Everglades University

Abstract ‘CP 13‐4513’ (Reg. no. CV‐221, PI 705649) sugarcane, developed through cooperative research conducted by the USDA‐ARS, the University of Florida, and the Florida Sugar Cane League, Inc., was released to growers for mineral soils in Florida in June 2021. The expansion potential of sugarcane acreage on mineral soils in Florida increases the importance of new cultivar development for this soil type. CP 13‐4513 offers a good disease package with its resistance to leaf scald (caused by Xanthomonas albilineans Ashby, Dowson), orange rust (caused by Puccinia kuehnii E.J. Butler), ratoon stunt disease (caused by Leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli Evtushenko et al.), Sugarcane mosaic virus (strain E), and moderate resistance to smut [caused by Sporisorium scitamineum (Syd.) M. Piepenbring et al.]. CP 13‐4513 is susceptible to brown rust (caused by Puccinia melanocephala H. & P. Sydow), but this disease can be efficiently controlled with fungicides. The 3‐year sandy‐soil production summary (i.e., plant cane, first ratoon, and second ratoon) demonstrated commercially recoverable sucrose (CRS), cane yields, and sugar yields comparable to the commercial sand check ‘CL 88‐4730’. Compared to the other reference check, ‘CP 96‐1252’, CP 13‐4513 produced more CRS and less cane yield. The economic index of CP 13‐4513 was not significantly different from that of CL 88‐4730 or CP 96‐1252. CP 13‐4513 displayed excellent germination on sand, and greater cane height, tillering capability, and canopy shading than ‘CL 88‐4730’ in plant cane. CP 13‐4513 exhibits heavy flowering that starts in early December.

Integrating bioenergy crops into existing agricultural systems may influence soil biodiversity, yet evidence remains limited for second-generation bioenergy crops such as energycane. This study examined the impact of energycane integration on soil arthropod communities in the Everglades Agricultural Area, Florida, compared to traditional sugarcane and sweetcorn cropping systems. Over two crop cycles (plant cane and first ratoon), soil arthropod abundance and diversity were assessed using pitfall traps. Energycane and sugarcane, both perennial crops, showed no significant differences in order richness or Shannon diversity. Similarly, when energycane was compared with sugarcane and sweetcorn (during the first sampling), it had similar arthropod abundance. However, sweetcorn remained fallow in the second and third samplings, attracting arthropods like fire ants and earwigs, particularly due to pigweed. Diversity metrics based on Hill numbers revealed a decline in the effective abundance of ground-dwelling arthropods with increasing diversity order, influenced by differences in sampling duration. Importantly, no previous studies have been found that have reported on the effects of energycane integration into the existing cropping system on soil arthropod biodiversity. These findings highlight that energycane supports biodiversity levels comparable to sugarcane cropping systems with no negative impacts on soil arthropod abundance. This study underscores the need to consider soil biodiversity impacts when evaluating sustainable bioenergy crop transitions and the potential ecological trade-offs of perennial cropping systems.

Recent studies reported that anti-angiogenic drugs targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) alleviate choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in young but not aged animals. We recently developed a disease-targeted anti-angiogenic therapy against secretogranin III (Scg3), which selectively binds to diseased but not healthy vessels in young mice. Herein, using a unique in vivo ligand binding assay, we predicted and confirmed that Scg3 selectively binds CNV vessels in both young and aged mice. In contrast, VEGF with minimal increased binding to CNV vessels exhibited an age-dependent decline in binding to both CNV and healthy vessels with negligible binding in aged mice. Based on these binding activity patterns, we further predicted and confirmed that a humanized anti-Scg3 antibody effectively alleviated laser-induced CNV in both young and aged mice, whereas the anti-VEGF drug aflibercept was effective only in young mice. These findings suggest that enhanced binding of Scg3 to CNV vessels in both age groups provides a molecular basis for an age-independent anti-Scg3 therapy, offering potential to address anti-VEGF resistance in clinical treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration with CNV.

Pathobiomes, the complex microbial communities associated with plant diseases, play a crucial role in shaping host-pathogen interactions. In crops like maize, understanding these microbial dynamics is essential for managing diseases such as tar spot, caused by the fungus Phyllachora maydis. This study investigates the mycobiome composition associated with tar spot disease in corn through amplicon sequencing of the ITS region, revealing 1267 unique amplicon sequencing variants (ASVs) across asymptomatic and symptomatic (tar spot stroma) maize tissues, with Ascomycota dominating both tisssue types. Although the overall fungal diversity was similar between symptomatic and asymptomatic tissues, Phyllachora maydis was significantly more abundant in symptomatic samples. Key taxa, such as Fusarium and Epicoccum, were enriched in tar spot lesions, contributing to a distinct fungal community structure. Co-occurrence network analysis further demonstrated a more complex fungal interaction network in tar spot-affected tissues, suggesting the importance of Fusarium, Curvularia, and Phaeosphaeria, among others, in shaping these interactions. Low genetic diversity within the P. maydis population in Florida was confirmed based on nucleotide diversity and phylogenetic analysis of 16 ASVs and 88 individual isolates collected from single tar spots across different fields during 2022 and 2023, showing minimal nucleotide variations across the ITS, LSU, and SSU regions. These findings enhance our understanding of the fungal community dynamics and P. maydis population structure in tar spot disease. By framing these dynamics within a pathobiome perspective, this study offers insights that could inform future microbiome-based management strategies.

Abstract There is rising interest in the United States for industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) cultivation as a new cash crop after the recent reversal of its production ban. Due to limited research during its long prohibition, little information is available regarding its optimal cropping system and crop management practices. Hence, the study was conducted to identify the optimal plant spacing for two cannabidiol (CBD)‐dominant industrial hemp cultivars (BaOX and Wife) in Florida. Three plant spacing treatments, that is, 61 cm (24 in.), 91 cm (36 in.), and 122 cm (48 in.), were used with a common row spacing of 1.52 m. Plant height, chlorophyll content using soil plant analysis development 502, and canopy cover using Canopeo were recorded every 2‐weeks interval throughout the crop growing season. The final biomass yield, CBD, and delta‐9‐tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) yield were also recorded. The results showed no significant differences between the cultivars in biomass, CBD yield, and plant growth and physiological parameters in most of the observations. Plant height and chlorophyll content were mostly unaffected by spacing. Canopy cover was higher during most of the growing season at lower spacing. Dry biomass yield per plant was higher with wider spacing, but there was no significant difference in total biomass yield per unit area. Wider spacing (91 and 122 cm) also resulted in higher CBD and THC yield in one of the tested cultivars (BaOX). The results suggest that wider plant spacing in industrial hemp could help maximize CBD production in Florida and other regions with similar environmental conditions.

Energycane and biomass sorghum are two of the most promising cellulosic energy crops in the southeastern US. Research on these two energy crops has focused mainly on biomass production, and there is a lack of knowledge on their ability to promote biodiversity and ecosystem services. This paper presents results from a comprehensive study on ground-active arthropod diversity in seven sites across five states in the southeastern US (Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas). Pitfall traps were deployed four times during each crop season for energycane, biomass sorghum, and a local reference conventional crop from 2020 to 2022. Arthropod abundance (individuals/(trap × day)) values were 4.9 ± 0.46, 3.7 ± 0.18, and 2.6 ± 0.16 (mean ± stderr) for conventional crops, biomass sorghum, and energycane, respectively, with a significant difference found only between conventional crops and energycane. Individuals were identified to arthropod orders, and Hill's diversity indices were calculated based on the number of individuals in each arthropod order instead of the number of individuals in each arthropod species. Order-based arthropod richness values were 5.3, 5.2, and 4.8 for biomass sorghum, conventional crops, and energycane, with significant difference found only between biomass sorghum and energycane. There was no significant difference in the order-based Shannon diversity and Simpson diversity between the three crop types. The effective number of arthropod orders for the two energy crops decreased from 5.0 to 3.4 to 2.9 with increasing order of diversity from arthropod richness to Shannon diversity to Simpson diversity. The explained variability by environmental factors also decreased with increasing Hill's order of diversity. The results from this study indicate no significant advantage in order-based arthropod diversity in growing biomass sorghum and energycane. This research fills a critical knowledge gap in understanding the impacts of cellulosic energy crop production on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

In subtropical preserve ecosystems, natural factors combined with anthropogenic activities have led to significant seasonal changes, including distinct dry and rainy seasons. These changes can potentially impact soil health indicators, which are keystone properties that control ecosystem services across terrestrial landscapes. Few studies have evaluated the impact of seasonal changes on soil health within non-agronomic landscapes, such as preserves. As part of this study, we collected topsoil samples (0-15 cm) from twenty-three land cover types within a 109 km² preserve in central Florida during two different seasons (dry and wet) to advance the understanding of how soil health responds to seasonal changes and to explore the environmental factors controlling soil health within non-agronomic landscapes. Ten soil indicators were analyzed and incorporated into the total dataset (TDS). From the TDS, a minimum dataset was derived using Principal Component Analysis, which was then used to calculate the Soil Health Index (SHI) for soil health assessment. Our findings showed that changes in soil indicators, their relationships, and the SHI across seasons depend on land cover type. Based on soil health classification grades, soil health status either improved, declined, or remained constant between seasons, depending on land cover type. The regression analysis of eight selected environmental factors, such as soil profile moisture (SPM), surface soil wetness (SSW), precipitation (P), soil temperature (T), elevation (El), slope gradient (S), global horizontal irradiance (GHI) and surface albedo (ALB), showed that only slope gradient significantly explains variations in SHI during wet season, whereas other environmental factors do not show significant explanatory power for SHI variations in either dry or wet season. These findings highlight the dominant influence of slope gradient on soil health within non-agronomic landscapes, while indicating that other evaluated environmental factors may have limited relevance in this context. Furthermore, the non-significant findings among soil indicators across seasons may be attributed to the study's small sample size (i.e., three replications), a limitation stemming from constrained funding. This highlights the importance of future research incorporating larger sample size to validate the findings of this study.