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The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of enriched Artemia with fish and soybean oils supplemented with vitamin E on growth performance, stress resistance, antioxidant enzymes activity and lipid peroxidation of Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus) larvae. Five experimental diets including non-enriched  Artemia (control diet), Artemia enriched with soybean oil supplemented with 15 or 30% vitamin E (S15 and S30 diets) and fish oil supplemented with 15 or 30% vitamin E (F15 and F30 diets) were used. The larvae were fed to apparent satiation for 17 days. The results indicated that fish fed enriched Artemia had no significant differences compared with control group in terms of growth and survival, but increase in vitamin E levels from 15 to 30 % improved growth performance and resistance to salinity stress. Vitamin E content in fish fed S15 and S30 diets was significantly higher compared with the other treatments. Antioxidant enzymes activity in fish fed non-enriched Artemia, F15 and F30 diets were higher. The highest TBA value was observed in fish fed non-enriched Artemia. The results demonstrated that the addition of vitamin E to the fish and soybean oils for Artemia enrichment could reduce oxidation of oils and beneficial for the health and quality of larvae. In conclusion, enrichment of Artemia with soybean oil supplemented with 30 % vitamin E (S30 diet) is recommended for feeding Persian sturgeon larvae.

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To estimate plant resistance to Cadmium Chloride (CdCl2) stress for phytoremediation purposes, the effect of cadmium (Cd) phytotoxicity was assessed on total soluble protein, chlorophyll (Chl) content and antioxidant enzymes in the leaves of three different Brassica napus (B. napus) cultivars; Mohican, Reg.Cob and Okapi. Plants were exposed to three levels of CdCl2 (0.75, 1.5 and 2.25 mM) in irrigation water. A reduction in protein and Chl content was noted for all treatments in the three cultivars. Generally, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activities were increased with 0.75 mM CdCl2 and then decreased at higher concentrations. SOD activity was enhanced up to 1.5 mM CdCl2 concentration in Mohican cultivar. Moreover, APX activity of Okapi cultivar was increased at a much higher rate of CdCl2 levels compared to Mohican and Reg.Cob cultivars. Different concentrations of CdCl2 induced a reduction in the catalase (CAT) activity of Mohican and Reg.Cob. However, this activity was increased with 0.75 mM CdCl2 in Okapi and then decreased with higher concentrations. These results indicate that B. napus cultivars have different tolerances to CdCl2 stress and in consequence, different phytoremediation efficiencies. Moreover, because Okapi possesses a higher antioxidant enzyme activity than the other two cultivars, it is suggested that it is probably the most tolerant cultivar to CdCl2 stress.

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Common Vetch ( Vicia sativa L.) an annual forage, belonging to the Fabaceae family is one of the highly cultivated forage legumes in Iran. Drought stress is a serious adverse factor that limits plant growth and productivity, inducing a range of physiological as well as biochemical responses in plants. It may also lead to generation of oxygen activated species which in turn result in cell destruction. In this study, physiological and biochemical responses of six common vetch genotypes to two levels of drought stress (30 and 10% left of FC) were investigated at their early growth stages. Results indicate that drought stress significantly affects the Relative Water Content (RWC), Electro Leakage (EL), photosynthetic pigments, and total carotenoids. The obtained results indicated drought induced changes in the activities of such antioxidant enzymes as Catalase, Glutathione Peroxidase and Ascorbate Peroxidase. There was also found a reverse relationship between Catalase and Ascorbate Peroxidase activities in the studied genotypes. Obtained results clearly show that there are highly genotype-dependent responses to drought stress at biochemical level in common vetch genotypes, with each genotype responding to stress in a genotype-specific manner. These results may be helpful in breeding programs related to drought stress resistance.

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Welsh onion (Allium fistulosum L.) is one of the important vegetable crops in China. However, the seeds of this crop are short-lived and their vitality tends to be easily lost in the course of storage. The present study was conducted to elucidate the effects of welsh onion seed priming with potassium nitrate (KNO₃) on seed vigor and on other such related mechanisms during twelve months of storage. The priming treatment improved the germination rate and vigor index of welsh onion. Membrane deterioration of welsh onion seeds was significantly alleviated by the priming treatments, as assayed by using soluble sugar content and electrical conductivity of the seed leachates. The accumulation of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in primed seeds was reduced compared with non-primed seeds. The increased activities of antioxidant enzymes, such as dehydrogenase, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) in primed seeds correlated with seed vigor and lipid peroxidation. This study provided the theoretical basis for improving the initial quality of welsh onion seeds using KNO₃ priming.

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Salicylic acid has been found to play an important role in the regulation of plant growth and development in response to environmental stresses. In the present study, the effect of salicylic acid (SA) (0 and 0.1 mM) on growth parameters and some physiological characteristics of two strawberry cultivars ("Kurdistan" and "Queen Elisa") was investigated under drought stress treatments (-0.1 and -1 MPa). Experimental design was factorial based on completely randomized design with three replications. Results showed that drought stress decreased leaf area, leaf dry matter, shoot dry matter, total dry matter, relative water content, stomatal conductance, yield, and fruit weight. Salicylic acid application increased total leaf area and leaf and shoot dry matter in both cultivars. Leaf number, root dry matter, total dry matter, yield and fruit weight were increased by SA application in "Kurdistan" under drought stress. "Kurdistan" cultivar had higher RWC than "Queen Elisa" and SA application increased RWC, proline and soluble carbohydrate in "Kurdistan" compared to "Queen Elisa" under drought stress conditions. RWC, proline and soluble carbohydrate of “Queen Elisa" did not change with SA spray. Total soluble protein was not affected in "Kurdistan" under drought stress, while "Queen Elisa" showed a reduction in total protein. SA application increased catalase and peroxidase activity in both cultivars under drought stress. In conclusion, “Kurdistan” was less susceptible to drought stress than “Queen Elisa” because “Kurdistan” showed less reduction in leaf number and area, crown, and total dry matter compared to “Queen Elisa”. SA application altered some physiological responses of both cultivars under drought stress. The effect of SA was more pronounced in "Kurdistan” than "Queen Elisa".

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Iron deficiency in soil reduces the quality of durum wheat leading to Fe deficiency in human. Thus, this experiment investigated the effects of foliar application of nano-iron oxide (2 and 4 g L^-1), iron chelate (EDTA), (4 and 8 g L^-1), iron sulfate (4 and 8 g L^-1), and the control on grain yield and quality, yield components, chlorophyll and carotenoids contents, peroxidase (POX), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activities of durum wheat D-85-15-5. Iron application increased activities of all leaf enzymes and chlorophyll of leaf, grain protein, iron and carbohydrate contents, grain carbohydrate, protein, iron yields, and grain yield. Iron source had no effects on enzymes activities, but the highest chlorophyll content, grain yield, grain iron (38%) and protein contents (58%), protein, iron, and carbohydrate yields were produced by application of 2 g L^-1 of nano-iron oxide followed by 8 g L^-1 iron sulfate. Harvest index, 1,000 gain-weight, and chlorophyll, grain yield, grain iron and protein contents, protein, iron, and carbohydrate yields increased. But, these parameters decreased at the higher rate of nano-iron oxide. Application of 2 g L^-1 nano-iron oxide was more effective than the other Fe sources and rates, and is suggested for durum wheat production.

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Drought is still accounted as a serious agronomic problem and also one of the most important factors contributing to crop yield loss. The effect of sodium silicate (Na₂SiO₃, abbreviated as Si) was investigated on the four major antioxidant enzyme activities and five other relevant components in two different grapevine cultivars (Vitis vinifera L., cvs Mish Pestan and Sahebi, as tolerant and sensitive cultivars) under drought stress. The experiment was performed in a completely randomized design including three treatments i.e. the control, drought with no Si, and Si-drought (0.004M sodium silicate kg^-1 soil), with three replications in a greenhouse. The results indicated that Si partially offset the negative impacts of drought stress by increasing the tolerance of grapevine by rising antioxidant enzyme activities and soluble protein content. Si treatment significantly affected the enzyme activities in both cultivars. Water stress induced a decrease in total Chlorophyll (Chl) and total protein contents, which was much larger in no-Si stress than in Si treatment. The results indicated that sodium silicate might decrease drought stress damages by raising the antioxidant enzymes activity.

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This work's main objective was to investigate the gum Arabic effect on reducing oxidative stress in bell peppers during ripening. Gum Arabic in 6, 9, 12, and 15% aqueous solutions was applied as an edible coating before storage on mature bell peppers stored at 8°C and 90-95% relative humidity for 28 days. The fruits that were coated with 12% gum Arabic had the lowest rate of decay, weight loss, total carotenoid content, and peroxidation of membrane lipids, as well as the highest total antioxidant capacity, total phenol, ascorbic acid, and antioxidant enzyme activity (superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase) during storage compared to the control without coating and the fruit treated with 6 and 9% gum. Still, there was no statistically significant difference with the fruit treated with 15% gum Arabic except for the total carotenoid content. The amount of peroxidation of membrane lipids showed positive and high correlation coefficients with decay (**0.93) and physiological weight loss (**0.89), but with antioxidant capacity (-0.93**), ascorbic acid (**) -0.94), total phenol (-0.92**), activity of SOD (-0.96**), CAT (-0.87**) and POD (-0.86**) correlation. It was negative and high. The results showed that the use of 12% gum Arabic as an edible coating can delay oxidative stress and decay and maintain the antioxidant properties of the fruit for up to 28 days during storage at 8 degrees Celsius.

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Mowing is important in maintaining quality of the turf. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of Nitric Oxide (NO) on tall fescue after mowing, and provide theoretical basis for molecular breeding of turf grass. In our study, exogenous NO significantly increased the relative growth rate compared to the control. The higher relative growth rate was associated with higher activity of Peroxides (POD), SuperOxide Dismutase (SOD), Catalase (CAT) and Ascorbate Peroxidase (APX). Expression of CuZn-SOD, CAT-A, and APX4 increased in roots treated with NO after mowing. In addition, exogenous NO significantly increased the concentration of Indole-3-Acetic Acid (IAA), Gibberellic Acid (GA), Cytokinin (CK) and Abscisic Acid (ABA) compared to the control, which likely linked to an increase in Nitric Oxide Synthase (NOS)-like activity and endogenous NO release in tall fescue roots. These results suggested that mowing increased NOS-like activity, leading to elevated endogenous NO levels. NO might act as a signaling molecule, increasing plant hormone content, as well as up-regulating gene expression and enhancing the activity of antioxidant enzymes, thereby protecting against injuries caused by mowing and promoting re-growth of tall fescue.
 

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This study was conducted to investigate the response of four barley cultivars (Reyhan03, Yousef, Afzal, and Khatam) to salinity stress at 0 (control), 100, 200 and 300 mM levels as a factorial experiment, within the randomized complete block design in three replications in a greenhouse, using the Hoagland solution. The physiological and biochemical properties including dry weight and RWC, photosynthesis pigments, K⁺/Na⁺, osmotic adjustments (soluble sugars, glycine betaine, proline), hydrogen peroxide and antioxidants enzymes (catalase and peroxidase) in root and shoot of barley cultivars were evaluated in saline and non-saline conditions. To determine the relationship between growth performance and the physiological and biochemical properties, the correlation between the properties and causality analysis was examined. Results obtained from comparing the mean among the treatment combinations showed that the salinity stress reduced the dry weight, photosynthesis pigments, and K⁺/Na⁺, while it increased the soluble sugars, glycine betaine, proline, H₂O₂, catalase and peroxidase in the root and shoot of barley cultivars. Correlation analysis indicated that potassium in the shoot had the most positive and significant correlation coefficient (r= 0.86) with the dry matter of shoot. The stepwise regression analysis showed that the root dry weight, catalase of root and shoot, H₂O₂ of shoot and K⁺/Na⁺ of shoot contributed to the performance. Causality analysis revealed that the root dry weight, K⁺/Na⁺ of shoot, and catalase of shoot were highly important as they had a direct positive and significant impacts on the performance of shoot dry matter.

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Ajowan is an important medicinal plant that grows mainly in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. To evaluate salinity tolerance of 25 Iranian ajowan ecotypes, three-step screening was conducted at germination, seedling, and adult plant growth stages using 0, 50, 100 and 150 mM of NaCl. The significant effects of salinity were observed at the three studied growth stages of ajowan ecotypes. Germination percentage, seed vigor, and biomass dry weight of investigated ecotypes decreased with the increase in NaCl levels. Different responses were observed among ajowan ecotypes in terms of activity of antioxidant enzymes of catalase and peroxidase, with the increasing salinity stress levels .Under the salinity stress, the proline content increased in the majority of the investigated ecotypes. Salinity stress had adverse effects on single plant seed yield and yield components. Results of the calculated correlation coefficient and path coefficient analysis showed that activity of catalase antioxidant enzyme and 1,000-seed weight were the most important characteristics that can be suggested as selection criteria for seed yield of ajowan under salinity stress conditions. The overall results suggest that nine Iranian ajowan ecotypes including Arak, Felaverjan, Ghoom, Hamedan, Karaj, Ghaen, Tehran, Yazd, and Shiraz were the salinity-tolerant ecotypes.

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Biofertilizer has been recognized as an alternative to chemical fertilizer to improve soil fertility and crop production in sustainable agriculture. The objective of this field study was to evaluate the effects of bio and chemical fertilizer on qualitative and quantitative characteristics of Thymus kotschyanus Bioss. & Hohen. The experiment was conducted during 2019 at Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran, and treatments included control (no fertilizer), chemical fertilizer (NPK), and four types of microorganisms including Funneliformis mosseae (AMF), Azotobacter chroococcum strain 5, Pseudomonas stutzeri strain P-16, and Pseudomonas putida strain 41. The results showed that AMF and NPK positively affected plant height, number of branches per plant, and photosynthesis pigments contents compared to other treatments. However, maximum plants’ fresh and dry weight, proline, total phenolic and flavonoid contents, DPPH inhibition, essential oil percentage, and carvacrol quantity were obtained from plants that were inoculated with AMF. Also, the activities of Catalase (CAT) and Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) were increased by the application of AMF. According to the obtained results, there were no significant differences in P concentration between plants treated with P. stutzeri, Pseudomonas putida, AMF, and NPK. Maximum N amount in T. kotschyanus leaf was obtained in plants treated with AMF, NPK and Azotobacter chroccucum. Plants inoculated with AMF had higher Ca uptake compared to the other treatments, and the maximum total K accumulation in T. kotschyanus were obtained in plants inoculated with AMF and NPK. Hence, the use of organic and biological inputs instead of chemical fertilizer for improving crop efficiency and quality with the aim of alleviating pollution and accomplishing sustainable agriculture is highly encouraging.

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Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an oil grain crop of subtropical and tropical areas with arid to semi-arid climate and its production is affected by drought at the grain filling and flowering stages. Given the key role of Magnesium (Mg) in many key metabolic processes, it seems that Mg Nanoparticles (NPs) can improve the sunflower performance in drought stress. This study was carried out as a split-split plot in a randomized complete block design with three factors, including irrigation regimes (drought and normal), cultivars (Barzagar, Farokh, Ghasem, and Shams), and Mg NPs application (0.25 g L^-1), and time (flowering and grain filling stages), in three replications in the field during 2017-19 seasons. Several physio-biochemical traits along with grain yield and oil percentage were measured. Based on the results, Mg NPs spraying increased the relative water content, chlorophyll and carotenoid, soluble carbohydrates, and antioxidant enzymes activity under drought. Moreover, Mg NPs spraying decreased electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde content in the stressed plants and slightly increased grain yield and oil percentage. Overall, our findings suggest that Mg NPs can improve sunflower performance under drought by several mechanisms including improved antioxidant system, enhanced photosynthetic pigments, and increased primary metabolites.

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Induced resistance in plants can be manipulated using the application of elicitors. In this study, the effects of Salicylic Acid (SA), chitosan, γ-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA), Serenad Aso (Bacillus subtilis QST713), and combined application of these elicitors were studied on the resistance of canola to cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassicae L. (Hemiptera: Aphididae). The number of B. brassicae attracted to canola plants treated with different inducers was significantly lower compared to the control in the field experiments. The lowest population density of aphid was observed on plants treated with SA+GABA and SA+chitosan. Moreover, the highest amounts of glucosinolates in canola leaves were recorded in SA+GABA treatment. The contents of sugar, lipid, and glycogen of B. brassicae were lowest when fed on the plants treated with SA integrated with GABA or chitosan. Furthermore, the activity of catalase, esterase, peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase enzymes was the lowest in SA+GABA and SA+chitosan. These findings suggest that exogenous application of SA integrated with GABA or chitosan on canola plants are successful in suppressing the B. brassicae population and can be considered in integrated management programs against this and other aphids.

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Citrus is one of the most important fruits whose growth performance and production is significantly affected by environmental stresses. Abiotic stresses, such as salinity and alkaline pH, strikingly limit citrus growth and development. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of four NaCl concentrations (0, 30, 60, 90 mM) and two pH levels (6.5 and 8.2) on some of morphological, physiological, and biochemical parameters of two citrus rootstocks (Sour orange and Bakraei rootstocks). The experiment was conducted as factorial based on a completely randomized design with four replications, at the Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran. The results showed that the value of shoot dry weight, fresh and dry weight of roots, and transpiration were significantly decreased in both Bakraei and Sour orange rootstocks when receiving irrigation with 90 mM supplement of salinity at pH= 8.2. Proline and carbohydrates of citrus rootstocks were considerably increased by increasing the levels of salinity (90 mM NaCl) and alkaline stress (pH= 8.2) in each rootstock, at which condition the photosynthesis rate of Sour orange and Bakraei also declined by 34.77 and 50.80%, respectively. The activity of antioxidant enzymes such as peroxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase were increased by 57.42, 42.10, and 45.86% in Sour orange rootstock and 42.04, 26.78, and 37.92% in Bakraei rootstock, respectively. Overall, it can be concluded that the growth performance of Sour orange rootstock is more suitable than Bakraei to tolerate salt-alkali conditions.