Life science is entering into the era of big data due to the rapid development of high-throughput omics technology. Multi-omics data such as genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome have greatly facilitated dissecting the complex and sophisticated regulatory networks of organisms. Recently, a collaborative team led by Lin Li, Fang Yang and Jianbing Yan from Huazhong Agricultural University constructed the first multi-omics integrative network map of maize. This map comprises over 30 000 genes and 2.8 million network edges at the levels of genome, transcriptome, translatome, and proteome, finally forming 1 412 regulatory modules. Using the integrative network map, the research team successfully predicted and confirmed five new functional genes regulating the development of tiller, lateral organ, and kernel in maize. Based on the integrative map and machine learning, the research team identified 2 651 maize flowering time genes that are enriched in eight candidate subnetworks. The biological functions of 20 flowering candidate genes were further validated using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology and EMS mutants. Furthermore, evolutionary analysis of the integrative network map showed that the two subgenomes of maize had undergone a progressive functional differentiation from the levels of co-expression, co-translation to interactome. The construction of the multi-omics integrative network map represents an important breakthrough in maize functional genomics, which provides a new tool for cloning new genes, identifying novel molecular regulatory pathways, and revealing maize genome evolutionary features. This multi-omics integrative network map is a new key to decode maize functional genomics.

In this paper, we reviewed the research status of minor cereals in China—the germplasm conservation, identification and innovative utilization, etc. Furthermore, we analyzed the problems and challenges existing in the basic research of minor cereals in China, and proposed the priorities and development directions.

Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) has a short growth period, high water use efficiency, resistance to salt, alkali, and insect pests. It is an important crop in the adjustment of planting structure. Broomcorn millet is rich in starch, protein, essential amino acids, unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins (niacin, B vitamins, folic acid, etc.), minerals (phosphorus, calcium, zinc, iron), dietary fiber, phenolics, etc. It is also gluten-free, an ideal food for people who are allergy to gluten. In addition, broomcorn millet has the functions of lowering blood sugar, anti-inflammatory, and preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Therefore, broomcorm millet is an environmental friendly crop and beneficial to human health. It can be used as a future smart food for our country to deal with hidden hunger. This paper summarizes the research progress on the quality of broomcorn millet from the perspectives of appearance quality, nutritional quality and processing quality, and provides a reference for the quality research, processing and utilization of broomcorn millet.

Plant architecture is of great importance for yield improvement of cereal crops, and improvement of plant architecture is of great significance for improving crop yield potential. As a newly identified plant hormone, strigolactones is one of plant hormones regulating branching and tillering by inhibiting the elongation of axillary buds. β-carotene isomerase is the key enzyme for strigolactone synthesis. By the typical domain Pfam:DUF4033, all members in the β-carotene isomerase gene family in foxtail millet (Setaria italica) were identified (Seita.8G168400, Seita.6G088800, Seita.3G- 050900), encoding 271 to 277 amino acid residues with molecular weight ranging from 30.1 kDa to 30.4 kDa, isoelectric point ranging from 5.85 to 9.31, and instability coefficient ranging from 38.48 to 74.47. All members were subcellularly localized in chloroplast, and were grouped into three different evolutionary branches. Cis-element analysis revealed that SiD27-1 (Seita.8G168400) was involved in regulating circadian rhythm, auxin-mediated development, and response to drought and low temperature. Transcription of SiD27-1 was down-regulated in foxtail millet accessions with more tillers, and in low phosphorus treatment could respond to faster than all other members. Haplotype variation analysis revealed that H001 of SiD27-1 may contribute more to plant height, heading date and grain yield than other haplotypes. We inferred that SiD27-1 was involved in strigolactone synthesis and plant architecture in foxtail millet. It laid the foundation for in-depth analysis of regulatory mechanism of D27s on the formation of foxtail millet tillering, and provided allelic variation sites for molecular breeding of foxtail millet.

Fusarium wilt is one of the main diseases that seriously restrict the yield of common bean in China. In this study, the hypocotyl double hole injection method was used to identify the resistance of 601 common bean germplasm resources to fusarium wilt, and 4 highly resistance materials were screened out. Based on 3 765 456 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) distributed on the whole genome, the genome-wide association study was conducted with P<1×10^-5 as the threshold. A total of 57 significant SNPs were detected, which are distributed on chromosomes 1, 2, 6, 8, and 11 respectively. A total of 8 significant associated regions were obtained, of which region 1 on chromosome 1 contained up to 48 SNPs and the most significant SNP P value was 2.18E-07. Furthermore, 186 genes were detected in 8 significant association regions, of which 157 were annotated genes, including encoding peroxidase, disease resistance protein, transcription factor and protein kinase genes. Combing KEGG enrichment analysis and homology comparison, 9 candidate genes were identified that might be related to resistance.

Improving the cadmium (Cd) tolerance and low accumulation ability of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) is of great significance to its safe production in Cd-contaminated areas. Using Cd-tolerant and Cd-sensitive broomcorn millet varieties as materials, the effects of different forms of selenium and tellurium on the growth, root morphology, Cd uptake and transport, and grain mineral nutrient content under Cd stress were investigated by seedling hydroponic and full-fertility pot experiments. Exogenous addition of selenium and tellurium alleviated Cd toxicity, with organoselenium having the best alleviation effect. Compared with Cd treatment alone, selenium and tellurium can promote root diameter increase and inhibit Cd uptake, reducing root Cd content by up to 33%. Meanwhile, selenium and tellurium increased the percentage of Cd in cell wall and vacuole, thus improved Cd tolerance. Foliar spraying of selenium increased the mineral nutrient content of zinc, manganese and molybdenum in grains; inorganic tetravalent selenium could inhibit the translocation of Cd from nutrient organs to grains more effectively, reducing grain Cd content by 11.3%, 20.3% in Cd-sensitive and Cd-tolerant varieties under 5 mg·kg^-1 Cd treatment, respectively. In conclusion, exogenous addition of selenium can improve Cd tolerance and reduce grain Cd accumulation in broomcorn millet, and these findings provide a reference for safe production of broomcorn millet in Cd contaminated areas.

Common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) have rich nutritional value, and Acanthoscelides obtectus are major pests during the storage. It is a safe, economical and effective method to control the damage of A. obtectus by screening the germplasm resources of bruchid resistance. In this study, a total of 625 common bean germplasms were identified for resistance to A. obtectus by using improved indoor artificial inoculation method. Among them, two germplasms showed stable resistance in both two repeated identifications, with the percentage of damaged seeds less than 10%. Genome-wide association analysis was conducted based on 3 767 432 SNP and phenotypic data of the percentage of damaged seeds and the number of perforations from 625 common beans. Fifteen significant QTLs were associated with the percentage of damaged seeds and 8 significant QTLs were associated with the number of perforations, explaining 4.54% to 5.56% of the phenotypic variation. A total of 20 candidate genes were screened from all loci, including the genes encoding protease inhibitors, lectin, peroxidase and so on, which were related to the defense of bruchids.

The way of one-time basic fertilizer application causes imbalance of nutrients supplies in the whole growth period of crops, which results in the deficiency of nutrients and premature senility in the late growth period. In order to investigate the mechanism of polyaspartic acid-chitosan (PAC) in soil nitrogen supply and regulation of antioxidant properties in foxtail millet leaf after flowering in the northeast China and establish an anti-aging and high-yielding technology under the background of one-time basic fertilizer application, a field experiment was conducted using foxtail millet (Setaria italica) varieties of Zhangzagu 13 and Huayougu 9 in Gongzhuling Experimental Station of Institute of Crop Sciences (Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences) from 2020 to 2021. Conventional fertilization (CN) and PAC with fertilization (PN) treatments were set under six nitrogen levels of 0, 75, 112.5, 150, 225, and 337.5 kg·hm^-2 with all fertilizer applicated before sowing. Our results showed that, compared with CN under the same nitrogen application level, PAC increased NO₃^--N and NH₄⁺-N content in the 0-20 cm and 20-40 cm soil layers of two foxtail millet varieties at anthesis and mid-filling stage. Meanwhile, PAC increased leaf area and decreased leaf area reduction per plant significantly. The activities of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and catalase of the flag leaf increased but the content of malondialdehyde reduced in 0-40 days after flowering. Thus, PAC ensures the supply of nitrogen in soil during the middle-late growth period, increases the antioxidant properties of leaf to delay the progress of leaf senescence and increase yield of foxtail millet effectively. In 2020 and 2021, the yield of Zhangzagu 13 increased by 11.24%-21.55% and 8.65%-14.22%, respectively, and the yield of Huayougu 9 increased by 5.53%-15.75% and 10.43%-16.17%, respectively, compared with CN under the same nitrogen application level. The effect of the items above was more significant at low-middle nitrogen application levels of 75, 112.5 and 150 kg·hm^-2. Therefore, PAC combined with nitrogen fertilizer could be an anti-aging and high-yielding cultivation technique in foxtail millet production in the northeast China spring-sowing region.

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is an important bean crop but it is highly susceptible to salt stress which causes yield decrease. Melatonin can improve the salt tolerance of plants. However, the mechanism of exogenous melatonin in regulating the salt tolerance of common bean has not been explored. In this study, the common bean variety Naihua common bean (GZ-YD014) was used as materials, and three treatments were set for comparisons, including water (W, control), salt stress (S), and salt stress+100 µmol∙L^-1 melatonin (M+S). The results showed that salt stress inhibited the growth of sprouts, whose length, surface area, volume and diameter decreased significantly under salt stress conditions. Exogenous melatonin alleviated the inhibition of salt stress on the growth of common bean sprouts by signi-ficantly reducing the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA) content, increasing protective enzymes such as peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, catalase and ascorbate peroxidase, osmotic regulators including soluble sugar and soluble protein content, auxin (IAA), gibberellin (GA), zeatin (ZT) content, and decreasing abscisic acid (ABA) content. Transcriptome analysis discovered 217 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which were significantly enriched (P-value<0.05) in the nucleic acid-related entries by GO enrichment analysis and also in the nucleic acid damage repair (including base excision repair, mismatch repair and nucleotide excision repair) pathways by KEGG enrichment analysis (P-value<0.05). Real-time quantitative PCR and random amplified polymorphism analysis proved that the nucleic acid damage repair was a mechanism of exogenous melatonin regulating the salt tolerance of common bean. The study revealed the mechanism of exogenous melatonin regulating the salt tolerance of common bean sprouts, and provided a theoretical basis for the application of melatonin in common bean to increase yield under salt stress.

To explore the intercropping effect and nitrogen transfer characteristics of oat and mungbean, three planting patterns, oat monocropping, mungbean monocropping, oat-mungbean intercropping, were investigated with both root-digging method and ¹⁵N isotope labelling method. The results showed that in intercropping system, oat displayed higher invasiveness than mungbean, whose growth was inhibited. The dry matter accumulation of oat shoot was 14.9%-33.1% higher in intercropping than in monoculture in the whole growing stages. Compared with monocropping, the nitrogen accumulation of oat at two year mature stages was increased by 53.1% and 44.8%, respectively. The intercropping system reduced nitrogen accumulation, nodule weight at flowering and pod stage, and nitrogen fixation efficiency of mungbean. The total nitrogen fixation efficiency of mungbean decreased by 23.7% and the biological nitrogen fixation decreased by 11.66% on average for two years. The nitrogen transfer rate of intercropped mungbean to oat reached 31.7%, and the nitrogen transfer amount was 212.16 kg∙hm^-2. The oat-mungbean intercropping decreased nodule nitrogenase activity and nitrogen fixation efficiency of mungbean at flowering and pod stage, but nitrogen transfer in mungbean increased nitrogen uptake and utilization of oat, realized the mutual regulation and promotion between the growth of above and below ground, and meanwhile, optimized the nitrogen management system in farmland ecosystem.

Pea (Pisum sativum) is one of the most important economic crops of beans in China. The occurrence of diseases will cause great economic losses in pea production. Through morphological observation, molecular identification and pathogenicity determination, the results showed that the three kinds of pathogenic fungi causing pea crown rot were Fusarium oxysporum, Alternaria brassicae and F. grosmichelii, among which F. oxysporum was the most pathogenic, with the isolation frequency of 53.6%. The results of indoor toxicity measurement showed that five fungicides had inhibitory effects on the mycelial growth of three kinds of pathogenic bacteria, among which, the inhibition effect of fludioxonil and tebuconazole have top results. The results provide a scientific basis for the prevention and control of pea crown rot.

Nuclear factor-Y (NF-Y) is a ubiquitous transcription factor in eukaryotes, which consists of three subunits, NF-YA, NF-YB and NF-YC. NF-Y is widely involved in the regulation of plant growth and development and responses to abiotic stress. In this study, we comprehensively analyzed the NF-YC gene family in barley using bioinformatics methods. First, 11 HvNF-YC members were identified based on the barley genome database, and they are distributed on 6 chromosomes of barley except the second chromosome with 0-5 introns. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the NF-YC family members of barley, Arabidopsis and rice could be divided into five groups. Gene replication analysis showed that six HvNF-YC genes had fragment duplication, and three HvNF-YC genes had tandem duplication. Analysis of cis-acting elements in promoter revealed that most HvNF-YC contained cis-acting elements related to abiotic stress and hormone responses. Analysis of the expression patterns of HvNF-YC members in different tissues at different stages showed that there were significant differences in the spatial and temporal expression of different members, among which HvNF-YC9 and 11 may play important roles in the early stage of grain development. By analyzing the changes of HvNF-YC expression in roots and leaves in salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive barley varieties, and HvNF-YC3, HvNF-YC6 and HvNF-YC10 genes were pivotal in the early stage of salt stress response; while HvNF-YC9 gene played essential roles in the late stage of long-term salt treatment. Therefore, we speculated that HvNF-YC9, 10, and 11 genes could be used as candidates to further explore the mechanism of NF-YC functions in salt tolerance, which will lay the foundation for further analysis of the function of HvNF-YC in barley salt tolerance.

The F₂ and F₃ populations derived from the cross between Sulv16-10 and Weilv11 were used to explore the genetic loci controlling yield-related traits in mungbean, and the phenotype identification and correlation analysis between yield-related traits were completed. The genetic linkage map was constructed and used for QTL analysis. The yield per plant was positively correlated with the number of pods per plant, the number of seeds per pod, hundred-seed weight and the number of branches on main stem. The correlation between the yield per plant and the number of pods per plant was the highest, and the correlation coefficient between these two traits were 0.950 and 0.914 in F₂ and F₃ population, respectively. A total of 8 QTLs for yield-related traits were detected in the F₂ population. Among them, three traits including the number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and yield per plant were found only on one related QTL, and each QTL accounting for 11.09% (qNPP3), 17.93% (qNSP3) and 14.18% (qYP3) of phenotype variance, respectively. Two QTLs, qBMS3 and qBMS11 related to the branch number on main stem were detected, which could explain 18.51% and 7.06% of phenotype variance, respectively. Three QTLs, qHSW3, qHSW7 and qHSW10 controlling hundred-seed weight were identified, which could explain 5.33%, 46.07% and 4.24% of phenotype variance, respectively. qNSP3 and qHSW7 were detected again in the F₃ population, demonstrating that the two QTLs were genetically stable. The InDel molecular marker R7-13.4 which closely linked to the major-effect QTL qHSW7 for hundred-seed weight was developed, and the validation of molecular marker-assisted selection was verified in natural populations. These studies provide reference for mapping, cloning of genes associated with yield-related traits as well as molecular marker-assisted selection in mungbean.

In order to quickly identify Panicum miliaceum resources, a molecular label/ID detection platform was established. In this experiment, 272 core germplasms of hog millet in Shanxi province were used as research materials, and 85 pairs of SSR primers were used as detection tools. ID Analysis 4.0 software was used to construct the DNA molecular ID of the materials. The main results were as follows: out of the 85 pairs of SSR primers that were screened, and 20 pairs of primer combinations (RYW67, RYW53, RYW37, RYW65, RYW62, RYW77, RYW5, RYW49, RYW84, RYW19, RYW11, RYW40, RYW54, RYW28, RYW31, RYW7, RYW16, RYW8, RYW9, and RYW18) could distinguish 272 materials. A total of 60 alleles (Na) were detected, with an average of 3 distinct alleles per locus. Shannon diversity index (I) was 0.957 8 (RYW16)-1.096 7 (RYW5), with an average of 1.055 2. The polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.604 4 (RYW77)-0.753 0 (RYW37), with an average of 0.692 1. The 20 pairs of primers were used to construct the string, bar code and two-dimensional code DNA molecular identity card of Shanxi hog millet core germplasm, providing a practical way for germplasm identification and traceability management.