BACKGROUND: Nitrogen is a basic plant component, playing a decisive role in the intensification of plant production. Bio-fertilizers play a very significant role in improving soil fertility by fixing atmospheric nitrogen, both, in association with plant roots and without it, insoluble soil phosphates and produces plant growth substances in the soil. OBJECTIVES:</s...

The almond, which is a member of the Rosaceae family, is the fruit of the almond tree (Prunus dulcis). It has a hard endocarp that contains a seed covered by a rough, brownish skin. Unlike other prunoid fruits, which have an edible mesocarp and an outer skin known as the epicarp, the almond fruit has an epicarp and a mesocarp that are diffi cult to separate and have no nutritional or commercial...

In the dry forest of Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica, the understory shrub Jacquinia nervosa presents an inverse pattern of phenology that concentrates vegetative growth and reproduction during the dry season. In this study, we tested the "escape from herbivory" hypothesis as a potential explanation for the inverse phenological pattern of J. nervosa. We monitored leaf, flower and fruit pro...

The seed maturation programme occurs only during the late phase of embryo development, and repression of the maturation genes is pivotal for seedling development. However, mechanisms that repress the expression of this programme in vegetative tissues are not well understood. A genetic screen was performed for mutants that express maturation genes in leaves. Here, it is shown that mutations affe...

Plant oils in the form of triacylglycerol (TAG) are used for food, industrial feedstock and biofuel manufacture. Although TAG is typically harvested from the fruit or seeds of oil crop species, plants can also accumulate small amounts of TAG in the leaves and other vegetative tissues. Here we show that leaf TAG levels can be increased significantly (10-20 fold) by blocking fatty acid breakdown,...

Legumains or vacuolar processing enzymes are cysteine peptidases (C13 family, clan CD) with increasingly recognized physiological significance in plants. They have previously been classified as seed and vegetative legumains. In this work, the entire barley legumain family is described. The eight members of this family belong to the two phylogenetic clades in which the angiosperm legumains are d...

Tamarind (Tamarindus indica, Fabaceae), a tropical fruit found in Africa and Asia is highly valued for its pulp. Tamarind fruit pulp has a sweet acidic taste due to a combination of high contents of tartaric acid and reducing sugars. The pulp is used for seasoning, in prepared foods, to flavour confections, curries and sauces, and as a major ingredient in juices and other beverages. Commercial ...

Dry seeds of four cotton varieties were irradiated with 0, 10, 15, 20 and 25 kR doses of gamma irradiation from Co source of gamma irradiation in 2012 at Nuclear Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), 60 Tarnab, Peshawar, Pakistan. Three highly potential cotton varieties i.e. Gomal-93, Bt-131 and Bt-CIM-602 with irradiation of 15, 20 and 25 kR, respectively selected for the second year (May...