UNIVARIATE AND MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF SOME GARLIC LANDRACES FOR BULBS TRAITS

The objectives of this paper were to evaluate 12 garlic landraces collected fromSouth-Western saline area of Timis County regarding the bulbs traits and interrelationship among them, with a view to exploiting some of these landraces directly in the crop or using these landraces in breeding program. In this region growers use mostly garlic landraces with a high adaptability to specific environmental conditions, like soil salinity.The results prove the existence of a large phenotypic diversity of bulb traits, even between landraces from the same location (Livezile, Sanmartin, Foieni) which suggests that the adaptation to specific environmental conditions have been associated with different morphological features of bulbs. The height followed by the diameter of bulbs has a significant contribution to the achievement of theirweight

Vegetable Landraces: The “Gene Banks” for Traditional Farmers and Future Breeding Programs

Crop diversity of vegetable species is threatened by the current homogenization of agricultural production systems due to specialization of plant breeders and increasing globalization in the seed sector. With the onset of modern agriculture, most traditional vegetable cultivars were replaced by highly productive and often genetically uniform commercial breeds and hybrids. This led to the loss of landraces, especially in countries with a super-intensive agriculture. The agricultural biodiversity erosion represents a huge risk for food safety and security. Vegetable landraces are associated with the cultural heritage of their place of origin being adapted to local agro-ecological areas and are more resilient to environmental stress than commercial cultivars. The chapter aim to highlight the importance of keeping and using vegetable landraces as valuable sources of genes for traditional farmers, but also for future breeding processes. We analyze the historical role of landraces, genetic diversity, high physiological adaptability to specific local conditions in association with traditional farming systems, as well as the breeding perspectives and evaluation of genetic diversity based on molecular markers

Bioprospecting Fluorescent Plant Growth Regulators from Arabidopsis to Vegetable Crops

The phytohormone auxin is involved in almost every process of a plant’s life, from germination to plant development. Nowadays, auxin research connects synthetic chemistry, plant biology and computational chemistry in order to develop innovative and safe compounds to be used in sustainable agricultural practice. In this framework, we developed new fluorescent compounds, ethanolammonium p-aminobenzoate (HEA-pABA) and p-nitrobenzoate (HEA-pNBA), and investigated their auxin-like behavior on two main commercial vegetables cultivated in Europe, cucumber (Cucumis sativus) and tomato (Solanumlycopersicum), in comparison to the model plant Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Moreover, the binding modes and affinities of two organic salts in relation to the natural auxin indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) into TIR1 auxin receptor were investigated by computational approaches (homology modeling and molecular docking). Both experimental and theoretical results highlight HEA-pABA as a fluorescent compound with auxin-like activity both in Arabidopsis and the commercial cucumber and tomato. Therefore, alkanolammonium benzoates have a great potential as promising sustainable plant growth stimulators to be efficiently used in vegetable crops

ASSESSMENT OF PHENOTYPIC DIVERSITY FOR SOME RED ONION LANDRACES FROM TIMIŞ COUNTY

The study`s aim was to assess the phenotypic diversity of bulb traits (shape index, diameter, height and weight) in 15 red onion landraces grown in saline areas of south western TimişCounty. In this region growers use mostly red onion landraces with a high adaptability to specific environmental conditions determined by the abiotic stress factors, including soil salinity. The obtained results showed that significant differences in bulb traits were present between the landraces. This study found that the diversity of the studied red onion landraces was distributed within, as well as among landarces from the same location. Some of the landraces like Sânmartinu S. 18, Livezile 151, PeciuNou 99 and Uivar 305 with favorable traits could be selected for further research and utilization

Mycoflora and Ochratoxin A Control in Wheat Grain Using Natural Extracts Obtained from Wine Industry By-Products

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of some natural extracts obtained from grape pomace (GPE) and grape seeds (GSE) as compared to a synthetic food, antioxidant-butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), in order to control fungal population and ochratoxin A (OTA) production in naturally contaminated wheat. The results showed that the addition of these extracts was efficient with OTA content decreasing. On treatment with these extracts the loss of OTA content after 14 days was in the range 7.8–28.3% relative to the control sample, but increased up to 26.48–37% after 28 days. The highest loss in OTA content was recorded for treatment with GPE at the 500 ppm level. Regarding the fungal development, the obtained results show that the total fungal populations were significantly reduced by using natural extracts. The most efficient extract was GPE. Both BHT and GPE inhibit the growth of Penicillium verrrucosum, for all doses, but less with Aspergillus genera. GPE affects the growth of other types of moulds such as Rhizopus microsporus, Fusarium graminearum, Alternaria infectoria and Cladosporium herbarum. Our data suggested that GPE and GSE are able to provide fungicidal and fungistatic protection and to control the OTA accumulation in wheat, at least in a similar manner to BHT

Exploring Ecological Alternatives for Crop Protection Using Coriandrum sativum Essential Oil

Essential oils (EOs) are a natural source of active compounds with antifungal, antimycotoxigenic, and herbicidal potential, and have been successfully used in organic agriculture, instead of chemical compounds obtained by synthesis, due to their high bioactivity and the absence of toxicity. The aim of this study was to highlight the importance of Coriandrum sativum essential oil (CEO) as a potential source of bioactive constituents and its applications as an antifungal and bioherbicidal agent. The CEO was obtained by steam distillation of coriander seeds and GC-MS technique was used to determine the chemical composition. Furthermore, in vitro tests were used to determine the antifungal potential of CEO on Fusarium graminearum mycelia growth through poisoned food technique, resulting in the minimum fungistatic (MCFs) and fungicidal concentrations (MCFg). The antifungal and antimycotoxigenic effect of CEO was studied on artificially contaminated wheat seeds with F. graminearum spores. Additionally, the herbicidal potential of CEO was studied by fumigating monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous weed seeds, which are problematic in agricultural field crops in Romania. The in vitro studies showed the antifungal potential of CEO, with a minimum concentration for a fungistatic effect of 0.4% and the minimum fungicidal concentration of 0.6%, respectively. An increase in the antifungal effects was observed in the in vivo experiment with F. graminearum, where a mixture of CEO with Satureja hortensis essential oil (SEO) was used. This increase is attributed to the synergistic effect of both EOs. Moreover, the synthesis of deoxynivalenol (DON)-type mycotoxins was found to be less inhibited. Hence, CEO has shown an herbicidal potential on weed seeds by affecting inhibition of germination

Seed Germination and Physiological Response of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) Cultivars under Saline Conditions

The purpose of the experiment was to highlight the germination of sunflower seeds affected by the presence of saline stress and the identification of tolerant genotypes. The biological material was represented by sunflower cvs. (Helianthus annuus L.): Coril, Select, Santiago and Fundulea-206. To simulate the saline conditions, germination solutions of sodium chloride (NaCl) were used with concentrations corresponding to the osmotic pressures -6 and -10 atm and the control seed hydration was performed with distilled water. Determination of seed germination, growth of seedling, percentage of plumules dry matter, chlorophyll content and free proline were performed. The experimental data obtained suppose the existence in the assimilation apparatus of sunflowers seedling subjected to stress a competitive chlorophyll/free proline biosynthesis processes. The experimental results regarding the effect of salinity on seed germination and seedling growth revealed important differences between genotypes. The radicle growth in the germination process were strongly affected by saline excess, with significant differences between cultivars. Saline stress results in significant reductions in the amount of chlorophyll, and high levels of free proline. It can be observed that with the increase of the stress level the percentage of the dry matter increases, indicating an accentuated water deficit

Influenta fungilor Arbuscular Micorizali asupra tolerantei la stresul salin la tomate

A Romanian tomato landrace was tested for tolerance to saline stress in pot culture. To improve the tolerance of plants to osmotic stress, we tested the effect of inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Plants were assessed before and after application of saline solution for chlorophyll and dry matter content. To test the level of tolerance to salinity, we extracted the proline from plants. Results show that arbuscular mycorrhiza determined a significant reduction of chlorophyll content in normal growing conditions, but after the stress was induced, the differences between mycorrhized and non-mycorrhized plants reduced and differences were not statistically different. Dry matter content was not significantly influenced by any factor. After application of NaCl solution, non-mycorrhized plants had the highest proline content, meanwhile the mycorrhiza alleviated the level of osmotic stress