Superior crop cultivars must be identified through multi-environment trials (MET) and on the basis of multiple traits. The objectives of this paper were to describe two types of biplots, the GGE biplot and the GT biplot, which graphically display genotype by environment data and genotype by trait data, respectively, and hence facilitate cultivar evaluation on the basis of MET data and multiple ...

Temperature and photoperiod can be used to simulate soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr) phenology because they serve as surrogates for complex biochemical pathways leading to the appearance of certain developmental stages at the whole plant level. We developed a soybean phenology model (SOYDEV) which utilizes non-linear temperature and photoperiod functions and separates floral induction and post-i...

Nitrate plays a major role in the yield and quality of tobacco plants. This work explored the nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) and how it can be affected by grafting. Two experiments were designed: in the first, using six commercial tobacco cultivars, the best cultivar for the NUE was selected and analysed for foliar NO3− content, total N, nicotine and nitrate reductase (NR) activity. The results ...

Various physical and chemical properties of host plants influence insect larval performance and subsequent adult fitness. Tomato plants are relatively new hosts to the potato tuber moth, Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller), with the fruit being its preferred feeding site. However, it is unclear how the biochemical and physical properties of tomato fruits relate to potato tuber moth performance. Si...

BACKGROUND Over the last decade, considerable efforts have been made to identify cassava cultivars to improve the vitamin A nutritional status of undernourished populations, especially in northeast Brazil, where cassava is one of the principal and essentially only nutritional source. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate the total carotenoid, β-carotene, and its all-E-, 9-, and 13-...

Belowground tri-trophic study systems present a challenging environment in which to study plant-herbivore-natural enemy interactions. For this reason, belowground examples are rarely available for testing general ecological theories. To redress this imbalance, we present, for the first time, data on a belowground tri-trophic system to test the slow growth, high mortality hypothesis. We investig...

The flowers of twenty-three cultivars of Dendranthema grandiflorum Ramat. were investigated to determine anthocyanin and carotenoid levels and to confirm the effects of the pigments on the flower colors using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). The cultivars contained the anthocyanins cyanidin 3-glucoside (C3g) and cyanidin 3-(3"...

productivity over long periods of time, these efforts did not attempt to identify the environmental variables that The effectiveness of a cultivar evaluation system largely depends were most important in influencing GEI and thus the on the genetic correlation between genotype performance in multigenetic correlations for genotype performance among environment trials (MET) and in the target popul...

Despite growing concern about transgenes escaping from fields, few studies have analysed the genetic diversity of crops in an agroecosystem over several years. Accurate information about the dynamics and relationship of the genetic diversity of crops in an agroecosystem is essential for risk assessment and policies concerning the containment of genetically modified crops and their coexistence w...