Search for: All records

Abstract Phosphorus is essential to plant growth and agricultural crop yields, yet the challenges associated with phosphorus fertilization in agriculture, such as aquatic runoff pollution and poor phosphorus bioavailability, are increasingly difficult to manage. Comprehensively understanding the dynamics of phosphorus uptake and signaling mechanisms will inform the development of strategies to address these issues. This review describes regulatory mechanisms used by specific tissues in the root apical meristem to sense and take up phosphate from the rhizosphere. The major regulatory mechanisms and related hormone crosstalk underpinning phosphate starvation responses, cellular phosphate homeostasis, and plant adaptations to phosphate starvation are also discussed, along with an overview of the major mechanism of plant systemic phosphate starvation responses. Finally, this review discusses recent promising genetic engineering strategies for improving crop phosphorus use and computational approaches that may help further design strategies for improved plant phosphate acquisition. The mechanisms and approaches presented include a wide variety of species including not only Arabidopsis but also crop species such as Oryza sativa (rice), Glycine max (soybean), and Triticum aestivum (wheat) to address both general and species-specific mechanisms and strategies. The aspects of phosphorus deficiency responses and recently employed strategies of improving phosphate acquisition that are detailed in this review may provide insights into the mechanisms or phenotypes that may be targeted in efforts to improve crop phosphorus content and plant growth in low phosphorus soils. 

ABSTRACT Feeding the growing human population sustainably amidst climate change is one of the most important challenges in the 21st century. Current practices often lead to the overuse of agronomic inputs, such as synthetic fertilizers and water, resulting in environmental contamination and diminishing returns on crop productivity. The complexity of agricultural systems, involving plant‐environment interactions and human management, presents significant scientific and technical challenges for developing sustainable practices. Addressing these challenges necessitates transdisciplinary research, involving intense collaboration among fields such as plant science, engineering, computer science, and social sciences. Five case studies are presented here demonstrating successful transdisciplinary approaches toward more sustainable water and fertilizer use. These case studies span multiple scales. By leveraging whole‐plant signaling, reporter plants can transform our understanding of plant communication and enable efficient application of water and fertilizers. The use of new fertilizer technologies could increase the availability of phosphorus in the soil. To accelerate advancements in breeding new cultivars, robotic technologies for high‐throughput plant screening in different environments at a population scale are discussed. At the ecosystem scale, phosphorus recovery from aquatic systems and methods to minimize phosphorus leaching are described. Finally, as agricultural outputs affect all people, integration of stakeholder perspectives and needs into research is outlined. These case studies highlight how transdisciplinary research and cross‐training among biologists, engineers, and social scientists bring diverse expertise to tackling grand challenges in sustainable agriculture, driving discovery and innovation. 

Abstract Recently, many new, complex, functional oxides have been discovered with the surprising use of topotactic ion‐exchange reactions on close‐packed structures, such as found for wurtzite, rutile, perovskite, and other structure types. Despite a lack of apparent cation‐diffusion pathways in these structure types, synthetic low‐temperature transformations are possible with the interdiffusion and exchange of functional cations possessing ns²stereoactive lone pairs (e. g., Sn(II)) or unpaired nd^xelectrons (e. g., Co(II)), targeting new and favorable modulations of their electronic, magnetic, or catalytic properties. This enables a synergistic blending of new functionality to an underlying three‐dimensional connectivity, i. e., [‐M−O‐M‐O‐]_n, that is maintained during the transformation. In many cases, this tactic represents the only known pathway to prepare thermodynamically unstable solids that otherwise would commonly decompose by phase segregation, such as that recently applied to the discovery of many new small bandgap semiconductors. 

Abstract Knowledge about phase transitions in doped HfO₂and ZrO₂‐based films is crucial for developing future ferroelectric devices. These devices should perform in ambient temperature ranges with no degradation of device performance. Here, the phase transition from the polar orthorhombic to the nonpolar tetragonal phase in thin films is of significant interest. Detailed electrical and structural characterization is performed on 10 nm mixed Hf_xZr_1‐xO₂binary oxides with different ZrO₂in HfO₂and small changes in oxygen content. Both dopant and oxygen content directly impact the phase transition temperature between the polar and nonpolar phase. A first‐order phase transition with thermal hysteresis is observed from the nonpolar to the polar phase with a maximum in the dielectric constant. The observed phase transition temperatures confirm trends as obtained by DFT calculations. Based on the outcome of the measurements, the classification of the ferroelectric material is discussed. 

Abstract Lead‐based relaxor ferroelectrics are characterized by outstanding piezoelectric and dielectric properties, making them useful in a wide range of applications. Despite the numerous models proposed to describe the relation between their nanoscale polar structure and the large properties, the multiple contributions to these properties are not yet revealed. Here, by combining atomistic and mesoscopic‐scale structural analyses with macroscopic piezoelectric and dielectric measurements across the (100–x)Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃–xPbTiO₃(PMN–xPT) phase diagram, a direct link is established between the multiscale structure and the large nonlinear macroscopic response observed in the monoclinic PMN‐xPT compositions. The approach reveals a previously unrecognized softening effect, which is common to Pb‐based relaxor ferroelectrics and arises from the displacements of low‐angle nanodomain walls, facilitated by the nanoscale polar character and lattice strain disorder. This comprehensive comparative study points to the multiple, distinct mechanisms that are responsible for the large piezoelectric response in relaxor ferroelectrics.