RESUMEN
Soil salinity is a critical problem for rice production and is also often associated with phosphors (P) deficiency. Plant hormones, like brassinosteroids, were shown to play a role in plant responses to different stresses and are also expected to mitigate salt stress. The aim of this study was to compare shoot growth and root architecture traits of two rice cultivars (INCA LP-5 and Perla de Cuba) during early plant development in response to salt, P limitation and a brassinosteroid. Seeds were placed in (I) paper rolls for 7 days and (II) mini-rhizotrons for 21 days without or with salt (50 mM NaCl), without or with 24-epibrassinolide (10-6 M) pre-treatment, and with two levels of P (10 or 1 ppm). The root system of LP-5 was larger in size and extent, while the roots of Perla were growing denser. Salt affected mainly the size- and extent-related root characteristics and explained about 70% of the variance. The effect of P was more pronounced without salt treatment. In Perla, P supply reduced the salt effect on root growth. The brassinosteroid had hardly any effect on the development of the plants in both experiments. Due to the high dependence on experimental factors, root length and related traits can be recommended for selecting young rice cultivars regarding salt stress and P deprivation.
RESUMEN
ABSTRACT The present study evaluated the effects of the culturing media and the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus on the growth, biomass productivity and lipid production of four species of Microcystis (M. novacekii, M. aeruginosa, M panniformis and M. protocystis). The lipid extract was obtained by refluxing with dichloromethane (Soxhlet). The biomass and biomass productivity yields were maximized with ASM-1 medium treatment enriched with nitrogen and/or phosphorus (0.25-0.65 g/L and 25-50.7 mg/L d-1, respectively). The lipid extract yields from M. panniformis and M. novacekii were inversely correlated with the concentration of nitrogen and directly correlated with the concentration of phosphorus (35.8 % and 31.7 %). The lipid extract yield from M. aeruginosa was inversely correlated with the nutrient concentration (23.3 %). M. protocystis exhibited a higher lipid content in the control medium (41.5 %) than in the nitrogen-enriched media. The recorded results show that a nutrient-poor culture medium favours cell growth and stimulates lipid accumulation, which directly affects the cost of cultivation by reducing nutrient consumption. All studied species may serve as biomass sources for biodiesel production, although M. protocystis exhibited the highest lipid production. Further studies are necessary to determine the composition of the recorded lipid extract.