A simplified, fast, and effective production method has been developed for the synthesis of manganese ferrite (MnFe2O4) magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). In addition to the wide applicability of MnFe2O4 MNPs, this work also reports their application in DNA isolation for the first time. An ultrasonic-cavitation-assisted combustion method was applied in the synthesis of MnFe2O4 MNPs at different furnace temperatures (573 K, 623 K, 673 K, and 773 K) to optimize the particles’ properties. It was shown that MnFe2O4 nanoparticles synthesized at 573 K consist of a spinel phase only with adequate size and zeta potential distributions and superparamagnetic properties. It was also demonstrated that superparamagnetic manganese ferrite nanoparticles bind DNA in buffer with a high NaCl concentration (2.5 M), and the DNA desorbs from the MNPs by decreasing the NaCl concentration of the elution buffer. This resulted in a DNA yield comparable to that of commercial DNA extraction products. Both the DNA concentration measurements and electrophoresis confirmed that a high amount of isolated bacterial plasmid DNA (pDNA) with adequate purity can be extracted with MnFe2O4 (573 K) nanoparticles by applying the DNA extraction method proposed in this article.

Genetic diversity in wheat has been depleted due to domestication and modern breeding. Wild relatives are a valuable source for improving drought tolerance in domesticated wheat. A QTL region on chromosome 2BS of wild emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccoides), conferring high grain yield under well-watered and water-limited conditions, was transferred to the elite durum wheat cultivar Uzan (T. turgidum ssp. durum) by a marker-assisted backcross breeding approach. The 2B introgression line turned out to be higher yielding but also exhibited negative traits that likely result from trans-, cis-, or linkage drag effects from the wild emmer parent. In this study, the respective 2BS QTL was subjected to fine-mapping, and a set of 17 homozygote recombinants were phenotyped at BC4F5 generation under water-limited and well-watered conditions at an experimental farm in Israel and at a high-throughput phenotyping platform (LemnaTec-129) in Germany. In general, both experimental setups allowed the identification of sub-QTL intervals related to culm length, kernel number, thousand kernel weight, and harvest index. Sub-QTLs for kernel number and harvest index were detected specifically under either drought stress or well-watered conditions, while QTLs for culm length and thousand-kernel weight were detected in both conditions. Although no direct QTL for grain yield was identified, plants with the sub-QTL for kernel number showed a higher grain yield than the recurrent durum cultivar Uzan under well-watered and mild drought stress conditions. We, therefore, suggest that this sub-QTL might be of interest for future breeding purposes.

For the plant production used soil's nutrient supplying ability ideally should correspond to the needs of the plants. The aim of our experiment work is to study as precisely as possible, how the dynamics of growth and nutrient uptake of the maize plant develop during the vegetation period. For their determination the basis of our research work was a long-term irrigation and fertilization monoculture maize field experiment that has been set up in 1984 near to Debrecen, Hungary. The soil of this experiment is a medium-heavy, loam texture calcareous chernozem type based on loess. The deepness of humus soil layer is between 70 and 90 cm. Its upper layer has become leached due to the intensive production in the past decades, so it doesn't content any significant lime-amount. Therefore, the soil pH is slightly acidic in the production layer, which is favorable for nutrient-mobilization and -uptake. This field represents the production circumstances of the chernozem soils of Hungary with excellent productivity. Effects of three factors were studied: genotypes of maize (3), fertilizer dosages (6) and irrigation levels (2). The total number of investigated treatments (plots) was 36. Plant samples were collected 7 or 6 times during the vegetation period, and the above-ground dry matter and the nutrient uptake of plants were determined. For characterizing and describing of the plant growth and nutrient uptake dynamics was used the so-called "S-type" (acceleration -saturation) equation as follows: y=A/(1+exp(-k*(x-x0)))*(1-b*x), where "y" is the actual value of the measured (dependent) factor on the day "x" after plant shooting, "A" is the maximum value of "y", "x0" is the day of maximum growth rate of "y" (point of inflexion) and "b" is the rate of decreasing of dependent value for one unit. According to our results and calculations it can be concluded, that beside the previously used soil and plant nutrientcontent the consideration and calculation of the plant-extracted nutrient-amount -depending on the applied hybrid and other agro-technological measurements -is suggested in order to characterize precisely the nutrient-supply of maize. This parameter informs us not only about the available nutrientamount at the sampling time, but about the supply level of the plants until the sampling time as well. We suggest for sampling times the intensive vegetative growth period, the switch between the vegetative and generative growth phases (silking), just as the grain-filling phase.

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We tested the fertilizer reaction of four different winter wheat varieties in three different crop years, on chernozem soil, in long-term experiment. We examined the optimum fertilizer requirements and the maximum yield of the varieties. According to our results there were significant differences among the years: the yield of the winter wheat varieties changed between 1.4–6.1 t ha-1 in 2013, 3.8–8.6 t ha-1 in 2014 and 3.2–8.6 t ha-1 in 2015. The yield increasing effect of fertilization was significantly different in the tested years. The optimum level of fertilization was determined by, besides the genetic differences among the varieties, the crop year and the extent of fertilization. In milder winter months, due to the higher average temperatures, yields of winter wheat increased compared to an average crop year.

We have carried out our outdoor field experiments at the Látókép Experimental Farm of the CAS of the University of Debrecen in the cropyear of 2012/2013 on chernozem soil in a long-term experiment. We have studied the effects of two different preceding crops (sweet corn, sunflower) on the development of the SPAD values of wheat varieties of different genotypes in the cases of control, N60+PK and N120+PK fertilizer treatments. According to our research results, we have concluded that the preceding crop, the fertilizer application and the variety selection influenced the SPAD values. According to our data, we have measured higher SPAD values after sweet corn preceding crop, the standard deviations were in a smaller range in the case of the studied varieties. After sunflower preceding crop, smaller averages were experienced with wider standard deviation range. In the case of favourable preceding crop, the differences between the varieties are more pronounced than in the case of unfavourable preceding crop. The maximal SPAD values were measured in milky ripening in the case of N120+PK fertilizer treatment.

Our field researches took place on the Látókép test farm of Agricultural Science Centre of University of Debrecen, Centre for Agricultural and Applied Economic Sciences, in long-term experiment, on calcareous chernozem soil, in growing season of 2014/2015. In our experiment we examined the fertilizer reaction and the yield of different winter wheat genotypes (GK Öthalom, GK Csillag, Mv Csárdás, Mv Toldi) with grain maize and sweetcorn forecrops. According to our results, the sweetcorn forecrop strongly affected the yield. In the average of the fertilizer treatments and the varieties, after sweetcorn forecrop 6.9 t ha-1, after grain maize forecrop 5.4 t ha-1 average yield was gained. According to our data, the fertilizer reactions of the varieties were significantly different.