Climate warming may affect the performance of plants directly through altering vegetative or reproductive traits, and indirectly through modifying interactions with their pollinators. On the other hand, the addition of fertilizers to the soil may increase the quantity and quality of floral rewards, favoring the visitation of pollinators and, consequently, the reproductive success of plants. However, it is still unknown whether fertilizers may counteract the effects of increased temperature on the vegetative, floral, and reproductive traits of plants, as well as on the interaction with their pollinators. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of the input of organic and synthetic fertilizers on several vegetative and floral traits, and on the rate of legitimate floral visitors and reproductive success of the squash during two seasons, under a scenario of an increase in ambient temperature. During the dry and the rainy seasons, three vegetative, eleven floral, and two reproductive traits, as well as the duration of visits and visitation rate of legitimate floral visitors were evaluated in squash plants distributed into six treatments in a bifactorial design: temperature (ambient or elevated temperature) and fertilizer (organic, synthetic or without supplementary fertilizers). Contrary to our predictions, we found that an increase of ~1.5°C in ambient temperature, positively influenced several vegetative, floral, and reproductive traits in this crop, and that organic fertilizers, in general, was not better than synthetic fertilizers in improving those traits. Interestingly, the response of the squash and indirectly on their legitimate floral visitors to the increase of temperature and the input of fertilizers vary widely among seasons, suggesting great temporal variation in plant-pollinator responses to temperature and nutrient availability, which makes food security more unpredictable.
Mexico is the leading exporter of mangos worldwide, and ‘Ataulfo’ is one of the most popular cultivars. However, their production has dramatically dropped in recent years due to the high incidence of nubbins. One of the possible causes is the presence of a delayed self-incompatibility found in this cultivar; thus, proximity to compatible cultivars may help to reduce this incidence. Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies that have rigorously tested this hypothesis in this cultivar. For two consecutive years, the present study evaluated the incidence of nubbins, as well as the quality and quantity of commercial fruits of ‘Ataulfo’ trees located at 10, 30, and 50 m away from ‘Haden’ cultivar. Additionally, the yield and economic income of different planting designs were estimated. During both sampling periods, our results clearly indicated that at 10 m away from ‘Haden’ individuals, ‘Ataulfo’ trees presented a lower incidence of nubbins and higher production of commercial fruits, and higher yield and total income per hectare than at 30 or 50 m away from them. These results indicate that planting designs of ‘Ataulfo’ trees located 10 m away from ‘Haden’ will help to satisfy the increasing demand for mangos of this cultivar in the international market.
The biological control using organisms that inhibit growth or the appearance of pests or diseases has proven to be a successful alternative for mango disease control. In this work, in vitro analyses were carried out with Bacillus licheniformis M2–7 and B. licheniformis LYA12 strain derived from M2–7 against the phytopathogenic fungi Aspergillus oryzae, Colletotrichum sp., and Aspergillus niger. Besides, the effect of bacteria on the micellar structure of phytopathogenic fungi was observed and evaluated through real-time PCR, the expression of two main metacaspases (casA and casB) that triggers the process of programmed cell death in fungi. The results obtained showed that both bacterial species inhibited by 45, 40, and 35 % the fungal growth of Aspergillus oryzae , Colletotrichum sp., and Aspergillus niger, respectively. The bacteria presence affected the mycelial appearance of the fungi because they presented fragmentation of the hyphae with intracellular inclusion bodies, swellings, malformations and scarce growth of the hyphae. The gene expression results conclude that the LYA12 and M2-7 strains against A. oryzae and A. niger have a fungicidal effect; therefore, the bacterial strains could be used in disease control in mango.
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