Primula forbesii Franch. is a biennial ornamental species increasingly used in flower landscape design, potted displays, and cut flower production. Nevertheless, studies on its flowering regulation remain limited. This study investigated the effects of gibberellin (GA3) and spermidine (Spd) on the flowering performance of P. forbesii, using flowering time, scape morphology, and physiological parameters as key evaluation indices. At the onset of floral bud differentiation, 15 foliar spray treatments were applied. The most effective treatment contained 200 mg·L-1 GA3 and 0.01 mmol·L-1 Spd, which extended flowering duration by 5 days and promoted earlier bud emergence. Notably, this treatment significantly enhanced scape traits compared to the distilled water treatment, increasing internode length between floral whorls, the main scape height, and diameter. The scape number was increased by 361.54%. At the full flowering stage, the combination of 200 mg·L-1 GA3 and 0.01 mmol·L-1 Spd reduced malondialdehyde content and peroxidase activity in petals, while enhancing superoxide dismutase and catalase activities, along with soluble protein and soluble sugar accumulation. Endogenous hormone profiling showed that the treatment significantly raised levels of GA3, indole-3-acetic acid, and zeatin riboside, while reducing abscisic acid content. These results demonstrate that the combined application of 200 mg·L-1 GA3 and 0.01 mmol·L-1 Spd effectively enhances ornamental quality and delays senescence in P. forbesii. The findings provide valuable insights into the hormonal regulation of flowering senescence in ornamental plants and may help guide future strategies for cut‑flower preservation and quality maintenance.
Thymus mongolicus is a common medicinal and edible plant in grasslands of northern China. However, previous studies were limited to the production and utilization value of T. mongolicus, and only few studies have paid attention to the changes in the functional traits of wild T. mongolicus on a large scale. Therefore, this study examined 145 T. mongolicus specimens collected from northern China. By measuring 10 functional traits, including leaf length, leaf width, and leaf area, we analyzed the interplay between functional traits as a response to changes in environmental factors. Significant differences were observed between the eastern and western populations of T. mongolicus. Functional traits exhibited pronounced latitudinal and longitudinal gradients. With increasing latitude and longitude, T. mongolicus tended to change its functional traits to adapt to environmental changes. In high-temperature and high-rainfall environments, T. mongolicus developed larger leaf areas and longer leaves. Random forest analysis identified temperature within the latitudinal and longitudinal context as the primary driver of functional trait variation. Furthermore, interdependencies among functional traits were evident, with specific traits—such as stem length, leaf width, and leaf area—emerging as central to the adaptive process. These findings elucidate the mechanisms and key factors underlying the functional trait adaptation of T. mongolicus, providing critical insights for the breeding of region-specific varieties in China.
The growth of the population in the world provides increased demand for soy and its processing products. Because in low-income countries, soy and its processing products are used as a cheap vegetable protein for human nutrition, and in developed countries - as a valuable protein raw material in animal feed. The article calculates the cost of 1 kg of raw protein in protein feeds of plant and animal origin. The cost of vegetable feed per 1 kg of protein is 1.5-3.5 times lower than the cost of animal feed. The dynamics of global soybean production are shown, which indicates that in 2023/24 it was about 395 million tons. The main soybeanproducing countries are Brazil, the USA, and Argentina, whose share in the total world production is more than 80%. The dynamics of soybean production and processing in Ukraine is presented. The largest soybean processors in Ukraine are such companies as Bunge, AdamPolSoya, Cargill, Kreativ OEP, Kyiv-Atlantic, Royal Taste, Vinnytsia OEP and others. The soybean market in Ukraine demonstrates significant success both in cultivation and in export and processing. Despite the difficult conditions caused by military actions and economic challenges, Ukrainian farmers were able to reach historical highs in the production and export of soybeans, ensuring high product quality and competitive prices on the world market. Soy is an export-oriented crop, about ? of which is delivered abroad in the form of raw materials or processed products. The largest importers of Ukrainian soybeans are the European Union, Egypt and Turkey. In connection with the innovations in the supply of soybeans to the EU, soybean producers must not only grow (use of high-quality, certified seed material, mineral fertilizers, general production and administrative costs), but also have a certificate of traceability and confirmation of the absence of deforestation throughout the production chain. Since the violation of EUDR provisions can lead to serious consequences and sanctions, namely fines of up to 4% of the total annual turnover of the enterprise for the previous financial year, confiscation of products, temporary exclusion from procurement procedures and access to public funding, including tender procedures and subsidies
Renan Souza, M. A. Rouf Mian, Justin N. Vaughn
et al.
Soybean meal is a major component of livestock feed due to its high content and quality of protein. Understanding the genetic control of protein is essential to develop new cultivars with improved meal protein. Previously, a genomic region on chromosome 20 significantly associated with elevated protein content was identified in the cultivar Danbaekkong. The present research aimed to introgress the Danbaekkong high-protein allele into elite lines with different genetic backgrounds by developing and deploying robust DNA markers. A multiparent population consisting of 10 F5-derived populations with a total of 1,115 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) was developed using “Benning HP” as the donor parent of the Danbaekkong high-protein allele. A new functional marker targeting the 321-bp insertion in the gene Glyma.20g085100 was developed and used to track the Danbaekkong high-protein allele across the different populations and enable assessment of its effect and stability. Across all populations, the high-protein allele consistently increased the content, with an increase of 3.3% in seed protein. A total of 103 RILs were selected from the multiparent population for yield testing in five environments to assess the impact of the high-protein allele on yield and to enable the selection of new breeding lines with high protein and high yield. The results indicated that the high-protein allele impacts yield negatively in general; however, it is possible to select high-yielding lines with high protein content. An analysis of inheritance of the Chr 20 high-protein allele in Danbaekkong indicated that it originated from a Glycine soja line (PI 163453) and is the same as other G. soja lines studied. A survey of the distribution of the allele across 79 G. soja accessions and 35 Glycine max ancestors of North American soybean cultivars showed that the high-protein allele is present in all G. soja lines evaluated but not in any of the 35 North American soybean ancestors. These results demonstrate that G. soja accessions are a valuable source of favorable alleles for improvement of protein composition.
Alireza Esmaeili, Azam Jafari, Ayoobali Ghasemi
et al.
Reducing post-harvest losses and increasing the shelf life of agricultural products leads to reduced production costs. Edible coatings are used to improve fruit quality and increase the shelf-life of horticultural commodities. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the possible effect of edible coatings, including tragacanth gum (TG), Eremurus extract (EE) and tragacanth+Eremurus at 0, 7.5, 10, and 12.5 g L−1, on the fruit quality of ‘Takdaneh Mashhad’ sweet cherry cultivar. Fruits were immersed in the treatment solutions for 3 min and air dried. Then after weighing and labeling, they were collected in fruit baskets and transferred to a cold storage at 0 ± 1°C and 85 to 90% relative humidity. These fruits were taken out of the cold storage at the beginning of the experiment and after 15, 30, and 45 days for measuring fruit weight loss, fruit firmness, soluble solids content (SSC), pH, titratable acidity, total phenolic content, polyphenol oxidase enzyme activity, vitamin C, fruit-edible quality, fruit color, and decay index. According to the results, fruits coated with 12.5 g L−1 TG and also 12.5 g L−1 EE coatings individually showed reduction in weight loss compared to the control treatment. These two treatments increased the qualitative appearance of the fruit such as fruit firmness, color and vitamin C compared to the control fruits. All coating treatments reduced decay index. The present study was the first study to investigate the effect of Eremurus alone or in combination with tragacanth gum on the physicochemical properties of sweet cherry fruit.
Crenate broomrape, Orobanche crenata Forskal belongs to the family Orobanchaceae. It is a root holoparasitic weed devoid of chlorophyll and entirely dependent on host plants for its growth requirement. This parasite considerably infects plant species of the families Leguminosae, Apiaceae, and Asteraceae in highly infested drier and warmer areas of the world. It is well-known for its devastating effects on cool-season food legumes especially on faba bean (Vicia faba L.) and for threatening the livelihood of subsistence farmers. Yield losses of infected crops reach up to 100% depending on the level of infection by the parasitic weed. The long-term impact of the parasite is even more serious than its short-term effects as its numerous minute seeds are easily spread using different mechanisms and persist in the soil for up to 20 years. Besides, its management is difficult as no single method proved to be effective, economical, and complete in managing the weed. This review article gives an overview of information on the biological characteristics and harmful effects of crenate broomrape and summarizes scientifically proven management techniques for its effective management. Different approaches should be validated, demonstrated, and scaled for wider uses to manage crenate broomrape sustainably and boost the host crop productivity. Therefore, besides narrowing the knowledge gaps on the weed biology more strengthened efforts in searching for host plant resistance and/or tolerance based integrated management approaches by considering socio-economic and ecological conditions of faba bean growers are found paramount importance.
Versatile protoplast platforms greatly facilitate the development of modern botany. However, efficient protoplast-based systems are still challenging for numerous horticultural plants and crops. Orchids are globally cultivated ornamental and medicinal monocot plants, but few efficient protoplast isolation and transient expression systems have been developed. In this study, we established a highly efficient orchid protoplast isolation protocol by selecting suitable source materials and optimizing the enzymatic conditions, which required optimal D-mannitol concentrations (0.4–0.6 M) combined with optimal 1.2% cellulose and 0.6% macerozyme, 5 μM of 2-mercaptoethanol and 6 h digestion. Tissue- and organ-specific protoplasts were successfully isolated from young leaves [∼3.22 × 106/g fresh weight (FW)], flower pedicels (∼5.26 × 106/g FW), and young root tips (∼7.66 × 105/g FW) of Cymbidium orchids. This protocol recommends the leaf base tissues (the tender part of young leaves attached to the stem) as better source materials. High yielding viable protoplasts were isolated from the leaf base of Cymbidium (∼2.50 × 107/g FW), Phalaenopsis (1.83 × 107/g FW), Paphiopedilum (1.10 × 107/g FW), Dendrobium (8.21 × 106/g FW), Arundina (3.78 × 106/g FW) orchids, and other economically important monocot crops including maize (Zea mays) (3.25 × 107/g FW) and rice (Oryza sativa) (4.31 × 107/g FW), which showed marked advantages over previous mesophyll protoplast isolation protocols. Leaf base protoplasts of Cymbidium orchids were used for polyethylene glycol (PEG)-mediated transfection, and a transfection efficiency of more than 80% was achieved. This leaf base protoplast system was applied successfully to analyze the CsDELLA-mediated gibberellin signaling in Cymbidium orchids. We investigated the subcellular localization of the CsDELLA-green fluorescent protein fusion and analyzed the role of CsDELLA in the regulation of gibberellin to flowering-related genes via efficient transient overexpression and gene silencing of CsDELLA in Cymbidium protoplasts. This protoplast isolation and transient expression system is the most efficient based on the documented results to date. It can be widely used for cellular and molecular studies in orchids and other economically important monocot crops, especially for those lacking an efficient genetic transformation system in vivo.
Réka Mócsai, Kathrin Göritzer, David Stenitzer
et al.
Plant glycoproteins display a characteristic type of O-glycosylation where short arabinans or larger arabinogalactans are linked to hydroxyproline. The conversion of proline to 4-hydroxyproline is accomplished by prolyl-hydroxylases (P4Hs). Eleven putative Nicotiana benthamiana P4Hs, which fall in four homology groups, have been identified by homology searches using known Arabidopsis thaliana P4H sequences. One member of each of these groups has been expressed in insect cells using the baculovirus expression system and applied to synthetic peptides representing the O-glycosylated region of erythropoietin (EPO), IgA1, Art v 1 and the Arabidopsis thaliana glycoprotein STRUBBELIG. Unlike the situation in the moss Physcomitrella patens, where one particular P4H was mainly responsible for the oxidation of erythropoietin, the tobacco P4Hs exhibited rather similar activities, albeit with biased substrate preferences and preferred sites of oxidation. From a biotechnological viewpoint, this result means that silencing/knockout of a single P4H in N. benthamiana cannot be expected to result in the abolishment of the plant-specific oxidation of prolyl residues in a recombinant protein.
Clenes Cunha Lima, Ely Simone Cajueiro Gurgel, Eduardo Euclydes de Lima e Borges
Abstract: Antioxidant enzyme activity can be used to measure heat stress and predict the tolerance of a species to heat stress. This study investigated the effects of temperature on germination and antioxidant enzyme activity in Dalbergia spruceana Benth. seeds. Seeds were incubated at constant temperatures of 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 °C for ten days; and germination percentage, germination speed index, antioxidant enzyme activity, and electrical conductivity were evaluated. Temperature affected the seed germination process but not antioxidant enzyme activity. Germination percentage and germination speed index were higher at 25 and 35 °C and lower at 20 and 40 °C. Superoxide dismutase activity was not affected by temperature. Catalase and peroxidase activities were too low to be used as indicators of temperature stress. The pattern of increasing electrolyte leakage manifested a trend toward loss of cell membrane semipermeability at higher temperatures.
H. R. U. T. Erabadupitiya, W. A. P. Weerakkody, K. A. Nandasena
Protected culture is a production technology for growing high-value horticultural crops. Fertigation in soilless culture is a major determinant of the quality and quantity of the greenhouse crop yields. Nitrogen is the widely used plant nutrient in fertigation and also the major potential environmental contaminant. Mismanagement of nitrogen in different growth stages has been reported in literature. Therefore, increasing of nitrogen use efficiency is vitally important for ensuring economic and environmental sustainability of protected culture. This study was conducted to determine optimum rates of nitrogen application for tomato addressing the plant nutrient status and total marketable yield. Tomato plants were fertigated with a progressive array of ten N treatments covering vegetative and reproductive stages. Plant analysis, growth parameters and total harvest were measured to find out the optimum nitrogen requirement. The treatment, supplied with N rates of 50, 60, 90 and 140 mg/plant/day at vegetative, early, middle and late reproductive stages, respectively showed the highest plant response. Thus it was selected as the most appropriate fertigation schedule for tomato grown soilless culture which comparatively increases tomato yield while reducing the cost of fertilizer and environmental hazards associated with excessive use of N fertilizer.
Charlotte Bureau, Nadège Lanau, Mathieu Ingouff
et al.
Abstract Background The clear visualization of 3D organization at the cellular level in plant tissues is needed to fully understand plant development processes. Imaging tools allow the visualization of the main fluorophores and in vivo growth monitoring. Confocal microscopy coupled with the use of propidium iodide (PI) counter-staining is one of the most popular tools used to characterize the structure of root meristems in A. thaliana. However, such an approach is relatively ineffective in species with more complex and thicker root systems. Results We adapted a PI counter-staining protocol to visualize the internal 3D architecture of rice root meristems using multiphoton microscopy. This protocol is simple and compatible with the main fluorophores (CFP, GFP and mCherry). The efficiency and applicability of this protocol were demonstrated by screening a population of 57 enhancer trap lines. We successfully characterized GFP expression in all of the lines and identified 5 lines with tissue-specific expression. Conclusions All of these resources are now available for the rice community and represent critical tools for future studies of root development.
This work was designed to understand the mechanisms of adsorption of copper (Cu) and cadmium (Cd) on roots of indica and japonica varieties of rice. Six varieties each of indica and japonica rice were grown in hydroponics and the chemical properties of the root surface were analyzed, including surface charges and functional groups (-COO- groups) as measured by the streaming potential and attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). Binding forms of heavy metals adsorbed on rice roots were identified using sequential extraction methods. In rice roots exposed to Cu and Cd solutions, Cu existed mainly in both exchangeable and complexed forms, whereas Cd existed mainly in the exchangeable form. The amounts of exchangeable Cu and Cd and total adsorbed metal cations on the roots of indica varieties were significantly greater than those on the roots of japonica varieties, and the higher negative charges and the larger number of functional groups on the roots of indica varieties were responsible for their higher adsorption capacity and greater binding strength for Cu and Cd. Surface charge and functional groups on roots play an important role in the adsorption of Cu and Cd on the rice roots.
In mutation breeding of chrysanthemum the regeneration in vitro of adventitious shoots from ligulate florets can lead to the separation of chimera components and, as a result, to producing a new original cultivar. The success of that method considerably depends on the result being the number of the shoots formed. The more is produced, the greater the chances for an effective separation of chimera components and creating a new stable cultivar. The present research defines the effect of such factors as the inflorescence development stage, the type of the explant as well as the position of its inoculation on the increase in the efficiency of adventitious shoots regeneration. The ligulate florets of Chrysanthemum × grandiflorum (Ramat.) Kitam. ‘Cool Time’ were inoculated on the Murashige
and Skoog [1962] medium supplemented with 2 mg·dm-3 BAP and 0.5 mg·dm-3 NAA. There was shown no significant effect of the inflorescence development stage (incompletely open with a partially visible disk or with the entire visible disk in which tubular florets do not produce pollen or completely open in which two or half of the whorls of tubular florets produce pollen) on the shoot regeneration efficiency. Most shoots regenerate on transversely- or lengthwise-cut into half or on the entire pierced ligulate florets – horizontally inoculated, with the abaxial side on the medium.
¡Escriba en orden los nombres de las bebidas que se dan a continuación y determine cuáles puede beber a cualquier hora y cuáles debe limitar!
This 1-page fact sheet was written by Emily Minton and published by the UF Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, May 2012.
Kati W. Migliaccio, Brian Boman, Jemy Hinton
et al.
AE439, a 2-page illustrated fact sheet by Kati W. Migliaccio, Brian Boman, Jemy Hinton, and Kevin Hancock, describes perimeter borders used in agricultural production systems in Florida, their benefits and maintenance. Includes references. Published by the UF Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, January 2009.
AE439/AE439: Best Management Practices (BMPs): Perimeter Borders (ufl.edu)
ENH-1047, a 2-page fact sheet by R.J. Henny and J. Chen, describes flowering induction research that explores the potential use of environmental manipulation instead of gibberillic acid sprays to time flowering in peace lilies. Published by the UF Department of Environmental Horticulture, November 2006.
ENH1047/EP320: Spathiphyllum Flowering—Keys to the Future (ufl.edu)