Plant Growth Promoters: The Eliciting Role of Recycled Biomasses

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2024) | Viewed by 3456

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy
Interests: biostimulation; plant metabolomics; biochemical cycles

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Guest Editor
Nucleo de Desenvolvimento de Insumos Biologicos Para a Agicultura (NUDIBA) UENF, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Interests: biofertilizers; plants development; abiotic/biotic stresses; sustainable technologies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Besides the traditional and crucial indirect functionalities exerted by soil organic matter in the plant-soil systems, the scientific advances have highlighted direct beneficial interactions promoted by natural organic molecules on plant growth and development.

It has been pointed out that the higher plants may have evolved a cross-talking relation with soil organic fractions able to influence the biochemical pathways and physiological processes. Different natural organic matter components, have hence been so far succesfully applied as plant biostimulants.

In this context an interesting perspective is opened by the use of recycled biomasses which being renewable and cost-effective sources of organic materials may strenghten the environmental and ecomnomic valorization of organic wastes within a circular economy framework. Compost, vermicompost, digestates, biochar, hydrochars, biorefinery residues etc and derived fractions have proved to trigger positive plant responses and improve the yield of metabolites for different value chains such as agricultural, pharmacological, medical and nutraceutical sectors. The use of recycled materials provided evidence to either support plant development or to promote the resilience capacity to biotic and abiotic stresses.

The interactions encompass a large array of bioactivity effects on either overall plant growth such as root elongation/branching and shoot developments as well as on specific metabolic processes: enhanced nutrient use efficiency, improvement of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous metabolisms and secondary metabolic pathways, induction of plant tolerance to either abiotic and biotic stresses with an effective suppressive potential against plant pathogens.

Notwithstanding the already acknowledged outputs, there are still scientific gaps to face with, in the topical attempts aimed at addressing a comprehensive understanding of structural-activity relationships. The acquisition of supplentary data to enlighten the specific interactions may support the set up of potential "tailoring application" of different organic materials for specific plants and crop systems and/or target plant metabolites with added values for dedicated applications.

The current scenario is characterized by the worsening of adverse growing conditions and uncertainty of crop productivity driven by either the climate change, or the mismatch between the plant needs and the not affordable or untenbale external inputs (e.g. fertilizers, high cost techniques, agrochemicals). The feasible management and processing of organic residues is an edge-cut challenge for the attainment of eco-friendly products and easy-to-hand technologies like those represented by synergic integration of bioactive compounds and microbial bioeffectorst to foster the plant adaptation to these fast evolving situation.

This Special Issue aims to features the progress and trends in the investigation of the use of recycled biomasses and related byprodcuts as sustainable tools to streamline the plants growth for different research area, sweeping from agro-ecosystems, phytochemistry, pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications, nutraceutical products, etc . Combined aims are the depiction of sustainable tecnologis focused on tne optimization of available resources as well as elucidation of molecular mechanisms and structural-activity relationships underpinning the bioactive properties of organic residues.

Prof. Dr. Riccardo Spaccini
Dr. Mariavittoria Verrillo
Prof. Dr. Luciano Pasqualoto Canellas
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • plants development
  • plant metabolites
  • biomasse recycling
  • biostimulation
  • biofertilizers
  • abiotic/biotic stresses
  • structural activity relationship
  • eco-compatible agrochemicals
  • sustainable technologies
  • circular economy

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2862 KiB  
Article
Plant Growth Hormones and Micro-Tuberization in Breaking the Seed Dormancy of Bunium persicum (Boiss.) Fedts
by Mudasir Hafiz Khan, Niyaz Ahmad Dar, Bashir Ahmad Alie, Ghulam Hassan Mir, Uzma Fayaz, Azra Khan, Basharat Bashir, Ajaz Ahmad, Sheikh Mansoor, Yong Suk Chung and Seong Heo
Plants 2023, 12(17), 3163; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12173163 - 3 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1582
Abstract
Bunium persicum is a valuable medicinal plant with limited production but high market demand. It thrives predominantly in high-altitude regions. The main challenges hindering its widespread cultivation are seed dormancy and a lengthy seed-to-seed cycle, making its large-scale cultivation difficult. Six genotypes of [...] Read more.
Bunium persicum is a valuable medicinal plant with limited production but high market demand. It thrives predominantly in high-altitude regions. The main challenges hindering its widespread cultivation are seed dormancy and a lengthy seed-to-seed cycle, making its large-scale cultivation difficult. Six genotypes of Bunium persicum were collected from different altitudes to evaluate its germination behavior and seed dormancy. The study was conducted during 2020–23 and comprised three experiments (viz., seed germination under an open field, controlled conditions, and micro-tuberization). Under open field conditions, germination percent was genotype dependent, and the highest germination percentage, root length, and shoot length were recorded in Shalimar Kalazeera-1. Germination behavior assessment of the Bunium persicum revealed that treatment T9 (GA3 (25 ppm) + TDZ (9 µM/L)) is effective in breaking the dormancy of Bunium persicum as well as in obtaining a higher germination percent for early development of the tubers. Similarly, with regard to the effect of temperature and moisture conditions, stratification under moist chilling conditions showed effectiveness in breaking seed dormancy as the germination percentage in stratified seeds was at par with the most efficient growth hormone. With regard to the in vitro micro-propagation, direct regeneration showed multiple shoot primordia at the base of the tubers without intervening callus phase from the MS medium supplemented with BA (22.2 µM) and NAA (13.95 µM) 4 weeks after sub-culturing. Similarly, medium supplemented with JA (8.0 mg/L) and BA (22.2 µM) produced well-organized somatic embryos with shiny surfaces, which appeared at the swelled basal portion of apical stems. Further, the combination of JA (6.0 mg/L) and BA (22.2 M) was effective in developing the micro-tubers and also enhanced the weight and length of Bunium persicum micro-tubers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Growth Promoters: The Eliciting Role of Recycled Biomasses)
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15 pages, 2514 KiB  
Article
Humic Substances Isolated from Recycled Biomass Trigger Jasmonic Acid Biosynthesis and Signalling
by Rakiely M. Silva, Alice N. A. Peres, Lázaro E. P. Peres, Fábio L. Olivares, Sara Sangi, Natália A. Canellas, Riccardo Spaccini, Silvana Cangemi and Luciano P. Canellas
Plants 2023, 12(17), 3148; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12173148 - 1 Sep 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1351
Abstract
Intensive agriculture maintains high crop yields through chemical inputs, which are well known for their adverse effects on environmental quality and human health. Innovative technologies are required to reduce the risk generated by the extensive and harmful use of pesticides. The plant biostimulants [...] Read more.
Intensive agriculture maintains high crop yields through chemical inputs, which are well known for their adverse effects on environmental quality and human health. Innovative technologies are required to reduce the risk generated by the extensive and harmful use of pesticides. The plant biostimulants made from humic substances isolated from recyclable biomass offer an alternative approach to address the need for replacing conventional agrochemicals without compromising the crop yield. The stimulatory effects of humic substances are commonly associated with plant hormones, particularly auxins. However, jasmonic acid (JA) is crucial metabolite in mediating the defence responses and governing plant growth and development. This work aimed to evaluate the changes in the biosynthesis and signalling pathway of JA in tomato seedlings treated with humic acids (HA) isolated from vermicompost. We use the tomato model system cultivar Micro-Tom (MT) harbouring a reporter gene fused to a synthetic promoter that responds to jasmonic acid (JERE::GUS). The transcript levels of genes involved in JA generation and activity were also determined using qRT-PCR. The application of HA promoted plant growth and altered the JA status, as revealed by both GUS and qRT-PCR assays. Both JA enzymatic synthesis (LOX, OPR3) and JA signalling genes (JAZ and JAR) were found in higher transcription levels in plants treated with HA. In addition, ethylene (ETR4) and auxin (ARF6) signalling components were positively modulated by HA, revealing a hormonal cross-talk. Our results prove that the plant defence system linked to JA can be emulated by HA application without growth inhibition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Growth Promoters: The Eliciting Role of Recycled Biomasses)
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