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The results of researches of the perspective direction of solving the problem of growth of hardness of typical chernozem, which consisted in enrichment of the soil with fresh organic matter of postharvest greens, are presented. During the years of our research it was found that growing of post-harvest siderates contributed to a significant reduction in hardness of 0-30 cm soil layer. Among the studied siderates the lowest hardness of 0-30 cm soil layer was under crops of Raphanus sativum in all years of research -10.9-16.8 kg/cm 2 . In the variants of potato growing without fertilizers was found close reverse relation between hardness and productive moisture reserves -r = -0.74. These dependences confirm positive effect of siderate Raphanus sativum as a factor of biological loosening of soil. After all, it was just the variant where reduction of productive moisture reserves had the smallest share of impact -22% on the growth of soil hardness. At the same time, this share of influence increased to 27-41% on the background of other siderates and manure, and up to 54% in the control without application of organic fertilizers. The highest yield of potato tubers was obtained on the plots with the lowest soil hardness, where Raphanus sativum was used as a post-harvest siderate, followed by the variants with manure, Phacelia tanacetifolia and Fagopyrum esculentum.

Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most toxic heavy metal elements to the environment, which seriously threatens the safe production of food crops. In this study, we identified a novel function of the cytomembrane TaSFT2L protein in wheat (Triticum aestivum). Expression of the TaSFT2L gene in yeast showed no transport activities for Cd, which could explain the role of TaSFT2L in metal tolerance. It was observed that increased autophagic activity in roots caused by silencing of TaSFT2L enhanced Cd tolerance. Transgenic wheat revealed that RNA interference (RNAi) lines enhanced the wheat growth concerning the increased shoot or root elongation, dry weight, and chlorophyll accumulation. Furthermore, RNAi lines decreased root-to-grain Cd translocation in wheat by nearly 68% and Cd accumulation in wheat grains by 53%. Meanwhile, the overexpression lines displayed a compromised growth response and increased Cd accumulation in wheat tissues, compared to wild type. These findings show that TaSFT2L is a key gene involved in regulation of Cd translocation in wheat, and its silencing to form transgenic wheat can inhibit Cd accumulation. This has the ability to alleviate the food chain-associated impact of environmental pollution on human health.

The toxic heavy metal cadmium (Cd) is easily absorbed and accumulated in crops and affects human health through the food chains. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is a globally important oil crop. In this study, two sunflower cultivars 62\3 (high Cd) and JB231AC (low Cd), were chosen to compare physiological and transcriptomic responses at different Cd concentrations (0, 25, 50, and 100 μM). The results showed that JB231AC had better Cd tolerance than 62\3. The contents of H2O2 and MDA (malondialdehyde) in 62\3 were lower than that in JB231AC under Cd stress, but the activities of SOD (superoxide dismutase) and POD (peroxidase) in JB231AC were higher than in 62\3, which indicated that JB231AC had a strong ability to remove reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced toxic substances. Many deferentially expressed ABC (ATP-binding cassette) and ZIP (Zn-regulated transporter, Iron-regulated transporter-like protein) genes indicated that the two gene families might play important roles in different levels of Cd accumulation in the two cultivars. One up-regulated NRAMP (Natural resistance-associated macrophage protein) gene was identified and had a higher expression level in 62\3. These results provide valuable information to further understand the mechanism of Cd accumulation and provide insights into breeding new low Cd sunflower cultivars.