Genetically modified (GM) crops and biotechnology are providing new opportunities for increasing crop productivity and tackling agriculture problems, such as diseases, pests and weeds, abiotic stress and nutritional limitations of staple food crops. As GM crops are being adopted in various locations with different ecosystems, a scientifically based understanding of the environmental effects of cultivations of GM crops would assist decision makers worldwide in ensuring environmental safety and sustainability. In this paper are discussed some of the most important problems related to the GM crops into the environment such as: plant protection, hybridisation, ecological effects of HRCs, gene flow, biodiversity, stress, ecological risks (ERA), effects on the soil ecosystem etc

Gibberellin (GA) is frequently used in tree peony forcing culture, but inappropriate application often causes flower deformity. Here, 5-azacytidine (5-azaC), an efficient DNA demethylating reagent, induced tree peony flowering with a low deformity rate by rapidly inducing PsFT expression, whereas GA treatment affected various flowering pathway genes with strong pleiotropy. The 5-azaC treatment, but not GA, significantly reduced the methylation level in the PsFT promoter with the demethylation of five CG contexts in a 369 bp CG-rich region, and eight light-responsive related cis-elements were also predicted in this region, accompanied by enhanced leaf photosynthetic efficiency. Through GO analysis, all methylation-closer differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were located in the thylakoid, the main site for photosynthesis, and were mainly involved in response to stimulus and single-organism process, whereas GA-closer DEGs had a wider distribution inside and outside of cells, associated with 12 categories of processes and regulations. We further mapped five candidate DEGs with potential flowering regulation, including three kinases (SnRK1, WAK2, and 5PTase7) and two bioactive enzymes (cytochrome P450 and SBH1). In summary, 5-azaC and GA may have individual roles in inducing tree peony flowering, and 5-azaC could be a preferable regulation approach; DNA demethylation is suggested to be more focused on flowering regulation with PsFT playing a core role through promoter demethylation. In addition, 5-azaC may partially undertake or replace the light-signal function, combined with other factors, such as SnRK1, in regulating flowering. This work provides new ideas for improving tree peony forcing culture technology.

The paper analyzes the influence of soil type and its agrochemical characteristics on the morphological and productive parameters of different yarrow (Achillea millefolium L.) populations. At 8 locations the following fertility parameters were analyzed: pH (H2 O), pH (KCl), CaCO3 (%), humus (%), total N (%), available P2 O5 and K2 O (mg 100 g-1 soil). From the morphological parameters, the following were measured: plant height, number of leaves, number and diameter of the head, from the productive parameters, the fresh above-ground masses per plant, the fresh above-ground masses and seeds yield per hectare and the harvest index were analyzed. Among the quality parameters of yarrow seeds, germination energy, total germination and weight of 1,000 seeds were examined. The largest number of heads (13.6), a diameter of heads (1.9 cm) and seed yield (386.0 kg ha-1) had the population of yarrow from the location Pančevo (Am1). In this variant, seeds with the highest germination energy (48.8%) and total germination (53.4%) were obtained. The population in this locality was in second place in fresh above-ground masses yield (15,604.0 kg ha-1). The highest fresh above-ground masses yield per hectare, was obtained in variant Am5 (location Starčevo "rit"). The lowest values of morphological and productive parameters and the weakest quality of seeds were found in the yarrow plants originating from soils with less natural fertility and soils located in urban areas.

Izvod: Budući viši i stabilan prinos kvalitetnog zrna pšenice u Srbiji umnogome će zavisti od biljnih lekara jer sortiment nije više samo iz jednog centra. Promena veličine gazdinstva, tj. prerastanje malih u gazdinstva srednje veličine omogućuje povećanje prinosa skraćenjem trajanja žetve i primenom fungicida. Angažman stručnjaka je bitan za odabir sorti i određivanje vremena zamene simultanog s potrebom za tretiranjem fungicidom, a omogućen je novim praktičnim prognoznim modelima. Preko genotipova relativno povećanog rasta sledećih listova i internodija stabla od standardne Pobede bio je snižen potencijal za prinos zrna. Obrnuto, maksimalan intenzitet zaraze obligatnim parazitima je bio viši, a fakultativnih niži. Bile su ustanovljene štete u prinosu zrna od 25% u odsustvu fakultativnih parazita na srednjim listovima pri primeni do sad po navedenim pokazateljima regionalno najprinosnijeg tipa sorte.

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L.) is a perennial herbaceous plant widely used in modern and traditional medicine. The aboveground part, particularly the leaves, has many benefits; in traditional medicine, it is used for the preparation of various teas and tea blends, while in modern medicine to obtain essential oil as it is considered a precious product. Nowadays, the needs for lemon balm are mostly met by growing it in the open field. The quality of its leaves as well as the content of its essential oil mostly depend on the way the plant is grown. In stress conditions, medicinal plants use to increase the content of their secondary metabolites. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether water deficit has an impact on the content of essential oil in lemon balm grown as a pot culture. The experiment was conceived in such a way that at the beginning of the flowering phase, cultivated plants were given different treatments. Treatment A represented plants that were not subjected to water stress, while in treatments B and C, prior to harvesting the plants have been subjected to water stress for 7 and 14 days, respectively. By the end of the experiment, the morphological parameters per plant were measured and the contents of essential oil per treatment determined, all in triplicates. The obtained results indicate that water stress had a great impact on the yield of the aboveground biomass of lemon balm plants as well as on the content of essential oil in their leaves. The highest average yield of the aboveground biomass was obtained in treatment A (1204.0 g) while the highest average yield of the essential oil in treatment C (0.59 g). In short, an increase in water stress increased its positive effects on lemon balm grown as pot culture.