Background: Heavy metals (HMs) are one of the most important polluting substances emitted to the environment during cement production. Tehran Cement Factory located in the southeastern of Tehran, Iran, closer to agricultural lands cultivates alfalfa, barley, and maize as feed. The objective of the study was to determine the concentration of HMs in agricultural soils. Methods: Thirty six soil...

Legumes are widely used in many cropping systems because they share their nitrogen fixation products and phosphorus mobilization activities with their neighbors. In the current study, however, we showed that co-cultivation with legumes increased cadmium (Cd) contamination in the adjacent crops. Both field and mesocosm experiments indicated that legumes increased Cd levels in edible parts and sh...

ZmST1;1, a putative high-affinity sulfate transporter gene expressed in maize (Zea mays) roots, was functionally characterized and its expression patterns were analyzed in roots of plants exposed to different heavy metals (Cd, Zn, and Cu) interfering with thiol metabolism. The ZmST1;1 cDNA was expressed in the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) sulfate transporter mutant CP154-7A. Kinetic analysi...

in order to evaluate the effect of nitrogen absorption and use efficiency in relay intercropping for winter wheat and maize, a field experiment was conducted during 2008-2009 at the agricultural research station of ferdowsi university of mashhad, iran. a randomized block design with three replications was used. treatments included four combinations of relay intercropping of wheat and maize (thr...

Experiments were conducted to examine soil nutrient dynamics under different farming systems and sources on maize yield. It was a split plot fitted into RCBD with three replicates. Main plots included two cropping (CS) (maize groundnut fallow): sub-plots; residue (GNR), (MZR), Cow dung (CD), pig manure (PGM); four composts; (PGM+MZR, PGM+GNR, CD+GNR CD+MZR) each at 5 t/ha; NPK 120 kg/ha, (Co) c...

In this work, a new chiral micellar electrokinetic chromatography with laser-induced fluorescence detection (chiral-MEKC-LIF) method is proposed to identify and quantify D- and L-amino acids in three lines of transgenic maize and their corresponding nontransgenic parental lines grown under identical conditions. The optimized procedure includes amino acids extraction, derivatization with FITC an...

Background: A pot experiment was conducted to determine the toxic effects of some heavy metals on the plant growth and seed yield of maize (Zea mays L.). Materials and Metheds: Heavy metals Mn, Pb, Cd, Cr and Co individually and in combinations were added as chloride salts in solutions to the pots before sowing. The test plants for were harvested after 80 days of germination and evaluated f...

ABSTRACT Five tropical maize lines were tested and compared with the susceptible control line B73 for resistance to Maize stripe virus (MStV) and Maize mosaic virus (MMV), both propagatively transmitted by the planthopper Peregrinus maidis (Homoptera: Delphacidae). Resistance to each virus was evaluated separately by artificial inoculations with planthoppers viruliferous for either one virus or...