Bananas and plantains are important for food security and income, but they are beset with numerous abiotic and biotic challenges that drastically reduce yield. Consequently, a range of technologies have been developed to tackle the various constraints. This study was carried out to determine the adoption potential of improved banana cultivars by smallholder farmers in Malawi. The study was carr...

Global climate change combined with asymmetric warming can have detrimental effects on the yield of crop plants such as rice (Oryza sativa L.). Little is known about metabolic responses of rice to high night temperature (HNT) conditions. Twelve cultivars with different HNT sensitivity were used to investigate metabolic changes in the vegetative stage under HNT compared to control conditions. Ce...

The adoption of modern rice cultivars has increased annual production in the past three decades by 2.4% per annum and average yield by 71% (Khush and Virk 2002). Modern cultivars continue to replace thousands of traditional cultivars (Chang 1994). Although the number of landraces used in breeding modern cultivars has increased in the same period (Hossain et al 2003), many modern cultivars share...

We screened and assessed published cotton simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers to establish a set of core SSR markers suitable for cotton major cultivars in China and analyzed genetic diversity based on the core marker set. Using a stepwise screening strategy, 12 leading cultivars for preliminary screening and 96 cultivars for rescreening were evaluated. A total of 184 polymorphic SSR markers w...

Relatively few studies have investigated potential interactions of host plant resistance and insecticides for insect control. To examine possible interactions, host plant resistance was measured independently for four tomato cultivars and one wild tomato accession against tomato psyllids, Bactericerca [Paratrioza] cockerelli [Sulc] (Homoptera: Psyllidae). Plant lines tested included the commerc...

The aim of this study was to verify the adaptability and stability of soybean cultivars with regards to yield and oil content. Data of soybean yield and oil content were used from experiments set up in six environments in the 2011/12 and 2012/13 crop seasons in the municipalities of Patos de Minas, Uberaba, Lavras, and São Gotardo, Minas Gerais, Brazil, testing 36 commercial soybean cultivars o...

Muscadine grapes (Vitis rotundifolia Michx) are considered as excellent genetic resources for grape breeding programs as they are known for their hardiness and resistance to pests and diseases. However, contrary to popular belief, our study indicated that not all muscadine cultivars are resistant to anthracnose disease. In order to identify a source of genetic tolerance towards anthracnose amon...

Diversity of resistance to leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina can be enhanced in wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars through a better knowledge of resistance genes that are present in important cultivars and germplasm. Multi-pathotype tests on 84 wheat cultivars grown in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden during 1992-2002 and 39 differential testers enabled the postulation of nine known ge...

Field and laboratory experiments were carried out on the island of Oahu, HI, to compare the susceptibility of the two most commonly grown banana (Musa sp.) cultivars in the state ('Dwarf Brazilian' or Santa Catarina [locally known as dwarf apple] and 'Williams') to the aphid-borne Banana bunchy top virus (genus Babuvirus, family Nanoviridae, BBTV). Several morphological and physiological featur...

Quality and flavor of edible peanuts and its products are affected by fatty acid composition of oil. The information related to chemical composition of Peanut grown in the country are scarce, therefore, the present investigation was designed to determine the oil and fatty acid composition of some commonly grown peanut cultivars in Pakistan. Seven Peanut cultivars were grown during 2008 in rando...