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Plants
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Plant Biostimulants
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Plant Biostimulants

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Phytochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 9964

Special Issue Editor

Dr. J. C. Luis Jorge

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dpto. Botánica, Ecología y Fisiología Vegetal Universidad de La Laguna Avda, Astrofisico Francisco Sánchez, s/n 38200 La Laguna, S/C de Tenerife, España
Interests: biotic and abiotic stress; priming; biostimulants; crop production; transcriptomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agriculture plays a fundamental role in achieving world food safety and security. New practices and technologies must be implemented, leading to a sustainable and ecological crop production, while at the same time enhancing safety and productivity. One of these new practices could be the use of plant biostimulants. The nature of biostimulants varies widely, with remarkable effects, regardless of their nutritional content, on plant growth and strength. Combining these effects with their sources, biostimulants may reduce dependency on chemical fertilizers and promote the establishment of an ecofriendly circular economy in agriculture.

Biostimulants are natural substances (including those chemically modified) or microorganisms capable of inducing increased crop yields, improving nutrient acquisition, increasing plant tolerance to stresses, and stimulating soil processes (modification of the natural microbial community, improvement of soil nutrient availability). However, the essential cellular, physiological, and molecular mechanisms of biostimulants interactions under different environments and agricultural strategies remain, to a great extent, unknown. Therefore, there is a need in the scientific community and the private sector to better understand the different mechanisms associated with the application of biostimulants. The elucidation of these mechanisms and the application of omics will develop a second generation of biostimulants, where synergies and complementary mechanisms can be designed to a specific crop.

The main areas of interest in this Special Issue of Plants on “Plant Biostimulants” are:

  1. History biostimulants;
  2. Products from chemical or enzymatic hydrolysis (animal or plants);
  3. Secondary products from anaerobic digestion (animal or plants);
  4. Preparations or extracts from marine and non-marine macroalgae and microalgae;
  5. The use of beneficial fungi and bacteria;
  6. Cellular and biochemical effects of biostimulants;
  7. Biostimulants and transcriptomics;
  8. Stress tolerance and crop production under biostimulant application.

Dr. J. C. Luis Jorge
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 4004 KiB  
Article
Priming Treatments with Biostimulants to Cope the Short-Term Heat Stress Response: A Transcriptomic Profile Evaluation
by Giacomo Cocetta, Michela Landoni, Roberto Pilu, Carlos Repiso, José Nolasco, Marcos Alajarin, Lydia Ugena, Camila C. B. Levy, Giacomo Scatolino, Daniele Villa and Antonio Ferrante
Plants 2022, 11(9), 1130; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11091130 - 21 Apr 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3522
Abstract
Plant stress induced by high temperature is a problem in wide areas of different regions in the world. The trend of global warming is going to enhance the effects of heat stress on crops in many cultivation areas. Heat stress impairs the stability [...] Read more.
Plant stress induced by high temperature is a problem in wide areas of different regions in the world. The trend of global warming is going to enhance the effects of heat stress on crops in many cultivation areas. Heat stress impairs the stability of cell membranes and many biological processes involving both primary and secondary metabolism. Biostimulants are innovative agronomical tools that can be used as a strategy to counteract the detrimental effect of abiotic stresses, including heat stress. In this work, two biostimulants based on Ascophyllum nodosum extracts (named Phylgreen) and based on animal L-α amino acids (named Delfan Plus) were applied as priming treatments to Arabidopsis thaliana plants subjected to heat stress exposure. Plants at the vegetative stage were treated with biostimulants 12 h before high temperature exposure, which consisted of maintaining the plants at 37 ± 1 °C for 4 h. Transcriptional profiles, physiological, and biochemical analyses were performed to understand the mode of action of the biostimulants in protecting the plants exposed to short-term heat stress. At a physiological level, chlorophyll, chlorophyll a fluorescence, phenolic index, total anthocyanins, reactive oxygen species (ROS) were measured, and significant variations were observed immediately after stress. Both biostimulants were able to reduce the oxidative damage in leaves and cell membrane. Transcriptomic data revealed that upregulated genes were 626 in Phylgreen and 365 in Delfan Plus, while downregulated genes were 295 in Phylgreen and 312 in Delfan Plus. Bioinformatic analysis showed that the biostimulants protected the plants from heat stress by activating specific heat shock proteins (HPS), antioxidant systems, and ROS scavengers. The results revealed that the biostimulants effectively induced the activation of heat stress-associated genes belonging to different transcription factors and HSP families. Among the heat shock proteins, the most important was the AtHSP17 family and in particular, those influenced by treatments were AtHPS17.4 and AtHPS17.6A, B, showing the most relevant changes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Biostimulants)
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21 pages, 2642 KiB  
Article
Ginger Extract and Fulvic Acid Foliar Applications as Novel Practical Approaches to Improve the Growth and Productivity of Damask Rose
by Esmat F. Ali, Hatim M. Al-Yasi, Ahmed A. Issa, Kamel Hessini and Fahmy A. S. Hassan
Plants 2022, 11(3), 412; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11030412 - 02 Feb 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2857
Abstract
Plant biostimulants (BIOs) have been identified as among the best agricultural practices over the past few decades. Ginger extract (GE) and fulvic acid (FA) are a new family of multifunctional BIOs that positively affect development processes in plants. However, the underlying mechanisms that [...] Read more.
Plant biostimulants (BIOs) have been identified as among the best agricultural practices over the past few decades. Ginger extract (GE) and fulvic acid (FA) are a new family of multifunctional BIOs that positively affect development processes in plants. However, the underlying mechanisms that influence these development processes are still unknown. The objective of this study was to determine how GE and FA affect the plant growth and productivity in damask rose. Furthermore, the mechanisms of these BIOs that regulate the performance of this plant were investigated. Damask rose plants were foliar-sprayed with GE (5, 10 and 15 mg L−1) or FA (1, 3 and 5 g L−1), while control plants were sprayed with tap water. The results showed that GE or FA foliar applications enhanced plant height and branch number much more than the control; however, FA treatment was more effective than GE. Intriguingly, flower number, flower yield, relative water content, and total chlorophyll content were all improved by either GE or FA, paying attention to reducing the blind shoot number per plant. Relative to the control, foliar application with 15 mg L−1 GE or 3 mg L−1FA increased the flower number by 16.11% and 19.83% and the flower yield per hectare by 40.53% and 52.75%, respectively. Substantial enhancements in volatile oil content and oil yield were observed due to GE and FA treatments, especially with the highest concentrations of both BIOs. The treatments of GE and FA considerably improved the total soluble sugars, total phenolic content, total anthocyanin content, and total carotenoid content, more so with FA. Additionally, the contents of N, P, K, Mg, Fe, and Zn elements were also enhanced by applying either GE or FA, especially at higher levels of both BIOs. In sum, our findings illuminate the potential functions of exogenous application of GE and FA in improving the growth, flower yield, and volatile oil yield in damask rose through enhancing the phytochemical and nutrient profiles. Applications of GE and FA can, thus, be a promising approach for enhancing the productivity of damask rose. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Biostimulants)
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18 pages, 3301 KiB  
Article
Seed Priming Boost Adaptation in Pea Plants under Drought Stress
by Sally A. Arafa, Kotb A. Attia, Gniewko Niedbała, Magdalena Piekutowska, Salman Alamery, Khaled Abdelaal, Talal K. Alateeq, Mohamed A. M. Ali, Amr Elkelish and Shreen Y. Attallah
Plants 2021, 10(10), 2201; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10102201 - 17 Oct 2021
Cited by 35 | Viewed by 2755
Abstract
In the present investigation, we study the effect of Bacillus thuringiensis MH161336 (106–8 CFU/cm3), silicon (25 mL L−1), and carrot extract (75 mL L−1) as seed primers, individually or in combination, on morphological, physio-biochemical and yield [...] Read more.
In the present investigation, we study the effect of Bacillus thuringiensis MH161336 (106–8 CFU/cm3), silicon (25 mL L−1), and carrot extract (75 mL L−1) as seed primers, individually or in combination, on morphological, physio-biochemical and yield components of drought-stressed pea plants (Master B) during 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons. Our results indicated that drought causes a remarkable reduction in plant height, leaf area, number of leaves per plant, and number of flowers per plant in stressed pea plants during two seasons. Likewise, number of pods, pod length, seeds weight of 10 dried plants, and dry weight of 100 seeds were decreased significantly in drought-stressed pea plants. Nevertheless, seed priming with the individual treatments or in combination boosted the morphological, physio-biochemical, and yield characters of pea plants. The best results were obtained with the Bacillus thuringiensis + carrot extract treatment, which led to a remarkable increase in the number of leaves per plant, leaf area, plant height, and number of flowers per plant in stressed pea plants in both seasons. Moreover, pod length, number of seeds per pod, seeds weight of 10 dried plants, and dry weight of 100 seeds were significantly increased as well. Bacillus thuringiensis + carrot extract treatment led to improved biochemical and physiological characters, such as relative water content, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, regulated the up-regulation of antioxidant enzymes, increased seed yield, and decreased lipid peroxidation and reactive oxygen species, mainly superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, in drought-stressed pea plants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Biostimulants)
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