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Micronutrient application has a crucial role in mitigating salinity stress in crop plants. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of zinc (Zn) and boron (B) as foliar applications on fenugreek growth and physiology under salt stress (0 and 120 mM). After 35 days of salt treatments, three levels of zinc (0, 50, and 100 ppm) and two levels of boron (0 and 2 ppm) were applied as a foliar application. Salinity significantly reduced root length (72.7%) and shoot length (33.9%), plant height (36%), leaf area (37%), root fresh weight (48%) and shoot fresh weight (75%), root dry weight (80%) and shoot dry weight (67%), photosynthetic pigments (78%), number of branches (50%), and seeds per pod (56%). Fenugreek’s growth and physiology were improved by foliar spray of zinc and boron, which increased the length of the shoot (6%) and root length (2%), fresh root weight (18%), and dry root weight (8%), and chlorophyll a (1%), chlorophyll b (25%), total soluble protein content (3%), shoot calcium (9%) and potassium (5%) contents by significantly decreasing sodium ion (11%) content. Moreover, 100 ppm of Zn and 2 ppm of B enhanced the growth and physiology of fenugreek by reducing the effect of salt stress. Overall, boron and zinc foliar spray is suggested for improvement in fenugreek growth under salinity stress.

Aptamers are synthetic single-stranded DNA or RNA sequences selected from combinatorial oligonucleotide libraries through the well-known in vitro selection and iteration process, SELEX. The last three decades have witnessed a sudden boom in aptamer research, owing to their unique characteristics, like high specificity and binding affinity, low immunogenicity and toxicity, and ease in synthesis with negligible batch-to-batch variation. Aptamers can specifically bind to the targets ranging from small molecules to complex structures, making them suitable for a myriad of diagnostic and therapeutic applications. In analytical scenarios, aptamers are used as molecular probes instead of antibodies. They have the potential in the detection of biomarkers, microorganisms, viral agents, environmental pollutants, or pathogens. For therapeutic purposes, aptamers can be further engineered with chemical stabilization and modification techniques, thus expanding their serum half-life and shelf life. A vast number of antagonistic aptamers or aptamer-based conjugates have been discovered so far through the in vitro selection procedure. However, the aptamers face several challenges for its successful clinical translation, and only particular aptamers have reached the marketplace so far. Aptamer research is still in a growing stage, and a deeper understanding of nucleic acid chemistry, target interaction, tissue distribution, and pharmacokinetics is required. In this review, we discussed aptamers in the current diagnostics and theranostics applications, while addressing the challenges associated with them. The report also sheds light on the implementation of aptamer conjugates for diagnostic purposes and, finally, the therapeutic aptamers under clinical investigation, challenges therein, and their future directions.

Maize (Zea mays L.) is a salt-sensitive plant that experiences stunted growth and development during early seedling stages under salt stress. Salicylic acid (SA) is a major growth hormone that has been observed to induce resistance in plants against different abiotic stresses. Furthermore, plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) have shown considerable potential in conferring salinity tolerance to crops via facilitating growth promotion, yield improvement, and regulation of various physiological processes. In this regard, combined application of PGPR and SA can have wide applicability in supporting plant growth under salt stress. We investigated the impact of salinity on the growth and yield attributes of maize and explored the combined role of PGPR and SA in mitigating the effect of salt stress. Three different levels of salinity were developed (original, 4 and 8 dS m−1) in pots using NaCl. Maize seeds were inoculated with salt-tolerant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain, whereas foliar application of SA was given at the three-leaf stage. We observed that salinity stress adversely affected maize growth, yield, and physiological attributes compared to the control. However, both individual and combined applications of PGPR and SA alleviated the negative effects of salinity and improved all the measured plant attributes. The response of PGPR + SA was significant in enhancing the shoot and root dry weights (41 and 56%), relative water contents (32%), chlorophyll a and b contents (25 and 27%), and grain yield (41%) of maize under higher salinity level (i.e., 8 dS m−1) as compared to untreated unstressed control. Moreover, significant alterations in ascorbate peroxidase (53%), catalase (47%), superoxide dismutase (21%), MDA contents (40%), Na+ (25%), and K+ (30%) concentration of leaves were pragmatic under combined application of PGPR and SA. We concluded that integration of PGPR and SA can efficiently induce salinity tolerance and improve plant growth under stressed conditions.

Iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) are nutritional components of rice, plays an important role in its physiological processes and can minimize absorption of cadmium (Cd) in rice. Fe, Mn, and Cd transporters such as CAL1 , OsNRAMP5 , OsNRAMP1 , OsIRT1 , OsHMA3 , and OsNAAT1 regulate uptake of Cd in rice. However, the effect of exogenous application of Fe, and Mn on the accumulation of Cd and relative expression (RE) of these transporters in rice has not been investigated. Therefore, a hydroponic culture experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of Fe and Mn on Cd uptake and RE of these transporters in rice. The results showed that the Fe and Mn application significantly decreased Cd in the roots and shoots of rice. Whereas, Cd concentration in the rice significantly increased with increasing Cd concentration in the solution. The addition of manganese in the culture medium can reduce the cadmium content of rice roots by 11.9–82.3% and shoots by 11.6–85.0%, while the addition of iron in the culture medium can reduce the cadmium content of rice roots and shoots by 26–65% and 9–683% respectively. Meanwhile, application of sufficient doses of Fe and Cd in solution culture increased RE of CAL1 , OsNRAMP5 , OsNRAMP1 , OsIRT1 , and OsNAAT1 in roots, whereas expression level of OsHMA3 was decreased. Similarly, expression level of CAL1 , OsNRAMP5 , and OsNRAMP1 significantly increased in roots in high Cd and Mn deficient treatments. This may be concluded that the Cd increases expression of CAL1 , OsNRAMP5 , OsNRAMP1 , OsIRT1 , and OsNAAT1 but decreases OsHMA3 expression in rice roots, which resulted in increased Cd uptake in hydroponically grown rice.

ABSTRACT Drought stress is a major constraint on sugarcane production and understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying drought tolerance is crucial for developing drought-resistant varieties. In this study, we applied an integrative computational approach to identify novel genes and pathways involved in sugarcane drought tolerance. We integrated multi-omics data, including transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics from drought-tolerant and drought-sensitive sugarcane genotypes and performed differential expression analysis to identify candidate genes involved in drought tolerance. Using gene co-expression network analysis, we further identified potential transcription factors and regulatory pathways involved in sugarcane drought tolerance. We functionally characterized these candidate genes using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing and demonstrated their role in drought tolerance. Our results reveal several novel candidate genes involved in sugarcane drought tolerance, which could be used for developing drought-resistant sugarcane cultivars using genetic engineering. Our study highlights the power of integrative computational approaches in identifying key genes and pathways involved in complex biological processes such as drought tolerance.

Silicon (Si), as a quasi-essential element, has a vital role in alleviating the damaging effects of various environmental stresses on plants. Cadmium (Cd) stress is severe abiotic stress, especially in acidic ecological conditions, and Si can demolish the toxicity induced by Cd as well as acidic pH on plants. Based on these hypotheses, we demonstrated 2-repeated experiments to unfold the effects of Si as silica gel on the root morphology and physiology of wheat seedling under Cd as well as acidic stresses. For this purpose, we used nine treatments with three levels of Si nanoparticles (0, 1, and 3 mmol L −1 ) derived from sodium silicate (Na 2 SiO 3 ) against three concentrations of Cd (0, 50, and 200 µmol L −1 ) in the form of cadmium chloride (CdCl 2 ) with three replications were arranged in a complete randomized design. The pH of the nutrient solution was adjusted at 5. The averages of three random replications showed that the mutual impacts of Si and Cd in acidic pH on wheat roots depend on the concentrations of Si and Cd. The collective or particular influence of low or high levels of Si (1 or 3 mM) and acidic pH (5) improved the development of wheat roots, and the collective influence was more significant than that of a single parallel treatment. The combined effects of low or high concentrations of Cd (50 or 200 µM) and acidic pH significantly reduced root growth and biomass while increased antioxidants, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) contents. The incorporation of Si (1 or 3 mmol L −1 ) in Cd-contaminated acidic nutrient solution promoted the wheat root growth, decreased ROS contents, and further increased the antioxidants in the wheat roots compared with Cd single treatments in acidic pH. The demolishing effects were better with a high level of Si (3 mM) than the low level of Si (1 Mm). In conclusion, we could suggest Si as an effective beneficial nutrient that could participate actively in several morphological and physiological activities of roots in wheat plants grown under Cd and acidic pH stresses.

Soil salinization and degradation is one of the consequences of climate change. Identification of major salt tolerance genes and marker assisted selection (MAS) can accelerate wheat breeding for this trait. We genotyped 154 wheat F 2 lines derived from a cross between salt tolerant and susceptible cultivars using the Axiom Wheat Breeder’s Genotyping Array. A high-density linkage map of 988 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was constructed and utilized for quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping for salt tolerance traits and mineral concentrations under salinity. Of 49 mapped QTLs, six were for Na + exclusion (NAX) and two QTLs (qSNAX.2 A.1, qSNAX.2 A.2) on chromosome 2 A coincided with a reported major NAX QTL ( Nax1 or HKT1;4 ). Two other major NAX QTLs were mapped on 7 A, which contributed 11.23 and 18.79% of the salt tolerance respectively. In addition to Ca +2 and Mg +2 QTLs, twenty-seven QTLs for tissue Phosphorus, Zinc, Iron, Manganese, Copper, Sulphur and Boron concentrations under salinity were also mapped. The 1293 segregating SNPs were annotated/located within genes for various ion channels, signalling pathways, transcription factors (TFs), metabolic pathways and 258 of them showed differential expression in silico under salinity. These findings will create new opportunities for salt tolerance breeding programs.

Effective and efficient use of energy is key to sustainable industrial and economic growth in modern times. Demand-side management (DSM) is a relatively new concept for ensuring efficient energy use at the consumer level. It involves the active participation of consumers in load management through different incentives. To enable the consumers for efficient energy management, it is important to provide them information about the energy consumption patterns of their appliances. Appliance load monitoring (ALM) is a feedback system used for providing feedback to customers about their power consumption of individual appliances. For accessing appliance power consumption, the determination of the operating status of various appliances through feedback systems is necessary. Two major approaches used for ALM are intrusive load monitoring (ILM) and non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM). In this paper, a hybrid adaptive-neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is used as an application for NILM. ANFIS model being sophisticated was difficult to work with, but ANFIS model helps to achieve better results than other competent approaches. An ANFIS system is developed for extracting appliance features and then a fine tree classifier is used for classifying appliances having more than 1 kW power rating based on the extracted feature. Several case studies have been performed using ANFIS on a publicly available United Kingdom Domestic Appliance Level Electricity (UK-Dale dataset). The simulation results obtained from the ANFIS for NILM are compared with relevant literature to show the performance of the proposed technique. The results prove that the novel application of ANFIS gives better performance for solving the NILM problem as compared to the other existing techniques.

Abiotic stresses are among the major limiting factors for plant growth and crop productivity. Among these, salinity is one of the major risk factors for plant growth and development in arid to semi-arid regions. Cultivation of salt tolerant crop genotypes is one of the imperative approaches to meet the food demand for increasing population. The current experiment was carried out to access the performance of different rice genotypes under salinity stress and Zinc (Zn) sources. Four rice genotypes were grown in a pot experiment and were exposed to salinity stress (7 dS m−1), and Zn (15 mg kg−1 soil) was applied from two sources, ZnSO4 and Zn-EDTA. A control of both salinity and Zn was kept for comparison. Results showed that based on the biomass accumulation and K+/Na+ ratio, KSK-133 and BAS-198 emerged as salt tolerant and salt sensitive, respectively. Similarly, based on the Zn concentration, BAS-2000 was reported as Zn-in-efficient while IR-6 was a Zn-efficient genotype. Our results also revealed that plant growth, relative water content (RWC), physiological attributes including chlorophyll contents, ionic concentrations in straw and grains of all rice genotypes were decreased under salinity stress. However, salt tolerant and Zn-in-efficient rice genotypes showed significantly higher shoot K+ and Zn concentrations under saline conditions. Zinc application significantly alleviates the harmful effects of salinity by improving morpho-physiological attributes and enhancing antioxidant enzyme activities, and the uptake of K and Zn. The beneficial effect of Zn was more pronounced in salt-tolerant and Zn in-efficient rice genotypes as compared with salt-sensitive and Zn-efficient genotypes. In sum, our results confirmed that Zn application increased overall plant’s performance under saline conditions, particularly in Zn in-efficient and tolerant genotypes as compared with salt-sensitive and Zn efficient rice genotypes.

Launched in 2014, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission aimed at ensuring the continuity with the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) launched in 1997 that has provided unprecedented accuracy in Satellite Precipitation Estimates (SPEs) on the near-global scale. Since then, various SPE versions have been successively made available from the GPM mission. The present study assesses the potential benefits of the successive GPM based SPEs product versions that include the Integrated Multi–Satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) version 3 to 5 (–v03, –v04, –v05) and the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) version 6 to 7 (–v06, –v07). Additionally, the most effective TRMM based SPEs products are also considered to provide a first insight into the GPM effectiveness in ensuring TRMM continuity. The analysis is conducted over different geomorphic and meteorological regions of Pakistan while using 88 precipitations gauges as the reference. Results show a clear enhancement in precipitation estimates that were derived from the very last IMERG–v05 in comparison to its two previous versions IMERG–v03 and –v04. Interestingly, based on the considered statistical metrics, IMERG–v03 provides more consistent precipitation estimate than IMERG–v04, which should be considered as a transition IMERG version. As expected, GSMaP–v07 precipitation estimates are more accurate than the previous GSMaP–v06. However, the enhancement from the old to the new version is very low. More generally, the transition from TRMM to GPM is successful with an overall better performance of GPM based SPEs than TRMM ones. Finally, all of the considered SPEs have presented a strong spatial variability in terms of accuracy with none of them outperforming the others, for all of the gauges locations over the considered regions.