Hormonal Influences on Pod–Seed Intercommunication during Pea Fruit Development

Angiosperms (from the Greek “angeion”—vessel, and “sperma”—seed) are defined by the presence of specialised tissue surrounding their developing seeds. This tissue is known as the ovary and once a flower has been fertilised, it gives rise to the fruit. Fruits serve various functions in relation to the seeds they contain: they often form tough physical barriers to prevent mechanical damage, they may form specialised structures that aid in dispersal, and they act as a site of nutrient and signal exchange between the parent plant and its offspring. The close coordination of fruit growth and seed development is essential to successful reproduction. Firstly, fertilisation of the ovules is required in most angiosperm species to initiate fruit growth. Secondly, it is crucial that seed dispersal facilitated by, e.g., fruit opening or ripening occurs only once the seeds have matured. These highly coordinated events suggest that seeds and fruits are in close communication throughout development and represent a classical problem of interorgan signalling and organismic resource allocation. Here, we review the contribution of studies on the edible, unicarpellate legume Pisum sativum to our understanding of seed and fruit growth coregulation, and propose areas of new research in this species which may yield important advances for both pulse agronomy and natural science.

Harvest Handling and Postharvest Conditions for Optimum Nutrient Quality in Mango: Minerals and Vitamins

Good practices at harvest and postharvest could be useful in obtaining nutritious mango with high minerals and vitamins. The present study evaluated effect of harvest handling and postharvest conditions on the level of minerals and vitamins using standard methods. Ripe, half-ripe and unripe mangoes were harvested on parent plant and on ground around parent plant. The half-ripe and unripe mangoes were further divided to include heat ripened mangoes. The mango samples were separately stored naturally at 25±3oC and heat ripened at 37±5oC for 0 to 10 day after harvest (dah). The results show Ijebu-Mamu mangoes could cater for reference dietary intake of Vit C. Mango harvested on parent plant has highest level of minerals and vitamins than those picked on ground. Ripe mango has highest level of minerals, half ripe mango presented highest level of vits. B1 and B2 and unripe mango has highest level of Fe and Vit. C. Heat caused increased level of minerals and reduced level of vitamins. The minerals show increased level from 0 to 4 or 6 dah while vitamins reduced from 0 till 10 dah. High level of minerals and vitamins was obtained with optimum integrated harvest and postharvest condition of half-ripe mango naturally ripened at 6 dah. The present results highlight effects of the assessed harvest handling and postharvest conditions and their co-optimization that might be necessary for high minerals and vitamins in mango.

Induction and Submerged Cultivation of Valeriana Jatamansi Adventitious Root Cultures for Production of Valerenic Acid and its Derivatives

In vitro adventitious roots were induced from Valeriana jatamansi to assess their quality as an alternative ingredient for extraction of secondary metabolites to meet the demand of phytopharmaceutical industries. A significantly (p ≤ 0.05) high root induction (90 %) was achieved on Schenk and Hildebrandt medium fortified with 9.84 µM indole-3-butyric acid. A maximum root biomass (144.09 ± 11.36 g/L) with high relative growth rate (2.01 ± 0.04) and growth index (13.41) was achieved in submerged cultivation. The total valerenic acid derivatives (1525.14 µg/g DW) and acetoxy valerenic acid (534.91µg/g DW) were significantly high in induced adventitious roots, with notable quantity of hydroxyl valerenic acid (919.57 µg/g DW) that otherwise not quantifiable in parent plant parts. In addition, 0.059% essential oil yield consisting of 24.00% patchouli alcohol was also obtained from induced adventitious roots. The phenolic acid derivatives were also significantly higher in adventitious roots (451.58 µg/g DW) as compared to rhizome (187.79 µg/g DW) and leaves (263.68 µg/g DW) of the parent plant. Notably, a substantial increase in phytochemicals was evident at subsequent culture stages with significantly reduced in vitro cultivation cycle (2 months) as compared to field grown plants (24 months). Conclusively, a comparable metabolic profile of in vitro induced V. jatamansi adventitious roots and considerably shorter growth cycle clearly determines its potential as a feasible source of phytoconstituents.

A middle Eocene treefall pit and its filling: a microenvironmental study from the onset of a forest mire in the Geiseltal (Germany)

The treefall pit of a large tree at the base of the middle Eocene Mittelkohle has been studied in the former open-cast mine Neumark Nord of the Geiseltal Mining District. Above a light clastic soil, the sedimentation in the pit started with backfall and downwashed material grading upwards into pond deposits that filled the pit. This represents a high-resolution section equivalent in time to the initial peat-forming environment. Palynology revealed a striking difference between a fern-dominated herbaceous plant community below the pit and a pulse of washed-in fagaceous pollen (Tricolpopollenites liblarensis) at the base of the pit. This is overlain by an assemblage of woody taxa typical of a peat swamp forest associated with a number of tropical elements. Comparison with a nearby but undisturbed transition from underlying sediments to the seam confirms the ecotonal character of the parent plant of T. liblarensis, and suggests that Cupressaceae s.l., Nyssaceae and Myricaceae especially benefited from moisture and light in the clearing of the treefall pit. The transition from the underlying sediment to the lignite represents a sharp break in the sedimentary regime from clastic to purely organic material with a bounding surface colonised by large trees, most of them preserved as individual stumps, but including some fallen logs.

Single seed microbiota: assembly and transmission from parent plant to seedling

Gaining basic understanding of processes involved in seed microbiota assembly is a prerequisite for improving crop establishment. Investigation of microbiota structure during seed development revealed that individual seeds of bean and radish were associated with a dominant bacterial taxon representing more than 75% of all reads. The identity of this taxon was highly variable between plants and within seeds of the same plant. Succession of dominant taxa occurred during seed filling and maturation through Selection. In a second step, we evaluated seed to seedling transmission of these dominant seed-borne taxa. We showed that initial bacterial abundance on seeds was not a good predictor of seedling transmission and that the identity of seed-borne taxa can impact seedling phenotype. Altogether this work unveiled that seeds are colonized by few bacterial taxa of highly variable identity, which appears to be important for the early stages of plant development.

Propagation of ‘Bruno’ kiwifruit: influence of cutting collection time and indolebutyric acid

In Brazil, the propagation of kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) is achieved through seed-derived rootstocks, which results in low uniformity. An alternative to address this problem is the cuttings technique, a simple and fast method that generates individuals identical to the parent plant, maintaining the agronomic traits. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of cutting collection time and indolebutyric acid (IBA) on the rooting of ‘Bruno’ kiwifruit cuttings. The cuttings were collected in the months of May, August and December 2016 and March 2017 and treated with 0, 1000, 2000 and 4000 mg L-1 IBA, as a hydroalcoholic solution, for seven seconds. After 90 days, the percentages of rooted and dead cuttings and cuttings that produced shoots; leaf retention; average length of the three largest roots; average number of primary roots per cutting; and reserve contents before and after rooting were evaluated. The treatments with IBA influenced the rooting of cuttings collected in May, which showed 36.07% rooting at the calculated IBA concentration of 2,320 mg L-1, and in December, which exhibited 57.59% rooting at the concentration of 4000 mg L-1. In the present experimental conditions, it is recommended to root cuttings of ‘Bruno’ kiwifruit collected in December with the application of 4000 mg L-1 IBA.

Optimization rate of urea fertilizer for one-year-old pepper (Piper nigrum L.) parent plant

Optimum maintenance is required to get a high-quality parent plant. One of themaintenances is fertilization to ensure the optimal growth of the pepper parent plant. This studyaimed to obtain the optimum rate of urea fertilizer for a one-year-old of the pepper parentplant. The field experiment used a single factor in a randomized block design (RBD) with fiveurea rate levels, and each treatment was repeated three times. Treatment levels of urea rate,namely 0 g plant-1 year-1, 100 g plant-1 year-1, 200 g plant-1 year-1, 300 g plant-1 year-1 and400 g plant-1 year-1. The rate of urea influenced the number of internodes and leaf area of thepepper parent plant. The rate of 315 g plant-1 year-1 urea is the optimum rate for the growth ofthe number of the branch of a one-year-old pepper parent plant.