Implementing a transformative approach to the coral reefs' recovery phase.

Mitigation and rehabilitation are responses to climate change and human misuse. However, many regions worldwide still lose coral reefs even after implementing these responses. We chose Hurghada city, on the Red Sea, and Weizhou island, on the South China Sea, as sample regions to assess their various modes of coral community structure loss against the combined climatic and human impact drivers that led to this shift. Despite the former being considered a regional coral refuge, while the latter was limited, both regions have previously intervened with coral restoration. We found that even after three decades of impact cessation by forcing laws, most coral reef states are still declining (about a third and a half in both cities), have not harnessed the existing crowded larval density, and are unrecovered. Such findings imply that the combined impacts will persist, necessitating a broad connectivity analysis that enables a suitable intervention (hybrid solutions hypothesis). Each state of coral categories was connected to certain combined stressor factors using our broad connectivity analysis to grasp the extent and relative contribution of coral community shift since our data obtained from comparable sites were widely varied. Moreover, destructive emerged changes have transformed the coral community structure under the forced adaptation scenario of the community structure, boosting those who can resist at the expense of others. To prove our hypothesis, we used the connectivity findings in determining the optimal technique and spots for coral rehabilitation around the two cities. We then compared our findings with the outcomes of two other existing adjacent restoration projects related to other endeavors. Our hybrid approach harvested coral larvae that had been wasted in both cities. Thus, hybrid solutions are globally required for such cases, and proper early interventions are needed to maintain the genotype power to boost coral adaptability throw global ecological settings.

Histopathological and biochemical aspects of grafted and non-grafted cucumber infected with stem rot caused by Fusarium spp.

Cucumber grafting has been used in Egypt recently to induce soil diseases tolerance. The impact of various grafting techniques on the vulnerability of grafted cucumber seedlings to Fusarium which stimulates the stem rot was investigated. Consequently, the anatomical and physiological studies were carried out on the diseased and healthy grafted cucumber seedlings, comparing with the non-grafted ones. Fusarium equiseti (MW216971.1) caused a severe stem rot of the grafted seedling through affecting the connection area of the different grafting methods, leading to complete seedling death. The hole insertion grafting method significantly exhibited the highest diseases incidence (100%), and mean disease severity index (5) when inoculated with F. equiseti. The pathogen remarkably affected the graft union area causing tissue discoloration and decay. The levels of antioxidant enzymes and total phenols were significantly enhanced in the diseased grafted and self-rooted cucumber. However, the diseased grafted cucumber recorded significantly the highest values of the antioxidant enzymes activities and total phenolic content when compared with the self-rooted ones. The results of SDS-PAGE profile revealed variations in the leaves protein profile of the grafted and self- rooted seedlings in response to Fusarium infection. Taken together, grafting cucumber onto a resistant rootstock using the splice technique can alleviate the stem rot severity caused by Fusarium spp. by enhancing the histological, physiological and molecular defense response of the grafted seedling.

Silver nanoparticles as a viricidal agent to inhibit plant-infecting viruses and disrupt their acquisition and transmission by their aphid vector.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are a potentially effective tool for preventing viral plant diseases. This study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of AgNPs for managing bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV) disease in faba bean plants from the plant-virus-vector interaction side. AgNPs were evaluated as foliar protective and curative agents. In addition, the effect of AgNPs on virus acquisition and transmission by its vector aphid was investigated. The results indicated that AgNPs exhibited curative viricidal activity and were able to inactivate BYMV when applied 48 hours after virus inoculation. The occurrence of disease was prevented using an AgNP concentration as low as 100 mg L-1, whereas virus infection was completely inhibited when plants were preventatively treated with AgNPs at a concentration of to 200 mg L-1 24 h before virus inoculation. AgNPs proved to be highly bio-reactive, binding to viral particles and suppressing their replication and accumulation within plant tissues. Moreover, AgNPs, at all concentrations tested, were found to upregulate the pathogenesis-related gene PR-1 and induce the production of defense-related oxidizing enzymes in treated plants. Exposure of aphids to AgNPs-treated plants before virus acquisition reduced BYMV acquisition and transmission efficiency by 40.65 to 100% at 24 h post-application, depending on the AgNP dosage. At 10 days after treatment, virus acquisition was reduced by 36.82% and 79.64% upon exposure to AgNPs at a concentration of 250 and 300 mg L-1, respectively. These results suggest that AgNPs have curative viricidal activity due to targeting the virus coat protein and affecting virus-vector interactions. Accordingly, AgNPs may contribute to alleviating the natural disease and virus transmission under field conditions. This is the first report on the activity of nanomaterials against plant virus acquisition and transmission by insects.