Field experiments were conducted at Patuakhali Science and Technology University research farm during 2009 T. Aman season to investigate the effect of tidal submergence on potassium nutrition and yield of rice. The experiment included two levels of irrigation water sourcei) tidal water and ii) ground water, and three levels of fertilizersi) absolute control (no fertilizer), ii) NP (K omission),...

The growth and morphogenesis of plants are entirely dependent on the gravitational acceleration of earth. Under microgravity conditions in space, these processes are greatly modified. Recent space experiments, in combination with ground-based studies, have shown that elongation growth is stimulated and lateral expansion suppressed in various shoot organs and roots under microgravity conditions....

In this short review, I will first summarize criteria by which environments can be considered "cold", with plant stature (size, height above ground) playing a central role for the climate actually experienced. Plants adapted to such environments have to cope with both extremes and with gradual influences of low temperature. The first requires freezing resistance, which is tightly coupled to dev...

Knotted1-like homeobox (KNOX) proteins are homeodomain transcription factors that maintain an important pluripotent cell population called the shoot apical meristem, which generates the entire above-ground body of vascular plants. KNOX proteins regulate target genes that control hormone homeostasis in the meristem and interact with another subclass of homeodomain proteins called the BELL family...

Peanut produces aerial flowers but buries its developing seeds into the ground by means of a specialized organ, the gynophore. Gravitropism is the unusual character of gynophore as reproductive organ. Recently, we found the gynophores grow directly upward in mycoplasma-like organisms (MLO) infected peanut plants. To explain the negative gravitropism of the MLO-infected gynophores, gynophores fr...

Hemiepiphytic plants grow for part of their life as true epiphytes, then become terrestrial through the production of aerial roots that grow from the canopy to the ground. Long-term measurement of growth, dieback and mortality of aerial roots of hemiepiphytic plants in a lower montane moist tropical forest in western Panama was used to elucidate life-history strategies of hemiepiphytes from two...

Six species of grass (four C3 and two C4) from southeastern Australian native pastures were grown in controlled environment cabinets at current (~370 !!mol CO2 mol-I) and twice current (~750 !!mol CO2 mol-I) cabinet [C02l. Photosynthetic gas exchange and aboveground biomass were estimated after seven weeks. Cabinet [C02l had a highly significant impact on above-ground biomass (P<0.0003) with pl...

Major brassinosteroid (BR) effects such as BR-induced growth are mediated through genomic pathways because RNA synthesis inhibitors and protein synthesis inhibitors interfere with these processes. A limited number of BR-regulated genes have been identified hitherto. The majority of genes (such as BRU1, CycD3, Lin6, OPR3, and TRIP-1) were identified by comparisons of BR-treated versus control-tr...

The shoot apical meristem of higher plants is a self-maintaining stem cell system which gives rise to the entire above-ground part of a plant. In the past year, genetic and molecular studies have provided increasing insight into the processes of shoot meristem formation and maintenance, as well as into the relation between the apical meristem and its products.

Statistically significant differences in the structure and function of above-ground grapevine-associated microorganisms from organically and conventionally managed vineyards were found. Aureobasidium pullulans, a copper-detoxifying fungus and biocontrol agent, plays a key role in explaining these differences. The black fungus was strongly enriched in the communities of organically managed plant...