State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement (T.Y., S.Z., Y.H., F.W., Q.H., G.C., J.C., T.W., L.Y., G.X.) and Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and Fertilization in Lower-Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, Ministry of Agriculture (T.Y., S.Z., Y.H., F.W., Q.H., G.C., J.C., T.W., L.Y., G.X.), Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; and R.H. Smith Institute of ...

Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, 11529 Taipei, Taiwan (J.R.-C., W.-D.L., G.-M.F., W.S.); Biotechnology Center, National Chung-Hsing University, 40227 Taichung, Taiwan (W.S.); Genome and Systems Biology Degree Program, College of Life Science, National Taiwan University, 10617 Taipei, Taiwan (W.S.); and Plant Nutrition Department, Aula Dei Experimental Station (Consejo ...

To fulfill increased world food demand and to overcome the consequences related to natural and industrial changes, scientists have been trying to select and improve both feedstuff and livestock, genetically. Biotechnology, also involving chemical and physical techniques, is applied to nutrition to increase the abundance (availability) of feed and to improve the digestibility of nutrients in tho...

Recent evidence points to the plant's being a much more limited resource than previously expected. In addition to the restraints on feeding and population growth imposed by such factors as leaf toughness, the physical environment, plant nutrition, etc., recent work points to the role of feeding-induced chemical changes in the leaves in reducing herbivore 'fitness'. This suggests that population...

The two well known techniques which are used in plant-nutrition studies are conveniently designated the solution-culture method and the sand-culture method. Some other slightly soluble materials, such as cinders, gravel, vermiculite, and Sponge Rok or various combinations of these may be substituted for sand. The use of slightly soluble material as a medium, to which the nutrient solution is pr...

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...

There is increasing interest worldwide in the maintenance of soil quality and remediation strategies for management of soils contaminated with pollutants including heavy metals. The protective effects of arbuscular mycorrhizas on host plants under conditions of Zn contamination have raised the prospect of utilizing the mutualistic association in soil revegetation programmes, and consequently re...

The article presents the results of research on winter wheat seed treatment with microbial preparations as stimulators plant growth and development, disease resistance, nutrition optimization.

A number of studies have shown that an association with mycorrhizal fungi can alter the outcome of interactions between plants and their enemies. While the directions of these effects vary, their strength suggests the need for greater attention to multispecies interactions among plant enemies, plants, and mycorrhizal fungi. We recognize that mycorrhizal fungi could effect plant enemies by impro...