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Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) is cultivated in temperate climates worldwide to produce sugar. The production of sugar beet and other plants is in danger due to the world’s increasingly salinized soils. Although different sugar beet genotypes exist at various ploidy levels, most of them are diploid (2X) with 18 chromosomes. The majority of polyploid plants have different variations, morphologies, and anatomy. Diploid and polyploid plants especially have different morphology, physiology, cellularity, and biochemistry. As a result, polyploidy has been identified as an essential component in determining plant salt tolerance. To evaluate the effects of salt (NaCl) stress on sugar beet genotypes, diploid (2X), triploid (3X), and tetraploid (4X) genotypes were exposed to 0 (control), 50, and 150 mM NaCl concentrations for seven weeks. Under control conditions, the diploid (2X) genotype showed higher growth performance compared to the tetraploid (4X) and triploid (3X) genotypes, respectively. Regarding germination and early-stage growth performance, a reduction of about 50% was observed in the diploid (2X) genotype under salt stress compared to the control condition. The diploid (2X) genotype showed higher germination, a greater salt tolerance index, and better seedling growth performance than the other ploidy levels. Late-stage growth, leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, cytological findings, and total chlorophyll content were all shown to be higher and less reduced (around 30%) under salt stress in diploid (2X) genotypes. Even though all of the findings in this study showed a decrease when plants were exposed to salt (NaCl), the diploid (2X) ploidy level plants displayed more robust growth and development than the triploid (3X) and tetraploid (4X) genotypes.

Drought is an important abiotic stress factor limiting crop productivity worldwide and its impact is increasing with climate change. Regardless of the plant growth period, drought has a deadly and yield-reducing effect on the plant at every stage of development. As with many environmental stressors, drought-exposed plants trigger a series of molecular, biochemical, and physiological responses to overcome the effect of drought stress. Currently, researchers are trying to determine the complex functioning of drought stress response in plants with different approaches. Plants are more sensitive to drought stress during certain critical stages like germination, seedling formation, flowering, fertilization, and grain formation periods. Plants have high success in reducing the effects of drought stress in vegetative development periods with the activity of tolerance mechanisms. On the other hand, drought stress during the generative period can cause irreversible losses in yield. This review focuses on the progression of molecular, biochemical, and physiological mechanisms involved in the drought stress tolerance in plants and the responses of field crops to drought stress at different development stages.

Salinity is an abiotic stress factor that reduces yield and threatens food security in the world's arid and semi-arid regions. The development of salt-tolerant genotypes is critical for mitigating yield losses, and this journey begins with the identification of sensitive and tolerant plants. Numerous physiologic and molecular markers for detecting salt-tolerant wheat genotypes have been developed. One of them is proline, which has been used for a long time but has received little information about proline-related genes in wheat genotypes. In this study, proline content and the expression levels of proline-related genes (

The effects of protists on an indigenous soil bacterial community, putative bacterial genes involved in N-cycling, and the rice plant growth were studied in poultry litter biochar (PL) and rice husk biochar (RH) amended (with two application doses: 2% and 4% w/w) paddy field soil. The bacterial community composition, which was evaluated using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, was significantly and differentially affected by the protists, the PL and the RH. The effects of protists on the bacterial community composition were decreased by the RH and the PL treatments. The number of protist-affected bioindicator bacterial taxa was decreased from 90 to 46, 29, 43, and 21 in the 2% RH-, 4% RH-, 2% PL-, and 4% PL-treated soils, respectively. The presence of the protist significantly increased the abundance of the putative bacterial genes involved in mineralisation, dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), and NO3- assimilation, and the same occurred with PL treatments. The rice plant growth and N uptake were always higher in the presence of protists and PL amendments. Overall our results suggest a new insight into the effects of biochar on the bacterial community via altering the trophic interactions.

The loss of cropland soils, climate change, and population growth are directly affecting the food supply. Given the higher incidence of salinity and extreme events, the cereal performance and yield are substantially hampered. Wheat is forecast to decline over the coming years due to the salinization widespread as one of the oldest and most environmental severe constraints facing global cereal production. To increase salinity tolerance of wheat, in this study, we developed two new salt-tolerant bread wheats, named 'Maycan' and 'Yildiz'. The salinity tolerance of these lines, their parents, and a salt-sensitive cultivar has been tested from measurements of physiological, biochemical, and genes associated with osmotic adjustment/plant tolerance in cultures containing 0 and 150 mM NaCl at the seedling stage. Differential growth reductions to increased salinity were observed in the salt-sensitive cultivar, with those newly developed exhibiting significantly greater root length, growth of shoot and water content as salinity tolerances overall than their parents. 'Maycan' and 'Yildiz' had higher osmoregulator proline content and antioxidants enzyme activities under salinity than the other bread wheat tested. Notably, an important upregulation in the expression of genes related to cellular ion balance, osmolytes accumulation, and abscisic acid was observed in both new wheat germplasms, which may improve salt tolerance. These finding revealed that 'Maycan' and 'Yildiz' exhibit high-salt tolerance at the seedling stage and differing in their tolerance mechanisms to the other tested cultivars, thereby providing an opportunity for their exploitation as modern bread wheats.

Here, for the first time, we aimed to identify in rice the key mechanisms and processes underlying tolerance to high-temperature (HT) or salt stress (SS) alone, the co-occurrence of both stresses, and recovery using physiological and biochemical measurements and gene expression analysis. We also investigated whether recovery from the two stressors depended on the relative intensities/relief of each stressor. Wild type (‘Yukinkomai’) rice plants were found to be more susceptible to salinity or heat applied individually. SS leads to a depletion of cellular water content, higher accumulation of Na+, and alterations in photosynthetic pigments. The stress-tolerant cultivar ‘YNU31-2-4’ (YNU) displayed a lower Na+/K+ ratio, higher water content in cells and improved photosynthetic traits, antioxidant system, and expression of defence genes. Strikingly, the SS + HT combination provided a significant level of protection to rice plants from the effects of SS alone. The expression pattern of a selected set of genes showed a specific response and dedicated pathways in plants subjected to each of the different stresses, while other genes were explicitly activated when the stresses were combined. Aquaporin genes were activated by SS, while stress-related (P5CS, MSD1, HSPs, and ions transporters) genes were shaped by HT. Hierarchical clustering and principal component analyses showed that several traits exhibited a gradually aggravating effect as plants were exposed to the combined stresses and identified heat as a mitigating factor, clearly separating heat + salt-stressed from salt-non-heat-stressed plants. Furthermore, seedling recovery was far more dependent on the relative intensities of stressors and cultivars, demonstrating the influence of one stressor over another upon stress-release. Taken together, our data show the uniqueness and complexity of the physiological and molecular network modules used by rice plants to respond to single and combined stresses and recovery.

Maternal effects are ubiquitous in nature and have been demonstrated in a wide array of traits and taxa. In many species, the genotype of the mother is a major determinant of the phenotype of her offspring. In plants, less is known about the levels of sensitivity to stresses-mediated maternal effects. We generated 12 reciprocal crossed F2 lines from two salt-tolerant and two salt-sensitive wheat cultivars to distinguish the influence of the maternal effect from the influence of the offspring genome on the expression of offspring traits under high-salinity (250 mM NaCl). SSR markers screening of the reciprocal hybrid genotypes and parents’ nuclear genomes and Sanger sequencing of low-, medium-, and high-dominant markers revealed insignificant changes in the nuclear genome among offspring and parents. However, interestingly, the offspring with salt-tolerant mothers showed higher salt tolerance than those with salt-sensitive mothers. This study shed light on still unresolved fundamental questions regarding the potential of maternal genetic effects contribute to stress tolerance and the non-completely control by nuclear genetic factors, which may open future research avenues as a source of a quality shift in subsequent offspring that any genetic analysis of tolerance traits must consider.

In this research, the antibacterial activity of crude extracts obtained from leaves of pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium L.) plant against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213 and Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 12228 was investigated. Acetone and methanol were used as chemical solvents to prepare the extracts of Mentha pulegium L. The determination of antibacterial activity was performed by using disc diffusion method. For each extract, its own solvent was utilized as negative control. Standard antibiotic discs (Clindamycin, Tetracycline and Amoxicillin-Clavulanic acid) were also used as positive control. The results of present study showed that the crude extracts of Mentha pulegium L. prepared in acetone and methanol had antibacterial activity against test microorganisms and the most antibacterial effect was observed against Staphylococcus epidermidis. It was determined that the extract of Mentha pulegium L. (6400 µg/disc) has more antibacterial activity against E. faecalis and S. epidermidis than Tetracycline (10 µg/disc) and has more antibacterial activity against E. coli than Clindamycin (10 µg/disc). However it was found that antibacterial activity of Mentha pulegium L. extract (6400 µg/disc) was close to Tetracycline (10 µg/disc) for E. coli and S. aureus and was close to Clindamycin (10 µg/disc) for E. faecalis.

WOS: 000436522400041, Boron, an essential element for many organisms, has a unique role in plant metabolism. Boron plays a vital role in cell propagation, plant growth, photosynthesis and various metabolic pathways. Although there have been different studies on the effects of boron on the sunflower, the number of studies of the effect of boron on its antioxidant defense mechanism is limited. This study aimed to determine the effect of boron on the morphological (leaf area) and physiological (chlorophyll contents and SOD, CAT, GR, and APX enzymes) characteristics of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plants during the seedling growth period. The study used 250 g of turf contained in 15 cm x 13 cm pots. For each boron dose, six pots were used, and five seeds were planted in each pot, which were pressed down after covering with 75 g turf, and 100 ml of water was used for the first irrigation of each pot. Seedlings, which emerged in about a week, were irrigated every two days for two weeks with 100 ml of water containing boron (Na2O5B2O3.10H(2)O) at different doses of 0 (control) and 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mg 1(-1) per pot. The largest leaf areas (2nd and 3rd) were observed in the seedlings irrigated with water containing 1 mg 1(-1) of boron. Chlorophyll content (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll) decreased with increasing boron doses (10.39%, 31.78% and 31.27%, respectively), whereas GR and CAT activities increased (0.1% and 49.46%), and SOD and APX activities decreased (18.18% and 0.07%) with increasing doses of boron.