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Journal of Agronomy 2011
Assessment of a N. tabacum L., Variety using Natural Zeolite as Substrate and Confined Conditions for Consistent Biomass, Protein and Plantibody ProductionKeywords: transgenic plants , plantibody , Nicotiana tabacum L , tobacco biomass production , zeolite Abstract: This study describes an assessment of a N. tabacum L., variety for the analysis of the consistent production of biomass, Leaf Total Soluble Protein (LTSP) and plantibody. To perform this research, seedlings of genetic modified plants were transplanted and grown in zeolite in a green-containment of 1320 m2 of cultivable area to be analyzed during a cropping year. Comparison of morpho-agronomic characters of this variety cultivated under these conditions revealed similarity in qualitative characters but differences in plant height and leaf weight with those reported for this variety cultivated soil and open field. A first-round result using a random block design demonstrated that 15 plants m-2 was the best assessed density to perform further experiments. The maximum biomass and LTSP production was observed during the spring, demonstrating statistical differences among seasons of the year (p<0.05). Biomass yield showed a strong correlation with temperature (r = 0.918) and humidity (r = 0.891), whereas correlation coefficient for LTSP production also shows strong correlation with temperature (r = 0.832) but a weak correlation with humidity (r = 0.585). Summarizing, the use of this variety under the assessed conditions would allow a production of 100.77 tons of biomass and 3.91 tons of LTSP per cultivable hectare each year. The plantibody expression corroborated 0.100.09% of expression level and a recombinant protein productive potential of 391.5 kg ha-1 in a whole cropping year. Thus, these results tested the hypothesis that this variety allows a consistent production of biomass and plantibody in the assessed conditions.
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