Review of plant health clinics: a recent phenomenon for effective plant pests and diseases diagnosis

Plant health clinic is a mechanism in which farmers are able to access basic plant healthcare and services from relevant authority in relation to infested or suspected infested plants and plant products for diagnostic purposes. Plant health clinic is an integral part of the plant health system which provides early pest diagnostic and advisory services to farmers. In this paper, it can be further defined as a basic plant healthcare rendered to farmers to enhance and improve plant production thereby diagnosing plant pests and diseases with the aim of employing appropriate pest management strategy. In many countries, plant health clinics operators are extension experts, plant doctors, inspectors and scientists within government and NGOs. Extension support in particular is critical in the operation of plant health clinics. The purpose of this paper is to provide a global overview of plant clinic as a recent ways of plant diseases diagnosis. This paper concluded that plant health clinics are valuable tools which need to be adopted by various countries for smallholder farmers to understand more about plant pests and diseases as well as management strategy. To the contrary, many countries are dependent on national diagnostic services as opposed to basic plant healthcare which is more accessible to the smallholders. This review paper further revealed that plant health clinics’ knowledge, awareness, accessibility and satisfaction of the smallholder farmers are very important. Plant clinics may not efficiently and effectively operate in the absence of the aforementioned aspects. Plant clinics were found to be the most efficient way to reach smallholder farmers for advice.

The Significance of Aggregation Methods in Functional Group Modeling

The growth of forests and the feedbacks between forests and environmental changes are central issues in the planetary carbon cycle, global climate change, and basic plant ecology. A challenge to understanding both growth and feedbacks from local to global scales is that many critical metabolic processes vary among species. An innovation in solving this challenge is the recognition that species can be lumped into “functional groups” based on metabolic similarity, and these functional groups can then be studied in computational models that simulate ecosystem function. Despite the vast resources devoted to functional group studies and the progress made by them, an important logical and biological question has not been formally addressed, “How do the groupings alter the results of modeling studies?” To what extent do modeling results depend on the choices made in aggregating taxa into functional groups. Here, we consider the effects of using different aggregation strategies in simulating the carbon dynamics of a deciduous forest. Understanding the impacts that aggregation strategy has on efforts to simulate regional-to-global-scale forest dynamics offers insights into both ecosystem regulation and model function and addresses this central problem in the study of carbon dynamics.

Vehicular Analysis of a Bridge Structure Considering IRC Loading Condition using Sap 2000

A beam bridge is a bridge that uses struts as a method of supporting the deck. A bridge consists of three sections: the foundation consisting of protrusions and supports and the substructure consisting of protrusions and quay and the superstructure (bracing, cantilever or curve) and the deck. A beam bridge is probably the most manufactured and used bridge on the planet. Its basic plant, at its best, can be likened to a tree trunk extending to one side to alternate across a stream or river. All decks consist of two main parts: the substructure and the superstructure. The superstructure is everything from the support cushions to - it's the thing that supports the posts and it's the most distinctive part of the deck. The substructure is the device that exchanges the poles of the superstructure on the ground. The two sections must work together to form a strong and durable bridge. Prestressed concrete is basically concrete where the internal concern is reasonable and the pressure propagation created by the external load is concentrated to the desired extent. In this research, we analyze a beam bridge with the effect of prestressed concrete and compare it to a generic deck bridge. Regarding the finite element analysis, the analysis of forces and costs. Here it is concluded that the implementation of a prestressed ceiling results in an economical, stable and load-resistant element.

The steroid-inducible pOp6/LhGR gene expression system is fast, sensitive and does not cause plant growth defects in rice (Oryza sativa)

Inducible systems for transgene expression activated by a chemical inducer or an inducer of non-plant origin are desirable tools for both basic plant research and biotechnology. Although, the technology has been widely exploited in dicotyledonous model plants such as Arabidopsis, it has not been optimised for use with the monocotyledonous model species, namely rice. We have adapted the dexamethasone-inducible pOp6/LhGR system for rice and the results indicated that it is fast, sensitive and tightly regulated, with high levels of induction that remain stable over several generations. Most importantly, we have shown that the system does not cause negative growth defects in vitro or in soil grown plants. Interestingly in the process of testing, we found that another steroid, triamcinolone acetonide, is a more potent inducer in rice than dexamethasone. We present serious considerations for the construct design to avoid undesirable effects caused by the system in plants, leakiness and possible silencing, as well as simple steps to maximize translation efficiency of a gene of interest. Finally, we compare the performance of the pOp6/LhGR system with other chemically inducible systems tested in rice in terms of the properties of an ideal inducible system.

The Steroid-Inducible pOp6/LhGR Gene Expression System is Fast, Sensitive and Does NOT Cause Plant Growth Defects in Rice (Oryza Sativa)

Inducible systems for transgene expression activated by a chemical inducer or an inducer of non-plant origin are desirable tools for both basic plant research and biotechnology. Although, the technology has been widely exploited in model plants, it has not been optimised for use with the major monocotyledonous crop species, namely rice. We have adapted the dexamethasone-inducible pOp6/LhGR system for rice and shown that it is fast, sensitive and tightly regulated, with high levels of induction that remain stable over several generations. Most importantly, we have shown that the system does not cause negative growth defects in vitro or in soil grown plants. Interestingly in the process of testing, we found that another steroid, triamcinolone acetonide, is a more potent inducer in rice than dexamethasone. We present serious considerations for the construct design to avoid undesirable effects caused by the system in plants, leakiness and possible silencing, as well as simple steps how to maximize translation efficiency of a gene of interest. Finally, we compare the performance of the pOp6/LhGR system with other chemically inducible systems tested in rice in terms of the properties of an ideal inducible system.

Side effects of triazoles on treated crops

Triazolic fungicides are widely applied in crop production to protect plants against fungal pathogens. However, they may influence the biochemical processes in plants and other non-target species. This paper is aimed at the effect of triazoles (namely tebuconazole, cyproconazole, and penconazole) single/mixed applications on the phenolics production in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) fruit peel, amount of chlorophyll a and b in tomato leaves as well as on basic plant growth parameters. For this purpose, cherry tomatoes were planted in the pot experiment and foliarly-treated weekly, with the same total triazoles dose of 3.52 μmol per plant (in mixtures of 1.71 or 1.17 μmol of each in two or three components, respectively). The treatments increased the weight of fruits in the 1 harvest about 43%, however, this effect was not observed in the next harvest. Increased oxidative stress in the triazoles presence was observed, based on the elevated production of antioxidant phenolics in the 1 harvest. Most alarming is the decrease of the weight of thin stems and foliage and the concentration of chlorophyll a (b) in leaves in all triazoles-treated variants. The non-target impacts on plant biochemical processes (related to the phenolics or chlorophylls production and functionality) were confirmed.

The steroid-inducible pOp6/LhGR gene expression system is fast, sensitive and does NOT cause plant growth defects in rice (Oryza sativa)

SummaryInducible systems for transgene expression activated by a chemical or an inducer of non-plant origin are desirable tools for both basic plant research as well as advanced biotechnological utilizations. Although, the technology has been widely exploited in model plant species, optimal solution is missing for the major monocotyledonous crop species – rice. Here, we characterise the inducible properties of the pOp6/LhGR adapted for rice as fast, sensitive, tight, with high levels of induction that remain stable over several generations. Most importantly, the system does not cause negative growth defects in vitro or in soil grown plants. We describe various methods of application and optimization of induction by finding out that another steroid, triamcinolone acetonide, is more potent inducer then dexamethasone in rice. We present serious considerations for the construct design to avoid undesirable effects caused by the system in plants, leakiness and possible silencing, as well as simple steps how to maximize translation efficiency of a gene of interest. Finally, we compare the performance of the pOp6/LhGR system with other chemically inducible systems tested in rice in terms of the properties of an ideal inducible system.Significance statementThe non-monocot codon-optimized version of the dexamethasone inducible pOp6/LhGR system does not cause severe developmental perturbations in rice plants!

Basic plant growth processes.

This chapter focuses on fundamental processes of plant growth (photosynthesis, respiration, water use, leaf senescence and seed growth) and develop the community relationships that are necessary to understand the production of yield.

A Statistical Growth Property of Plant Root Architectures

Numerous types of biological branching networks, with varying shapes and sizes, are used to acquire and distribute resources. Here, we show that plant root and shoot architectures share a fundamental design property. We studied the spatial density function of plant architectures, which specifies the probability of finding a branch at each location in the 3-dimensional volume occupied by the plant. We analyzed 1645 root architectures from four species and discovered that the spatial density functions of all architectures are population-similar. This means that despite their apparent visual diversity, all of the roots studied share the same basic shape, aside from stretching and compression along orthogonal directions. Moreover, the spatial density of all architectures can be described as variations on a single underlying function: a Gaussian density truncated at a boundary of roughly three standard deviations. Thus, the root density of any architecture requires only four parameters to specify: the total mass of the architecture and the standard deviations of the Gaussian in the three x,y,z growth directions. Plant shoot architectures also follow this design form, suggesting that two basic plant transport systems may use similar growth strategies.