Environmental Control in Biology最新文献

{"title":"Analysis of Leaf Heat Balance Affected by Operation of a Frost Protective Fan in Tea Fields","authors":"Kensuke Kimura, Kyosuke Maruo, Takahiro Ooki, Kentaro Nakazono, K. Matsuo, M. Kitano","doi":"10.2525/ECB.54.125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.54.125","url":null,"abstract":"Frosts in agricultural fields often bring serious damage to crops and cause huge economic losses in the crop production. Many crops can enhance their freezing tolerance through a phenomenon known as cold acclimation (Thomashow, 1999). Under the climate change with global warming, however, warmer winters are prone to bring insufficient cold acclimation of the crops, and furthermore, strong radiative cooling and extremely cold weather in spring cause serious frost damage in the crop production. Tea plants (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) also severely suffer such frost damage, which cannot be prevented enough by the conventional methods of frost protection such as frost protective fan (wind machine), heater and sprinkler. For example, the frost in 2010 caused huge economic losses in the tea production; i.e., 247 million dollars in China (Lou et al., 2013) and 45 million dollars in Japan (Matsuo et al., 2010). In order to prevent frost damage, operation of the frost protection methods can be expected to improve heat balance between tea leaves and their environments, which prevents leaf temperature from dropping below a fatal level under severe frost conditions. Therefore, the effectiveness of the frost protection based on the leaf heat balance must be evaluated, and it is keenly desired to improve frost protection methods based on the quantitative evaluation of their effects. However, many recent studies related to the frost protection (Doesken et al., 1989; Ribeiro et al., 2006; Araki et al., 2008; Battany, 2012) have been focused on only changes in temperatures of the ambient air and/or leaf because of difficulties in assessing complicated convection between leaves and the ambient air under fluctuated environments. In this study, the new method for the quantitative analysis of the heat balance of a single tea leaf was developed for the quantitative evaluation of the thermal effect brought by the frost protection during the frost night. The reliable application of the newly analysis method of leaf heat balance was demonstrated in the tea field under the operation of a frost protective fan which has been used successfully in tea fields to protect tea plants during the frost night.","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"1 1","pages":"125-131"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90446181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biological Control of the Bacterial Wilt of the Tomato ‘Micro-Tom' by Phenotypic Conversion Mutants of Ralstonia solanacearum","authors":"Hiroki Nakahara, Taro Mori, Naoto Sadakari, H. Matsusaki, N. Matsuzoe","doi":"10.2525/ECB.54.139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.54.139","url":null,"abstract":"Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum Rsol is a devastating disease that has been observed in over 200 plant species such as tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes and other economically important crops around the world (Hayward, 1991). This pathogen invades the host plants through wounds in roots or sites where secondary roots emerge, then colonizes the cortex, infects the vascular parenchyma, and invades the xylem vessels (Vasse et al., 1995). After Rsol penetrates into the vessels, the bacterium rapidly spreads and increases throughout the vascular system, resulting in wilting and the death of the plants. Rsol spontaneously undergoes a phenotypic conversion (PC) after prolonged culture in plants, water extract of plants, soil or broth culture (Kelman, 1954; Buddenhagen and Kelman, 1964; Kelman and Hruschka, 1973; Shekhawat and Perombelon, 1991; Mori et al., 2011; 2012). PC mutants are either weak pathogenic or non-pathogenic, but these mutants are still able to colonize host tissue without causing symptoms (Kelman, 1954; Denny et al., 1988; Mori et al., 2011). The bacterial wilt diseases of tomato and tobacco were suppressed by pre-inoculation with PC mutants (Tanaka, 1983; Hara and Ono, 1991; Arwiyanto et al., 1994). The suppression of bacterial wilt by PC mutants in eggplant has been investigated (Ogawa et al., 2011; 2012a; 2012b). Those studies revealed that PC mutants suppressed bacterial wilt in eggplant by colonizing the root and stem and preventing subsequent colonization by the Rsol wildtype strain. It was speculated that PC mutants have the potential to induce resistance against the wild-type strain in eggplant. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the induction of resistance are still unknown. In studies of the suppression of plant diseases by beneficial microorganisms, the plant disease severity was reduced because of the expression and accumulation of the pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins that inhibit infection of pathogen and have an antibacterial activity (Hase et al., 2006; Kawamura et al., 2009). PC mutant-infected plants seem to express and accumulate the PR proteins. In the present study, we investigate the expression of PR protein genes in ‘Micro-Tom’, a model cultivar of tomato suitable for genetic analysis (Meissner et al., 1997), after inoculation with PC mutants. The tomato ‘Micro-Tom’ that is miniature-dwarf cultivar, has a short life cycle in 2 3 months from sowing to fruit ripening in pots, and grows at high density (Meissner et al., 1997). Therefore, using this cultivar is suitable for the experiments that require many samples such as researches the plant growth or screening of PC mutants, and it is able to save the space and time for the tests in greenhouses or growth chambers. Among studies of disease control using microorganisms, the microorganisms showed either positive or negative effects on the growth of plants. As a positive example, Thanh et al. (2009) reported that plants pre-inoculated with plant ","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"15 1","pages":"139-145"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86384188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Kinetic Analysis on the Motility of Liverwort Sperms Using a Microscopic Computer-Assisted Sperm Analyzing System","authors":"T. Furuichi, K. Matsuura","doi":"10.2525/ECB.54.45","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.54.45","url":null,"abstract":"Embryophytes (bryophytes and ferns) perform both parthenogenesis and sexual reproduction in their life cycle, and sperms are used for their sexual reproduction, in place of pollens in higher plants (Renzaglia et al., 2000; Renzaglia and Garbary, 2001). Because sperm motility is one of the most important features for the fertility in human and animals, percentage of motility and the kinetic parameters for swimming and the guidance to eggs (known as taxis) are well focused in the field of reproductive biology to evaluate and improve the male infertility. However, the nature of plant sperms is rarely known even more than centuries has passed since the first description on the discharge of samen from embryophytes by Schmidel in 1747 (as note by Mirbel, 1835a; 1835b; Thuret, 1851; Cavers, 1903; 1904; see also recent review by Araki, 2012). The discovery of a freely swimming sperm in Ginkgo biloba at the end of the nineteenth century by Sakugoro Hirase was one of the most significant moments in botany (Ridge et al., 1997). In the end of nineteenth century, the freely swimming sperms in embryophytes, thus motile under microscopes, were first identified in Ginkgo biloba (Hirase, 1896a; 1896b) and Cycas revoluta (Ikeno, 1896; 1897; Ikeno and Hirase, 1897), nowadays known as members of sperm-generating plant species. As the first step in fertilization mechanism in bryophytes, semen enriched with the biflagellated sperms are discharged from the antheridia of males as the top of antheridial receptacle are wet by the rain drops (Carothers and Kreitner, 1967; 1968, Shimomura, 2012). Discharge of semen is promoted by a droplet of water but not by touch, indicating that swelling rather than mechanical stimuli, and some following signal transduction might be playing key role(s) in the process. For the opening of covering jacket of an antheridium and distending of the antheridium wall cells which give a pressure to discharge sperms, swelling of the cells and mucus are supposed to be important (Renzaglia et al., 2000; Shimomura, 2012), which is different from the motive contraction of alveoli of human breast for lactation, which initiated by baby’s suck, a mechanical stress. A recent study on the “airborne” sperms of C. conicum indicated that liverwort sperms are discharged as pre-motile form, then shift to the motile form when they swell or they are subjected to hypo-osmotic stress (Shimomura et al., 2008). Thus, swelling and/or hypoosmotic stress, but not mechanical stress may distinctly play key roles in the phases of sperm discharge and transition to motile form in liverwort sperms. In general, swimming ability is one of the most important features of sperms because they must reach and fertil-","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"8 1","pages":"45-49"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87500543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of Repetitive Salt Shocks on Seedlings of the Halophyte Cakile maritima","authors":"Ibtissem Ben Hamed-Louati, F. Bouteau, C. Abdelly, K. Hamed","doi":"10.2525/ECB.54.23","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.54.23","url":null,"abstract":"Salinization is one of the main environmental constraints that threat global crop biomass production and thus food security. Hence halophytic species are currently widely studied in world because of their value for the development of saline agriculture. However, when applying salt two distinct protocols could be used salt stress and salt shock leading to different responses (Shavrukov, 2012). Gradual salt application (usually of 25 or maximum 50 mM increments of NaCl, until a final, predetermined salt concentration is reached) reflects the reactions expected for salt stress in saline field environments (Shavrukov et al., 2012). Various researchers refer to this method as progressive imposition (Almansouri et al., 1999), salt acclimation, gradual step acclimation (Rodriguez et al., 1997; Sanchez et al., 2008), or salt-adapting (Baisakh et al., 2006). Most of plants in natural ecosystems risk salt stress, but coastal halophytes growing on sand dunes are subject to inundation with seawater (Davy, 2006) and thus repetitive salt shocks. The main component of salt shock is osmotic shock inducing plasmolysis, especially in root cells (Munns, 2002). Desperate attempts by the cells to maintain equilibrium between external and internal water content results in the leakage of cell solution into open spaces between the cell wall and plasma membrane. These apoplastic solutes, containing high concentrations of Na , can freely flow through the open spaces in root cells and be transported to the shoot with minimal control by the plant. There is consequently rapid activation of many genes, in response to osmotic shock and damaged plasma membrane in root cells and to ionic stress in shoot cells (Shavrukov et al., 2012). High cellular NaCl concentrations are also supposed to increase formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (Hernandez and Almansa, 2002), which is considered as a primary event under a salt stress conditions (Noctor and Foyer, 1998). ROS could damage photosynthetic components, inactivate proteins and enzymes, and permeabilize membranes by causing lipid peroxidation (Price and Hendry, 1991; Meloni et al., 2003). Plants with high levels of anti-oxidants, either constitutive or induced, have been reported to have greater resistance to this oxidative damage (Shalata and Tal, 1998; Bor et al., 2003). Such correlation between anti-oxidant capacity and salt tolerance has also been demonstrated in a large number of plants, including salt-tolerant glycophytes and true halophytes (Broetto et al., 2002; Bor et al., 2003; Agarwal and Pandey, 2004; Ben Amor et al., 2005). Sea rocket or Cakile maritima (Brassicaceae) is an annual, succulent halophyte widely distributed in sandy coasts throughout the world (Clausing et al., 2000) and thus subjected to salt shocks. This plant displays potential for economical nutrient food (leaf comestible), for therapeutic utilization (Casal, 2004) and for it seeds contain up to 40% of oil (Ghars et al., 2005). Since at this time","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"40 1","pages":"23-30"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84903794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Leaf Boundary Layer Conductance in a Tomato Canopy under the Convective Effect of Circulating Fans in a Greenhouse Heated by an Air Duct Heater","authors":"Kensuke Kimura, D. Yasutake, Yuta Miyoshi, Atsushi Yamanami, Kaoru Daiou, Haruo Ueno, M. Kitano","doi":"10.2525/ECB.54.171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.54.171","url":null,"abstract":"In greenhouses, ventilation systems and circulating fans are generally employed to improve air currents in crop canopies and to produce spatial uniformity across crop environments. Low efficiency and inadequate management of these air control systems result in poor control over the crop microclimate, which significantly affects yield and the quality of crop production (Katsoulas et al., 2007). Therefore, a method to design the optimal air currents is required to facilitate optimal control over the crop microclimate, i.e., heat and mass exchange between the plant canopy and the environment. Leaves play a dominant role in heat and mass exchange between crop canopies and the environment as they comprise the majority of the plant surface (Defraeye et al., 2013). As the primary organs of photosynthesis and transpiration, leaves are considered the most important sources or sinks of heat and mass in the canopy (Schuepp, 1993). The balance of heat and mass on leaf surfaces is strongly influenced by the convective exchange between leaves and the environment through the leaf boundary layer. A key factor in the convective exchange is leaf boundary layer conductance (GA), which represents the transfer coefficient of convection on leaf surfaces. Thus, for optimal design of air currents in crop canopies, GA, which is regulated by the convective airflow adjacent to leaves, must be evaluated. Due to the difficulty of directly measuring the air currents adjacent to leaves (Boulard et al., 2002), GA is generally estimated using the semi-empirical formulae of forced convection (e.g., Monteith and Unsworth, 1990). However, such formulae cannot be applied under the lower air velocity in crop canopies within greenhouses, which requires consideration of both free and forced convection (i.e., mixed convection) (Kitano and Eguchi, 1989). Leaf boundary layer conductance can be measured using the heat balance of electrically heated artificial leaves, and many researches have evaluated GA by using various types of artificial leaves (Grace et al., 1980; Dixon and Grace, 1983; Kitano and Eguchi, 1990; Leuning and Foster, 1990; Brenner and Jarvis, 1995; Grantz and Vaughn, 1999; Stokes et al., 2006; Katsoulas et al., 2007; Kimura et al., 2016). Profiles of GA in a greenhouse under ventilated conditions have been reported by Katsoulas et al. (2007). However, there is little information on GA in closed conditions, which are typical of heated greenhouses during winter nights. Under such conditions, circulating fans are employed to maintain uniformity in air conditions and convective heat transfer in the crop canopies. In this study, continuous and multipoint measurements of GA in a tomato canopy were carried out using electrically heated artificial leaves. In addition, the vertical and horizontal distributions of GA in the canopy within the green-","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"28 1","pages":"171-176"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83279813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Time-course Pattern of Electrolyte Leakage from Tuberous Roots of Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) after Short-term High Temperature","authors":"T. Eguchi, S. Yoshida","doi":"10.2525/ECB.54.183","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.54.183","url":null,"abstract":"Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) plants which are surface-irrigated periodically, i.e., twice a week on root media, show greater -tocopherol content in their tuberous roots with no apparent change in either tuberous root development or oxygen concentration around the roots as compared to sub-irrigated plants (Eguchi et al., 2012). We speculated that surface irrigation might temporarily cover the tuberous root surface with water and inhibit oxygen movement into the roots, thereby increasing the antioxidant -tocopherol content as a coping mechanism for the slight oxidative stress, i.e. hypoxia, occurring within the roots. Therefore, we performed instantaneous flooding, which completely covered the entire root surface of sweetpotato plants with water (Eguchi et al., 2015) and demonstrated that electrolyte leakage from the tuberous root flesh cells showed a temporal increase with flooding treatment and is an indicator of cellular responses to various stress factors (Demidchik et al., 2014). Rise in temperature activates respiration within the heated plant part; in a similar way, high-temperature treatment applied to the tuberous root can also cause slight oxidative stress within the root similar to that caused by instantaneous flooding. We therefore investigated electrolyte leakage from tuberous roots subjected to high temperature for short durations.","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"7 1","pages":"183-185"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84308776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparison of Potentials of Higher Plants for Phytoremediation of Radioactive Cesium from Contaminated Soil","authors":"M. Tamaoki, T. Yabe, J. Furukawa, Mirai Watanabe, K. Ikeda, I. Yasutani, T. Nishizawa","doi":"10.2525/ECB.54.65","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.54.65","url":null,"abstract":"In 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident occurred following the Great East Japan Earthquake at March 2011. As a result, a huge amount of radionuclides, such as I, cesium (Cs) and Cs, were discharged to the surrounding environment from the site of accident (Tokyo Electric Power Company, 2012). Agricultural lands and forests were heavily contaminated with these radionuclides, consequently, commercial distribution of many crops cultivated (and to be cultivated) in severely contaminated area, chiefly in Fukushima prefecture, have been restricted since agricultural products from these area often exceeded the regulatory level of radioactivity defined by laws in Japan (100 Bq kg ). Among the soil-contaminating radionuclides, C is the major radionuclide to be concerned since its half-life is relatively long (30.1 years; Chino et al., 2011) in comparison to other radionuclides released from the FDNPP. In addition, Cs can emit gamma ( )-ray, hence long-term biological effects by the -ray released from Cs in biota including wild animals might also be concerned. Indeed, following adverse effects in ecosystem in Fukushima have been reported; increased frequency of morphological abnormality in the pale grass blue butterfly (Hiyama et al., 2012), reduced abundance in common birds (Møller et al., 2012), and decrease in blood cell number in wild Japanese monkeys (Ochiai et al., 2014). Therefore, clean-up of radionuclides from the contaminated soil becomes a big issue in reconstruction and revitalization of Fukushima area. Previous studies relevant to Chernobyl accident showed that soil-penetrated Cs binds strongly to the clay and showed low mobility. For example, Kirk and Staunton (1989) showed that migration rate of Cs was less than 1 cm per year. Thus, the major portion of the Cs must be distributed in the upper 10 cm-thick surface layer of the soil column in most types of soils even seven years after of the accident (Arapis et al., 1997). In the FDNPP accident, contamination of Cs occurred in vast land area especially in Fukushima prefecture. Because of the high cost, decontamination of the large area polluted with Cs by conventional engineering methods remains an intractable problem. Furthermore, these methods often encompass negative effects for physical properties of the soil and also wreak ecosystem and landscape. Phytoremediation, the use of higher plants to clean-up the contaminants from soil through accumulation of contaminants in plants, is an alternative technology to conventional methods (Pilon-Smits and Freeman, 2006). The behavior of Cs in soil and plants is similar to that of potas-","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"9 1","pages":"65-69"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75657650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hydroponics Culture of Edible Opuntia ‘Maya’: Effect of Constant Red and Blue Lights on Daughter Cladodes Growth and Spine Development","authors":"T. Horibe, Yohei Iwagawa, Hiroki Kondo, K. Yamada","doi":"10.2525/ECB.54.165","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.54.165","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"27 1","pages":"165-169"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88858282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of Supplemental Light on the Quality of Green Asparagus Spears in Winter ‘Fusekomi’ Forcing Culture","authors":"D. Wambrauw, T. Kashiwatani, A. Komura, H. Hasegawa, K. Narita, Satoshi Oku, Takayuki Yamaguchi, K. Honda, O. Maeda","doi":"10.2525/ECB.54.147","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.54.147","url":null,"abstract":"Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) is known to be a rich of some functional compounds beneficial for human health. In recent years, consumer’s interests on functional food such as flavonoids are increasing (Maeda et al., 2010). Green asparagus contains certain amount of rutin (Chin et al., 2002, Maeda et al., 2005; Sun et al., 2007; Maeda et al., 2010; 2012; Motoki et al., 2012). Rutin is one of the major flavonoids that have been reported to show biological and pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and anti-bacterial/viral properties along with potent radical-scavenging activity, as well as protective effects in protecting against capillary fragility and arteriosclerotic vascular changes (Griffith et al., 1944; Hellerstein et al., 1951; Calabro et al., 2005; Guo et al., 2007). Asparagus is widely grown in Japan. The conventional spring harvest and mother-fern culture is the most popular method of harvesting asparagus. Therefore, during winter season, domestic production of asparagus almost drops to zero; the price tends to be high substantially; but asparagus are imported from other country to respond the market needs. Winter ‘fusekomi’ forcing culture system has been conducted in Japan to make asparagus production possible during this season (Koizumi et al., 2003) by heating one to two years old rootstocks in a ‘fusekomi’ forcing system. The preparation of this method is usually started in January; the seeds are sown and grown in the greenhouse. Then in the early May, seedlings are transplanted into an open field. After the yellowing of the fern (October-November), the rootstocks are dug up from the field and densely planted in the ‘fusekomi’ forcing system. In the ‘fusekomi’ forcing system, heating wires were set under the bed, and the rootstocks were covered by the soil and warmed by the heating wires. Finally asparagus could be produced even in the winter, but spears are mostly growing under small amount of light because of much snow and low sunlight in the production area. These conditions cause some problems; namely, the color of the spear is pale, and rutin content is relatively low as compared to those harvested in spring. According to the previous study, reported by Maeda et al., 2010, in the mother fern culture, improvement of the light condition by net screen method led to both the increase of rutin content of spears and the improvement of spear color. On the other hand, ‘fusekomi’ forcing cultivation is conducted in a relatively small space with dense planting (planting density is more than twenty times, comparing to the open field cultivation). Therefore, this method makes ‘environment control’ easier such as light condition. The objective of this study was to obtain basic knowledge to improve the quality (color and rutin) of asparagus","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"53 1","pages":"147-152"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79590475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fluorometric Quantification of Ferulic Acid Concentrations Based on Deconvolution of Intrinsic Fluorescence Spectra","authors":"Reina Inokuchi, H. Takaichi, T. Kawano","doi":"10.2525/ECB.54.57","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.54.57","url":null,"abstract":"ABT-888, may an effective combination chemotherapeutic Ferulic acid (FA) is one of phenolics found in most higher plants. It is important to quantify the internal FA level in vegetables and fruits, since it was epidemiologically demonstrated and a number of study supported that consumption of fruits and vegetables rich in phenolic acids including FA is associated with the prevention of chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. In order to allow handling of the intact fresh produces, non-invasive methods are desired. Previously, 355 nm ultraviolet (UV) laser-induced fluorescence spectrum revealed that living plants contain fluorophore corresponding to blue-green fluorescence (shown to be FA). However, quantification of FA based on fluorescence in UV-excited leaves can be hardly achieved since FA fluorescence measured at fixed excitation and emission can be applied only to the limited range of FA concentration. Here, we report a model experiment for fluorometric quantification of FA in solution in vitro which may provide a series of useful information required for estimation of FA concentrations in vivo fluid inside the vegetables. Based on deconvolution of intrinsic fluorescence spectra, we observed that FA fluorescence signals can be deciphered to determine the concentration of FA. By viewing that the recorded FA fluorescence ( h ) is reflecting the primitive function ( f ) corresponding to FA concentrations and kernel function ( g ) determining the spike position in the spectra. Thus, f should be obtained as f (cid:5) h (cid:6) g (cid:7) 1 . In practice, cumulative curves of fluorescence signals at fixed emission wavelength (460 nm) along with the changes in excitation wavelength (200 (cid:1) 400 nm) were plotted and the midpoints (along the scale of excitation wavelength) in the resultant curves corresponding to different FA concentration were graphically deter-mined. FA’s concentration-specific changes in fluorescence profiles must be due to the fact that FA possesses multiple fluorophores within the molecule despite its simple structure. Lastly, simplified protocol for determination of FA concentration using dual UV excitation wavelengths was proposed. In this assay, ratio of 460 nm fluorescence intensities induced by two distinct excitation wavelengths (short, 260 nm; long, 330 (cid:1) 380 nm) were shown to be highly correlated with FA concentration ranged from (cid:1) M to mM orders.","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"50 3","pages":"57-64"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2525/ECB.54.57","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72402357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}