Germination Characters as Affected by Salinity Stress and Soaking Grain Sorghum Genotypesin Humic acid

In order to investigate salinity stress on sorghum germination indices, an experiment conducted in the Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University from June and July 2017 in Agronomy Department, Seed Science Laboratory. The goals of the investigation aimed to screening for five (Sorghum bicolor L.(Moench) cultivarsviz. Dorado, hybrid 306, Giza 15, Mecca hybrid and H-305 under salinity stress, sodium chloride (Na Cl) at the levels of 0 (as control), 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 dS/m-1 and soaking in humic acid. The results showed that soaking seed in humic acid exceeded percentage of germination, germination rate, germination index, energy of germination and chlorophyll content by 5.2, 7.7, 17.1, 65.8 and 17.8 %, respectively. The highest germination percentage (91.9 %), germination rate (3.08), germination energy (59.7), seedling vigor index (1483.7) and chlorophyll content (2.88) were obtained from sown Mecca hybrid. The maximum germination index (117.22) was obtainedfrom sown Giza 15 cultivar.The results point out that cumulative salinity level from 3 to 15 dSm-1condensedall studied germination characters. Accumulative salinity levels to 15 dSm-1condensedpercentage of germination, germination rate, index of germination, germination energy and seedling vigor index by 15.9, 15.0, 30.0, 35.9 and 37.6 %, respectively compared without salinity application. It could recommended that soaking sorghum seed of Meeca hybrid with humic acid for 12 h under salinity of concentration of 6 dSm-1 enhanced germination characters compared with other cultivars and salinity concentrations, it mean cultivated it under reclaimed saline soil in Egypt

International longitudinal registry of patients with atrial fibrillation and treated with rivaroxaban: RIVaroxaban Evaluation in Real life setting (RIVER)

Background Real-world data on non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are essential in determining whether evidence from randomised controlled clinical trials translate into meaningful clinical benefits for patients in everyday practice. RIVER (RIVaroxaban Evaluation in Real life setting) is an ongoing international, prospective registry of patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) and at least one investigator-determined risk factor for stroke who received rivaroxaban as an initial treatment for the prevention of thromboembolic stroke. The aim of this paper is to describe the design of the RIVER registry and baseline characteristics of patients with newly diagnosed NVAF who received rivaroxaban as an initial treatment. Methods and results Between January 2014 and June 2017, RIVER investigators recruited 5072 patients at 309 centres in 17 countries. The aim was to enroll consecutive patients at sites where rivaroxaban was already routinely prescribed for stroke prevention. Each patient is being followed up prospectively for a minimum of 2-years. The registry will capture data on the rate and nature of all thromboembolic events (stroke / systemic embolism), bleeding complications, all-cause mortality and other major cardiovascular events as they occur. Data quality is assured through a combination of remote electronic monitoring and onsite monitoring (including source data verification in 10% of cases). Patients were mostly enrolled by cardiologists (n = 3776, 74.6%), by internal medicine specialists 14.2% (n = 718) and by primary care/general practice physicians 8.2% (n = 417). The mean (SD) age of the population was 69.5 (11.0) years, 44.3% were women. Mean (SD) CHADS2 score was 1.9 (1.2) and CHA2DS2-VASc scores was 3.2 (1.6). Almost all patients (98.5%) were prescribed with once daily dose of rivaroxaban, most commonly 20 mg (76.5%) and 15 mg (20.0%) as their initial treatment; 17.9% of patients received concomitant antiplatelet therapy. Most patients enrolled in RIVER met the recommended threshold for AC therapy (86.6% for 2012 ESC Guidelines, and 79.8% of patients according to 2016 ESC Guidelines). Conclusions The RIVER prospective registry will expand our knowledge of how rivaroxaban is prescribed in everyday practice and whether evidence from clinical trials can be translated to the broader cross-section of patients in the real world

Bacteria-inducing legume nodules involved in the improvement of plant growth, health and nutrition

Bacteria-inducing legume nodules are known as rhizobia and belong to the class Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria. They promote the growth and nutrition of their respective legume hosts through atmospheric nitrogen fixation which takes place in the nodules induced in their roots or stems. In addition, rhizobia have other plant growth-promoting mechanisms, mainly solubilization of phosphate and production of indoleacetic acid, ACC deaminase and siderophores. Some of these mechanisms have been reported for strains of rhizobia which are also able to promote the growth of several nonlegumes, such as cereals, oilseeds and vegetables. Less studied are the mechanisms that have the rhizobia to promote the plant health; however, these bacteria are able to exert biocontrol of some phytopathogens and to induce the plant resistance. In this chapter, we revised the available data about the ability of the legume nodule-inducing bacteria for improving the plant growth, health and nutrition of both legumes and nonlegumes. These data showed that rhizobia meet all the requirements of sustainable agriculture to be used as bio-inoculants allowing the total or partial replacement of chemicals used for fertilization or protection of crops

Genetic dissection of heading date and yield under Mediterranean dry climate in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

Understanding the genetics of drought tolerance is a major goal of plant breeders, especially in the Mediterranean region due to its sensitivity to drought and climate changes. Here we investigated genomic regions associated with heading date and yield under rainfed (R) and irrigated (I) conditions, along with some drought tolerance indices derived from phenotypic data collected on a panel of 83 European barley cultivars evaluated in field trials in Foggia, southern Italy, for three growing seasons. A genome wide association analysis (GWAS) was carried out using gene-based SNPs incorporated in the Illumina iSELECT Chip with known map position. A total of 4169 polymorphic SNPs were considered after filtering out SNPs with >10 % missing data and <10 % minimum allele frequency. Heritability was high for heading date and moderate for yield. Principle components analysis partitioned the barley germplasm in three subgroups characterized by different row-type and growth habit. A significant association with heading date was detected on chromosome 2HS, where the different alleles of associated markers were able to significantly affect heading date in different cultivars. Moreover, GWAS uncovered a significant association with yield and relative yield under R conditions on chromosome 5HS. These results provide a clue for further analysis on genetic control of barley flowering time and production in response to water stress under Mediterranean dry climate