Increasing vulnerability of crops to a wide range of abiotic and biotic stresses can have a marked influence on the growth and yield of major crops, especially sugarcane (
spp.). In response to ...various stresses, plants have evolved a variety of complex defense systems of signal perception and transduction networks. Transcription factors (TFs) that are activated by different pathways of signal transduction and can directly or indirectly combine with
-acting elements to modulate the transcription efficiency of target genes, which play key regulators for crop genetic improvement. Over the past decade, significant progresses have been made in deciphering the role of plant TFs as key regulators of environmental responses in particular important cereal crops; however, a limited amount of studies have focused on sugarcane. This review summarizes the potential functions of major TF families, such as WRKY, NAC, MYB and AP2/ERF, in regulating gene expression in the response of plants to abiotic and biotic stresses, which provides important clues for the engineering of stress-tolerant cultivars in sugarcane.
Given the limited therapeutic management of infectious diseases caused by viruses, such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2, the medicinal use of essential oils obtained from
trees has emerged as an ...antiviral alternative, either as a complement to the treatment of symptoms caused by infection or to exert effects on possible pharmacological targets of viruses. This review gathers and discusses the main findings on the emerging role and effectiveness of
essential oil as an antiviral agent. Studies have shown that
essential oil and its major monoterpenes have enormous potential for preventing and treating infectious diseases caused by viruses. The main molecular mechanisms involved in the antiviral activity are direct inactivation, that is, by the direct binding of monoterpenes with free viruses, particularly with viral proteins involved in the entry and penetration of the host cell, thus avoiding viral infection. Furthermore, this review addresses the coadministration of essential oil and available vaccines to increase protection against different viruses, in addition to the use of essential oil as a complementary treatment of symptoms caused by viruses, where
essential oil exerts anti-inflammatory, mucolytic, and spasmolytic effects in the attenuation of inflammatory responses caused by viruses, in particular respiratory diseases.
Wheat is an important cereal crop, which is adversely affected by water deficit stress. The effect of induced stress can be reduced by the application of salicylic acid (SA). With the objective to ...combat drought stress in wheat, an experiment was conducted in greenhouse under hydroponic conditions. The treatments consisted of (a) no drought (DD0 = 0 MPa), mild drought (DD1 = -0.40 MPa) and severe drought (DD2 = -0.60 MPa) by applying PEG-8000, (b) two contrasting wheat varieties Barani-17 (drought tolerant) and Anaj-17 (drought-sensitive), and (c) foliar treatments of salicylic acid (0, 50 mM, 75 mM, and 100 mM). Evaluation of wheat plants regarding biochemical, physiological, and morphological attributes were rendered after harvesting of plants. Statistically, maximum shoot and root fresh and dry weights (18.77, 11.15 and 1.99, 1.81 g, respectively) were recorded in cultivar Barani-17 under no drought condition with the application of SA (100 mM). While, minimum shoot and root fresh and dry weights (6.65, 3.14 and 0.73, 0.61 g, respectively) were recorded in cultivar Anaj-2017 under mild drought stress without SA application. The maximum shoot length (68.0 cm) was observed in cultivar Barani-2017 under no drought condition with the application of SA (100 mM). While, maximum root length (59.67 cm) was recorded in cultivar Anaj-17 under moderate drought stress without application of SA. Further, minimum shoot length (28.67 cm) was recorded in Anaj-17 under moderate drought stress without SA application. Minimum root length (38.67 cm) was recorded in cultivar Barani-17 under no drought condition without SA application. Furthermore, maximum physio-biochemical traits, including membrane stability index (MSI), chlorophyl content, photosynthetic rates, stomatal conductance, antioxidant enzymatic activities and relative water content (RWC) were found highest in cultivar Barani-17 under no drought stress and SA application at 100 mM. However, minimum values of these traits were recorded in cultivar Anaj-17 under severe drought stress without SA application. Our results also demonstrated that under severe drought, application of SA at 100 mM significantly increased leaf nitrogen (N), phosphrus (P) and potassium (K) contents and cultivar Barani-17 demonstrated significantly higher values than Anaj-17. The obtained results also indicated that the cultivation of wheat under drought stress conditions noticeably declines the morphological, physiological, and biochemical attributes of the plants. However, the exogenous application of SA had a positive impact on wheat crop for enhancing its productivity.
Being sessile organisms, plants cannot escape unwanted changes in the environment. The rapid human population explosion caused significant environmental problems. Heavy metals produced through ...various sources can cause severe damage to living organisms. The study was planned to evaluate four grass species’ morpho-physiological growth characteristics and phytoremediation capabilities under chromium (Cr) and lead stress (Pb) in the arid climate.
Typha angustifolia
,
Tragus roxburghii
,
Aeluropus logopoides
, and
Cenchrus ciliaris
grass species were used for the study. One-year-old stubbles from the Cholistan desert were used for the experiment. Cr treatments in the form of K
2
Cr
2
O
7
were applied at 0, 20, 40, and 80 mg L
–1
, whereas Pb was applied as PbCl
2
at 0, 50, 200, and 500 mg L
–1
as control, low, moderate and high-stress, respectively. After 6 weeks of heavy metals treatments, plants were harvested and analyzed for growth performance and phytoremediation capabilities. Results depicted that, regarding morphological attributes,
T. angustifolia
performed better, followed by
C. ciliaris
; no clear pattern was observed for
T. roxburghii
and
A. logopoides
. The CO
2
assimilation rate (Co
2
d) and water use efficiency (WUE) increased as the heavy metal stress increased in all species under both metals. In contrast, total chlorophyll content was higher under low stress. Other physiological parameters, such as relative humidity (RHd), net photosynthetic rate (A), transpiration rate (E), stomatal conductance (Gs), leaf internal CO2 concentration (Ci) and membrane stability index (MSI) gradually decreased as the Cr, and Pb stress levels increased among all the species. Moreover, Cr and Pb absorption contents of
T. angustifolia
were higher than the other three species at each stress level. Overall,
T. angustifolia
thrived against heavy metals stress and showed higher biomass, maximum photosynthetic measurements, WUE and higher metal absorption among all the selected species. Results concluded that although all the selected species behaved fine under stress conditions,
T. angustifolia
performance was better; thus, it can be used to remediate the soil near industrial estates.
The efficiency with which plants use nutrients to create biomass and/or grain is determined by the interaction of environmental and plant intrinsic factors. The major macronutrients, especially ...nitrogen (N), limit plant growth and development (1.5-2% of dry biomass) and have a direct impact on global food supply, fertilizer demand, and concern with environmental health. In the present time, the global consumption of N fertilizer is nearly 120 MT (million tons), and the N efficiency ranges from 25 to 50% of applied N. The dynamic range of ideal internal N concentrations is extremely large, necessitating stringent management to ensure that its requirements are met across various categories of developmental and environmental situations. Furthermore, approximately 60 percent of arable land is mineral deficient and/or mineral toxic around the world. The use of chemical fertilizers adds to the cost of production for the farmers and also increases environmental pollution. Therefore, the present study focused on the advancement in fertilizer approaches, comprising the use of biochar, zeolite, and customized nano and bio-fertilizers which had shown to be effective in improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) with lower soil degradation. Consequently, adopting precision farming, crop modeling, and the use of remote sensing technologies such as chlorophyll meters, leaf color charts, etc. assist in reducing the application of N fertilizer. This study also discussed the role of crucial plant attributes such as root structure architecture in improving the uptake and transport of N efficiency. The crosstalk of N with other soil nutrients plays a crucial role in nutrient homeostasis, which is also discussed thoroughly in this analysis. At the end, this review highlights the more efficient and accurate molecular strategies and techniques such as N transporters, transgenes, and omics, which are opening up intriguing possibilities for the detailed investigation of the molecular components that contribute to nitrogen utilization efficiency, thus expanding our knowledge of plant nutrition for future global food security.
Sugarcane yellow leaf disease severely affects sugarcane production. As a viral disease, the pathogen sugarcane yellow leaf virus can only be transmitted by aphid vectors rather than mechanical ...means. To understand the sugarcane responses to ScYLV infection, the corresponding transcriptomic profile of ScYLV-infected and ScYLV-free plants were analyzed with RNA-Seq technology. In this study,
Melanaphis sacchari
was used as the vector to transmit ScYLV to the susceptible sugarcane cultivar CP72-1210 and transcriptome was sequenced as well as differentially expressed genes between disease-infected and non-infected sugarcane plants were investigated. A total of 1,22,593 genes were assembled, of which 1,630 genes were differentially expressed. Among DEGs, 1,622 were upregulated and eight were downregulated that were further annotated with GO, KEGG, KOG, PFAM, SwissProt, and Nr databases. The expression levels of DEGs in the three KEGG pathways, namely endocytosis, PEX protein synthesis, and endoplasmic reticulum stress response to viral protein synthesis were observed. Interestingly, it was found that the yellow leaf virus could induce the formation of autophagosomes by LC3, promoted by ER stress, and may be related to the replication of viral RNA. We tested 63 DEGs in this research. The qRT-PCR results showed that two were downregulated and 45 were upregulated in response to the ScYLV infection. This study will not only offer an overall comprehension of sugarcane responses to ScYLV infection at the gene expression level but also increase the chances to block the transmission of ScYLV for use in further molecular biology techniques and will aid in increasing the resistance of plants against ScYLV.
Accumulation of heavy metals (HMs) by ornamental plants (OPs) from contaminated agriculture soils is a unique technique that can efficiently reduce the metal load in the food chain. Amaranthus ...tricolor L. has attractive characteristics acquiring a higher growth rate and large biomass when grown at heavy metal contaminated soils. Site-specific detailed information is not available on the use of A. tricolor plant in metal phytoremediation from the polluted sites. The study aimed to enhance the uptake of HMs (Pb, Zn, and Cu) via amending poultry litter extract (PLE), vinasse sugarcane (VSC), and humic acid (HA) as natural mobilized organic materials compared to ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), as a common mobilized chemical agent by A. tricolor plant. The studied soils collected from Helwan, El-Gabal El-Asfar (Cairo Governorate), Arab El-Madabeg (Assiut Governorate), Egypt, and study have been conducted under pot condition. Our results revealed all organic materials in all studied soils, except EDTA in EL-Gabal El-Asfar soil, significantly increased the dry weight of the A. tricolor plant compared to the control treatment. The uptake of Pb and Zn significantly (p > 0.05) increased due to applying all organic materials to the studied soils. HA application caused the highest uptake as shown in Pb concentration by more than 5 times in Helwan soil and EDTA by 65% in El-Gabal El-Asfar soil while VSC increased it by 110% in El-Madabeg soil. Also, an increase in Zn concentration due to EDTA application was 58, 42, and 56% for Helwan, El-Gabal El-Asfar, and El-Madabeg soil, respectively. In all studied soils, the application of organic materials increased the remediation factor (RF) than the control. El-Madabeg soil treated with vinasse sugarcane gave the highest RF values; 6.40, 3.26, and 4.02% for Pb, Zn, and Cu, respectively, than the control. Thus, we identified A. tricolor as a successful ornamental candidate that, along with organic mobilization amendments, most efficiently develop soil health, reduce metal toxicity, and recommend remediation of heavy metal-contaminated soils. Additionally, long-term application of organic mobilization amendments and continued growth of A. tricolor under field conditions could be recommended for future directions to confirm the results.
Copper (Cu) is an essential metal for plants. However, its excess in soil can adversely affect plant metabolism. The current study evaluated the effects of gibberellic acid (GA
) foliar applications ...on the performance of pea plants grown either in Cu-contaminated (Cu+) and non-contaminated (Cu-) soil. GA
was sprayed (0, 10, 50, and 100 mg·L
) on 15-days-old plants. The results showed that the increasing concentration of GA
buffered the phytotoxic effects of Cu and enhanced plant growth, photosynthesis, and leaf chlorophyll content. Foliar-sprayed GA
up to 100 mg·L
alleviated the oxidative stress, as inferred from the lower concentrations of MDA and H
O
(33.3 µmol·g
and 182 µmol·g
, respectively), and boosted the activity of superoxide dismutase (64.4 U·g
·FW), peroxidase (122.7 U·g
·FW), and catalase (226.3 U·g
·FW). Interestingly, GA
promoted Cu accumulation in different plant parts when compared to untreated plants, likely due to increased photosynthetic and transpiration rates. Overall, foliar application of GA
promoted phytoextraction of Cu and alleviated the oxidative stress in pea plants grown in Cu+ soil.
The formation of new scaffolds to enhance healing magnitude is necessarily required in biomedical applications. Granulation tissue formation is a crucial stage of wound healing in which granulation ...tissue grows on the surface of a wound by the formation of connective tissue and blood vessels. In the present study, porous hydrogels were synthesized using chitosan incorporating latex of the
plant by using a freeze-thaw cycle to stimulate the formation of granulation tissue and angiogenesis in wound healing applications. Structural analysis through Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed the interaction between chitosan and
. Latex extract containing hydrogel showed slightly higher absorption than the control during water absorption analysis. Thermogravimetric analysis showed high thermal stability of the 60:40 combination of chitosan (CS) and
as compared to all other treatments and controls. A fabricated scaffold application on a chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) showed that all hydrogels containing latex extract resulted in a significant formation of blood vessels and regeneration of cells. Overall, the formation of connective tissues and blood capillaries and healing magnitude decreased in ascending order of concentration of extract.
Increasing human population and changing climate, which have given rise to frequent drought spells, pose a serious threat to global food security, while identification of high yielding drought ...tolerant genotypes remains a proficient approach to cope with these challenges. To offer a methodology for the evaluation of the drought-tolerant wheat genotypes based on the pheno-physiological traits, a field experiment was executed, entailing four wheat genotypes viz. BARI Gom 26, BAW 1158, BAW 1167, and BAW 1169 and two water conditions viz. control treatment (three times irrigation at 20, 50, and 70 DAS, i.e., 100% field capacity) and stressed treatment (no irrigation during the entire growing season). The results revealed that drought stress drastically reduced the days to booting, heading, anthesis and physiological maturity, relative water content (RWC), chlorophyll content, canopy temperature depression (CTD), and photo-assimilates-spike dry matter (SDM), grains spike−1 and grain yield of all wheat genotypes. In addition, the genotypes BAW 1167 and BARI Gom 26 remained more prone to adverse effects of drought as compared to BAW 1169 and BAW 1158. Furthermore, DS induced biosynthesis of compatible solutes such as proline, especially in BAW 1169, which enabled plants to defend against oxidative stress. It was inferred that BAW 1169 remained superior by exhibiting the best adaptation as indicated by the maximum relative values of RWC, total chlorophyll, CTD, proline content, SDM, grains spike−1, and grain yield of wheat. Thus, based on our findings, BAW 1169 may be recommended for general adoption and utilization in future wheat breeding programs aimed at developing potent drought-tolerant wheat genotypes to ensure food security on a sustainable basis.
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