Increased nutritional value in food crops

Modern agriculture and horticulture must combine two objectives that seem to be almost mutually exclusive: to satisfy the nutritional needs of an increasing human population and to minimize the negative impact on the environment. These two objectives are included in the Goal 2 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture'. Enhancing the nutritional levels of vegetables would improve nutrient intake without requiring an increase in consumption. In this context, the use of beneficial rhizospheric microorganisms for improving, not only growth and yield, but also the nutrient quality of crops represents a promising tool that may respond to the challenges for modern agriculture and horticulture and represents an alternative to the genetic engineering of crops. This paper summarizes the state of the art, the current difficulties associated to the use of rhizospheric microorganisms as enhancers of the nutritional quality of food crops as well as the future prospects

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs decrease the quality of pleurodesis after mechanical pleural abrasion

Objective: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are often applied for pain management after thoracic surgery. Since these drugs diminish collagen deposition through inhibition of the prostaglandin synthesis, we investigated their effects on adhesion formation after endoscopic mechanical pleural abrasion, which is often applied in the therapy of pneumothorax. Methods: Mechanical pleural abrasion was performed unilaterally by the use of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery technique in an established pig model. Ten animals (41.3±3.4 kg) were divided into a treatment group and a control group. In the treatment group, animals received 100 mg diclofenac (2 mg/kg body weight) orally daily for 3 weeks after surgery. At 3 weeks, all animals were sacrificed and efficacy of pleurodesis was macroscopically assessed by three independent reviewers blinded to the treatment of animals using a five-point severity pleurodesis score (from 0, no adhesions to 4, complete symphisis) and obliteration grade rating the distribution of adhesions (from 0, no adhesions to 4, adhesions in the whole chest). Microscopic evaluation was performed by two pathologists blinded to the study groups as well. A four-point score assessed the amount of collagen deposition (from 1, a few collagen fibers to 4, scar). Results: Gross observation showed more dense adhesions in control animals with a median pleurodesis score of 3.67±1.0 in comparison to 2±2.2 in the treatment group (P=0.01*, Mann-Whitney non-parametric test). Distribution of adhesions was comparable in both groups with a median obliteration score of 3.67±1.3. Histopathologic examination showed a higher amount of collagen deposition in the control group, suggesting more dense adhesions, whereas in the treatment group there was loose granulation tissue (score of 4.0±0.8 vs. 2.3±1.0 in the treatment group, P=0.06). The degree of inflammatory reaction was comparable in the two groups. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that perioperative use of NSAIDs highly affects the quality of pleural adhesions obtained after mechanical abrasion in this pig model, which further suggests that these drugs should be avoided for pain management when a pleurodesis is performe

Improvement of nutritional quality of greenhouse-grown lettuce by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi is conditioned by the source of phosphorus nutrition

The improvement of the nutritional quality of lettuce by its association with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) has been recently reported in a previous study. The aim of this research was to evaluate if the fertilization with three P sources differing in water solubility affects the effectiveness of AMF for improving lettuce growth and nutritional quality. The application of either water-soluble P sources (Hewitt's solution and single superphosphate) or the water-insoluble (WI) fraction of a “rhizosphere-controlled fertilizer” did not exert negative effects on the establishment of the mycorrhizal symbiosis. AMF improved lettuce growth and nutritional quality. Nevertheless, the effect was dependent on the source of P and cultivar. Batavia Rubia Munguía (green cultivar) benefited more than Maravilla de Verano (red cultivar) in terms of mineral nutrients, total soluble sugars, and ascorbate contents. The association of lettuce with AMF resulted in greater quantities of anthocyanins in plants fertilized with WI, carotenoids when plants received either Hewitt's solution or WI, and phenolics regardless of the P fertilizer applied

Holo-omic applications to unveil microbiome shaping sustainable horticultural production

Plant-associated microorganisms play a key role in the future sustainability of terrestrial ecosystems. In nature, plants and their associated microbiome can form an assemblage of species, considered interacting metaorganisms or holobionts. Horticultural plants, including vegetables, fruit and berries, and ornamentals live in intimate association with complex and diverse microbial communities that have evolved a myriad of cooperative and competitive interaction mechanisms that shape the holobiont fitness. Nonetheless, our understanding of these interactions in shaping more complex microbial horticulture communities, along with their relevance for host growth, fitness, stress resilience, and health in a more natural context remains sparse. In this perspective, the holo-omic landscape that requires careful consideration of study design and integrates multi-omic data from both host and microbiota domains is a promising approach to unveil the interplay between the two to advance horticultural production. The analysis of horticulture (meta)-omics and phenotyping, along with mechanistic experiments in model systems, is revolutionizing research by enhancing our ability to understand the structure and core function of the plant-associated microbiome. These advancements are complemented by improvements in the throughput and accuracy of DNA sequencing, enabling us to delve deeper into the genomes of microbial communities. Yet, many challenges remain. We focus this review on the potential for holo-omics to generate a more holistic perspective of molecular networks, and we further discuss the implementation and current limitations of the holo-omic approach within microbial horticulture. We argue that holo-omics will pave the way to improve, from a horticultural perspective, food security and safety, sustainability, breeding practices, development of microbiota- and host-tailored horticultural crops’ health treatments and increasing production efficiency

Volatile compounds emitted by diverse phytopathogenic microorganisms promote plant growth and flowering through cytokinin action

Sánchez-López, Ángela María et al.It is known that volatile emissions from some beneficial rhizosphere microorganisms promote plant growth. Here we show that volatile compounds (VCs) emitted by phylogenetically diverse rhizosphere and non-rhizhosphere bacteria and fungi (including plant pathogens and microbes that do not normally interact mutualistically with plants) promote growth and flowering of various plant species, including crops. In Arabidopsis plants exposed to VCs emitted by the phytopathogen Alternaria alternata, changes included enhancement of photosynthesis and accumulation of high levels of cytokinins (CKs) and sugars. Evidence obtained using transgenic Arabidopsis plants with altered CK status show that CKs play essential roles in this phenomenon, because growth and flowering responses to the VCs were reduced in mutants with CK-deficiency (35S:AtCKX1) or low receptor sensitivity (ahk2/3). Further, we demonstrate that the plant responses to fungal VCs are light-dependent. Transcriptomic analyses of Arabidopsis leaves exposed to A. alternata VCs revealed changes in the expression of light- and CK-responsive genes involved in photosynthesis, growth and flowering. Notably, many genes differentially expressed in plants treated with fungal VCs were also differentially expressed in plants exposed to VCs emitted by the plant growth promoting rhizobacterium Bacillus subtilis GB03, suggesting that plants react to microbial VCs through highly conserved regulatory mechanisms.This work was partially supported by the Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (Spain) (grant numbers BIO2010-18239 and BIO2013- 49125-C2-1-P), the Government of Navarra (grant number IIM010491.RI1), the I-Link0939 project from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (Grant L01204 from the National Program of Sustainability) and Palacky University institutional support. AM S-L and P G-G gratefully acknowledge predoctoral fellowships from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. M B and G A acknowledge post-doctoral fellowships awarded by the Public University of Navarra.Peer reviewe

Improved uplink throughput and energy efficiency of LoRaWAN using 2-hop LEACH protocol

The low power wide area networks (LPWAN) is the new connectivity technology that is geared towards energy constrained internet of things (IoT) devices, is starting to become one of the drivers of the re-accelerating IoT market and has one goal: ensure the wide range distance while reducing the battery energy consumption. We focus in this paper on the evaluation of the uplink throughput of the long-range wide area networks (LoRaWAN) then we attempt optimize the throughput and power dissipation using low energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) protocol. Therefore, we exploit a novel module developed in NS-3 simulator for obtaining the first measurements scenario, then the LEACH algorithm for the second optimization case. As result, the simulation analysis will help us to add a new LoRaWAN routing protocol feature

A Markov Decision Model for Area Coverage in Autonomous Demining Robot

A review of literature shows that there is a variety of works studying coverage path planning in several autonomous robotic applications. In this work, we propose a new approach using Markov Decision Process to plan an optimum path to reach the general goal of exploring an unknown environment containing buried mines. This approach, called Goals to Goals Area Coverage on-line Algorithm, is based on a decomposition of the state space into smaller regions whose states are considered as goals with the same reward value, the reward value is decremented from one region to another according to the desired search mode. The numerical simulations show that our approach is promising for minimizing the necessary cost-energy to cover the entire area

Optimisation of LEACH protocol based on a game theory clustering approach for wireless sensor networks

The wireless sensor network clustering routing mechanism is the best multi-hop algorithm used to aggregate data from sensors to the base station. Therefore the elected nodes refuse to be a clusters heads CH and have a selfish and non cooperative behaviours in each group cluster. All that due to the high electric energy consumption, and especially that the most existing sensors are powered by batteries. In this paper, we will analyse the selfishness behaviour by using the most knowing mathematical model Game theory to improve the interaction decision making for the CH selection, and make a comparison with LEACH protocol

Characterization of multiple SPS knockout mutants reveals redundant functions of the four Arabidopsis sucrose phosphate synthase isoforms in plant viability, and strongly indicates that enhanced respiration and accelerated starch turnover can alleviate the blockage of sucrose biosynthesis

We characterized multiple knock-out mutants of the four Arabidopsis sucrose phosphate synthase (SPSA1, SPSA2, SPSB and SPSC) isoforms. Despite their reduced SPS activity, spsa1/spsa2, spsa1/spsb, spsa2/spsb, spsa2/spsc, spsb/spsc, spsa1/spsa2/spsb and spsa2/spsb/spsc mutants displayed wild type (WT) vegetative and reproductive morphology, and showed WT photosynthetic capacity and respiration. In contrast, growth of rosettes, flowers and siliques of the spsa1/spsc and spsa1/spsa2/spsc mutants was reduced compared with WT plants. Furthermore, these plants displayed a high dark respiration phenotype. spsa1/spsb/spsc and spsa1/spsa2/spsb/spsc seeds poorly germinated and produced aberrant and sterile plants. Leaves of all viable sps mutants, except spsa1/spsc and spsa1/spsa2/spsc, accumulated WT levels of nonstructural carbohydrates. spsa1/spsc leaves possessed high levels of metabolic intermediates and activities of enzymes of the glycolytic and tricarboxylic acid cycle pathways, and accumulated high levels of metabolic intermediates of the nocturnal starch-to-sucrose conversion process, even under continuous light conditions. Results presented in this work show that SPS is essential for plant viability, reveal redundant functions of the four SPS isoforms in processes that are important for plant growth and nonstructural carbohydrate metabolism, and strongly indicate that accelerated starch turnover and enhanced respiration can alleviate the blockage of sucrose biosynthesis in spsa1/spsc leaves.This work was partially supported by the Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (Spain) [grant numbers BIO2010-18239, BIO2013-49125-C2-1-P, BIO2008-02292 and BIO2011-28847-C02-02]. A.M.S-L. acknowledges a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. M.B. acknowledges a post-doctoral fellowship from the Public University of Navarra.Peer Reviewe

Analysis of Competition Fronting the Popularity of Content in Social Networks

In recent years, on the Internet, there is a real phenomenon: the development of social networks that are becoming more popular and more used. Social networks have millions of users worldwide. This provides an opportunity for companies to reach out a large and diverse audience for their advertising campaigns. They do this by creating and spreading content across the social network, which will increase the chance of visibility for their contents, which for them is the assurance of being popular. Every content requires time to reach a specific destination on the networks. In this article, we study competition between several contents that look for attracting more consultations, each characterized by some given popularity. There is competition between the contents of a limited set of destinations. We first model our system, we then study the competition between contents by using the game theory to analyze this behavior. We finally provide numerical results, which provide insights into the effect of various parameters of the system