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Integrated stratigraphy of the lower Eocene successions on the southern Tethys margin (Egypt): Emphases on the hyperthermal events

Research Abstract


The early Eocene is marked by prominent short warming episodes that are globally documented. The present study provides a well-established micropaleontological record of the calcareous nannofossils, planktonic, and benthonic foraminifera in order to evaluate the impact of the environmental perturbations across the early Eocene generally and particularly throughout these short warming events. This study has been conducted on two expanded lower Eocene successions at the Dababiya and the El-Ballas sections, southern Egypt. The recorded benthonic foraminifera indicate a deposition in a middle-outer neritic setting for El-Ballas, while at the Dababiya section, the lower part is deposited in an inner-middle neritic setting that changed upward to middle-outer neritic due to sea-level oscillation. The detailed analyses of the identified calcareous nannofossils and foraminifera allow definition of four early Eocene hyperthermal events. These events are the Post-Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (Post-PETM), Eocene Thermal Maximum-2 (ETM-2), H2, and Eocene Thermal Maximum-3 (ETM-3). These events are indicated by a remarkable shift of the calcareous planktonic warm water indicators. The benthonic foraminifera assemblages that were recorded throughout these events reflect partially dysoxic/suboxic marine conditions associated with increased eutrophication probably of mesotrophic marine conditions. The calcareous planktonic and benthonic foraminifera record indicates evidence of minor dissolution across these events. Unlike the PETM, these events had a lesser impact on the environmental marine condition. The integrated data of the present study show that the magnitude of these events was greater and more pronounced at the shallower site at the Dababiya than at the deeper El-Ballas section.

Research Authors
Amr A. Metwally, Islam El-Sheikh, Kamel H. Mahfouz
Research Date
Research Department
Research Journal
Marine Micropaleontology
Research Pages
102131
Research Publisher
Elsevier
Research Vol
173
Research Year
2022

Biosafe Management of Botrytis Grey Mold of Strawberry Fruit by Novel Bioagents

Research Abstract

Recently, there have been urgent economic and scientific demands to decrease the use
of chemical fungicides during the treatment of phytopathogens, due to their human health and
environmental impacts. This study explored the biocontrol efficacy of novel and eco-friendly preen
(uropygial) oil and endophytic Bacillus safensis in managing postharvest Botrytis grey mold in strawberry
fruit. The preen oil (25 L/mL) showed high antifungal activity against B. cinerea Str5 in
terms of the reduction in the fungal radial growth (41.3%) and the fungal colony-forming units
(28.6%) compared to the control. A new strain of Bacillus safensis B3 had a good potential to produce
chitinase enzymes (3.69  0.31 U/mL), hydrolytic lipase (10.65  0.51 U/mL), and protease enzymes
(13.28  0.65 U/mL), which are responsible for the hydrolysis of the B. cinerea Str5 cell wall and,
consequently, restrict fungal growth. The in vivo experiment on strawberry fruit showed that preen
(uropygial) oil reduced the disease severity by 87.25%, while the endophytic bacteria B. safensis B3
reduced it by 86.52%. This study reports the efficiency of individually applied bioagents in the control
of phytopathogenic fungi for the first time and, consequently, encourages their application as a new
and innovative strategy for prospective agricultural technology and food safety.

Research Authors
Elhagag A. Hassan 1,* , Yasser S. Mostafa 2, Saad Alamri 2, Mohamed Hashem 2,* and Nivien A. Nafady
Research Date
Research Journal
plants
Research Pages
2737
Research Publisher
MDPI
Research Rank
Research article
Research Vol
10
Research Website
https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/10/12/2737
Research Year
2021

Biochemical characterization of citrus bent leaf viroid infecting citrus cultivars

Research Abstract

Citrus bent leaf viroid (CBLVd) is an emerging and widely distributed viroid along with its variants in
citrus growing areas of world. Activation of defense mechanism is associated with different enzymes
and inhibitors, accumulated in the infected host. Limited studies were found on biochemical characterization
of citrus viroids. Therefore, study was focused on the biochemical activities such as determination
of chlorophyll contents, total soluble phenolics (TSP), phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) and polyphenol
oxidase (PPO) activity in three citrus cultivars kinnow (C. reticulate), feutrell’s early (C. reticulate) and
mosambi (C. sinensis) infected with CBLVd from Sargodha, Pakistan. The results showed that chlorophyll
contents were significantly lower in the diseased leaves samples of all the citrus cultivars as compared to
healthy ones. Whereas, TSP was found in higher concentration in the CBLVd infected samples of citrus
cultivars. Similarly, activities of PPO and PAL was increased significantly in leaves of citrus cultivars
infected with CBLVd as compared to healthy. These findings were in confirmation that chlorophyll contents,
enzymes and inhibitors were associated to response of plants towards pathogen infection. To the
best of our knowledge, these biochemical alterations in host plants against CBLVd were studied for the
first time not only in the Asian region but also in Pakistan. The results will lead to investigate the
biochemical alterations in other citrus viroids infection.

Research Authors
Faheema Bakhtawar a, Xiukang Wangb,⇑, Abdul Manan d, Yasir Iftikhar a,⇑, Sagheer Atta c, Muhammad Amjad Bashir c, Mustansar Mubeen a, Ashara Sajid a, Abdul Hannan c, Mohamed Hashem e,f, Saad Alamri
Research Date
Research Journal
Journal of King Saud University – Science
Research Pages
101733
Research Publisher
King Saud University
Research Rank
research article
Research Vol
34
Research Website
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1018364721003955?via%3Dihub
Research Year
2022

Awareness and perception of malaria and dengue at school and college level in the district of Multan

Research Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the awareness and perception of malaria and dengue
fever in Multan Punjab, Pakistan while taking into account the important role of government
policies and other variables. The goal of this study is to examine the awareness of
students in Multan, Pakistan on malaria and dengue. This study is based on a quantitative
approach of secondary evidence from scientific journals and questionnaire surveys. It is
also based on observational evidence gathered in Multan Punjab Pakistan, in a field study.
The survey with school children, teachers and healthcare professionals were both formal
and semi-structuralize. Studies have found that malaria and dengue mainly affect children’s
schooling through their absence, but can also induce brain loss and cognitive disability. In
questionnaires, students were seen to have different understanding of the illness, but also
to be able to serve as agents of health reform only through teachers. A sample size of 500
respondents has been selected from different colleges of district Multan Punjab, Pakistan.
Correlation technique is used for the data analysis. According to our results it is concluded
that the students at college level are aware of malaria and dengue diseases, but they are
not capable of engaging and serving as agents for health reform. On the basis of results it is
recommended that students must teach about epidemics diseases regarding how to handle
these diseases.

Research Authors
Muhammad Essa1, Muhammad Ahmed Taj2, Muhammad Hakim Khan3, Muhammad Amjad BashirID 4*, Hasnain Farooq5,6, Reem A. Alajmi7, Mohamed Hashem8, Saad Alamri8, Manal A. El-Zohri8, Kaleem Ullah
Research Date
Research Journal
PLOS ONE
Research Pages
1-15
Research Publisher
PLOS ONE
Research Vol
2
Research Website
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0260868
Research Year
2022

Antioxidant potential in the leaves of grape varieties (Vitis vinifera L.) grown in different soil compositions

Research Abstract

Abstract Grape plant (Vitis vinifera L.) is a species of the family Vitaceae. It is an economically
important fruit plant abundantly grown all over the world. Vitaceae comprised of 900 species distributed
across tropical, sub-tropical and partially temperate sorts of climatic zones. In the current
study we aimed to evaluate the antioxidant activities of grape leaves extract from different Pakistani
varieties.
We have analyzed the crude methanolic extract from the leaves of Pakistani grape varieties (i.e.
NARC Black, Sundar Khani, Shogran-1, Shogran-2, Haita, Sheghali, Perlette, and Sultania-C) cultivated
in various soil compositions. Total phenolic contents (TPC) of the extract were determind by
using Folin-ciocalteu reagent method. Total flavonoid contents (TFC) were determind by the
Aluminum Chloride Calorimetric method. Antioxidant activities of the extracts of different
concentration were evaluated using Phosphomolybdenum method, Reducing power and DPPH
(2, 2-disphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl) assays. Assays performed for grape varieties showed greatantioxidant potential. All varieties significantly depicted with variation in polyphenolic contents
and antioxidant potential with changes in the soil conditions. The highest TPC and TFC were quantified
in Shogran-1 97.58 ± 0.09 (GAE, g
1) and Sultania-C 97.47 ± 0.12 (mg QE/g DE) varieties
respectively which were grown in (T6) and (T5), while lower were recorded in Sundar khani
5.16 ± 0.23 in (T6). Likewise, Shogran-1 128.26 ± 0.23 (mg AAE/g extract) variety grown in
(T6) depicted highest total antioxidant capacity, NARC black 182.06 ± 0.24 (mg AAE/g extract)
variety grown in (T6) resulted in maximum reducing power while DPPH free radical scavenging
potential were determinded in Sultania-C 80.91 ± 0.10 (T4) equivalent mg/g. In the terms of bioassays,
the promising results were showed by compost + sand + clay (T4), compost + clay + dung
(T5) and sand + clay + dung (T6). Therefore, we conclude that variation in soil composition has a
significant contribution in the quantity of phytochemicals and antioxidants expression. Our study
further suggest that use of organic fertilizer (Compost) and loamy sort of soil enhance functioning
of most of the varieties in terms of important phytochemicals.

Research Authors
Yaseen Khan a, Shujaul Mulk Khan a,*, Ihsan ul Haq b, Farzana Farzana c, Abdullah Abdullah a, Arshad Mehmood Abbasi d, Saad Alamri e, Mohamed Hashem e,f, Shazia Sakhi g, Muhammad Asif h, Hussain Shah
Research Date
Research Pages
103412
Research Publisher
King Saud University
Research Vol
14
Research Website
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878535221004275?via%3Dihub
Research Year
2021
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