Long-term irrigation with sewage wastewater can increase the bioavailability of potentially toxic metals in peri-urban soils and promote their entry into fodder-livestock systems. This greenhouse study evaluated six amendments namely biochar, bentonite, zeolite, humic acid, vermicompost and farmyard manure (FYM), for reducing lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni) and chromium (Cr) availability and uptake by fodder maize, fodder sorghum and Cumbu Napier grown in contaminated soil. Each crop was evaluated in a separate completely randomised experiment with 8 treatments and 3 replications. Zeolite was consistently the most effective amendment. Compared with the unamended control, it reduced post-harvest diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA)-extractable Pb, Cd, Ni and Cr by 66.7 % across the three crop soils and lowered metal concentrations in plant tissues by approximately 57.6 %. Vermicompost and farmyard manure (FYM) were the next most effective treatments, whereas recommended fertiliser alone and the unamended control retained the greatest metal availability. Metal concentrations followed the order root > leaf > stem, indicating restricted movement to above-ground tissues. Fodder maize had the lowest overall tissue concentrations, while Cumbu Napier accumulated more Pb, Cd and Ni; Cr accumulation was comparatively greater in sorghum and maize roots. All bioaccumulation and translocation factors were below one. The first two principal components explained 99.79 % of the variation and clearly separated low- and high-metal treatments. The integrated amendment-crop assessment identifies zeolite-amended maize as the lowest-transfer combination under the tested conditions and provides a practical basis for safer fodder production in sewage-irrigated peri-urban soils.
K. Sai, M. Elayarajan, S. Suganya et al.· Plant Science Today· 0 citations
Emerging contaminants (ECs), such as pharmaceuticals, microplastics (MPs), per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDC) and heavy metals, are progressively affecting soil ecosystems through multiple inputs such as wastewater irrigation, biosolid amendment, agricultural runoff and atmospheric deposition. Despite their widespread occurrence, ECs are rarely incorporated into regular soil monitoring frameworks and remain mainly unregulated. Their persistent accumulation disrupts fundamental soil physicochemical characteristics, microbial community composition, soil-plant interactions, ultimately threatening ecosystem functions. Conventional ecotoxicological techniques lack the mechanistic precision necessary to capture the systemic, multi-scale changes that ECs cause throughout biological hierarchies. Multi-omics approaches, integrating metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics and metabolomics, have enabled comprehensive, system-level insights into EC-induced perturbations at the genetic, transcriptional, protein and metabolic levels. This review synthesises recent advances in the application of multi-omics to unravel the impacts of ECs on soil microbial communities, with a particular focus on changes in taxonomic structure, functional gene expression, enzymatic activities and metabolic pathways. Despite the transformative potential of multi-omics for ecological risk assessment and bioremediation, challenges such as data integration and dimensionality, standardisation and interpretation persist. Furthermore, substantial variability in analytical workflows and dependence on non-soil reference databases restrict inter-study comparability and practical application. Continued advancements will hinge on standardised methodologies, open-access soil databases, artificial intelligence (AI) driven data integration and long-term field investigations to enhance the reproducibility and ecological relevance. Integrating multi-omics with geospatial modelling and decision-support systems provides a pathway for translating molecular insights into actionable strategies for sustainable soil management and ecosystem restoration in the face of ECs.
K. S. Kiran, M. Elayarajan, S. Suganya et al.· Plant Science Today· 0 citations
Forage sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench), a climate-resilient, drought-tolerant fodder crop with high adaptability and biomass potential, plays a significant role in addressing global livestock feed and fodder demands. However, its complex quantitative quality traits, such as crude protein, fibre fractions, crude fat, lignin and antinutritional factors like hydrogen cyanide (HCN) content, show considerable variation across genotypes and are strongly influenced by developmental stage, management practices and environmental conditions. This review comprehensively summarises the genetic and molecular strategies for improving forage quality traits in sorghum, highlighting key trait relationships, yield-quality trade-offs, harvesting effects and emerging genomic tools to accelerate the development of nutritionally superior and safer forage sorghum cultivars. Conventional breeding programs have contributed to the development of improved forage sorghum cultivars. Brown midrib lines have emerged as a successful breeding strategy, with average neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) contents of 57.5 % and 33.67 % dry matter (DM), compared to 59.45 % and 36.51 % DM in conventional varieties. However, this is often accompanied by biomass yield penalties of approximately 14.33 %. Recent advances in molecular breeding, such as functional genomics, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, marker-assisted selection and antisense-mediated downregulation, have enabled the precise identification of the genetic architecture of forage quality traits. In particular, QTL mapping uncovered 43 overlapping QTLs controlling various forage quality traits and biomass traits, demonstrating their interconnections and possibilities for their simultaneous improvement. The identified candidate genes and pleiotropic loci controlling forage quality traits offer new opportunities for genomic-assisted improvement, where gene-editing tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 can simultaneously enhance feed safety, biomass yields and nutritional quality.
Raja Janani, D. Kavithamani, K. Meena et al.· Plant Science Today· 0 citations
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