scholarly journals Effects of Drought and Salinity on Two Commercial Varieties of Lavandula angustifolia Mill

Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 637
Author(s):  
Zsolt Szekely-Varga ◽  
Sara González-Orenga ◽  
Maria Cantor ◽  
Denisa Jucan ◽  
Monica Boscaiu ◽  
...  

Global warming is not only affecting arid and semi-arid regions but also becoming a threat to agriculture in Central and Eastern European countries. The present study analyzes the responses to drought and salinity of two varieties of Lavandula angustifolia cultivated in Romania. Lavender seedlings were subjected to one month of salt stress (100, 200, and 300 mM NaCl) and water deficit (complete withholding of irrigation) treatments. To assess the effects of stress on the plants, several growth parameters and biochemical stress markers (photosynthetic pigments, mono and divalent ions, and different osmolytes) were determined in control and stressed plants after the treatments. Both stress conditions significantly inhibited the growth of the two varieties, but all plants survived the treatments, indicating a relative stress tolerance of the two varieties. The most relevant mechanisms of salt tolerance are based on the maintenance of foliar K+ levels and the accumulation of Ca2+ and proline as a functional osmolyte in parallel with increasing external salinities. Under water stress, significant increases of Na+ and K+ concentrations were detected in roots, indicating a possible role of these cations in osmotic adjustment, limiting root dehydration. No significant differences were found when comparing the stress tolerance and stress responses of the two selected lavender varieties.

Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
Md. Mahadi Hasan ◽  
Milan Skalicky ◽  
Mohammad Shah Jahan ◽  
Md. Nazmul Hossain ◽  
Zunaira Anwar ◽  
...  

In recent years, research on spermine (Spm) has turned up a lot of new information about this essential polyamine, especially as it is able to counteract damage from abiotic stresses. Spm has been shown to protect plants from a variety of environmental insults, but whether it can prevent the adverse effects of drought has not yet been reported. Drought stress increases endogenous Spm in plants and exogenous application of Spm improves the plants’ ability to tolerate drought stress. Spm’s role in enhancing antioxidant defense mechanisms, glyoxalase systems, methylglyoxal (MG) detoxification, and creating tolerance for drought-induced oxidative stress is well documented in plants. However, the influences of enzyme activity and osmoregulation on Spm biosynthesis and metabolism are variable. Spm interacts with other molecules like nitric oxide (NO) and phytohormones such as abscisic acid, salicylic acid, brassinosteroids, and ethylene, to coordinate the reactions necessary for developing drought tolerance. This review focuses on the role of Spm in plants under severe drought stress. We have proposed models to explain how Spm interacts with existing defense mechanisms in plants to improve drought tolerance.


Author(s):  
Marzena Tambor ◽  
Jacek Klich ◽  
Alicja Domagała

After the fall of communism, the healthcare systems of Central and Eastern European countries underwent enormous transformation, resulting in departure from publicly financed healthcare. This had significant adverse effects on equity in healthcare, which are still evident. In this paper, we analyzed the role of government and households in financing healthcare in eight countries (EU-8): Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. A desk research method was applied to collect quantitative data on healthcare expenditures and qualitative data on gaps in universal health coverage. A linear regression analysis was used to analyze a trend in health expenditure over the years 2000–2018. Our results indicate that a high reliance on out-of-pocket payments persists in many EU-8 countries, and only a few countries have shown a significant downward trend over time. The gaps in universal coverage in the EU-8 countries are due to explicit rationing (a limited benefit package, patient cost sharing) and implicit mechanisms (wait times). There is need to increase the role of public financing in CEE countries through budget prioritization, reducing patient co-payments for medical products and medicines, and extending the benefit package for these goods, as well as improving the quality of care.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 141-162
Author(s):  
Ina Irina Ghita

This digital project examines the role of a cook book, Sanda Marin’s Carte de Bucate, first published in 1936,  as a vehicle for social education in Communist Romania. The book was censored and transformed during the Communist regime as two interconnected phenomena were taking place: the reinforcing of the ideology of the Communist model and an increasing economic crisis that led to scarcity of food. The paper also pays attention to how the language and tone used in the book changed depending on the understanding of gender roles in different decades. In spite of Communist claims of an equal division of responsibilities, procuring of food and cooking was considered a woman’s task.   By addressing equal responsibility in the public sphere, not at home, the progress toward gender equity reached after the War was completely erased during communism since women had to work and also be responsible for all domestic duties at home, a situation that has been similar in other eastern European countries to this day.  


1998 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-158
Author(s):  
Jörg Arnold ◽  
Emily Silverman

AbstractIn an initial summing up of this necessarily abbreviated and cursory report of findings, the first thing to recognise is that the countries examined in the study accorded different significance to the criminal law as a means for dealing with the past. The Eastern European countries, at any rate, appear to be largely in agreement with regard to the role of rehabilitation and compensation, although more comparative research into their realization in practice is required. With regard to the direct criminal prosecution and punishment of political and state-promoted crime, however, there is much less uniformity. This is clearly illustrated by the disparate criminal justice practices in the individual countries. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that criminal law plays no role whatsoever in accounting for the past.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (15) ◽  
pp. 3777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed Abdollah Hosseini ◽  
Elise Réthoré ◽  
Sylvain Pluchon ◽  
Nusrat Ali ◽  
Bastien Billiot ◽  
...  

Numerous studies have demonstrated the potential of sugar beet to lose the final sugar yield under water limiting regime. Ample evidences have revealed the important role of mineral nutrition in increasing plant tolerance to abiotic stresses. Despite the vital role of calcium (Ca2+) in plant growth and development, as well as in stress responses as an intracellular messenger, its role in alleviating drought stress in sugar beet has been rarely addressed. Here, an attempt was undertaken to investigate whether, and to what extent, foliar application of Ca2+ confers drought stress tolerance in sugar beet plants exposed to drought stress. To achieve this goal, sugar beet plants, which were grown in a high throughput phenotyping platform, were sprayed with Ca2+ and submitted to drought stress. The results showed that foliar application of Ca2+ increased the level of magnesium and silicon in the leaves, promoted plant growth, height, and leaf coverage area as well as chlorophyll level. Ca2+, in turn, increased the carbohydrate levels in leaves under drought condition and regulated transcriptionally the genes involved in sucrose transport (BvSUC3 and BvTST3). Subsequently, Ca2+ enhanced the root biomass and simultaneously led to induction of root (BvSUC3 and BvTST1) sucrose transporters which eventually supported the loading of more sucrose into beetroot under drought stress. Metabolite analysis revealed that the beneficial effect of Ca2+ in tolerance to drought induced-oxidative stress is most likely mediated by higher glutathione pools, increased levels of free polyamine putrescine (Put), and lower levels of amino acid gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Taken together, this work demonstrates that foliar application of Ca2+ is a promising fertilization strategy to improve mineral nutrition efficiency, sugar metabolism, redox state, and thus, drought stress tolerance.


Author(s):  
Alexander Tomashevsky ◽  
Ekaterina Kulakovskaya ◽  
Ludmila Trilisenko ◽  
Tatiana Kulakovskaya ◽  
Alexey Fedorov ◽  
...  

Inorganic polyphosphate (polyP) is an important factor of stress tolerance in microbial cells. In yeast, the major enzyme of polyP biosynthesis is Vtc4, a subunit of the vacuole transporter chaperone (VTC) complex. In this study, we demonstrated that Vtc4 knockout in Saccharomyces cerevisiae not only decreased polyP content but also caused shifts in the composition of the intracellular polyP pool and changed the stress tolerance profile. In the mutant S. cerevisiae, the level of short-chain acid-soluble polyPs was decreased nearly 10-fold, whereas that of longer acid-insoluble polyPs was decreased only 2-fold, suggesting the existence of other enzymes compensating the production of long-chain polyPs. The Δvtc4 mutant showed inhibition of Mg2+-dependent phosphate uptake and decreased resistance to alkaline stress but increased tolerance to oxidation and heavy metal ions, especially Mn2+. Quantitative PCR revealed the upregulation of the DDR2 gene implicated in multiple stress responses and downregulation of PHO84 encoding a phosphate and Mn2+ transporter, which could account for the effects on phosphate uptake and Mn2+-related stress response in the Δvtc4 mutant. Our study indicates that short-chain polyPs, plays an important role in the regulation of stress response in yeast.


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