Plants, Volume 8, Issue 8

Research was carried out on onion landrace (Ramata di Montoro) for seed production in southern Italy, with the aim to evaluate the effects on yield and quality of four bulb planting times in factorial combination with four densities, using a split pl...

Cereals and, especially, rice, maize, and wheat, are essential commodities, on which human nutrition is based. Expanding population and food demand have required higher production which has been achieved by increasing fertilization, and especially ni...

Adventitious rooting plays an important role in the commercial vegetative propagation of trees. Adventitious root formation is a complex biological process, but knowledge of the possible unintended effects induced by both the integration/expression o...

Rice quality is mainly related to the following two starch components, apparent amylose content (AAC) and resistant starch (RS). The former affects grain cooking properties, while RS acts as a prebiotic. In the present study, a Genome Wide Associatio...

More than a billion people worldwide may be selenium (Se) deficient, and supplementation with Se-rich Brazil nuts may be a good strategy to prevent deficiency. Since different forms of Se have different nutritional value, and Se is toxic at elevated...

Lesion Simulating Disease 1 (LSD1), Enhanced Disease Susceptibility (EDS1) and Phytoalexin Deficient 4 (PAD4) were discovered a quarter century ago as regulators of programmed cell death and biotic stress responses in Arabidopsis thaliana. Recent stu...

An isolate of Aureobasidium pullulans (strain = CG163) and the plant defence elicitor acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM) were investigated for their ability to control leaf spot in kiwifruit caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae biovar 3 (Psa). Clona...

Low temperature stress affects growth and development in pea (Pisum sativum L.) and decreases yield. In this study, RNA sequencing time series analyses performed on lines, Champagne frost-tolerant and Térèse frost-sensitive, during a lo...

The Arabidopsis male-sterile phenotype has been a wonderful model for jasmonate action in plants. It has allowed us to identify transcription factors that control gene expression during stamen and pollen maturation and provided for the discovery of t...

Variation in leaf traits may represent differences in physiological processes and environmental adaptative strategies. Using multivariate analyses, we investigated 13 leaf traits to quantify the trade-off in these traits and the trait–climate/b...

Since vegetable oils (usually triacylglycerol [TAG]) are extensively used as food and raw materials, an increase in storage oil content and production of valuable polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in transgenic plants is desirable. In this study, a...

Lethal effects of neem derived pesticides (neem leaf extract (NLE) and NeemAzal-T/S (NA)) were examined on different entomopathogenic (EPN) and slug-parasitic (SPN) nematodes. In our recent study, neem derived pesticides were tested against Phasmarha...

We assessed the photosynthetic responses of eight wheat varieties in conditions of a simulated heat wave in a transparent plastic tunnel for one week. We found that high temperatures (up to 38 °C at midday and above 20 °C at night) had a nega...

Zingiber officinale, commonly known as ginger, is an important plant of the family Zingiberaceae and is widely used as an herbal medicine and condiment. The lack of chloroplast genomic information hinders molecular research and phylogenetic analysis...

Orchids produce minute seeds that contain limited or no endosperm, and they must form an association with symbiotic fungi to obtain nutrients during germination and subsequent seedling growth under natural conditions. Orchids need to select an approp...

The effect of different environmental conditions on the growth rate, biomass production, nutrient composition, and phenolic content of the microalgae species Chlorella vulgaris, Botryococcus braunii, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Euglena gracilis, and N...

In this study, we identified the most important climate factors affecting the radial growth of black pine at different elevations of the mountain regions of Southwestern Turkey (Sandıras Mountain, Muğla/Turkey). We used four black pine tree-ring chro...

The phenotype of the tomato mutant jasmonate-insensitive1-1 (jai1-1) mutated in the JA-Ile co-receptor COI1 demonstrates JA function in flower development, since it is female-sterile. In addition, jai1-1 exhibits a premature anther dehydration and po...

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is one of the most important forage legume crops because of its mass production and high feeding value. It originated in Asia and is one of the most ancient plants cultivated throughout the world as a fodder. Despite the wel...

Puglia (Southern Italy), particularly rich in tomato agro-biodiversity, can be considered a typical region of the semi-arid Mediterranean environments. In this study, three local varieties of tomato (Manduria, Giallo di Crispiano and Regina) were cha...

Myelocytomatosis oncogenes (MYC) transcription factors (TFs) belong to basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) TF family and have a special bHLH_MYC_N domain in the N-terminal region. Presently, there is no detailed and systematic analysis of MYC TFs in wheat,...

The cellulose synthase (Ces) and cellulose synthase-like (Csl) gene families belonging to the cellulose synthase gene superfamily, are responsible for the biosynthesis of cellulose and hemicellulose of the plant cell wall, and play critical roles in...

Tundra is one of the most sensitive biomes to climate warming. Understanding plant eco-physiological responses to warming is critical because these traits can give feedback on the effects of climate-warming on tundra ecosystem. We used open-top chamb...

Tetranychus urticae Koch is a phytophagous mite capable of altering the physiological processes of plants, causing damages estimated at USD$ 4500 per hectare, corresponding to approximately 30% of the total cost of pesticides used in some important c...

A mutant defective in the biosynthesis of thermospermine, acaulis5 (acl5), shows a dwarf phenotype with excess xylem vessels in Arabidopsis thaliana. Exogenous supply of thermospermine remarkably represses xylem differentiation in the root of seedlin...

The whole genome sequencing (WGS) has become a crucial tool in understanding genome structure and genetic variation. The MinION sequencing of Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) is an excellent approach for performing WGS and it has advantages in comp...

Environmental androgen analogues act as endocrine disruptors, which inhibit the normal function of androgen in animals. In the present work, through the expression of a chimeric gene specified for the production of the anthocyanin in response to andr...

Gene mutation is a common phenomenon in nature that often leads to phenotype differences, such as the variations in flower color that frequently occur in roses. With the aim of revealing the genomic information and inner mechanisms, the differences i...

The olive is a fruit tree species with a century-old history of cultivation in the Mediterranean basin. In Apulia (Southern Italy), the olive is of main social, cultural and economic importance, and represents a hallmark of the rural landscape. Howev...

Oxidative stress is involved in different diseases, such as diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases. The genus Azorella includes about 70 species of flowering plant species; most of them are commonly used as food and in particular as a tea infusion i...

Lantana (Lantana camara L., Verbenaceae) is an important ornamental crop, yet can be a highly invasive species. The formation of unreduced female gametes (UFGs) is a major factor contributing to its invasiveness and has severely hindered the developm...

Vigna vexillata (zombi pea) is an underutilized legume crop considered to be a potential gene source in breeding for abiotic stress tolerance. This study focuses on the molecular characterization of mechanisms controlling waterlogging tolerance using...

Breeding wheat for higher grain yield can contribute to global food security and sustainable production on less land. Tropospheric ozone can injure wheat plants and subsequently reduce grain yield. Identification of ozone tolerance in the wheat genom...

The aim of the present review is to summarize selenium’s connection to pests. Phytopharmaceuticals for pest control, which increase the pollution in the environment, are still widely used nowadays regardless of their negative characteristics. T...

Heavy metals (including Cadmium) are being entered into the environment through various sources and cause toxicity to plants. Response of Brassica juncea L. var. RLC-1 was evaluated after exposing them to different concentration of cadmium (Cd) for s...

The physiological responses of habanero pepper plants (Capsicum chinense Jacq.) to foliar applications of zinc sulphate and zinc nano-fertilizer were evaluated in greenhouse trials. The effect of the supplement on fruit quality of habanero pepper was...

MicroR159 (miR159) is ancient, being present in the majority of land plants where it targets a class of regulatory genes called GAMYB or GAMYB-like via highly conserved miR159-binding sites. These GAMYB genes encode R2R3 MYB domain transcription fact...

Knowledge about folk medicines is limited to elder community members of remote communities, like Sete Cidades in the Azores. The Azores, 1300 km west of Portugal, are nine volcanic islands, totalling 2330 km² of land dispersed by 173,200 km² in the N...

Red, black and white seeds quinoa were germinated at 28 °C during 24 (G1), 48 and 72 h (G3). Red quinoa presented a higher percentage of germination with a value of 46% of germination at 72 h. Quinoa protein isolate (QPI) was obtained by alkaline...

Moringa oleifera Lam. (Moringa), Jatropha curcas L. (Jatropha), and Ricinus communis L. (Ricinus) are oily species known by their capability to grow in tropical and subtropical lands. However, there are no studies comparing their growth and recovery...

The fungus Magnaporthiopsis maydis is a soil-borne, seed-borne vascular wilt pathogen that causes severe damage to sensitive Zea mays L. (maize) hybrids throughout Egypt, Israel, India, Spain, and other countries. It can undergo virulence variations...

Plants experience specific stresses at particular, but predictable, times of the day. The circadian clock is a molecular oscillator that increases plant survival by timing internal processes to optimally match these environmental challenges. Clock re...

Plant trichomes are outgrowths developed from an epidermal pavement cells of leaves and other organs. Trichomes (also called ‘hairs’) play well-recognized roles in defense against insect herbivores, forming a physical barrier that obstruc...

From 1993, we have conducted trials with the same set of old to newer soybean cultivars to determine the impact of plant breeding on seed yield, physiological and agronomic characteristics, and seed composition. Since 1993, global atmospheric [CO₂] i...

Cymbidium is one of the most important genera of flowering plants in the Orchidaceae family, and comprises a wide variety of beautiful and colorful species. Among these, only a few species possess floral scents and flavors. In order to increase the a...

In this work, the involvement of heat shock proteins (HSP70) in barley (Hordeum vulgare) has been studied in response to drought and salinity. Thus, 3 barley genotypes usually cultivated and/or selected in Italy, 3 Middle East/North Africa landraces...

Silica is deposited extra- and intracellularly in plants in solid form, as phytoliths. Phytoliths have emerged as accepted taxonomic tools and proxies for reconstructing ancient flora, agricultural economies, environment, and climate. The discovery o...

Quercetin (Qu) is a strong antioxidant among the phenolic compounds having physiological and biochemical roles in plants. Hence, we have studied the Qu evolved protection against salinity in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). Salinity caused ionic tox...

The over-reliance on the herbicide glyphosate for knockdown weed control in fallows under minimum and zero-till cropping systems has led to an increase in populations of glyphosate-resistant weeds. Echinochloa colona and Chloris virgata are two major...

An ethnobotanical study was performed to collect information on the use of medicinal plants in Papantla, Veracruz, Mexico. The area has a high number of endemic species, and the social importance of the medicinal plants in the community is essential...