Sulfur is an essential element in plants, including amino acids, vitamin synthesis, and acting as an antioxidant. However, the interaction between endogenous sulfur and proline synthesis has not been yet fully documented. White clover (Trifolium repens L.) is known as a species highly sensitive to sulfate supply. Therefore, this study aimed to elucidate the role of sulfur in regulating proline metabolism in relation to ammonia detoxification and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) accumulation in white clover. The detached leaves of white clover were immersed in solution containing different concentration of sulfate (0, 10, 100, and 1000 mM MgSO4). As MgSO4 concentrations were increased, the concentration of H2O2 increased up to 2.5-fold compared to control, accompanied with H2O2 detection in leaves. Amino acid concentrations significantly increased only at higher levels (100 and 1000 mM MgSO4). No significant difference was observed in protein concentration. Proline and Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate (P5C) concentrations slightly decreased at 10 and 100 mM MgSO4 treatments, whereas it rapidly increased over 1.9-fold at 1000 mM MgSO4 treatment. Ammonia concentrations gradually increased up to 8.6-fold. These results indicate that exogenous sulfur levels are closely related to H2O2 and ammonia synthesis but affect proline biosynthesis only at a higher level.

Root-knot nematodes, Meloidogyne spp., are the most important plant-parasitic nematodes, causing severe crop yield loss with an estimated 1000 billion dollars a year worldwide. The nematodes also cause disease complexes with other microbial pathogens, damaging plants more severely than each of the pathogens alone or their sum does and making control efficiencies weakened or nullified in disease complexes. In our study, the synergistic effect of the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita was confirmed in the fusarium wilt of tomato caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, which showed greatly increased wilt symptoms in combined inoculations. Use of antifungal and nematicidal plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) were considered for controlling the disease complex because of its causal agents. Among forty PGPR strains tested, P. polymyxa G508, G462 and P. lentimorbus G158 showed strong antifungal and nematicidal activities against F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici and M. incognita second stage juveniles (J2), respectively. The Cultures of these bacterial strains inhibited the nematode egg hatching completely even at 1% diluted concentration. In pot experiments, treatment of the Paenibacillus strains reduced wilt severity of tomato with the control efficacy of about 90% ~ 98%. Their treatment also reduced gall formation by 64% - 88% compared to the untreated control. P. lentimorbus GBR158, which well established on seeds and hypocotyls at high population levels, reduced the disease complex greatly with the control value of about 98% when the tomato seeds were treated with the bacterial strain. Plant growth was also stimulated by the seed treatment of the bacterial strain. Scanning electron microscopy revealed alteration and distortion of hyphal cell walls of F. oxysporum and lysis of M. incognita egg shell by the bacterial treatment, showing direct antifungal and nematicidal action mechanisms. No extensive giant cell formation was observed near nematode in the tomato roots treated with the bacteria, indicating a systemic action mechanism. All of these results suggest that the Paenibacillus strains, especially G158 may have a high potential to be developed as biological agents for controlling the root-knot nematode and the disease complex.

[ ] powders for lithium ion batteries were synthesized from two separate raw material pairs of LiOH/MnO and . The powders prepared at 780 and and their difference of electrochemical properties were investigated. Both powders calcined at 780 and were composed of a single-phase spinel structure but those treated at showed a lower intensity ratio of to , a slightly larger lattice parameter, and an increased discharge capacity by 10% under voltage range. The XPS study on the oxidation states of manganese repealed that powders made from LiOH/MnO had less ion and gave better battery performances than those from .