Evaluation of the Carbon Dioxide Production by Fungi Under Different Growing Conditions.

Production of carbon dioxide, as one of the ultimate products of fungal metabolism, can be used to quantify and measure their metabolic rate under different conditions, thus aiding in finding the optimal substrate and environment for cultivation of wood-destroying fungi. This study is focused on species Pleurotus ostreatus and Ganoderma lucidum,. These species are also cultivated for mycorestoration as well as their medicinal and nutritional value. To quantify their metabolical rate on various substrates (agar medium, wood chips, rye straw), multiple custom-built airtight chambers were equipped with CO2 probes (GMP 343, Vaisala, Finland) to measure the production of carbon dioxide. The highest values were measured during the primordial production on rye straw substrate, with the average values of 1.09 g CO2 kg-1 (substrate) h-1. These values varied significantly between various substrates, fungal species and development stages.

Physiological, vascular and nanomechanical assessment of hybrid poplar leaf traits in micropropagated plants and plants propagated from root cuttings: A contribution to breeding programs.

Micropropagated plants experience significant stress from rapid water loss when they are transferred from an in vitro culture to either greenhouse or field conditions. This is caused both by inefficient stomatal control of transpiration and the change to a higher light intensity and lower humidity. Understanding the physiological, vascular and biomechanical processes that allow micropropagated plants to modify their phenotype in response to environmental conditions can help to improve both field performance and plant survival. To identify changes between the hybrid poplar [Populus tremula × (Populus × canescens)] plants propagated from in vitro tissue culture and those from root cuttings, we assessed leaf performance for any differences in leaf growth, photosynthetic and vascular traits, and also nanomechanical properties of the tracheary element cell walls. The micropropagated plants showed significantly higher values for leaf area, leaf length, leaf width and leaf dry mass. The greater leaf area and leaf size dimensions resulted from the higher transpiration rate recorded for this stock type. Also, the micropropagated plants reached higher values for chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters and for the nanomechanical dissipation energy of tracheary element cell walls which may indicate a higher damping capacity within the primary xylem tissue under abiotic stress conditions. The performance of the plants propagated from root cuttings was superior for instantaneous water-use efficiency which signifies a higher acclimation capacity to stressful conditions during a severe drought particularly for this stock type. Similarities were found among the majority of the examined leaf traits for both vegetative plant origins including leaf mass per area, stomatal conductance, net photosynthetic rate, hydraulic axial conductivity, indicators of leaf midrib vascular architecture, as well as for the majority of cell wall nanomechanical traits. This research revealed that there were no drawbacks in the leaf physiological performance which could be attributed to the micropropagated plants of fast growing hybrid poplar.