Aflatoxin contamination of nuts is an increasing concern to the consumer's health. Portugal is a big producer of almonds, but there is no scientific knowledge on the safety of those nuts, in terms of mycotoxins. The aim of this paper was to study the incidence of aflatoxigenic fungi and aflatoxin contamination of 21 samples of Portuguese almonds, and its evolution throughout the various stages ...

Severe decline of almond trees has recently been observed in several orchards on the island of Mallorca (Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean Sea). However, the identity of the causal agents has not yet been investigated. Between August 2008 and June 2010, wood samples from branches of almond trees showing internal necroses and brown to black vascular streaking were collected in the Llevant ...

The grass sharpshooter, Draeculacephala minerva Ball (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), is a very common and often abundant grass-feeding leafhopper in California. Its population dynamics and ability to transmit Xylella fastidiosa were monitored over a 2-yr period in California's San Joaquin Valley. Collections of individuals from natural populations in irrigated pastures and alfalfa, Medicago savita L...

Xylella fastidiosa causes disease in many commercial crops, including almond leaf scorch (ALS) disease in susceptible almond (Prunus dulcis). In this study, genetic diversity and population structure of X. fastidiosa associated with ALS disease were evaluated. Isolates obtained from two almond orchards in Fresno and Kern County in the San Joaquin Valley of California were analyzed for two succe...

Self-incompatibility is one of the most important difficulties in almond production which reduce fruit set dramatically and makes orchard management difficult. Therefore, breeding almond to produce self-compatible genotypes is very important. In this research identification and screening of 86 almond progenies obtained from selfing Touno after the self-pollination by PCR reaction with specific ...

Nemaguard has been the workhorse rootstock of the California almond industry for many decades. It is well adapted to the well-drained, non-calcareous loam and sandy loam soils common throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Nemaguard is vigorous, immune to rootknot nematode, compatible with all almond varieties, doesn’t sucker much, has decent anchorage and is easy to grow at the nursery. However, th...

conductance in almond and olive in response to water stress 2 3 RUNNING TITLE: LEAF HYDRAULIC FUNCTION IN ALMOND AND OLIVE 4 5 VIRGINIA HERNANDEZ-SANTANA*, CELIA M. RODRIGUEZ-DOMINGUEZ, J. 6 ENRIQUE FERNÁNDEZ, ANTONIO DIAZ-ESPEJO 7 Irrigation and Crop Ecophysiology Group, Instituto de Recursos Naturales y 8 Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS, CSIC). Avenida Reina Mercedes, no 10, 410129 Sevilla, Sp...

Buffer type, pH and ionic strength, as well as the fraction of polyvinylpyrrolidone were optimized for efficient extraction of b-galactosidase from almond seeds. The enzyme was purified up to electrophoretic homogeneity employing (NH4)2SO4 (15–60 %) fractionation, size exclusion and ion-exchange chromatography. Molecular mass of b-galactosidase as estimated by gel filtration and SDS-PAGE was ap...

Almond seeds age rapidly during storage at high relative humidity (80%) an d moderate temperature (20°C). The content of lipid decreased during accelerated ageing up to 40 d. The levels of linoleic (Cl8:2) and linolenic (Cl8:3) acids in almond lipid fraction also decreased during agei/lg up to 20 d. The aged seeds contain high levels of malondialdehyde, a product of the peroxidatio/l of unsatur...

The effects of irrigation and planting pattern on wheat in field conducted at Taian, northern China during 2011-12. The experiments consisted of two planting patterns (single and double rows) and two irrigation levels (0 and 180 mm) resulting in the same plant density (200 × 10 plant/ha). Each experiment plot was 3 m × 3 m in size and replicated thrice in split-plot design. During course of stu...