Publications by authors named "Maria Dolores Lopez-Belchi"

L. (plantain) increases herbage dry matter (DM) production and quality during warm and dry conditions due to its deep roots and drought tolerance and reduces nitrogen losses in grazing systems compared to traditional pastures. However, plantain density usually declines after the third growing season, mainly due to defoliation management.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Crop production is being impacted by higher temperatures, which can decrease food yield and pose a threat to human nutrition. In the current study, edible and wild radish sprouts were exposed to elevated growth temperatures along with the exogenous application of various elicitors to activate defense mechanisms. Developmental traits, oxidative damage, glucosinolate and anthocyanin content, and antioxidant capacity were evaluated alongside the development of a predictive model.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this work, chitosan films loaded with gallic acid and different content of chitin nanofibers were prepared and subjected to different characterization techniques. The results showed that the inclusion of gallic acid to chitosan films caused moderate decrease in water vapor permeability (by 29 %) and increased tensile strength of films (by 169 %) in comparison to the neat chitosan films. Furthermore, it was found that the addition of chitin nanofibers up to 30 % into chitosan/gallic acid films additionally improved tensile strength (by 474 %) and reduced plasticity of films (by 171 %), when compared to the chitosan/gallic acid films.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Rice is an essential diet component for a significant portion of the population worldwide. Due to the high water demand associated with rice production, improving water use efficiency and grain quality is critical to increasing the sustainability of the crop. This species includes rice varieties with diverse pigmentation patterns.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Calafate ( G. Forst) is a wild bush plant widely distributed in the south of Argentina and Chile. Their blue colored fruits present particular flavor and health benefits attributed to high polyphenol contents biosynthesized by the plant under stress.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A "box-in-box" cocultivation system was used to investigate plant responses to microbial volatile compounds (VCs) and to evaluate the contributions of organic and inorganic VCs (VOCs and VICs, respectively) to these responses. Arabidopsis plants were exposed to VCs emitted by adjacent Alternaria alternata and Penicillium aurantiogriseum cultures, with and without charcoal filtration. No VOCs were detected in the headspace of growth chambers containing fungal cultures with charcoal filters.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF