Publications by authors named "Emilia dell'Aversana"

Although primary metabolism is well conserved across species, it is useful to explore the specificity of its network to assess the extent to which some pathways may contribute to particular outcomes. Constraint-based metabolic modelling is an established framework for predicting metabolic fluxes and phenotypes and helps to explore how the plant metabolic network delivers specific outcomes from temporal series. After describing the main physiological traits during fruit development, we confirmed the correlations between fruit relative growth rate (RGR), protein content and time to maturity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

C4 photosynthesis concentrates CO2 around Rubisco in the bundle sheath, favouring carboxylation over oxygenation and decreasing photorespiration. This complex trait evolved independently in >60 angiosperm lineages. Its evolution can be investigated in genera such as Flaveria (Asteraceae) that contain species representing intermediate stages between C3 and C4 photosynthesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Biostimulants have rapidly and widely been adopted as growth enhancers and stress protectants in agriculture, however, due to the complex nature of these products, their mechanism of action is not clearly understood. By using two algal based commercial biostimulants in combination with the cv. MicroTom model system, we assessed how the modulation of nitrogen metabolites and potassium levels could contribute to mediate physiological mechanisms that are known to occur in response to salt/and or osmotic stress.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The effect of plant biostimulation on fruits of traditional tomato germplasm is largely unknown. We examined how a tropical plant-derived biostimulant impacts the nutritional, functional, and compositional characteristics of tomato fruits from four landraces, collected in the San Marzano (SM) tomato Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) region, by profiling primary and secondary metabolites. Biostimulation was not able to completely reshuffle the morpho-physiological and nutritional profile of the four landraces.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

With. is a wild salt tolerant cereal present in the saline depressions of the Eastern Tunisia, where it significantly contributes to the annual biomass production. In a previous study on shoot tissues it was shown that this species withstands with high salinity at the seedling stage restricting the sodium entry into shoot and modulating over time the leaf synthesis of organic osmolytes for osmotic adjustment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

is a quantitative long day plant grown for cut flowers and flowering potted plants production. We evaluated the influence of light spectrum of three light sources for end-of-day photoperiodic treatments, with different phytochrome photoequilibria (PPE) induced at plant level, on the metabolic profiling of two hybrids of L., MBO and MDR, in plants from vernalized tuberous roots.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Photoperiodic light quality affects flowering of long day plants, by influencing the phytochrome photoequilibria (PPE) at plant level; however, the most effective light spectrum to promote flowering is still unknown for most of the flower crops. We evaluated the influence of light spectrum of three light sources, with different induced PPE, on photosynthesis, metabolic profiling, plant growth and flowering in two hybrids of Ranunculus asiaticus L., MBO (early flowering) and MDR (medium earliness).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Omeprazole is a selective proton pump inhibitor in humans that inhibits the H/K-ATPase of gastric parietal cells. Omeprazole has been recently shown to act as a plant growth regulator and enhancer of salt stress tolerance. Here, we report that omeprazole treatment in hydroponically grown maize improves nitrogen uptake and assimilation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Compositional characterization was performed on seven 'Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio' (PPV) tomato landraces, a signature product of Campania (Italy) threatened by genetic erosion. Characterization encompassed determinations of macro-minerals, soluble carbohydrates, starch, acidity, lycopene, polyphenols, anthocyanins, protein and free amino acids. Exceptionally high dry matter (13.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Several halophytes and a few crop plants, including Poaceae, synthesize and accumulate glycine betaine (GB) in response to environmental constraints. GB plays an important role in osmoregulation, in fact, it is one of the main nitrogen-containing compatible osmolytes found in Poaceae. It can interplay with molecules and structures, preserving the activity of macromolecules, maintaining the integrity of membranes against stresses and scavenging ROS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Climate change will inevitably lead to environmental variations, thus plant drought tolerance will be a determinant factor in the success of plantations and natural forestry recovery. Some metabolites, such as soluble carbohydrates and amino acids, have been described as being the key to both embryogenesis efficiency and abiotic stress response, contributing to phenotypic plasticity and the adaptive capacity of plants. For this reason, our main objectives were to evaluate if the temperature during embryonal mass initiation in radiata pine was critical to the success of somatic embryogenesis, to alter the morphological and ultrastructural organization of embryonal masses at cellular level and to modify the carbohydrate, protein, or amino acid contents.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Durum wheat plants are extremely sensitive to drought and salinity during seedling and early development stages. Their responses to stresses have been extensively studied to provide new metabolic targets and improving the tolerance to adverse environments. Most of these studies have been performed in growth chambers under low light [300-350 µmol m s photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), LL].

View Article and Find Full Text PDF