Polish Journal of Natural Sciences

APOPTOSIS OF NEUTROPHILS, MONOCYTES, AND LYMPHOCYTES IN THE PERIPHERAL BLOOD OF COWS DURING LACTATION

Mykola Zhelavskyi — 2024-09-27

The immune system of animals plays an important role in the homeostasis system. This aimed at the apoptosis of immune cells of the peripheral bloodstream and milk secretions at different periods of lactation in cows. The investigation of the immune defense of cows was conducted during various lactation periods: early (3-5 days), mid (90-150 days), and late (drying off - 5-7 days; dry period - 12-20 days) periods of mammary gland function. The highest intensity of apoptosis neutrophils (P<0.01) and monocytes (P<0.01) in the mid-lactation period. The highest intensity of apoptosis is observed in phagocytic cells during the secretions colostrum period and mammary gland involution. The study of physiological constants of blood cell apoptosis will serve as a basis for developing informative methods of mastitis diagnosis in cows and implementing effective treatment measures. The findings obtained from this research are valuable for practical veterinarians and from a public health perspective.

INHERITANCE STUDIES OF GRAIN YIELD IN AFRICAN YAM BEAN (SPHENOSTYLIS STENOCARPA (HOCHST EX. A. RICH.) HARMS)

Gbenga Oluwayomi Agbowuro — 2024-09-27

African yam bean (AYB) is a tropical underutilized legume serving as food and feed. Despite its nutritional values, low grain yield limits its production. Overcoming low grain yield through the breeding programme requires adequate information on the inheritance pattern of the traits responsible for low grain yield. However, there is dearth information for AYB. Two divergent grain yield potential AYB accessions collected from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan Nigeria were crossed to generate F₁. The F₁ was advanced to F₂ progenies. Backcrosses to the two parents (BC₁ and BC₂) were generated. The six generations obtained were evaluated in three agroecological environments. Data collected on grain yield and grain yield-related traits were subjected to analysis of variance. Generation mean analysis and scaling tests were estimated. The results revealed that at least one of the scaling tests was significant in all the studied traits. The dominance gene effects were larger than additive gene effects in the studied traits. Complementary epistasis was observed in some studied traits while duplicative epistasis was observed in other studied traits. Environmental variances were less than genotypic variances in all studied traits. The traits studied exhibited high broad sense and low narrow sense heritability. The results showed that both additive and non-additive gene actions are important in inheriting these traits. Hence, reciprocal recurrent selection is the most suitable breeding procedure to improve AYB grain yield.

RARE SPECIES OF BIRDS AND THEIR BIOTOPIC DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNREGULATED PART OF THE LOWER REACHES OF THE TRANSFORTIER DESNA RIVER (UKRAINE, KYIV)

Mykola Prychepa — 2024-09-27

Biotopic and ornithological studies carried out in the lower reaches of the Desna River in 2018-2021 showed the presence of five different biotopes: continental reservoirs and watercourses, swamps, grass meadows, shrubs, floodplain forests, as well as 12 habitate, some of which are protected. 4 of the Berne Convention. In river floodplain studies, 44 rare bird species were recorded, the life cycle of which is associated with the floodplain of rivers, coastal and aquatic environments. Of these, 35 species are included in resolution 6 of the Berne Convention and 19 in the Red Book of Ukraine. In addition, 22 nesting species, of which 9 are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine, 2 are included in the IUCN list (Crex crex and Limosa limosa), and 1 species is included in the European Red List (Vanellus vanellus).

According to the results of the monitoring of the selected habitats, it was established that the greatest species richness of rare birds that use these territories as nesting and feeding areas: D5.2: Beds of large sedges normally without free-standing water, E2.2 : Low and medium altitude hay meadows, Moist or wet eutrophic and mesotrophic grassland, E2.7 : Unmanaged mesic grassland, E3.4: Moist or wet and mesotrophic grassland.

Thus, retrospective studies can be useful for the conservation of the natural environment and the restoration of areas affected by the aggression of the russian federation.

APPLICATION OF VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPY FOR PLANT TISSUE ANALYSIS – CASE STUDY

Iwona Stawoska — 2024-09-27

Raman spectroscopy is a particularly advantageous method in plant biology, allowing simultaneous examination of various compounds and evaluation of molecular changes in plant tissues subjected to different stress factors. The purpose of our research was to investigate to what extent the differences in the physical properties of leaves of Alnus viridis, Hieracium bifidum and Platycerium bifurcatum allow us to reliably determine qualitative and quantitative changes in their chemical composition. We proved that if we employed the FT-Raman spectroscopy method direct comparison of the obtained results might be difficult or even impossible. Normalization of the spectra in some situations may help in the results interpretation. However, to study the global impact of the stress factors on the tissue we suggest preparing a tablet obtained from lyophilized and powdered leaves, that avoids the inhomogeneity of the sample. Additionally, the decomposition procedure of the overlapped peaks is necessary to obtain reliable quantitative results.