Maize is an edible cereal crop that belongs to family Gramineae and use as an energy source for human and animals. In our country the industrial and municipal wastewater has been being used for irrigation purposes that contain heavy metals. These heavy metals affect production of maize crop and soil quality. The purpose of this study was to investigate the affect of different heavy metals on maize growth and to asses more tolerant and more sensitive maize variety. Different concentrations of Mn and Cr (0, 0.25Molar, 0.50Molar) were applies in combined form and individually. Total three replicates were carried out during research. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey’s rang test (p ≤ 0.05) were applied as statistical tool among treatment means. ANOVA indicated the differences among five different genotypes and 9 different treatments for all parameters were significant. Tukey’s test indicated that higher toxic effect was shown under treatment 0.5M Mn + 0.25M Cr while less toxic effect was observed under treatment 0.50M Mn in maize plant. The genotype 31R88 was more sensitive for metal toxicity because most of 31R88 traits were affected under heavy metal treatments while more tolerant variety was Neelum. Hence the results of our study have suggested that the genotype Neelum may be used for the improvement of grain yield and productivity under heavy metal stress conditions.
The development of antibiotic resistant bacteria causes many harmful effects on human and animal lives. In developing countries many expensive synthetic drugs are being used to cure diseases but they have many side effects. Therefore, there is need to develop new strategies to control microbial infections. Therefore, we decided to work on extracts of different parts of Ficus carica which have good activity against gram positive bacteria, gram negative bacteria and fungal species. Methanol and chloroform extracts of root, stem, leaves and fruits were prepared and zone of inhibition was measured by using well diffusion method against gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) two gram positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus) and two fungal species Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus oryzae. methanol extract of leaves has high % yield (5.86%) and high zone of inhibition (23mm) against bacteria Escherichia coli and fungus Aspergillus niger (34mm). Bacteria Staphylococcus aureus was highly sensitive to chloroform extract with zone of inhibition 74mm while Escherichia coli was highly sensitive to metabolic extract with zone of inhibition 82mm. Chloroform extract has average zone of inhibition (56mm) and methanolic extract has average zone of inhibition (63mm).
Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L. SO) leaves represent an important dietary source, have high nutritional value and antimicrobial properties. Spinach leaves have been used in the treatment of human diseases since ancient times. Here, the aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial and antifungal activities of ethanolic extract of Spinach oleracea leaves by determining the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) using well diffusion method against bacterial species Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus and Klebseilla pneumonia and fungal species Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans and Fusarium oxysporum. We evaluated from present data that ethanolic extract of root showed zone of inhibition ranges from 6 mm to 21 mm, ethanolic extract of stem showed zone of inhibition ranges from 8 mm to 21 mm and ethanolic extract of leaf showed zone of inhibition ranges from 9 mm to 22 mm from concentration 25 mg/ml to 100mg/ml. Leaf extract has high antibacterial and antifungal activity against bacterial and fungal species while root extract has low antibacterial and antifungal activity against bacterial and fungal species. Activity of plant extract was increased by the increasing concentration of extracts. Very low zone of inhibition was found at concentration 25 mg/1 ml DMSO which ranges from 6 mm to 14 mm while very high zone of inhibition was found at concentration 100 mg/ml which ranges from 6 mm to 22 mm. So, ethanolic extracts of Spinach oleraceae has good efficiency against bacterial and fungal species.
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and pea (Pisum sativum L.) both are important legume crops grown throughout the world for protein and they also contain essential vitamins and fibers. Chick pea and pea are very sensitive to abiotic stress that includes heat, drought, cold and salt stress conditions. To access the effects of salt stress on the chick pea and pea an experiment was performed in the Green House of Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, The University of Lahore, Lahore. The seeds of both genotypes were grown in 18 pots with 2 kg pure sand and applied different concentrations of NaCl stress after 7 days of germination. The application of salt treatments was repeated 4 times each after 7days interval and data of different morphological traits was recorded each time. The treatments were included control, 0.25Molar NaCl, 0.5Molar NaCl concentrations. The data was recorded and pooled analysis of variance was carried out for significance of results. The average root length was recorded as 5.7522±0.0211cm and shoot length (11.139±0.0011cm) while average fresh plant weight was recorded as 0.5811±0.0002g under different salt stress conditions. The finding of our result proved that both varieties chickpea and pea showed variable behavior under salt stress conditions while the pea genotype showed more tolerant against different salt treatments which indicated pea genotypes may be used for future breeding to improve yield and growth of pea crop. The results showed that there was significant and positive correlation among root length, shoot length and leaf length of chickpea and pea seedlings which concluded that root length and shoot length may be used as selection criteria to induced stress tolerance in crop plants.
Rhizobacteria, a plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) as beneficial microorganism which helps in defense from abiotic and abiotic stresses, colonizes in rhizosphere and played a major role in promoting plant growth and also provides enhance soil fertility. In the highly contaminated soil, the content of metal exceeds the limits of plant tolerance. It is also possible that treatment of plant with PGPR, here increasing the biomass of plant, stabilizing and the remediation of metal polluted soil. The use of rhizobacteria plays and important role in increasing the tolerance of plant towards toxic effects of heavy metals like arsenic, sulphur, mercury, chromium, cadmium, nickel, lead and copper etc. Heavy metal accumulation results in deterioration of soil fertility while PGPR helps to restore soil fertility. The process of phytoremediation has been proved to be the best way to remediate heavy metals from soil. The use of rhizobacteria with plants provides highly efficiency phytoremediation. However, there is still need to understanding the concept of microbial ecological study in rhizosphere and mechanism of detoxification of heavy metals form rhizosphere.
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