av. Dr. Francisco Correia, 643 - Centro, São Lourenço da Mata - PE, Brasil. E-mail: ceres.cabral@ufrpe.br; ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6073-3853). 4 Prof. Doutor, Depto de Engenharia Agrícola, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco - UFRPE, Rua Dom Manuel de Medeiros, s/n - Dois Irmãos, Recife – PE, Brasil. E-mail: manasses.mesquita@ufrpe.br; ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3892-3076). 5 Prof. Doutor, Depto de Engenharia Agrícola, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco - UFRPE, Rua Dom Manuel de Medeiros, s/n - Dois Irmãos, Recife – PE, Brasil. E-mail: joseamilton@ufrpe.br; ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1656-7103). 6 Prof. Doutor, Depto de Engenharia Agrícola, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco - UFRPE, Rua Dom Manuel de Medeiros, s/n - Dois Irmãos, Recife – PE, Brasil. E-mail: alexsandro.osilva@ufrpe.br; ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5528-9874). 1 RESUMO Este estudo tem como objetivo avaliar um método mais abrangente, simples e muito preciso para projetar linhas laterais pareadas de microirrigação com diâmetro constante ou misto em terrenos com inclinação uniforme. Com base em um novo princípio de se igualar as diferenças de pressão nas laterais de cada lado, a equação final do método apresentada num formato padrão e adimensional também facilitou o processamento de outros métodos já consagrados na literatura, bastando substituir a constante que caracteriza cada método. Um teste comparativo foi realizado com outros dois modelos com princípios de que se igualem as pressões mínimas ou pressões médias das laterais pareadas. A aplicação em um exemplo de projeto cobrindo várias condições indicaram resultados mais precisos para as linhas laterais pareadas, com menor diferença de desempenho entre os trechos em aclive e declive. Palavras-Chave: Taxa de pressão, uniformidade de distribuição, linha do gradiente de energia. ALBUQUERQUE FILHO, J. A. C.; SILVA, J. L. P.; ALMEIDA, C. D. G. C.; SILVA, M. M.; SANTOS JÚNIOR, J. A.; SILVA, A. O. METHOD FOR DESIGNING PAIRED MICROIRRIGATION LATERALS WITH VARIABLE COMMERCIAL DIAMETERS 2 ABSTRACT This study aims to evaluate a more comprehensive, simple, and highly accurate method for designing paired microirrigation sides with constant or mixed diameters on uniformly sloped terrains. On the basis of a new principle of equalizing pressure differences between the sides on each side, the final equation of the method, which is presented in a standard and dimensionless format, also facilitates the processing of other well-established methods in the literature by simply replacing the constant that characterizes each comparative method. tests were performed with two other models based on the principles of equalizing either the minimum or average pressures of the paired sides. Application to a design example covering various conditions indicated more accurate results for paired sides, with reduced performance differences between upslope and downslope segments. Keywords: Pressure rate, distribution uniformity, energy gradient line.

Organic fertilizer stimulates soil microbial activity, contributing to the decomposition of organic residues and nutrient release, thereby helping to reduce the negative effects of soil salinity. The use of Trichoderma can enhance nutrient availability to plants and increase their resistance to abiotic stresses, such as salinity stress. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effects of organic fertilizer on green maize plants under soil inoculation with Trichoderma harzianum and salinity stress. The experiment was conducted during the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons in Redenção municipally, Ceará, Brazil. A randomized complete block design was used, arranged in a split–split plot scheme with four replications. The main plots consisted of two electrical conductivities of irrigation water (ECw): A1—0.3 dS m⁻¹ and A2—3.0 dS m⁻¹. The subplots comprised three doses of well-composted cattle manure (0, 10, and 20 t ha⁻¹), and the sub-subplots represented soil inoculation (TI) or non-inoculation (NI) with the Trichoderma harzianum-based biostimulant. Irrigation with saline water reduced maize growth and yield; however, these effects were mitigated by Trichoderma harzianum and organic fertilizer. Inoculation was particularly effective under lower electrical conductivity conditions. The combination of 10 t ha⁻¹ of cattle manure with Trichoderma inoculation showed the highest productive efficiency.

In regions with limited water resources, such as the Brazilian semiarid region, the use of soil cover can make irrigated agriculture more efficient. The present work aims to analyze the potential use of carnauba bagana as mulch to reduce water use in irrigated coriander production. The experiment was conducted between June and October 2018, in the municipality of Pentecoste, State of Ceará, Brazil, in a randomized block design with four replications in a 5 x 5 factorial scheme, with five irrigation depths (50%; 75%; 100%; 125% and 150% of crop evapotranspiration) and five levels of soil cover (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% equivalent to 16 t ha-1 of carnauba bagana), totaling 100 experimental plots. Growth and yield data were evaluated: number of leaves; plant height, root length, root number, root fresh mass, shoot fresh mass, shoot and root dry mass, yield and water productivity. For shoot fresh mass in the second production cycle, the regression fit as a function of soil cover was linear with an increase of 1.292 g m-2 for each unit increase of carnauba bagana in the soil. Using carnauba bagana as mulch can contribute to the production of irrigated coriander, increasing water productivity and consequently reducing water use..