No abstract

The rapid development is leading the demand of colors in biotechnology related to food, textile, medicine and cosmetics. The health hazards of synthetic colors compel industries to adapt natural pigments. "Among them; microbial pigments most important and very diverse in nature." In this group the fungal pigments are of high demand due to mostly being extracellular metabolites, easy to extract and have enormous biotechnological applications. "Almost all genus of fungi produce efficient amount of pigment which depend and vary from species to species. Yeast, basidiomycetes, Zygomycetes, filamentous fungi, endophytic fungi, marine fungi and halophiles are most important groups which produce useful pigments. The pigments mostly found in kingdom fungi include melanin, phenazines, flavins, carotenoids, violacein, indigo, ankaflavins, canthaxanthin, prodigiosin and moascins. These pigments are being extracted on industrial scale for many biotechnological purposes. This review is intended to highlight the importance of pigments produced by fungi. The research on pigments producing fungi can lead to the development of industries related to textile, food, medicine, and cosmetics.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The establishment of an efficient protocol for in vitro growth and regeneration of kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes) allowed us to closely examine the phytohormone profiles of kohlrabi seedlings at four growth stages (T1–T4), additionally including the effects of cytokinins (CKs)—trans-zeatin (transZ) and thidiazuron (TDZ)—and high sucrose concentrations (6% and 9%). Resulting phytohormone profiles showed complex time-course patterns. At the T2 stage of control kohlrabi plantlets (with two emerged true leaves), levels of endogenous CK free bases and gibberellin GA20 increased, while increases in jasmonic acid (JA), JA-isoleucine (JA-Ile), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and indole-3-acetamide (IAM) peaked later, at T3. At the same time, the content of most of the analyzed IAA metabolites decreased. Supplementing growth media with CK induced de novo formation of shoots, while both CK and sucrose treatments caused important changes in most of the phytohormone groups at each developmental stage, compared to control. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that sucrose treatment, especially at 9%, had a stronger effect on the content of endogenous hormones than CK treatments. Correlation analysis showed that the dynamic balance between the levels of certain bioactive phytohormone forms and some of their metabolites could be lost or reversed at particular growth stages and under certain CK or sucrose treatments, with correlation values changing between strongly positive and strongly negative. Our results indicate that the kohlrabi phytohormonome is a highly dynamic system that changes greatly along the developmental time scale and also during de novo shoot formation, depending on exogenous factors such as the presence of growth regulators and different sucrose concentrations in the growth media, and that it interacts intensively with these factors to facilitate certain responses.

Background Chemical fertilization helped modern agriculture in grain yield improvement to ensure food security. The response of chemical fertilization for higher hybrid rice production is highly dependent on optimal fertilization management in paddy fields. To assess such responses, in the current work we examine the yield, root growth, and expression of related genes responsible for stress metabolism of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in two hybrid-rice cultivars Deyou4727 (D47) and Yixiangyou2115 (Y21). Methods and results The experiment followed four nitrogen (N) (N0, N60, N120, and N180 kg/ha) and phosphorus (P) (P0, P60, P90, and P120 kg/ha) fertilizer levels. The grain yield in D47 was more sensitive to nitrogen application, while Y21 was more sensitive to phosphorus application, which resulted in comparatively higher biomass and yield. Our findings were corroborated by gene expression studies of glutamine synthetase OsGS1;1 and OsGS1;2 and phosphate starvation-related genes PHR1 and SPX, confirming sensitivity to N and P application. The number of roots was less sensitive to nitrogen application in D47 between N0 and N60, but the overall nutrient response difference was significantly higher due to the deep rooting system as compared to Y21. Conclusions The higher yield, high N and P use efficiency, and versatile root growth of D47 make it suitable to reduce unproductive usage of N and P from paddy fields, improving hybrid rice productivity, and environmental safety in the Sichuan basin area of China.