Publications by authors named "Francisco R Quiroz-Figueroa"

The development of hybrid plants can increase the production and quality of blue corn, and, thus, satisfy its high demand. For this development, it is essential to understand the heterotic relationships of the germplasm. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of general (GCA) and specific (SCA) combining ability, as well as the reciprocal effects (REs) on the yields of 10 blue corn lines, and to select the outstanding lines.

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Introduction: The fungal pathogen (Sacc.) Nirenberg () causes considerable agricultural and economic losses and is harmful to animal and human health. can infect maize throughout its long agricultural cycle, and root infection drastically affects maize growth and yield.

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Legumes are an essential source of nutrients that complement energy and protein requirements in the human diet. They also contribute to the intake of bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, whose content can vary depending on cultivars and genotypes. We conducted a comparative proteomics and metabolomics study to determine if there were significant variations in relevant nutraceutical compounds in the five genotypes of Kabuli-type chickpea grains.

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Bacillus circulans E9 (now known as Niallia circulans) promotes plant growth-producing indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), showing potential for use as a biofertilizer. In this work, the use of a low-cost medium containing industrial substrates, soybean, pea flour, Solulys, Pharmamedia, yeast extract, and sodium chloride (NaCl), was evaluated as a substitute for microbiological Luria Broth (LB) medium for the growth of B. circulans E9 and the production of IAA.

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A biofungicide is a natural product that can be derived from various sources such as, among others, microorganisms, higher plants, animal products, phytochemicals, semiochemicals, and antagonist microorganisms. One of the most important approaches for the production of biofungicides is the combination of biocontrol agents. This study showed the inhibition growth of and treated with cell-free extracts of .

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The stationary life of plants has led to the evolution of a complex gridded antioxidant defence system constituting numerous enzymatic components, playing a crucial role in overcoming various stress conditions. Mainly, these plant enzymes are superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POX), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione S-transferases (GST), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR), and dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR), which work as part of the antioxidant defence system. These enzymes together form a complex set of mechanisms to minimise, buffer, and scavenge the reactive oxygen species (ROS) efficiently.

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Every year, more than 500,000 new cases of cervical cancer are reported, making it the fourth leading cause of cancer globally. Although human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines show promise as a protective measure, HPV-related cancers remain a public health problem since the vaccines, which are only specific to certain viral types, are unavailable for mass distribution. Furthermore, the effects of toxicity following ionizing radiation therapy have reoriented views toward the search for radiosensitizers that can reduce toxicity as a consequence of decreased radiation doses.

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Entomopathogenic bacteria and fungi are quite frequently found in soils and insect cadavers. The first step in utilizing these microbes as biopesticides is to isolate them, and several culture media and insect baiting procedures have been tested in this direction. In this work, the authors review the current techniques that have been developed so far, in the last five decades, and display brief protocols which can be adopted for the isolations of these entomopathogens.

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Mycotoxins from the genus are widely known to cause economic losses in crops, as well as high mortalities rates among immunocompromised humans. However, to date, no correlation has been established for the ability of to cause cross-kingdom infection between plants and humans. The present investigation aims to fill this gap in the literature by examining cross-kingdom infection caused by strains isolated from non-immunocompromised or non-immunosuppressed humans, which were subsequently reinfected in plants and on human tissue.

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Rhizobacteria promote and have beneficial effects on plant growth, making them useful to agriculture. Nevertheless, the rhizosphere of the chickpea plant has not been extensively examined. The aim of the present study was to select indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) producing rhizobacteria from the rhizosphere of chickpea plants for their potential use as biofertilizers.

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A high-throughput antagonistic assay was developed to screen for bacterial isolates capable of controlling the maize fungal phytopathogen Fusarium verticillioides. This assay combines a straightforward methodology, in which the fungus is challenged with bacterial isolates in liquid medium, with a novel approach that uses the plant lectin wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) coupled to a fluorophore (Alexa-Fluor® 488) under the commercial name of WGA, Alexa Fluor® 488 conjugate. The assay is performed in a 96-well plate format, which reduces the required laboratory space and streamlines quantitation and automation of the process, making it fast and accurate.

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