Plant growth-promoting microorganisms as biocontrol agents of plant diseases: Mechanisms, challenges and future perspectives

Plant diseases and pests are risk factors that threaten global food security. Excessive chemical pesticide applications are commonly used to reduce the effects of plant diseases caused by bacterial and fungal pathogens. A major concern, as we strive toward more sustainable agriculture, is to increase crop yields for the increasing population. Microbial biological control agents (MBCAs) have proved their efficacy to be a green strategy to manage plant diseases, stimulate plant growth and performance, and increase yield. Besides their role in growth enhancement, plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria/fungi (PGPR/PGPF) could suppress plant diseases by producing inhibitory chemicals and inducing immune responses in plants against phytopathogens. As biofertilizers and biopesticides, PGPR and PGPF are considered as feasible, attractive economic approach for sustainable agriculture; thus, resulting in a “win-win” situation. Several PGPR and PGPF strains have been identified as effective BCAs under environmentally controlled conditions. In general, any MBCA must overcome certain challenges before it can be registered or widely utilized to control diseases/pests. Successful MBCAs offer a practical solution to improve greenhouse crop performance with reduced fertilizer inputs and chemical pesticide applications. This current review aims to fill the gap in the current knowledge of plant growth-promoting microorganisms (PGPM), provide attention about the scientific basis for policy development, and recommend further research related to the applications of PGPM used for commercial purposes

Promising prospective effects of Withania somnifera on broiler performance and carcass characteristics: A comprehensive review

Poultry production contributes markedly to bridging the global food gap. Many nations have limited the use of antibiotics as growth promoters due to increasing bacterial antibiotic tolerance/resistance, as well as the presence of antibiotic residues in edible tissues of the birds. Consequently, the world is turning to use natural alternatives to improve birds' productivity and immunity. Withania somnifera, commonly known as ashwagandha or winter cherry, is abundant in many countries of the world and is considered a potent medicinal herb because of its distinct chemical, medicinal, biological, and physiological properties. This plant exhibits antioxidant, cardioprotective, immunomodulatory, anti-aging, neuroprotective, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, antistress, antitumor, hepatoprotective, and growth-promoting activities. In poultry, dietary inclusion of W. somnifera revealed promising results in improving feed intake, body weight gain, feed efficiency, and feed conversion ratio, as well as reducing mortality, increasing livability, increasing disease resistance, reducing stress impacts, and maintaining health of the birds. This review sheds light on the distribution, chemical structure, and biological effects of W. somnifera and its impacts on poultry productivity, livability, carcass characteristics, meat quality, blood parameters, immune response, and economic efficiency

DESIGNING AN INTEGRATED COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR VEGETABLE PRODUCTION IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA

Vegetable production provide great value in the agricultural production sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Growers and agricultural engineers need a comprehensive database in Arabic lan-guage that can be available for use any time any where. Therefore, this research project was initiat-ed. The computer program was developed using Visual Basic Net 2005 which is one of the ad-vanced visual programming languages. We took into consideration easy usage and coherence be-tween all program components. Main results in-clude computer program with the data base, which includes: vegetable crops, diseases, insect pests and other pests that attacks vegetable crops, management tactics, cultural practices, irrigation requirements, planting dates, data search. Fur-thermore, field trips have been carried out to some vegetable farms in all the Kingdom regions. A digit-ized map of the Kingdom has been added to the program in addition to crop water and heat re-quirements. Various search capabilities have been developed in the program. After the completion of the program build up, verification trips have been carried out for five regions in the presence of farm-ers and extension specialists of the different direc-torate of the Ministry of Agriculture to test the accu-racy of steps used in the program. A manual for the computer program as well as leaflet on pro-gram set up and usage have been included. It is recommended to make this program available at the internet and distribute copies to the Ministry of Agriculture and its directorates as well as farmers

Spectroscopic and semiempirical investigation of the structural features of hetarylazo-5-isoxazolones tautomerism

3-Methyl-4-hetarylazo-5-isoxazolones (I–IV) have been synthesized and investigated on the basis of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), UV–visible (UV–Vis), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopic techniques and elemental analysis. The measured FT-IR and 1H NMR spectra together with the theoretical calculations (semiempirical) showed that the investigated compounds exist in the hydrazone-keto form in the solid state and chloroform. However, the measured UV–Vis electronic absorption spectra in solutions clarified that the hetarylazo-5-isoxazolone dyes possess equilibrium between hydrazone-keto and common anion forms depending upon the nature of the medium. Furthermore, these dyes display a broad absorption band in the visible region (between 370 and 435 nm) which could be assigned to π–π∗ transition with a considerable intramolecular charge transfer (CT) character