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Weeds are important components of the agroecosystems due to their role as primary producers within the farming systems, yet they are considered as major constraints to crop production. A phytosociological study was conducted to assess the composition and spatial distribution of existing weed species under the influence of various edaphic factors in the 15 wheat fields. Quadrat method was applied and different phytosociological attributes including abundance, density, and frequency were estimated by randomly laying down 10 square-shaped quadrats of size 1m2 in each wheat field. A total of 34 weed species belonging to 17 families and 30 genera were explored from 150 quadrats. Fabaceae and Asteraceae were ubiquitous plant families. Various edaphic factors such as; soil texture, electrical conductivity, soil pH, total dissolved solids, nitrogen, calcium carbonate, organic matter, NaCl, calcium, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, and zinc were determined. Pearson's correlation was employed to correlate weeds and the potential edaphic variables. The results depicted that most of these weed pairs' associations correlated positively. Simultaneously, the abundant weed species including Trifolium repens, Coronopus didymus, and Urtica dioica showed a positive correlation with most of the investigated ecological variables.

Food security is facing a major threat from salinity and there is a need to develop salt tolerant crop varieties to ensure that the demand for food from the world’s increasing population is met. Salinity mostly occurs in arid and semi-arid regions. It may cause many adverse physiological effects on plants, i.e., toxic ion accumulation, disturbed osmotic potential, and decreased crop yield. The present study aimed to investigate the morphological, physiological, biochemical, and genetic parameters of wheat genotypes under salt stress. Six wheat genotypes were screened for salt tolerance at the seedling and maturity stage. Seeds were sown at 0 and 150 mM of salinity level. Biochemical traits, i.e., shoot/root fresh and dry weight, chlorophyll a/b and total chlorophyll contents, shoot nitrogen, shoot phosphorus, proline, and carbohydrates were measured. Wheat genotypes showed a significant increase in free amino acids, shoot nitrogen, and total soluble proteins under saline conditions. Higher Na+/K+ ratio and free amino acids were estimated under 150 mM NaCl treatment in Pasban-90 and found to be the most salt-tolerant genotype. By contrast, reduced proline, total chlorophyll, and Na+/K+ ratio were found in Kohistan-97 marking it to be sensitive to stress. Expression analysis of HKTs genes was performed to validate the results of two contrasting genotypes. The differential expression of HKT2; 1 and HKT2; 3 explained the tissue and genotype specific epigenetic variations. Our findings indicated that these selected genotypes can be further used for molecular studies to find out QTLs/genes related to salinity. This suggests that, in contrasting wheat genotypes, there is a differentially induced defense response to salt stress, indicating a functional correlation between salt stress tolerance and differential expression pattern in wheat.

Drought stress (DS) is a serious abiotic stress and a major concern across the globe as its intensity is continuously climbing. Therefore, it is direly needed to develop new management strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of DS to ensure better crop productivity and food security. The use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) has emerged as an important approach in recent years to improve crop productivity under DS conditions. AMF establishes a relationship with 80% of land plants and it induces pronounced impacts on plant growth and provides protection to plants from abiotic stress. Drought stress significantly reduces plant growth and development by inducing oxidative stress, disturbing membrane integrity, plant water relations, nutrient uptake, photosynthetic activity, photosynthetic apparatus, and anti-oxidant activities. However, AMF can significantly improve the plant tolerance against DS. AMF maintains membrane integrity, improves plant water contents, nutrient and water uptake, and water use efficiency (WUE) therefore, improve the plant growth under DS. Moreover, AMF also protects the photosynthetic apparatus from drought-induced oxidative stress and improves photosynthetic efficiency, osmolytes, phenols and hormone accumulation, and reduces the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by increasing anti-oxidant activities and gene expression which provide the tolerance to plants against DS. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the role of AMF in plants grown under DS. This review presented the different functions of AMF in different responses of plants under DS. We have provided a detailed picture of the different mechanisms mediated by AMF to induce drought tolerance in plants. Moreover, we also identified the potential research gaps that must be fulfilled for a promising future for AMF. Lastly, nitrogen (N) is an important nutrient needed for plant growth and development, however, the efficiency of applied N fertilizers is quite low. Therefore, we also present the information on how AMF improves N uptake and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in plants.

Improvement of salinity tolerance in rice can minimize the stress-induced yield losses. Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of Asia’s most widely consumed crops, native to the subtropical regions, and is generally associated with sensitivity to salinity stress episodes. Salt-tolerant rice genotypes have been developed using conventional breeding methods; however, the success ratio is limited because of the complex nature of the trait and the high cost of development. The narrow genetic base of rice limited the success of conventional breeding methods. Hence, it is critical to launch the molecular tools for screening rice novel germplasm for salt-tolerant genes. In this regard, the latest molecular techniques like quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, genetic engineering (GE), transcription factors (TFs) analysis, and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) are reliable for incorporating the salt tolerance in rice at the molecular level. Large-scale use of these potent genetic approaches leads to identifying and editing several genes/alleles, and QTL/genes are accountable for holding the genetic mechanism of salinity tolerance in rice. Continuous breeding practices resulted in a huge decline in rice genetic diversity, which is a great worry for global food security. However, molecular breeding tools are the only way to conserve genetic diversity by exploring wild germplasm for desired genes in salt tolerance breeding programs. In this review, we have compiled the logical evidences of successful applications of potent molecular tools for boosting salinity tolerance in rice, their limitations, and future prospects. This well-organized information would assist future researchers in understanding the genetic improvement of salinity tolerance in rice.

Salinity stress (SS) is a major and increasing abiotic stress adversely affecting plant growth and productivity across the globe. The application of organic amendments (OA) is considered to be an important practice to mitigate the adverse impacts of SS. Therefore, this study was performed to assess the impact of different OA on growth, physiology and anti-oxidant activities of maize plants grown under SS. The study was comprised of diverse SS levels; 0, 6 and 12 dS m-1, and different OA; control, cow manure (CM: 5%), sugarcane pressmud (SPM: 5%) and combination of CM (2.5%) + SPM (2.5%). The study was conducted in a completely randomized design with factorial arrangement having three replications. The results indicated that SS reduced the growth and biomass production, relative water contents (RWC), chlorophyll contents, free amino acids (FAA), total soluble proteins (TSP) and increased the electrolyte leakage (EL: 40.92%), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2: 68.49%), malondialdehyde (MDA: 42.13%), and catalase (CAT: 34.24%) and ascorbate peroxide (APX: 25.70%). The application of OA significantly improved the maize growth under SS. However, the application of SPM (5%) significantly increased growth and biomass production by decreasing EL, MDA and H2O2 accumulation and increasing RWC, chlorophyll, CAT, POD, and anthocyanin, TSP and FAA. These findings suggest that application of SPM improved the growth and biomass production of maize by improving anti-oxidant activities, photosynthetic pigments, TSP, FAA reducing lipid peroxidation and EL.

Global warming in this century increases incidences of various abiotic stresses restricting plant growth and productivity and posing a severe threat to global food production and security. The plant produces different osmolytes and hormones to combat the harmful effects of these abiotic stresses. Melatonin (MT) is a plant hormone that possesses excellent properties to improve plant performance under different abiotic stresses. It is associated with improved physiological and molecular processes linked with seed germination, growth and development, photosynthesis, carbon fixation, and plant defence against other abiotic stresses. In parallel, MT also increased the accumulation of multiple osmolytes, sugars and endogenous hormones (auxin, gibberellic acid, and cytokinins) to mediate resistance to stress. Stress condition in plants often produces reactive oxygen species. MT has excellent antioxidant properties and substantially scavenges reactive oxygen species by increasing the activity of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants under stress conditions. Moreover, the upregulation of stress-responsive and antioxidant enzyme genes makes it an excellent stress-inducing molecule. However, MT produced in plants is not sufficient to induce stress tolerance. Therefore, the development of transgenic plants with improved MT biosynthesis could be a promising approach to enhancing stress tolerance. This review, therefore, focuses on the possible role of MT in the induction of various abiotic stresses in plants. We further discussed MT biosynthesis and the critical role of MT as a potential antioxidant for improving abiotic stress tolerance. In addition, we also addressed MT biosynthesis and shed light on future research directions. Therefore, this review would help readers learn more about MT in a changing environment and provide new suggestions on how this knowledge could be used to develop stress tolerance.

Ramie is one of the most significant fiber crops and contributes to good quality fiber. Drought stress (DS) is one of the most devastating abiotic factors which is accountable for a substantial loss in crop growth and production and disturbing sustainable crop production. DS impairs growth, plant water relation, and nutrient uptake. Ramie has evolved a series of defense responses to cope with DS. There are numerous genes regulating the drought tolerance (DT) mechanism in ramie. The morphological and physiological mechanism of DT is well-studied; however, modified methods would be more effective. The use of novel genome editing tools like clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) is being used to edit the recessive genes in crops to modify their function. The transgenic approaches are used to develop several drought-tolerant varieties in ramie, and further identification of tolerant genes is needed for an effective breeding plan. Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) mapping, transcription factors (TFs) and speed breeding are highly studied techniques, and these would lead to the development of drought-resilient ramie cultivars. The use of hormones in enhancing crop growth and development under water scarcity circumstances is critical; however, using different concentrations and testing genotypes in changing environments would be helpful to sort the tolerant genotypes. Since plants use various ways to counter DS, investigating mechanisms of DT in plants will lead to improved DT in ramie. This critical review summarized the recent advancements on DT in ramie using novel molecular techniques. This information would help ramie breeders to conduct research studies and develop drought tolerant ramie cultivars.

Abstract The present study was conducted to investigate the toxicity of Aerosil 200® (fumed silica nanoparticles) and leaf extracts of four plants, Cinnamomum camphora, Matricaria chamomilla, Mentha arvensis, and Trigonella foenum-graecum against Thrips tabaci (Lind.) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) in onion fields, as well their allelopathic effects on onions; moreover, the chlorophyll, phenol, and protein contents were determined in onions. This study was performed in completely randomized plots. After a growth period of 1 month, bioassay investigations and molecular polymorphism in T. tabaci by RAPD-PCR were performed, and total chlorophyll, phenol, and protein concentrations were investigated in onion plants posttreatment as well. The initial reduction% of the T. tabaci population in onion fields after application of a high concentration of nanoparticles (Aerosil 200® (4 ml/l)) and 8000 ppm concentrations of the four plant extracts were 83.66, 81.08, 86.92, 74.49, and 91.38%, respectively, whereas their persistence effects were 73.18, 67.78, 71.46, 66.94, and 78.29%, respectively. Furthermore, the total chlorophyll contents in onions treated with the nanoparticles and four plant extracts were 1.35, 1.17, 1.09, 1.07, and 1.18 mg/g, respectively; additionally, the concentrations of phenols were 4.65, 3.15, 3.15, 2.85, and 3.70 mg/g in onions treated with C. camphora, M. chamomilla, M. arvensis, T. foenum-graecum, and Aerosil 200®, respectively. The C. camphora extract was the most potent, as it increased the protein content in the onion plants, while the Aerosil 200® decreased the protein content in onions. In addition, DNA-RAPD showed that the polymorphism percentages were 73, 71, and 67% when treated with high concentrations of C. camphora and M. arvensis extracts and Aerosol 200®, respectively. T. foenum-graecum and M. chamomilla extracts induced the least polymorphism (17 and 16%, respectively). Overall, this study indicated that these plant extracts as well as the nanoparticles in Aerosil 200® could be used to reduce onion infestations of T. tabaci in the field environment.

Cold stress is one of the most limiting factors for plant growth and development. Cold stress adversely affects plant physiology, molecular and biochemical processes by determining oxidative stress, poor nutrient and water uptake, disorganization of cellular membranes and reduced photosynthetic efficiency. Therefore, to recover impaired plant functions under cold stress, the application of bio-stimulants can be considered a suitable approach. Melatonin (MT) is a critical bio-stimulant that has often shown to enhance plant performance under cold stress. Melatonin application improved plant growth and tolerance to cold stress by maintaining membrane integrity, plant water content, stomatal opening, photosynthetic efficiency, nutrient and water uptake, redox homeostasis, accumulation of osmolytes, hormones and secondary metabolites, and the scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS) through improved antioxidant activities and increase in expression of stress-responsive genes. Thus, it is essential to understand the mechanisms of MT induced cold tolerance and identify the diverse research gaps necessitating to be addressed in future research programs. This review discusses MT involvement in the control of various physiological and molecular responses for inducing cold tolerance. We also shed light on engineering MT biosynthesis for improving the cold tolerance in plants. Moreover, we highlighted areas where future research is needed to make MT a vital antioxidant conferring cold tolerance to plants.

Soil alkalinity is a severe threat to crop production globally as it markedly retards plant growth. Different techniques are used to mitigate alkaline stress, but priming techniques are considered the most appropriate. The current study was carried out in complete randomized design (CRD) to evaluate the effect of different priming techniques on maize crop grown under different levels of alkalinity stress. The experiment was comprised of different treatments of alkalinity stress (AS) including, control, 6 dS m-1 and 12 dS m-1 and different priming techniques including control, hydro-priming (HP), osmo-priming (OP) with potassium nitrate: KNO3) and redox-priming (RP) with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Results indicated that alkalinity stress significantly reduced plant growth and biomass production and induced severe alterations in physiological attributes and antioxidant activities. Soil alkalinity significantly reduced the root and shoot growth and subsequent biomass production by increasing electrolyte leakage (70.60%), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2: 31.65%), malondialdehyde (MDA: 46.23%) and sodium (Na+) accumulation (22.76%) and reduction in photosynthetic pigments, relative water contents (RWC), total soluble proteins (TSP) and free amino acids, potassium (K+) accumulation. However, priming treatments significantly alleviated the alkalinity-induced toxic effects and improved plant growth. OP (KNO3) remained the top performing. It appreciably improved plant growth owing to the improved synthesis of photosynthetic pigments, better RWC (16.42%), TSP (138.28%), FAA (178.37%), and K+ accumulation (31.385) and improved antioxidant activities (APX and CAT) by favoring the Na+ exclusion and maintenance of optimum Na+/K+. In conclusion, KNO3 priming is an imperative seed priming practice to improve maize growth and biomass production under alkalinity stress.

Drought stress is significant abiotic stress that limits crop growth and productivity across the globe. The intensity of drought stress continuously rises due to rapid climate change. Drought-induced alterations in physiological and bio-chemical processes by generating membrane dis-stability, oxidative stress, nutritional imbalance and leading to substantial reduction in growth and productivity. Plants accumulate various osmolytes that protect themselves from abiotic stresses' harmful effects. Trehalose (Tre) is a non-reducing sugar found in multiple microbes ranging from bacteria to yeast and in plants and it possesses an excellent ability to improve drought tolerance. Trehalose appreciably enhanced the plant growth, and counter the drought induced damages by maintaining cellular membranes, plant water relations, stomatal regulation, photosynthetic activities, nutrient uptake, osmolyte accumulation, activating stress proteins and detoxifying the reactive oxygen species (ROS) by strengthening the anti-oxidant system. Therefore, it is essential to understand the mechanism of exogenous and endogenous Tre in mitigating the drought-induced damages and to identify the potential research questions that must be answered in the future. Therefore, to better appraise the potential benefits of Tre in drought tolerance in this review, we discussed the diverse physiological and molecular mechanisms regulated by Tre under drought stress. We have a complete and updated picture on this topic to orientate future research directions on this topic.

Globally, stored grain is vulnerable to pest infestation, resulting in significant economic losses for some crops. Wheat is one of the most important crops in the world. Many sucking, piercing insects infect wheat in the form of grains or flour and may produce toxic residues that are harmful to human health. The current study aimed to estimate the safe use of four stored grain insects by evaluating the potential genotoxic effects and cytotoxicity of crushed insects (T. granarium, S. oryzae, R. dominica, and T. castaneum) and their flour residues. MTT and comet assays were conducted to assess the effects of six concentrations of insect flour residues (0, 6.5, 12.5, 25, 50, and 100%) on the baby hamster kidney cell line (BHK-21). The lowest BHK-21 cell viability was noted against T. granarium (LC50% 36.42 μg/ml) followed by T. castaneum flour (LC50% 46.73 μg/ml) compared to the control (LC50% 808.2 μg/ml). Significantly high DNA comet (%) was observed in the treatments of T. castaneum flour (18.8%), S. oryzae wheat (15.6%), T. granarium (15.4%), T. castaneum (13.6%), and T. granarium wheat (13.1%). FTIR spectra of stored grain insects and their flour residues identified various functional metabolite groups, including alkynes and phenols, which could enhance cell apoptosis and genotoxicity. T. granarium, T. castaneum, and their flour residues had the highest cytotoxic and genotoxic effects on the BHK-21 cell line. The current study concludes that insect residues in flour may have cytotoxic and genotoxic effects on living cells, potentially affecting public health, particularly after consuming T. granarium and T. castaneum-infested flour. Therefore, good storage of stored grains and their products is recommended.

Abiotic stresses are one of the significant threats to soybean (Glycine max L.) growth and yields worldwide. Soybean has a crucial role in the global food supply chain and food security and contributes the main protein share compared to other crops. Hence, there is a vast scientific saddle on soybean researchers to develop tolerant genotypes to meet the growing need of food for the huge population. A large portion of cultivated land is damaged by salinity stress, and the situation worsens yearly. In past years, many attempts have increased soybean resilience to salinity stress. Different molecular techniques such as quantitative trait loci mapping (QTL), genetic engineering, transcriptome, transcription factor analysis (TFs), CRISPR/Cas9, as well as other conventional methods are used for the breeding of salt-tolerant cultivars of soybean to safeguard its yield under changing environments. These powerful genetic tools ensure sustainable soybean yields, preserving genetic variability for future use. Only a few reports about a detailed overview of soybean salinity tolerance have been published. Therefore, this review focuses on a detailed overview of several molecular techniques for soybean salinity tolerance and draws a future research direction. Thus, the updated review will provide complete guidelines for researchers working on the genetic mechanism of salinity tolerance in soybean.

Estrogen Receptor α(ERα) is reported to regulate the expression of many target genes by binding to specific estrogen response elements (EREs) in their promoters. c-myc is known to be over-expressed in most of the human carcinomas due to dysregulated transcription, translation, or protein stability. Estrogen (E) can induce the c-myc expression by binding to an upstream enhancer element in its promoter. This suggests that elevated estradiol (E2), a potent form of estrogen, levels could induce the expression of c-myc in breast cancer (BC). The expression of c-myc and estradiol were induced at Stage III and Stage IV of breast cancer. c-myc and estradiol expression was also associated with the established risk factors of breast cancer, such as BMI. Age at the time of the disease was alsocorrelated with the relative expression of c-myc and estradiol (p < 0.0007 and p < 0.000001). The correlation coefficient (R = 0.462) shows a positive relationship between estradiol bound ER, ER, and c-myc. Docking energy −229 kJ/mol suggests the binding affinity of estradiol bound ER binding to 500 bp upstream of proximal promotor of c-myc at three distinct positions. The data presented in this study proposed that the expression of c-myc and estradiol are directly correlated in breast cancer. The prognostic utility of an induced level of c-myc associated with the normal status of the c-myc gene and estradiol for patients with metastatic carcinoma should be explored further.

We developed alginate-based floating microbeads of clarithromycin with therapeutic oils for the possible eradication of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infections by enhancing the residence time of the carrier at the site of infection. In pursuit of this endeavor, the alginate was blended with hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) as an interpenetrating polymer to develop beads by ionotropic gelation using calcium carbonate as a gas generating agent. The developed microbeads remained buoyant under gastric conditions for 24 h. These microbeads initially swelled and afterwards decreased in size, possibly due to the erosion of the polymer. Furthermore, swelling was also affected by the type of encapsulated oil, i.e., swelling decreased with increasing concentrations of eucalyptus oil and increased with increasing concentrations of oleic acid. Antibacterial assays of the formulations showed significant antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli); these assays also showed synergistic activity between clarithromycin and therapeutic oils as evident from the higher zone of inhibition of the microbeads as compared to the pure drug and oils. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images revealed a smoother surface for oleic acid containing the formulation as compared to eucalyptus oil containing the formulation. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed the development of a stable formulation, while Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (FTIR) studies did not reveal any interaction between the polymers and the active ingredients. Optimized formulations (CLM3 and CLM6) were designed to release the drug in a controlled manner in gastric media by Fickian diffusion. Conclusively, the developed microbeads are a promising carrier to overcome the narrow therapeutic index and low bioavailability of clarithromycin, while the presence of therapeutic oils will produce synergistic effects with the drug to eradicate infection effectively.

Heat stress (HS) is a serious environmental stress that negatively affects crop growth and productivity across the globe. The recent increase in atmospheric temperature caused by global warming has increased its intensity, which is a serious challenge that needs to be addressed. Plant growth and development involves a series of physiological, metabolic, and biochemical processes that are negatively affected by heat-induced oxidative stress, disorganization of cellular membranes and disturbed plant water relations, nutrient uptake, photosynthetic efficiency, and antioxidant activities. Plant tolerance to abiotic stresses can be substantially increased by the application of bio-stimulants, without posing a threat to the ecosystem. Melatonin (MT) is a multi-functional signaling molecule that has the potential to protect plants from the adverse impacts of HS. MT protects the cellular membranes, maintains the leaf water content, and improves the water use efficiency (WUE) and nutrient homeostasis; thereby, improving plant growth and development under HS. Moreover, MT also improves gene expression, crosstalk of hormones, and osmolytes, and reduces the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by triggering the antioxidant defense system, which provides better resistance to HS. High endogenous MT increases genes expression and antioxidant activities to confer HS tolerance. Thus, it is important to understand the detailed mechanisms of both exogenous and endogenous MT, to induce HS tolerance in plants. This review highlights the versatile functions of MT in various plant responses, to improve HS tolerance. Moreover, we also discussed the MT crosstalk with other hormones, antioxidant potential of MT, and success stories of engineering MT to improve HS tolerance in plants. Additionally, we also identified various research gaps that need to be filled in future research using this important signaling molecule. Thus, this review will help the readers to learn more about MT under changing climatic conditions and will provide knowledge to develop heat tolerance in crops.

Metal tolerance proteins (MTPs) are divalent cation transporters, known to upkeep the mineral nutrition of plants and heavy metal transport at cell, tissue, or whole plant levels. However, information related to evolutionary relationships and biological functions of MTP genes in strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.) remain elusive. Herein, we identified 12 MTP genes from the strawberry genome and divided them into three main groups (i.e., Zn-MTP, Fe/Zn MTP, and Mn-MTP), which is similar to MTP grouping in Arabidopsis and rice. The strawberry MTPs (FvMTPs) are predicted to be localized in the vacuole, while open reading frame (ORF) length ranged from 1113 to 2589 bp with 370 to 862 amino acids, and possess 4 to 6 transmembrane domains (TMDs), except for FvMTP12 that possessed 16 TMDs. All the FvMTP genes had putative cation efflux and cation diffusion facilitator domains along with a zinc dimerization (ZT-dimer) domain in Mn-MTPs. The collinear analysis suggested their conservation between strawberry and Arabidopsis MTPs. Promoter analysis also demonstrated that some of them might possibly be regulated by hormones and abiotic stress factors. Moreover, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis proposed that FvMTP genes are involved in cation transport and homeostasis. The expression analysis showed that FvMTP1, FvMTP1.1, and FvMTP4 were significantly induced in leaf samples, while FvMTP1.1 and FvMTP4 were significantly regulated in roots of cadmium (Cd)-treated strawberry plants during progressive stress duration. The findings of Cd accumulation depicted that Cd contents were significantly higher in root tissues than that of leaf tissues of strawberry. These results are indicative of their response during the specific duration in Cd detoxification, while further functional studies can accurately verify their specific role.

Hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (HAn) have been produced as biomaterial from biowaste, especially snail shells (Atactodea glabrata). It is critical to recycle the waste product in a biomedical application to overcome antibiotic resistance as well as biocompatibility with normal tissues. Moreover, EDX, TEM, and FT-IR analyses have been used to characterize snail shells and HAn. The particle size of HAn is about 15.22 nm. Furthermore, higher inhibitory activity was observed from HAn than the reference compounds against all tested organisms. The synthesized HAn has shown the lowest MIC values of about 7.8, 0.97, 3.9, 0.97, and 25 µg/mL for S. aureus, B. subtilis, K. pneumonia, C. albicans, and E. coli, respectively. In addition, the HAn displayed potent antibiofilm against S. aureus and B. subtilis. According to the MTT, snail shell and HAn had a minor influence on the viability of HFS-4 cells. Consequently, it could be concluded that some components of waste, such as snail shells, have economic value and can be recycled as a source of CaO to produce HAn, which is a promising candidate material for biomedical applications.

In the original publication [...]

Even though the green revolution was a significant turning point in agriculture, it was also marked by the widespread use of chemical pesticides, which prompted severe concerns about their influence on human and environmental health. As a result, the demand for healthier and more environmentally friendly alternatives to control plant diseases and avoid food spoilage is intensifying. Among the proposed alternatives, food by-product extracts, especially from the most consumed fruits in Egypt, eggplant, sugar apple, and pomegranate peel wastes, were largely ignored. Hence, we chose them to evaluate their antifungal and antiaflatoxigenic activities against maize fungus, Aspergillus flavus. All the extracts exhibited multiple degrees of antifungal growth and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) inhibitory activities (35.52% to 91.18%) in broth media. Additionally, diethyl ether 50% eggplant, ethanol 75% sugar apple, and diethyl ether 25% pomegranate extracts exhibited the highest AFB1 inhibition, of 96.11%, 94.85%, and 78.83%, respectively, after one month of treated-maize storage. At the same time, Topsin fungicide demonstrated an AFB1 inhibition ratio of 72.95%. The relative transcriptional levels of three structural and two regulatory genes, aflD, aflP, aflQ, aflR, and aflS, were downregulated compared to the infected control. The phenolic content (116.88 mg GAEs/g DW) was highest in the 25% diethyl ether pomegranate peel extract, while the antioxidant activity was highest in the 75% ethanol sugar apple extract (94.02 µg/mL). The most abundant active compounds were found in the GC-MS analysis of the fruit peel extracts: α-kaurene, α-fenchene, p-allylphenol, octadecanoic acid, 3,5-dihydroxy phenol, hexestrol, xanthinin, and linoleic acid. Finally, the three fruit peel waste extracts could be a prospective source of friendly ecological compounds that act as environmentally safer and more protective alternatives to inhibit AFB1 production in maize storage.

Plant viral infection is one of the most severe issues in food security globally, resulting in considerable crop production losses. Chitosan is a well-known biocontrol agent against a variety of plant infections. However, research on combatting viral infections is still in its early stages. The current study investigated the antiviral activities (protective, curative, and inactivation) of the prepared chitosan/dextran nanoparticles (CDNPs, 100 µg mL−1) on Nicotiana glutinosa plants. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and dynamic light scattering analysis revealed that the synthesized CDNPs had a uniform, regular sphere shapes ranging from 20 to 160 nm in diameter, with an average diameter of 91.68 nm. The inactivation treatment was the most effective treatment, which resulted in a 100% reduction in the alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV, Acc# OK413670) accumulation level. On the other hand, the foliar application of CDNPs decreased disease severity and significantly reduced viral accumulation levels by 70.43% and 61.65% in protective and curative treatments, respectively, under greenhouse conditions. Additionally, the induction of systemic acquired resistance, increasing total carbohydrates and total phenolic contents, as well as triggering the transcriptional levels of peroxidase, pathogen-related protein-1, and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase were observed. In light of the results, we propose that the potential application of CDNPs could be an eco-friendly approach to enhance yield and a more effective therapeutic elicitor for disease management in plants upon induction of defense systems.

Myo-inositol has gained a central position in plants due to its vital role in physiology and biochemistry. This experimental work assessed the effects of salinity stress and foliar application of myo-inositol (MYO) on growth, chlorophyll content, photosynthesis, antioxidant system, osmolyte accumulation, and gene expression in quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa L. var. Giza1). Our results show that salinity stress significantly decreased growth parameters such as plant height, fresh and dry weights of shoot and root, leaf area, number of leaves, chlorophyll content, net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration, and Fv/Fm, with a more pronounced effect at higher NaCl concentrations. However, the exogenous application of MYO increased the growth and photosynthesis traits and alleviated the stress to a considerable extent. Salinity also significantly reduced the water potential and water use efficiency in plants under saline regime; however, exogenous application of myo-inositol coped with this issue. MYO significantly reduced the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide, superoxide, reduced lipid peroxidation, and electrolyte leakage concomitant with an increase in the membrane stability index. Exogenous application of MYO up-regulated the antioxidant enzymes’ activities and the contents of ascorbate and glutathione, contributing to membrane stability and reduced oxidative damage. The damaging effects of salinity stress on quinoa were further mitigated by increased accumulation of osmolytes such as proline, glycine betaine, free amino acids, and soluble sugars in MYO-treated seedlings. The expression pattern of OSM34, NHX1, SOS1A, SOS1B, BADH, TIP2, NSY, and SDR genes increased significantly due to the application of MYO under both stressed and non-stressed conditions. Our results support the conclusion that exogenous MYO alleviates salt stress by involving antioxidants, enhancing plant growth attributes and membrane stability, and reducing oxidative damage to plants.

Cadmium (Cd) stress is a serious environmental hazard that has devastating impacts on plant growth and productivity. Moreover, the entrance of Cd into the human food chain by eating Cd-contaminated food also poses serious health issues. Organic amendments (OA) possess an excellent potential to reduce the adverse impacts of Cd stress. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the potential of different OA in improving the mash beans growth and yield grown under Cd-contaminated soil. The soil was spiked with different concentrations of Cd (0, 10 and 20 mg/kg) and subjected to different OA, i.e., control, cow manure (5%), sugarcane press mud (5%) and a combination of cow manure (2.5%) and sugarcane press mud (2.5%). Results indicated that Cd stress induced a significant reduction in growth and yield traits, leaf water status, photosynthetic pigments, protein accumulation and anti-oxidant activities. However, the application of OA appreciably reduced the Cd-induced toxic effects and caused a significant increase in growth and yield. The application of 5% sugarcane press mud remained the top performer and it increased the mash bean growth and yield through improved photosynthetic pigments, leaf water status (56%) and reduced Cd uptake (18%), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production (38.52%), electrolyte leakage (EL) (42.13%) malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation (55.88%) and increased accumulation of soluble protein (60.15%) and free amino acids (54%) through improved activities of anti-oxidant enzymes. Therefore, these findings suggested that the application of sugarcane press mud enhanced the growth and yield through reduced Cd accumulation, enhanced photosynthetic pigments, leaf water status, protein and amino accumulation and reduced H2O2, EL and MDA accumulation through a stronger anti-oxidant defense system.

Three different concentrations of four (ethanol, acetone, methanol, and diethyl ether) extracts of licorice, doum, and banana peel were evaluated for antifungal and antimycotoxigenic efficiency against a maize aflatoxigenic fungus, Aspergillus flavus. Among them, the licorice diethyl ether 75% extract was intensely active, showing the best wet and dry weight inhibition and exhibiting the highest efficacy ratio (91%). Regarding aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) production, all the plant extracts tested were effective against AFB1 production after one month of maize storage, with average efficacy ratios ranging from 74.1% to 97.5%. At the same time, Thiram fungicide exhibited an efficacy ratio of 20.14%. The relative expression levels of three structural genes (aflD, aflP, and aflQ) and two regulatory genes (aflR and aflS) were significantly downregulated when compared to untreated maize grains or Thiram-treated maize grains. The doum diethyl ether 75% peel extract showed the highest total phenolic content (60.48 mg GAE/g dry extract wt.) and antioxidant activity (84.71 μg/mL). GC–MS analysis revealed that dimethoxycinnamic acid, aspartic acid, valproic acid, and linoleic acid might imbue the extracts with antioxidant capacities in relation to fungal growth and aflatoxin biosynthesis. Finally, the results suggest that the three plant extracts can be considered a promising source for developing potentially effective and environmentally safer alternative ways to control aflatoxin formation, thus creating a potentially protective method for grain storage.

Understanding the natural resources of native flora in a particular area is essential to be able to identify, record, and update existing records concerning the flora of that area, especially medicinal plants. Until recently, there has been very little scientific documentation on the biological diversity of Aljumum flora. The current study aimed to document medicinal plants among the flora of this region and determine the traditional usages that are documented in the literature. In the flowering season from November 2019 to May 2020, we conducted more than 80 field trips to the study area. The results reported 90 species belonging to 79 genera and 34 families in the Aljumum region, which constitute 82 species of medicinal plants from a total of 2253 known species in Saudi Arabia. The most distributed species were Calotropis procera, Panicum turgidum, and Aerva javanica (5.31%); within four endemic families, we found Fabaceae (32.35%), Poaceae (20.58%), and Asteraceae and Brassicaceae (17.64%). The present study reviews a collection of medicinal plants in Aljumum used in ethnomedicine. Additionally, these natural resources should be preserved, and therefore, conservation programs should be established to protect the natural diversity of the plant species in this region with sustainable environmental management.

Salinity stress is one of the major environmental constraints responsible for a reduction in agricultural productivity. This study investigated the effect of exogenously applied nitric oxide (NO) (50 μM and 100 μM) in protecting wheat plants from NaCl-induced oxidative damage by modulating protective mechanisms, including osmolyte accumulation and the antioxidant system. Exogenously sourced NO proved effective in ameliorating the deleterious effects of salinity on the growth parameters studied. NO was beneficial in improving the photosynthetic efficiency, stomatal conductance, and chlorophyll content in normal and NaCl-treated wheat plants. Moreover, NO-treated plants maintained a greater accumulation of proline and soluble sugars, leading to higher relative water content maintenance. Exogenous-sourced NO at both concentrations up-regulated the antioxidant system for averting the NaCl-mediated oxidative damage on membranes. The activity of antioxidant enzymes increased the protection of membrane structural and functional integrity and photosynthetic efficiency. NO application imparted a marked effect on uptake of key mineral elements such as nitrogen (N), potassium (K), and calcium (Ca) with a concomitant reduction in the deleterious ions such as Na+. Greater K and reduced Na uptake in NO-treated plants lead to a considerable decline in the Na/K ratio. Enhancing of salt tolerance by NO was concomitant with an obvious down-regulation in the relative expression of SOS1, NHX1, AQP, and OSM-34, while D2-protein was up-regulated.

Systemic steroids are used to treat acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) caused by allogenic bone marrow transplantation (allo-BMT); however, their prolonged use results in complications. Hence, new agents for treating aGVHD are required. Recently, a new compound A (CpdA), with anti-inflammatory activity and reduced side effects compared to steroids, has been identified. Here, we aimed to determine whether CpdA can improve the outcome of aGVHD when administered after transplantation in a mouse model (C57BL/6 in B6D2F1). After conditioning with 9Gy total body irradiation, mice were infused with bone marrow (BM) cells and splenocytes from either syngeneic (B6D2F1) or allogeneic (C57BL/6) donors. The animals were subsequently treated (3 days/week) with 7.5 mg/kg CpdA from day +15 to day +28; the controls received 0.9% NaCl. Thereafter, the incidence and severity of aGVHD in aGVHD target organs were analyzed. Survival and clinical scores did not differ significantly; however, CpdA-treated animals showed high cell infiltration in the target organs. In bulk mixed lymphocyte reactions, CpdA treatment reduced the cell proliferation and expression of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines compared to controls, whereas levels of TNF, IL-23, chemokines, and chemokine receptors increased. CpdA significantly reduced proliferation in vitro but increased T cell infiltration in target organs.

This study was conducted to compare the genotoxic effects of various concentrations of plant oils from Eruca sativa (Brassicaceae), Zingiber officinale (Zingiberaceae) and Origanum majorana (Lamiaceae) to the conventional organophosphate insecticide (Chlorpyrifos) against Rhyzopertha dominica Fabricius. The R. dominica population was reared for several generations without exposure to any insecticide. Wheat grains were sterilized at 55 °C for 6 h in order to eliminate any hidden infestation, treated with serial dilutions of Chlorpyrifos and plant oil extracts, and subsequently fed to R. dominica for 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8 days. The results indicated that the LC50 values of oils from E. sativa, Z. officinale and O. Majorana were 0.14, 0.23 and 0.32%, respectively, after 2 days. Genetic variations in DNA fragments after treatment with LC50 and LC25 concentrations of E. sativa, Z. officinale and O. majorana were detected by RAPD-PCR analysis using five primers. The results exhibited distinct DNA polymorphisms or alterations in DNA bands. These alterations varied depending on the substance being examined. Chlorpyrifos causes the highest level of DNA alterations (based on the appearance and disappearance DNA bands) followed by E. sativa, Z. officinale and O. majorana. These results were in direct correlation with the differences in mortality rates between extracts. It could be concluded that the plant oil extracts can be used as one of the integrated pest management tools to control R. dominica in stored products, as they are safer than chemical insecticides.

Alternaria species, mainly air-borne fungi, affect potato plants, causing black spots symptoms. Morphological identification, pathogenicity assessment, and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) molecular identification confirmed that all isolates were Alternaria alternata. The annotated sequences were deposited in GenBank under accession numbers MN592771–MN592777. HPLC analysis revealed that the fungal isolates KH3 (133,200 ng/g) and NO3 (212,000 ng/g) produced higher levels of tenuazonic acid (TeA) and alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), respectively. Beet ethanol extract (BEE) and beet methanol extract (BME) at different concentrations were used as antimycotoxins. BME decreased the production of mycotoxins by 66.99–99.79%. The highest TeA reduction rate (99.39%) was reported in the KH3 isolate with 150 µg/mL BME treatment. In comparison, the most effective AME reduction rate (99.79%) was shown in the NO3 isolate with 150 µg/mL BME treatment. In the same way, BEE application resulted in 95.60–99.91% mycotoxin reduction. The highest TeA reduction rate (99.91%) was reported in the KH3 isolate with 150 µg/mL BEE treatment, while the greatest AME reduction rate (99.68%) was shown in the Alam1 isolate with 75 µg/mL BEE treatment. GC-MS analysis showed that the main constituent in BME was the antioxidant compound 1-dodecanamine, n,n-dimethyl with a peak area of 43.75%. In contrast, oxirane, methyl- (23.22%); hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester (10.72%); and n-hexadecanoic acid (7.32%) were the main components in BEE found by GC-MS. They are probably antimicrobial molecules and have an effect on the mycotoxin in general. To our knowledge, this is the first study describing the antimycotoxigenic activity of beet extracts against A. alternata mycotoxins-contaminated potato crops in Egypt, aimed to manage and save the environment.

In this study, ethanol whole plant extract (WPE) of Haplophyllum tuberculatum was characterized and tested for its antifungal and antiviral activities against Fusarium culmorum, Rhizoctonia solani and tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analysis showed that the main phytochemical constituents of H. tuberculatum WPE were resveratrol (5178.58 mg/kg), kaempferol (1735.23 mg/kg), myricetin (561.18 mg/kg), rutin (487.04 mg/kg), quercetin (401.04 mg/kg), and rosmarinic acid (387.33 mg/kg). By increasing H. tuberculatum WPE at concentrations of 1%, 2%, and 3%, all of the fungal isolates were suppressed compared to the two positive and negative controls. Under greenhouse conditions, WPE-treated Chenopodium amaranticolor plants strongly inhibited TMV infection and significantly reduced TMV accumulation levels when compared to non-treated plants. Moreover, the induction of systemic resistance with significant increases in the transcriptional levels of the pathogenesis-related protein-1 (PR-1), chalcone synthase (CHS), and hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA quinate transferase (HQT) genes for treated plants were noticed at 3 and 5 days post-inoculation (dpi) for both assays. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported observation of the antiviral activity of H. tuberculatum extract against plant viral infections. Finally, the results obtained suggest that H. tuberculatum WPE can be considered a promising source of both antifungal and antiviral substances for practical use and for developing plant-derived compounds for the effective management of plant diseases.

Chilling, a sort of cold stress, is a typical abiotic ecological stress that impacts the development as well as the growth of crops. The present study was carried to investigate the role of ascorbic acid root priming in enhancing tolerance of tomato seedlings against acute chilling stress. The treatments included untreated control, ascorbic acid-treated plants (AsA; 0.5 mM), acute chilling-stressed plants (4 °C), and chilling stressed seedlings treated by ascorbic acid. Exposure to acute chilling stress reduced growth in terms of length, fresh and dry biomass, pigment synthesis, and photosynthesis. AsA was effective in mitigating the injurious effects of chilling stress to significant levels when supplied at 0.5 mM concentrations. AsA priming reduced the chilling mediated oxidative damage by lowering the electrolyte leakage, lipid peroxidation, and hydrogen peroxide. Moreover, up regulating the activity of enzymatic components of the antioxidant system. Further, 0.5 mM AsA proved beneficial in enhancing ions uptake in normal and chilling stressed seedlings. At the gene expression level, AsA significantly lowered the expression level of CAT and heat shock protein genes. Therefore, we theorize that the implementation of exogenous AsA treatment reduced the negative effects of severe chilling stress on tomato.

Jute (Corchorus capsularis) is a widely cultivated fibrous species with important physiological characteristics including biomass, a deep rooting system, and tolerance to metal stress. Furthermore, Corchorus species are indigenous leafy vegetables and show phytoremediation potential for different heavy metals. This species has been used for the phytoremediation of different toxic pollutants such as copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn), mercury (Hg) and lead (Pb). The current literature highlights the physiological and morphological characteristics of jute that are useful to achieve successful phytoremediation of different pollutants. The accumulation of these toxic heavy metals in agricultural regions initiates concerns regarding food safety and reductions in plant productivity and crop yield. We discuss some innovative approaches to increase jute phytoremediation using different chelating agents. There is a need to remediate soils contaminated with toxic substances, and phytoremediation is a cheap, effective, and in situ alternative, and jute can be used for this purpose.