Physiological, Agronomic, and Grain Quality Responses of Diverse Rice Genotypes to Various Irrigation Regimes under Aerobic Cultivation Conditions.

Aerobic rice cultivation represents an innovative approach to reduce water consumption and enhance water use efficiency compared to traditional transplanting methods. Simultaneously, cultivating drought-tolerant rice genotypes becomes crucial to ensure their sustainable production under abrupt climate fluctuations. Hence, this study aimed to explore the physiological, agronomic, and grain quality responses of ten diverse rice genotypes to various irrigation levels under aerobic cultivation conditions. A field experiment was performed for two summer seasons of 2019 and 2020 in an arid Mediterranean climate. The irrigation regimes were well watered (13,998 m3/ha), mild drought (10,446 m3/ha), moderate drought (7125 m3/ha), and severe drought (5657 m3/ha). The results revealed considerable variations among rice genotypes under tested irrigation regimes in all physiological, agronomic, and quality traits. According to drought response indices, rice genotypes were classified into three groups (A-C), varying from tolerant to sensitive genotypes. The identified drought-tolerant genotypes (Giza-179, Hybrid-1, Giza-178, and Line-9399) recorded higher yields and crop water productivity with reduced water usage compared to drought-sensitive genotypes. Thus, these genotypes are highly recommended for cultivation in water-scarce environments. Furthermore, their characteristics could be valuable in breeding programs to improve drought tolerance in rice, particularly under aerobic cultivation conditions. The PCA biplot, heatmap, and hierarchical clustering highlighted specific physiological parameters such as relative water content, chlorophyll content, proline content, peroxidase content, and catalase content exhibited robust associations with yield traits under water deficit conditions. These parameters offer valuable insights and could serve as rapid indicators for assessing drought tolerance in rice breeding programs in arid environments.

Effect of drying system, layer thickness and drying temperature on the drying parameters, product quality, energy consumption and cost of the marjoram leaves.

The main aim of this work is to study the main factors affecting the quality of the dried product and the energy requirements through optimizing these factors. To achieve that different drying systems (solar, hybrid solar and oven dryings), layers thickness (1, 2 and 3 cm) and drying temperatures (50, 60 and 70 °C) were used. The obtained results indicated that, the accumulated weight loss of marjoram leaves ranged from 73.22 to 76.9%, for all treatments under study. The moisture content of marjoram leaves ranged from 273.39 to 333.17, 258.02 to 333.04 and 269.38 to 324.90% d.b. for hybrid solar, oven and solar drying systems, respectively. The highest value of the drying rate of marjoram leaves (223.73 gwater kg-1 h-1) was obtained when the marjoram dried by oven drying system at 70 °C at 1 cm layer thickness. The highest values of the basil and marjoram oil content (2.91%) was obtained when the marjoram dried under sun drying system. The energy consumption for drying marjoram decreases with increasing drying temperature and layer thickness for hybrid solar and oven drying systems. The cost of dried marjoram dried under hybrid solar drying system was lower than those of oven drying system, the highest cost (13.48 LE kg-1) was obtained at a temperature of 50 °C and a layer thickness of 1 cm.

Potential Application of Innovative Aspergillus terreus/ Sodium Alginate Composite Beads as Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Adsorbents for Alizarin Red S Dye: Isotherms and Kinetics Models.

Fungi were used as one of the most common bioremediation methods. From this perspective, our study highlights the optimization of Alizarin Red S (ARS) dye adsorption performance for the sodium alginate (SA) by using the fungus Aspergillus terreus (A. terreus) to form a composite bead and the possibility of its reusability. This was accomplished by mixing SA with different ratios of biomass powder of A. terreus, including 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%, to form composite beads of A. terreus/SA-0%, A. terreus/SA-10%, A. terreus/SA-20%, A. terreus/SA-30%, and A. terreus/SA-40%, respectively. The ARS adsorption characteristics of these composite mixtures were analyzed at various mass ratios, temperatures, pH values, and initial concentrations. Moreover, sophisticated techniques, such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), were employed to detect the morphological and chemical properties of this composite, respectively. The experimental results revealed that A. terreus/SA-20% composite beads have the highest adsorption capacity of 188 mg/g. Its optimum adsorption conditions were achieved at 45 ∘C and pH 3. Moreover, the ARS adsorption was well explained by the Langmuir isotherm (qm = 192.30 mg/g) and pseudo-second-order and intra-particle diffusion kinetics. The SEM and FTIR findings corroborated the superior uptake of A. terreus/SA-20% composite beads. Lastly, the A. terreus/SA-20% composite beads can be employed as an eco-friendly and sustainable alternative to other common adsorbents for ARS.

A Feasibility Study on the Recall of Metallophilic Fungi from Fe(III)-Contaminated Soil and Evaluating Their Mycoremediation Capacity: Experimental and Theoretical Study.

Mycoremediation is one of the most attractive, eco-friendly, and sustainable methods to mitigate the toxic effects of heavy metals. This study aimed to determine the mycoremediation capacity of metallophilic fungi isolated from heavy-metal-contaminated soil containing a high Fe(III) concentration (118.40 mg/kg). Four common fungal strains were isolated, including Curvularia lunata, Fusarium equiseti, Penicillium pinophilum, and Trichoderma harzianum. These fungal strains were exposed to gradually increasing concentrations of Fe(III) of 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, and 1000 mg/L. Sophisticated techniques and tests were employed to investigate the mycoremediation capability, including tolerance index (TI), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and adsorption isotherm. Furthermore, the impacts of initial concentration, pH, and temperature on the Fe(III) removal (%) and uptake capacity (mg/g) of the studied samples were investigated. The results were validated by statistical analysis using one-way ANOVA. It was found that the Fe(III) uptake with different ratios triggered alterations in the Fe(III) tolerance (TI) morphological (SEM), chemical (FTIR), and adsorption capacity properties. The highest Fe(III) tolerance for all studied fungal strains was achieved at 100 mg/L. Moreover, the optimum conditions of Fe(III) removal (%) for all studied fungal strains were within pH 7 and 28 °C, with similar performance at the initial Fe(III) concentration ranging from 50-200 mg/L. At the same time, the maximum Fe(III) uptake was achieved at pH 7, 20 °C, and 200 mg/L. Compared to other strains, the Fe(III) tolerance of T. harzianum was rise in the Fe(III) concentration. The Fe(III) uptake reaction was corroborated by best fitting with the Langmuir model, achieving optimum adsorption capacities of 61.34, 62.90, 63.30, and 72.46 mg/g for C.lunata, F. equiseti, P. pinophilum, T. harzianum, respectively. It can be deduced that the addressed fungi species can be applied in mycoremediation according to the utilized Fe(III) concentrations with more superiority for live T. harzianum.