The effectiveness of biopreparations in soft wheat cultivation and the quality assessment of the grain by the digital x-ray imaging

L.E. Kolesnikov¹*, I.I. Novikova², E.V. Popova², N.S. Priyatkin³, E.V. Zuev⁴, Yu.R. Kolesnikova⁴ and M.D. Solodyannikov¹

¹Saint-Petersburg State Agrarian University, Faculty of Agrotechnologies, Soil science and Ecology, Department of Plant Protection and Quarantine, Petersburgskoe Shosse (highway), 2, RU196601 St-Petersburg – Pushkin, Russia
²All-Russian Institute of Plant Protection (VIZR), Laboratory of microbiological plant protection, shosse Podbel’skogo highway, 3, RU196608 Saint Petersburg-Pushkin, Russia
³Agrophysical Research Institute (ARI), plant biophysics division, Grazhdanskiy ave. 14, RU195220 St-Petersburg, Russia
⁴Federal Research Center N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR), genetic resource of wheat department, plant introduction department, Bolshaya Morskaya street, 42–44, RU190000 St–Petersburg, Russia
*Correspondence: kleon9@yandex.ru

Abstract:

The main trend of modern crop production is the expansion of the use of plant protection solutions and technologies, that ensure not only effective management of the number of populations of harmful organisms, but also the production of environmentally safe agricultural products with minimal anthropogenic impact on agro-ecosystems. One of our priorities is to develop new environmentally sound polyfunctional biopreparations, that combine useful properties of microbial strains such as phytopathogen antagonists and chitosan compositions that increase disease resistance. The introscopic analysis of the seed material quality realized with the non–destructive express techniques application was used for evaluation the effectiveness of the compositions’ complex influence on plants. The research studies the effectiveness of the influence of Bacillus subtilis strains and chitosan compositions, including their combined effect, on soft wheat productivity and its damage by disease agents. Data on the quality assessment of the grain using microfocus x-ray radiography and gas-discharge visualization (electrophotography) are also provided. The complex of more than 20 structural elements of wheat productivity was analysed during the research. Assessment of the plant damage intensity according to the standard criterion – the disease development, and additional phytopathological indicators was carried out. The evaluation of the grains’ introscopic characteristics was carried out by the microfocus x-ray radiography techniques combined with the digital x-ray image analysis. It is shown that the biopreparation complexes, containing B. subtilis strains and Chitosan, have a combined biological activity manifested in the optimization of wheat plants’ physiological state, increasing productivity, diseases resistance.

Key words:

Bacillus subtilis, biopreparations, Chitosan, microfocus x-ray radiography, polyfunctional complex, soft wheat, wheat diseases, yield structure

Enrofloxacin and Ciprofloxacin Uptake by Plants from Soil

M. Lillenberg¹, S. V. Litvin², L. Nei², M. Roasto¹ and K. Sepp³

¹Department of Food Science and Hygiene, Estonian University of Life Sciences,
Kreutzwaldi 58A, 51014 Tartu, Estonia
²Department of Environmental Protection, Tartu College of Tallinn University of
Technology, Puiestee 78, 51008 Tartu, Estonia, e-mail: lembit.nei@ttu.ee
³Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life
Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 64, 51014 Tartu, Estonia

Abstract:

Very small amounts of pharmaceuticals present in everyday food may generate
strains of resistant microorganisms in human and animal organisms. This study involves the
uptake and accumulation of some widely used fluoroquinolones – enrofloxacin and
ciprofloxacin – by plants cultivated in soil augmented with drugs using the microbiological agar
diffusion method. Bacillus subtilis was used as the test bacterium. The three plants chosen for
the experiment were lettuce (Lactuca sativa), common barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and
cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), which were cultivated in a laboratory in soils mixed with enroor
ciprofloxacin at nominal concentrations of 500, 200, 50 and 10 µg/g. The concentrations of
fluoroquinolones remained unchanged in the soil during the experiment. The presence of
enrofloxacin was detected in all plants grown at enrofloxacin concentrations of 500, 200 and 50
µg/g. The presence of ciprofloxacin was only detected in barley and cucumber grown in soil
with a base concentration of 500 µg/g. In lettuce, which had a longer vegetation period, the
presence of ciprofloxacin was detected at all concentrations. The content of ciprofloxacin in the
lettuce was 44 µg/g at a soil concentration of 10 µg/g: fluoroquinolones accumulate in a plant
during the vegetation period.

Key words: