Phytohormones play an essential role in plant growth and development in response to environmental stresses. However, plant hormones require a complex signaling network combined with other signaling pathways to perform their proper functions. Thus, multiple phytohormonal signaling pathways are a prerequisite for understanding plant defense mechanism against stressful conditions. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are master regulators of eukaryotic gene expression and are also influenced by a wide range of plant development events by suppressing their target genes. In recent decades, the mechanisms of phytohormone biosynthesis, signaling, pathways of miRNA biosynthesis and regulation were profoundly characterized. Recent findings have shown that miRNAs and plant hormones are integrated with the regulation of environmental stress. miRNAs target several components of phytohormone pathways, and plant hormones also regulate the expression of miRNAs or their target genes inversely. In this article, recent developments related to molecular linkages between miRNAs and phytohormones were reviewed, focusing on drought stress.

Cyclic nucleotide gated ion channels (CNGCs) in plants have very important role in signaling and development. The study reports role of CNGC19 and CNGC20 in salt stress in A. thaliana. In-silico, genome wide analysis showed that CNGC19 and CNGC20 are related to salt stress with maximum expression after 6 h in A. thaliana. The position of inserted T-DNA was determined (in-vivo) through TAIL-PCR for activation tagged mutants of CNGC19 and CNGC20 under salt stress. The expression of AtCNGC19 and AtCNGC20 after cloning under 35S promoter of expression vectors pBCH1 and pEarleyGate100 was determined in A. thaliana by real-time PCR analysis. Genome wide analysis showed that AtCNGC11 had lowest and AtCNGC20 highest molecular weight as well as number of amino acid residues. In-vivo expression of AtCNGC19 and AtCNGC20 was enhanced through T-DNA insertion and 35S promoter in over-expressed plants under high salt concentration. AtCNGC19 was activated twice in control and about five times under 150 mM NaCl stress level, and expression value was also higher than AtCNGC20. Phenotypically, over-expressed plants and calli were healthier while knock-out plants and calli showed retarded growth under salinity stress. The study provides new insight for the role of AtCNGC19 and AtCNGC20 under salt stress regulation in A. thaliana and will be helpful for improvement of crop plants for salt stress to combat food shortage and security.

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is perceived to protect the body from metabolic diseases. This study was conducted to determine the effect of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (Lp. plantarum) on CLA production and sensory characteristics of cheddar cheese. Lp. plantarum can convert linoleic acid (LA) to CLA. To increase CLA in cheddar cheese and monitor the conversion of LA to CLA by Lp. plantarum, the LA content of cheese milk (3.4% fat) was increased by partially replacing fat with safflower oil (85% LA of oil) at 0, 3, 6, and 9% concentrations (T₁, T₂, T₃, and T₄). Furthermore, Lp. plantarum 10⁸ colony-forming units (CFU)/mL (8 log CFU mL⁻¹) was added in all treatments along with traditional cheddar cheese culture (Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis and L. lactis ssp. cremoris). After 30 days of ripening, Lp. plantarum in T₁, T₂, T₃, and T₄ was 6.75, 6.72, 6.65, and 6.55 log CFU g⁻¹. After 60 days of ripening, Lp. plantarum in T₁, T₂, T₃, and T₄ was 6.35, 6.27, 6.19, and 6.32 log CFU g⁻¹. After 60 days of ripening, Lp. plantarum in T₁, T₂, T₃, and T₄ was 6.41, 6.25, 6.69, and 6.65 log CFU g⁻¹. GC-MS analysis showed that concentrations of CLA in the 90 days’ control, T₁, T₂, T₃, and T₄ were 1.18, 2.73, 4.44, 6.24, and 9.57 mg/100 g, respectively. HPLC analysis revealed that treatments containing Lp. plantarum and LA presented higher concentrations of organic acids than the control sample. The addition of safflower oil at all concentrations did not affect cheese composition, free fatty acids (FFA), and the peroxide value (POV) of cheddar cheese. Color flavor and texture scores of experimental cheeses were not different from the control cheese. It was concluded that Lp. plantarum and safflower oil can be used to increase CLA production in cheddar cheese.

The study focused on investigation of antioxidant potential of different extracts of immature and mature garlic bulbs. Antioxidant activity was assessed by measuring the reducing power, scavenging activity of extracts of Allium sativum on 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were also checked. The results showed that garlic had significant antioxidant potential. Vegetative garlic had more antioxidant potential compared to old mature garlic except in TPC. Sulphur compounds, flavonoids and phenolic compounds are responsible for antioxidant activity of garlic. Due to high antioxidant potential, garlic can protect DNA from destruction to some extent.