Strategies to mitigate the adverse effect of drought stress on crop plants—influences of soil bacteria: A review

Drought stress affects plant growth and causes significant issues in meeting global demand for food crops and fodder. Drought can cause physiological, physicochemical, and morphological changes in plants, which negatively affects plant growth and productivity. To combat this under the increasing global threat of water shortage and rapid population expansion, it is crucial to develop strategies to meet global food demands. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) may provide a safe solution to enhancing crop yields through various mechanisms. These soil bacteria can provide drought tolerance to crop plants, allowing them to survive and thrive in water-scarce conditions. Productions of phytohormones, free radical-scavenging enzymes, and stress-combating enzymes that can increase tolerance to drought-induced stress are key features of plant-associated microbial communities. This review summarizes the beneficial properties of microbes that help plants tolerate water scarcity and highlights the bacterial mechanisms that enhance drought tolerance in plants.     

Use of glutaraldehyde and benzalkonium chloride for minimizing post-harvest physio-chemical and microbial changes responsible for sucrose losses in sugar cane

Sugar cane is sensitive to enormous sucrose losses induced by physio-chemical and microbial changes, the severity being increased during the time lag between harvest and crushing in the mills. Minimization of the sucrose losses in the field is essential for better sugar recovery and prevention of sucrose losses. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of glutaraldehyde and benzalkonium chloride for their effects on the microbial counts and physio-chemical changes responsible for sucrose losses. Glutaraldehyde and benzalkonium chloride (1000 + 250 ppm) reduced the losses in sucrose content to 7.1% as compared to the 30.8% loss in the control, thus improving the performance by 76.9%. The application of chemicals reduced the acid invertase activity (by 60%), lowered weight loss, titrable acidity, reducing sugars content, dextran, ethanol, and ethylene production and respiration rates. The application led to the reduction in the total bacterial, fungal, Leuconostoc, and yeast counts by 67.92, 51.3%, 26.08, and 51.2%, respectively.     

The conservation status of decapod crustaceans in the Western Ghats of India: an exceptional region of freshwater biodiversity

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Exogenous Peroxidase Mitigates Cadmium Toxicity,Enhances Rhizobial Population and Lowers Root Knot Formation in Rice Seedlings

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A survey of Aleutian mink disease virus infection of feral American mink in Nova Scotia

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