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Background: Zea mays (maize) is a globally significant cereal crop with diverse applications in food, feed, and industrial products. However, maize cultivation is often challenged by environmental stressors such as heavy metal toxicity and drought stress (DS). Heavy metals like cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) can accumulate in soil through industrial activities and improper waste disposal, posing significant threats to plant growth and development. Drought stress further exacerbates these challenges by limiting water availability and affecting physiological processes in plants. This study explores the impact of Cd and Pb toxicity, as well as DS, on maize growth and development, and investigates the potential mitigating effects of various treatments, including gibberellic acid (GA3), biochar (BC), rhizobacteria (RB), and their combinations. Methods: The experiment involved maize plants subjected to different stress conditions: cadmium (Cd) at concentrations of 0, 6, and 12 ppm, lead (Pb) at 0 and 400 ppm, and drought stress (DS). Treatments included the application of 10 ppm GA3, 0.75% BC, a combined treatment of 10 ppm GA3 and 0.75% BC, rhizobacteria (RB), and a combined treatment of 0.5% BC and RB. The study measured germination rates, shoot and root lengths, and biochemical parameters such as shoot and root protein, phenolics, and chlorophyll contents under these conditions. Results: In the absence of Cd stress (0 Cd), the application of 10 ppm GA3 and 0.75% BC significantly enhanced germination rates by 72% and 76%, respectively, compared to the control, with the combined treatment exhibiting the highest enhancement of 86%. Under Cd stress (6 ppm Cd), GA3 and BC individually improved germination by 54% and 57%, respectively, with the combined treatment showing the largest increase of 63%. Drought stress influenced germination, with notable improvements observed with the application of 0.5% BC (50% increase) and RB (49% increase). Similar trends were observed in shoot and root lengths, where the combined treatment of GA3 and BC resulted in the most significant improvements. The treatments positively influenced shoot and root protein, phenolics, and chlorophyll contents, particularly under stress conditions. Conclusion: These findings highlight the potential of combined treatments, such as the application of GA3 and BC or BC with RB, in alleviating the adverse effects of heavy metals (Cd and Pb) and drought stress in maize cultivation. The combined treatments not only improved germination rates but also significantly enhanced shoot and root growth, as well as important biochemical parameters under stress conditions. This suggests that GA3 and BC, alone or in combination with RB, can play a crucial role in enhancing maize resilience to environmental stressors. The study highlights the importance of exploring sustainable agricultural practices to mitigate the impacts of heavy metal toxicity and drought stress. Future research should focus on long-term field trials to validate these findings and further investigate the mechanistic pathways involved in stress mitigation by these amendments, as well as their economic feasibility and environmental impact on a larger scale to ensure their practical applicability in real-world agricultural settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicinal plants in most of societies have been a source of quality health care. The indigenous populations are getting many ethnomedicinal products form local biodiversity. The current study aimed to investigate anti-diabetic plants in 8 villages (Patriata, Surasi, Charhan, Lower toppa, Ghikagali, Kashmir point, Pindi point and Shawala) of rural Murree. The methodology included preparation of questionnaire, identification of plants and phytochemical analysis. The informants were asked about vernacular name, part used and folk recipe. The quantitative study included fidelity level, use value and relative frequency of citation of plant species. Data indicated that 30% of patients use local herbs to treat diabetes. The most significant plant species were Berberis lycium with use value of 0.50 followed by Melia azedarach with use value of 0.43 and Himalaiella heteromalla with use value of 0.33. Himalaiella heteromalla was selected for phytochemical analysis. Total flavonoid content was 7.25±0.08mg (ethanol extract) and 6.03±0.13mg (chloroform extract) quercetin equivalent/gm of extract; total phenolic content was 53.92±0.47mg (ethanol extract) and 72.75±0.48mg (chloroform extract) quercetin equivalent/gm of extract; total β–Carotene content was 29.7µg/g in ethanol extract, and 27.26µg/g in chloroform extract while total lycopene content was 46.33µg/g (ethanol extract) and 41.54µg/g (chloroform extract) in H. heteromalla. The results suggest that medicinal plants of Murree region may be potential natural resources for antidiabetic compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plant microbiome influence plant health, yield and vigor and has attained a considerable attention in the present era. In the current study, native bacterial community composition and diversity colonizing Triticum aestivum L. rhizosphere at two distant geographical locations including Mirpur Azad Kashmir and Islamabad was elucidated. Based on IonS5™XL platform sequencing of respective samples targeting 16S rRNA gene that harbor V3-V4 conserved region revealed 1364 and 1254 microbial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at ≥97% similarity and were classified into 23, 20 phyla; 70, 65 classes; 101, 87 orders; 189,180 families; 275, 271 genera and 94, 95 species. Respective predominant phyla accounting for 97.90% and 98.60% of bacterial community were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Chloroflexi and Gemmatimonadetes. Diversity indices revealed variations in relative abundance of bacterial taxa owing to distant geographical locations however predominant bacterial taxa at both locations were similar. These findings paved a way to dissect consequence of associated microbiota on future wheat production system. • This study explored native bacterial community composition and diversity residing the rhizosphere of Triticum aestivum. • The conserved V3-V4 region of 16S rRNA gene was exploited via IonS5TMXL sequencing platform in respective samples • Data analysis revealed 1,364 and 1,254 OTUs colonizing Triticum aestivum rhizosphere from Mirpur Azad Kashmir and Islamabad • Dominant bacterial phyla included Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Chloroflexi [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant microbiome referred to as plant second genome, plays pivotal role in determination of vigor and productivity of plant. Current high-throughput sequence technologies provide remarkable insight into microbial diversity and host microbe interaction. The obtained dataset aimed to reveal the core bacterial community residing the rhizosphere of two leading cereal crops Zea mays and Triticum aestivum grown in different seasons at the same geographical area. The rhizosphere bacterial communities were explored via amplicon sequencing of V3-V4 region of 16S rRNA region using IonS5™XL sequencing platform. The classified tags for 16S rRNA from both the samples were clustered into 1502 Microbial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at 97% similarity with 1340 OTUs in Zea mays and 1337 OTUs in Triticum aestivum . Ten bacterial phyla predominant in the rhizosphere were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Gemmatimonadetes, Verrucomicrobia, Nitrospirae and Thermomicrobia . These bacterial phyla accounted for 98% and 98.9% of the OTUs in Zea mays and Triticum aestivum, respectively. Statistical analysis depicted the presence of slight variations in the relative abundance of bacterial groups residing the rhizosphere of Zea mays and Triticum aestivum . The community data produced in the present work can be used for meta-analysis studies to understand rhizosphere bacterial community of two major cereal crops. Furthermore, bacterial composition and diversity data is prerequisite for rhizosphere engineering to enhance cereal production to cope with upcoming global challenges of climate change and population growth., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.)