Effects of Drought Stress and Re-watering on Osmotic Adjustment Ability and Yield of Soybean

In this experiment,the drought-tolerant soybean variety Heinong 44 and the sensitive soybean variety Heinong 65 were used as experimental materials to study the effects of drought stress and re-watering on the osmotic adjustment ability and yield of soybean.The results showed that given a normal water supply,the proline and soluble protein contents of Heinong 44 and Heinong65 showed an increasing trend during the growth process,while the soluble sugar content increased and then decreased.The contents of proline,soluble protein and soluble sugar increased significantly with increasing drought stress,and the magnitude of increase of Heinong 44 was higher than that of Heinong 65.The osmotic adjustment ability of the drought-tolerant variety was significantly higher than that of the sensitive variety and showed consistent performance at different stages.After re-watering,the proline and soluble sugar contents of the flowering and pod-setting stages and the soluble protein content of the seedling stage were restored to the control levels.Drought stress resulted in a decrease in the effective pod number,pod number per pod,100-grain weight and yield.Severe drought had the greatest impact by increasing stress and decreasing soybean yields,which were followed by the flowering,bulging and seedling stages.

Rice plant growth and yield: foliar application of plasma activated water

Plasma activated water(PAW)was prepared for 10 min to be applied one tofive times as a foliar spray to rice plants,to investigate plant growth,yield and the concentrations of total soluble protein and sugar in the rice grains produced.The results reveal that(1)the plant height,stem diameter,dry weight,chlorophyll and total carotene concentrations were improved by∼15%,∼25%,∼24%,∼47%and∼45%,respectively,with respect to control,(2)defense mechanisms of the plants treated with PAW were improved,(3)concentrations of total soluble protein and sugar were enhanced in the rice grains of PAW treated plants and(4)yield was increased by∼14%.

A Two-step Biotechnological Process for Improving Nutrition Value of Feather Meal by Bacillus licheniformis S6

A two-step biotechnological process was developed using Bacillus licheniformis S6 to provide a simple and economical procedure which significantly improved feather meal nutrition value. Compared with IFM(initial feather meal) and CFM(commercial feather meal), SFEFM(feather meal gained by solid fermentation and enzymolysis with continuous agitation) had a significant improvement(P<0.05) in vitro digestibility, contents of oligopeptides and soluble protein released in digestive juice by pepsinpancreatin digestion procedure, furthermore, some deficient essential amino acids in feather protein(histidine, methionine, lysine)were enhanced. Comapared with CFM, the oligopeptides released into digestive juice of ISFM(feather meal obtained by the biotechnological process described in the paper with intermittent shaking) was significantly enhanced(P<0.05), and its in vitro digestibility was statistically(P>0.05) equivalent to CFM. The summary of the finding to IFM treatment and possible means of further improvements were also listed.

Water Stress Response in Different <i>Jatropha curcas</i>Accessions from Different Geographical Zones of Botswana: Biochemical &Physiological Perceptive

Jatropha curcas L. is one climate smart drought-resistant multipurpose plant with a variety of properties that have conjured interest all over the world due to its potential to produce biofuel. In this study, Jatropha curcas accessions were collected from three different climate zones of Botswana;Northern region (Maun), Central region (Mmadinare) and Southern region (Thamaga). These accessions were subjected to water stress to study their biochemical and physiological responses. Results showed that water stress increased malondialdehyde (MDA) content, electrolyte leakage as well as proline content in all the accessions. It is worth-noting that Maun accession exhibited highest proline content, when subjected to water stress. Maun accession also displayed less MAD and electrolyte leakage than the other two accessions, an indication of less perturbation to membranes under water stress. This could be attributed in part, to its higher catalase and superoxide dismutase contents, which presumably prevented lipid peroxidation by mopping up reactive oxygen species. The slightly higher dry weights exhibited by Mmadinare and Maun accessions could be ascribed to their ability to maintain membrane integrity under water stress conditions. It can therefore be concluded that Maun and Mmadinare accessions can be grown under drought conditions commonly experienced in Botswana.

Differences in dinucleotide frequencies of thermophilic genes encoding water soluble and membrane proteins

The occurrence frequencies of the dinucleotides of genes of three thermophilic and three mesophilic species from both archaea and eubacteria were investigated in this study. The genes encoding water soluble proteins were rich in the dinucleotides of purine dimers, whereas the genes encoding membrane proteins were rich in pyrimidine dimers. The dinucleotides of purine dimers are the counterparts of pyrimidine dimers in a double-stranded DNA. The purine/pyrimidine dimers were favored in the thermophiles but not in the mesophiles, based on comparisons of observed and expected frequencies. This finding is in agreement with our previous study which showed that purine/pyrimidine dimers are positive factors that increase the thermal stability of DNA. The dinucleotides AA, AG, and GA are components of the codons of charged residues of Glu, Asp, Lys, and Arg, and the dinucleotides TT, CT, and TC are components of the codons of hydrophobic residues of Leu, Ile, and Phe. This is consistent with the suitabilities of the different amino acid residues for water soluble and membrane proteins. Our analysis provides a picture of how thermophilic species produce water soluble and membrane proteins with distinctive characters: the genes encoding water soluble proteins use DNA sequences rich in purine dimers, and the genes encoding membrane proteins use DNA sequences rich in pyrimidine dimers on the opposite strand.

Relationship between sKL, BSP and HD abdominal aortic calcification and prognosis

Objective: To investigate the relationship between the expression levels of sKL and BSP and the calcification and prognosis of abdominal aorta in patients with HD. Methods: 130 patients with HD admitted to our hospital between January 2015 and June 2017 were selected as the research subjects;all patients were treated with Fresenius hemodialysis machine for intervention treatment;the expression levels of sKL and BSP in the patients' blood were monitored, and 30 mmonths were followed up The extent of calcification of the abdominal aorta and the quality of the prognosis of the patients were evaluated and the relationship between the expression levels of sKL and BSP and the calcification and prognosis of the abdominal aorta were analyzed. Results: The levels of sKL and BSP in the blood of patients with different degrees of abdominal aortic calcification were significantly different, and the differences were statistically significant (P <0.05). Among the patients with mild or no calcification, the levels of sKL and BSP were the highest in the blood and those in the death group were the lowest. The sKL level was significantly lower than the survival group, and the BSP level was significantly higher than the survival group, and the differences were statistically significant (P <0.05);the survival rate of patients with high sKL expression was significantly better than that of patients with low sKL expression, and the survival rate of low BSP expression was significantly better High expression in BSP;high sKL and low BSP are independent protective factors affecting abdominal aortic calcification and prognostic quality in HD patients (P <0.05);combined use of sKL and BSP in predicting the prognostic quality of HD patients is sensitive and specific Both are greater than 90%, and AUC> 0.90. Conclusions:High sKL and low BSP in the blood of HD patients are independent protective factors affecting abdominal aortic calcification and prognostic quality. The combined application of sKL and BSP can effectively predict the prognostic quality value of patients.

Morphological and biochemical responses of Oryza sativa L.(cultivar MR219) to ion beam irradiation

Objective: Heavy ion beam, which has emerged as a new mutagen in the mutation breeding of crops and ornamental plants, is expected to result in the induction of novel mutations. This study investigates the morphological and biochemical responses of Oryza sativa toward different doses of carbon ion beam irradiation. Methods: In this study, the dry seeds of O. sativa were irradiated at 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, and 120 Gy, followed by in-vitro germination under controlled conditions. Morphological and biochemical studies were conducted to investigate the morphological and physiological responses of O. sativa towards ion beam irradiation. Results: The study demonstrated that low doses(10 Gy) of ion beam have a stimulating effect on the height, root length, and fresh weight of the plantlets but not on the number of leaves. Meanwhile, doses higher than 10 Gy caused reductions in all the morphological parameters studied as compared to the control samples. The highest total soluble protein content [(2.11±0.47) mg/g FW] was observed in plantlets irradiated at 20 Gy. All irradiated plantlets were found to have 0.85% to 58.32% higher specific activity of peroxidase as compared to the control samples. The present study also revealed that low doses of ion beam(10 and 20 Gy) had negligible effect on the total chlorophyll content of O. sativa plantlets while 40 Gy had a stimulating effect on the chlorophyll content. Plantlets irradiated between 40 to 120 Gy were shown to be 0.38% to 9.98% higher in total soluble nitrogen content which, however, was not significantly different from the control samples. Conclusions: Carbon ion beam irradiation administered at low to moderate doses of 10 to 40 Gy may induce O. sativa mutants with superior characteristics.

Nitrogen fractionation of certain conventional-and lesser-known by-products for ruminants

Dietary proteins for ruminants are fractionated according to solubility, degradability and digestibility. In the present experiment, 11 vegetable protein meals and cakes used in ruminant nutrition were included with a main focus on determining various nitrogen(N) fractions in vitro. Total N(N×6.25) content varied from 22.98%(mahua cake) to 65.16%(maize gluten meal), respectively. Guar meal korma contained the lowest and rice gluten meal had the highest acid detergent insoluble nitrogen(ADIN; N×6.25). Boratephosphate insoluble N(BIN, N×6.25) and Streptomyces griseus protease insoluble N(PIN; N×6.25) were higher(P<0.01) in maize gluten meal than in other feeds, whereas groundnut cake and sunflower cake had lower(P < 0.01) BIN, and PIN, respectively. Available N, calculated with the assumption that ADIN is indigestible, was maximum in guar meal korma and minimum in rice gluten meal. Furthermore, rapid and slowly degradable N(N × 6.25) was found to be higher(P < 0.01) in groundnut cake and coconut cake, respectively. Intestinal digestion of rumen undegradable protein, expressed as percent of PIN, was maximum in guar meal korma and minimum in rice gluten meal. It was concluded that vegetable protein meals differed considerably in N fractions, and therefore, a selective inclusion of particular ingredient is needed to achieve desired level of N fractions to aid precision N rationing for an improved production performance of ruminants.