Strategic implementation of vermicompost as safe biofertilizer besides defensing saline soils offer dual function solving problems in developing countries. The current study aims to utilize vermicompost (VC) for amelioration of 200mM NaCl in Vicia faba Aspani cultivar and investigate the molecular role of salt overly sensitive pathway (SOS1). The experiment was conducted following a completely randomized design with three replicates. Treatments include 0; 2.5; 5; 10; 15% dried VC intermingled with soil mixture (clay: sand; 1:2) and/or 200 mM NaCl. The results show that salinity stress decreased broad bean fresh and dry weight; and K+/Na+. However, malonedialdehyde and H2O2 contents; increased. Application of 10% VC and salinity stress increases Ca2+ (41% and 50%), K+/Na+ (125% and 89%), Mg2+ (25% and 36%), N (8% and 11%), indole acetic acid (70% and 152%) and proteins (9% and 13%) for root and shoot, respectively, in comparison to salt treated pots. Moreover, all examined enzymatic antioxidants and their substrates increased, except glutathione reductase. A parallel decrease in abscisic acid (75% and 29%) and proline (59% and 58%) was also recorded for roots and leaves, respectively. Interestingly, the highly significant increase in gene expression of SOS1 (45-fold) could drive defense machinery of broad bean to counteract 200 mM NaCl.

Eco-friendly and sustainable plant disease management employing Trichoderma spp. as bioagents is an economically feasible and ecologically sustainable approach. Therefore, their use in agriculture should be encouraged. The two main goals of the present study were to evaluate the abilities of two Trichoderma isolates to prevent Fusarium wilt disease, which is caused by Fusarium solani, in vitro and under greenhouse conditions, as well as their potential as biofertilizers to enhance cherry tomato growth and development. The results of a dual culture test revealed that T. viride and T. harzianum are antagonistic against the F. solani pathogen. The antagonism mechanisms include competition for nutrients and space, mycoparasitism, and antibiosis, according to scanning electron microscopy (SEM) findings. Additionally, T. harzianum reduced the mycelial growth of F. solani by 78.0%, whereas T. viride inhibited the growth by 61.2%, 10 days post-inoculation. In a greenhouse experiment, cherry tomato plants treated with each of these antagonistic Trichoderma isolates separately or in combination significantly suppressed Fusarium wilt disease, improved plant growth parameters, increased macro- and micronutrients uptake, and increased the content of photosynthetic pigments and total phenols. In conclusion, effective applications of Trichoderma isolates have the potential to mitigate Fusarium wilt disease, which is caused by F. solani in cherry tomato plants, while simultaneously promoting the growth and development of cherry tomatoes.

Plants are challenged with many kinds of biotic stresses caused by different living organisms, which result in various types of diseases, infections, and damage to crop plants and ultimately affect crop productivity. Plant disease management strategies based on current approaches are necessary for sustainable agriculture. A pot experiment was carried out under greenhouse conditions to evaluate the potential of green synthesized silica nanoparticles (SiO2-NPs) and antagonistic yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) against pepper bacterial leaf spot disease, caused by Xanthomonas vesicatoria. In addition, to assess their efficacy and suppressive effects in reducing disease severity and improving sweet pepper growth, productivity, and quality. Results revealed that the combination of BCA (5%) and SiO2-NPs (150 ppm) was the most effective treatment for reducing disease severity and improving vegetative growth characters, mineral contents (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and Si in leaves), as well as stimulating polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity of sweet pepper leaves at 90 days from transplanting, while also at harvesting time enhancing sweet pepper fruit yield quality parameters significantly. In conclusion, green synthesized silica nanoparticles combined with antagonistic yeast have the potential to suppress a bacterial leaf spot disease with ecologically-sound management, while also boosting sweet pepper growth, productivity, and quality.

Crop production and growth are severely affected by salt stress. Nevertheless, the bio-fertilizer vermicompost (VC) can be participated as a potent inhibitor of salinity on plant growth and crop production by regulating photosynthetic efficiency. We investigated the effect of VC on photosynthetic performance of salt-stressed broad bean (Vicia faba L. Aspani cultivar). Seeds were grown in soil mixture; clay and sand in ratio 1:2 by volume with five different volumetric ratios of VC; 0, 2.5, 5, 10 and 15% irrigated with either water and/or 200 mM NaCl. Leaf area, Na and K contents, chlorophylls, photosystem II efficiency, Rubisco content, soluble sugars, chloroplasts’ organization and proteomics were analyzed. The imposed stress decrease leaf area, chlorophyll contents, maximum quantum efficiency (Fv/Fm), Rubisco content, increase soluble sugars and damage chloroplasts organization. Salinity upregulated glucose-1-phosphate adenylyl transferase, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase large subunit and chloroplastic peptidyl-prolyl cis–trans isomerase. The increased leaf area, chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids, maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II, Rubisco content, improving the degeneration of thylakoid lamellae and lessening plastoglobuli number in thylakoid membranes are the major benefits attained with vermicompost treatments under salt stress.Analysis of proteomic revealed that VC upregulated chloroplastic ferredoxin–NADP reductase, plastocyanin, polyphenol oxidase, peptidyl-prolyl cis–trans isomerase, alpha-glucan phosphorylase H isozyme and maturase expression under salt stress. The results suggest that VC controls protein expression at the level of transcriptional and translational which may conserve photosynthetic components and prevent salt-induced harmful effects in broad bean plants.

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Background: The possibility of selecting the best genotypes to develop good hybrid varieties of tomatoes, as well as heterosis, potence ratio and correlation of vegetative characteristics, yield and quality in tomato genotypes and their performance under arid region.Methods: Four commercial tomato cultivars (Money Maker, Pakmore VF, Strain-B and Tanshet Star) and two breeding lines (L05960 and TL01899) and their 15 F1 hybrids, using a half-diallel cross, under arid conditions were used to estimate heterosis, potence ratio and correlation coefficients among all possible pairs of important tomato traits.Result: various degrees of dominance effects for some traits were detected in the general performances of the F1 hybrids, while, other traits illustrated the presence of partial- to under-recessiveness. Heterosis percentages reflected positive desirable effects in ten F1 hybrids for some traits. Most F1 hybrids outperformed their respective parents for fruit set, fruit length, fruit diameter, total soluble solids, fruit dry weight, number of fruits per plant and total fruit yield per plant. Some of the genotypes (i.e., parents and/ or hybrids) offer opportunities as a genetic source of heat tolerant breeding genetic material adapted to high temperature under the arid conditions reported in this study. Significant positive and desirable correlations were found between 41 possible pairs of traits, whereas significant negative and undesirable correlations were found between 13 possible pairs of the traits.

Background: Humic acid is a natural bio-stimulant, which has a major influence on growth and crop quality. Also, Magnetic water treatment enhances both crop productivity and quality, which leads to the efficient use of cultivated land by using water resources available for crop production. This study aims to determine the effects of magnetized water irrigation and application of humic acid with different concentrations as a bio-stimulation on tomato plants, Solanum Lycopersicon cv. Hybrid “86”.Methods: The experiment was conducted during the tow growing seasons of 2018 and 2019 at the Agricultural Experimental Station Farm at Abies region, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Egypt. The experiment design was split-plot with three replications. Two irrigation water treatments (magnetized and non-magnetic water) were arranged in the main plots and four concentrations of humic acid (0, 1, 2 and 3 g L-1) were distributed over sub-plots.Result: The results showed that irrigation with magnetized water had a positive effect on the vegetative growth traits, yield and its components and the quality of tomato fruits parameters. There was also a clear desirable effect of humic acid addition with different concentrations, as the results indicated that the use of the highest concentration of humic acid (3 g L-1) reflected the highest values for all the studied traits. The results of the interaction between irrigation with magnetized water and application of humic acid showed that the best results and the highest values for all studied characters were recorded when using magnetic water (MW) combined with 3 g L-1 of humic acid (HA), without significant differences from the interaction treatment MW combined with 2 g L-1 HA for most traits. However, the two treatments combinations MW with 2 g L-1 HA and Non-MW with 3 g L-1 HA didn’t significant differ from each other for all studied characters at the two growing seasons. These results indicated that using the magnetic water with humic acid led to the possibility of reducing the amount of humic acid by one-third and enhances both crop productivity and quality of tomato plants. Generally, we can recommend using magnetized water irrigation with humic acid addition at concentration of 3.g L-1 or 2.g L-1 to enhance the productivity and quality of the tomato plant.

The use of organic vermicompost fertilizers is considered one of the promising fertilizer. Therefore, the experiment aimed to study the effect of using liquid vermicompost fertilizer as an alternative to chemical fertilizers in the production of lettuce, Crisp head variety. In this study, a field experiment was conducted during the two winter seasons of 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 at the Agricultural Research Station in the Abies region, affiliated to the Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University Egypt. This experiment aimed to evaluate the response of lettuce plants to the application of liquid vermicompost (LVC) fertilizer through four different concentrations (2.5%, 5%, 10%, and 20%), and the chemical fertilization treatment (100% NPK) in the recommended rate as a control treatment for lettuce production, on some vegetative growth characters; Fresh weight plant -1 (kg), head net weight plant -1 (kg), total yield fed -1 (ton), and unmarketable yield fed -1 (ton), in addition to some biochemical characteristics; vitamin C, dry matter, total soluble solids, and carbohydrates as well as estimate the element content and quality elements, such as nitrogen (N + ), potassium (K + ), phosphorus (P + ), calcium (Ca 2+ ), magnesium (Mg 2+ ), and iron (Fe 2+ ). The results showed a gradual significant increasing in the values of most of the studied traits by increasing the concentrations of vermicompost fertilizer from 2.5 % to 20%. The application of vermicompost treatment with a concentration of 20% LVC gave the highest significant values for most of the studied traits without a clear significant difference compared to the chemical fertilizer 100% NPK.