Major advances have occurred the past few years in the cultivation of a number of new, fastidious mollicutes--events which can be traced directly to successful efforts to develop culture media for the expanding group of helical mollicutes (spiroplasmas) inhabiting plants and arthropods. A description of cultivation techniques successful in primary isolation of three unusual mollicutes, represen...

It is well known that growth and yield of horticultural crops can be greatly increased by optimizing the nutritional status of the root environment. Based on plant response, involving numerous fertilizer experiments for the different plants and substrates involved, guidelines can be proposed for optimal nutrient solution and pot substrate conditions. The main factors to be considered are sampli...

Silybum marianum Gaertn., commonly known as milk thistle, seeds of which yield 'silymarine' a flavanoid, has marked antihepatotoxic properties. It is being collected in larger quantities by the pharmaceuticals. There is a great need to cultivate this plant for the sustained supply of the seeds. A package of agrotechnology of the crop is reported in this paper.

The effects of drip irrigation and different cultivation methods on seedgermination and growth of Puccinellia tenuiflora in saline-sodic soils wereinvestigated in field experiments during 2008-2010 in the Songnen Plain, China.Drip irrigation was applied to waste saline-sodic P. tenuiflora grasslands for bothflat and ridge cultivation methods. Drip irrigation affected the distributions ofelectri...

Ganoderma applanatum belongs to the group of white-rot fungi, due to a well-developed ligninolytic enzyme system. White-rot fungi have attracted great scientific attention in recent years, especially with respect to their enzymatic potential for the bioremediation of persistent pollutants. Contrary to G. lucidum, which medicinal properties, as well as ligninolytic enzyme system have been extens...

The aim of this study is to give an overview about content and constituents of oils found in umbelliferous crops and the conditions influencing oil content in those crops. The large family Umbelliferae is rich in essential oils. Oils play the phytosanitary role by preventing parasites and diseases from developing or by acting like selective weed-killers in order to keep the ground clean around ...

Bioactive compounds extracted from plants are widely used. The natural habitats for a large number of plants are rapidly destroyed leading to extinction of many valuable and even endemic species. Studies on the production of plant metabolites by callus and cell suspension cultures have been carried out on an increasing scale since the end of the 1950's. The prospect of using such culturing tech...

BACKGROUND Bt-maize is a transgenic variety of maize expressing the Cry toxin from Bacillus turingiensis. The potential accumulation of the relative effect of the transgenic modification and the cry toxin on the rhizobacterial communities of Bt-maize has been monitored over a period of four years. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The accumulative effects of the cultivation of this transgenic pl...