Assessment of salinity tolerance based upon seedling root growth response functions in maize (Zea mays L.)

Root growth response of 10-days-oldseedlings of 100 maize accessions at, 0 mM, 60 mM, 80 mM and 150 mM NaCl concentration was assessed in solution culture. The non-linear least square method was used to quantify the salt tolerance of maize accessions. The estimated salinity threshold, Ct, the NaCl concentration at which root growth starts to decrease, C0, and C50, the concentrations at which roots stop growing and 50% of its control value revealed considerable differences between the accessions. No general consistency for tolerance was, however, found between the estimates of Ct and C50. Different genetic systems appeared to be involved in controlling the inheritance of Ct and C50.Both Ct and C50 appeared to quantify accession tolerance, and the expression of root growth as a function of NaCl concentrations provides a useful guideline for salt tolerance. Estimates of broad sense heritability for relative root length were moderate in size (0.62 to 0.82), suggesting the scope for enhancing salt tolerance in maize through selection and breeding. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Facultative apomixis and chromosome doubling are sources of heterogeneity in citrus rootstock trials: Impact on clementine production and breeding selection

All commercial citrus rootstocks are polyembryonic and propagated by seeds. Although these seeds produce uniform plant material most of the time, zygotic or polyploid citrus seedlings may arise. The aim of this study was to understand how zygotic or tetraploid rootstock could affect a citrus rootstock selection field trial. A trifoliate orange selection field trial, which was planted in 1974 and grafted with clementine, was re-investigated with respect to the presence of rootstocks that were not true-to-type. Among the 288 trees investigated, flow cytometry identified 2.4% of rootstocks as tetraploid and SSR markers indicated that 6.6% were zygotic. Yield data showed that the presence of tetraploid rootstock dramatically decreased (by about 45%) clementine fruit production. However, zygosity did not always affect fruit production and a range of effects were observed, from a slight increase in production to a 24% decrease. Exclusion of non-true-to-type genotypes from the production analysis indicated that the best candidate for rootstock was a clone previously ranked in the middle of the 32 rootstocks under evaluation. However, the presence of zygotic rootstock did not appear to cause any significant differences in fruit quality during the first 5 years of the investigation, which suggests that non-true-to-type plants cannot be identified by fruit quality parameters. This study indicates that tetraploid and zygotic rootstocks have a strong impact on citrus fruit production in orchards, and removal of off-type seedlings is required prior to planting in any agronomic trial.     

Runs of homozygosity and analysis of inbreeding depression

Pedigree information was traditionally used to assess inbreeding. The availability of high-density marker panels provides an alternative to assess inbreeding, particularly in the presence of incomplete and error-prone pedigrees. Assessment of autozygosity across chromosomal segments using runs of homozygosity (ROH) has emerged as a valuable tool to estimate inbreeding due to its general flexibility and ability to quantify the chromosomal contribution to genome-wide inbreeding. Unfortunately, the identification of ROH segments is sensitive to the parameters used during the search process. These parameters are heuristically set, leading to significant variation in the results. The minimum length required to identify an ROH segment has major effects on the estimation of inbreeding and inbreeding depression, yet it is arbitrarily set. To overcome this limitation, a search algorithm to approximate mutation enrichment was developed to determine the minimum length of ROH segments. It consists of finding genome segments with significant effect differences in trait means between animals with high and low burdens of autozygous intervals with a specific length. The minimum length could be determined heuristically as the smallest interval at which a significant signal is detected. The proposed method was tested in an inbred Hereford cattle population genotyped for 30,220 SNPs. Phenotypes recorded for six traits were used for the approximation of mutation loads. The estimated minimum length was around 1 Mb for yearling weight (YW) and average daily gain (ADG) and 4 Mb for birth weight and weaning weight. These trait-specific thresholds estimated using the proposed method could be attributed to a trait-dependent effect of homozygosity. The detection of significant inbreeding effects was well aligned with the estimated thresholds, especially for YW and ADG. Although highly deleterious alleles are expected to be more frequent in recent inbreeding (long ROH), short ROH segments (<5 Mb) could contain a large number of less deleterious mutations with substantial joint effects on some traits (YW and ADG). Our results highlight the importance of accurate estimation of the ROH-based inbreeding and the necessity to consider a trait-specific minimum length threshold for the identification of ROH segments in inbreeding depression analyses. These thresholds could be determined using the proposed method provided the availability of phenotypic information.     

Lithogenic and anthropogenic impacts on soil surface magnetic susceptibility in an arid region of Central Iran

In this study, natural and anthropogenic factors affecting the spatial distribution of topsoil mass magnetic susceptibility (χlf) were investigated in an arid region in Isfahan province, central Iran. A total of 100 surface (0–5 cm) soil samples were collected, and the χlf value of the soil samples was measured. High values of χlf in the east and northeast parts of the area indicated the occurrence of hilly igneous rocks and pediment geomorphic surface, enriched by ferrimagnetic minerals. In order to investigate the effects of human activities, multivariate geostatistics was applied to the results on the concentrations of eight heavy metals in surface soil samples. The results indicated that the spatial variability of second factor extracted by factor analysis, with high contribution of Zn, Pb and Cu, was well in agreement with the distribution of urban and industrial sites. This implied that magnetic particles accompanying the heavy metal emissions have increased χlf in the topsoil of the west of the area studied. Multiple linear regression analysis of χlf with studied factors revealed that the developed model explained about 64% of total variability in χlf in the studied area; and geology was identified as the most important controlling factor.     

Effects of seed priming with plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria on wheat yield and soil properties under contrasting soils

In the present investigation, different strains of Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), namely Bacillus megaterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Bacillus subtilis were evaluated for their growth-promoting effects on wheat as well as on soil properties under field conditions at two different sites having sandy loam and silt loam type of soils. PGPR strains were evaluated either singly or in consortia. Amongst all the treatments, wheat inoculated with consortia was found most effective as it increased grain yield up to 53% over control in silt loam soil, whereas, corresponding effects in sandy loam soil were less pronounced as an increase of 31% was observed in corresponding treatments, respectively. Enhanced effects on soil properties were also more intense in silt loam as there was an increase of 205% organic matter as against sandy loam soil where this value was 110%.     

A micro‐level data analysis of household energy demand in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Pakistan: An application of linear approximate almost ideal demand system

This study examines energy choice, consumption pattern and household energy expenditure in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) using the Linear Approximate Almost Ideal Demand System (LA‐AIDS). The study used micro‐level data to estimate the price and expenditure elasticities by employing (SUR) methodology. Empirical findings showed that energy choice, consumption patterns, and demand are different for urban‐rural households in the province. Each household living in KPK spent 1838.81 Rupees (9.92%) on energy purchases out of its total average monthly expenditure of Rs. 18,542.79. Compared to urban households, households living in rural areas spend more on energy consumption in a proportionate manner. The expenditure elasticities estimated for all energy sources are positive and statistically significant. Furthermore, the result showed that expenditure elasticities estimated for urban and rural households are less than one, suggesting that all the sources of energy are necessities. Natural gas and electricity are the main energy sources for urban households, while firewood and electricity are key energy sources for rural households in the province. The study suggested that rural households need to switch from conventional energy sources to modern and renewable energy sources, which would reduce the cost of energy use.     

The low down on association mapping in hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

The past few decades have witnessed hundreds of family-based linkage studies mapping for numerous traits but only a limited number of QTLs were actually cloned, tagged, or used for marker-assisted selection. Although providing valuable information, this conventional approach cannot be scaled up to underpin the incredible amount of phenotypic variation in the form of 266, 589 hexaploid wheat accessions maintained in public germplasm collections. Association mapping has recently emerged as an alternative and more powerful mapping approach where a natural population is surveyed to determine marker-trait associations using linkage disequilibrium (LD). After its first application for milling quality in 2006, association mapping studies in hexaploid wheat are being extended to tag yield traits, protein quality, and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Advances in genotyping technology and statistical approaches greatly accelerated the shift from conventional linkage-based mapping to LD-based association mapping. Association mapping stands out because of simultaneous utilization of a large number of ex situ-conserved natural variation due to historical recombination events accumulated over centuries.     

Relative significance of soil and nitrogenous fertilizer in nitrogen nutrition and growth of wetland rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Summary A pot experiment was conducted to compare the yields from five commercially cultivated varieties (Bas-198, Bas-370, Bas-Pak, Bas-385, and IR-6) of rice (Oryza sativa L.) and to establish the relative significance of soil N and fertilizer N (¹⁵N-labelled ammonium sulphate) in affecting crop performance. Another aim was to study the interaction of fertilizer N and soil N as influenced by different rice varieties. Among the five varieties tested, Bas-Pak gave the maximum dry matter and N yield. The N-use efficiency (percentage of applied N taken up by the plants) of different varieties ranged between 33.7 and 43.7%, Bas-Pak being the most efficient. Significant losses of fertilizer N occurred from the soil-plant system. The maximum N loss (52.1% of applied N) was observed with IR-6 and the minimum loss (39.2%) with Bas-Pak. A substantial increase in the uptake of soil N following the application of fertilizer and an interaction between the two N sources were observed with all varieties except Bas-385. The interaction was attributed to greater root proliferation following the application of fertilizer. It was concluded that a varietey with greater potential to use soil N is likely to give a better yield and that, of the two N sources, the availability of soil N was more important in determining the yield performance of different varieties of rice.     

Effect of Fixed Media Surface Area on Biofouling and Nutrients Removal in Fixed Film Membrane Bioreactor Treating Sewage at Medium and High Fluxes

This study investigates effects of fixed film surface area increment on removal efficacy and biofouling in membrane bioreactor (MBR). For this purpose, a lab-scale membrane bioreactor was used. Domestic wastewater was fed into it. Three different trials were conducted at different fluxes; 15, 20, and 25 L/m²/h (LMH). Every trial was conducted using four different scenarios by varying surface area of fixed media viz. 0, 100, 150, and 200 m²/m³. Removal of pollutants viz. chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total organic content (TOC), total Khjdel nitrogen (TKN), and phosphorous was studied. In addition, cake resistance, pore resistance, and total resistance were also observed for aforementioned scenarios. The results demonstrated that pollutant removal efficiencies increased as the surface area per unit volume of bioreactor was increased. Conversely, the removal efficiency decreased with increase in the fluxes. In the case of biofouling, it increased while increasing the surface area or flux. The fixed media surface area increments proved beneficial in terms of removal efficiencies but at the cost of reduced operation time of MBR.