Pectolytic activity of Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. brasiliense on different root vegetables

Bacteria from Enterobacteriaceae family (SRE) are significant problem in plant production, not only during vegetation, in the field, but also during storage and marketing of agricultural commodities. Species P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense (Pcb) is a newly identified member of Enterobacteriaceae family. It causes soft rot of different plant species, including root vegetables. Pcb is described as a new subspecies of P. carotovorum due to differences in phenotypic and genotypic characteristic, more pronounced virulence and aggressiveness. Patohogenicity of this bacterium is based on the production of several enzymes: pectatliase, polygalacturonase, cellulase and proeteases. The aim of this study was to determine whether and at which rate Pcb isolates originating from potato plants exhibit pectolytic activity on root of different root vegetable species - carrot, radish, celery, kohlrabi and beetroot. The obtained data confirmed wide host range of the bacterium Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. brasiliense, but pointed to significant differences in pectolytic activity on different species of root vegetables (carrot, radish, celery, kohlrabi), while on beetroot tested Pcb isolates did not exhibit pectolytic activity. Moreover, on same species of root vegetables different levels of pectolytic activity of tested Pcb isolates were recorded.

Response of Gladiolus varieties to different planting dates

Experiment was conducted to study the effect of seven different planting dates from the month of August to November using four different varieties of Gladiolus viz., Chandni, Big Time Supreme, White Prosperity and Snow Princess, for vegetative and floral parameters. In the vegetative parameters studied variety White Prosperity recorded the highest plant height (128.84 cm), highest number of leaves (9.03) and number of tillers (1.47) during September planting date. Whereas lowest plant height (87.64 cm) was recorded in the variety Chandni during September planting only. The vegetative parameters studied were also dependent on genotype and also interaction between variety and environment. November planting time showed good number of florets (16.06) and also floret diameter (9.42 cm) which was followed by September and October planting dates. Variety White Prosperity produced more number of florets per spike (22.72) in November and floret diameter (11.85 cm) in October planting. For floret parameters there was no significant difference on effect of date of planting and this was mainly due to genotypic characteristic of individual varieties studied. Better spike parameter attributed to the prevalence of favorable environment conditions during October planting time. Among the varieties studied White Prosperity showed highest spike length (105.62 cm) at first floret opening and 107.39 cm during last floret opening. The highest rachis length was also recorded by variety White Prosperity (54.00 cm) at first floret opening and 57.41 cm at last floret opening. October planting was found superior for Spike and rachis length in four different varieties studied.

Exploring of insertion/deletion polymorphism in the vascular endothelial growth factor gene associated with type two diabetic patients in Al-Diwaniyah City

Disease conditions that are related to the effects of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) are common such as nephropathy and promoting of cancer growth and metastasis. The current study was launched to explore the presence of VEGF gene-based polymorphism of the insertion/deletion (I/D) in blood samples of 25 diabetic and 25 clinically healthy people in Al-Diwaniyah City, Iraq. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the results have shown the presence of these genotypes in these samples with higher significant (p˂0.05) occurrence. The homozygous DD was significantly (p˂0.05) affected by the sex factor. This genotypic characteristic was shown significantly (p˂0.05) in females more than that in males. Moreover, this feature was significantly higher (p˂0.05) when compared to the other genotypes II and I/D for each of the females or males separately. For the DD genotype,ages between 40 to 49 years of old have shown significantly (p˂0.05) higher presence of this genotype than that in other ages. It has been also shown by these results that this genotype is present significantly (p˂0.05) higher than that in the other genotypes when compared together in each age category. These results suggest current relationship between the VEGF I/D polymorphism occurrence and diabetes with deeper correlation with sex and age factors.

Differences in phasic development rate amongst wheat cultivars independent of responses to photoperiod and vernalization. A viewpoint of the intrinsic earliness hypothesis

SUMMARYDifferences amongst wheat cultivars in the rate of reproductive development are largely dependent on differences in their sensitivity to photoperiod and vernalization. However, when these responses are accounted for, by growing vernalized seedlings under long photoperiods, cultivars can still differ markedly in time to ear emergence. Control of rate of development by this ‘third factor’ has been poorly understood and is variously referred to as intrinsic earliness, earliness in the narrow sense, basic vegetative period, earliness per se, and basic development rate. Certain assumptions are made in the concept of intrinsic earliness. They are that differences in intrinsic earliness (i) are independent of the responses of the cultivars to photoperiod and vernalization, (ii) apply only to the length of the vegetative period up to floral initiation (as suggested by several authors), (iii) are maintained under different temperatures, measured either in days or degree days. As a consequence of this, the ranking of cultivars (from intrinsically early to intrinsically late) must be maintained at different temperatures. This paper, by the re-analysis of published data, examines the extent to which these assumptions can be supported.Although it is shown that intrinsic earliness operates independently of photoperiod and vernalization responses, the other assumptions were not supported. The differences amongst genotypes in time to ear emergence, grown under above-optimum vernalization and photoperiod (that is when the response to these factors is saturated), were not exclusively due to parallel differences in the length of the vegetative phase, and the length of the reproductive phase was independent of that of the vegetative phase. Thus, it would be possible to change the relative allocation of time to vegetative and reproductive periods with no change in the full period to ear emergence.The differences in intrinsic earliness between cultivars were modified by the temperature regime under which they were grown, i.e. the difference between cultivars (both considering the full phase to ear emergence or some sub-phases) was not a constant amount of time or thermal time at different temperatures. In addition, in some instances genotypes changed their ranking for ‘intrinsic earliness’ depending on the temperature regime. This was interpreted to mean that while all genotypes are sensitive to temperature they differ amongst themselves in the extent of that sensitivity.Therefore, ‘intrinsic earliness’ should not be considered as a static genotypic characteristic, but the result of the interaction between the genotype and temperature. Intrinsic earliness is therefore likely to be related to temperature sensitivity. Some implications of these conclusions for plant breeding and crop simulation modelling are discussed.

THE ROLE OF TRITICUM CARTHLICUM IN THE ORIGIN OF BREAD WHEAT BASED ON GLIADIN ELECTROPHOREGRAMS

Gliadin electrophoregrams (a genotypic characteristic) of five strains of Triticum carthlicum (2n − 28 = AABB) were compared with those of Tetra Canthatch, the AABB component extracted from Canthatch (2n = 42 = AABBDD) common bread wheat and T. durum cv. Stewart to determine if T. carthlicum could have been the donor of the AABB component of hexaploid wheat. Similar comparisons were made among electrophoregrams of synthetic hexaploids (2n = 42 = AABBDD) produced from T. carthlicum and Aegilops squarrosa (2n = 14 = DD) and Tetra Canthatch and the same strains of Ae. Squarrosa. The five strains of T. carthlicum could be classified into two distinct groups on the basis of the electrophoregrams. One was more like that of Tetra Canthatch than the other. Synthetic hexaploids derived from one of three strains of Ae. squarrosa (strangulata varietal group) investigated, produced electrophoregrams similar to those of the natural hexaploid cultivars. The electrophoregrams of six synthetic hexaploids from three strains of Ae. squarrosa and Tetra Canthatch, and three strains of T. carthlicum did not have any bands not present in the diploid and tetraploid parents. On the basis of the gliadin electrophoregrams of three of the T. carthlicum strains examined and the synthetic hexaploids produced from them, T. carthlicum cannot be excluded as a possible progenitor of the AABB component of common hexaploid wheat.