Environmental hormesis in living systems: The role of hormetic trade-offs.

Hormesis (low-dose stimulation and high-dose inhibition) can be accompanied by hormetic trade-offs, that is, stimulation of some traits and inhibition (trade-off 1) or invariability (trade-off 2) of others. Currently, trade-off options and their biological significance are insufficiently studied. Therefore, the review analyses trade-off types, their relationship with asynchronous stress responses of indicators, the importance of trade-offs for preconditioning, hormesis transgenerational effects, fitness, and evolution.

A method for assessing the frequency of hormetic trade-offs in plants.

Hormesis is a biphasic response to stress, involving low-dose stimulation and high-dose inhibition. Currently, attempts are being made to use the hormetic stimulation of plant parameters to increase resilience to severe stress. However, due to hormetic trade-offs, low-dose stress does not always cause synchronous improvement of different plant parameters.

Environmental hormesis of non-specific and specific adaptive mechanisms in plants.

Adaptive responses of plants are important not only for local processes in populations and communities but also for global processes in the biosphere through the primary production of ecosystems. In recent years, the concept of environmental hormesis has been increasingly used to explain the adaptive responses of living organisms, including plants, to low doses of natural factors, both abiotic and biotic, as well as various anthropogenic impacts. However, the issues of whether plant hormesis is similar/different when it is induced by mild stressors having different specific effects and what is the contribution of hormetic stimulation of non-specific and specific adaptive mechanisms in plant resilience to strong stressors (i.

Synthesis of ZnO Nanoparticles Doped with Cobalt Using Bimetallic ZIFs as Sacrificial Agents.

We report here a simple two-stage synthesis of zinc-cobalt oxide nanoparticles. We used Zn/Co-zeolite imidazolate framework (ZIF)-8 materials as precursors for annealing and optional impregnation with a silicon source for the formation of a protective layer on the surface of oxide nanoparticles. Using bimetallic ZIFs allowed us to trace the phase transition of the obtained oxide nanoparticles from wurtzite ZnO to spinel CoO structures.

Estimating the frequency of hormesis and other non-monotonic responses in plants experiencing road traffic pollution in urban areas and experimental pollutant exposure.

Various plant traits are widely utilised to assess environment health. However, non-monotonic responses in plants (hormesis and non-hormetic ones) can induce an incorrect assessment of contamination level because they have maximums and/or minimums. Hence, an increase in the pollution level will not always be accompanied by plant index deteriorations.