The purpose of this study was to assess the synergistic effects of exogenously applied proline and glycinebetaine (betaine) in antioxidant defense and methylglyoxal (MG) detoxification system in mung bean seedlings subjected to salt stress (200 mmol·L^-1 NaCl, 48 h). Seven-day-old mung bean seedlings were exposed to salt stress after pre-treatment with proline or betaine. Salt stress caused a sharp increase in reduced glutathione (GSH) and oxidized glutathione (GSSG) content in leaves, while the GSH/GSSG ratio and ascorbate (AsA) content decreased significantly. The glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), glutathione S-transferase (GST) and glyoxalase II (Gly II) activities were increased in response to salt stress, while the monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR), catalase (CAT) and glyoxalase I (Gly I) activities sharply decreased with an associated increase in hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and lipid peroxidation level (MDA). Proline or betaine pre-treatment had little influence on non-enzymatic and enzymatic components as compared to those of the untreated control. However, proline or betaine pre-treated salt-stressed seedlings showed an increase in AsA, GSH content, GSH/GSSG ratio and maintained higher activities of APX, DHAR, GR, GST, GPX, CAT, Gly I and Gly II involved in ROS and MG detoxification system as compared to those of the untreated control and mostly also salt-stressed plants with a simultaneous decrease in GSSG content, H₂O₂ and MDA level. These results together with our previous results suggest that coordinate induction of antioxidant defense and glyoxalase system by proline and betaine rendered the plants tolerant to salinity-induced oxidative stress in a synergistic fashion.

A RIL population from two Australian wheats, Lang and CSCR6, was employed to evaluate the genetic variation and to detect QTL associated with dough rheological characters based on DArT and SSR markers and two environmental experiments. It was showed that the higher variation existed in the RIL for dough rheological characters, and so did much more abundant selection potentials that lacked in Chinese current commercial varieties. Nine additive QTLs for dough rheological characters were identified. Of which those for water absorption (WA) were located on chromosome 2A and 5A, stability time (ST) on 4B and 1B, breaking time (BT) on 1B, degree of softening (DS) on 1B, band width (BW) on 2B (two loci), evaluation value (EV) on 1B. And seven epistatic QTLs were screened out, and non-significant variance was found for the interaction between these epistatic QTLs and the environment. Correlation analysis indicated that there was a significantly positive relation between WA and development time (DT), and EV, whereas negatively related to BW. A significantly positive relation existed between DT, ST, BT and EV each other. They were negatively related to mixing tolerance index (MTI) and degree of softening (DS), both had a markedly positive relation.

Phosphorus is one of the essential mineral nutrients required by all living cells. Phosphate mobilization into the plant is a complex process in which the absorption and translocation of this major nutrient are determined largely by the phosphate (Pi) transporters. In this paper, the recent progress on the plant phosphate (Pi) transporter genes, such as the molecular characterizations, expression patterns in response to Pi status, other inorganic nutrients, and the other factors, expression regulations via arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis, mechanisms of transcriptional regulation, functional identification approaches, and the gene engineering perspectives on improvement of plant phosphorus nutrition, etc., have been reviewed. The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical basis for further elucidation of the molecular mechanism of Pi transportation mediated by Pi transporters and to promote the generation of elite crop germplasms with a significant improvement in phosphorus use efficiency in the future.

This review article is based on different aspects of wheat breeding for drought tolerance. Drought is regarded as one of the most serious threats to agriculture in Pakistan. Therefore, breeding for drought tolerance must be given top priority. Here, we try to study various options available to wheat breeders exploring the underlying mechanisms of drought tolerance. The progress made in conventional and non-conventional (molecular) based approaches with potential findings and constraints are reviewed in this article. Equipped with such information, it will be possible for breeders to further explore the mysteries of drought tolerance and to select genotypes with an improved yield under water-deficit conditions.

Seeds of two varieties (PUSA-212 and BG-256) of chickpea (BoldItalic L.) were treated with 0.03% concentration of hydrazine hydrate (HZ), methylmethane sulphonate (MMS) and sodium azide (SA) for 6 h. The M₂ generation was grown from single plant M₁ progeny seeds. Five morphological mutants (dwarf, bushy, one sided branch, narrow leaf and gigas) were isolated in M₂ generation. Some of these mutants may be directly used in selection whereas some are useful in combination breeding programs.

To inhibit the browning process in fruits of Yali pear, in this paper, antisense gene techniques were used to reduce the expression of BoldItalic gene. A cDNA fragment of 450 bp, which is located at the 3′ terminal of the polyphenol oxidase (BoldItalic) gene, was amplified from Yali pear using the RT-PCR method, then the antisense expression vector was constructed by inserting the fragment of the Yali pear BoldItalic gene between the CaMV promoter and NOS terminator of the expression vector pBI121 in a reverse orientation. After that, with the agrobacterium-mediated method, the BoldItalic antisense gene was transformed into Yali pear shoots. Northern blot analysis and enzyme activity assay showed that the PPO activities in the transgenic Yali pear shoots were significantly decreased, compared with the non-transformed Yali pear shoots. This lays a good foundation for breeding new varieties of pears with browning resistance in the future.

The effects of growth regulators on the respiration metabolism of pear buds during dormant period were studied in this experiment. The results showed that, during early dormant period, the respiration intensity of pear buds was infirm and increased slowly. As the weather became very cold, the respiration intensity rapidly declined, and after that it changed a little. In the later stage of dormant period, the respiration intensity rose rapidly. The maximum value appeared on January 4th, at 0.390 mo1 O₂·g^-1 FW·min^-1, but thereafter declined to its original level. Under natural conditions, three respiratory pathways showed different changes. Pentose phosphate pathway might be the main reason for dormancy release in pear buds. The exogenous gibberellins were more efficient than salicylic acid in increasing the respiration rate. The exogenous SA appeared to play a more important role than exogenous GA₃ in phosphopentose pathway. The effect of gibberellins would be more effective than SA in tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA). The respiration rate of glycolysis was not affected by gibberellins and salicylic acid.

BoldItalic L. is an aromatic-antibacterial herb that destroys malarial parasites, lowers fever, and checks bleeding, and from which the secondary compound of interest is artemisinin. It has become increasingly popular as an effective and safe alternative therapy against malaria, and its derivatives are effective against multidrug resistant BoldItalic strains. Nitrogen is required by the plants in the largest quantity and is most limiting where biomass production is desired. On the other hand, gibberellic acid plays an important role in flowering, growth, and development and also in other physiological and biochemical processes. The feasibility of foliar GA₃ (75 mg·L^-1) alone or with varying levels of soil applied nitrogen (40, 80, and 120 mg·kg^-1 soil) was tested on BoldItalic in the present study. The application of GA₃ proved effective in alleviating the growth, photosynthesis, and enzyme activities of BoldItalic. However, N levels combined with GA₃ showed better responses, and further improvement in these parameters was observed. Furthermore, the most important task we were interested in was to increase the artemisinin content and its yield on a per plant basis. The N combination (80 mg·kg^-1 soil) together with GA₃ augmented the content (21.8% more) and yield (55.8% more); this is true for both the treated plants, which were more than the control.

In the present study, we estimated the size of phyllosphere bacterial populations in young and mature leaves from the same plants and also assessed the population abundance on adaxial and abaxial leaf surfaces. We examined eight perennial species naturally occurring in the same area, in Halkidiki (northern Greece). They are BoldItalic and BoldItalic (evergreen sclerophyllous species), BoldItalic and BoldItalic (drought semideciduous species), and BoldItalic and BoldItalic (nonwoody perennial species). Young and mature leaves were examined from the four sclerophyllous evergreen species for their epiphytic bacterial colonization, and it was found that mature leaves were highly populated compared to the younger ones except in BoldItalic. As regards the bacterial colonization of the two leaf surfaces, no differences were found in most species except for the drought semideciduous type where the two leaf surfaces behaved differently.

Phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C plays pivotal roles in a host of physiologic processes in both animals and plants. Animal PI-PLC is regulated by heterotrimeric G-protein. Plant PI-PLCs are structurally close to the mammalian PI-PLC-ζ isoform, and it is not testified what regulated this isoform enzyme. In this paper, two isoform genes of LdPLC (Pan, 2005) and three subunits of heterotrimeric G-protein in BoldItalic were amplified and recombinated with plasmids of a yeast two-hybrid system. Using this system, we provided the evidence that LdPLC1 and Gβ subunit could be able to interact with each other. This result indicated that LdPLC1 might be regulated by G-protein.

To obtain the secreting expression vector, the signal peptide sequence and mature peptide sequence of endoglucanase from BoldItalic KX6 were cloned into the pET28a plasmid. The recombinant vector pET28a/KX6 was transformed BoldItalic Rosetta (DE3), and the transformant was induced by IPTG. The expression products were primarily distributed in the medium fluid of host cell in a soluble form and the activity was higher than that of other fractions. Both location analysis of targeting protein and activity analysis showed that the signal peptide of endoglucanase from BoldItalic KX6 had played a very important role in the secret expression and activity of foreign proteins in the BoldItalic host cell.

Consumption and processing of allochthonous plant litter by fishes is more common in tropical than temperate streams and rivers. Therefore, aquatic hyphomycetes in water (filtration), leaf litter (bubble chamber incubation), and fecal pellets (direct observation and inoculation to sterile leaf litter) of three dominant fishes belonging to the family Cyprinidae (BoldItalic, BoldItalic, and BoldItalic) in two locations of the River Kali of the Western Ghats, India, were evaluated during postmonsoon season. Spores of 14 and 9 species of aquatic hyphomycetes were recovered on filtering water samples of Kaiga stream and Kadra dam with equal number of spores (32 spores·100 mL^-1) and high Shannon diversity in Kaiga stream. In a bubble chamber incubation of leaf litter, 16 and 9 species were recovered from Kaiga stream and Kadra dam with high spore output (1122 versus 324 spores per mg dry mass) and high Shannon diversity in Kaiga stream. Both direct and indirect methods of examination of fecal pellets of fishes revealed more species in Kaiga stream than Kadra dam (4–7 versus 1–4 species). The spore release in leaf litter incubated with fecal pellets ranged from 2.3 to 98 spores·mg^-1·day^-1 with the highest BoldItalic in Kaiga stream; while in Kadra dam, it was from 0.02 to 22.9 spores·mg^-1·day^-1 with the highest in BoldItalic. The Shannon diversity of aquatic hyphomycetes was high in fecal pellets of BoldItalic of Kaiga stream and BoldItalic of Kadra dam. The top-ranked five species of aquatic hyphomycetes differed in water, leaf litter, and fish fecal pellets; however, BoldItalic was common for all. All five top-ranked species of aquatic hyphomycetes in feces produced multicelled spores; thus, they were likely to have a better chance of viability through gut passage than single-celled spores. Preferential feeding, fungi in gut and feces, and survival and dissemination of spores by invertebrates and fishes with reference to aquatic hyphomycetes were discussed.

The complete sequences of mtDNA D-loops from 362 individuals were analyzed in order to investigate the genetic diversity and differentiation of their lineages. The results indicated that all of the analyzed sequences were differentiated into four clear lineages (A, B, C, and D). Lineages C and D might originate from Lineages B and A, respectively. The genetic diversity of complete mtDNA D-loop of four lineages was very abundant. The 76 bp insertion and the 17 bp deletion were detected in the longest and the shortest sequences, respectively. The 76 bp insertion was a repeat like motif found in many other animals. Lineages C and D were differentiated into two subclades (C1 and C2) and (D1 and D2), respectively. Lineage C might originate from Asia, and Lineage D might originate from Fertile Crescent.

Age, duration and intensity of feed restriction of broiler chickens were studied by L₉(3⁴) orthogonal experiment. Broiler production performance and meat color were measured to evaluate the effects of feed restriction and explore the superior FR program. A total of 250 1-day-old Ross 308 chicks were selected and randomly allocated to ten groups, including one feed ad libitum (AL) group and nine feed restriction (FR) groups; each group had 5 pens with 5 chickens each. Broilers (T₅D₇I₉₀), feed-restricted to 90% from day 5 to day 11, had the highest body weight (BW), carcass weight, eviscerated weight, leg muscle weight and breast muscle weight, as well as muscle ratio. While broilers (T₅D₁₄I₇₀), feed-restricted to 70% from day 5 to day 18, had the lowest. Triiodothyronine (T₃) and growth hormone (GH) decreased while thyroxine (T₄) and the ratio of T₄/T₃ increased in FR broilers. Feed conversion ratio, abdominal fat ratio, whole eviscerated weight ratio and lightness (BoldItalic*) and yellow/blue (BoldItalic*) value of leg muscle color increased in FR broilers (BoldItalic>0.05). T₅D₁₄I₇₀ had the lowest red/green (BoldItalic*) color value of leg muscle and the highest BoldItalic* and BoldItalic* color values of breast muscle (BoldItalic>0.05). FR groups except T₁₀D₁₄I₉₀ had lower a* color value of breast muscle than AL. FR program of T₅D₇I₉₀ resulted in superior production performance and higher capability of meat production. Broilers feed-restricted T₅D₁₄I₇₀ were stunted with the lowest muscle growth capability and deteriorated in the breast muscle color. FR improved leg muscle color and increased broiler byproduct production. Lower T₃ and GH concentration and higher T₄/T₃ ratio in plasma were related with the increased feed conversion rate and fat deposition in FR broilers; however, they had no relation with meat production and growth rate.

To investigate the metabolism mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine “Yimu Shenghuatang” on dairy cow endometrial cells, the primary cultured endometrial cells in dairy cows were isolated by a collagenase digestion method, and an inflammatory model of the endometrial cells by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was made. The cells were treated with gradient concentrations of LPS, the cultured supernatants were collected in different periods, and the contents of TNF-α, IL-1β were determined by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results showed that 100 ng·mL^-1 LPS was the optimal concentration to induce the inflammation of cultured endometrial cells. The inflammatory endometrial cells were treated with traditional Chinese medicine “Yimu Shenghuatang” and its main components during the period of 24–72 h, and the expression of cytochrome P450 in cow endometrial cells was determined by Western blot. Our result lays a foundation for treating cow endometritis by using traditional Chinese medicines.

This study reports on the multivariate analysis of the vegetation of Hindukush Range in Pakistan, concentrating on the structure and regeneration potential of BoldItalic and associated tree species. Twenty stands at different locations in the Dir District of the Hindukush Range in Pakistan were chosen for the study. A point centered quarter method for trees and 5 m × 5 m size quadrats were used for the sampling of understorey vegetation, including shrubs, seedlings, and saplings, respectively. The underlying group structure in vegetation was exposed by an agglomerative clustering technique, while major trends were disclosed by DCA ordination. Size class structure and regeneration potential of BoldItalic and associated tree species were also examined, which reflects the future trend of species and, consequently, the forests where they dominate. The relationships between environmental factors and vegetation were investigated.

The arboreal vegetation was mostly dominated by broad leaved species including BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic. Among the understorey vegetation, the abundant species were BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic, BoldItalic seedlings of BoldItalic, BoldItalic, and BoldItalic. At the seedling and sapling stage, the maximum number was observed for BoldItalic (27±5.75 and 38±7.1), followed by BoldItalic (18±2.2 and 12±1.0) and BoldItalic. As far as regeneration status is concerned, 34% species showed good regeneration, 50% species were facing the problem of poor regeneration while, and only 16% species were not regenerating. Five groups of tree vegetation that emerged from Ward’s cluster analysis could readily be superimposed on DCA ordination. These groups were associated with particular elevation and, to a lesser extent, with edaphic variables, such as pH and nutrients. Some of the topographic and edaphic variables, such as soil nutrient, showed significant or weak linear relationships with one or more ordination axes. The size class structure of BoldItalic and associated tree species for individual stands exhibited a few gaps. Relationships between density and basal area were significant, but the density and basal area with altitudinal and slope gradient showed an insignificant relation. Some recommendations are outlined for future research and sustainable management of these forests species.

Opium poppy (BoldItalic L.), an important medicinal plant, produces several opiate alkaloids including morphine, thebaine, codeine, papaverine and noscapine. Polysaccharides, such as sodium alginate, have been used in depolymerized form as wonderful promoters of plant growth. The present study has revealed that application of alginate oligosaccharides (AO), obtained from sodium alginate irradiated by Co-60 gamma rays, significantly enhances certain physiological/biochemical parameters as well as the overall growth of opium poppy. The highest dose applied was the most effective in increasing the morphine and codeine contents as well as the overall yield of crude opium per plant.