A weaning food commonly used in Nigeria was simulated by mixing processed sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) with skim-milk powder (830: 170, w/w). Replacing 310 g/kg sorghum with processed cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata) resulted in an increase in protein content from 96 to 113 g/kg and an increase in biological value of the protein from 0.74 to 0.87. The two mixtures were compared with an established comm...

The presence of chitin in midgut structures of Callosobruchus maculatus larvae was shown by chemical and immunocytochemical methods. Detection by Western blotting of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) seed vicilins (7S storage proteins) bound to these structures suggested that C. maculatus-susceptible vicilins presented less staining when compared to C. maculatus-resistant vicilins. Storage proteins pr...

Four isoinhibitors of trypsin have been isolated from the cowpea, Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp., in a highly purified state, as indicated by Urea-SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, equilibrium chromatography, and amino acid analysis. The amino acid composition was characterized by the absence of free -SH groups, high half-cysteine, and the absence of tryptophan and methionine in isoinhibito...

The aim of this work was to characterize rhizobia isolated from the root nodules of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) plants cultivated in Amazon soils samples by means of ARDRA (Amplified rDNA Restriction Analysis) and sequencing analysis, to know their phylogenetic relationships. The 16S rRNA gene of rhizobia was amplified by PCR (polymerase chain reaction) using universal primers Y1 and Y3. The amp...

A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the efficacy of different plant derivatives against the development of the cowpea weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus (F) (Coleoptera: Bruchidae) fed on cowpea, Vigna unguiculata (W) seeds. The leaf extracts of romatic plants, Murraya koenigii and Azadirachta indica (A.Juss) were evaluated for their growth, adult mortality and oviposition inhibi...

Mitochondria were isolated from nodules of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L). Walp.) and purified on a Percoll gradient. They were only slightly contaminated by bacteroids (an average of 3.5%), and had low lipoxygenase activity. Compared to mitochondria from hypocotyls the nodule mitochondria had similar O(2) uptake rates and respiratory control ratios. The ADP/O ratios for both preparations were 1...

Xiphidorus amazonensis n. sp. was found in the rhizospheres of Jatropha curcas, Musa sp., Anona muricata, Cassia tora, Panicum laxum, Paspalum fasciculatum, Aeschynomene sensitiva, Saccharum officinarum, Manihot esculenta, Abelmoschus esculentus, Tamarindus indica, Mangifera indica, Vigna unguiculata, Zea mays, Commelina sp., Cyperus rotundus, Fimbristylis miliacea, Citrus sinensis, and Eichhor...

In this study, 13 polymorphic microsatellite markers were isolated from the Phaseolus vulgaris L. (common bean) by using the Fast Isolation by AFLP of Sequence COntaining Repeats (FIASCO) protocol. These markers revealed two to seven alleles, with an average of 3.64 alleles per locus. The polymorphic information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.055 to 0.721 over 13 loci, with a mean value of ...

Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] is an annual legume of economic importance and widely grown in the semi-arid tropics. However, high-density genetic maps of cowpea are still lacking. Here, we identified 34,868 SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) that were distributed in the cowpea genome based on the RAD sequencing (restriction-site associated DNA sequencing) technique using a populatio...