Considering the crucial focus on plant developments as high yielding, protein, and disease-resistant varieties, in this study, the genetic diversity and nutritional traits of available kidney bean germplasms found in Bangladesh have been evaluated based on seventeen quantitative and six nutritional traits. Analysis of genotypic, phenotypic variance and covariance showed that higher environmenta...

To feed a world population growing by up to 160 people per minute, with >90% of them in developing countries, will require an astonishing increase in food production. Forecasts call for wheat to become the most important cereal in the world, with maize close behind; together, these crops will account for '80% of developing countries’ cereal import requirements. Access to a range of genetic dive...

There is a need to accelerate crop improvement by introducing alleles conferring host plant resistance, abiotic stress adaptation, and high yield potential. Elite cultivars, landraces and wild relatives harbor useful genetic variation that needs to be more easily utilized in plant breeding. We review genome-wide approaches for assessing and identifying alleles associated with desirable agronomi...

Over the past two decades a growing body of empirical research has shown that many ecological processes are mediated by a complex array of indirect interactions occurring between rhizosphere-inhabiting organisms and those found on aboveground plant parts. Aboveground-belowground studies have thus far focused on elucidating processes and underlying mechanisms that mediate the behavior and perfor...

Arabidopsis thaliana, a small annual weed belonging to the mustard family, has become a widely used model in plant genetic research. It has a small genome, short life cycle, and is easy to mutagenize. Identification of genes based on phenotype alone, often a rather difficult part of molecular genetic research, is easiest in this plant. Laboratories working on the "model" plant Arabidopsis thali...

For millennia, seeds have been freely available to use for farming and plant breeding without restriction. Within the past century, however, intellectual property rights (IPRs) have threatened this tradition. In response, a movement has emerged to counter the trend toward increasing consolidation of control and ownership of plant germplasm. One effort, the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI, www...

study of genetic relationships is a prerequisite for plant breeding activities as well as for conservation of genetic resources. in the present study, genetic diversity among and within 15 iranian native ajowan(carum copticum l.) populations were determined using inter simple sequence repeat (issr) markers. twelve selected primers produced 153 discernible bands, with 93 (60.78%) being polymorph...