In vitro propagation of two triploid hybrids of watermelon through adventitious shoot organogenesis and shoot tip culture

In vitro propagation protocol for two triploid hybrids of watermelon using cotyledon explants and shoot tips was achieved. Five benzyladenine (BA) concentrations were tested using cotyledon and shoot tip explants. Cotyledon explants and shoot tips from 6 and 15-20 days aseptically germinated were cultured on Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) containing test concentration of benzyladenine (2.22, 4.44, 10, 24.61 and 44.4 μM). Adventitious hoot organogenesis was initiated in all induction media and the differences among BA concentration were significant. MS medium containing 4.44, 10 and 24.61 μM BA showed the highest percentage of explants with shoots. The stimulation of axillary-bud development from excised shoot tips by a high cytokinin (BA) was observed. Axillary shoots were obtained from shoot tips of triploid watermelon and the multiplication rate ranged from 2 to 5.6 plants dependence on benzyladenine concentration and genotype. Obtained data showed that variation in regeneration rate was demonstrated. Shoots were excised and elongated in MS medium without hormones. The elongated shoots were rooted in MS medium containing 0.1 μM α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA). Rooted plants were successfully acclimatized and gradually hardened-off to green-house conditions and subsequently established in soil with a survival rate of 80%

An Analysis of Conventional and Modern Packaging Approaches for Cut Flowers: A Review Article

Fresh-cut flowers are considered to be one of the most delicate and challenging commercial crops. It is important to take into consideration how to minimize loss during storage and transportation when preserving cut flowers. Many impinging (bad effect) forces can interact to shorten the flowers\u27 vase life. In the flower industry, effective methods need to be developed to extend freshly cut flowers\u27 life. Fresh-cut flowers\u27 vase life can be shortened by a variety of interlocking causes. The flower industry must develop new techniques to extend the flowers\u27 vase lifespan. This review provides comprehensive, up-to-date information on classical, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), and controlled atmosphere packaging (CAP) displays. According to this review, a promising packaging technique for fresh flowers can be achieved through smart packaging. A smart package is one that incorporates new technology to increase its functionality. This combines active packaging, nanotechnology, and intelligence. This technology makes it easier to keep an eye on the environmental variables that exist around the packaged flowers to enhance their quality. This article offers a comprehensive overview of creative flower-saving packaging ideas that reduce flower losses and assist growers in handling more effectively their flower inventory. To guarantee the quality of flowers throughout the marketing chain, innovative packaging techniques and advanced packaging technologies should be adopted to understand various package performances. This will provide the consumer with cut flowers of standard quality. Furthermore, sustainable packaging is achieved with circular packaging. We can significantly reduce packaging waste\u27s environmental impact by designing reused or recyclable packaging

An analysis of conventional and modern packaging approaches for cut flowers: a review article

Fresh-cut flowers are considered to be one of the most delicate and challenging commercial crops. It is important to take into consideration how to minimize loss during storage and transportation when preserving cut flowers. Many impinging (bad effect) forces can interact to shorten the flowers’ vase life. In the flower industry, effective methods need to be developed to extend freshly cut flowers’ life. Fresh-cut flowers’ vase life can be shortened by a variety of interlocking causes. The flower industry must develop new techniques to extend the flowers’ vase lifespan. This review provides comprehensive, up-to-date information on classical, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), and controlled atmosphere packaging (CAP) displays. According to this review, a promising packaging technique for fresh flowers can be achieved through smart packaging. A smart package is one that incorporates new technology to increase its functionality. This combines active packaging, nanotechnology, and intelligence. This technology makes it easier to keep an eye on the environmental variables that exist around the packaged flowers to enhance their quality. This article offers a comprehensive overview of creative flower-saving packaging ideas that reduce flower losses and assist growers in handling more effectively their flower inventory. To guarantee the quality of flowers throughout the marketing chain, innovative packaging techniques and advanced packaging technologies should be adopted to understand various package performances. This will provide the consumer with cut flowers of standard quality. Furthermore, sustainable packaging is achieved with circular packaging. We can significantly reduce packaging waste’s environmental impact by designing reused or recyclable packaging

Controlling Botrytis gray mold in strawberry fruit by bioactive protein isolated from kidney bean

Due to the risks they pose to human and environmental health, there has been a strong push in recent times to reduce the use of chemical fungicides in phytopathogen treatment. In the present study, vicilin was isolated from kidney bean seeds and characterized by SDS-PAGE, zeta potential, and pH solubility curve. The α/ (85 KDa), α (70 KDa), and β (60 KDa) subunits were represented by three distinct protein bands in vicilin. The linear growth of B. cinerea was clearly reduced by 12.96%, 14.81%, 25.92%, 35.18%, and 40.73% in response to vicilin application at 50, 100, 200, 300, and 400 µg/ml, respectively. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of vicilin-exposed B. cinerea revealed hyphae enlargement and conidia distortion. Addition of vicilin from kidney bean seeds clearly reduced the disease incidence in a concentration-dependent manner (100, 200, and 400 µg/mL). The higher doses (400 µg/mL) of vicilin provided higher activity in decreasing the disease severity of the strawberry fruits. As a sustainable glycoprotein, vicilin, found in kidney bean seeds, can be used to combat postharvest fungal infections

Phytochemical characterization and utilization of dried red beetroot (Beta vulgaris) peel extract in maintaining the quality of Nile Tilapia fish fillet

Phytochemicals derived from agro-industrial waste materials could be employed as functional food additives and natural antioxidants to replace their synthetic counterparts, which are increasingly being rejected. The current study aims to assess total phenolic compound (TPC), flavonoids, betalain contents, and antiradical scavenging using DPPH and IC50% of dried red beetroot peel (DRBP) extract at different concentrations of 50, 80, 100, 150, and 200 mg/100 mL t. In addition, a characterization of phenols and flavonoids was conducted using HPLC. The second part of this study aims to utilize aqueous DRBP extract in preserving Nile Talipia fish fillet at two concentrations of 80 and 100 mg/100 mL water, compared with 200 ppm of BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) and control at 5 °C for 10 days. The DRBP aqueous extract was found to have a high concentration of TPC (832 mg/100 g), flavonoids (234 mg/100 g) and betalains (535 mg/100 g) compounds, resulting in a potential antioxidant activity. The IC50% for the extract was detected at 80 mg/100 mL extract. DRBP aqueous extract showed an excellent preservative effect on the fish fillet. Fish fillet samples treated with DRBP extract at a concentration of 100 mg/100 mL were superior in reducing TBA (thiobarbituric acid) increase compared with other treatments at the end of cold storage. Overall, the study showed that red beetroot extracts can act as a natural preservative agent due to their significant antioxidant activity, providing healthy and safe food to consumers

Cereal crop genome editing tools and their applications to sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is essential to attain food security and address increasing climate change concerns. Population, abiotic and biotic stresses and limited agricultural water supplies and land are important barriers to cereal crops production, in addition to extreme weather. These factors influence their quality and productivity. Therefore, there is a pressing need for effective methods of food production under these conditions. For many individuals in low- and middle-income nations, cereals represent a key food source. Developing cereal crops with enhanced flexibility, high yields, and the ability to tolerate these biotic and abiotic problems is therefore essential. Modern OMICS techniques, next-generation sequencing, bioinformatics tools and the most recent improvements in genome editing tools (GET) have made targeted mutagenesis conceivable. By altering a crop variety's endogenous genome, which is free of any foreign genes, genome editing (GE) enhances the crop variety. Therefore, crops that have undergone GE but have not integrated foreign genes are not considered genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in a number of countries. GE is being used by researchers to promote the nutritional value of cereal crops and increase their tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. This review critically discusses the activities of GET, the role of bioinformatics tools and its application to sustainable agriculture for cereal crops

Drought stress-induced modification of morpho-anatomical and yield attributes of mung bean associated with the application of silicon and Moringa leaf extract

Mung bean (Vigna radiata) is the rich source of fiber and essential nutrients. They play a vital role in sustainable agriculture due to their ability to fix nitrogen in the soil and enhance soil fertility. Drought is characterized by limited water resources and severe arid climatic conditions, notably impair crop growth and yield. In the current experiment, two genotypes, Azri-M 2006 and NM-92, were studied against drought stress that was applied as 2 days and 4 days irrigation gap per week. Foliar application of magnesium-silicate (20 ppm and 30 ppm concentrations) and Moringa leaf extract (30% v/v solution) was applied as treatments. The results from the experiment morphology anatomical and yield components were recorded according to the prescribed methods. The result revealed that drought stress reduced the growth of plant. Foliar application of 30 ppm silicon against drought stress showed a highly significant (p<0.001) result compared with control group. Morphology parameters, including shoot and root length, shoot and root fresh weight, root dry weight, leaf area, leaf number, the anatomical structure included (stem epidermis, cortex, and stem vascular bundles,) and also yield components (pod length, and seed numbers). In contrast, MLE (30%) showed a significant impact (p<0.01) on leaf lamina thickness (Leaf anatomical parameters; midrib xylem and phloem, number of stomata on the adaxial and abaxial surface) and yield components included (100-grain weight, grains weight per plant, and numbers of pods,). The overall impact of 30 ppm Si was 39.9% more positive on Azri-M2006 than the NM-92 against the drought stress. The 30-ppm silicon and 30% MLE showed 90% similar results in all studied parameters. This study confirms that 30% MLE could be recommended to farmers to improve productivity under arid conditions than the silicon

Genetic and Morphological Diversity Assessment of Five Kalanchoe Genotypes by SCoT, ISSR and RAPD-PCR Markers

Determining the appropriate parents for breeding programs is the most important decision that plant breeders must make to maximize the genetic variability and produce excellent recombinant genotypes. Several methods are used to identify genotypes with desirable phenotypic features for breeding experiments. In this study, five kalanchoe genotypes were morphologically characterized by assessing plant height, number of inflorescences, number of flowers, flower length, flower diameter and number of petals. The analysis showed the distinction of yellow kalanchoe in the plant height trait, while the orange kalanchoe was distinguished in the number of inflorescences, the number of flowers and flower length traits, whereas the violet kalanchoe possessed the largest flower diameter and the highest number of petals. The molecular profiling was performed by random amplified polymorphism DNA (RAPD), inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) and start codon targeted (SCoT)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tools. Genomic DNA was extracted from young leaves and the PCR reactions were performed using ten primers for each SCoT, ISSR and RAPD marker. Only four out of ten primers showed amplicon profiles in all PCR markers. A total of 70 bands were generated by SCoT, ISSR and RAPD-PCR with 35 polymorphic bands and 35 monomorphic bands. The total number of bands of RAPD, ISSR and SCoT was 15, 17 and 38, respectively. The polymorphism percentages achieved by RAPD, ISSR and SCoT were 60.25%, 15% and 57%, respectively. The cluster analysis based on morphological data revealed two clusters. Cluster I consisted of violet and orange kalanchoe, and cluster II comprised red, yellow and purple kalanchoe. Whereas the cluster analysis based on molecular data revealed three clusters. Cluster I included only yellow kalanchoe, cluster II comprised orange and violet kalanchoe while cluster III comprised red, and purple kalanchoe. The study concluded that orange, violet and yellow kalanchoe are distinguished parents for breeding economically valued traits in kalanchoe. Also, the study concluded that SCoT and RAPD markers reproduced reliable banding patterns to assess the genetic polymorphism among kalanchoe genotypes that consider the basis stone for genetic improvements in ornamental plants

Republication: Targeting PI3KC2β Impairs Proliferation and Survival in Acute Leukemia, Brain Tumours and Neuroendocrine Tumours

BACKGROUND Eight human catalytic phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) isoforms exist which are subdivided into three classes. While class I isoforms have been well-studied in cancer, little is known about the functions of class II PI3Ks. MATERIALS AND METHODS The expression pattern and functions of the class II PI3KC2β isoform were investigated in a panel of tumour samples and cell lines. RESULTS Overexpression of PI3KC2β was found in subsets of tumours and cell lines from acute myeloid leukemia (AML), glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), medulloblastoma (MB), neuroblastoma (NB), and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Specific pharmacological inhibitors of PI3KC2β or RNA interference impaired proliferation of a panel of human cancer cell lines and primary cultures. Inhibition of PI3KC2β also induced apoptosis and sensitised the cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents. CONCLUSION Together, these data show that PI3KC2β contributes to proliferation and survival in AML, brain tumours and neuroendocrine tumours, and may represent a novel target in these malignancies