The Interactive Approach of Rhizobacteria and l-tryptophan on Growth,Physiology, Tuber Characteristics,and Iron Concentration of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Iron deficiency is one of the most prevailing micronutrient deficiencies throughout the globe. Iron malnutrition affects billions of people around the world especially children and pregnant women. Its deficiencies can be overcome through microbial biofortification: a process of deliberately increasing desirable nutrients in crop plants. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) can improve iron content in edible plant tissues through different direct and indirect mechanisms. Adding plant growth regulators along with rhizobacteria makes it a novel fortification approach. In the current experiment, the interactive effect of two bacterial isolates (O-13 & K-10) alone and in consortium with l-tryptophan in the presence of iron sulfate was evaluated on growth, physiology, tuber characteristics, and iron concentration in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). Results revealed that inoculation with PGPR and plant growth regulator (PGR) significantly improved the plant height, straw yield, and the number of tubers per plant. Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tuber characteristics (starch content, vitamin-C, relative water content) were also improved significantly. O-13, K-10, and l-tryptophan had significantly improved the iron concentration up to 20.59, 33.12, and 28.95%, respectively. However, inoculation with the microbial consortium and l-tryptophan showed a significant increase of up to one-fold in the iron concentration of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) as compared with uninoculated control. The results suggest that rhizobacteria can help the plant to uptake nutrients from the soil. These findings concluded on the fact that the interactive effect of microbial assisted biofortification and plant growth regulator is a novel, promising, and cost-effective approach to mitigate micronutrient deficiencies especially in resource-limited countries.

     

Effects of optimum doses of nitrogen,phosphorus, potassium and calcium on silkworm,Bombyx mori L., growth and yield

Silkworm rearing has been an income source for small-holding farmers in Pakistan. Over the years efforts have been made to improve silkworm quality and quantity and thus develop better prospects for increasing yield and income. Mulberry leaves Morus alba L. in a series of experiments have been supplemented with various nutrients in different doses and combinations. Relative success has been achieved in this context. In our present experiments on silkworm Bombyx mori L., we fed the larvae on mulberry leaves supplemented with different doses of N (0.2%), P (0.1%), K (0.3%) and Ca (0.1%) at 26 ± 3°C with 65 ± 5% relative humidity. The results showed better outputs in terms of food consumption (72.55 g/10 larvae), coefficient of utilization (76.45%), body weight (70.07 g/10 larvae) and body length (8.56 cm/larvae) than where simple mulberry leaves were offered. Our net gains with these production parameters have been in terms of heavier cocoons with and without pupa (2.25 and 0.69 g/cocoon), respectively.     

Analysis of Grain Yield Formation Components of Extra Heavy-Panicle-Type Mid-Season Indica Hybrid Rice

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - Rice is the most important food crop species of the developing world, and there are increasing concerns about food security to increase rice yields...     

High-Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Morphology-Controllable Synthesis of ZnO–ZnS Heterostructure Nanocone Photoanodes

High-density and well-aligned ZnO–ZnS core–shell nanocone arrays were synthesized on fluorine-doped tin oxide glass substrate using a facile and cost-effective two-step approach. In this synthetic process, the ZnO nanocones act as the template and provide Zn²⁺ ions for the ZnS shell formation. The photoluminescence spectrum indicates remarkably enhanced luminescence intensity and a small redshift in the UV region, which can be associated with the strain caused by the lattice mismatch between ZnO and ZnS. The obtained diffuse reflectance spectra show that the nanocone-based heterostructure reduces the light reflection in a broad spectral range and is much more effective than the bare ZnO nanocone and nanorod structures. Dye-sensitized solar cells based on the heterostructure ZnO–ZnS nanocones are assembled, and high conversion efficiency (η) of approximately 4.07% is obtained. The η improvement can be attributed primarily to the morphology effect of ZnO nanocones on light-trapping and effectively passivating the interface surface recombination sites of ZnO nanocones by coating with a ZnS shell layer.     

Lovastatin and (+)‐geodin production by Aspergillus terreus from crude glycerol

The use of pure substrate represents a significant proportion of the cost of manufacturing a drug such as lovastatin. This study explores the production of lovastatin and (+)‐geodin by Aspergillus terreus ATCC 20542 using biodiesel‐derived crude glycerol (CG) as a feedstock. Shake flask experiments showed reduced lovastatin production and glycerol consumption in the presence of 10–50 g/L CG with respect to pure glycerol controls. At 50 g/L, lovastatin and (+)‐geodin production was significantly reduced by 82 and 73%, respectively. The lowest lovastatin inhibition was detected in 30 g/L of CG (48%), which was accompanied by a significant rise in (+)‐geodin production (338%). Further investigation was performed on three major impurities found in CG, namely methanol (MeOH), sodium chloride (NaCl), and fatty acids (oleic acid and palmitic acid (PA), soap). None was particularly inhibitory for lovastatin, except soap and PAs, which reduced its production by more than 50% at all concentrations tested. In contrast, (+)‐geodin was inhibited in the presence of MeOH and PA by up to 46 and 91%, respectively. These observations indicate that partial purification of CG would be potentially useful in improving production of lovastatin and (+)‐geodin by A. terreus.     

VdNop12, containing two tandem RNA recognition motif domains,is a crucial factor for pathogenicity and cold adaption in Verticillium dahliae

Previous studies have reported the ability of fungi to overwinter in soil or on crop debris under different environmental conditions, but how fungi adapt to chilling is still largely unknown. In this study, we have identified and characterized the RNA binding protein (RBP) (VdNop12) by screening an Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation-mediated insertional mutational library of Verticillium dahliae. We determined that this protein was essential to the pathogen for virulence on cotton plants. VdNop12 contains two tandem RNA recognition motif domains, and its orthologs are widely distributed in filamentous fungi. Mutants produced by disruption of VdNop12 showed defects in vegetative growth, conidiation and cell wall integrity. The mutant also showed an increase in sensitivity to low temperature, as compared to the wildtype and complementation strains. Yeast complementation assay showed that VdNop12 could functionally restore the growth phenotype of ΔScNop12 mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae at 15°C. We demonstrated that the VdNop12 is localized in the nucleus, and its loss resulted in the downregulated expression of several genes related to cAMP-PKA and MAPK pathways in V. dahliae. Our results demonstrated a crucial role of RBPs in the regulation of morphology, cold adaption, and pathogenic development in V. dahliae.     

Achieving Balanced Crystallization Kinetics of Donor and Acceptor by Sequential‐Blade Coated Double Bulk Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells

Sequential deposition has great potential to achieve high performance in organic solar cells due to the resulting well‐controlled vertical phase separation. In this work, double bulk heterojunction organic solar cells are fabricated by sequential‐blade cast in ambient conditions. Probed by the in situ grazing incidence X‐ray diffraction and in situ UV–vis absorption measurements, the seq‐blade system exhibits a different tendency from each of the binary films during the film formation process. Due to the extensive aggregation of FOIC, the binary PBDB‐T:FOIC film displays a strong and large phase separation, resulting in low current density (J_sc) and unsatisfactory power conversion efficiency. In the seq‐blade cast system, the bottom layer PBDB‐T:IT‐M produces many crystal nuclei for the top layer PBDB‐T:FOIC, so the PBDB‐T molecules are able to crystallize easily and quickly. Balanced crystallization kinetics between polymer and small molecule and an ideal percolation network in the film are observed. In addition, the balanced crystallization kinetics are favorable toward realizing lower recombination loss through charge transport processes.     

The influence of experimentally induced polyploidy on the relationships between endopolyploidy and plant function in Arabidopsis thaliana

Whole genome duplication, leading to polyploidy and endopolyploidy, occurs in all domains and kingdoms and is especially prevalent in vascular plants. Both polyploidy and endopolyploidy increase cell size, but it is unclear whether both processes have similar effects on plant morphology and function, or whether polyploidy influences the magnitude of endopolyploidy. To address these gaps in knowledge, fifty‐five geographically separated diploid accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana that span a gradient of endopolyploidy were experimentally manipulated to induce polyploidy. Both the diploids and artificially induced tetraploids were grown in a common greenhouse environment and evaluated with respect to nine reproductive and vegetative characteristics. Induced polyploidy decreased leaf endopolyploidy and stem endopolyploidy along with specific leaf area and stem height, but increased days to bolting, leaf size, leaf dry mass, and leaf water content. Phenotypic responses to induced polyploidy varied significantly among accessions but this did not affect the relationship between phenotypic traits and endopolyploidy. Our results provide experimental support for a trade‐off between induced polyploidy and endopolyploidy, which caused induced polyploids to have lower endopolyploidy than diploids. Though polyploidy did not influence the relationship between endopolyploidy and plant traits, phenotypic responses to experimental genome duplication could not be easily predicted because of strong cytotype by accession interactions.