Journal of Plant Process and Function

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Abstract: Jasmonic acid and its methyl ester, methyl jasmonate (MeJA), are naturally occurring plant growth regulators, which can affect many physiological and biochemical processes in plants. In present investigation, the effects of methyl jasmonate (0, 1, 10, 100 and 500µM) on some physiological and antioxidative responses in soybean (Glycine max L.) plants were studied. Under MeJA (1 and 10 µM) treatments, shoot dry weight and chlorophyll content increased and lipid peroxidation decreased. Treatment of plants with methyl jasmonate, especially at 100 and 500 µM concentrations reduced shoot dry weight and total chlorophyll content and increased lipid peroxidation. All concentrations of MeJA increased the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) and also increased the content of ascorbate pool, phenolic compound and anthocyanins as well. Based on our results, it seemed that the application of methyl assonate at low concentrations enhanced the antioxidant defence system, at the same time, decreased lipid peroxidation and improved growth parameter. The higher concentrations of methyl jasmonate increased lipid peroxidation and reduced plants growth, so that increasing the antioxidant capacity of plants did not decrease the oxidative stress and did not improve plants growth.

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Abstract: Two experiments were conducted to study the impact of salt stress and salicylic acid (SA) on seed germination and plant growth of maize (SC704) under field conditions in the city of Kerman in 2010. For germination experiment, SA seed pretreatments included control, water soaked, SA soaked in 0.1 and 0.2 mM for 24 hours and salt treatment included control, 40 and 80 mM NaCl. All seed germination parameters including germination percentage, mean germination time, germination uniformity, radicle and root length and seedling dry weight were adversely affected by salt stress. SA especially at 0.1 mM improved all parameters significantly, especially under salt treatment. Under field conditions (40 mM salinity), 0.1 mM SA improved chlorophyll, relative water content, membrane permeability, fresh and dry weight of forage, comb length, grain yield, 1000 seed weight, water use efficiency and K+ in leaf. However, leaf Na+ content was significantly lower when SA was used. Thus, it was concluded that seed pretreatment with SA could be used commercially to improve plant performance and yield in maize under salt stress conditions.

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Accumulation of phenolic compounds is considered as an important tool for environmental stress protection of plants. In this investigation, garden cress seedlings were in control conditions and were irrigated with Hoagland nutrient solution and were treated with methyl jasmonate (MeJ) at 0 (Control),5 ,10 and 20 µM and different concentrations of copper 0 (Control), 50 ,100 and 200 µM. Then shoot fresh weight, phenolic compounds content, anthocyanin content and PAL activity in response to treatments were measured. According to the results, shoot dry weight and PAL activity in treatment (5 μM) MeJ with (50 and 100 μM) copper, were significantly increased compared to control condition. Concentrations of MeJ (5 and 10μM) treated with 50 μM copper significantly increased the chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll and phenolic compound contents control conditions were compared. The results indicated that MeJ may act as a signaling molecule to enhance antioxidant pool and protected plants against injuries caused by Cu toxicity. Based on the results, determined that medium concentrations of MeJ (5 and 10 µM) had good effects on improvement of physiological effects in plants under cu toxicity.

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Cadmium as an environmental pollutant heavy metals have effect on morphological and physiological activities in plants. Selenium, an essential element had beneficial effects on enhanced tolerance in plants against environmental stresses. In the investigation, from Cadmium chloride concentrations 0, 350, 700 µM supplied with added to soil and Sodium selenat 0, 1.5, 3 mg L-1 as a foliar application in two wheat cultivar (Kavir, Roshan) has been used. The test was done in December of 2014 in green house of biology department of Shahid bahonar university of Kerman. The tests were carried on in the form of completely randomed design with three replications in each treatment in two developmental stages, vegetative growth stage or stem elongation and flowering stage. Results showed that cadmium stress decreased content of photosynthetic pigment and increased indicator of EC and too decreased fresh and dry weight of shoots, stem and shoots length, spike length, spike weight, number and weight of seed. Treatments of selenium in 3 mg L-1 concentration decreased indicator of EC and increased content of chlorophyll a amount 35 percent in Kavir cultivar and content of chlorophyll a in Roshan cultivar amount 17 per in comparison with control and too this concentration of Se, promoted all parameters in spike in stress and non stress conditions. Results of weighting elements of Se and Cd, showed that under concentration of 700 µM Cd and concentration of 3 mg L-1 Se, Kavir cultivar in comparison with Roshan cultivar have been could accumulated of Se amount 42 percent inter of seed. Our results it could be concluded that the application of Selenium caused significant alleviation of Cadmium damaged to wheat plants.

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Triacontanol (TRIA), a plant growth regulator that is effective in reducing the effects of abiotic stresses. In order to investigation the effects of interaction between arsenic and TRIA treatment on some physiological indicators of coriander the present study carried out  based on a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with three replications. Factors of experiment include in different concentrations TRIA (0, 5, 10 and 20 &muM) and different levels of oxidative stress induced by arsenic (150 and 300 &muM). Arsenic treatment caused a significant accumulation of hydrogen­peroxide(H₂O₂), a significant increasing in lipid peroxidation, increasing of proline, soluble sugars and enhancing the activity of antioxidant enzymes, GPX, APX and reduction the content of chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll in leaf plant. Simultaneous Treatment of TRIA and arsenic, decreased the amount of hydrogen peroxide and lipid peroxidation , and also reduced the amount of proline and soluble sugars in the plant, while it resulted in increasing the amount of chlorophyll a, b , total chlorophyll and the activity of antioxidant enzymes in the plant and these results showed the significant role of TRIA coriander plant in protection against heavy metal arsenic, which is through the activation of antioxidant enzymes.

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Heavy metals are the cause of major abiotic stresses in plants and a principal contributor to environmental pollution in recent decades. This study investigated the effects of exogenous hydrogen sulfide on the ascorbate-glutathione cycle in the leaves of coriander seedlings under copper stress. Results showed that copper stress not only reduced APX and GR activities but also decreased leaf AsA, DHA, and GSH contents. Pretreatment with sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS), a hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) donor, was observed to enhance both GR activity and AsA, GSH, and DHA contents under copper stress. Moreover, the pretreatment decreased the malondialdehyde content and electrolyte leakage induced by copper stress in plants. Based on the results obtained, it was hypothesized that exogenous hydrogen sulfide alleviates oxidative damage under copper stress by regulating the ascorbate-glutathione cycle and, further, that H₂S plays an important role in the acquisition of copper stress tolerance in coriander seedlings. Exogenous hydrogen sulfide is, therefore, identified as an agent with the potential to be used as a regulator to improve crop tolerance under copper stress.

 

Keywords: Copper stress, Coriander, Hydrogen sulfide, Ascorbate, Glutathione.

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The red-fleshed apples are from varieties of apples confer the competence and high ability in vitro to produce anthocyanins in their organs. Several factors affect the in vitro production of anthocyanins in plant tissue culture and to produce high, the optimizing of these factors are very necessary. Light is one of the most important factors that many studies have been done in this area but the laser irradiation effects has not been investigated. We have studied the effect of combine lasers treatment of He-Ne with diode on in vitro production anthocyanin and cellular growth of cell suspension of red-fleshed apple. This experiment with 18 combinations treatments (blue laser at the intensities of 67.09, 32.74, 30.4 and 13.73 mW/cm2 and a red laser at the intensities of 6.46, 4.82, 1.54 and 0.666 mW/cm2 and two controls including darkness and fluorescent light) as a factorial design based on CRD with three replications for each treatment were applied.With increasing of combination lasers radiation intensity, production rates monomeric total anthocyanins (TMA) and total anthocyanins (TA) increased but lead to was reduced the cell growth. Results of this work showed that probably high intensity of combination lasers radiation treatments as a stress factor made decreased cell growth and induced high concentration of anthocyanins in the cell exposed to stress and good for decreasing injures proceed from stress and also lead to persevered cell of red-fleshed apple through high concentration accumulation of anthocyanin in vacuole.

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Phosphorus one of the critical macronutrient that plays an important role in energy transfer, phospholipid and nucleic acids synthesis and biochemical compounds in microalgae cells, as well as plays an important role in the formation and transfer of metabolic energy in ATP and NADP. In this study, the effect of different phosphorus concentration (0, 2, 4, 8 and 16 mg/L) on growth rate and biochemical composition of Isochrysis galbana was investigated. The results showed phosphorus deprivation decreased cell growth, pigments and protein; while carbohydrate and lipid content of I. galbana increased as the phosphorus concentration increased. The highest carbohydrate, protein and lipid content were 23.5, 34.6 and 36.2 % in phosphorus concentrations of 0, 8, 0 mg/L, respectively. Also, by increasing the concentration of phosphorus from 0 to 16 mg/l, the content of C16: 0 (33.96%) and C18: 0 (23.4%) decreased to 27.75% and 14.37%, respectively. The results of this study indicate that phosphorus concentration significantly affects the growth rate and biochemical compositions of I. galbana.
 

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By changing lifestyle recently many consumers prefer to use processed and ready food like frozen vegetables because of the fastest and easiest way. For this reason, a factorial experiment based on RCBD was designed with 3 replicates to investigate the effect of blanching and freezing method over time on frozen cabbage. Treatments including 2 blanching boil water (Bb) and steam (Bs) and freezing methods home frozen (Fh) and semi-commercial frozen (Fs) and finally packed and kept in the freezer for 6 months. The results showed that the main effect of blanching exhibited that vitamin C decreased in Bs, phenolic compound and antioxidant increased in Bs. The main effect of blanching, freezing and storage time showed that texture, decreased with Bs and Fs significantly and storage time did not affect the texture. Vitamin C, the phenolic compound, and antioxidant decreased in all storage time and freezing method did not affect them. The interactive effect revealed that cabbage quality in chemicals, antioxidant, texture, and nutrient value decreased over time, especially, after 2-month storage in all freezing and blanching method. This reduction can be prevented by proper blanching and freezing method, but it plays different roles for various parameters.
 

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate how various morphological, phytochemical, and morphological traits of Mullein were affected by drought stress. A randomized completely blocks design with four treatments and four replications was used for this study. T1 (100% of field capacity), T2 (80% of field capacity), T3 (60% of field capacity), and T4 (40% of field capacity) were the stress treatments. Plant height, length of inflorescence, number of leaves per plant, flower diameter, flower yield, relative moisture content, proline, chlorophyll a and b, total phenol, flavonoid, and antioxidant activity were the characteristics that were examined. The analysis of variance results indicated that antioxidant activity and leaf number were not significantly affected by drought stress, but other variables were significantly affected (p <0.05). The findings demonstrated that drought stress resulted in a significant increase in proline and total phenol content and a significant decrease in morphological traits, flowers production, relative water content, and chlorophyll a and b. T1 and T4 had the greatest (9.99 mg Q/g DW) and lowest (91.9 mg Q/g DW) total flavonoid contents, respectively. Total phenol contents ranged from 28.1 (mg GAE/g DW) for T4 treatment to 27.47 (mg GAE/g DW) for T1 treatment.