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Topic Review
Plant Embryogenesis
Plant embryogenesis is a process that occurs after the fertilization of an ovule to produce a fully developed plant embryo. This is a pertinent stage in the plant life cycle that is followed by dormancy and germination. The zygote produced after fertilization must undergo various cellular divisions and differentiations to become a mature embryo. An end stage embryo has five major components including the shoot apical meristem, hypocotyl, root meristem, root cap, and cotyledons. Unlike animal embryogenesis, plant embryogenesis results in an immature form of the plant, lacking most structures like leaves, stems, and reproductive structures. However, both plants and animals pass through a phylotypic stage that evolved independently and that causes a developmental constraint limiting morphological diversification.
  • 14.4K
  • 28 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Cocoyam [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott]
Cocoyam [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] also known as taro is regarded as an important staple crop in the Pacific Islands, Asia and Africa.
  • 13.2K
  • 22 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Fiber Crops
Fibers are everywhere around us and they are essential materials supporting our daily lives. Most fibers that we use in our daily activities are derived from fiber crops. In this entry, we introduce how fibers are classified, describe the main fiber crops in the world, and summarize their distributions and main usages by humans.
  • 10.0K
  • 01 Jul 2020
Topic Review
Interspecific and Intergeneric Hybridization
Interspecific hybridization occurs when crosses are made between different cultivated species belonging to the same genus. In contrast, the outcome of the combination of a distinct genus (cultivated species with their wild relatives) is known as intergeneric hybridization. These two approaches are the critical driving force in generating a different combination of hybrid lines, such as synthetic amphiploid lines, alloplasmic lines, and alien gene introgression lines, which act as a source of variation that leads to a broadening of the genetic variability and diversity of desired traits for crop improvement. However, the success rate of interspecific and intergeneric hybridization is comparatively low compared to intraspecific hybridization due to cross-incompatibilities mainly related to pre- and post-fertilization barriers. To overcome these challenges, in vitro techniques utilizing somatic hybridization or embryo rescue came into the picture and have proven to be the best alternative. Several embryo rescue techniques such as embryo culture, ovary culture, ovule culture, anther culture, and protoplast culture protect embryos from successful hybridization and from premature abortion. Due to the genomic shock, this successful hybridization induces genetic and epigenetic modification at the early stages (zygote formation and development) of hybrids and successive generations. Embryo rescue techniques such as immature embryo culture were used to develop an interspecific hybrid ACC between B. napus ‘Zhongshuang 9’ and B. oleracea ‘6m08.
  • 9.2K
  • 16 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Recovery of Banana Waste-Loss
Banana is a tropical fruit grown in more than 130 countries. It is the second most produced fruit after citrus, contributing around 16% of world fruit production and the fourth most important food crop after rice, wheat and corn. Banana is very nutritious and digests better than many other fruits. After harvest, almost 60% of banana biomass is left as waste. Worldwide, about 114.08 million metric tons of banana waste-loss are produced, leading to environmental problems such as the excessive emission of greenhouse gases. These wastes contain a high content of paramount industrial importance, such as cellulose, hemicellulose and natural fibers that various processes can modify, such as bacterial fermentation and anaerobic degradation, to obtain bioplastics, organic fertilizers and biofuels such as ethanol, biogas, hydrogen and biodiesel. In addition, they can be used in wastewater treatment methods by producing low-cost biofilters and obtaining activated carbon from rachis and banana peel. Furthermore, nanometric fibers commonly used in nanotechnology applications and silver nanoparticles useful in therapeutic cancer treatments, can be produced from banana pseudostems. 
  • 9.0K
  • 22 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Magnoliophyta
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (/ˌændʒiəˈspɜːrmiː/), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words angeion ('container, vessel') and sperma ('seed'), and refers to those plants that produce their seeds enclosed within a fruit. They are by far the most diverse group of land plants with 64 orders, 416 families, approximately 13,000 known genera and 300,000 known species. Angiosperms were formerly called Magnoliophyta (/mæɡˌnoʊliˈɒfətə, -əˈfaɪtə/). Like gymnosperms, angiosperms are seed-producing plants. They are distinguished from gymnosperms by characteristics including flowers, endosperm within their seeds, and the production of fruits that contain the seeds. The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from the common ancestor of all living gymnosperms before the end of the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago. The closest fossil relatives of flowering plants are uncertain and contentious. The earliest angiosperm fossils are in the form of pollen around 134 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous. Over the course of the Cretaceous, angiosperms explosively diversified, becoming the dominant group of plants across the planet by the end of the period, corresponding with the decline and extinction of previously widespread gymnosperm groups. The origin and diversification of the angiosperms is often known as "Darwin's abominable mystery".
  • 8.6K
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Bryophyllum Pinnatum
Bryophyllum pinnatum, also known as the air plant, cathedral bells, life plant, miracle leaf, and Goethe plant is a succulent plant native to Madagascar , which is a popular houseplant and has become naturalized in tropical and subtropical areas. It is distinctive for the profusion of miniature plantlets that form on the margins of its phylloclades, a trait it has in common with some other members of its genus. Many people also currently call this plant Kalanchoe pinnata. It is a succulent, perennial plant, about 1 m (39 in) tall, with a fleshy cylindrical stem and a reddish color for the youngest and it flowers most of the year. The specific epithet "pinnata" is the feminine form of the Latin adjective pinnatus, meaning "winged, pinnate".
  • 8.0K
  • 30 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Cocoa Shell
The positive impact of cocoa shell on nutritional value of food was emphasized, such as increase of fiber content, enrichment with polyphenols, positive impact on glucose metabolism. However, potential shortcomings, such as mycotoxins, PAHs, and microbial contamination are also discussed.
  • 7.7K
  • 28 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Organic Potatoes and Conventional Potatoes
Interest in organic foods is increasing at a moment when humanity is facing a range of health challenges including the concern that some conventionally produced foods may pose possible adverse effects on human and livestock health. Consumers are showing increasing interest in organically grown potatoes due to their nutritional quality and health protection value.
  • 7.3K
  • 28 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Cannabis sativa L.
Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is an ancient, widespread, multipurpose crop cultivated all over the world, all parts of which can be potentially usable for the production of many different commodities with industrial interest. It is one of the oldest cultivated crops and until the first half of the 1900s, it was widely grown essentially as a fibre crop. Declining the demand for natural fibre consequential to the upper hand of synthetic fibre, and competition from other plant fibre sources led to reduce the demand for hemp. In addition, the use of some narcotic strains containing high and unhealthy level (>0.3%) of the only one psychoactive substance, namely the cannabinoid delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), led to the crop's prohibition during much of the 20th century. The clarification of the genetics and the biosynthetic pathway of the cannabinoids has been essential to identify three main different genotypes and the related chemical phenotypes of hemp plants, differing in the content of the two main hemp cannabinoids, THC and cannabidiol (CBD). Among these, the chemical phenotype commonly named "industrial hemp" includes hemp varieties which contain <0.3% or 0.2% of THC level that makes them unsuitable for narcotic purposes, but very useful for many other industrial applications. Therefore, from a legislative point of view, the main western countries such as United States, Canada, and European Union after a prohibition period, from the last decade of 1900s, have reintroduced and restored the industrial hemp cultivation.  
  • 7.0K
  • 10 Jul 2020
Topic Review
Sweet Corn
Sweet corn (Zea mays convar. saccharata var. rugosa; also called sweetcorn, sugar corn and pole corn) is a cereal with a high sugar content. Sweet corn is the result of a naturally occurring recessive mutation in the genes which control conversion of sugar to starch inside the ENO of the corn kernel. Unlike field corn varieties, which are harvested when the kernels are dry and mature (dent stage), sweet corn is picked when immature (milk stage) and prepared and eaten as a vegetable, rather than a grain. Since the process of maturation involves converting sugar to starch, sweet corn stores poorly and must be eaten fresh, canned, or frozen, before the kernels become tough and starchy. It is one of the six major types of corn, the others being dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, and flour corn.
  • 6.9K
  • 09 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Ethnomedicinal Plants
Ethnomedicinal plants have a significant role in the lives of people of rural and tribal areas. Thousands of medicinal plant species are used to treat various diseases, including jaundice, and are considered an important therapeutic resource to minimize these diseases. Jaundice (icterus) is a chronic disease that occurs when the amount of bilirubin in the blood increases.
  • 6.8K
  • 08 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Anti-COVID-19 potential of Clove phytochemicals
The current COronaVIrus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection is enormously affecting the worldwide health and economy. In the wait for an effective global immunization, the development of a specific therapeutic protocol to treat COVID-19 patients is clearly necessary as a short-term solution of the problem. Drug repurposing and herbal medicine represent two of the most explored strategies for an anti-COVID-19 drug discovery. Clove (Syzygium aromaticum L.) is a well-known culinary spice that has been used for centuries in folk medicine in many disorders. Interestingly, traditional medicines have used clove since ancient times to treat respiratory ailments, whilst clove ingredients show antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties. Other interesting features are the clove antithrombotic, immunostimulatory, and antibacterial effects.
  • 6.5K
  • 13 May 2021
Topic Review
Inocybe Mushrooms Poisoning
Mushroom poisoning has always been a threat to human health. There are a large number of reports about ingestion of poisonous mushrooms every year around the world. It attracts the attention of researchers, especially in the aspects of toxin composition, toxic mechanism and toxin application in poisonous mushroom. Inocybe is a large genus of mushrooms and contains toxic substances including muscarine, psilocybin, psilocin, aeruginascin, lectins and baeocystin. In order to prevent and remedy mushroom poisoning, it is significant to clarify the toxic effects and mechanisms of these bioactive substances. 
  • 6.3K
  • 10 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Plant Phenolics
Phenolic compounds are secondary metabolites widely spread throughout the plant kingdom that can be categorized as flavonoids and non-flavonoids. 
  • 6.3K
  • 24 Dec 2020
Topic Review
The Photosynthetic Apparatus of Plants
Chlorophylls together with carotenoids, serve, noncovalently bound to specific apoproteins, as principal light-harvesting and energy-transforming pigments in oxygenic photosynthetic organisms, including plants.
  • 6.1K
  • 10 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Allelopathy
Allelopathy is an ecological phenomenon in which organisms interfere with each other. As a management strategy in agricultural systems, allelopathy can be mainly used to control weeds, resist pests, and disease and improve the interaction of soil nutrition and microorganisms. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are allelochemicals volatilized from plants and have been widely demonstrated to have different ecological functions.
  • 5.6K
  • 09 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Micronutrient Deficiency and Toxicity in Plants
Micronutrients are essential for plants. Their growth, productivity and reproduction are directly influenced by the supply of micronutrients. Currently, there are eight trace elements considered to be essential for higher plants: Fe, Zn, Mn, Cu, Ni, B, Mo, and Cl. Possibly, other essential elements could be discovered because of recent advances in nutrient solution culture techniques and in the commercial availability of highly sensitive analytical instrumentation for elemental analysis.
  • 5.5K
  • 27 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Pollen Germination in Gymnosperms
Gymnosperms are amazing representatives of the flora. On the one hand, they are ancient plants with primitive characteristics of anatomical structure; on the other hand, they are perfectly adapted to their habitat and are the dominant species in many ecosystems due to their impressive size and longevity, with their reproductive system being of particular interest. It has progressive features, because in this group the reduced male gametophyte—pollen grain—first appeared, as well as the ability to form seeds. In addition, this group still represents a wide variety of reproductive patterns, strategies, and relationships. For example, the degree of gametophyte reduction varies, there are both zooidogamy and siphonogamy, and the reproductive process can both be relatively fast and last over several years.
  • 5.4K
  • 20 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Role of Chloroplast Gene Expression
 Chloroplasts are plant organelles that carry out photosynthesis, produce various metabolites, and sense changes in the external environment. Given their endosymbiotic origin, chloroplasts have retained independent genomes and gene-expression machinery. Most genes from the prokaryotic ancestors of chloroplasts were transferred into the nucleus over the course of evolution. However, the importance of chloroplast gene expression in environmental stress responses have recently become more apparent. Here, we discuss the emerging roles of the distinct chloroplast gene expression processes in plant responses to environmental stresses. For example, the transcription and translation of psbA play an important role in high-light stress responses. A better understanding of the connection between chloroplast gene expression and environmental stress responses is crucial for breeding stress-tolerant crops better able to cope with the rapidly changing environment. Chloroplasts are plant organelles that carry out photosynthesis, produce various metabolites, and sense changes in the external environment. Given their endosymbiotic origin, chloroplasts have retained independent genomes and gene-expression machinery. Most genes from the prokaryotic ancestors of chloroplasts were transferred into the nucleus over the course of evolution. However, the importance of chloroplast gene expression in environmental stress responses have recently become more apparent.
  • 5.3K
  • 02 Sep 2020
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