nickel (ni) is one of the essential micronutrients for higher plants and its known function is beingthe metal component of urease. the effects of various ni levels on urease activity in maize (zea maize l.)plants grown in two nutrient media containing urea or ammonium nitrate as two separate nitrogen sourceswere investigated. the experiments were performed as completely randomized blocks with t...

Nitrogen fertilization is critical to optimize short-term crop yield, but its long-term effect on soil organic C (SOC) is uncertain. Here, we clarify the impact of N fertilization on SOC in typical maize-based (Zea mays L.) Midwest U.S. cropping systems by accounting for site-to-site variability in maize yield response to N fertilization. Within continuous maize and maize-soybean [Glycine max (...

Livestock is an important sector of agriculture, but good quality forage is one of the major limiting factors for the growth of this industry. Studies were conducted to compare the forage quality of maize and legumes sown in pure stand and in mixture in randomized complete blocks during 2005 and 2006 at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. Maize (Zea mays L.) and three legumes [c...

Proton transport catalyzed by the nitrate-insensitive, vanadate-sensitive H(+)-ATPase in microsomes from maize (Zea mays L.) roots washed with 0.25 molar KI decreased as a function of time at 0 to 4 degrees C. The rate of proton transport was approximately one-half of that by freshly isolated microsomes after 6 to 18 hours of cold storage. The decrease in proton transport coincided with losses ...

The effects of maize (Zea mays L.) phenology on establishment and adult emergence of the western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte) and plant damage to maize was evaluated in field trials in 2001 and 2002 and in the greenhouse. Although neonate western corn rootworm larvae were able to initially establish on maize roots during anthesis and early reproductive stages, these ol...

The objective of the present study was to conduct DNA based genotyping analysis for hybrid identification in maize (Zea mays L.) using DNA fingerprinting technology. To achieve this random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was employed. A total of 40 random tenmer primers were surveyed. Of these, OPR-03, OPR-11 and OPT-06 were polymorphic which not only verified the purity among three l...

Analysis of the extent and distribution of genetic diversity in crop plants is essential for optimizing sampling and breeding strategies. Several methods were identified for the existence of diversity in maize for the aim of perfect selection based on great diversity among maize genotypes. In this study, Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were used to assess genetic diversity in a sele...

Maize (Zea mays L.) is among the crops with the greatest worldwide economic importance. Ear height is a very important trait that is considered necessary in maize and is related to morphology, lodging, and yield. To realize its genetic basis, an F9 recombinant inbred line population and a genetic map consisting of 101 simple sequence repeat markers were used to detect the quantitative trait loc...

Following exposure of portions of mature maize (Zea mays L.) leaf strips to (14)CO(2), xylem exudate from the leaf strips contained [(14)C]sucrose. Sucrose was the only sugar in the xylem exudate which was obtained from the cut surface of the leaf strips by reducing the external pressure. The sucrose found in the xylem exudate apparently was obtained from the free space of the vascular bundles,...

Gene flow plays a fundamental role in plant evolutionary history, yet its role in population divergence--and ultimately speciation--remains poorly understood. We investigated gene flow and the modalities of divergence in the domesticated Zea mays ssp. mays and three wild Zea taxa using sequence polymorphism data from 26 nuclear loci. We described diversity across loci and assessed evidence for ...