Protective potential of selected microbial and non-microbial biostimulants against leaf blotch in winter wheat as affected by the form of N supply.

Introduction: The production of high-quality food for the growing world population on the one hand and the reduction of chemical-synthetic pesticides on the other hand represents a major challenge for agriculture worldwide. The effectiveness of a combination of microbial and non-microbial biostimulants (BSs) with various nitrogen (N) forms in pathogen defense is discussed as a promising, but still poorly understood bio-based alternative for crop protection.

Methods: For this reason, nitrate and stabilized ammonium fertilizer both combined with a consortium of , , and as soil treatment or with a mixture of seaweed extract () together with chitosan-amended micronutrient fertilizer as foliar spray application were compared under controlled greenhouse conditions.

Current Insights into the Molecular Mode of Action of Seaweed-Based Biostimulants and the Sustainability of Seaweeds as Raw Material Resources.

Natural biostimulants, such as seaweed extracts, can stimulate plant growth and development in both model and crop plants. Due to the increasing demands for their use in agriculture, it is crucial to ensure the sustainability of the sources from which they are produced. Furthermore, some seaweed extracts were recently shown to prime and protect from adverse environmental factors such as drought, salinity and extreme temperatures, as well as from oxidative stress.

Recent Advances in the Molecular Effects of Biostimulants in Plants: An Overview.

As the world develops and population increases, so too does the demand for higher agricultural output with lower resources. Plant biostimulants appear to be one of the more prominent sustainable solutions, given their natural origin and their potential to substitute conventional methods in agriculture. Classified based on their source rather than constitution, biostimulants such as humic substances (HS), protein hydrolysates (PHs), seaweed extracts (SWE) and microorganisms have a proven potential in improving plant growth, increasing crop production and quality, as well as ameliorating stress effects.

Priming with a Seaweed Extract Strongly Improves Drought Tolerance in Arabidopsis.

Drought represents a major threat to plants in natural ecosystems and agricultural settings. The biostimulant Super Fifty (SF), produced from the brown alga , enables ecologically friendly stress mitigation. We investigated the physiological and whole-genome transcriptome responses of to drought stress after a treatment with SF.

An -Derived Biostimulant Protects Model and Crop Plants from Oxidative Stress.

Abiotic stresses, which at the molecular level leads to oxidative damage, are major determinants of crop yield loss worldwide. Therefore, considerable efforts are directed towards developing strategies for their limitation and mitigation. Here the superoxide-inducing agent paraquat (PQ) was used to induce oxidative stress in the model species and the crops tomato and pepper.

A Biostimulant Obtained from the Seaweed Protects from Severe Oxidative Stress.

Abiotic stresses cause oxidative damage in plants. Here, we demonstrate that foliar application of an extract from the seaweed , SuperFifty (SF), largely prevents paraquat (PQ)-induced oxidative stress in . While PQ-stressed plants develop necrotic lesions, plants pre-treated with SF (i.

Molecular priming as an approach to induce tolerance against abiotic and oxidative stresses in crop plants.

Abiotic stresses, including drought, salinity, extreme temperature, and pollutants, are the main cause of crop losses worldwide. Novel climate-adapted crops and stress tolerance-enhancing compounds are increasingly needed to counteract the negative effects of unfavorable stressful environments. A number of natural products and synthetic chemicals can protect model and crop plants against abiotic stresses through induction of molecular and physiological defense mechanisms, a process known as molecular priming.

A novel seed plants gene regulates oxidative stress tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Oxidative stress can lead to plant growth retardation, yield loss, and death. The atr7 mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana exhibits pronounced tolerance to oxidative stress. Using positional cloning, confirmed by knockout and RNA interference (RNAi) lines, we identified the atr7 mutation and revealed that ATR7 is a previously uncharacterized gene with orthologs in other seed plants but with no homology to genes in lower plants, fungi or animals.

Experimental and bioinformatic characterization of a recombinant polygalacturonase-inhibitor protein from pearl millet and its interaction with fungal polygalacturonases.

Polygalacturonases (PGs) are hydrolytic enzymes employed by several phytopathogens to weaken the plant cell wall by degrading homopolygalacturonan, a major constituent of pectin. Plants fight back by employing polygalacturonase-inhibitor proteins (PGIPs). The present study compared the inhibition potential of pearl millet PGIP (Pennisetum glaucum; PglPGIP1) with the known inhibition of Phaseolus vulgaris PGIP (PvPGIP2) against two PGs, the PG-II isoform from Aspergillus niger (AnPGII) and the PG-III isoform from Fusarium moniliforme (FmPGIII).

Molecular mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in the resurrection glacial relic Haberlea rhodopensis.

Haberlea rhodopensis is a resurrection plant with remarkable tolerance to desiccation. Haberlea exposed to drought stress, desiccation, and subsequent rehydration showed no signs of damage or severe oxidative stress compared to untreated control plants. Transcriptome analysis by next-generation sequencing revealed a drought-induced reprogramming, which redirected resources from growth towards cell protection.

Purification and characterization of proline/hydroxyproline-rich glycoprotein from pearl millet coleoptiles infected with downy mildew pathogen Sclerospora graminicola.

Hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins (HRGPs) are important plant cell wall structural components, which are also involved in response to pathogen attack. In pearl millet, deposition and cross-linking of HRGPs in plant cell walls was shown to contribute to the formation of resistance barriers against the phytopathogenic oomycete Sclerospora graminicola. In the present study, the purification and characterization of HRGPs that accumulated in coleoptiles of pearl millet seedlings in response to S.