Przemysław Kopeć

• PhD
• Franciszek Górski Institute of Plant Physiology

Background Hormonal homeostasis plays a critical role in the regulation of microspore embryogenesis (ME). The balance between endogenous phytohormones must be altered to induce microspore reprogramming from the classical pollen-formation pathway to embryogenic development, but too extensive changes may be detrimental. In the present study, the leve...

The aim of this work was to check the effects of five Bradyrhizobium japonicum inoculants from different producers on growth, photochemical efficiency, nitrate reductase activity, amount of hydrogen peroxide, activity of catalase, non-specific peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase, seed yield, and nodulation of soybean cv. ‘Malaga’. We also evaluate...

Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) is a proteomic tool used for the separation of protein mixtures according to protein isoelectric point and molecular mass. Although gel-free quantitative and qualitative proteomic study techniques are now available, 2-DE remains a useful analytical tool. The presented protocol was performed to analyze the...

The protein extraction method based on the phenol solution and combined with protein precipitation with ammonium acetate in methanol and purification in the same solution, and additionally in acetone and ethanol, is recommended for proteomic studies of plant tissues. The obtained protein samples do not require additional nucleic acid digestion and...

Climate change disrupts food production in many regions of the world. The accompanying extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, heat waves, and cold snaps, pose threats to crops. The concentration of carbon dioxide also increases in the atmosphere. The United Nations is implementing the climate-smart agriculture initiative to ensure food s...

Among various methods stimulating biological progress, double haploid (DH) technology, which utilizes the process of microspore embryogenesis (ME), is potentially the most effective. However, the process depends on complex interactions between many genetic, physiological and environmental variables, and in many cases, e.g., winter wheat, does not o...

Common buckwheat has a complicated flowering biology. It is characterized by a strong self-incompatibility resulting from heterostyly, i.e. the occurrence of two types of flowers: Pin and Thrum, differing in the length of pistils and stamens. Fertilization occurs only as a result of cross-pollination between these morphs. Suspicions exist that the...

Common buckwheat is a valuable plant producing seeds containing a number of health-promoting compounds and elements. Buckwheat does not contain gluten and is characterized by an excellent composition of amino acids. This species is also a melliferous plant. Despite many advantages, the area of buckwheat cultivation is decreasing due to unstable yie...

Gryka zwyczajna jest cenną rośliną uprawną uznawaną jako super-żywność XXI wieku ze względu na ponadprzeciętne wartości odżywcze nasion i potencjał farmakologiczny. Niestety, cechuje ją bardzo niski i niestabilny plon nasion w porównaniu z innymi roślinami uprawnymi. Specyficzna biologia kwitnienia w tym, samo-niezgodność (brak możliwości zapylenia...

Miscanthus × giganteus is a popular industrial plant with great potential in ecological agriculture. It forms numerous rhizomes that are important in the sequestration of carbon dioxide. The plant can be a source of lignin and cellulose, biomass for renewable energy production, and can be used in small garden architecture, or to strengthen the bank...

The area of farming lands affected by increasing soil salinity is growing significantly worldwide. For this reason, breeding works are conducted to improve the salinity tolerance of important crop species. The goal of the present study was to indicate physiological or biochemical parameters characterizing three durum wheat accessions with various t...

Plants can acquire increased freezing tolerance through cold-acclimation involving the ICE1-CBF-COR pathway. Recently, Lee et al. investigated a potential link between the functional activation of CBF and cellular redox state. We propose that redox-mediated CBF activation could be a hub of low temperature as well as light signaling in the cold-accl...

Effective microspore embryogenesis (ME) requires substantial modifications in gene expression pattern, followed by changes in the cell proteome and its metabolism. Recent studies have awakened also interest in the role of epigenetic factors in microspore de-differentiation and reprogramming. Therefore, demethylating agent (2.5–10 μM 5-azacytidine,...

Enhanced antioxidant defence plays an essential role in plant survival under stress conditions. However, excessive antioxidant activity sometimes suppresses the signal necessary for the initiation of the desired biological reactions. One such example is microspore embryogenesis (ME)—a process of embryo-like structure formation triggered by stress i...

Fusarium culmorum is a worldwide, soil-borne plant pathogen. It causes diseases of cereals, reduces their yield, and fills the grain with toxins. The main direction of modern breeding is to select wheat genotypes the most resistant to Fusarium diseases. This study uses seedlings and plants at the anthesis stage to analyze total soluble carbohydrate...

The effectiveness of microspore embryogenesis (ME) is determined by a complex network of internal and environmental factors. In the present study on triticale and barley, strong positive correlation (r = 0.85) between the generation of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and ME effectiveness confirmed the important role of reactive oxygen species in micro...

During germination at low temperatures, seeds rich in proteins may experience damage to their cytoplasmic membranes. The study aimed to investigate the influence of the germination temperature on growth, development, and yield of four cultivars of soybean, a typical thermophilic species. The seeds were germinated at 10, 15, and 25 °C in the dark. A...

Common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench), a pseudocereal crop, produces a large number of flowers, but this does not guarantee high seed yields. This species demonstrates strong abortion of flowers and embryos. High temperatures during the generative growth phase result in an increase in the degeneration of embryo sacs. The aim of this study...

Mechanisms involved in the de-acclimation of herbaceous plants caused by warm periods during winter are poorly understood. This study identifies the genes associated with this mechanism in winter barley. Seedlings of eight accessions (four tolerant and four susceptible to de-acclimation cultivars and advanced breeding lines) were cold acclimated fo...

Despite abundant flowering throughout the season, common buckwheat develops a very low number of kernels probably due to competition for assimilates. We hypothesized that plants with a shorter flowering period may give a higher seed yield. To verify the hypothesis, we studied nutrient stress in vitro and in planta and analyzed different embryologic...

Durum wheat is commonly used in various food industry industries and cultivated worldwide. A serious problem with the species cultivation is its capability to accumulate cadmium (Cd) in the grains. The aim of this study is to investigate whether antioxidant activity may be used as a marker of Cd tolerance in durum wheat. The experiment involved thr...

A serious problem in durum wheat cultivation is its genetic capacity to accumulate cadmium (Cd) in the grain. The aim of the study was to verify if the degree of durum wheat resistance to NaCl salinity is related to its tolerance to Cd contamination, and to search for physiological markers of Cd accumulation in the grain. The experiment involved a...

Plant tolerance to environmental stress is determined by a very complicated network composed of many intra-and extracellular factors. The aim of this study was to select candidate genes involved in responses to freezing and drought in barley on the basis of previous proteomic studies and to analyze changes in their expression caused by application...

Androgenic responsiveness in anther (AC) and isolated microspore cultures (MC) was analysed using 15 lines of Polish winter rye (Secale cereale L.). The effect of low temperature (LT) alone or in combination with osmotic stress induced by mannitol treatment (MAN) and/or with reduced glutathione (GSH) on the effectiveness of the process was studied....

Ten doubled haploid (DH) lines of winter barley with an increased range of freezing/drought tolerance were used to identify phytohormones involved in plant stress acclimation. Cold hardening and drought stress were applied at the most critical stages of plant development on young seedlings and heading plants, respectively. The level of the phytohor...

The aim of the work was to investigate thermal stress effect on photosynthetic activity of common buckwheat. Seedlings of common buckwheat were exposed to 20°C (control) and 30°C (thermal stress). The research involved the Polish cultivar 'Panda' and strain PA15 and determined kinetics of chlorophyll a fluorescence (Chlf), leaf gas exchange, solubl...

Microspores exposed to some stress factors may display cell totipotency and could be reprogrammed towards embryogenic development. Plant breeding and genetic engineering widely use haploids/doubled haploids (DHs) derived from in vitro-cultured microspores, but the mechanism of this process remains poorly understood. Recently published data suggest...

Common buckwheat is a valuable crop, mainly due to the beneficial chemical composition of its seeds. However, buckwheat cultivation is limited because of unstable seed yield. The most important reasons for the low yield include embryo and flower abortion. The aim of this work is to verify whether high temperature affects embryological development i...

In this article, the effects of cold on the development of Lupine angustifolius and the possibility of mitigating it, via seed hydropriming or pre-treatment with butenolide (10−6 M–10−4 M), are investigated in two cultivars, differing in their ability to germinate at low temperature. Physiological background of plant development after cold stress w...

Seed imbibition under cold temperature is dangerous when dry seeds have relatively low water content. The aim of this study was to investigate germination of 20 lines/cultivars of narrow-leaf lupine at 7 °C (cold) and 13 °C (control) under the influence of smoke water and following seed hydropriming for 3 h at 20 °C. The efficacy of individual trea...

The biased ratio (1 : 2.7–1 : 19) of long-styled Pin and short-styled Thrum flowers (anisoplethy) in common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) with low seed set (9.8–33.1%) is documented for the first time in two cultivars (Kora, Panda) and two strains (PA13, PA14). To establish the reasons for low grain yield we studied pollen, embryo sacs, embryos,...

Significance: In the study, the changes in protein abundance induced by cold hardening treatment were analysed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis in ten doubled haploid (DH) lines of winter barley. Harnessing DH technology resulted in distinctive widening of genetic variation with respect to freezing tolerance level. Both the cold-hardening ef...

Biological significance: According to our knowledge, this is the first comparative proteomic analysis of drought tolerance performed for the model set of several winter barley doubled haploid (DH) lines. We analysed both the drought impact on the protein pattern of individual winter barley DH lines as well as comparisons between them according to...

Twelve cultivars of 3 pumpkin species (Cucurbita sp.) were extd. with 80% MeOH. The exts. were analyzed for contents of phenolic compds. by high-performance liq. chromatog. and for antioxidant properties by 2 spectroscopic methods: ferric ion-reducing ability of plasma and a 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrohydrazyl-radical-based one. Six phenolic acids (p-hydr...

Miscanthus × giganteus is a triploid hybrid propagated vegetatively from rhizomes or in a tissue culture, so its clones are characterised by a very low genetic diversity. Giant Miscanthus is cultivated mainly for biomass used as biofuel; depending on its chemical composition, it can be used in many industries. The goal of this work was to determine...

Miscanthus Xgiganteus Greef et Deu. (Poaceae). a hybrid of Miscanthus sinensis and M. saccharylorus native to Japan, is an ornamental and a highly lignocellulosic bioenergy crop, cultivated in the European Union as an alternative source of energy. This grass reproduces exclusively vegetatively, by rhizomes or via expensive in vitro micropropagation...