Fernanda Farnese

Instituto Federal Goiano, Rio Verde, Brazil

The increase in frequency and intensity of drought events have hampered coffee production in the already threatened Amazon region, yet little is known about key aspects underlying the variability in yield potential across genotypes, nor to what extent higher productivity is linked to reduced drought tolerance. Here we explored how variations in mor...

Serious concerns have recently been raised regarding the association of Fe excess with neurodegenerative diseases in mammals and nutritional and oxidative disorders in plants. Therefore, the current study aimed to understand the physiological changes induced by Fe excess in Pistia stratiotes, a species often employed in phytoremediation studies. P....

Despite the great benefits arising from the adoption of Roundup Ready® (RR®) soybean, there are reports about the lack of selectivity of glyphosate for this crop. The use of growth-promoting microorganisms can help attenuate the injuries caused by herbicides. The objective of this work was to evaluate the agronomic performance of RR® soybean submit...

Fipronil is a pyrazole insecticide used to control undesirable insect populations. Due to its large-scale application, there is the potential for surface waters’ contamination, with toxic action for non-target organisms, and consequent impacts on aquatic ecosystems. Planarians are potential non-target aquatic invertebrates to these insecticides. Th...

Even after complete stomatal closure, plants lose water through the leaf cuticles and bark. This residual water conductance of leaves (gleaf‐res) and stems (gbark) can negatively impact plant water balance and affect plant survival in seasonally dry environments. However, little is known about the costs and benefits associated with such water leaks...

Brosimum gaudichaudii is a plant species with medicinal relevance due to its furanocoumarin accumulation. The accumulation of these compounds in the root promotes predatory extractivism, which threatens the conservation of the species. In addition, little is known about the conditions for culturing of this species in vitro. The present study aimed...

Atrazine is an herbicide commonly used in several countries. Due to its long half-life, associated with its use in large scales, atrazine residues remain as environmental pollutants in water bodies. Phytoremediation is often pointed out as an interesting approach to remove atrazine from the aquatic environment, but its practical application is limi...

Fields of Eucalyptus throughout the world have faced ever more frequent events of water restriction, whilst the burgeoning demand has promoted the planting of crops in even drier sites. This study evaluated the ability of fast measurement variables (gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence, and water content) to determine the functional diversity of...

Abstract The remarkable phytogeographic characteristics of the Brazilian savanna (Cerrado) resulted in a vegetation domain composed of plants with high structural and functional diversity to tolerate climate extremes. Here we used a key Cerrado species (Dipteryx alata) to evaluate if species of this domain present a mechanism of stress memory, resp...

Plants continue to lose water from their leaves even after complete stomatal closure. Although this minimum conductance (gleaf-res ) has substantial impacts on strategies of water use and conservation, little is known about the potential drivers underlying the variability of this trait across species. We thus untangled the relative contribution of...

In the context of climate change, determining the physiological mechanisms of drought-induced mortality in woody plants and identifying thresholds of drought survivorship will improve forecasts of forest and agroecosystem die off. Here, we tested whether continuous measurements of branch diameter variation can be used to identify thresholds of hydr...

Bark is a structure involved in multiple physiological functions, but which has been traditionally associated with protection against fire. Thus, little is known about how the morpho-anatomical variations of this structure are related to different ecological pressures, especially in tropical savanna species, which are commonly subjected to frequent...

In the context of climate changes, water availability is expected to severely decline. Consequently, there is a need to predict mortality of woody species, especially to find a physiological threshold to drought-induced mortality. Lavender species ( Lavandula angustifolia and Lavandula x intermedia ) which are important crops of the Mediterranean r...

Main conclusion Nitric oxide increased lettuce’s tolerance to salinity by restoring its hormonal balance, consequently reducing Na + accumulation and activating defense mechanisms that allowed the attenuation of ionic, oxidative, and osmotic stresses. Abstract Agricultural crops are continually threatened by soil salinity. The plant’s ability to t...

Anthropogenic activities such as uncontrolled deforestation and increasing green‐ house gas emissions are responsible for triggering a series of environmental imbal‐ ances that affect the Earth's complex climate dynamics. As a consequence of these changes, several climate models forecast an intensification of extreme weather events over the upcomi...

Glutathione is essential for plant tolerance to arsenic but few studies have focused on the coordination between the enzymes involved in its metabolism. We exposed Pistia stratiotes to four treatments (control, 5, 10 and 20 mM As III) for 24 h to evaluate the role of glutathione metabolism in arsenic response and determined the arsenic uptake, grow...

A variety of cellular responses is needed to ensure the plants survival during drought, but little is known about the signaling mechanisms involved in this process. Soybean cultivars (EMBRAPA 48 and BR 16, tolerant and sensitive to drought, respectively) were exposed to the following treatments: control conditions (plants in field capacity), drough...

Phytoremediation is considered an ecologically beneficial technique for removing arsenic from aquatic environments but studies on the mechanisms of tolerance to this pollutant, when present in the form of arsenite (As III ) still need to be performed. Thus, in order to evaluate the potential of Pistia stratiotes to phytoremediation of As III and th...

Antioxidant enzymes are important components in the defense against arsenic (As) stress in plants. Here, we tested the hypothesis that Salvinia molesta, an aquatic fern, counteracts the harmful arsenite (AsIII) effects by activating scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) enzymes. Thus, our objective was to investigate the role of the superoxide d...

Fluoride is released in large amounts in the atmosphere by brick, ceramic, phosphate mineral and aluminum industries. It presents the highest phytotoxicity when compared to other air pollutants, damaging different tree species. Byrsonima basiloba Juss. (Malpighiaceae) is a fruit tree widely distributed in anthropic regions, displaying high potentia...

In many plant species, tolerance to toxic metals is highly dependent on glutathione, an essential metabolite for cellular detoxification. We evaluated the responses of glutathione metabolism to arsenite (AsIII) in Salvinia molesta, an aquatic fern that has unexplored phytoremediation potential. Plants were exposed to different AsIII concentrations...

[This corrects the article on p. 516 in vol. 8, PMID: 28469622.].

Phytoremediation has proven to be an efficient technology for removing arsenic (As) from water, but the plants used in this process need to be tolerant to the damage caused by As. The toxic effect of As on growth and functioning of the antioxidant system was studied in individual plants of Azolla caroliniana exposed to five concentrations of As (0....

High arsenic (As) concentrations are toxic to all the living organisms and the cellular response to this metalloid requires the involvement of cell signaling agents, such as nitric oxide (NO). The As toxicity and NO signaling were analyzed in Pistia stratiotes leaves. Plants were exposed to four treatments, for 24 h: control; SNP [sodium nitropruss...

The natural environment of plants is composed of a complex set of abiotic stresses and their ability to respond to these stresses is highly flexible and finely balanced through the interaction between signaling molecules. In this review, we highlight the integrated action between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS), pa...

Nitric oxide (NO) is an important molecule involved in the perception of stress induced by toxic compounds such as arsenic (As). The present study investigated the role of NO applied as sodium nitroprusside (SNP) in cell signalling and the ability of NO to attenuate the toxic effects of As (in the form of sodium arsenate) in water hyacinth (Eichhor...

Lettuce plants were exposed to different toxic levels of arsenic (As) to induce an oxidative stress response, and the role of nitric oxide (NO) (provided as sodium nitroprusside (SNP)) as an attenuating agent of this stress condition was evaluated. Plants were treated with 50 μM of As with or without 100 μM SNP added to the nutrient solution. The h...

Effect of nitric oxide (NO) in mitigating stress induced by arsenic (As) was assessed in Pistia stratiotes, with NO supplied as sodium nitroprusside (SNP). Plants were exposed to four treatments: control, SNP (0.1 mg L−1), As (1.5 mg L−1), As + SNP (1.5 and 0.1 mg L−1), for seven days (analyses of growth, absorption of As and mineral nutrients) and...

Arsenic (As) is the one of the main environmental pollutant and phytoremediation is an effective tool for its removal of the environment. In this study, Pistia stratiotes were exposed to seven As concentrations (0, 3, 7, 10, 13, 16 and 20 μM) and then, the influence of this metalloid on growth, mineral nutrition and photosynthesis were analyzed. It...

Arsenic (As) toxicity and the effects of nitric oxide (NO), supplied as sodium nitroprusside (SNP), were analyzed in Pistia stratiotes. The plants, which were grown in nutrient solution at pH 6.5, were exposed to four treatments for 24 h: control; SNP (0.1 mg L−1); As (1.5 mg L−1); and As + SNP (1.5 and 0.1 mg L−1). As accumulated primarily in the...

Arsenate (As(V)) and arsenite (As(III)) contamination is able to interfere negatively on plant metabolism, promoting a reduction of nutrients uptake and transport and also an increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. However, some plants are considered tolerant against As exposure through the activation of defense mechanisms. Therefore,...

The influence of arsenic (As) on the growth and the antioxidant system of Lemna gibba L. exposed to five concentrations of As (0.0, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 mg L−1) was studied. Although As exposure reduced relative growth rate, L. gibba continued to grow even after the high accumulation of this element after five days of exposure. The concentration...

Arsenate (AsV) and arsenite (AsIII) contamination can promote several disturbances in plant metabolism, besides affecting directly human and animal health due to the insertion of this metalloid in the food chain. Therefore, the arsenic (As) uptake and accumulation, the changes in gas exchange and in chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters as well as...

The myrmecochory is an important process for the vegetation dynamic in different ecosystems, especially in the neotropics. However, the relationship between ants and non myrmecochorus diaspores is sparsely documented for environments of South America. Thus, this study aimed to quantify the removal rate of non myrmecochorus diaspores by ants in a Ce...