Guiying Tang

Introduction: Accurate recognition of plant pests and diseases under field conditions remains challenging due to complex symptom morphology, environmental variability, and limited annotated data. While deep learning has been widely adopted for image-based diagnosis, existing studies are often model-centric and evaluated under heterogeneous experimental settings, making it difficult to derive paradigm-level insights into data efficiency, robustness, and practical deployment suitability. Methods: In this research, we systematically compare three main types of vision models: Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Vision Transformers, and mixed State Space Model-based structures (MambaVision). These models are applied to classify images of pests and diseases across multiple crops. Using a unified and reproducible experimental framework, we benchmark representative models across multiple training regimes, diverse crop species, and symptom types reflecting realistic agricultural scenarios. Results: Results reveal clear paradigm-level differences. CNN-based models perform competitively on diseases dominated by localized lesion textures but show limited robustness for symptoms requiring global spatial interpretation. Transformer-based models benefit from global dependency modeling yet exhibit increased instability under small-sample conditions. In contrast, hybrid MambaVision-based models consistently demonstrate superior data efficiency and robustness, retaining approximately 60–80% accuracy under extreme data scarcity (1% training samples) and achieving stable, high F1-scores across symptom types that require joint modeling of fine-grained textures and long-range spatial distribution. Furthermore, performance–efficiency analysis shows that hybrid MambaVision-based models achieve a more favorable accuracy–computational cost trade-off than CNN-based and Transformer-based models, supporting deployment under practical resource constraints. Discussion: Overall, this study provides pathology-oriented and deployment-aware insights into how architectural inductive bias interacts with symptom morphology and data availability, highlighting hybrid MambaVision-based models as a robust and effective solution for real-world plant pest and disease recognition.

Silique development exerts significant impacts on crop yield. CRPs (Cysteine-rich peptides) can mediate cell–cell communication during plant reproduction and development. However, the functional characterization and regulatory mechanisms of CRPs in silique development remain unclear. In this study, we identified many CRP genes downstream of the CRP gene TPD1 (TAPETUM DETERMINANT1) during silique development using a microarray assay. The novel Arabidopsis thaliana pollen-borne CRPs, the PCP-Bs (for pollen coat protein B-class) gene AtPCP-Ba, along with TPD1, are essential for silique development. The AtPCP-Ba was significantly down-regulated in tpd1 flower buds but up-regulated in OE-TPD1 flower buds and siliques. The silencing of AtPCP-Ba compromised the wider silique of OE-TPD1 plants and inhibited the morphology of OE-TPD1 siliques to the size observed in the wild type. A total of 258 CRPs were identified with the bioinformatic analysis in Arabidopsis, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Oryza sativa, Sorghum bicolor, and Zea mays. Based on the evolutionary tree classification, all CRP members can be categorized into five subgroups. Notably, 107 CRP genes were predicted to exhibit abundant expression in flowers and fruits. Most cysteine-rich peptides exhibited high expression levels in Arabidopsis and Brassica napus. These findings suggested the involvement of the CRP AtPCP-Ba in the TPD1 signaling pathway, thereby regulating silique development in Arabidopsis.

LEAFY COTYLEDON1 (LEC1) isa member of the nuclear factor Y (NF-Y) family of transcription factors and has been identified as a key regulator of embryonic development. In the present study, two LEC1-type genes from Arachis hypogeae were identified and designated as AhNF-YB1 and AhNF-YB10; these genes belong to subgenome A and subgenome B, respectively. The functions of AhNF-YB1and AhNF-YB10 were investigated by complementation analysis of their defective phenotypes of the Arabidopsis lec1-2 mutant and by ectopic expression in wild-type Arabidopsis. The results indicated that both AhNF-YB1 and AhNF-YB10 participate in regulating embryogenesis, embryo development, and reserve deposition in cotyledons and that they have partial functional redundancy. In contrast, AhNF-YB10 complemented almost all the defective phenotypes of lec1-2 in terms of embryonic morphology and hypocotyl length, while AhNF-YB1 had only a partial effect. In addition, 30%-40% of the seeds of the AhNF-YB1 transformants exhibited a decreasing germination ratio and longevity. Therefore, appropriate spatiotemporal expression of these genes is necessary for embryo morphogenesis at the early development stage and is responsible for seed maturation at the mid-late development stage. On the other hand, overexpression of AhNF-YB1or AhNF-YB10 at the middle to late stages of Arabidopsis seed development improved the weight, oil content, and fatty acid composition of the transgenic seeds. Moreover, the expression levels of several genes associated with fatty acid synthesis and embryogenesis were significantly greater in developing AhNF-YB10-overexpressing seeds than in control seeds. This study provides a theoretical basis for breeding oilseed crops with high yields and high oil content.

LEAFY COTYLEDON1 (LEC1) belongs to a member of nuclear factor Y (NF-Y) transcription factors, which has been identified as a key regulator of embryo development. In present study, two LEC1-type genes from Arachis hypogeae were identified and designated as AhNF-YB1 and AhNF-YB10 which belong to subgenome A and subgenome B, respectively. The functions of AhNF-YB1 and AhNF-YB10 were investigated by complementary analysis of their defective phenotypes in Arabidopsis lec1-2 mutant and their ectopic expressions in wild-type Arabidopsis. The results indicated that both AhNF-YB1 and AhNF-YB10 take part in regulating embryogenesis, embryo development, and reserves deposition in cotyledon, and they have partial function redundancy. A bit differently, AhNF-YB10 could complement almost all defective phenotypes of lec1-2, in the embryonic morphology and the length of hypocotyl, while AhNF-YB1 only in part. And 30%-40% seeds of the AhNF-YB1 transformants showed the decreasing germination ratio and longevity. Therefore, the appropriate spatio-tempoeal expression of these genes is necessary for embryo morphogenesis at early development stage and is responsible for seeds maturation at mid-late development stage. On the other hand, overexpression of AhNF-YB1 or AhNF-YB10 at the middle to late stages of seed development in Arabidopsis could improve the weight, the oil content, and fatty acid component of transgenic seeds. In the meanwhile, the expression levels of some genes associated with fatty acid synthesis and embryogenesis in developing AhNF-YB10-overexpression seeds were significantly enhanced. This study will provide the theoratic basis for oilseed crops breeding of high yields and high oil content.

Seed dormancy and germination are the two important traits related to plant survival and reproduction, and crop yield. To understand their regulation mechanism, it is crucial to clarify which genes or which pathways participate in the regulation of these processes. However, little information is available during the procedure of seed dormancy and germination in peanut. In this study, the seeds of the variety Luhua No.14 with non-deep dormancy were selected and its transcriptional changes at three developmental stages: the fresh-harvest (FS), the after-ripened (DS) and the just-germinated seeds (GS), were investigated by comparative transcriptomics analysis. The results showed that genes with increased transcription in DS vs FS comparison were overrepresented for oxidative phosphorylation, glycolysis pathway and tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA), suggesting that after a period of drying storage, the intermediates stored in dry seeds were rapidly mobilized by glycolysis, TCA cycle, glyoxylate cycle, etc.; the electron transport chain accompanying with respiration has been reactivated to provide ATP for mobilization of other reserves and seed germination. In GS vs DS pairwise, dozens of the up-regulated genes were related to plant hormone biosynthesis and signal transduction, including the majority of components in auxin signal pathway, and brassinosteroid biosynthesis and signal transduction, and some GA and ABA signal transduction genes. During seeds germination, the expression of some EXPANSIN and XYLOGLUCAN ENDOTRANSGLYCOSYLASE was also significantly enhanced. To investigate the effect of different hormone during the procedure of seed germination, the contents and the differential distribution of ABA, GA, BR and IAA in cotyledon, hypocotyl and radicle, and plumule of three seed sections at different developmental stages were also detected. Combining with previous data in other species, a model of regulatory network related to peanut seed germination was developed. This model will helpful to gain further understanding of the mechanisms controlling seed dormancy and germination.