Development of high yielding and stable cultivars of various legume crops across different environments is very important for their adoption by farmers. In addition, climate change sets new challenges to major crop species and especially to grain legumes such as faba bean (Vicia faba L.) for adaptation to stressful environments. The present study focused on evaluating faba bean genotypes developed for yield and stability across different environments. The study was conducted in three areas of Greece (South, Central, and North) for two consecutive growing seasons (2018–2019 and 2019–2020). Biomass yield, seed yield, and yield components were studied together with plant height, earliness, and water use efficiency. Genotype, environment, and their interaction affected most of the studied characteristics. The environment was the major source of variation for most of the characteristics, as it explained 81–93% of total variation, and only in the thousand seed weight the variation was 49% for the environment and 40% for the genotype. Genotype had a much smaller effect on the remaining characteristics (1.2–3.9%), and the interaction between environment x genotype accounted for up to 0.5–17% of the variation. GGE-biplot analysis for high yield and stability across different environments revealed three genotypic types: genotypes well adapted either for biomass or seed yield and genotypes with high adaptation capacity for both traits under typical Mediterranean conditions. These results indicated that screening faba bean genotypes under different environmental field conditions is essential to identify adaptable cultivars to be cultivated for biomass and/or seed yield or to be used in breeding programs.
Pomegranate is one of the oldest known fruit crops, well adapted to hot and dry areas and successfully grown in Mediterranean countries. During the last two decades, numerous publications have revealed the traditionally known associations between pomegranate consumption and health benefits, which led to increased demand by consumers and expansion in cultivation areas. Pomegranate is well adapted to areas with diverse pedoclimatic conditions and local cultivars could provide an essential source of genes for breeding. In this study, fruit phenotypic and genetic variability, and relationships, were studied in 26 Greek and foreign pomegranate cultivars/accessions grown in an ex situ collection located in Naoussa Greece, using Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) and Start Codon Targeted (SCoT) molecular markers. Results from the principal component analysis made on fruit phenotypic characters revealed five components that accounted for 74.8% of the total variance, the first being related to skin color parameters and the second to juice antioxidant contents and aril color. Clustering from phenotypic data allocated individuals into four clusters. A total of 184 bands were generated for all markers applied across the 26 pomegranate cultivars/accessions, with an average of 77 bands per ISSR markers and 82 bands for SCoT markers. Low variability in the phenotypic and genotypic level was indicated; nevertheless, results from the association study between phenotypic traits and molecular markers that were obtained using Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) could prove valuable for marker-assisted breeding programs, especially from SCoT markers that were found to be strongly or averagely associated with the morphological traits and chemical components.
Faba bean is an important grain legume, grown for human consumption and animal feed and can be used as an alternative to soybean protein. Drought and heat strongly influence faba bean growth and production, especially in flowering and pod development stages. The aim of this study was to determine the response of six cultivars to different environmental conditions during the 2018-2019 growing season. Four inbred lines and two commercial cultivars were sown in different environments in South, Central and North Greece. At each location, a randomized complete block design with four replications was used. Different characteristics such as plant height, number of pods plant-1, number of seeds pod-1, seed yield and 1000-seed weight, were recorded. The results indicated that all traits were significantly affected by different climatic conditions and cultivars. In most cases, seed yield and 1000-seed weight decreased with increasing drought conditions in the southern site. KK10 produced higher yield and pods plant-1, especially in North and Central Greece. The late maturity cultivars, ‘Polycarpe’ and KK14, showed lower values for the seed traits under all locations. Multi-location trials are useful for the evaluation of new cultivars and lead to an increase in production of feedstuff directly available to farmers.
Plant protoplasts are significant for plant cell culture, somatic cell fusion, genetics, and breeding studies. In addition, in vitro plant regeneration has great importance for developmental biology, manifesting potential applications in agriculture and biotechnology. In this regard, we present a well-established protocol regarding protoplast isolation, cell culture and protoplast fusion of Jasminum spp. In particular, different tissues of Jasminum samab L. and Jasminum mesnyi were employed for protoplast isolation, and stem explants provided a high callus induction rate in a short period of time. The best source for protoplast isolation was calli tissues. The optimized isolation protocol consisted of digesting callus in an enzyme solution containing 0.4 M mannitol, 0.2 M MES, 1 M CaCl2, 0.2 M KCL and 1 M NaH2PO4, 1.5% Cellulases onozuka R-10, 0.4% Macerozyme R-10 and 0.8% Pectinase for 4 h at 26 °C in the dark, providing a yield of 23.8 × 106 Protoplast/gFW with 88% viability. Protoplasts were cultured both in liquid and agarose medium under optimum conditions, leading to microcalli formation after eight weeks. A 5% protoplast-fusion rate can be achieved when cultured in 40% (w/v) PEG-MW6000 supplemented with 0.1 M CaCl2, 0.1 M sorbitol and 1 M Tris for 20 min. Furthermore, we developed an efficient PEG-mediated transformation protocol for jasmine protoplasts. The best results regarding protoplast transformation were obtained when the protoplast concentration was 4 × 105 cells/mL and the exogenous plasmid DNA added had a concentration of 10 µg DNA/100 µL protoplast solution, followed by the application of 40% PEG-4000 for 10 min.
The destructive effects of Fusarium wilts are known to affect the production of many crops. The control of Fusarium oxysporum and other soilborne pathogens was mainly based on soil fumigation (methyl bromide), which has long been prohibited and, nowadays, is based on a limited number of available fungicides due to legislation restrictions on residue tolerances and environmental impacts. Alternatively, natural and environmentally safe compounds, such as essential oils, are being investigated for their efficacy in the control of soilborne diseases. The great fungicidal ability of the oregano essential oil components (carvacrol and thymol) has been reported to inhibit the germination and the mycelial development of several fungal species, including F. oxysporum. The aim of our study was to demonstrate how the metabarcoding approach can provide valuable information about the positive or negative impacts of two different doses of oregano essential oil on Fusarium oxysporum and other fungal species which were present in the studied soil samples through the amplification of the ITS1 and ITS2 regions, which were analyzed on a MiSeq platform. A higher dose of oregano essential oil decreased the abundance of F. oxysporum, along with other fungal species, but also had negative effects on Trichoderma evansii and Mortierella chlamydospora, species with possible fungicidal properties. Soil properties, essential oil properties, the fungal composition, and interactions between fungal species should be considered as factors influencing the effectiveness of essential oils as biological control agents for soilborne pathogens.
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