Iranian Journal of Plant Physiology
Volume:11 Issue: 5, Autumn 2021

Approaches for reducing effects the destructive effects of herbicides and increasing water use efficiency have gathered the interest of researchers over the last few decades. This study aims to investigate the protective effects of irrigation with magnetic water (MWT) on acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase (ACCase) and antioxidant enzymes activity of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L. cv. Lakomka) against undesirable effects of super gallant herbicide. It was conducted in a completely randomized design with 4 levels of super gallant herbicide (0, 25, 50 and 75 ppm) in three replications. Small necrotic spots were observed on some MWT and normal water treated leaves due to the herbicide effect. Although proline content was increased in response to herbicide toxicity, MWT plants had significantly higher proline level than corresponding control ones. On the other hand, malone dialdehyde content as a marker of membrane damage showed dramatic increase due to herbicide treatment. Also, ascorbate peroxidase and catalase activities were raised by super gallant despite of decline in guaiacol peroxidase activity in herbicide concentration dependent manner. Herbicide reduced activity of ACCase in both roots and shoots significantly, but MWT could ameliorate this effect very well. It seems that MWT may be considered as an appropriate solution to cope the negative effects of herbicide super gallant.

An accelerating worldwide trend toward planting elite cultivars is leading towards two types of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L) propagation: offshoot propagation or a tissue culture propagation. However, the date palm diversity is nowadays facing crucial problems. The alternative for both these methods is Seed propagation. Although Seed dormancy in date palm has continued to be challenging especially when cultivating through seeds. This study evaluated the efficiency of the operculum removal treatment combined with temperature on the seed dormancy for four different Moroccan cultivars (Najda, Boufegousse, Aziza and Assian). Thereby the germination Test was carried out using a completely randomized design, the four cultivars seeds were selected and subsequently received the pre-germination treatment. In this survey, the evaluated traits were the germination rate and the germination speed index. Results showed that the treatment significantly (p < 0.05) affect the germination rate and Germination percentage of all of the four cultivars of date palm. The germination rate was above 90% and below 20% for the treated seed and control, respectively. The higher germination rates were exhibited by the “Najda” and “Assiane” seedlings. The highest levels of the germination speed index were exhibited also by the “Najda” and “Assiane”. This study demonstrates that seed dormancy in date palm can best be overcome by an operculum removal treatment combined with temperature.

Today, the use of essential oils of medicinal plants has become very important for human health. Proper nutrition of medicinal plants plays a critical role in the quantitative and qualitative performance of their essential oils. In order to investigate the effects of foliar application of salicylic acid and proline on the vegetative and biochemical characteristics of savory, an experiment was performed in a randomized complete block design with three replicates at the Research Farm in Islamic Azad University, Saveh branch, Iran. Treatments included salicylic acid (0.5 and 1 mM) and amino acid proline (1.5 and 3 g/L), and the control. Foliar application was done in three phases: stem elongation, flower initiation, and flowering. Plant height, number of flowers and side-stems, fresh and dry weights of leaves and shoots, and essential oil percentage and ingredients were investigated. Results indicated that the maximum number of flowers (21.66), plant height (47.26 cm), leaf dry weight (5.34 g), and leaf fresh weight (16.17 g) were observed by applying 1.5 g/L proline. The maximum shoot dry weight (8.85 g), shoot fresh weight (48.53 g), and number of side-stems were observed by applying 1 mM salicylic acid. The highest (183.65 kg/ha) and the lowest (76.92 kg/ha) essential oil yield were achieved by applying 1.5 g/L proline and control, respectively. The most typical components of essential oil were γ-terpinene and Carvacrol. In conclusion, the highest effects on essential oil yield were obtained under the foliar application of 1 mM salicylic acid and 1.5 g/L proline.

To investigate the effect of sowing date on yield and qualitative traits of canola cultivars and cope ‎with late-season drought stress, an experiment was carried out for two planting years in Karaj (Iran). ‎Sowing dates in six levels including three fall and three winter sowing dates were considered as the ‎main factor and five canola cultivars (RGS003, Dalgan, Zabol10, Hyola401 and Hyola4815) as the ‎sub-factors. The results showed that except for palmitic acid, the simple effect of sowing date on all ‎the studied traits was significant in winter. The simple effect of cultivar on all traits in fall was ‎significant and in winter, it was only significant on the seed yield and seed oil yield. The interaction ‎between sowing date and cultivar in fall is the reason of significant effect of seed oil yield, linoleic ‎acid, linolenic acid, erucic acid and glucosinolate and in winter, it is the reason for the significance of ‎seed yield, oil content, oil yield and erucic acid. Dalgan cultivar had the highest seed yield and oil ‎yield on sowing date of October 7, and had the highest levels of oleic, linoleic and palmitic fatty ‎acids. In addition, with low and standard erucic acid and glucosinolate, this cultivar is recommended ‎based on the results of this study.‎

Drought stress is alarmingly on the rise over the past decades. The growth regulators including salicylic acid (SA) and chitosan are being successfully used to protect plants against biotic and abiotic stresses. To investigate the effect of SA, chitosan and their combination on biochemical traits and cucurbitacin contents in Citrullus colocynthis (L.) under different levels of drought stress, four irrigation levels (control (100% Field capacity: FC), 75, 50 and 25% FC) along with three different treatments by administration of SA and chitosan (150 mg L-1), and their combinations were used. Drought stress significantly increased the amount of sugar, proline, lipid peroxidation and the activity of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) while decreased growth parameters, protein, leaf relative water content (RWC), chlorophyll and carotenoid contents. Although SA could increase some biochemical traits including sugar, chlorophyll and carotenoid contents only in severe level of drought stress, chitosan and the combined treatment exerted beneficial effects in almost all levels of irrigation. Furthermore, combination of SA and chitosan induced more protective effects compared to only chitosan treatment in increasing proline and the activities of SOD and CAT. Combined treatment was also effective in increasing cucurbitacin B, C and L contents but not cucurbitacin E. Combination of SA and chitosan showed the major impact on improving physiological parameters and cucurbitacin contents of C. colocynthis and therefore could be a potential candidate to protect the plant against adverse effects of drought stress.

Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) is a common vegetable in the world including Pakistan with high nutritional and medicinal values. It has low yield and biomass production in Pakistan. There is a need to improve its crop production. For this purpose, 50 mmol L-1 treatments of indole acetic acid (IAA), gibberellic acid (GA3) and riboflavin were applied on fenugreek variety Kasuri Methi. Data was collected at flowering stage for various morphological and physiological attributes of fenugreek. Result showed that GA3 and IAA had significant effects on the root and shoot development, foliage growth, peroxidase (POD) and catalases (CAT). PGRs also increased the yield productivity of fenugreek including vegetative yield as well as seed yield. Riboflavin showed non-significant effects on fenugreek. GA3 was more effective as compared to IAA for the enhancement biomass production, yield and biochemical attributes of fenugreek. It was concluded that IAA and GA3 can be used to enhance the productivity of fenugreek.

Nanotechnology is a field of research related to physics, chemistry, engineering sciences with the application of new techniques and production of nanoscale materials and an emerging field in interdisciplinary research especially biotechnology. Camelina is an oilseed and re-emerging plant that requires a lot of research on its oil production process. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles on the expression level of FAE1 and FAD2 in Soheil cultivar of Camelina oilseed plant based on a completely randomized design with four replications in 2018-2019. The aqueous extract of Camelina leaf and silver nitrate salt was used to prepare the nanoparticles. Experimental treatments included 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 mg / L of silver nanoparticles. After the preparation of foliar samples for all treatments, RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis and temperature gradient determination, the Real Time PCR reaction was used to study gene expression patterns. Data were then analyzed using GenEX and SAS software. The results showed that the effect of silver nanoparticles on FAE1 and FAD2 gene expression was significant (p<0.05) and the effect was increased with increasing silver nanoparticle concentration. The highest enhancement was observed at 3 mg / L silver nanoparticles.

This research attempted to gain a better view of music/sound interaction with the plant systems. Savory (Satureja hortensis L.) seedlings were exposed to the diverse sound treatments, including a piece of Iranian Music (IM), an electro-industrial Rock Music (RM), and Urban/Traffic Noise (UTN). The frequencies of IM, RM, and UTN ranged in 800–2000, 1100–7000, and 800–2000 Hz, respectively. The exposure time was three times a day for 45 minutes during two weeks. The applied treatments enhanced shoot dry weight by an average of 55.25% over the control. The IM treatment was the most effective way to improve stem length. The most root length was observed in RM-treated seedlings (mean=2.3–folds). Root dry weight in IM and RM treatments increased by an average 64.39% and 78% respectively. Appling music also augmented the concentrations of chlorophyll pigments approximately by 32%. Moreover, carotenoid content displayed a similar increasing trend (mean=36.5%). Likewise, the applied music and sound treatments upregulated the activities of peroxidase (mean=51.33%) and catalase (mean=21.27%) enzymes, implying stimulation in the enzymatic antioxidant system. However, the amount of total sugar adversely influenced by the treatments (mean=30%). The exposure to UTN was associated with a moderate increase in the proline concentration by a mean of 66% whereas, the music treatments exhibited less increase in this parameter. These findings support the view that both music and sound not only affect plant growth programs but also influence diverse biological processes.