The presence of potentially toxic elements and compounds in foodstuffs is of intense public interest, and so food producers as well as regulators require rapid, reliable screening methods to accurately determine the levels of such contaminants in food and drink. In the case of arsenic (As), concentration levels in foods may be increased through the historical use of As-containing agrochemicals ...

We assessed the ability of Trichogramma ostriniae (Peng & Chen) to locate and parasitize Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner) eggs in crops other than corn, and we evaluated the efficacy of inundative releases of the parasitoid in two solanaceous crops, pepper and potato. Despite a greater plant surface area to search, parasitism of O. nubilalis eggs was consistently higher in sweet corn than dicotyledo...

for the financial support for the work und their generous trust. Miss Buechl provided additional administrative support and moral support during the studies in Germany. Esta obra de esfuerzo y trabajo conjunto esta dedicada a mi querida familia. SUMMARY South Mexico belongs to the Mesoamerican tropical region. The typical production systems are characterized on the one side by high diversity ho...

Diseases are still the main cause of reduction of yield in tomato crops in Pakistan. Early blight and fruit rot of tomatoes are the most important diseases caused by Alternariasolani. These diseases are responsible to cause tremendous yield loss in tomato crops in District Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. This research was initiated to isolate the causal agents of early blight and fruit ...

RNA interference has had major advances as a developing tool for pest management. In laboratory experiments, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is often administered to the insect by genetic modification of the crop, or synthesized in vitro and topically applied to the crop. Here, we engineered genetically modified yeast that express dsRNA targeting y-Tubulin in Drosophila suzukii. Our design takes ad...

Legume cover crops have various important effects on nutrient cycling in tropical fruit tree production: they (i) fix atmospheric N2 and may amend the soil and trees with N, (ii) recycle nutrients, and (iii) affect soil nutrient availability. Aboveground N accumulation usually is very large in legume cover crops as seen from Pueraria phaseoloides being 8 to 14 times higher than in intercropped ...

Tephritid fruit flies, or "true" fruit flies (Diptera, Tephritidae) include approximately 500 genera and 4800 valid species (Norrbom 2004), whose vast majority (95%) is represented by phytophagous species (reviewed in Aluja and Norrbom 1999). Among them, frugivorous flies represent approximately 25–30% of all tephritid species, occur in tropical and temperate regions of all continents except th...