Application of biochar in mitigation of negative effects of salinity stress in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Salinity is a major abiotic stress that affects crop production throughout the world. Biochar is an activated carbon soil conditioner that can alleviate the negative impacts of salinity. The research was conducted to evaluate the ameliorative effect of 1% and 2% of biochar application on wheat seed germination and growth attributes under salinity. Both levels of biochar improved the germination and growth conditions under salinity; however, 2% biochar level was more effective compared to 1% level. Root and shoot length increased up to 23% and11% with 2% biochar, respectively. The maximum increase of 16% and 10% in leaf water potential and osmotic potential was noted with 2% biochar at 150 mM salt. The decrease in proline content and soluble sugar at 2% biochar was 51% and 27%, respectively. Decrease in superoxide dismutase activity was 15.3% at 2% level of biochar under stress biochar mitigates the negative effects of salinity and improved wheat productivity.     

Rapid determination of free fatty acids in poultry feed lipid extracts by SB-ATR FTIR spectroscopy

A simple, rapid, and reproducible method has been developed for the quantitative determination of free fatty acid (FFA) content in lipids extracted from poultry feeds by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy with the use of a single-bounce attenuated total reflectance (SB-ATR) accessory. An FTIR calibration curve was prepared by gravimetrically adding oleic acid (15-37%) to pure refined, bleached, and deodorized (RBD) canola oil and measuring the area of the COOH absorption band at 1710 cm-1. The oil from each of 12 poultry feed formulations was extracted using conventional Soxhlet extraction, and after evaporation of the solvent, the FFA content was determined by the conventional AOCS titrimetric procedure and by the SB-ATR/FTIR method. The SB-ATR/FTIR FFA predictions were related to those determined by the AOCS titrimetric method by linear regression, producing an R value of 0.999 and a SD of +/-0.28% FFA. Time-course spectra collected as lipids extracted into hexane indicated that a 15 min extraction was adequate to obtain a representative sample for FFA determination, with further extraction resulting in little, if any, change in the proportion of FFA in the lipid extract. Only a small volume of the hexane extract ( approximately 20 mL) yielded sufficient material for the SB-ATR/FTIR analysis. Thus, by shortening the extraction time and taking a small sample so as to reduce solvent removal time, the SB-ATR/FTIR procedure provides a very simple and rapid means of determining the FFA content of poultry feed lipids.     

Spectroscopic and chromatographic evaluation of the wax ester fraction of Adenanthera pavonina oil

Present study was carried out in order to assess the constituents of Adenanthera pavonina wax esters by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and Gas chromatography (GC). After extraction of oil from A. pavonina seeds, wax esters were separated from oil by centrifugation and then purified through crystallization process in acetone. The white crystalline solid with melting point of 83-85 °C was initially characterized as wax esters by FT-IR. Gas chromatography with flame ionization detector (GC-FID) provided the separation of various wax esters from C₃₄ to C₄₈ including odd and even chain esters. C₄₆ wax ester was found to be predominant. For separation, identification and estimation of individual constituents of fatty acid methyl esters and fatty alcohol acetates were carried out by GC-MS after saponification and derivatization of wax esters. GC-MS analysis indicated the presence of saturated methyl esters from C_l4 to C₃₀. Predominant methyl ester was C₂₂. Wax esters contained the saturated fatty alcohols from C₁₄ to C₂₈. The major alcohol was saturated C₂₄ fatty alcohol. The results indicated that A. pavonina wax esters have potential to be used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry due to its better composition of long chain fatty acids and fatty alcohols.     

Antifungal Potential of Chenopodium album L. against Chickpea Blight

Chenopodium album L. （bathu） leaves and roots were selected to evaluate their antifungal potential against the Ascochyta rabiei responsible for chickpea blight that causes destructive yield losses. Methanolic extract of C. album leaves and roots was prepared and their various applied concentrations, viz., 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5% were tested against A. rabiei. Leaf extracts were found more effective and showed significant antifungal activity over the root extracts. C. album leaf was found effective in screening bioassays, so this was subjected for fractional guided bioassays. Different various organic fractions of leaf extract were isolated, viz., n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol. These isolated fractions were serially diluted to check their minimum inhibitory concentration （MIC） along with a synthetic fungicide （72% WP, Puslan）. The MIC of various concentrations from 500 mg/mL to 1.95 mg/mL was recorded after 24 h and 48 h intervals. Ethyl acetate and synthetic fungicides were found most effectual in retarding conidial germination with MIC of 1.95 mg/mL after 48 h incubation periods. Chloroform fraction also inhibited the fungal growth whereas n-hexane and n-butanol fraction were found to be ineffective.     

Influence of Salicylic Acid and Jasmonic Acid on Wheat Under Drought Stress

Salicylic acid and jasmonic acid play an important role in plants coping with abiotic stresses. An experiment was conducted to examine the effect of salicylic acid and jasmonic acid on wheat under drought. Seeds were primed with jasmonic acid (100µM) and salicylic acid (10 Mm). Water stress was applied by withholding water and each treatment was replicated three times with a factorial block design. Application of Salicylic acid and Jasmonic acid mitigated drought effects in wheat. Results revealed that 100µM Jasmonic acid was more effective than 10 mM SA. Drought decreased germination by 26%, whereas application of Jasmonic acid and Salicylic acid ameliorated stress with the increase of germination by 27% and 21%, respectively. An increase in the shoot length of 23% and 20% was observed with Jasmonic acid and Salicylic acid, under drought conditions. The increase in water potential was 60% and 47% with JA and SA while the increase in proline and soluble sugar was 14% and 25% respectively. The application of Jasmonic acid and Salicylic acid has a potential to enhance the growth of wheat plants under drought.     

Gibberellin producing Neosartorya sp. CC8 reprograms Chinese cabbage to higher growth

Gibberellins production by soil fungi received little attention, although substantial work has been carried out on other growth promoting aspects of soil borne fungi. We investigated gibberellins production and growth promoting capacity of a novel fungal strain of Neosartorya, which was isolated from the roots of Chinese cabbage (Bassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis). Fungal culture filtrates (CF) obtained from pure cultures of 16 endophytic fungi were bioassayed on Waito-C, in order to investigate plant growth promoting capacity of these fungi. The fungal isolate CC-8 induced maximum shoot length of Waito-C (13.0 cm) as compared to control treatments. In a separate experiment, the CF of fungus CC-8 significantly promoted plant length and biomass of Chinese cabbage. The fungal CF also increased endogenous bioactive GA₁ and GA₄ contents of Chinese cabbage. Gibberellin analysis of CF of CC-8 showed presence of both physiologically active and non active gibberellins in higher concentrations (GA₁, 1.42 ng/ml; GA₃, 5.93 ng/ml; GA₄, 11.36 ng/ml; GA₇, 3.25 ng/ml; GA₉, 0.79 ng/ml; GA₁₅, 1.18 ng/ml). The culture filtrate of CC-8 produced higher amounts of GA₃, GA₄, GA₇ and GA₉ than wild type Fusarium fujikuroi, a well known gibberellins producing fungus. The fungal isolate CC-8 was later identified as a new strain of Neosartorya species on the basis of traditional and advance molecular techniques.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Rhizobium</Emphasis>,<Emphasis Type="Italic"> Bradyrhizobium</Emphasis> and<Emphasis Type="Italic"> Agrobacterium</Emphasis> strains isolated from cultivated legumes

The present study was conducted to isolate and characterize rhizobial strains from root nodules of cultivated legumes, i.e. chickpea, mungbean, pea and siratro. Preliminary characterization of these isolates was done on the basis of plant infectivity test, acetylene reduction assay, C-source utilization, phosphate solubilization, phytohormones and polysaccharide production. The plant infectivity test and acetylene reduction assay showed effective root nodule formation by all the isolates on their respective hosts, except for chickpea isolate Ca-18 that failed to infect its original host. All strains showed homology to a typical Rhizobium strain on the basis of growth pattern, C-source utilization and polysaccharide production. The strain Ca-18 was characterized by its phosphate solubilization and indole acetic acid (IAA) production. The genetic relationship of the six rhizobial strains was carried out by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) including a reference strain of Bradyrhizobium japonicum TAL-102. Analysis conducted with 60 primers discriminated between the strains of Rhizobium and Bradyrhizobium in two different clusters. One of the primers, OPB-5, yielded a unique RAPD pattern for the six strains and well discriminated the non-nodulating chickpea isolate Ca-18 from all the other nodulating rhizobial strains. Isolate Ca-18 showed the least homology of 15% and 18% with Rhizobium and Bradyrhizobium, respectively, and was probably not a (Brady)rhizobium strain. Partial 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis for MN-S, TAL-102 and Ca-18 strains showed 97% homology between MN-S and TAL-102 strains, supporting the view that they were strains of B. japonicum species. The non-infective isolate Ca-18 was 67% different from the other two strains and probably was an Agrobacterium strain.     

水稻二化螟诱导表达基因OsSABATH启动子的克隆与缺失体构建

Northern杂交结果表明,OsSABATH基因受二化螟(Chilo suppressalis)为害诱导表达,但却不受机械损伤诱导。利用该基因序列和水稻基因组数据库相应序列设计引物,扩增到该基因编码区5′上游2050 bp的启动子序列。用PLACE软件分析顺式作用元件,发现该基因起始密码子上游1.4 kb的区域内存在几个可能与该基因表达调控相关的顺式作用元件,如W盒、DOF 结合序列、GT 1、 BIHD1 结合序列等。将该基因启动子区域及其5′部分缺失构件与GUS报告基因相连,并克隆进pCAMBIA1391载体中,用于分析启动子活性及虫伤诱导特异性相关的顺式作用元件。     

Correcting for underlying absorption interferences in Fourier transform infrared trans analysis of edible oils using two-dimensional correlation techniques

Substantive improvement in the sensitivity of the AOAC/AOCS spectral ratioing method for the determination of isolated trans isomers in edible oils was recently achieved by the application of a new spectral reconstitution (SR) technique that facilitates the FTIR analysis of edible oils in the transmission mode. However, the general applicability of the spectral ratioing method is still severely limited by the requirement to know the provenance of the oil to be analyzed and have on hand its trans-free counterpart so that the underlying triacylglycerol absorptions in the trans measurement region (990-945 cm(-1)), henceforth referred to as UAt , may be ratioed out. To eliminate the need for a trans-free reference oil, we have employed two-dimensional (2D) correlation spectroscopy to search for other spectral features that might correlate with and serve to estimate the UAt . The three-dimensional contour maps obtained by 2D correlation analysis of the spectra of 10 trans-free oils of different oil types, recorded using the SR procedure, revealed such correlations in two spectral regions, 1700-1600 and 4500-4300 cm(-1), exhibiting one maximum and two maxima, respectively, with wavenumber coordinates of (968, 4407), (968, 4299), and (968, 1650). The latter two correlations, when optimized, produced excellent linear regression relationships (r>0.95) with the UAt . The spectra of five sets of trielaidin-spiked oils were corrected for the UA t using these relationships, and their trans contents were predicted from the calibration equation generated for the spectral ratioing procedure. Linear regression of predicted versus added trans over the range of 0-1.6% trans, which is below the limit of quantitation of the AOAC/AOCS spectral ratioing method, yielded r=0.88-0.90 with an SD of approximately 0.2% trans. These results indicate that the combination of the SR technique with the UA t correction approach may provide a simple and accurate FTIR method for the analysis of the trans content of fats and oils that would be competitive with GC.