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Caruso G., Pokluda R., Sekara A., Kalisz A., Jezdinský A., Kopta T., Grabowska A. (2017): Agricultural practices, biology and quality of eggplant cultivated in Central Europe. A review. Hort. Sci. (Prague), 44: 201-212.The eggplant is a warm-climate crop of high economic importance. In many Asian and Mediterranean countries, eggplants are essential components of everyday dishes, while in Central Europe they have become popular only in recent years. Eggplants are harvested at an immature stage and have low storage value; therefore, the sale of fruits in local markets requires an appropriate production strategy. In Poland, consumer demand for eggplants is currently met by imports and domestic production, which, until recently, has been carried out only in greenhouses, ensuring the availability of fresh fruits but resulting in high selling prices. The demand for eggplants is growing among Polish consumers, and, accordingly, field production is expected to gradually gain in importance due to the fruit's profitability. Accordingly, the biology and farming practices of this warm-climate crop remain in the investigation phase in temperate climate. This review aims to report the status of current knowledge regarding the technologies affecting the biology, cultivation, and nutritional value of eggplant grown in temperate climatic zone.

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Sękara A., Bączek-Kwinta R., Gawęda M., Kalisz A., Pokluda R., Jezdinský A. (2016): Sequential abiotic stress applied to juvenile eggplant modifies the seedlings parameters, plant ontogeny and yield. Hort. Sci. (Prague), 43: 149-157.The main goal of this study was to evaluate eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) susceptibility to a sequence of stress factors during plant ontogeny based on seedling morphological, biochemical and physiological parameters and the subsequent assessment of yield characteristics. After germination, seedlings at the radical stage were exposed to chilling, heat, osmotic or oxidative stress. Four weeks after development in standard conditions in a greenhouse, the seedlings were again subjected to chilling stress in a growth chamber. A non-chilled Control was implemented. Then, the yield and physiological characteristics were assessed after field cultivation. Generally, stress application after germination resulted in better plant acclimation to chilling at the 4-week-old seedling phase, evaluated on the basis of photosynthetically active pigment contents, chlorophyll fluorescence and some morphological characteristics. The comparable time to reach successive phenological stages by stressed and Control plants in the field suggests that stress pretreatment does not retard eggplant development. These results also confirm the thesis that stress memory can be induced in eggplant by stressor application during the early stages of development.Keywords: chilling; cross-tolerance; Solanum melongena; stress memory; yield Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is one of the most important warm-climate vegetables in the world. The optimum temperature for seed germination is 24°C to 29°C, and for growth and fruit development 21°C to 29°C (Kürklü et al. 1998), although Sękara (2010 showed that treating eggplant transplants with low temperature (up to 8°C) made it possible to control their morphology

Chilling influences the growth and metabolism of plants. The physiological response and acclimatization of genotypes in relation to stress stimulus can be different. Two sage cultivars: ‘Icterina’ and ‘Purpurascens’ were subjected to 4 °C and 18 °C (control), and sampled between the 5th and 14th day of the treatment. Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity was up-regulated in chilled ‘Purpurascens’ on the 14th day, while guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) activity increased on the 10th and 12th day in relation to the control. GPX activity of the control ‘Icterina’ was frequently higher than chilled plants, and chilling did not affect APX activity of that cultivar. Catalase activity remained stable in both sage cultivars. Chilled ‘Purpurascens’ showed a significant increase in total phenolics contents on the 5th, 7th, and 12th day and in total antioxidant capacity on the 5th and 10th day as compared to the control for respective sampling days. Higher malondialdehyde content was found in chilled plants on the 12th, or 14th day, differences reached 26–28% of the controls. Chilling caused significant decrease in dry matter content. The stress response was more stable and effective in ‘Icterina’, while more dynamic changes were found for ‘Purpurascens’. Based on our results, we propose to use ‘Purpurascens’ for targeted stress-induced studies and ‘Icterina’ for field applications.

JEZDINSKÝ, A., VOJTÍŠKOVÁ, J., SLEZÁK, K., PETŘÍKOVÁ, K., POKLUDA, R.: Eff ect of drought stress and Glomus inoculation on selected physiological processes of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L. cv. 'Slávy'). Acta univ. agric. et silvic. Mendel. Brun., 2012, LX, No. 3, pp. 69-76 Sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L. 'Slávy' F1) plants were colonized by the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus and grown in two irrigational levels: 1. optimal water supply (the irrigation activation by available water capacity (AWC) < 65 %); 2. drought stress (irrigation activation by AWC < 45 %). In the fi eld experiment selected physiological parameters, such as photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance and water use effi ciency were observed. The highest photosynthetic activity was observed in the fi rst measuring date in both experimental years (2010: 7.5-8.1 μmol . m −2 . s −1 2011: 6.1-8.6 μmol . m −2 . s −1 ). In the next measuring dates, when the temperature decreased and the plants were older stage, the activity of leaves decreased. The inoculation by Glomus species had not clear eff ect. The inoculation did not increased the activity of plants (photosynthesis, transpiration) under optimal water supply conditions. However, based on results from 2011, under drought stress the inoculation had slightly positive eff ect on the photosynthetic rate. Under drought stress conditions, the water use effi ciency (WUE) of plants increased slightly by the Glomus inoculation (from 4.7 to 5.1 μmol CO 2 . mmol H 2 O −1 ).Capsicum annuum, photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, water use effi ciency (WUE), Glomus

POKLUDA, R., PETŘÍKOVÁ, K., ABDELAZIZ, M. E., JEZDINSKÝ, A.: Eff ect of water stress on selected physiological characteristics of tomatoes. Acta univ. agric. et silvic. Mendel. Brun., 2010, LVIII, No. 1, pp. 131-138 This work presents the results of a fi eld experiment with tomato cv. Proton grown under water stress conditions and under well irrigated conditions. At the same time, the eff ects of Pentakeep supporting agent (consisting of aminolevulinic acid) was studied. The following characteristics of plant phy siolo gy were studied -specifi c leaf area (SLA), leaf water content (LWC) and leaf proline concentration. . The highly signifi cant eff ect of water conditions resulted in the increase of proline content under water stress treatment. Although Pentakeep increased the proline content by 9 %, its eff ect was not of signifi cant importance. The proline content was also infl uenced by the date of sampling. The results indicate that physiological characteristics, such as SLA, LWC and proline content, are good indicators of water stress in tomato, proline content being a particularly reliable parameter corresponding to the actual water stress of plants.water stress, tomato, specifi c leaf area, leaf water content, proline Droughts in connection with high temperatures have become the most common abiotic factors infl uencing physiological processes in plants, and consequently the yield and its quality. Under water stress, plants naturally try to prevent loss of water by means of various mechanisms, such as pore closing (CHAVES et al., 2003), synthesis of osmoprotectants -sugars, aminoacid proline and other substances (RAMANJULU et al., 2002). It has been found out (CLAUSSEN, 2005) that proline content grows signifi cantly as early as in 14 hours a er water stress. When assessing stress in hydroponically grown tomatoes, it was found out that proline content in tomato leaves under water stress was higher in summer than at the end of the vegetation. The level of proline also depends on light intensity. A negative correlation of proline and leaf water content (LWC) was proved. The relative LWC decrease by 5 % doubled the increase of proline content. SHTEREVA et al. (2008) mention the possibility to use a 'proline' test as an instrument for fi nding tomato genotypes tolerant to water stress.Apart from the natural mechanisms reducing the stress, new possible uses of complementary substances leading to greater stress endurance of plants are being searched for. One such substance is aminolevulinic acid (ALA) which has a number of positive eff ects on plant physiology.According to KORMAZ et al. (2009), spraying or dipping pepper seedlings in ALA solution clearly reduced the signs of cold damage. At the same time, an exogenous application of ALA increased the content of the monitored constituents, including proline. ALA also increased the relative leaf water con-