THE CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION THROUGH AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGIES

Climate changes are topical, and some of the changes observed are unprecedented. The impact of climate changes on the nature, economy and people's health varies across the world, depending on the region and territory, as well as the economic sector affected. Agriculture is one of the sectors most exposed to these changes because it is dependent on the weather conditions. Agricultural biotechnologies play an important role in facilitating adaptation to climate changing conditions, and help farmers to adapt their production to this new challenge. Through biotechnology, agricultural crops have a higher productivity, plants have a higher resistance to pests and diseases and farmers use less energy. Also, the green biotechnology offers a solution to decrease greenhouse gases and therefore mitigates the climate changes effects. The biotechnology revolution is currently experiencing an unprecedented boom, and long-term food security has all the prerequisites to be ensured, even under the current climate change conditions

STUDY REGARDING INFLUENCE OF THE ORGANIC FERTILIZATION ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL AND PRODUCTIVITY TRAITS TO THE SOYBEAN (GLYCINE MAX)

In this paper, are presented the results concerning some elements of productivity under the influence of an ecological foliar fertilizer (compound of the green seaweed) namely Algafix applied to the soybean in 4 variants, along with untreated control. In comparison with untreated control, the variants fertilized with Algafix have recorded obvious increases in terms of plant height, number of branch pods/plant, number of pods/branch, number of pods/plant and the MMB. Also, the production showed significantly higher values to variants fertilized with Algafix compared with untreated control, the differences toward control being since insignificant positive (V3) until to significantly (V1) significantly distinct (V4) and very significantly (V2). Results obtained suggest a positive significant effect induced by microbiologic fertilizer Algafix concerning the rapid and vigorous development with regeneration effect of soybean plants and, implicitly, with the higher production results compared to untreated control. We may think that seaweed can revolutionize the plant cellular activity, because it gives to plants everything it needs

THE CLASTOGENIC EFFECT OF TARTRAZINE, A SYNTHETIC YELLOW DYE, IN PLANT MERISTEMATIC TISSUES

Food dyes is used both in commercial food production and in domestic cooking. One of the colorants is tartrazine (Tz), a synthetic lemon yellow dye. The purpose of this paper was to highlight the clastogenic effect of Tz to plants meristematic tissues, using the Allium assay. Three different concentrations (0.3, 1 and 1.3%) were used, the exposure time being 6 hours. The statistical analysis of the obtained results indicates that with the increase Tz concentration, mitotic activity is inhibited, while the chromosomal aberration rate in the cells in mitosis as well as the frequency of nuclear abnormalities in the interphase cells increases. The main genetic abnormalities identified were laggards, stickiness, C-mitosis and micronucleus. These results suggest prudence regarding the consumption of processed foods which containing tartrazine

IMPLICATIONS OF MODERN BIOTECHNOLOGY IN THE FOOD SECURITY AND FOOD SAFETY

Unlike the old techniques of improvement, the modern biotechnology is much more precise and it acts quickly to improve the characteristics of the agricultural plants as raw material used for food products or to improve the food processing itself.The agricultural biotechnologies contribute to ensure to food security and food safety through improve food quality and safety for the consumers, increasing of the variety of food available for human consumption, increasing of the production efficiency, processing and distribution of food; etc.Due to the advanced scientific knowledge and due to control very carefully, the plants and food products obtained by the modern biotechnology may be even more secure than those produced by conventional breeding techniques.This is possibly because the characteristics that are transferred through the use of modern biotechnologies are predictable and the researchers in this field can better understand the changes that are induced, so they are better able to evaluate the safety of food.In 2015, the countries that had the largest areas cultivated with biotech crops were USA, Brazil, Argentina, India, Canada and China and the main Biotech crops cultivated globally weresoybean, cotton, maize and canola. Biotechnology looks extremely promising in terms of increasing the amount of food available worldwide and improving the quality of such foods. The future must belong to the agricultural biotechnology,since it represents one of the most viable means by which to ensure the food security for a global population steadily increasing

RESOURCES, ELEMENTS OF QUALITY AND PRICES FOR SOME ASSORTMENT OF ECOLOGICAL PRODUCTS

Like any organic food, by definition, the ecological biscuits do not contain any type of artificial flavors, conservants or colorings (the controversial "E" symbol), are made only with ecological ingredients from ecological farms certified and their nutritional value is very high. In this context, the aim of this study was to identify some resources for some types of ecological biscuits compared with an assortment of the most commonly purchased by Romanian consumers and evaluating of their quality based on the list of ingredients and nutritional values written on the packaging. The best value for price quality ratio in case of organic biscuits brands was considered the Ecomania biscuits, identified in BioGust store in Craiova city. Invariably, the purchase price of organic biscuits is higher than for conventional brands, but the health benefits, especially for children (who are the largest consumers) are extremely important

BASIC RAW MATERIALS USED IN PROCESSING OF THE SNACK FOOD (ECOLOGICAL/NON ECOLOGICAL) AND THEIR EXPANDING CAPACITY

The food processing involves changing raw plant or animal materials into safe and tasty products. The snack products represents an area of great interest for the food industry both from the standpoint of technologies used to produce these products, and from the point of view of their high popularity among consumers.The snacks type food products are produced on the basis of many raw and auxiliary materials. Usual, the raw materials for snacks are maize, wheat, rice, potato, tapioca and oats, but this is not a complete and exhaustive list.An important ingredient in the production of snacks is the starch content of various raw materials. Starches granules from different sources vary from one another (in terms of size, shape and proportion of amylose and amylopectin), each of which may affect capacity of expanding. Among the raw materials with very good capacity of expanding are included especially potato and maize; on the other hand, the oats has a very little capacity of expanding. For this reason, the oats is used in small doses in the recipes of snacks

ASSESSMENT OF CYTOTOXICITY OF A CAFFEINATED SOFT DRINK USING ALLIUM ASSAY

One of the most consumed caffeinated soft drinks by millions of people globally is Coca-Cola. For healthy adults, caffeine consumption is relatively safe, but for some vulnerable populations, caffeine consumption could be harmful. Therefore, we considered this cytogenetic study to be appropriate for assessment of cytotoxicity effects of Coca-Cola in meristematic cells of plants, through Allium test. A. cepa has assayed to be one of the best model plants for standard use in cytological analysis of different toxins for their cytotoxicity and genotoxicity to plants and animals. The meristematic roots were treated with various concentrations of Coca-Cola (3, 5 and 10ml/cl) for 8 hours, at room temperature, along to an untreated control. It was found that Coca-Cola induced a strong cytogenotoxic effect in meristematic cells of A. cepa as the concentration of Coca-Cola was increased. The clastogenic and aneugenic effect of the tested product was manifested by the decrease of mitotic index (12.5-3.5%) and the occurrence of several types of chromosomal and nuclear abnormalities (12.6-23.2%): bridges, laggards, stickiness and disrupted nucleus. These results suggest that the caffeinated soft drinks can be harmful to health and their regular intake must be avoided. The problem can arises when the consumption is regularized in everyday life, as, unfortunately, many people do

THE VARIABILITY OF SOME CHARACTERS AND THEIR CORRELATIONS WITH THE YIELD OF AN EXTENSIVE ASSORTMENT OF AUTUMN WHEAT VARIETIES, TESTED ON THE CHERNOZEM FROM ARDS CARACAL

In 2021 year, 120 cultivars of winter wheat were tested on the Caracal chernozem in microplots. The following traits were determined: yield, thousand kernel weight, test weight, days from 01.01 to heading date. The variability of the characters was studied by the method of boxplots and variability coefficients. The obtained yield registered values between 12306 kg / ha for the Romanian cultivar Ursita and 5803 kg / ha for the KWS Marvel cultivar. The plant height had values between 110 cm for the Kapitol cultivar and 69 cm for the Avenue cultivar. The test weight showed values in the range 78 kg / hl (Apexus) - 64.2 kg / hl (Atuan). The thousand kernel weight recorded values between 47.2 g for the SY Starlord cultivar and 29.29 g for the Amburgo cultivar. The period from 01.01 to heading date lasted between 143 days (Sophie and Lennox) and 123 days (Tata Mata and Felix). The highest coefficient of variability was presented by the yield, this being over 10%. The lowest variability was registered by the test weight and the period from 01.01 to heading date, the values being around 3%. The analysis of the variability of the yield by the boxplot method highlighted a negative outlier (KWS Marvel cultivar). From the point of view of plant height, by the same method, three positive outliers were observed - Kapitol, Bezostaia and Exotic. Their height - 110, 109, and 108 cm, respectively, is significantly larger than that of all other cultivars. The values of the calculated correlation coefficients suggested that in the climatic conditions of 2020-2021 agricultural year, the yield was not correlated with any of the studied characters, the coefficients being below 0.21 (the value from which the correlation could be considered significant at P = 5%)

STUDY ON THE YIELD AND PRODUCTIVITY ELEMENTS OF AN ASSORTMENT OF WINTER WHEAT CULTIVATED AT ARDS CARACAL

On the chernozem from Caracal, in the agricultural years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, 9 wheat varieties of Romanian origin were tested, creations of NARDI Fundulea: Glosa, Miranda, Izvor, Otilia, Pitar, Pajura, Semnal, Ursita and Voinic. The following characteristics were determined: height, number of ears / sqm, thousand kernel weight, test weight and yield. On average, none of the wheat varieties tested was significantly superior to the control variety Glosa, in terms of yield, although in the second year of testing the varieties Miranda, Pajura, Ursita stood out with significant increases. The average yield was within the limits of 8520 kg / ha for the Izvor variety and 9429 kg / ha for the Ursita variety. The correlations between yield and height, on one hand, and yield and test weight, on the other hand, were not significant, although 29% and respectively, 19% of yield variability, were associated with the variability of correlated characters. Deviations from the sense of correlation were present for the varieties Ursita and Pajura which had both high yields and high test weight, the correlation being negative

THE POTENTIAL FOR USING MICROORGANISMS IN FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY

Microorganisms are complex systems, mono or multicellular, with prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells, endowed with their own metabolism and genetic continuity, very diverse in shape, size and metabolic activity. The microorganisms used in biotechnologies are known as useful microorganisms, used in the form of starter cultures for fermentation processes which are the basis for the development of the food industry: fermentative yeasts used in the beer production, wine, ethyl alcohol, bakery; lactic and propionic bacteria used in the dairy industry and in food preservation, etc.The agri-food field is one of the great beneficiaries of the development of biotechnology, being able to provide in the near future most of the raw materials needed for human food. Technological processes for obtaining food, with some exceptions (sugar industry, oil plants industry, milling industry), are biotechnologies that are based on the use of microorganisms or their metabolites