No abstract

No abstract

Background: Two field experiments were conducted at the Research and Production Station, National Research Centre, El-Nubaria Province, El-Behira Governorate, Egypt, during the two successive winter seasons of 2014/2015 and 2015/2016. This work aimed to study the enhancement effect of foliar application of nicotinamide at 5, 10, and 20 mg/L and/or humic acid at 5% on quality and quantity of faba bean plants (cultivar Sakha 4) grown under sandy soil conditions. Results: Data show that nicotinamide at 5, 10, and 20 mg/L and/or humic acid at 5% had a positive effect on growth parameters, photosynthetic pigments, seed yield, and yield components as well as some biochemical constituents of the yielded faba bean seeds (total carbohydrate, total phenolic content, proline, and free amino acids). Individually, nicotinamide treatments had a more positive effect than humic acid treatment and their effect was increased by increasing nicotinamide concentrations. The most promising treatment appeared due to the interaction between nicotinamide at 10 mg/L and humic acid. Hence, this treatment increased plant dry weight/plant by 32.67%, total photosynthetic pigments by 113.2%, seed yield/feddan by 110.16%, total carbohydrate by 9.4%, total phenolic content by 0.33%, proline by 24.83%, and free amino acids by 21.33%. Conclusions: We can conclude that nicotinamide and/or humic acid had a positive effect on growth parameters, photosynthetic pigments, seed yield, and yield components as well as some biochemical constituents of the yielded faba bean seeds. The most promising treatment appeared due to the interaction between nicotinamide at 10 mg/L and humic acid.

Background: Shortage of water is a major problem facing Egypt; thus, it becomes necessary to use non-traditional sources of water such as saline water in irrigation. Overcoming the adverse effects of saline water and enhancing plant tolerance to salinity stress is the main challenge for increasing plant growth and productivity. Using a natural compound such as cysteine amino acid has an important effect in alleviating the adverse effect of salinity stress on different plant crops. Materials and methods: Two pot experiments were carried out during two successive summer seasons to study the beneficial role of cysteine (0, 20, and 40 mg/l) in enhancing growth, some metabolic process, and seed yield quality and quantity of soybean plant grown under salinity stress (0, 3000, and 6000 mg/l). Results: Salinity stress (3000 and 6000 mg/l) caused decreases in soybean growth criteria (plant height, number of branches and leaves/plant, dry weight of leaves and stem/plant), photosynthetic pigments and some element contents (nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K)), and seed yield and yield components (number of pods/ plant, weight of pods/plant and number of seeds/plant) as well as oil%. Meanwhile, proline, H 2 O 2 and MDA contents, and superoxide dismutase activity were gradually increased by increasing salinity level. On the other hand, cysteine treatments improved growth and yield of soybean plant either irrigated with tap water or saline water. Cysteine treatments could alleviate the adverse effect of salinity stress on growth and yield of soybean plant through increasing photosynthetic pigments; proline content; N, P, and K contents; superoxide dismutase and catalase activities; and oil% accompanied by decreases in H 2 O 2 and MDA contents as compared with their corresponding controls. In addition, cysteine treatments and/or salinity stress exhibited differences in protein pattern from 112 to 19 kD molecular weight. The appearance of new protein bands reflected the expression of cysteine treatments and salinity stress. Conclusion: Cysteine treatments had a beneficial role in alleviating the adverse effect of salinity stress on soybean plant. Forty milligrams per liter of cysteine was the most effective treatment in enhancing salinity tolerance of soybean plant.

No abstract