Search

This study characterized the lignin peroxidase (LiP) activity of soil via an enzyme assay to determine the reaction rates and activation energies for 5 wt%, 10 wt%, 15 wt%, and 20 wt% lignin loads in urea crosslinked starch biocomposites. The results revealed that a mixed mode of LiP inhibition occurred after the soil was mixed with these biocomposites with different loads of lignin. Loading of lignin at 5 wt% and 10 wt% lignin resulted in higher values of catalytic activity of LiP: -39.58 and 49.14 µM h-1 g-1 soil, respectively. In comparison, with higher loading of lignin at 15 wt% and 20 wt%, decreases in the catalytic activity of LiP were found and were 28.72 to 37.25 µM h-1 g-1 soil, respectively. The activation energy of LiP increased approximately 1.11- to 1.22-fold when 15 and 20 wt% of lignin was loaded in biocomposites. Research findings established the possibility of unfavorable binding of the LiP to lignin with an increase in the load of lignin, possibly due to the complex structure of intact lignin and presence of inhibitory biodegradation products of lignin accumulates during lignin biodegradation in biocomposites. It was concluded that higher lignin contents (15 wt% and 20 wt%) were effective in reducing the activity of the soil LiP. Hence, higher lignin content possibly protects against losses of lignin, while acting as a filler in the formulation of biocomposites.

Phytophthora, also known as “plant destroyer”, is a distinctive phylogenetic group of fungus-like eukaryotic organisms, oomycetes (water molds), having more than 150 species of plant pathogens. It has become the most studied group of plant pathogens due to its extremely hazardous behavior towards plants and crops. This group comprises some of the most harmful plant pathogens that cause root rot, stem canker, fruit and tuber rot, leaf and stem blight, bleeding cankers, wilts, collar and crown rots, and many other diseases. Genome editing of such destructive organisms like Phytophthora was considered to be difficult for decades. Recently CRISPR-Cas has sparked a revolution in the field of genome editing and control on gene expression, due to its versatility and highly efficient nature. CRISPR-Cas has been efficiently used to target active genes that take part in the infectious cycle of different Phytophthora species, thus annotating and altering the function of targeted genes. Most importantly it has been used to target certain disease-resistant genes or to disrupt susceptible genes of crops or plants, hence improving the resistance capacity against pathogenic Phytophthora species. In future, this technology is expected to be more helpful in reshaping the disease-resistant species of various crops and to control the economic losses associated with Phytophthora and similar plant pathogens.