Implementation of Biopolymeric Nanomaterials to Reduce the Negative Impacts of Salinity on Tomato Quantity and Quality.

Sustainable waste reduction strategies and innovative waste reduction concepts, as well as their application in the creation of compounds and products with added value, can benefit the economy while reducing environmental pressures. This research aimed to use biopolymeric nanomaterials to reduce the negative effects of salinity on tomato yield and quality. Three types of biopolymers (cellulose, pectin, and starch) were synthesized and characterized using natural materials such as rice straw, orange peel, and potato peel. The polymer's ability to retain sodium ions was investigated. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to assess the potential of natural polymers (cellulose, starch, and pectin individually or in combination) to reduce the salinity side effects on tomato plants (Solanum Lycopersicon L.) cultivar (Super Strain B). Tomato seeds were germinated on soil bits for 20 days before planting five seedlings in each pot (20 cm diameter) with three replicates and filling each pot with sandy loam soil, with or without natural polymers at a rate of 2 g/Kg. The results revealed that all the polymers utilized had a superlative capability to hold sodium ions for both soluble and exchanged sodium. The use of various natural polymer hydrogels increased the number and fresh weight of tomato fruits. Data showed that using biopolymers hydrogels reduced salinity stress by rising the content of phenol, flavonoid, and antioxidant enzymes such as catalase and peroxidase. The use of natural biopolymers significantly improved total soluble solids, pH, and juice substance. Implementing biopolymeric materials could reduce environmental pressures while increasing farm income. Innovative waste reduction strategies, such as the creation of value-added products, will benefit the economy, and this work is a good start in that direction.

Dietary Supplementation of Silybum marianum Seeds Improved Growth Performance and Upregulated Associated Gene Expression of Muscovy Ducklings (Cairina moschata).

The effect of feeding on diets supplemented with Silybum marianum L. dry seeds (SMS) on growth performance, mortality percentage, biochemical parameters, the expression profile of related genes, and genotoxic effect in Muscovy ducklings was evaluated during a brooding period of 4 weeks. Two hundred and forty one-day-old Muscovy ducks were randomly assigned to four treatment groups (60 ducklings/group), the first group fed on basal diet with no additives (control), and the second (4 g kg-1), third (8 g kg-1), and fourth (12 g kg-1) groups fed the basal diet supplemented with 0, 4, 8, and 12 g kg-1 diet SMS, respectively. A substantial improvement in live body weight (LBW), body weight gain (BWG), and growth rate (GR), and a decrease in feed conversion ratios (FCR) and mortality rate were shown in ducks fed a diet supplemented with either 8 g kg-1 or 12 g kg-1 SMS compared to the other groups. Relevant improvements in liver function, oxidative stress markers, purinergic cell energy, and brain appetite were recorded on ducklings fed diets supplemented with SMS. Moreover, diets which included 8 or 12 g kg-1 SMS positively upregulated the expression of growth hormone gene (GH) and antioxidant genes (SOD1, SOD2, and CAT). These results are consistent with the increase in liver activity SOD and CAT enzymes, resulting in less DNA fragmentation. Consequently, all the aforementioned improvements in biochemical parameters and gene expression profiling may explain the superiority of the treated ducklings compared with the control group. Conclusively, the SMS could be used as a natural feed additive to promote health status and improve the growth performance of small grower ducks during the brooding period.

Nanobiotechnological Approaches to Enhance Drought Tolerance in Catharanthus roseus Plants Using Salicylic Acid in Bulk and Nanoform.

Drought has a detrimental effect on crop production, affecting economically important plants' growth rates and development. Catharanthus roseus is an important medicinal plant that produces many pharmacologically active compounds, some of which have significant antitumor activity. The effect of bulk salicylic acid (SA) and salicylic acid nanoparticles (SA-NPs) were evaluated on water-stressed Catharanthus roseus plants. The results showed that SA and SA-NPs alleviated the negative effects of drought in the treated plants by increasing their shoot and root weights, relative water content, leaf area index, chlorophyll content, and total alkaloids percentage. From the results, a low concentration (0.05 mM) of SA-NPs exerted positive effects on the treated plants, while the best results of the bulk SA were recorded after using the highest concentration (0.1 mM). Both treatments increased the expression level of WRKY1, WRKY2, WRKY40, LEA, and MYC2 genes, while the mRNA level of MPKK1 and MPK6 did not show a significant change. This study discussed the importance of SA-NPs in the induction of drought stress tolerance even when used in low concentrations, in contrast to bulk SA, which exerts significant results only at higher concentrations.

Nanoinhibitory Impacts of Salicylic Acid, Glycyrrhizic Acid Ammonium Salt, and Boric Acid Nanoparticles against Phytoplasma Associated with Faba Bean.

Phytoplasmas are economically important plant pathogenic bacterial diseases, causing severe yield losses worldwide. In this study, we tested nanoformulations such as glycyrrhizic acid ammonium salt (GAS), salicylic acid (SA), and boric acid (BA) as novel antimicrobial agents inducing the resistance against the phytoplasma disease in faba bean. The nanoparticles (NP) were foliar-applied to naturally phytoplasma-infected faba bean with three concentrations from each of SA, GAS, and BA, under field conditions. Nested PCR (using universal primer pairs P1/P7 and R16F2n/R16R2) were reacted positively with all symptomatic samples and gave a product size of approximately 1200 bp, while the healthy plant gave no results. Transmission electron microscopy examinations of phytoplasma-infected faba bean plants treated with different nanoparticles revealed that severe damage occurred in phytoplasma particle's structure, degradation, malformation, lysis in the cell membrane, and the cytoplasmic leakage followed by complete lysis of phytoplasma cells. Exogenous application of GAS-NP (1.68 µM), SA-NP (0.28 µM), and BA-NP (0.124 µM) suppressed the infection percentage of phytoplasma by 75%, 50%, and 20%, and the disease severity by 84%, 64%, and 54%, respectively. Foliar application of nanoparticles improved Fv/Fm (maximum quantum efficiency of PSII Photochemistry), PI (the performance index), SPAD chlorophyll (the relative chlorophyll content), shoots height, and leaves number, thus inducing recovery of the plant biomass and green pods yield. The most effective treatment was GAS-NP at 1.68 µM that mediated substantial increases in the shoots' fresh weight, shoots' dry weight, number of pods per plant, and green pods yield by 230%, 244%, 202% and 178%, respectively, compared to those of infected plants not sprayed with nanoparticles. This study demonstrated the utility of using nanoparticles, particularly GAS-NP at 1.68 µM to suppress the phytoplasma infection.

Influence of Spraying Nano-Curcumin and Nano-Glycyrrhizic Acid on Resistance Enhancement and Some Growth Parameters of Soybean (Glycine max) in Response to Tetranychus urticae Infestation and Drought Stress.

Modern nanotechnology has been credited as one of the most significant inventions of the 21st century. Many agricultural disciplines have been affected by nanotechnology in agriculture. Pest control based on natural compounds needs to be enhanced, and enhancing plant growth under climate change conditions, with increasing periods of drought in many countries, is a very vital aim. Thus, the effect of curcumin nanoparticles (Cu-NPs) and glycyrrhizic acid nanoparticles (GA-NPs) as a foliar application under water deficit on natural infestation with the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae, plant growth and yield, anatomical and chemical parameters were investigated during this study. The obtained results revealed that drought stress over the two studied seasons significantly increased the population of T. urticae and decreased all morphological and yield characteristics. The application of three mM GA-NPs reduced the mite population average by 39% while using the same concentration of Cu-NPs caused a 33.9% reduction percentage under drought stress. Using 1 mM GA-NPs gave the highest averages of plant height, number of branches, and leaves/plant fresh and dry weight. Moreover, the number of pods, 100 seed weight and seed yield (kg/ha) increased significantly as a result of spraying with GA-NPs under water deficit. From the results, water deficit decreased the values of the leaf and stem anatomical parameters. Treatment with Cu-NPs or GA-NPs under drought stress increased the thickness of mid-vein, xylem, and phloem tissues. Likewise, such treatment increased stem diameter due mainly to the increase in the thickness of cortex, phloem, and xylem tissues compared with the control. Spraying plants with GA-NPs at 1 mM increased the percentages of nitrogen, phosphor, and potassium in seeds in addition to total chlorophyll. Moreover, glutamate, aspartate, leucine, arginine, Lysine, glycine, tyrosine, tryptophan, and methionine concentrations did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) in response to all the studied levels of Cu-NPs or GA-NPs either under normal irrigation or drought condition. In light of these findings, researchers and producers should apply and test both Cu-NPs and GA-NP as nano-fertilizer natural sources on economically viable crops.

Effect of gamma rays and colchicine on silymarin production in cell suspension cultures of Silybum marianum: A transcriptomic study of key genes involved in the biosynthetic pathway.

The aim of this study was to investigate secondary metabolite production in Silybum marianum L. cell suspension cultures obtained from seeds treated with gamma rays (200 and 600 Gy) and 0.05% colchicine. The effects of these treatments on callus induction, growth, viability, and silymarin production were studied, along with the changes in the transcriptome and DNA sequence of chalcone synthase (CHS) genes. The effect of gamma radiation (200 and 600 Gy) on silymarin production in S. marianum dry seeds was also studied using HPLC-UV. All three treatments induced high callus biomass production from leaf segments. The viability of the cell suspension cultures was over 90%. The flavonolignan content measured in the extracellular culture medium of the S. marianum cell suspension was highest after treatment with 600 Gy, followed by 0.05% colchicine, and finally, 200 Gy, after a growth period of 12 days. In general, an increased expression of CHS1, CHS2, and CHS3 genes, accompanied by an increase of silymarin content, was observed in response to all the studied treatments, although the effect was greatest on CHS2 expression. Bioinformatics analysis confirmed that the three CHS2 clones exhibited the highest genetic variation, both in relation to each other and to the CHS1 and CHS3 clones. Based on the results, S. marianum plants obtained from seeds previously exposed to 600 and 200 Gy as well as colchicine constitute a renewable resource with the potential to obtain large amounts of silymarin.

Developing a new genic SSR primer database in faba bean (Vicia faba L.).

The goal of this research was to develop a new genetic database of simple sequence repetition (SSR) primers for faba and classify them according to their target genes and respective biological processes. Approximately 75,605 and 148,196 previously published genomic and transcriptomic faba sequences, respectively, have been used to detect possible SSRs. The numbers of identified SSRs from each dataset were 25,502 and 12,319, respectively. The distribution of different repeat classes indicated that trinucleotides represent the largest number of repeat counts, followed by dinucleotides. The extracted genic SSR sequences were used to design 1091 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers, of which only 238 (21.8%) primers target genomic sequences and the other 853 PCR primers targeted transcriptomic sequences. The annotation of gene-targeted SSRs showed that approximately 897 genes were targeted by our SSR primers. Approximately 1890 gene ontology (GO) identification codes have been obtained. The GO keywords were distributed among distinct molecular cell features. The highest redundancies involved 554 technical words, 196 domains, and 160 molecular feature phrases. These GO codes belonged to the general level of GO and included molecular function, cellular component, and biological process (544, 670, and 676 GOs, respectively). Twenty-seven SSR PCR primers were synthesized to 12 Egyptian faba bean genotypes. Approximately 11 SSR provided one to two PCR bands, whereas other SSRs provided only one sharp band with polymorphic band size. There were 13 polymorphic primers. The polymorphism information content was 0.3, which implied moderate informativeness.

Transcriptomic changes in green bean pods against grey mould and white rot diseases via field application of chemical elicitor nanoparticles.

The authors tested the efficacy of two salt nanoparticles (NPs), namely, copper dioxide (CuO) and tri-calcium phosphate [Ca3(PO4)2] to induce resistance in green bean pods against grey mould and white rot diseases caused by Botrytis cinerea and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, respectively. High amounts of phytoalexins, kievitone, coumestrol, phaseollidin, 6-ά-hydroxyphaseollin, and phaseollin, were detected in naturally infected and artificially inoculated green bean pods in response to the tested NPs. Green bean plants treated in the field with CuO and Ca3(PO4)2 NPs had the highest mRNA quantity of all the studied defence genes, receptor-like kinase (PvRK20), pathogenesis-related protein (PR1), 1,3-ß-D-glucanase (pvgluc), polygalacturonase inhibitor protein (PvGIP), and alpha-dioxygenase (a-DOX) than that of the control group. CuO NPs followed by Ca3(PO4)2 NPs at 0.15 mg ml-1 were the most potent in increasing the transcriptomic levels of pk20, DOX, PR1, PvGIP, and pvgluc. Field applications of both chemical elicitor NPs exhibited a non-genotoxic effect on the Paulista green bean DNA using eight ISSR primers. The field application of the studied NPs could effectively extend the shelf life of green bean pods by up to 21 days at 7 ± 1°C during marketing and export due to its potent effect against grey mould and white rot diseases.

Comparative Analyses of Four Chemicals Used to Control Black Mold Disease in Tomato and Its Effects on Defense Signaling Pathways, Productivity and Quality Traits.

The field application of safe chemical inducers plays a vital role in the stimulation of systematic acquired resistance (SAR) of plants. In this study, the efficacy use of three and six field applications with chitosan, lithovit, and K-thiosulfate at 4 gL-1 and salicylic acid at 1.5 gL-1 in improving tomato productivity, quality, and modifying the defense signaling pathways to the Alternaria alternata infection was investigated. Salicylic acid was the most effective in vitro where it completely inhibited the growth of Alternaria alternata. The highest yield quantity was recorded with six applications with Chitosan followed by Salicylic acid; also, they were the most effective treatments in controlling the Alternaria alternata infection in tomato fruits. The maximum increase in chitinase and catalase activity of tomato fruits was observed at five days after inoculation, following treatment with six sprays of salicylic acid followed by chitosan. The transcript levels of seven defense-related genes: ethylene-responsive transcription factor 3 (RAP), xyloglucan endotransglucosylase 2 (XET-2), catalytic hydrolase -2 (ACS-2), proteinase inhibitor II (PINII), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase 5 (PAL5), lipoxygenase D (LOXD), and pathogenesis-related protein 1 (PR1) were upregulated in response to all treatments. The highest expression levels of the seven studied genes were recorded in response to six foliar applications with chitosan. Chitosan followed by salicylic acid was the most effective among the tested elicitors in controlling the black mold rot in tomato fruits. In conclusion, pre-harvest chitosan and salicylic acid in vivo application with six sprays could be recommended as effective safe alternatives to fungicides against black mold disease in tomato fruits.

Antioxidant activity and phycoremediation ability of four cyanobacterial isolates obtained from a stressed aquatic system.

Cyanobacteria are natural enormous sources of various biologically active compounds with great contributions in different industries. This study aimed to explore and characterize novel cyanobacterial isolates with antioxidant activity and potent phycoremediation ability from Egyptian wastewater canals. The in vitro biological activity of these isolates and their potential ability to take up nutrients and heavy metals from wastewater were examined. The obtained isolates were sequenced and deposited in database under accession numbers, KY250420.1, KY321359.1, KY296359.1 and KU373076.1 for Nostoc calcicola, Leptolyngbya sp., Nostoc sp., and Nostoc sp., respectively. Leptolyngbya sp. (KY321359.1) showed the lowest identity (90%) with the nearest deposited sequence in database. While the isolate Nostoc sp. (KU373076.1) showed the highest total phenolic content as well as the highest levels of caffeic, ferulic and gallic acids. Consequently, it presented the highest antioxidant scavenging activity. All studied isolates revealed potent ability in chelating nutrients and removing heavy metals from wastewater. In conclusion, this study provides a taxonomic, biochemical and molecular evidence of four novel cyanobacterial isolates with antioxidant activity and potential phycoremediation ability.

The potential effect of garlic extract and curcumin nanoparticles against complication accompanied with experimentally induced diabetes in rats.

BACKGROUND: Modified herbal medicines implicate the combination of several therapeutic practices of native systems of medicine that may extend many earlier generations, which frequently afford valuable therapeutic benefits. PURPOSE: In this study, the role of nano-curcumin and aged garlic extract (AGE) as two modified phytomedicines on alleviating both of advanced glycation end products (AGEPs) and oxidative stress (OS) in streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats were investigated during this study. METHOD: Nano-curcumin and AGE suspension were orally administrated at a dose of 300, 500 mg/kg body weight respectively. Serum glucose, insulin, total cholesterol, triglycerides and myocardial enzyme activities including creatine kinase-isoenzyme (CK-MB), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were determined biochemically, while quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR)-test had been used to determine relative of manganese-superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD) and receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) gene expressions in the heart tissue of rats. Structure of rat's heart tissue was examined by histopathological analysis (H&E). RESULTS: AGE increased the body weight and insulin concentration, while, it decreased serum glucose concentration, CK-MB, and LDH enzyme activities in comparing with the diabetic group. In addition, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and AST didn't show any significant changes in serum values of AGE compared to diabetic rats. Nano-curcumin suspension decreased the serum levels of triglycerides, CK- MB, LDH, and AST. While, there were non-significant changes in the body weight, glucose, insulin, and total cholesterol level of the same group compared with the STZ- untreated induced diabetic rats. The transcript quantity of manganese-superoxide dismutase gene (Mn-SOD) was highly accumulated (3.25 and 3.87-fold) in the heart tissue sample of the induced diabetic rats in response to both nano-Curcumin and AGE suspension respectively. While AGE was the most potent treatment where it caused down regulation of the receptor for advanced glycation end products gene (RAGE) expression (1.79-fold). Results of histopathological analyses under the light microscope showed restoring the structural integrity of the myocytes towards normalization in diabetic hearts treated with each of nano-curcumin and AGE suspension compared with the untreated diabetic heart samples. CONCLUSION: Nano-curcumin and AGE suspension have a great therapeutic potential in the treatment of DCM, Diabetic cardiomyopathy, by attenuating cardiac inflammation, myocardial fibrosis, and programmed myocardial cell deaths through inhibiting OS and AGEPs accumulation in diabetic heart tissue. Furthermore, the hypoglycemic antioxidant properties of AGE resulted in more potent therapeutic effect than nano-curcumin in the treatment of diabetic hearts.

Silybin content and overexpression of chalcone synthase genes in Silybum marianum L. plants under abiotic elicitation.

Silymarin, a Silybum marianum seed extract containing a mixture of flavonolignans including silybin, is being used as an antihepatotoxic therapy for liver diseases. In this study, the enhancing effect of gamma irradiation on plant growth parameters of S. marianum under salt stress was investigated. The effect of gamma irradiation, either as a single elicitor or coupled with salinity, on chalcone synthase (CHS) gene expression and silybin A + B yield was also evaluated. The silybin A + B content in S. marianum fruits was estimated by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). An increase in silybin content was accompanied by up-regulation of the CHS1, CHS2 and CHS3 genes, which are involved in the silybin biosynthetic pathway. The highest silybin A + B production (0.77 g/100 g plant DW) and transcript levels of the three studied genes (100.2-, 91.9-, and 24.3-fold increase, respectively) were obtained with 100GY gamma irradiation and 4000 ppm salty water. The CHS2 and CHS3 genes were partially sequenced and submitted to the NCBI database under the accession numbers KT252908.1 and KT252909.1, respectively. Developing new approaches to stimulate silybin biosynthetic pathways could be a useful tool to potentiate the use of plants as renewable resources of medicinal compounds.

Field application of safe chemical elicitors induced the expression of some resistance genes against grey mold and cottony rot diseases during snap bean pods storage.

Phaseolus vulgaris is subjected to serious post-harvest diseases such as grey mold and cottony rot diseases caused by Botrytis cinerea and Pythium aphanidermatum, respectively. In current study, potassium silicate (KSi), potassium thiosulfate (KTS) and potassium sulfate (KS) suppressed moderately the growth of B. cinerea and P. aphanidermatum in vitro. The applied treatments significantly suppressed grey mold and cottony rot of Xera and Valentino snap beans varieties' pods stored at 7 ± 1°C and 90-95% RH for 20 days. Ethylene responsive factor (ERF), polygalacturonase inhibitor protein (PGIP), phosphatase associated to defense (PA) and pathogenesis-related protein (PR1) defense genes were over-expressed in leaves tissue of both bean varieties responding positively to potassium salts field application. The expression of these genes was influenced by plant genotype and environment as it varied by snap bean varieties. Accumulation of ERF, GIP, PA and PR1 genes transcript under KTS at 4000 ppm treatment were the highest in Xera tissues (3.5-, 4.8-, 4- and 4.8-fold, respectively). In conclusion, pre-harvest potassium salt in vivo application could be used as effective safe alternatives to fungicides against grey mold and cottony rot diseases of snap beans during storage for up to 20 days at 7 ± 1°C.

Detection of pork adulteration in processed meat by species-specific PCR-QIAxcel procedure based on D-loop and cytb genes.

Detection of pork meat adulteration in "halal" meat products is a crucial issue in the fields of modern food inspection according to implementation of very strict procedures for halal food labelling. Present study aims at detecting and quantifying pork adulteration in both raw and cooked manufactured sausages. This is by applying an optimized species-specific PCR procedure followed by QIAxcel capillary electrophoresis system. Manufacturing experiment was designed by incorporating pork with beef meat at 0.01 to 10 % substitution levels beside beef and pork sausages as negative and positive controls, respectively. Subsequently, sausages were divided into raw and cooked sausages then subjected to DNA extraction. Results indicated that PCR amplifications of mitochondrial D-loop and cytochrome b (cytb) genes by porcine-specific primers produced 185 and 117 bp pork-specific DNA fragments in sausages, respectively. No DNA fragments were detected when PCR was applied on beef sausage DNA confirming primers specificity. For internal control, a 141-bp DNA fragment of eukaryotic 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene was amplified from pork and beef DNA templates. Although PCR followed by either QIAxcel or agarose techniques were efficient for targeted DNA fragments differentiation even as low as 0.01 % (pork/meat: w/w). For proficiency, adequacy, and performance, PCR-QIA procedure is highly sensitive, a time-saver, electronically documented, mutagenic-reagent free, of little manual errors, accurate in measuring PCR fragments length, and quantitative data supplier. In conclusion, it can be suggested that optimized PCR-QAI is considered as a rapid and sensitive method for routine pork detection and quantification in raw or processed meat.