Shoot tips excised from shoot culture of Salvia officinalis were encapsulated in 2% or 3% (w/v) sodium alginate and exposed to 50 mM calcium chloride for complexation. Immediately or after 6, 12 or 24 weeks of storage at 4°C, the synthetic seeds were cultured for 6 weeks on half-strength MS medium supplemented with indole-3acetic acid (IAA) (0.1 mg/l) and solidified with 0.7% agar. The frequenc...

Salinity limits crop productivity, in part by decreasing shoot concentrations of the growth-promoting and senescence-delaying hormones cytokinins. Since constitutive cytokinin overproduction may have pleiotropic effects on plant development, two approaches assessed whether specific root-localized transgenic IPT (a key enzyme for cytokinin biosynthesis) gene expression could substantially improv...

Turnip (Brassica rapa var. rapa L.), beetroot (Beta vulgaris L.) and carrot (Daucus carota L.) are common vegetables in South Africa. The allelopathic potential of aqueous leaf and root extracts of Aloe ferox Mill.a highly valued medicinal plantwas evaluated against seed germination and seedling growth of the three vegetables in Petri dish experiments. The extracts were tested at concentrations...

Grafting in species other than Arabidopsis has generated persuasive evidence for long-distance signals involved in many plant processes, including regulation of flowering time and shoot branching. Hitherto, such approaches in Arabidopsis have been hampered by the lack of suitable grafting techniques. Here, a range of micrografting methods for young Arabidopsis seedlings are described. The simpl...

Root hairs, which arise from root epidermal cells, are tubular structures that increase the efficiency of water absorption and nutrient uptake. A low pH (pH 4) medium induced root hair formation in lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) seedlings, and the decapitation of shoots inhibited root hair formation. The addition of shoot extract to the medium restored root hair formation in the decapitated lettuc...

rice (oryza sativa l.) is one of the iran's most strategic crops with water shortage as the most important abiotic stress limiting its yield. in the present research the effects of: variety, water regime, nitrogen (n) and phosphorus (p) levels on n, p and k uptake were studied under greenhouse conditions. the experiment design was a factorial one based upon a randomized complete blocks of ...

Salinity tolerance is correlated with shoot chloride (Cl(-)) exclusion in multiple crops, but the molecular mechanisms of long-distance Cl(-) transport are poorly defined. Here, we characterize the in planta role of AtSLAH1 (a homologue of the slow type anion channel-associated 1 (SLAC1)). This protein, localized to the plasma membrane of root stelar cells, has its expression reduced by salt or...

The relative contribution of nitrogen (N) reserves from seeds or uptake by the roots to the growth and N content of young seedlings has received little attention. In this study, we investigated the contribution of N from the acorn or uptake by the roots to the N content of holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) seedlings and determined if remobilization of acorn N was affected by nutrient availability in t...

A pot experiment examined the biomass and As uptake of Medicago truncatula colonized by the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus Glomus mosseae in low-P soil experimentally contaminated with different levels of arsenate. The biomass of G. mosseae external mycelium was unaffected by the highest addition level of As studied (200 mg kg(-1)) but shoot and root biomass declined in both mycorrhizal and...