Ivica Djalovic

• Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops

Heavy metal (HMs) toxicity has severely impacted wheat production and is considered an emerging threat to human health due to bioaccumulation. The application of organic and inorganic amendments has proven effective in mitigating HM’s phytotoxicity by limiting their mobility in soil and plants. A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficie...

Climate change is making droughts more frequent, which is a major problem for crop yield, especially for crops that are vulnerable to drought, such as common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum). Drought stress affects negatively on physiological and biochemical processes of plants, leading to reduced yields. This study addresses the knowledge gap rega...

Drought-induced osmotic stress is a significant constraint to soybean growth and yield, necessitating the development of effective mitigation strategies. Silicon acts as an important strategy to mitigate the negative stress effects of drought stress. The study was aimed to evaluate the potential of soil-applied silicon in alleviating drought stress...

Nitrogen (N) management and tillage practices influenced sustainability of agricultural systems. We conducted field studies to test the response of the combined organic and inorganic N management on soil properties, N use efficiency (NUE), and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production under different tillage intensities in a semiarid climatic conditi...

Bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is a commercially important and nutritionally rich vegetable crop in the Solanaceae family. Alkaline stress (AS) can disrupt growth, metabolism, and, particularly, nutritional quality. This study aims to evaluate the role of iron oxide nanoparticles (FeNP) in mitigating AS and enhancing plant growth and metabolic fu...

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) productivity and quality can be threatened by soil cadmium (Cd) contamination, posing a concern to food security. Salicylic acid (SA) is an endogenously produced signaling molecule that activates the defense system imparting abiotic stress tolerance in plants. Hence, an experiment was conducted to explore the roles of f...

Maize (Zea mays L.) faces significant challenges to its growth and productivity from heavy metal stress, particularly Chromium (Cr) stress, which induces reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and damages photosynthetic tissues. This study aimed to investigate the effects of fulvic acid (FA) application, via foliar spray or root irrigation, on mi...

The soybean crop, known as a "miracle crop" for its versatility as an oilseed, legume, and protein-rich source, is facing yield curtailments due to fluctuating global temperatures, emphasizing a deeper understanding of its heat stress tolerance mechanisms ply both conventional and non-conventional methods. Cutting edges techniques such as CRISPR/Ca...

Background The unfolded protein response (UPR) pathway serves as a crucial mechanism enabling plants to perceive, respond to, and shield themselves from adverse environmental conditions. Inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1) is one of the key players of the UPR, and resides in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) within the cell. This study provides a compr...

Heavy metal (HM) toxicity of agricultural soils poses a major risk to plant health, human life, and global food chain. Crop output and health are negatively impacted when HM levels in agricultural soils reach hazardous points. The nano-biochar (nano-BC) mediated stress tolerance has attracted growing scientific interest because biochar has the pote...

Combined drying, an energy-efficient method that includes osmotic pretreatment in molasses and shortened successive lyophilization, was used to obtain celery root powder and incorporate it in the formulation of cookies, with the aim of obtaining a new product. Wheat flour was substituted with combinedly dehydrated celery root powder at levels from...

Concern over the harmful impacts of heavy metal pollution in soil has increased dramatically on a global scale. For the sake of environmental preservation, accurate estimates of the heavy metal concentrations in soil are essential. This study provides valuable data regarding heavy metal concentrations in soil collected from field crops production a...

The integration of nanoparticles (NPs) into agriculture is altering traditional methods, enhancing productivity and sustainability. This study explores the application of iron oxide nanoparticles (FeONPs) to mitigate salt-alkaline stress in cherry tomatoes. We investigated FeONPs at three concentrations (FeONP25, FeONP50, FeONP100 mg/kg soil) in po...

Plant density, the number of plants per unit area, is an important factor in maize production. Plant density exhibits high variability and depends on a number of factors, i.e., the length of the growing period of the hybrid, the morphological characteristics of the plant, the amount and distribution of precipitation during the growing season, the r...

The radioactive fission product ⁹⁰Sr has a sufficient half-life (28.8 years) to be detected long after its appearance in the environment. After its uptake into the soil-edible plant system, it enters the food chain and represents a potential source of contamination that threatens human health. Due to these facts, tracking the distribution of the ar...

Nitrogen (N) as an inorganic macronutrient is inevitable for plant growth, development, and biomass production. Many external factors and stresses, such as acidity, alkalinity, salinity, temperature, oxygen, and rainfall, affect N uptake and metabolism in plants. The uptake of ammonium (NH4⁺) and nitrate (NO3⁻) in plants mainly depends on soil prop...

Infections with phytoplasma present one of the most significant biotic stresses influencing plant health, growth, and production. The phytoplasma ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ infects a variety of plant species. This pathogen impacts the physiological and morphological characteristics of plants causing stunting, yellowing, leaf curling, and other...

Identifying the contributions of climate factors and fertilization to maize yield is significant for the assessment of climate change impacts on maize production under semiarid conditions. This experiment was conducted with an overall objective to find how N fertilization and cultivar interactions along with climatic conditions determine the minera...

The adverse effects of mounting environmental challenges, including extreme temperatures, threaten the global food supply due to their impact on plant growth and productivity. Temperature extremes disrupt plant genetics, leading to significant growth issues and eventually damaging phenotypes. Plants have developed complex signaling networks to resp...

Maize is a globally significant cereal crop, contributing to the production of essential food products and serving as a pivotal resource for diverse industrial applications. This study investigated the proximate analysis of maize hybrids from different FAO maturity groups in Serbia, exploring variations in polyphenols, flavonoids, carotenoids, toco...

Anthracnose (ANT) caused by Colletotrichum lindemuthianum is the most devastating seed-borne fungal disease of common bean. In response to fungal infections, it is hypothesized that pathogen–plant interactions typically cause hypersensitive reactions by producing reactive oxygen species, hydrogen peroxide and lipid peroxidation of cell membranes. e...

The infrequent rainfall caused drought‐prone conditions, particularly in semiarid regions of China, where most of the precipitation occurs in summer season. Thus, the summer rainwater conservation is very important for winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) production. Therefore, a 2‐year field experiment was conducted on straw mulch along with nitrogen...

Mulching and nitrogen (N) fertilization are the main drivers for sustainable crop production. The sole use of nitrogen fertilizer threatened both the physiology and production of maize in rain-fed areas. Therefore, we proposed that wheat straw mulching with N fertilization would increase maize yield by improving soil fertility, physiology, and nitr...

Crop improvement programmes began with traditional breeding practices since the inception of agriculture. Farmers and plant breeders continue to use these strategies for crop improvement due to their broad application in modifying crop genetic compositions. Nonetheless, conventional breeding has significant downsides in regard to effort and time. C...

Background Yellow or stripe rust, caused by the fungus Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) is an important disease of wheat that threatens wheat production. Since developing resistant cultivars offers a viable solution for disease management, it is essential to understand the genetic basis of stripe rust resistance. In recent years, meta-QTL...

Banana is a tropical crop cultivated in warm places. Chilling stress in Egypt is making banana crops less productive. Abscisic acid (ABA), a key plant hormone, regulates metabolic and physiological processes and protects plants from a variety of stresses. In vitro growing banana shoots were pre-treated with ABA at four concentrations (0, 25, 50, an...

Drought stress poorly impacts many morphological and physio-biochemical processes in plants. Pea (Pisum sativum L.) plants are highly nutritious crops destined for human consumption; however, their productivity is threatened under drought stress. Thiamine (vitamin B1) is well-known essential micronutrient, acting as a cofactor in key metabolic proc...

Fusarium wilt (FW) caused by the Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri is a devastating disease of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). To identify promising resistant genotypes and genomic loci for FW resistance, a core set of 179 genotypes of chickpea was tested for FW reactions at seedling and reproductive stages under field as well as controlled condition...

The world has experienced an unprecedented boom in nanotechnology. Nanoparticles (NPs) are likely to act as biostimulants in various plants due to having high surface/volume value. However, understanding the actual effect of NPs is essential to discriminate them from other counterparts in terms of being applicable, safe and cost-effective. This stu...

Domestication of orphan crops could be explored by editing their genomes. Genome editing has a lot of promise for enhancing agricultural output, and there is a lot of interest in furthering breeding in orphan crops, which are sometimes plagued with unwanted traits that resemble wild cousins. Consequently, applying model crop knowledge to orphan cro...

Domestication of orphan crops could be explored by editing their genomes. Genome editing has a lot of promise for enhancing agricultural output, and there is a lot of interest in furthering breeding in orphan crops, which are sometimes plagued with unwanted traits that resemble wild cousins. Consequently, applying model crop knowledge to orphan cro...

Salinity is one of the major abiotic factors that limit the growth and productivity of plants. Foliar application of plant growth regulators (PGRs) may help plants ameliorate the negative impacts of salinity. Thus, a field experiment was conducted at the Botanical Garden University of Balochistan, Quetta, to explore the potential role of PGRs, i.e....

In wheat, lodging is affected by anatomical and chemical characteristics of the stem cell wall. Plant characteristics determining the stem strength were measured in lodging tolerant mutant (PMW-2016-1) developed through mutation breeding utilizing hexaploid wheat cultivar, DPW-621-50. Various anatomical features, chemical composition, and mechanica...

The core particle represents the catalytic portions of the 26S proteasomal complex. The genes encoding α- and β-subunits play a crucial role in protecting plants against various environmental stresses by controlling the quality of newly produced proteins. The 20S proteasome gene family has already been reported in model plants such as Arabidopsis a...

The variations in temperature and rainfall patterns under climate change are threatening crop production systems, and optimizing fertilization practices is a prerequisite for sustainable cereal production. This two-year field study investigated the effects of eight treatments (T1: P60K60; T2: P60K60 + Nmin spring; T3: P60K60 + N40autumn + Nmin spri...

The core particle represents the catalytic portions of the 26S proteasomal complex. The genes encoding a-and b-subunits play a crucial role in protecting plants against various environmental stresses by controlling the quality of newly produced proteins. The 20S proteasome gene family has already been reported in model plants such as Arabidopsis an...

Grain yield is one of the most important aims for combating the needs of the growing world population. The role of development and nutrient transfer in flag leaf for higher yields at the grain level is well known. It is a great challenge to properly exploit this knowledge because all the processes, starting from the emergence of the flag leaf to th...

Grain yield is one of the most important aims for combating the needs of the growing world population. The role of development and nutrient transfer in flag leaf for higher yields at the grain level is well known. It is a great challenge to properly exploit this knowledge because all the processes, starting from the emergence of the flag leaf to th...

High-temperature stress (HT) over crop productivity is an important environmental factor demanding more attention as recent global warming trends are alarming and pose a potential threat to crop production. According to the Sixth IPCC report, future years will have longer warm seasons and frequent heat waves. Thus, the need arises to develop HT-tol...

Cool season grain legumes occupy an important place among the agricultural crops and essentially provide multiple benefits including food supply, nutrition security, soil fertility improvement and revenue for farmers all over the world. However, owing to climate change, the average temperature is steadily rising, which negatively affects crop perfo...

Sorghum is one of the staple crops for millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia (SA). The future climate in these sorghum production regions is likely to have unexpected short or long episodes of drought and/or high temperature (HT), which can cause significant yield losses. Therefore, to achieve food and nutritional security,...

Due to the increase in greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, there is increased attention on renewable energy sources from specialized crops. These crops should not compete with food security, and it is important to select plant resources which can produce methane-rich biogas efficiently. The most commonly used energy crops are planted and ma...

This study reports for the first time the total extractive matter yield, total phenolics and total flavonoids content (TPC and TFC, respectively), chemical composition, and ability to scavenging 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals of the black mustard seed (BMS) extracts obtained by deep eutectic solvents (DESs). The following DESs: triet...

Maize density is an important factor in cultivation which has significant effect on growth parameters. Newer hybrids have greater grain yield at higher plant densities than older hybrids. Differences in grain yield between older and newer maize hybrids were shown to be a function of plant population density. Optimum plant density for maximum grain...

There are many terms used to define aspects of potassium (K) use efficiency of plants. The terms used most frequently in an agricultural context are (1) agronomic K use efficiency (KUE), which is defined as yield per unit K available to a crop and is numerically equal to the product of (2) the K uptake efficiency (KUpE) of the crop, which is define...

Root traits can be exploited to increase the physiological efficiency of crop water use under drought. Root length, root hairs, root branching, root diameter, and root proliferation rate are genetically defined traits that can help to improve the water productivity potential of crops. Recently, high‐throughput phenotyping techniques/platforms have...

Field peas are mostly used for animal nutrition in the Balkan region and in the countries of the former USSR, while in the countries of Western Europe, Canada, the USA and the Middle East they are mostly used for human nutrition. Over three years (2010–2012), the yield and grain yield components of the most widespread field pea varieties were exami...

This study reports the yields, physicochemical properties, fatty acid compositions, and antioxidant activities of black mustard (Brassica nigra L.) seed oils extracted by cold pressing and the solvent extraction using different solvents (n–hexane, trichloroethylene, and a mixture of trichloroethylene and the triethanolamine:glycerol deep eutectic s...

Sorghum is an important crop that serve multiple purposes as human food, animal feed, and bioenergy production. There are opportunities to produce different types of biofuels from sorghum-based biomass. Sorghum with its vast genetic resources can serve as bioenergy crop and not compete against the value of it as food and nutritional security crop....

White mustard (Sinapis alba L.) seed oil is used for cooking, food preservation, body and hair revitalization, biodiesel production, and as a diesel fuel additive and alternative biofuel. This review focuses on biodiesel production from white mustard seed oil as a feedstock. The review starts by outlining the botany and cultivation of white mustard...

Heat stress at terminal stage in lentil is one of the major factors causing drastic yield loss. Development of heat tolerant cultivars is one of the ways to tackle this problem. However, heat stress tolerance is a complex trait in nature and many morphological, physiological, biochemical, and metabolic changes are responsible for heat stress tolera...

Corn germ oil (CGO) was recovered from the ground corn germ by maceration using n-hexane at the ranges of the temperature and the solvent:germ ratio (SGR) of 20–70 °C and 3:1–10:1 mL/g, respectively. The obtained CGO contained mainly the unsaturated fatty acids (87.09 ± 0.37%) with linoleic and oleic acid as the most abundant while the main saturat...

In this study, the role of the different management strategies was investigated, to elucidate soil organic carbon (SOC) loss under the long-term winter wheat cropping. Soil samples from wheat-based cropping systems and native vegetation were analyzed to assess SOC, total nitrogen, water-stable aggregates, mean weight diameter, and the carbon manage...

This chapter provides an overview of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) biomass pretreatment methods to produce biofuels. Sorghum is an important food, feed, and fuel crop that serves multiple purposes of human food, pet food, animal feed, and feedstock for bioenergy production. There are enormous opportunities to produce different types of biofuels from...

Background: Recurrent drought associated with climate change is a major constraint to wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) productivity. This study aimed to (i) quantify the effects of addition/substitution/translocation of chromosome segments from wild relatives of wheat on the root, physiological and yield traits of hexaploid wheat under drought, and (i...

Background and aims The production of maize (Zea mays L.) is restricted by various edaphic stresses, including drought and low-fertility soil. Searching for genotypes with optimal root traits is a promising practice when breeding for improved adaptation to abiotic stress and resource-use efficiency. Methods Using an established semi-hydroponic phe...

The first local cultivar of winter pea for grain, 'NS MRAZ', was developed by pedigree selection from the hybrid population created by crossing local populations and one French line of pea. The cultivar has a high seed yield potential, exceptional earliness and tolerance to low temperatures. Its average plant height is 75-85 cm; it is of the afila...

The use of low-cost or priceless feedstocks such as byproducts in biodiesel production results in a reduced overall process costs. The present paper reports the use of corn germs and corn cobs as byproducts from corn-based starch production in the biodiesel production by the methanolysis of the oil extracted from corn germs, catalyzed by the ash pr...

Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni is a sweet medicinal herb that is cultivated worldwide. This study aimed to identify the genotypic responses and function of nine cultivars of S. rebaudiana (accession numbers 1–9 from the EUSTAS Stevia Gene Bank) to low temperature. Plants were grown in vitro and incubated under controlled conditions at 5° or 25°C for 1 m...

This paper deals with biodiesel production from corn oil as a feedstock via the transesterification and esterification reactions. To date, corn oil has not been considered a viable biodiesel feedstock because of its high edible value and relatively high price, but some industrial corn processing co-products, such as corn germ and dried distillers g...

White mustard seed oil (WMSO) was extracted from the ground seed by cold pressing and Soxhlet extraction using n–hexane. A two–step process consisting of cold pressing of white mustard seed (WMS) and extraction of WMSO from press cake (maceration) was also employed to improve the overall WMSO recovery. The main fatty acids of the WMSO were unsatura...

The study on Stevia callus has the potential to advance the knowledge of antioxidant mechanisms involved in unorganized cells response to drought stress. The effects of polyethylene glycol (PEG; 0 and 4% w/v) in combination with paclobutrazol (PBZ; 0 and 2 mg l−1) and gibberellin (GA; 0 and 2 mg l−1) were studied on Stevia rebaudiana callus. PEG tr...

The aim of this study was to assess the changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stock in relation to the carbon (C) input from 9 wheat-based cropping systems and untilled grass. The SOC pool ranged from 32.1 to 49.4 Mg ha−1 at 0-20 cm and from 94 to 171 Mg ha−1 at 0-100 cm for the arable soil, while in untilled grassland, it was higher (54 and 185 Mg...

Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) represent a wide variety of bacteria inhabiting the root surface and root vicinity. They are directly or indirectly involved in promoting plant growth and development via production and secretion of various regulatory compounds in the rhizosphere. PGPR are generally beneficial to a wide range of crops inc...

The aim of this study was to investigate dynamics of microorganisms in the rhizosphere of maize in long-term monoculture in dependance of inoculation with azotobacter. The study treatments were: 1. Ø (control treatment without mineral or organic fertilizers); 2. Ø (control traetment with inoculation); 3. NPK (fertilized with mineral fertilizer); 4....

A simple performance-based index was used to test performance among maize cropping systems referring to the food and raw material production, nutrient cycling and greenhouse gases regulation. Those indices are tools for aggregating and simplifying agroecosystem impact on the environment. The data were acquired from a long-term experiment at the Rim...

The content of nutrients in maize are commonly related with fertilization and soil quality and rarely explained with the individual hybrid properties. Therefore, the aim of this study is to access a long term fertilization system on ear leaf of Mg, Fe, Mn and Cu content in six maize hybrids(NS 3014, NS 4015, NS 5043, NS 6010, NS 6030 and NS 7020)....

The topic of N wheat nutrition was prevalent during the last decades of the 20th century for many reasons such as energy crises, profitability of small grain production, and ecosystem protection and preservation. The objective of this study was to determine the interrelationships between wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain N content and other indica...

The topic of N wheat nutrition was prevalent during the last decades of the 20 th century for many reasons such as energy crises, profitability of small grain production, and ecosystem protection and preservation. The objective of this study was to determine the interrelationships between wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain N content and other indic...