Rice blast caused by Magnaporthe oryzae is the most devastating disease of rice and poses a serious threat to world food security. In this study, the distribution and effectiveness of 18 R genes in 277 accessions were investigated based on pathogenicity assays and molecular markers. The results showed that most of the accessions exhibited some degree of resistance (resistance frequency, RF >50%...

Sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam., is an important food crop that is cultivated worldwide. However, no genome-wide assessment of the genetic diversity of sweet potato has been reported to date. In the present study, the population structure and genetic diversity of 197 sweet potato accessions most of which were from China were assessed using 62,363 SNPs. A model-based structure analysis d...

Wild barley [Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum (C. Koch) Thell.] is a part of the primary gene pool with valuable sources of beneficial genes for barley improvement. This study attempted to develop a core subset of 269 accessions representing 16 countries from the Plant Gene Resources of Canada (PGRC) collection of 3,782 accessions, and to characterize them using barley simple sequence repeat (SS...

Polyamines, including cadaverine, are organic cations that affect numerous biological processes including transcription, translation, cell signalling, and ion channel activity. They often function in biotic and abiotic stress responses in plants. Because little is known about how plants respond to cadaverine, a quantitative natural variation approach was used to identify genetic factors that co...

Meloidogyne javanica and Rotylenchulus reniformis are important nematode pests of pigeonpea. Greenhouse evaluation of 66 accessions of 25 species of Cajanus, Rhynchosia, and Flemingia for resistance to M. javanica based on number and size of galls, galled area of root, and number of egg masses showed resistance to be available in these wild relatives of pigeonpea. Thirty-five accessions had </=...

Resveratrol contributes to a plant's tolerance of various abiotic and biotic stresses and is highly beneficial to human health. A search for elite alleles affecting resveratrol production was undertaken to find useful grapevine germplasm resources. Resveratrol levels in both berry skins and leaves were determined in 95 grapevine accessions (including 50 wild Chinese grapevine accessions and 45 ...

Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. pisi (Fop) is one of the most destructive diseases of pea worldwide. Control of this disease is difficult and it is mainly based on the use of resistant cultivars. While monogenic resistance has been successfully used in the field, it is at risk of breakdown by the constant evolution of the pathogen. New sources of quantitative resistance have b...

Soybean is still a minor crop in Kazakhstan despite an increase in planting area from 4,500 to 11,400 km2 between 2006 and 2014. However, the Government's recently accepted crop diversification policy projects the expansion of soybean cultivation area to more than 40,000 km2 by 2020. The policy is targeting significant expansion of soybean production in South-eastern, Eastern, and Northern regi...

The rubber tree [Hevea brasiliensis (Willd. ex Adr. de Juss.) Muell. Arg.] is the only plant species worldwide that is cultivated for the commercial production of natural rubber. This study describes the genetic diversity of the Hevea spp. complex that is available in the main ex situ collections of South America, including Amazonian populations that have never been previously described. Geneti...

Coffee is one of the main agrifood commodities traded worldwide. In 2009, coffee accounted for 6.1% of the value of Brazilian agricultural production, generating a revenue of US$6 billion. Despite the importance of coffee production in Brazil, it is supported by a narrow genetic base, with few accessions. Molecular differentiation and diversity of a coffee breeding program were assessed wi...