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Artificial light source is one of the most important factors for high quality and quantity vegetable production in plant factory. With the aim of investigating the role of light spectra on chlorophyll fluorescence, photosynthesis, and stomata parameters in lettuce plants grown in plant factory, a factorial experiment was conducted based on a completely randomized design with two lettuce cultivars (Rossa and Bionda) and four spectra LED illumination red (656 nm), red/blue (3:1) (656 nm), blue (450 nm), and white (449 nm). The results showed that blue and white LED light had the most significant effect on chlorophyll fluorescence parameters Fo, Fm, Fv, Area and PIabs in both lettuce cultivars compared to the other light treatments. The results also showed that the combination of red and blue LED light had the highest effect on stomatal conductance (gs), number of stomata, length and width of stomata in both lettuce cultivars. On the other hand, the maximum substomatal CO2 concentration (Ci) was observed in both lettuce cultivars when treated with red LED light. Also, transpiration rate (E) increased with the combination of red and blue LED in Rossa cultivar and red LED in Bionda cultivar. The results also showed that the maximum CO2 assimilation rate (A) was observed in Rossa cultivar under white LED and in Bionda cultivar under blue LED light. It is concluded that chlorophyll fluorescence characteristics and photosynthetic and stomatal properties can be affected by different spectra and cultivars of lettuce.

The effects of ventilation and sucrose concentration on proliferation and organogenesis of pistachio cutting and photosynthetic performance of two in vitro cultures of pistachio rootstocks have been assessed. The apical leaf buds (Qazvini and UCB1 cultivars) were cultured in filter vessels containing Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with 0, 10, 15, and 30 g L −1 of sucrose. The plants treated with 10, 15, and 30 g L −1 sucrose showed no significant differences regarding the measured traits; therefore, this treatment was set aside from the final statistical analyses. Use of different ventilation systems showed to be suitable for increasing the growth of pistachio. Referring to root production difficulties under in vitro cultivation of pistachio, ventilation increased the root production and length. However, the full ventilation system was more effective in improving the growth properties. Regression between fluorescence feature vs root length showed that F v/F m had a significant positive relationship with root length. Stomata of cell parameters under ventilation systems improved compared to no ventilation, which was highly similar to the trend in the greenhouse. The overall results indicated that low concentrations of sucrose (e.g., 10 g L −1) and full ventilation are recommended for producing high quality and vigorous pistachio plantlets under in vitro conditions.

Pistacia lentiscus L., belonging to Anacardiaceae family, is a typical species of the Mediterranean maquis and it is widely grown in Greece and Italy mainly for its aromatic resin extraction or as ornamental plant and also as Pistacia vera L. rootstock. Its propagation is difficult either by seed or by cuttings. The current study was carried out to optimize the micro propagation of Pistacia lentiscus L. starting from seedlings and woody explants. For the surface sterilization two different protocols were evaluated for woody explant and 6 treatments with combinations of different sterilizing agent types and concentrations were used for mature seeds. For woody explants, no significant differences could be evidenced on contamination percentage and plant survival but the initial growth in vitro of the explant was better in case of the first treatment (1.5% NaOCl for 30 min and 70% Ethanol for 1 min) than opposite combination. The highest seed contamination percentage occurred in case of treatment with 1% NaOCl for 30 min. The treatment with Ethanol (70%) for 30 second followed by three times washing with distilled water then use of NaOCl (1%) for 30 min permitted to obtain 100% of sterility. The highest seed germination (100% after 3 days) was obtained in seeds treated with Ethanol (70%) for 30 second then NaOCl (1%) for 30 min. In order to study the proliferation two different procedures were compared in liquid and agar-based media. Our results proved that proliferation rate increased 6.5 % by forced ventilation system. Longer shoots (10.5 cm) were obtained in temporary immersion system using RITA boxes. This culture system induced also the highest shoot weight which is the increasing of the 29.56% respect common vessels and agar-based medium

As a basic principle, ex-vitro rhizogenesis increases the micropropagation efficiency of Micro propagation in any plant from both biological and economic viewpoints. In the current study, we surveyed the effects of number of air exchanges along with sucrose concentration on in-vitro rooting of two pistachio rootstocks consisting of UCB1 and Qazvini versus ex-vitro rooting. Based on our findings for the UCB1 rootstock, microshoot ex-vitro rooting reached the highest percentage (63.70 %) after six weeks' treatment with indole butyric acid (IBA) (5000 ppm) and free naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), while for Qazvini rootstock treated with NAA (6000 ppm) along with IBA (5000 ppm), rooting achieved 35.06%. Photomixotrophic resulted from decreasing sucrose concentration from 30 to 15 (g L-1) in corporation with ventilation condition increased UCB1 rooting (67.89%) as well as plant survival (58.34%). For Qazvini rootstock, maximum sucrose concentration (30 g L-1) improved rooting parameters. For in-vitro rooting experiment, rooting percentage of UCB1 plantlets as well as the main and lateral produced roots were higher in media supplemented with (1 mg l-1) IBA, free NAA, and BA. Regarding Qazvini rootstock, the highest in-vitro rooting percentage (43.75%) and root length were associated with the media supplemented with BA (0.5 mg l-1), IBA (2 mg l-1), and NAA (2 mg l-1). As a result, for both the studied rootstocks, better rooting parameters were observed in the ex-vitro rooted microshoots than in-vitro rooted.

The white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, is the most commonly grown mushroom in Iran; however, there is a significant shortage of research on its antioxidant activity and other medicinal properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate antioxidant capacity of the methanolic extracts from four cultivated strains and four Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS)-identified, Iranian wild isolates of A. bisporus. Evaluations were made for total phenols, flavonoids and anthocyanins, and 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity. Overall, results showed that all the wild isolates exhibited significantly lower DPPH-derived EC50, compared to the cultivated strains (p < 0.05). A relatively high relationship was observed between total phenols and flavonoids or anthocyanins (r2 > 0.60). However, these constituents could not statistically differentiate the group of wild samples from the cultivated ones, and there was low correlation with the DPPH-derived EC50s (r2 < 0.40). In conclusion, comparisons showed that wild isolate 4 and cultivated strains A15 and H1 had higher antioxidant capacity than the others (p < 0.05). This result identifies these mushrooms as good candidates for further investigation.