Page 35 - CSHS 2022 Book of Abstracts - 2022-08-22 web version

CSHS 2022 Conference

Vegetable Symposium

Symposium Chair: Dr. Lord Abbey

Abstracts – Invited Speaker

(VI.1) Can plant-foods help to reverse global warming and strengthen human, animal, and
planetary health?
Dr. Kathleen Kevany
Department of Business and Social Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Bible Hill, NS
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You can influence the climate crisis, help to improve health, and bolster food security. Leveraging the power of food
can help us address the world's most pressing problems. Great minds and passionate spirits involved in
Horticultural Science are needed to help us to accelerate the adoption of sustainable diets. If the food we are
producing and consuming are contributing such adverse impacts on human, animal, and planetary health, what are
some workable and scalable solutions to food systems and what is the evidence of plant-rich living? In this session
we will illuminate strategies to help reverse global warming and increase human and planetary health.

Abstracts – Oral Presentations

(VO.1) Pyroligneous Acid alleviates Aluminum Stress in Tomato seedlings
Raphael Ofoe , Raymond H. Thomas , Lord Abbey
1*
2
1
1. Department of Plant, Food, and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Bible Hill, NS; 2.
School of Science and the Environment, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, NL
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Aluminum (Al) toxicity is a major constraint for plant growth on acidic soils. Pyroligneous acid (PA) is rich in
bioactive compounds that can enhance crop growth and resilience to environmental stresses. However, its efficacy
in promoting plant growth under Al stress is unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of tomato (Solanum
lycopersicum L. ‘Scotia’) seed priming with PA (0, 2:100 PA/ddH2O (v/v)) on seedling growth under Al stress (i.e., 0,
0.5, and 1.25 mM aluminum chloride). The results showed that priming tomato seed with 2:100 PA increased the
total lengths and surface areas of seedling hypocotyls and roots, root volume, and seedling fresh weight. In most
cases, seedling growth of both the control and the PA primed groups were not affected by the 0.5 mM Al.
Additionally, hydrogen peroxide and malonaldehyde contents of seedlings were reduced while proline and soluble
protein contents were significantly (p < 0.001) increased in PA primed seedlings compared to the control.
Furthermore, PA-primed seedlings exhibited enhanced peroxidase (POD) activities, and relatively high expression of
auxin response factor (ARF2A) and antioxidant genes (i.e., glutathione reductase (GR), POD, superoxide dismutase
(SOD), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase 1 (APX1)). These findings suggest that seed priming with PA can
mitigates Al stress and improve tomato seed germination and seedling growth via improving antioxidant defence
system against Al-induced oxidative stress.

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