Agriculture faces great challenges to ensure global food security by increasing yields while reducing environmental costs. Here we address this challenge by conducting a total of 153 site-year field experiments covering the main agro-ecological areas for rice, wheat and maize production in China. A set of integrated soil-crop system management practices based on a modern understanding of crop ecophysiology and soil biogeochemistry increases average yields for rice, wheat and maize from 7.2 million grams per hectare (Mg ha(-1)), 7.2 Mg ha(-1) and 10.5 Mg ha(-1) to 8.5 Mg ha(-1), 8.9 Mg ha(-1) and 14.2 Mg ha(-1), respectively, without any increase in nitrogen fertilizer. Model simulation and life-cycle assessment show that reactive nitrogen losses and greenhouse gas emissions are reduced substantially by integrated soil-crop system management. If farmers in China could achieve average grain yields equivalent to 80% of this treatment by 2030, over the same planting area as in 2012, total production of rice, wheat and maize in China would be more than enough to meet the demand for direct human consumption and a substantially increased demand for animal feed, while decreasing the environmental costs of intensive agriculture.

Silencing of ABCA3 expression also reduced vesicular uptake of surfactant lipids phosphatidylcholine, sphingomyelin, and cholesterol but not phosphatidylethanolamine. We conclude that ABCA3 is required for lysosomal loading of phosphatidylcholine and conversion of lysosomes to lamellar body-like structures. ATP binding cassette (ABC)2 transporters are a superfamily of highly conserved membrane proteins that transport a wide variety of substrates across cell membranes (1). Among the several subfamilies, the ABCA subclass has received considerable attention, because mutations of the ABCA1 gene cause Tangier disease and mutations of the ABCA4 gene cause Stargardt macular dystrophy in humans (2-5). ABCA1 and ABCA4 are proposed to be transmembrane transporters for intracellular cholesterol/phospholipids and N-retinylidene phosphatidylethanolamine, respectively (3-5). ABCA3, a member of the ABCA subfamily with unknown function (6 -10), is predominantly expressed in the lung and localized to the limiting membrane of lamellar bodies in alveolar epithelial type II cells (ATII) in both humans and rats (7,8).In the lung, development of structures for effective pulmonary gas exchange and production of pulmonary surfactant are necessary for successful adaptation to extrauterine life in the newborn infant. These key processes in lung maturation require differentiation of epithelium into ATII cells, the cellular source for surfactant. Pulmonary surfactant is a complex mixture of lipids, primarily phosphatidylcholine (60 -70% of which is dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine) and specific proteins that line the alveolar surface of the lung, reducing surface tension at the air-liquid interface and preventing collapse of the lung on expiration (11). Surfactant is assembled and stored in lamellar bodies, the secretory organelles of ATII cells (11-13). Two other members of the ABCA subfamily, ABCA1 and ABCA4, have been implicated in lipid transport leading to the hypothesis that ABCA3 transports lipid into the lamellar bodies of ATII cells (7-9). Recently, it has been reported that mutations in ABCA3 are associated with defective assembly of lamellar bodies and fatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in the newborn infant and interstitial lung disease (6, 10).To study the potential role of ABCA3 in RDS, we examined the subcellular trafficking and substrate specificity of ABCA3 in hATII cells and mammalian cell lines using green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged protein and fluorescent lipid analogs. Morphological and functional changes secondary to both loss-and gain-of-function experiments demonstrate that ABCA3 selectively transports phosphatidylcholine, sphingomyelin, and cholesterol to lamellar bodies in hATII cells. Our findings indicate that lipid trafficking by ABCA3 across lamellar body membranes is necessary for lamellar body biogenesis as a key step in assembly of lung surfactant in hATII cells.

Summary Plants produce and emit terpenes, including sesquiterpenes, during growth and development, which serve different functions in plants. The sesquiterpene nerolidol has health‐promoting properties and adds a floral scent to plants. However, the glycosylation mechanism of nerolidol and its biological roles in plants remained unknown. Sesquiterpene UDP‐glucosyltransferases were selected by using metabolites‐genes correlation analysis, and its roles in response to cold stress were studied. We discovered the first plant UGT (UGT91Q2) in tea plant, whose expression is strongly induced by cold stress and which specifically catalyzes the glucosylation of nerolidol. The accumulation of nerolidol glucoside was consistent with the expression level of UGT91Q2 in response to cold stress, as well as in different tea cultivars. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging capacity of nerolidol glucoside was significantly higher than that of free nerolidol. Down‐regulation of UGT91Q2 resulted in reduced accumulation of nerolidol glucoside, ROS scavenging capacity and tea plant cold tolerance. Tea plants absorbed airborne nerolidol and converted it to its glucoside, subsequently enhancing tea plant cold stress tolerance. Nerolidol plays a role in response to cold stress as well as in triggering plant–plant communication in response to cold stress. Our findings reveal previously unidentified roles of volatiles in response to abiotic stress in plants.

Plants emit a variety of volatiles in response to herbivore attack, and (Z)‐3‐hexenol and its glycosides have been shown to function as defence compounds. Although the ability to incorporate and convert (Z)‐3‐hexenol to glycosides is widely conserved in plants, the enzymes responsible for the glycosylation of (Z)‐3‐hexenol remained unknown until today. In this study, uridine‐diphosphate‐dependent glycosyltransferase (UGT) candidate genes were selected by correlation analysis and their response to airborne (Z)‐3‐hexenol, which has been shown to be taken up by the tea plant. The allelic proteins UGT85A53‐1 and UGT85A53‐2 showed the highest activity towards (Z)‐3‐hexenol and are distinct from UGT85A53‐3, which displayed a similar catalytic efficiency for (Z)‐3‐hexenol and nerol. A single amino acid exchange E59D enhanced the activity towards (Z)‐3‐hexenol, whereas a L445M mutation reduced the catalytic activity towards all substrates tested. Transient overexpression of CsUGT85A53‐1 in tobacco significantly increased the level of (Z)‐3‐hexenyl glucoside. The functional characterization of CsUGT85A53 as a (Z)‐3‐hexenol UGT not only provides the foundation for the biotechnological production of (Z)‐3‐hexenyl glucoside but also delivers insights for the development of novel insect pest control strategies in tea plant and might be generally applicable to other plants.