The variation of the amount of the neurosecretory materials in the Corpus Allatum of Pimpla turionellae L. (Hymenoptera: ichneumonidae) during oocyte maturation

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of neurosecretory material (NSM) in Corpus Allatum (CA) of endoparasitic Pimpla turionellae L. on reproduction. For this purpose, the egg maturation of the insect and the amount of the NSM in CA of the serial section of the brain were studied. Egg maturation was determined by measuring the terminal oocyte length. In order to determine the amount of the NSM in CA the neurosecretory granules of which were stained by paraldehyde fuchsin are considered. The egg maturation of P. turionellae have performed twice. The NSM intensity in CA continued increasingly from the first day of egg development until the first oviposition days; and reached the maximum level before the second egg maturation phase. These observations showed that the NSM in CA of this insect may be related to egg development.     

A Practical LC-MS/MS Method for the Detection of NDMA at Nanogram per Liter Concentrations in Multiple Water Matrices

N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) is one of the most important disinfection by-products (DBPs) due to its carcinogenicity even at low concentrations which correspond to the levels occurring in drinking water and wastewater effluents. Therefore, NDMA is a candidate DBP that is expected to be regulated in the near future. However, the measurement of NDMA in the low nanogram per liter range is challenging because of the limitations of analytical techniques including both the sample preparation and the LC-MS/MS. Moreover, the accuracy of most of the current methods is only tested for drinking water and no information is present for other matrices. In this study, a combination of solid-phase extraction (SPE) and LC-MS/MS method that does not require high-resolution MS or advanced techniques for sample pretreatment is developed. Moreover, important factors that affect the optimization of the SPE method are provided to enable readers to optimize their own SPE procedures if necessary. The proposed method was validated for surface water, groundwater, and wastewater samples and the method quantification limit was 2?ng/L. In addition, the proposed method was used to determine the concentration of NDMA precursors measured as NDMA formation potential (NDMAFP) throughout a drinking water treatment plant at two different sampling periods. NDMAFP decreased by approximately 40?% in both samples. The concentrations ranged between 4 and 11.5?ng/L and the presence of these low concentrations underlines the need for an easy to use, yet sensitive method for the determination of NDMA in environmental matrices.     

Effects of exogenously applied salicylic acid on the induction of multiple stress tolerance and mineral nutrition in maize (Zea mays L.)

Abstract

It has been proposed that salicylic acid (SA) acts as an endogenous signal molecule responsible for inducing environmental stress tolerance in plants. In this study, the effects of seed soaked (1.0 mM for 24 h) and soil incorporated (0.1 mM and 0.5 mM) salicylic acid (SA) supply on growth and mineral concentrations of maize (Zea mays L., Hamidiye F₁) grown under either salt, boron toxicity or drought-stressed conditions were investigated. Exogenously applied SA either with seed soaked (SS) or soil incorporated (SI) increased plant growth significantly in all the stresses conditions. Salicylic acid inhibited Na and Cl accumulation in saline conditions, and 0.5 mM of soil incorporated SA decreased B significantly in boron toxicity treatment. Except in drought condition, SA treatments stimulated N accumulation in plants. And P, K, Mg and Mn concentrations of SA received plants were increased in the stress conditions. These results suggest that SA regulates the response of plants to the environmental stresses and could be used as a plant growth regulator to improve plant growth and stimulate mineral nutrient concentrations under stress conditions.     

Ameliorative Effect of Hydro Gel Substrate on Growth,Inorganic Ions,Proline, and Nitrate Contents of Bean under Salinity Stress

The effect of varying hydrogel (0, 0.5, and 1.0% w/w) supply on some agro-physiological properties, such as dry matter, nutrient contents, chlorophyll contents, proline content, and ionic balance of bean plants in different salt sources and stress due to doses were investigated. Plants were treated with eight salt sources [sodium chloride (NaCl), sodium sulfate (Na₂SO₄), calcium chloride (CaCl₂), calcium sulfate (CaSO₄), potassium chloride (KCl), potassium sulfate (K₂SO₄), magnesium chloride (MgCl₂), magnesium sulfate (MgSO₄)] and four concentrations (0, 30, 60, and 120 mM doses) for 60 days in a growth media. Salt type, doses, and hydrogel (HG) affected the soil electrical conductivity. Soil salinity affected the parameters considered, and changed the nutrient balance of plants. High salt concentration caused substantial reduction in plant growth. Different salt concentrations negatively affected plant dry weight. The highest decrease of plant root dry weight was obtained with NaCl application followed by Na₂SO₄, CaCl₂, CaSO_4, MgCl₂, MgSO₄, KCl, and K₂SO₄, and similarly NaCl, Na₂SO₄, CaCl₂, CaSO_4, KCl, K₂SO₄, MgCl₂, and MgSO₄ in root dry weight. Total chlorophyll and nitrate contents of plants decreased with increasing salt doses, and the lowest value was obtained for NaCl application. Proline contents of plants were increased with increasing salt doses, and the highest value was obtained with the NaCl application. The effects of salt concentrations in nitrogen (N), potassium (K), and phosphorus (P) content of plants were significant. The presence of salt in the growth medium induced an important decrease the macro nutrient of the root and shoot part of plant such as N, P, K, calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) content, but the N and P content of root and shoot part of the plant were increased with increasing of the HG application doses. The highest N and P increases were obtained with the 1.0 HG application for all salt types for both the root and shoots of plants. The HG added to saline soil significantly improved the variables affected by high salinity and also increased plant N and P, reduced soil electricity conductivity, nitrate, proline, and electrolyte leakage of plants, enhanced plant root and shoot dry weight by allowing nutrients and water to release to the plant as needed. The results suggested that HG has great potential for use in alleviating salinity stress on plant growth and growth parameters in saline soils of arid and semi-arid areas. This HG appears to be highly effective for use as a soil conditioner in vegetable growing, to improve crop tolerance and growth in saline conditions. It is intended to confirm the results of these studies by field trials.     

Phosphorus Efficiency in Sunflower Cultivars and Its Relationships with Phosphorus,Calcium, Iron,Zinc and Manganese Nutrition

ABSTRACT

Phosphorus (P) efficiency (shoot dry weight at low P/shoot dry weight at high P) of a cultivar is the ability to produce a high yield in a soil that is limited in that element for a standard genotype. The large variation in P efficiency of different crops provides opportunities for screening crop species that perform well on low phosphorus soil. To explain the differences in P efficiency of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) cultivars a glasshouse pot experiment was conducted by using P-deficient soil [0.5 M sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃)-extractable P 8.54 mg kg^?1] treated with 0 (low P) and 100 mg P kg^?1 soil (high P). The relationship between P efficiency and P, calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), and manganese (Mn) nutrition and anthocyanin accumulation was investigated in ten sunflower cultivars. Phosphorus deficiency resulted in significant decreases in the shoot and root yield. Phosphorus-efficient cultivars have the ability to produce higher yield than the inefficient cultivars in a limited P conditions. Our results showed that P-efficient cultivars had lower P concentrations, but higher P content in low P conditions. Phosphorus-efficient cultivars also have lower Ca and Fe concentrations in low P conditions but not in P-sufficient conditions. Applied P resulted in significant decreases in Zn concentrations in the shoots of the cultivars. Anthocyanin concentrations showed an accumulating pattern in all cultivars under P deficiency. The results demonstrated that phosphorus efficiency of the sunflower cultivars depends on their ability to produce higher yield and take up more P, and lower the concentration of Ca and Fe in shoots under low P conditions.     

MINERAL ELEMENT DISTRIBUTION AND ACCUMULATION PATTERNS WITHIN TWO BARLEY CULTIVARS

Growth stage effects on distribution of mineral nutrients or beneficial elements phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S), chloride (Cl), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mo), sodium (Na), silicon (Si) and nickel (Ni), and the elements bromine (Br), rubidium (Rb), strontium (Sr), barium (Ba), lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), and uranium (U) in two barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars and how the distribution of these elements changed were determined during the 2006–2007 growing season in a field experiment. Barley plants were sampled from the field at shooting, heading, soft dough, hard dough and harvest stages, and mineral nutrients and other elements concentrations of spike, flag leaf, old leaf, and stem samples were determined by polarized energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (PEDXRF). Distribution patterns varied considerably from element to element. At the end of the season much of the Ca, Mg, S, Si, Fe, Mn, Cu, Ni, Sr, Ba, La, Ce, and U were located in the spikes. However, much of the P, K, Zn, Cl, Na, Br, and Rb remained in the old leaves or stem.     

ELEMENTAL COMPOSITION OF PEPPER PLANTS FERTILIZED WITH PELLETIZED POULTRY MANURE

Poultry manure (PM) has been traditionally applied to crops for decades as an organic fertilizer, because it is a good and balanced source of plant nutrients. Its effect on plant growth and yield has been widely investigated and is well known. However, there has been little effort to relate elemental compositions of the manure applied to their concentrations in the plants. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of PM on the growth, and essential and non-essential element composition of pepper (Capsicum annuum) leaves and also fruits. Pepper plants were grown in soil with 0, 10, 20, and 40 g kg^?1 PM under greenhouse conditions. Concentrations of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S), silicon (Si), aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), chloride (Cl), nickel (Ni), bromine (Br), rubidium (Rb), strontium (Sr), barium (Ba), lanthanum (La), and cerium (Ce) in leaves at the flowering stage and in fruits were determined by polarized energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (PEDXRF). Poultry manure fertilization significantly improved pepper shoot growth and also fruit yield, and increased leaf and fruit P concentrations but not N, K, Mg, Si, Al, Ni, and Fe. Leaf Ca was significantly reduced by increased rate of PM application. Applied PM increased the concentrations of leaf and fruit Zn and Cl. Poultry manure applications had a positive effect on the concentrations of leaf Cu, and fruit Mn. The concentrations of Rb and Ce in fruits and Br in fruit and leaves were increased by PM treatments. Applied PM levels had no clear effect on the concentrations of Ba and La in pepper leaves. The leaf Ba was the highest with 10 g kg^?1 PM, and leaf La was higher in 20 and 40 g kg^?1 PM treatments than in the control.     

Studies on differential response of wheat cultivars to boron toxicity

Experiments were carried out to study the differential responses of different wheat cultivars to boron toxicity in field, greenhouse and growth chamber conditions. In field trials carried out at two locations, both of which are known to contain toxic amounts of water-extractable B, significant correlations were obtained between toxicity symptoms and grain yields. The only durum cultivar included in this group of experiments (Kunduru 1149) was the most sensitive of the 21 cultivars trialed. The most tolerant cultivars were of local origin. Genotype-environment interaction was considerably large. Twenty-nine bread wheat and three durum wheat cultivars were compared in a greenhouse experiment with and without the application of 40 mg L^-1 B. Again, the durums were the most sensitive cultivars. The most tolerant cultivars were either selections from local populations or had at least one parent of local origin. The detrimental effect of B on root dry matter production was much higher than on shoot dry matter (45 and 26%, respectively), but genotypical variation was greater in shoot growth retardation. While this implies the possible role of reduced translocation, high concentrations of B in the shoots of tolerant cultivars (though lower than in the sensitive cultivars) indicated the existence of other contributing mechanisms, such as tissue tolerance. Also, greater genotypical variation in older leaves showed that reduced uptake might be more important than reduced translocation in some cases. Due to the lack of correlation between results from the field and the controlled-environment studies, it was concluded that screenings should be undertaken in both situations as a means of verification. Another conclusion drawn was that symptom scoring for B tolerance was more reliable than measuring plant B concentrations. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Residues of Organochlorine Pesticides in Water Sources of Istanbul

The concentrations of 9 chlorinated pesticides in the water sources and tap waters of Istanbul, Turkey, were determined by gas chromatographic methods following the enrichment through adsorption and elution techniques. The observed organochlorine pesticides were α- and γ-HCH and aldrin which had been banned from use. The contents of α- and γ-HCH in raw waters were in the range of 0.34–1.7 ppb and not detected-0.077 ppb, respectively. Aldrin was observed at the concentration of 0.03 ppb in some samples. The residue levels of organochlorine pesticides in drinking water supplies of Istanbul were found significantly under the maximum permissible levels of standards. The effectiveness of potable water treatment processes and the importance of maintenance and back- washing of sand filters in pesticide removal were observed. Improper and delayed back-washings of filters caused an increase in the pesticide residues in the distributed water. In older water distribution lines, higher concentrations of some organochlorines were also observed.     

Important invasive species and its pest status in Turkey: Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae)

Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection - The brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål), is a pest of many annual and perennial agricultural products. The species is native to...