Breeding of Lupinus harvardii as a Specialty Cut Flower Crop

Postharvest Assessment of Lignifying Enzymes Activity, Flower Stem Lignification and Bending Disorder of Gerbera Cut Flower

Scape bending disorder is the most important factor affecting postharvest loss of gerbera cut flowers. One of the ultimate reasons for gerbera stem bending is lignin, with deformation structural functions and defensive mechanisms. This postharvest experiment was conducted to evaluate the role of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) and peroxidase (POD) enzymes activity in stem bending of two gerbe...

Comprehensive Microbial Study on Biocide Application as Vase Solution Preservatives for Cut ‘Cherry Brandy’ Rose Flower

Disturbance in water relations is the major causes of vase life reduction and senescence in cut flowers This problem is mainly due to microorganism proliferation in the vase solution which leads to vascular occlusion and reduction in solution uptake by cut flowers. Therefore a comprehensive study was conducted to evaluate the biocidal effect of nano silver particles (NSP) and compare it with so...

Breeding Bees to the Crop

Flower Volatiles, Crop Varieties and Bee Responses

Pollination contributes to an estimated one third of global food production, through both the improvement of the yield and the quality of crops. Volatile compounds emitted by crop flowers mediate plant-pollinator interactions, but differences between crop varieties are still little explored. We investigated whether the visitation of crop flowers is determined by variety-specific flower volatile...

Occupational medicine as a specialty.

Occupational medicine is one of the more recently accepted specialties and is best defined by the social context in which it is practiced. The current structure of the specialty is more easily understood in the light of its historical background. Occupational medicine brings together knowledge from a wide spectrum of disciplines which is reflected in its academic and research bases. A great var...