Under certain conditions, olive trees grown on calcareous soils suffer from iron chlorosis. In the present study several olive varieties and scion-rootstock combinations were evaluated for their tolerance to iron chlorosis. Plants were grown over several months in pots with a calcareous soil, under two fertilization treatments. These consisted of periodic applications of nutrient solutions cont...

Graphene-based electrodes are very promising for molecular electronics and spintronics. Here we report a systematic characterization of the electroburning (EB) process, leading to the formation of nanometer-spaced gaps, on different types of few-layer graphene (namely mechanically exfoliated graphene on SiO2, graphene epitaxially grown on the C-face of SiC and turbostratic graphene discs deposi...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi enhance plant stress tolerance, but it is unclear whether AM affect heat tolerance in cucumbers. This study aimed to analyze how an fungus, Diversispora versiformis, affected growth, chlorophyll, five osmolytes, and plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIPs) shock protein 70 (Hsp70) gene expression cucumber leaves after a short-term (80 h) stress. Heat treatment...

It is anticipated that enrichment of the atmosphere with CO(2) will increase photosynthetic carbon assimilation in C3 plants. Analysis of controlled environment studies conducted to date indicates that plant growth at concentrations of carbon dioxide ([CO(2)]) anticipated for 2050 ( approximately 550 micromol mol(-1)) will stimulate leaf photosynthetic carbon assimilation (A) by 20 to 40%. Simu...

Mesoporous silica spheres ranging from 2 to 6 μm in size were synthesized under static acidic conditions by mixed cationic-nonionic surfactant templating. The mesoporous structure of the calcined silica microspheres was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and nitrogen sorption, whereas the morphology and size of the microspheres were revealed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was s...

The aim of the work is to investigate the ability of higher plants to absorb and detoxify environmental pollutants - aromatic compounds via aromatic ring cleavage. Transformation of 14C specifically labelled benzene derivatives, [1-6-14C]-nitrobenzene, [1-6-(14)C]-aniline, [1-(14)C]- and [7-(14)C]-benzoic acid, in axenic seedlings of maize (Zea mays L.), kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), pea...

The distributions of endosulfan (ED) residues (α-, β-isomers, and sulfate-metabolite) in cucumbers grown in soils treated with ED at concentrations of 20 and 40 mg kg-1 were assessed using indoor and outdoor experiments. In all treatments, degradation rates of the α-isomer in soils were higher than that of the β-isomer. In the indoor tests, uptake amounts of total ED by cucumbers, after 15 d of...

Watermelon, Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum & Nakai cv. Sugar Baby, were grown in the field as a fall crop in open-top chambers (OTC) in southwestern Indiana with either charcoal-filtered (CF) or nonfiltered (NF) air. Ozone and sulfur dioxide were continuously monitored in OTC and ambient air. There was a significant decrease in marketable yield by weight (19.9%, P = 0.05), percentage of mark...

Plants grown under elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) experience physiological changes that influence their suitability as food for insects. To determine the effects of living on soybean (Glycine max Linnaeus) grown under elevated CO2, population growth of the soybean aphid (Aphis glycines Matsumura) was determined at the SoyFACE research site at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinoi...