Yield responses of maize as influenced by supplemental foliar applied phosphorus under drought stress

Drought is one of the most serious problems posing a grave threat to cereals production including maize. A field study was conducted to evaluate the effect of foliar applied phosphorus @ 8 kg ha-1 at 8th leaf stage on yield and yield components of four maize hybrids i.e two drought tolerant (6525, 32B33) and two drought sensitive (Hycorn and 31P41) under normal and water stress conditions. RCBD with factorial arrangement were employed to lay out the experiment with a net plot size of 4.75 m x 5 m with three replication at research area of Agronomy, Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. The foliar applied phosphorus @ 8 kg ha-1 at 8th leaf stage of maize significantly affect the yield and yield parameters in both drought tolerant and sensitive hybrids. The water stress decreased the 1000-grain weight (21.2%), grain yield (21.3%) and biological yield (22.4%) as compared to normal irrigation. The both drought tolerant hybrids of maize (6525 and 32B33) performed better than drought sensitive hybrids (Hycorn and 31P41) under normal and water stress conditions

Plant Secondary Metabolites and Abiotic Stress Tolerance: Overview and Implications

Plant secondary metabolites (PSM) are one of the major sources of industrially important products such as food additives due to their distinctive tastes, smells, and flavors. Unlike primary metabolites such as carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins, these secondary chemicals are not involved in plant growth, development, and reproduction but play a significant role in ecosystem functioning. These secondary biochemicals also play a key role in plant communication and defense, particularly under different environmental stresses. Plants may exhibit a defense response to combat these abiotic environmental stressors by generating a variety of PSMs to minimize cell and tissue damage. Secondary metabolites are very diverse (almost more than 200,000) in nature, majorly classified into terpenoids, phenolic compounds, nitrogen, and sulfur-containing secondary metabolites, separated based on biosynthetic pathways (shikimate pathway, mevalonic pathway, and tricarboxylic acid cycle pathway). This chapter summarizes the stimulating effects of different abiotic stressors (heavy metals, cold and high temperature, light, salinity, and drought) on secondary metabolite production. A major focus is given on the synthesis of secondary metabolite and accumulation in plants under stressful conditions, and their role in the regulation of plant defense

Consequences and Mitigation Strategies of Heat Stress for Sustainability of Soybean (<em>Glycine max</em> L. Merr.) Production under the Changing Climate

Increasing ambient temperature is a major climatic factor that negatively affects plant growth and development, and causes significant losses in soybean crop yield worldwide. Thus, high temperatures (HT) result in less seed germination, which leads to pathogenic infection, and decreases the economic yield of soybean. In addition, the efficiency of photosynthesis and transpiration of plants are affected by high temperatures, which have negative impact on the physio-biochemical process in the plant system, finally deteriorate the yield and quality of the affected crop. However, plants have several mechanisms of specific cellular detection of HT stress that help in the transduction of signals, producing the activation of transcription factors and genes to counteract the harmful effects caused by the stressful condition. Among the contributors to help the plant in re-establishing cellular homeostasis are the applications of organic stimulants (antioxidants, osmoprotectants, and hormones), which enhance the productivity and quality of soybean against HT stress. In this chapter, we summarized the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of soybean plants at various growth stages under HT. Furthermore, it also depicts the mitigation strategies to overcome the adverse effects of HT on soybean using exogenous applications of bioregulators. These studies intend to increase the understanding of exogenous biochemical compounds that could reduce the adverse effects of HT on the growth, yield, and quality of soybean

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P &lt; 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Seed Priming with Sulfhydral Thiourea Enhances the Performance of Camelina sativa L. under Heat Stress Conditions

Temperature is a key factor influencing plant growth and productivity; however, temperature fluctuations can cause detrimental effects on crop growth. This study aimed to assess the effect of seed priming on Camelina sativa L. under heat stress. Experimental treatments were comprised of; seed priming including, no-priming, hydropriming (distilled water priming), and osmopriming (thiourea applications at 500 ppm), heat stress (control = 20 °C and heat stress = 32 °C), and camelina varieties (7126 and 8046). Heat stress hammered crop growth as relative water content and photosynthetic rate were reduced by 35.9% and 49.05% in 7126, respectively, and 25.6% and 41.2% in 8046 as compared with control-no thiourea applied. However, osmopriming with thiourea improved the root and shoot length, and biomass production compared to control–no application under heat stress, with more improvement in variety 8046 as compared with 7126. Moreover, the maximum values of gas exchange and water relations were recorded at thiourea priming and no stress as compared with no-priming under heat stress that helped to improve seed yield by 12% in 7126 and 15% in 8046, respectively. Among the varieties, camelina variety 8046 showed better performance than 7126 by producing higher seed yield especially when subjected to thiourea priming. In conclusion, thiourea seed priming helped the plants to mitigate the adverse effects of heat stress by upregulating plant physiological attributes that lead to maintain camelina seed yield

Impact of Bt-cotton on soil microbiological and biochemical attributes

Transgenic Bt-cotton produces Bt-toxins (Cry proteins) which may accumulate and persist in soil due to their binding ability on soil components. In the present study, the potential impacts of Bt- and non-Bt genotypes of cotton on soil microbial activity, substrate use efficiency, viable microbial population counts, and nutrient dynamics were studied. Two transgenic Bt-cotton genotypes (CIM-602 CIM-599) expressing cry1 Ac gene and two non-Bt cotton genotypes (CIM-573 and CIM-591) were used to evaluate their impact on biological and chemical properties of soil across the four locations in Punjab. Field trials were conducted at four locations (Central Cotton Research Institute-Multan, Naseer Pur, Kot Lal Shah, and Cotton Research Station-Bahawalpur) of different agro-ecological zones of Punjab. Rhizosphere soil samples were collected by following standard procedure from these selected locations. Results reveled that Bt-cotton had no adverse effect on microbial population (viable counts) and enzymatic activity of rhizosphere soil. Bacterial population was more in Bt-cotton rhizosphere than that of non-Bt cotton rhizosphere at all locations. Phosphatase, dehydrogenase, and oxidative metabolism of rhizosphere soil were more in Bt-cotton genotypes compared with non-Bt cotton genotypes. Cation exchange capacity, total nitrogen, extractable phosphorous, extractable potassium, active carbon, Fe and Zn contents were higher in rhizosphere of Bt-cotton genotypes compared with non-Bt cotton genotypes. It can be concluded from present study that the cultivation of Bt-cotton expressing cry1 Ac had apparently no negative effect on metabolic, microbiological activities, and nutrient dynamics of soils. Further work is needed to investigate the potential impacts of Bt-cotton on ecology of soil-dwelling insects and invertebrates before its recommendation for extensive cultivation

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF GROWTH, PHYSIOLOGY AND YIELD ATTRIBUTES OF CAMELINA (CAMELINA SATIVA L.) AND CANOLA (BRASSICA NAPUS L.) UNDER DIFFERENT IRRIGATION REGIMES

Camelina (Camelina sativa L.) is an alternative oilseed crop having several attractive features making it a potential oilseed crop. To assess the physiology, growth and yield responses of different genotypes of camelina and canola crops under various irrigation regimes two field trials were conducted for consecutive growing seasons in 2013-14 and 2014-15. Randomized complete block design (RCBD with factorial arrangements was adopted. In this experiment two camelina genotypes (Camelina-611 and Camelina-618), and two canola genotypes (Punjab sarsoon and Faisal canola) were used with four levels of irrigations I-0 (two irrigations: 1st at vegetative stage and 2nd at reproductive stage), I-1 (one irrigation at vegetative stage), I-2 (one irrigation at reproductive stage), and I-3 (no irrigation). The results revealed that the maximum values of leaf gas exchange traits, chlorophyll and carotenoid content, leaf water relation, yield and yield components were noted when two irrigations (I-0) were applied and it was followed by one irrigation at vegetative stage (I-1). However, the minimum values of these traits were recorded in water deficit plants that received no irrigation (I-3). Among the genotypes Camelina-618 relatively performed well as compared to other genotypes regarding all the recorded parameters (leaf gas exchange, chlorophyll and carotenoid content, leaf water relation, yield and yield components) under both well-watered and water stressed conditions