Muhammad Furqan Ashraf

Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University | FAFU · Department of Crop Science

Abscisic acid (ABA) is a signaling phytohormone to improve stress adaption under harsh environments. ABA is sensed by the pyrabactin resistance1/PYR1-like/regulatory components of the ABA receptor (PYR1/PYL/RCAR) (named PYLs) and is the core regulator of ABA stress signaling. ABA receptor PYL gene family have been well studied in rubber tree, apple...

Protein kinases play an essential role in plants' responses to environmental stress signals. SnRK2 (sucrose non-fermenting 1-related protein kinase 2) is a plant-specific protein kinase that plays a crucial role in abscisic acid and abiotic stress responses in some model plant species. In apple, corn, rice, pepper, grapevine, Arabidopsis thaliana,...

Proteins with conserved SET domain play a critical role in plant immunity. However, the means of organization and functions of these proteins are unclear, particularly in non-model plants such as pepper (Capsicum annum L.). Herein, we functionally characterized CaASHH3, a member of class II (the ASH1 homologs H3K36) proteins in pepper immunity agai...

Crop production worldwide is under pressure from multiple factors, including reductions in available arable land and sources of water, along with the emergence of new pathogens and development of resistance in pre-existing pathogens. In addition, the ever-growing world population has increased the demand for food, which is predicted to increase by...

Bamboo, being an ornamental plant, has myriad aesthetic and economic significance. Particularly, Phyllostachys violascens cv. Viridisulcata contains an internode color phenotype in variation in green and yellow color between the sulcus and culm, respectively. This color variation is unique, but the underlying regulatory mechanism is still unknown....

Crop production is a serious challenge to provide food for the 10 billion individuals forecasted to live across the globe in 2050. The scientists’ emphasize establishing an equilibrium among diversity and quality of crops by enhancing yield to fulfill the increasing demand for food supply sustainably. The exploitation of genetic resources using gen...

Endophytic bacterial communities are beneficial communities for host plants that exist inside the surfaces of plant tissues, and their application improves plant growth. They benefit directly from the host plant by enhancing the nutrient amount of the plant’s intake and influencing the phytohormones, which are responsible for growth promotion and s...

Cadmium (Cd) stress causes serious disruptions in plant metabolism, physio-biochemical responses, crop yield, and grain quality characteristics. A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the role of molybdenum (Mo) in mitigating Cd-induced adversities on plant growth, yield attributes, and grain quality characteristics of a popular aromatic ric...

Pepper's (Capsicum annum) response to bacterial pathogen Ralstonia solanacearm inoculation (RSI) and abiotic stresses is known to be synchronized by transcriptional network; however, related molecular mechanisms need extensive experimentation. We identified and characterized functions of CabHLH113 -a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor-in p...

Pepper's (Capsicum annum) response to bacterial pathogen Ralstonia solanacearm inoculation (RSI) and abiotic stresses is known to be synchronized by transcriptional network; however, related molecular mechanisms need extensive experimentation. We identified and characterized functions of CabHLH113-a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor-in pe...

TMS5 encodes an RNase ZS1 protein that can process ubiquitin-60S ribosomal protein L40 family (UbL40) mRNAs to regulate thermo-sensitive genic male sterility in rice. Despite the importance of this protein, the structural characteristics and substrate recognition properties of RNase ZS1 remain unclear. Here, we found that the variations in several...

Endophytic microbial-communities have specific beneficial functions and are considered key drivers for host plant health. The removing-PCR (R-PCR) is a simple culture-independent cost-effective method to identify endophytic microbial-communities. Microbial communities from maize plant grown in different soil types were identified and characterized...

The significance of the climate change may involve enhancement of plant growth as well as utilization of the environmental alterations in male fertility (MF) regulation via male sterility (MS) systems. We described that MS systems provide a fundamental platform for improvement in agriculture production and have been explicated for creating bulk ger...

Both field- and landscape-scale factors can influence the predator communities of agricultural pests, but the relative importance and interactions between these scales are poorly understood. Focusing on spiders, an important taxon for providing biological control, we tested the influence of field- and landscape-scale factors on structuring the spid...

MYB TFs in plants are of crucial importance not only for growth and development but also for plant defense against pathogens. CaPHL8, an MYB TF, was identified as a positive regulator of pepper defense against Ralstonia solanacerum inoculation (RSI). Phylogenetic evaluation and functional characterization of CaPHL8 revealed its role in pepper defens...

The WRKY transcription factors (TFs) family constitutes a major group of TFs in spermatophytes. Different studies have endorsed the considerable biological roles performed by WRKY TFs in plant growth, biotic and abiotic stress responses. Genomic and transcriptomic profiling facilitate us in understanding the WRKY genes in various plants and reveal...

Broad range transcriptional changes after pathogen invasion decide immune responses to these invaders. The responses of Capsicum annuum plants to bacterial pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum and high-temperature-high-humidity (HTHH) conditions are coordinated by different transcription factors. However, the basic molecular mechanism is not clear. The...

The responses of pepper (Capsicum annuum) plants to inoculation with the pathogenic bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum and to high-temperature-high-humidity (HTHH) conditions were previously found to be coordinated by the transcription factors CaWRKY6 and CaWRKY40; however, the underlying molecular mechanism was unclear. Herein, we identified and fun...

The WRKY web, which is comprised of a subset of WRKY transcription factors (TFs), plays a crucial role in the regulation of plant immunity, however, the mode of organization and operation of this network remains obscure, especially in non-model plants such as pepper (Capsicum annuum). Herein, CaWRKY22, a member of a subgroup of IIe WRKY proteins fr...

WRKY transcription factors (TFs) have been implicated in plant growth, development, and in response to environmental cues; however, the function of the majority of pepper WRKY TFs remains unclear. In the present study, we functionally characterized CaWRKY40b, a homolog of AtWRKY40, in pepper immunity. Ralstonia solanacearum inoculation (RSI) in pep...

Regulation of spatio-temporal expression patterns of stress tolerance associated plant genes is an essential component of the stress responses. Eukaryotes assign a large amount of their genome to transcription with multiple transcription factors (TFs). Often, these transcription factors fit into outsized gene groups which, in several cases, exclusi...

This study was aimed to evaluate the performance of different cotton genotypes at Chishtian District, Bahawalnagar region. Four cotton genotypes (IUB-2013, FH-142, FH-LALAZAR and MNH-886) were sown under two different sowing times i.e., normal sowing S1 (20 th April) and late sowing S2 (20 th May 2016). The experiment design was split plot design w...

Seeds play essential roles in plant life cycle and germination is a complex process which is associated with different phases of water imbibition. Upon imbibition, seeds begin utilization of storage substances coupled with metabolic activity and biosynthesis of new proteins. Regeneration of organelles and emergence of radicals lead to the establish...

Bioinformatics plays an important role in agriculture science. As the data amount grows exponentially, there is a parallel growth in tools and methods demand in visualization, integration, analysis, prediction and management of data. At the same time, many researchers in the field of plant sciences are unfamiliar with available methods, databases,...

Bioinformatics plays an important role in agriculture science. As the data amount grows exponentially, there is a parallel growth in tools and methods demand in visualization, integration, analysis, prediction and management of data. At the same time, many researchers in the field of plant sciences are unfamiliar with available methods, databases,...

The emerging field of mixed methods research is yet to develop a unified framework of procedures for mixed methods data analysis (Greene, 2008). Since the last few decades, the efforts of explaining social aspects within agricultural research have gained importance, but in evaluating agricultural technology adoption and their impacts, the use of co...

Seaweeds are getting importance in various fields ranging from food to medical. In this respect Ulva lactuca (L), a green macro algae and sometimes known as sea lettuce has been well studied and documented. Current review cites some published literature for U. lactuca chemical and structural composition, and its food and biomedical applications. Wi...

Heterosis has a significant position in rapeseed breeding. To assess the heterosis for seed yield and quality traits, three Brassica napus L. testers and five lines were crossed using line × tester design in RCBD with three replications to obtain cross seeds of fifteen hybrids. Data of fifteen characters were recorded. Mean sum of squares of analys...

Combining ability analysis has an important position in rapeseed breeding. To evaluate genetic and combining ability effects, three Brassica napus L. testers “Punjab Sarson, Legend and Durre-NIFA” and five lines “Duncled, K-258, ZN-R-1, ZN-R-8, ZN-M-6” were crossed using line × tester design in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three rep...

Combining ability analysis has a key position in rapeseed breeding. To estimate the combining ability effects for yield controlling traits in rapeseed, three testers and five lines were crossed using line × tester design in randomized complete block design with three replications. Mean sum of squares of analysis of variances for genotypes were sign...

THE OLIVE cultivation is reported 50,000 to 60,000 years back in Syria, Iraq, Palestines, etc. Its medicinal and nutritious benefits are also enumerated in Holy Scriptures. Oleo europea belongs to the family Oleaceae. It is an evergreen tree growing to 50 ft. in height with a spread of about 30 ft. It can be maintained up to 20 ft. height with annu...