Growth Of Sinapis Alba Research Articles

Assessment of Soil Contamination with Potentially Toxic Elements and Soil Ecotoxicity of Botanical Garden in Brno, Czech Republic: Are Urban Botanical Gardens More Polluted Than Urban Parks?

Though botanical gardens are an important and widely visited component of urban green spaces (UGS) worldwide, their pollution is rarely studied. The aim of this study was to assess botanical garden soil contamination and ecotoxicity and to evaluate whether urban botanical gardens are more contaminated than urban parks. Soil assessments showed serious contamination with Cd, Pb and Zn, emitted predominantly by traffic, agrochemicals and past construction and demolition waste. The discovery of hazardous historical ecological burden in the UGS calls for the necessity of detailed surveys of such areas. Despite prevailing moderate-to-heavy contamination, the soil was only slightly ecotoxic. Maximum immobilisation inhibition of Daphnia magna reached 15%. Growth of Sinapis alba L. was predominantly stimulated (73%), and Desmodesmus subspicatus Chodat was exclusively stimulated, possibly due to soil alkalinity and fertiliser-related nutrients. The hypothesis of a higher contamination of urban botanical gardens compared to urban parks was confirmed. However, urban parks can face a greater risk of soil ecotoxicity, hypothetically due to decreased activity of soil organisms resulting from adverse soil conditions caused by active recreation. The results highlight the need for an increased focus on botanical and ornamental gardens when assessing and managing UGS as areas potentially more burdened with contamination.

Effect of meat and bone meal (MBM) and Bacillus subtilis on the content of nitrogen and phosphorus in soil and white mustard biomass

The aim of this pot experiment was to determine the effect of increasing rates of meat and bone meal (MBM), applied alone or in combination with a microbial preparation containing Bacillus subtilis (FITOdoctor), on the growth of Sinapis alba L.. Dry matter (DM) yield, the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) content of white mustard were determined, together with the mineral N (Nmin) and available P content of soil. The application of FITOdoctor to the soil improved white mustard yield only during the second growing season. Second-harvest white mustard biomass had a significantly lower content of N and P than first-harvest biomass. The highest MBM rate significantly increased the Nmin content of soil. Nitrogen uptake by plants and N concentration in biomass were highest in the treatments with the highest mineral N content of soil. Similar relationships were observed for P whose uptake by plants was also affected by B. subtilis in two treatments (NPK, 0.8% MBM). MBM is a valuable N and P fertilizer, whereas B. subtilis has varied effects.

Biosurfactant production and hydrocarbon degradation activity of endophytic bacteria isolated from Chelidonium majus L.

BackgroundThe process of plant growth in the contaminated environment is often inhibited and entails the neutralization of harmful compounds. To reduce the negative impact of harmful compounds microorganisms produce unique compounds called biosurfactants. This paper describes the potential of culturable endophytic microorganisms from synanthropic plant-Chelidonium majus L. for the production of biosurfactants, as indirect plant promoting factors as well as their degradation activity. Emulsifying activity and degradation potential of tested strains were assessed by cultivation of isolates in the presence of diesel oil and waste engine oil.ResultsTen bacterial strain were isolated. Analysis of emulsifying activity revealed that all isolates possessed the ability for biosurfactant production. However, one of the isolated endophytes—2A, identified as Bacillus pumilus, exhibited the highest emulsifying activity (OD500 1.96). The same strain has shown very high degradation potential, both for diesel oil and waste engine oil hydrocarbons. Results obtained with the Phytotoxkit tests revealed that the addition of biosurfactant isolated from B. pumilus 2A strain resulted in stimulation of seed germination in soil contaminated with diesel oil (137%) and waste engine oil (120%). Positive impact of the biosurfactant produced by B. pumilus 2A on the growth of Sinapis alba in hydrocarbons contaminated soil was demonstrated.ConclusionsThe endophytic strain identified as Bacillus pumilus 2A produce biosurfactant that is able to act as plant-growth promoting agent. Endophytic bacteria isolated from Chelidonium majus L. exhibit potential for hydrocarbons degradation and biosurfactant production. These properties provide promising perspectives for application of biosurfactants as potential agents for bioremediation of environment contaminated with hydrocarbons.

The influence of alcoholic extract from leaves of Helianthus annuus L. on germination and growth of Sinapis alba L.

The knowledge of plants interactions is used for their better protection and cultivation. Theaim of this study was to determine the influence of alcoholic extracts from the leaves of thecommon sunflower (Helianthus annuus) on selected physiological parameters of plants ofwhite mustard (Sinapis alba ‘Barka’). The seeds germination, the growth, the fresh and drymasses of plants grown from seeds and germinated on the sunflower extracts and plantswatered by H. annuus extracts during the growth phase were studied. In the growth phase, thefresh masses of all organs were increased on 5 % extract, however significantly decreasedon 10 % extract. The dry mass of S. alba was not significantly changed. In the germinationphase, much less changes of these parameters were revealed. In general, extracts fromH. annuus leaves inhibited germination of S. alba seeds, but stimulated growth of plants incase of application of 5 % concentrations during the germination phase and inhibited theirgrowth in case of application of 10 % concentrations during the growth phase.

The effect of light intensity during growth of Sinapis alba on the electron-transport components

Summary Sinapis alba (white mustard) plants were grown under high light (2 × 105 erg/cm2 · sec) and low light (2 × 103 erg/cm2 · sec) conditions, and the effect of light intensity during growth on the electron-transport components and the photochemical activities of the chloroplasts were studied. The P700 content in plants grown at both high and low light is quite high; the Chl/P700 ratio is about 210 in the chloroplasts from both types of plants. The P700 content in these plants shows no correlation with their maximum photosynthetic efficiency. In high-light plants, the concentrations of P700, ferredoxin and cytochrome f are comparable, namely, one of each of these components is present in each electron-transport pathway. In low-light plants, the P700 concentration is about three times higher than that of cytochrome f or ferredoxin. It is therefore suggested that most of the P700 in low-light plants is involved in a cyclic electron flow which is coupled to phosphorylation. The D-1 and D-10 fragments from the high-light-plant chloroplasts show a substantially higher photosystem-II activity than the corresponding fragments from the low-light plants. This is consistent with our previous finding that the plastoquinone concentration in high-light plants is twice as high as in low-light plants. The higher plastoquinone concentration and the higher photosystem-II activity in the high-light plants may be related to a higher concentration of photosystem-II reaction-center chlorophyll or a larger plastoquinone pool in these plants.