The use of magnetic field as a presowing treatment has been adopted by researchers as a new environmental friendly technique. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of magnetic field exposure on tomato seeds covering a range of parameters such as transplanting percentage, plant height, shoot diameter, number of leaves per plant, fresh weight, dry weight, number of flowers, yield, and...

Arabidopsis AtWRKY33 plays a critical role in broad plant stress responses. Whether there are evolutionarily conserved homologues of AtWRKY33 in other plants and what make AtWRKY33 such an important protein in plant stress responses are largely unknown. We compared AtWRKY33 with its close homologues to identify AtWRKY33-specific regulatory and structural elements, which were then functionally a...

Arabidopsis AtWRKY33 plays a critical role in broad plant stress responses. Whether there are evolutionarily conserved homologues of AtWRKY33 in other plants and what make AtWRKY33 such an important protein in plant stress responses are largely unknown. We compared AtWRKY33 with its close homologues to identify AtWRKY33-specific regulatory and structural elements, which were then functionally a...

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by plants are secondary metabolites that mediate the plant interaction with pathogens and herbivores. These compounds may perform direct defensive functions, i.e., acting as antioxidant, antibacterial, or antifungal agents, or indirectly by signaling the activation of the plant's defensive responses. Using a non-targeted GC-MS metabolomics approach, we ...

We examined the salivary gland structure of the brown marmorated stink bug (Pentatomidae: Halyomorpha halys) and developed methods for independent collection of watery saliva and sheath saliva. This stink bug has become a serious invasive pest of agriculture in the United States and its saliva is largely responsible for the damage it causes. We determined by protein gel analysis and shotgun pro...

Agrobacterium tumefaciens has the unique ability to mediate inter-kingdom DNA transfer, and for this reason, it has been utilized for plant genetic engineering. To increase the transformation frequency in plant genetic engineering, we focused on gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is a negative factor in the Agrobacterium-plant interaction. Recent studies have shown contradictory results rega...

The performance of herbivorous insects is related to the locations of defenses and nutrients found in the different plant organs on which they feed. In this context, the females of herbivorous insect species select certain parts of the plant where their offspring can develop well. In addition, their offspring can adapt to plant defenses. A system where these ecological relationships can be stud...

An experiment was performed with commercial and noncommercial Trichoderma harzianum strains to test whether they have any effect on the growth of tomato seedlings. The tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. ‘Caruso’) seedlings were grown in a greenhouse and watered daily by hand. 18-day old seedlings were inoculated with Trichoderma harzianum strains Plantshield, T22, and T95 (10conidia plus...

ASR1 is a plant-specific, highly charged, low molecular weight polypeptide. Purified ASR1 was shown to posses sequence specific Zn 2+ -dependent DNA binding activity (Kalifa et al . Biochemical Journal 381, 373–378, 2004). Steady-state levels of tomato Asr1 mRNA and protein are transiently increased following exposure of plants to polyethylene glycol, NaCl or abscisic acid. The biological role ...

Tomato plants, Lycopersicon esculentum L. cv. Tmknvf(2), and watermelon plants, Citrullus lanatus [Thomb.] Mansf. cv. Dulce maravilla, were grown for 30 days at different temperatures (15, 25 and 35 degrees C). We analysed soluble phenolics, enzymatic activities (phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase), and dry weight. The impact of the three temperatures was different i...