Saffron is a valuable plant and one of the most expensive spices worldwide. Nowadays, there is a tendency to produce this crop in indoor plant production systems. However, the production of saffron is restricted by the need for the reproduction of high-quality corms. In this study, we investigated the effect of different ratios of red (R) and blue (B) light spectra (including 100% B (monochromatic B), 75%, 50%, 40%, 25% B, and 0% B (monochromatic R) on the photosynthetic performance and biomass partitioning as well as morphological and biochemical characteristics of saffron. The growth of flower, root, and corm was improved by increasing the proportion of B to R light. B-grown plants were characterized by the highest photosynthetic functionality with efficient electron transport and lower energy dissipation when compared to R-grown plants. B light directed biomass toward the corms and floral organs, while R light directed it toward the leaves. In saffron, the weight of a daughter corm is of great importance since it determines the yield of the next year. As the ratio of B to R light increased, the daughter corms also became heavier, at the cost of reducing their number, though increasing the proportion of B-enhanced antioxidant capacity as well as the activity of ascorbate peroxidase and catalase while superoxide dismutase activity was enhanced in R-grown plants. In conclusion, B light increased the production of high-quality daughter corms and altered biomass partitioning towards harvestable organs (corms and flowers) in saffron plants.

Water shortage is a critical issue worldwide, and it may adversely impact non-food landscape plants. Thus, the impact of two levels of evapotranspiration-based (ETc) water stresses and two biostimulants consisting of s-abscisic acid (s-ABA) and glycine betaine (GB), and their combined applications on perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) under climatic and soil conditions of the Intermountain West, USA, were studied. Clippings with 50% ETc had higher percentage dry weight (DW) but lower fresh weight (FW) and chlorophyll index (CI) than those with 75% ETc. The performance rating of plots with 75% ETc was significantly higher (better) than those receiving the 50% ETc treatment. Clippings with the 75% ETc treatment had higher concentrations of nitrogen (N), nitrate, phosphorous (P), sulfur (S), potassium (K), sodium (Na), and copper (Cu) than those with the 50% ETc treatment. Considering all mineral nutrient values, CIs, and performance ratings, we conclude that the application of 75% ETc is sufficient for maintaining a healthy turfgrass with a satisfactory appearance, while we can save 25% water as compared to the application of water at 100%. The application of biostimulants had no effect on clipping or root FWs, DWs, or percentage DWs. Clippings from GB-treated turfgrass had significantly higher N than those from all other biostimulants or non-treated control. Additionally, clippings from the plots with the GB treatment had significantly higher S, K, and Cl but lower Zn. Clippings from the s-ABA-treated turfgrass also had significantly higher K than those in non-treated control. Average performance ratings in s-ABA and GB, and s-ABA and GB were significantly higher than those in non-treated control, underscoring the values of these biostimulants in the reduction of drought stress.

ISHS VIII International People-Plant Symposium on Exploring Therapeutic Powers of Flowers, Greenery and Nature THE ABILITIES AND POTENTIALS OF MEDICINAL PLANTS PRODUCTION AND HERBAL MEDICINE IN IRAN

Disturbance in water relations is the major causes of vase life reduction and senescence in cut flowers This problem is mainly due to microorganism proliferation in the vase solution which leads to vascular occlusion and reduction in solution uptake by cut flowers. Therefore a comprehensive study was conducted to evaluate the biocidal effect of nano silver particles (NSP) and compare it with some previously applied biocides. Roses (cv. Cherry Brandy) were treated in a completely randomized design with: colloid of NSP, citric acid, aluminum sulfate, hydroxyquinoline citrate (HQC), calcium hypochlorite, sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl), tap water, or sterilized distilled water as vase water or solution. Longest vase life was observed in flowers treated with nano silver particles, aluminum sulphate and citric acid, respectively. Nano silver particles, HQC and calcium hypochlorite were the most effective treatments in controlling microbial population followed by aluminum sulfate as the second effective treatment. Nano silver particles, HQC and calcium hypochlorite completely inhibited the microbial growth during the first six days of experiment. Moreover, aluminum sulfate retarded microbial growth, proliferation and growth rate more efficiently than others. Each treatment allowed proliferation of a specific microbe. In general, two yeasts, six fungi, and 26 bacterial colonies were isolated from different vase solutions. Among the isolated fungi, one isolate was Trichoderma harzianum and the five other were different strains of Fusarium solani. Identified bacterial isolates were Bacillus sp., Coccus spp., Streptomyces sp., Pectobacterium sp., Burkholderia sp., and Pseudomonas sp. Bacillus was the most wide spread microorganism in most treatments. Identified Bacillus sp. isolates were B. polymexa, B. subtilis, B. megaterium and B. circulans. Since nano silver significantly improved vase life and effectively controlled microbial proliferation in vase solution, our results suggest that nano silver application could be considered as a biocidal preservative solution for rose cut flowers.

A high-quality transcriptome is required to advance numerous bioinformatics workflows. Nevertheless, the effectuality of tools for de novo assembly and real precision assembled transcriptomes looks somewhat unexplored, particularly for non-model organisms with complicated (very long, heterozygous, polyploid) genomes. To disclose the performance of various transcriptome assembly programs, this study built 11 single assemblies and analyzed their performance on some significant reference-free and reference-based criteria. As well as to reconfirm the outputs of benchmarks, 55 BLAST were performed and compared using 11 constructed transcriptomes. Concisely, normalized benchmarking demonstrated that Velvet–Oases suffer from the worst results, while the EvidentialGene strategy can provide the most comprehensive and accurate transcriptome of Lilium ledebourii (Baker) Boiss. The BLAST results also confirmed the superiority of EvidentialGene, so it could capture even up to 59% more (than Velvet–Oases) unique gene hits. To promote assembly optimization, with the help of normalized benchmarking, PCA and AHC, it is emphasized that each metric can only provide part of the transcriptome status, and one should never settle for just a few evaluation criteria. This study supplies a framework for benchmarking and optimizing the efficiency of assembly approaches to analyze RNA-Seq data and reveals that selecting an inefficient assembly strategy might result in less identification of unique gene hits.