Yellow rocket, Barbarea vulgaris (R. Br.) variety arcuata, was evaluated as a trap crop for diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae), in cabbage, Brassica oleracea L. variety capitata, in 2003 and 2004. In 2003, the numbers of P. xylostella larvae found in field plots of cabbage alone were 5.2-11.3 times higher than those on cabbage plants in plots that included cab...

Replacement of diseased plants with healthy plants is commonly used to manage spread of plant pathogens in perennial cropping systems. This strategy has two potential benefits. First, removing infected plants may slow pathogen spread by eliminating inoculum sources. Second, replacing infected plants with uninfected plants may offset yield losses due to disease. The extent to which these benefit...

*Hybridization allows transgenes and other crop alleles to spread to wild/weedy populations of related taxa. Researchers have debated whether such alleles will persist because low hybrid fitness and linkage to domestication traits could severely impede introgression. *To examine variation in the fates of three unlinked crop alleles, we monitored four experimental, self-seeding, hybrid populatio...

Most studies of the Columbian Exchange have not appreciated the significance of Africans in establishing plant domesticates in the Americas. African plants traversed the Atlantic as provisions aboard slave ships and slaves proved instrumental in their establishment in the New World as preferred food staples. This paper identifies the diverse crops domesticated in Africa, the intercontinental pl...

Plant tissue culture comprises a set of in vitro techniques, methods and strategies that are part of the group of technologies called plant biotechnology. Tissue culture has been exploited to create genetic variability from which crop plants can be improved, to improve the state of health of the planted material and to increase the number of desirable germplasms available to the plant breeder. ...

Post Arabidopsis thaliana, 55 genomes comprising 49 different plant species have been decoded by use of clone-by-clone, whole genome shotgun and nextgeneration sequencing approaches. The structural outcomes of these sequenced genomes shed light on their genomic constitution, particularly the way genes, transposable elements and genetic markers are organized within the genomes. The functional ou...

The increasing need for food can be met through an increase in crop productivity and reduction in pest associated losses. Recombinant DNA technology has created new avenues for genetic enhancement of crops through the development of transgenic plants with resistance to insects. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) genes have been widely used as candidate genes for genetic transformation of crop plants f...

Insects-pest is animal populations, which occurred in every possible environment with a varied number of species. The several insects are vectors of different diseases, and cause damages to crop plants. These have been affecting economy and the yield of crop plant and at national and international market. The crop yield losses caused by insects in agriculture, several chemicals have been applie...

The term apomixis encompasses a suite of processes whereby seeds form asexually in plants. In contrast to sexual reproduction, seedlings arising from apomixis retain the genotype of the maternal parent. The transfer of apomixis and its effective utilization in crop plants (where it is largely absent) has major advantages in agriculture. The hallmark components of apomixis include female gamete ...

Zea mays (maize) and Vigna radiata (green gram) are found to be the chromium (Cr) tolerant and sensitive plants, respectively. In the present paper, we investigate the reduction of the toxicity of Cr in the sensitive plants by the mixed crop cultivation in the field using various amendments. Further, the potassium dichromate was used as the source of hexavalent Cr. The results indicated that Cr...