Crotalaria are plants of the Fabaceae family whose nodulation characteristics have been little explored despite the recent discovery of their unexpected ability to be efficiently nodulated in symbiosis with bacteria of the genus Methylobacterium. It has been shown that methylotrophy plays a key role in this unusual symbiotic system, as it is expressed within the nodule and as non-methylotroph m...

Maize is a major food crop in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and its productivity affected by climate change-adaptive sustainable management practices. A 2-year field study (2019/20 2020/21 growing seasons) was carried out to evaluate the effect of sunn hemp ( Crotalaria juncea L.) living mulch on maize Zea mays production. Three planting periods were simultaneous with (P1), V15 growth stage (P2), R...

Genetic engineering methods have been used successfully to modify the fatty acid profile of elite Australian germplasm of Brassica napus and B. juncea. Co-suppression plasmids carrying oleate desaturase genes from each species have been constructed and transferred into Australian elite breeding lines of B. napus and B. juncea using Agrobacterium tumifaciens plant-transformation techniques. Modi...

Given that feral transgenic canola (Brassica napus) from spilled seeds has been found outside of farmer's fields and that B. juncea is distributed worldwide, it is possible that introgression to B. juncea from B. napus has occurred. To investigate such introgression, we characterized the persistence of B. napus C genome chromosome (C-chromosome) regions in backcross progenies by B. napus C-chro...

Aphids, a hemipteran group of insects pose a serious threat to many of the major crop species including Brassica oilseeds. Transgenic strategies for developing aphid-resistant plant types necessitate phloem-bound expression of the insecticidal genes. A few known phloem-specific promoters, in spite of tissue-specific activity fail to confer high level gene-expression. Here, we identified seven o...

ABSTRACT The effect of seed meals derived from Brassica juncea, B. napus, or Sinapis alba on suppression of soilborne pathogens inciting replant disease of apple was evaluated in greenhouse trials. Regardless of plant source, seed meal amendment significantly improved apple growth in all orchard soils; however, relative differences in pathogen suppression were observed. All seed meals suppresse...

Brassica juncea (Indian mustard) has been identified as a potentially important crop for commercial production in low rainfall areas of Australia, as it has greater tolerance to heat and water stress than B. napus (canola). It is also more resistant to blackleg fungal disease and shattering. The success of B. juncea as a commercial crop will, to a large extent, depend upon its suitability for p...