Phytoremediation is one of the safer, economical, and environment-friendly techniques in which plants are used to recover polluted soils, particularly those containing toxic organic substances and heavy metals. However, it is considered as a slow form of remediation, as plants take time to grow and flourish. Various amendments, including the augmentation of certain chemical substances i.e., ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), ethylene glycol tetra acetic acid (EGTA), and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) have been used to induce and enhance the phytoextraction capacity in plants. Several reports show that chemical amendments can improve the metal accumulation in different plant parts without actually affecting the growth of the plant. This raises a question about the amount and mechanisms of chemical amendments that may be needed for potentially good plant growth and metal phytoremediation. This review provides a detailed discussion on the mechanisms undertaken by three important chemical amendments that are widely used in enhancing phytoremediation (i.e., EDTA, EGTA, and SDS) to support plant growth as well as soil phytoremediation. A core part of this review focuses on the recent advances that have been made using chemical amendments in assisting metal phytoremediation.

The adult intestine hosts a huge number of diverse bacterial species, collectively referred to as the microbiome, that reside mainly in the lower gut, where they maintain a symbiotic relationship with their host. Recent research points to a central role of the microbiome in many biological processes. These microbial communities are influenced by multiple environmental and dietary factors and can modulate immune responses. In addition to local effects on the gastrointestinal tract, the microbiota is associated with effects on other organs and tissues, such as the skin. Indeed, an altered microbiome has been associated with skin disorders in several instances. Thus, in this review, we describe the recent advances regarding the interplay between gut microbiota and the skin. We explore how this potential link affects skin homeostasis and its influence on modulating the cutaneous immune response, focusing on psoriasis disorder. Finally, we discuss how to take advantage of this interplay to manage this disorder, particularly through probiotics administration. In the gastrointestinal tract, the microbiome has been proven to be important in the maintenance of the balance between effector T cells and regulatory T cells, and the induction of immunoglobulin A. Moreover, gut bacterial dysbiosis is associated with chronic inflammatory disorders of the skin, such as psoriasis. Thus, the microbiome can be considered an effective therapeutical target for treating this disorder. Despite some limitations, interventions with probiotics seem promising for the development of a preventive therapy by restoring altered microbiome functionality or as an adjuvant in specific immunotherapy.

The potential protective role of priming wheat seeds with maize green extract (MGE) against the stress effects of drought was studied. Pretreatment using MGE, MGE enriched with polyamines (MGE_PA), and drought treatments (irrigation deficit of 30% (severe drought) or 60% (moderate drought) versus 90% relative water content of soil as a control) were applied in a factorial completely randomized design. Under moderate drought, pretreatment with MGE_PA outperformed MGE and control, while severely stressed plants died even with pretreatments. Both extracts enhanced normal plant growth and yield and mitigated the deleterious effect of moderately stressed plants. Application of both extracts markedly increased photosynthetic efficiency, membrane stability, relative water content, and accumulation of antioxidants, osmoprotectants, trans- and cis-zeatin, polyamines, and their gene expressions, while levels of superoxide (O₂^•−) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), lipid peroxidation, and electrolyte leakage were decreased. Enzymatic antioxidants and glyoxalase system activities were improved in moderately stressed plants and were further improved with pretreatment with both extracts, thus protecting plants from oxidative damage by up-regulation of the ascorbate–glutathione cycle. Glycine betaine, soluble sugars, and proline levels were greatly increased in pretreated plants, thus maintaining membrane stability and photosynthetic efficiency. The interaction between drought and pretreatment using MGE_PA was significant in growing wheat plants in dry environments with 60% relative water content of soil.

Magnetic water technology is supposed to be an eco-friendly tool used for alleviating drought stress in the agricultural sector. The present study investigates the role of magnetized water on the two Moringa species (Moringa oleifera and Moringa peregrina) under drought stress. The experiments were conducted in a greenhouse to compare three watering regimes, including, 100% field capacity (FC, as Control), 50% field capacity (FC, as moderate drought stress), and 20% field capacity (FC, as severe drought stress), and two water treatments (normal water and magnetic water). Significant reductions in plant height, leaf area, relative water content (RWC), chlorophyll and ion contents, assimilation rate (A), transpiration (E), stomatal conductance (gs), water use efficiency (WUE), and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) were observed during the drought stress. M. oleifera and M. peregrina seedlings when treated with MW during SS level, exhibited 13.09%, 21.1%, 22.6%, 23%, and 10.7%,15.2%,12.9% ,13.19% decreases in Chl a, Chl b, Chl (a+b) and carotenoids contents respectively, as compared to control seedlings. The M. oleifera and M. peregrina seedlings exposed to drought stress (MS, SS) showed 1.26%, 3.79%, and 1.2%, 3.7% decreases in Fv/Fm under MWT. The drought-stressed seedlings treated with magnetic water (MW) recovered from growth inhibition, chlorosis, and ion disruption. Magnetic water (MW) improved the Na+/K+ ratio by lowering the accumulation of Na+ ions. Hence, the application of magnetized water (MW) mitigated the adverse effects of drought in the Moringa species.

The present study assesses the effect of drought stress on the Moringa biotype under magnetized water treatment (MWT). The Moringa biotype seedlings were subjected to drought stress with varying field capacities (FC) viz., control (100% FC), moderate drought stress (MS,50% FC), and severe drought stress (SS, 20% FC). Magnetized water (MW) significantly increased plant height, leaflet number, internode distances, leaf area, dry weight of the leaf, shoot, root of the seedlings and markedly improved the assimilation, transpiration, stomatal conductance, water use efficiency and vapor pressure deficit under drought stress conditions. The maximum quantum efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) and maximum chlorophyll fluorescence (Fm) were increased and minimum chlorophyll fluorescence (F₀) in the darkadapted state was decreased under drought stress with MWT. Photosynthetic pigments (Chl a, Chl b, carotenoids) significantly decreased under drought stress, but MW significantly increased them. The MW application in Moringa biotype resulted in a decrease in total phenolic content (TPC) by 19% and 26% under MS and SS conditions, respectively. Malondialdehyde(MDA), hydrogen peroxide(H₂O₂) and accumulation of proline in leaf were decreased with the prolongation of drought with MW. MW could be used for alleviating the drought stress in Moringa biotype seedlings and improve drought tolerance by modulating the physiological activities.

Abioticstress such as drought is a potential threat posing a severe challenge to wheat production across the globe. The current study comparatively delineated the performance of elite Pakistani bread wheat genotypes at physiological (chlorophyll, canopy temperature, cell membrane percentage stability and leaf relative water content), agronomic (plant height, tillers plant⁻¹, flag leaf area, spike length, spikelets spike⁻¹, grains spike⁻¹, grain yield spike⁻¹, thousand grain weight and plant biomass) and genetic (TaDREB1A, TaGROS-A, TaLEA3, TaHSFA1a, TaWRKY44 and TaEXPA2) levels. Atri-replicate experiment was conducted in a two factorial arrangement using RCBD, and data were analyzed statistically using the computer-based programsStatistix8.1 and R-studio. In general, all wheat genotypes illustrated significant (p ≤ 0.05) alterations in physiological and agronomic traits under drought stress as compared to the control; however, this alteration was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) different among all genotypes owing to their varying genetic potential. Furthermore, these genotypes were evaluated for the extent of the association of physiological and agronomic traits using PCA, correlation and heatmap analysis, which proved statistically significant variation in the paired association of traits among all genotypes during drought stress as compared to the control. In addition, based on statistical evaluations, the genotypes Pakistan-13, Shahkar-13, AAS-11, Chakwal-86, Chakwal-50 and AUR-09 were found to be tolerant, while genotypes Anmol-97, Chakwal-97, Bhakkar-02 and BWP-97 were comparatively susceptible. Furthermore, these screened genotypes showed differential expression of drought-related genes, with relatively high expression in tolerant genotypes compared to susceptible genotypes. The current study concluded that physiological, agronomic and molecular characteristics are significantly interconnected, and these associations determine the end productivity of wheat genotypes during abiotic stress. Therefore, their integrated study can enhance the pace of wheat breeding for drought tolerance in the near future.