Biology and Life Sciences Forum, Volume 4, Issue 1

Crop growth in acidic soils is limited by toxicity of Al and/or Mn and deficiency of phosphorus (P). Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) improve host water and nutrient acquisition, particularly P. When colonization is initiated from an intact extrara...

Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is an economically important orchard crop, mainly cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical countries. Due its excellent medicinal value, papaw is recommended for daily consumption by medical professionals as fresh fruit. Papa...

The optical properties and ecophysiological parameters of leaves of Ceratonia siliqua L. (carob) expanded in more and less polluted habitats were compared in order to evaluate the effect of air quality in leaf development. The accumulation of pigment...

Nerium oleander historically has been known worldwide as a poisonous plant that can be used to control pests. However, studies on the effects of oleander leaves against Rattus argentiventer as a major agricultural rodent pest are limited. This resear...

Mexico is a megadiverse country, with a high quantity of unique plant species with different uses and applications, such as bactericidal, fungicidal, insecticidal, and, recently, nutrimental. The content of phytochemicals, and the impact of them on a...

The reaction of leaf growth to drought stress is controlled by various hormones, among which ABA is one of the most important. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of ABA deficiency on tomato leaf response under severe drought stress. The...

Olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) (Diptera: Tephritidae), is the most important olive pest, with major economic importance in olive production worldwide. Different olive cultivars exhibit different propensities to fruit fly infestation and th...

The “citrus greening disease” or huanglongbing is caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Candidatus liberibacter spp. One vector of HLB, the African citrus psyllid Trioza erytreae (del Guercio, 1918), was recorded for the first time in 2014 in mainlan...

The olive tree (Olea europaea subsp. europaea L.) is a typical plant of the Mediterranean vegetation, well adapted to drought and poor soils being also tolerant to high solar irradiance. The phyllosphere microbiota associated with these plants is lik...

Abiotic stress adversely affects crop production, causing yield reductions in important crops, including tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Among different abiotic stresses, drought is considered to be the most critical one since limited water availabili...

The impact of climatic change on viticulture is expected to be severe in the Mediterranean area in the future. The scope of this study is the evaluation of the leaf functional and optical properties of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) cultivar (cv.) Ass...

Olive anthracnose, caused by Colletotrichum spp., is one of the most damaging fruit diseases in olive crops worldwide. Their control is very difficult and relies mostly in the use of copper-based fungicides. The plant-associate fungal community has b...

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is a perennial legume esteemed for its yield, adaptability and superior nutritional quality as a forage crop. However, alfalfa production is often impacted by various environmental challenges such as drought and poor drai...

In plants, there are several thousands of different types of proteins with different functions that must be correctly located to a specific subcellular compartment. The conventional vacuolar sorting route is already well described and research teams...

Increase in demand for meat, milk and their products is expected to escalate considerably in coming years due to our ever-expanding population. While increases in forage crop production will therefore be a necessity to meet demand, our ability to att...

Soil contamination is particularly serious. One of the main factors contributing to this is the accelerated development of agriculture, which has led to a strong increase in the use of herbicides. Studies show that herbicides formulated on the basis...

This work is part of the development and enhancement of natural substances and the search for effective, non-polluting and beneficial control methods for human health against insect pests of stored cereals. For this purpose, the essential oils extrac...

Commiphora wightii is an important medicinal tree of arid and semi-arid regions of India. It is commonly known as Guggal and belongs to the family Burseraceae. It is a slow growing poor viable seed producing plant; moreover, excessive destructive tap...

Wheat is an important cereal crop that often suffers from osmotic stress under various growing conditions. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of PEG-induced osmotic stress at the phytomer level on root growth and root hair mor...

Because of their plant-growth-promoting (PGP) properties, microbes play crucial roles in plant development, making them potential candidates for substituting chemical fertilizers, especially when the soil conditions are not the most appropriate to ob...

Nitric oxide (NO) is an important signaling molecule capable of increasing plant resistance to different environmental stresses. However, the mechanisms underlying the protective effect of NO on the plants remains poorly understood. In the present st...

The beetle Xylotrechus arvicola is a significant pest in vineyards (Vitis vinifera) in the wine-producing regions of the Iberian Peninsula. X. arvicola larvae bore the grapevine wood and make galleries, which cause structural damage to the plant and...

Seeds have large economic importance all over the world. They are an essential source of minerals, proteins, starch, and oil reserves in the early stages of plant development and growth. A high abundance of such molecules makes seeds of cereals and l...

The endosymbiotic bacteria that live within the body of insects are involved in many aspects of the host physiology, including reproduction and defense. Thus, the exploitation of these microorganisms may have practical applications for the management...

Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is an economically valuable crop used in the production of nutraceutical supplements, functional food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, etc. However, the large-scale propagation of this plant has been limited by challe...

It is imperative to classify opportunistic skin pathogens and skin commensals for the Malassezia genus of lipophilic yeasts. Recently, in the eastern and western United States, nine types of bat skins have isolated as new Malassezia species in the su...

Perennials utilize complex adaptive strategies and molecular mechanisms to cope with water-deficit conditions. Hence, in order to gain molecular insights regarding water-deficit stress, two-year-old coconut seedlings of the varieties Kalpa Sree and K...

Water scarcity and the increasing demand for irrigation in olive orchards lead to the adoption of deficit irrigation approaches to save water. A partial rootzone drying (PRD) irrigation technique has been proposed for woody crops as an agronomic prac...

The generally accepted approach for increasing plant resistance to heavy metals is the treatment by phytohormones of different natures. In particular, brassinosteroids are highly effective in decreasing the level of toxic ions damage effects on plant...

Peacock spot caused by Spilocaea oleagina and anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum spp., are the most important foliar and fruit diseases of olives. Applications of copper-based fungicides are the main control measures for these pathogens. However, t...

Many vegetable crop plants, including tomato, have high water needs and one of the options to overcome the negative effects of water reduction on yield is the use of deficit irrigation methods. Detailed knowledge on the effects of different irrigatio...

Plants are affected by various biotic and abiotic stresses due to climate change. Tomato and carrots are important crops that are attacked by various pathogens. Fourteen plant-growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) belonging to the genera Streptomyces sp....

The objective of this study was to perform phytochemical screening, estimate the total phenolics and flavonoids, and to evaluate the antioxidant potential of Tomborissa comorensis fruit. The dried and pulverized fruit of Tomborissa comorensis (150 g)...

This research investigates a set of factors that can lead to natural imbalances in plants and provides an overview of agricultural economy in terms of innovative agricultural development, especially in the field of plant protection, taking into accou...

Class III peroxidases (EC 1.11.1.7) have use a wide range of substrates and perform numerous functions, including synthesis of monolignols, lignin precursors. The activity and tissue localization of cationic guaiacol (GPOX) and anionic benzidine pero...

2050: A New World is a policy-making board game developed, by the authors, wherein players balance city planning strategies with climate change mitigation, in an attempt to provide a sustainable future for their region. Players make challenging decis...

Katanin, is a microtubule severing protein that orchestrates microtubule organization throughout the plant cell cycle. Taking into consideration the role of the microtubule cytoskeleton in the stomatal development, the Arabidopsis thaliana katanin mu...

Adverse conditions caused by abiotic stress modulate plant development and growth by altering morphological and cellular mechanisms. To face this problem, plants, along with physiological adaptations, developed intracellular mechanisms, including cha...

Selenium is an antioxidant trace mineral important for human health and development. Therefore, the growing demand for efficient, bioeconomic and sustainable strategies to increase Se content in cereals, namely, rice, is justified. In this context, b...

Cryotherapy of shoot tips can effectively eliminate the sweet potatoes pathogens, such as viruses and phytoplasm, and is impossible without the development of effective cryopreservation techniques. At the same time, cryopreservation allows a long-ter...

The comparative study on the effects of nitrapyrin and the mixture of natural siliceous minerals on physiological processes in economically important C3 and C4 crops (viz. wheat and corn) grown under high nitrogen fertilization conditions, as well as...

This study assessed and compared the chemical profile and the antioxidant and anti-proliferative activities of non-polar extracts of Juniperus macrocarpa (Sibth. & Sm.) Ball. and J. oxycedrus L. from Italy. The aerial parts of both Juniperus subs...

Salicylic acid (SA) has an essential role in the responses of plants to pathogens. SA initiates defense signaling cascades by binding to proteins. NPR1 is a transcriptional coactivator and is a key target of SA binding. Many other proteins have been...

Green leaf volatiles (GLVs) are rapidly released by plant leaves upon damage. This makes them ideal signals to convey the presence of a damaging threat to other parts of the same plant, but also to plants nearby. There, GLVs were first found to activ...

The world is currently facing a high population increase, as well as climate change involving global warming and water shortages, which limits the agronomic productivity necessary to achieve food security for the growing population. As sessile organi...

The essential oils (EOs) of the Eurasiatic Valeriana officinalis (Vo), the Himalayan Valeriana jatamansi (Vj) and Nardostachys jatamansi (Nj), are traditionally used to treat neurological disorders. A multidisciplinary approach based on micromorpholo...

In a simple randomized pot experiment, the effect of nine plant growth regulators (PGRs), namely benzyl amino purine, chlormequat, gibberellic acid, indole acetic acid, indole butyric acid, kinetin, methyl jasmonate, salicylic acid, and triacontanol...

Iron (Fe) is an essential element for plant growth and productivity, and human and animal diets rely on Fe from plant sources. Despite the large number of studies on plants’ Fe deficiency responses, considerably less is known about the morphological...

The food industry will face determinant challenges in the future, namely, feeding a growing population, set to reach up to 9 billion people by 2050, while maintaining food quality, in circumstances of resource limitations and sustainable use. In this...

Drought and salinity are the major constraints on agricultural production worldwide and a remarkable attempt is being made to improve the plant yields in the direction of increasing water deficit. We have developed transgenic finger millet cultivars...