Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

About: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is a facility organization based out in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Soil water. The organization has 10921 authors who have published 21332 publications receiving 748193 citations. The organization is also known as: Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

Nanotechnologies for increasing the crop use efficiency of fertilizer-micronutrients

Abstract: Billions of people and many soils across the planet suffer from micronutrient (MN) deficiencies impairing human health. In general, fertilization of deficient soils, according to soil test, with MNs alone and in combination with nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium (NPK) baseline treatment increases crop yield. The soil applied fertilizer-MN use efficiency (MUE) by crops is <5 % due to a lack of synchronization between the fertilizer-MN release and their crop demand during growth. Nanotechnology and biotechnology have the potential to play a prominent place in transforming agricultural systems and food production worldwide in the coming years. MNs added in microcapsules and nanocapsules, nanomaterials (NMs), and nanoparticles (NPs) are taken up and translocated within plants when grown to maturity, increasing crop yield and MN concentration in plants. Noteworthy, many of the effects of NPs and NMs on crop yield and quality, human health, and associated environmental risks remain to be explored. Increasing MUE requires synchronizing the release of nutrients from fertilizers with crop demand during the growing season. Development of intelligent MN fertilizer delivery platforms (IMNDP) may be possible on the basis of elucidating communication signals between plant roots and soil microorganisms. Important benefits from the development and farm adoption of intelligent MN delivery platforms include increased MUE, reduced fertilizer use, and minimal toxicity and environmental impacts. This article proposes for the first time a novel model for IMNDP to enhance MUE and food quality by enabling the synchronization of MN release from fertilizers according to crop demand.

HD2C interacts with HDA6 and is involved in ABA and salt stress response in Arabidopsis

Abstract: HD2 proteins are plant specific histone deacetylases. Four HD2 proteins, HD2A, HD2B, HD2C, and HD2D, have been identified in Arabidopsis. It was found that the expression of HD2A, HD2B, HD2C, and HD2D was repressed by ABA and NaCl. To investigate the function of HD2 proteins further, two HD2C T-DNA insertion lines of Arabidopsis, hd2c-1 and hd2c-3 were identified. Compared with wild-type plants, hd2c-1 and hd2c-3 plants displayed increased sensitivity to ABA and NaCl during germination and decreased tolerance to salt stress. These observations support a role of HD2C in the ABA and salt-stress response in Arabidopsis. Moreover, it was demonstrated that HD2C interacted physically with a RPD3-type histone deacetylase, HDA6, and bound to histone H3. The expression of ABA-responsive genes, ABI1 and ABI2, was increased in hda6, hd2c, and hda6/hd2c-1 double mutant plants, which was associated with increased histone H3K9K14 acetylation and decreased histone H3K9 dimethylation. Taken together, our results suggested that HD2C functionally associates with HDA6 and regulates gene expression through histone modifications.