Collinsville, Illinois is the leading producer of horseradish is the nation. The river bottom geography surrounding Collinsville, Illinois near St. Louis, Missouri is a high-production area for horseradish. The development of soybean technologies resistant to dicamba or 2,4-D may allow horseradish growers to gain control of troublesome weeds, such as Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri) or volunteer horseradish, but could pose risks as well. Drift of these two herbicides or carryover to horseradish could cause severe injury and possible crop loss. While synthetic auxin-tolerant soybean may also allow growers to control volunteer horseradish, herbicide efficacy may differ depending on the volunteer horseradish variety. These risks and benefits could affect the adoption rate of these new soybean technologies in horseradish production areas. A field trial was established in 2015 in Edwardsville, IL and 2016 Medora, IL to simulate drift of both dicamba and 2,4-D onto horseradish. Applications were made in horseradish to mimic drift of a mid-post emergence application in soybean onto the horseradish crop. Plants were monitored for injury and stand, height, and yield reductions throughout the season. Individual roots were evaluated post-harvest. Overall, 2,4-D caused more injury at all rates when compared to dicamba. Horseradish growers may see yield reductions if rates at or greater than 1/1000X of a field rate of 2,4-D drift onto their fields. Not planting horseradish near a 2,4-D-tolerant soybean field, as well as reading the herbicide labels and following application requirements, should help growers prevent serious injury and yield loss. On the other hand, rates of 2,4-D at or above a full field rate offered complete control of all plants; therefore, growers who struggle with persistent volunteer horseradish could rotate to a 2,4-D-tolerant soybean and gain needed control of those plants. Field experiments were conducted in 2014, 2015, and 2016 to investigate the impact of dicamba residues following applications in a dicamba-tolerant soybean crop on horseradish planted the following season. Carryover trials were conducted as two-year rotations of soybean followed by horseradish in Collinsville, Illinois. Multiple rates of dicamba were applied at several timings in dicamba-tolerant soybean and the crop was monitored for injury. The following season horseradish was planted and monitored for injury and stand, height, and yield reductions. No injury or reductions were observed with any treatment in either year, potentially indicating a lack of dicamba remaining in the soil. Horseradish plant stand counts, height as well as yields were not reduced when compared to the nontreated. Results from this experiment suggest that rotating from dicamba-tolerant soybean to horseradish should pose no threat to horseradish. Greenhouse experiments were carried out in 2016 in three separate runs. Each run consisted of three replications of five varieties of horseradish, 604, 788, 9705, Hungarian, and V7E3, and two rates of dicamba, glyphosate, and dicamba plus glyphosate . Plants were sprayed when at least one plant in each pot had reached a height of 17 to 23 cm. Horseradish was then rated for injury at 3, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days after treatment (DAT). Heights were also taken at 0, 14, and 28 DAT. At 28 DAT plants were harvested, weighed and place in a dryer for 72 hours and weighed again. The lowest level of injury at 28 DAT was with variety 604. The control of horseradish roots is critical to ensure the plant is killed completely and does not return the following season as a volunteer. The concerns associated with auxin-tolerant crops can be mitigated with proper management of herbicides and crop locations. While off target movement of 2,4-D may cause damage to a horseradish crop, it could be used as a herbicide to control volunteer horseradish. Additionally, if a grower chooses to use a dicamba-tolerant soybean variety, they may have the choice to use a dicamba plus glyphosate premix which will also give good control of volunteer horseradish with little concerns of dicamba carryover to the subsequent horseradish crop. Capitalizing on the strengths and weaknesses of each technology will help horseradish growers manage many weeds and facilitate the production of this important specialty crop.

All fossil fuels contain varying levels of sulfur compounds which are undesirable because they cause environmental pollution, corrosion, acid rain and lead to health problems. There is strict international legislation for the permissible levels of sulfur compounds in fossil fuels. The aim of this research therefore was the biocatalyst development for biodesulfurisation using two approaches. In the first approach, Rhodococcus erythropolis IGTS8-5 and IGTS8-5G were immobilised in porous coke particles and tested in repeated cycles successfully. Both bacterial strains grew well in the chemically defined medium with glucose as the main carbon and energy source and the model sulfur compound dibenzothiophene (DBT) as the sole sulfur source. 0.8 g of cells was immobilized on 250 g of coke particles without refreshing the medium over 72 h while 1.8 g of cells were immobilised on 250 g of coke when the media was refreshed every 24 hours for 120 h after the initial immobilisation batch of 72h. The latter, were used repeatedly in twelve consequtive batch desulfurisation cycles during which the biodesulfurisation activity progressively decreased from over 95% removal of 100 ppm DBT to around 45% removal. DBT removal is often expressed in terms of 2-hydroxybiphenyl which is the end product of biodesulfurisation. The biodesulfurisation activityof immobilised bacteria was equivalent to 310 umol 2-HBP h-1g-1 dry cell weight during the first hour. Freely suspended cells on the other hand exhibited biodesulfurisation activity equivalent to 91 umol 2-HBP h-1g-1 dry cell weight. Unfortunately, after the first 24 h, the activity of the immobilised cells decreased to 12 umol 2-HBP h-1g-1 dry cell weight. Use of plant cell cultures for biodesulfurisation is the other novel aspect of this work. Armoracia rusticana (horse radish) cell culture was chosen as the novel biocatalyst since this plant is a well known source of peroxidase enzyme which is involved in the biodesulfurisation metabolism according to the literature on bacterial biodesulfurisation. Arabidospsis thaliana (thale cress) was also used since its genome is completely sequenced and it is a model organism in genomics studies. Our results indicate that cell suspensions of both plants did show biodesulfurisation activity by reducing the level of sulfur compounds, mainly DBT and other three derivatives from both aqueous and oil phase. When compared to the bacteria, in terms of DBT consumption, the activity of A. rusticana was calculated as 55 umol DBT h-1 g-1 DCW and 65 umol DBT h-1 g-1 DCW for A. thaliana while in bacteria it was 91 umol DBT h-1 g-1 DCW for IGTS8-5 and 73 umol DBT h-1 g-1 DCW for IGTS8-5G. Transcriptomics analysis of the plant cell cultures after exposure to the DBT when compared to control cultures showed alterations in gene expression levels several of which were related to sulfur metabolism and transmembrane transporters of sulfate.

Nowadays, the environmental pollution by heavy metals is very serious problem all around the world. Radionuclides, including uranium, are heavy metals that cause both chemical and radioactive pollution. Naturally occurring uranium is not so dangerous for living organisms. Human activities, especially uranium ore mining and use of phosphate fertilizers, have increased its concentration in the environment with consequent contamination of soil, water and air. Compared to other countries, the Czech Republic is relatively rich in deposits of uranium ore. Extensive mining results in large contaminated areas, containing not only uranium but also other heavy metals and xenobiotics that need to be removed from the environment. One way how to decontaminate soils and waters is phytoremediation. This eco-friendly and cost-effective technique exploits the ability of plants to take up, translocate, transform and sequester xenobiotics. In order to provide functional phytoremediation, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms of plant responses to stress caused by xenobiotics. Therefore in my master thesis, I focused on the impact of uranium on physiological processes of uranium-stressed plants, with the emphasis on carbohydrate metabolism and antioxidative defense mechanism. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)