Annals of Applied Biology最新文献

Water availability is a limiting factor to plant development and productivity. Many drought-induced physiological processes that affect patterns of growth, biomass allocation, and ultimately, yield, are also regulated by the red/far-red photoreceptor phytochromes (PHYs). However, as the mechanisms and responses to drought stress vary among plant developmental phases, it is reasonable to conjecture that PHY-dependent morphophysiological responses to drought may be different according to the plant growth stage. In this study, we submitted tomato phyB1 mutant plants to water deficit in two distinct growth stages, during vegetative and flower-bearing reproductive phases, comparing the morphophysiological development, fruit yield and quality to wild-type (WT). In general, phyB1 plants overcome growth limitations imposed by water availability limitations during vegetative phase, being taller and leafier than WT. Restrictions to growth are less acute for both genotypes when water deficit occurs during reproductive phase compared to vegetative phase. phyB1 yield is lower when water is limited during reproductive phase, but its fruits accumulate more soluble solids, associated with better quality. These results highlight that drought-induced modulations in tomato growth and yield are dependent upon PHYB1 regulation and the developmental phase when water deficit is applied.

A new year starts and we are looking forward to publishing new interesting research for you. It seems that the trend in submission observed in the last 2 years is slowly getting to a new level. After a continuous steady increase in submissions until 2021 (Azevedo, 2022) when a major jump was observed, 2022 and 2023, showed reductions. Still, the number of published papers did not change and we have maintained the same numbers over the years. We would obviously like to see more submissions and more articles published, therefore, please do consider Annals of Applied Biology when publishing your next work. There is a much wider range of types of publications now and we look forward to getting your views and ideas in articles types such as Point-of-View. We especially welcome hypothesis-driven research using either theoretical or experimental approaches to answer key questions of general interest to our broad readership.

Annals has an online manuscript submission and tracking, fast, efficient refereeing of manuscripts, no page charges, but the author can opt for the Open Access alternative, and we always try to make sure papers are published rapidly. Annals is owned by the Association of Applied Biologists (AAB—https://www.aab.org.uk) so we have worked with AAB to disseminate what is published and our actions on social media, making the articles more visible than ever. By the way, many of them are made Free Access. The AAB team has also worked hard and efficiently in order to help Annals with our activities, continuing with the work with some authors, offering them free membership for a certain period. It is important to mention that now all our editors have been offered membership of AAB for the duration of their time helping Annals. My thanks to the AAB team, in particular Geraint Parry (Executive Officer), and also to AAB's Publication Officer, Prof. Martin Parry.

Our thanks also to the Wiley (https://www.Wiley.com/en-us) team who is giving a lot of support, from the publication of the journal to the marketing of our activities, and helping us in so many different ways. They are so many but I would like to mention Andreas Petersen (Senior Journal Publishing Manager), Madalina Poienaru (Analyst—Product Optimization—ReXReadiness), and Devvie Miranda (Production Editor). Last year Wiley introduced the ReX submission system, which is looking good, but naturally, with its use by our potential authors, we noticed that some adjustments and changes were needed, so we have worked together to make sure that the necessary alterations are performed and the submission process is as easy and efficient as possible. My thanks to Carol Millman, Annals Editorial Officer, who has also maintained close communication with the Wiley team, adjusting ReX and any other issues that we have eventually encountered. Thanks are also due to our editors and reviewers who have been working extremely hard as alw

The species Ceratitis capitata (Weidemann, 1824), known as Mediterranean fruit fly, is an important pest for fruit trees worldwide. The control of this pest is carried out mainly by the chemical method, using organophosphorus, pyrethroid, and spinosyn pesticides. The lethality of doses of malathion, deltamethrin, and spinetoram on immature and adult stages of C. capitata was evaluated under laboratory conditions. The egg, larval, pupal, and adult stages were exposed to doses of pesticides through contact and ingestion. The doses were obtained by decreasing the recommended doses (malathion: 200 mL L⁻¹, deltamethrin: 50 mL L⁻¹, and spinetoram: 120 g ha⁻¹) with intervals of 20%, this being the minimum dose used. The variables evaluated were: viability of eggs and pupae and mortality of larvae and adults. Application of spinetoram and malathion through contact caused high mortality of adults, with LD₉₀ at the sub-doses of 43.74% (52.48 g c.p. ha⁻¹) and 68.81% (137.62 mL c.p. 100 L⁻¹), respectively. The mortality of adults by ingestion of deltamethrin and malathion allowed us to estimate only the LD₅₀. Only the pesticide deltamethrin presented LD₅₀ for the egg stage. The larval and pupal stages the effect of the pesticides on larvae treated through contact resulted in 52% mortality with spinetoram and 62% with malathion. The mortality of larvae and pupae treated through ingestion was below 20% for the three pesticides. Sub-doses of spinetoram (43.74%; 52.48 g c.p. ha⁻¹) and malathion (68.81%; 137.62 mL c.p. 100 L⁻¹) can be used since they present a 90% efficiency on C. capitata adult when applied by contact under laboratory conditions.

Cross-protection was first described a century ago. In practical terms, cross-protection consists of the pre-inoculation of plants with mild or attenuated viral isolates that protect the plants from subsequent infections with aggressive isolates. Experimentally, cross-protection has been shown to apply to numerous virus and viroid species infecting numerous plant hosts, but the number of cases in which it has been successfully used for the control of the damage caused by viruses in crops is rather limited. Significant examples include citrus tristeza virus and zucchini yellow mosaic virus, and more recently, pepino mosaic virus (PepMV). PepMV is a pandemic virus affecting tomato crops worldwide. During the first decade of the current century, a number of mild PepMV isolates useful in cross-protection were identified and characterized. Soon after, cross-protection programs against PepMV were implemented in the Netherlands, Belgium, Morocco, and Spain. These programs were easily adopted by farmers, as no other efficient control methods were available and the losses caused by PepMV were unbearable for tomato producers. PepMV cross-protection has been working exceedingly well during this time, although the potential interaction of the PepMV mild isolates with the recently emerging tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) may be threatening its viability. In this review, we describe our experience in deploying cross-protection against PepMV in Spain. In our view, this is an underexploited technology that holds promise, but when it is used and how it is used requires careful thinking and preparation, as not all situations are as favourable for the use of cross-protection as the PepMV pandemic has been.

Indian mustard is an important oilseed crop in India. The productivity of Indian mustard needs to be increased in marginal environments such as in arid and semi-arid areas to boost production. For this, identification of promising genotypes with high yield and quality under arid and semi-arid climate is required. In this study, 65 genotypes of Indian mustard were evaluated in Augmented Randomized Block Design in the Purulia district of West Bengal, a mustard growing zone characterized by red laterite soil and semi-arid climate. Considerable variation was observed between the genotypes for most characters such as number of seeds per siliqua (coefficient of variation [CV] 7.39%), followed by days to first flowering (CV 6.9%) and total number of siliquae (CV 6.43%), respectively. However, variation was less for days to maturity and quality parameters. Strong positive correlations were observed between many traits such as number of branches and number of siliquae on branches (0.82), number of branches and siliquae per plant (0.73), number of branches and yield per plant (0.72), number of siliquae on branches and siliquae per plant (0.91), number of siliquae on branches and seed yield per plant (0.76). Relatively strong negative correlation was observed only between oil and glucosinolate content (−0.60). Most of the traits showed high heritability along with high genetic advance over mean. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis classified the genotypes into six clusters. Based on yield, its components, and other quality parameters, promising genotypes such as Pusa Mahak, Narendra Ageti Rai 4, and JM-1 were identified. These genotypes may be targeted for further genetic improvement or be incorporated in breeding programmes for developing high-yielding mustard varieties for arid and semi-arid climate.

Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott var. antiquorum] is an important tuber crop widely cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical regions, for its corms, leaves, and petioles. Millions of people living in developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Central America, utilise taro as a staple or subsistence food and it plays a very crucial role there for food security, nutritional security, livelihood improvement, and employment generation. It exhibits a capacious range of diversity worldwide regarding plant characteristics. However, its phenology has not yet been described systematically. The present study defines codes and phenological growth stages of taro according to the extended Biologische Bundesanstalt, Bundessortenamnt, and Chemische Industrie (BBCH) scale using a three-digit numerical coding system for its description. A total of nine principal growth stages were described such as germination (0), leaf development (1), elongation of shoot/stem (2), tuber formation (3), development of inflorescence/spadix (5), flowering (6), development of berries/fruiting (7), ripening of berries and seed development (8) and senescence and beginning of dormancy (9) and further, each of the principal development stages has been partitioned into optional developmental growth stages. Under remarkable circumstances, it is valuable to use mesostages with three-digit codes for description. The study of extended BBCH scale for taro has immense importance in crop management, crop improvement, germplasm characterisation, and assessment of impact of the climate on phenology under different agro-climatic conditions for the selection of suitable genotypes.

Two plots (10 ha each) of Triticum aestivum L. wheat crop were analysed, one with a phosphorus-solubilizing bioinoculant (bioinput) and another without the bioinput (control). Traditional physical–chemical variables and four enzymes were analysed: arylsulfatase (AS), β-glucosidase (β-G), acid phosphatase (AP), and N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase (NAG). These variables were considered by Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The HCA separated 100% correctly the control and bioinput samples along the wheat phenological stages (Feekes-Large scale). The PLS-DA model was constructed with seven latent variables and obtained 100% accuracy, explaining a variance of 97.05% in calibration and 93.13% in cross-validation. The control soil had a productivity of 57.8 bags per hectare, while the soil with bioinput had a productivity of 60.8 bags per hectare. Furthermore, soil with the bioinput presented higher concentrations of the enzymes AS, β-G, and AP in the final phenological stages.

Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is considered an orphan/underutilised grain legume with high yield and nutritive potential. It is variable in flower and seed coat (testa) colour and this variation could possibly be used as a biomarker in phenotypic selection for yield and quality traits. Three phenotypes differing in flower/testa colour (white flower-white to creamy testa and white hilum [T_WH_W], slightly blue banner and wing colouration-white to creamy testa and coloured halo around hilum [T_WH_C] and blue banner and wing colouration-spotted testa and coloured halo around hilum [T_SH_C]) were tested over two growing seasons, under rainfed, Mediterranean conditions. They differed only in the number of seeds per pod; the phenotype T_WH_W had the lowest number (2.2 seeds pod⁻¹). The seed yield per plant (SY) was highly correlated with the number of pods per plant and was higher under wetter and warmer conditions during the reproductive period (April–May). The three phenotypes showed no difference in tolerance against bruchid (Bruchus tristiculus) infection (F_2,8 = 0.14, p > .05), which was higher in the most productive growing season (6.44%, F_1,4 = 14.8, p < .05). In the phenotype T_WH_W, three seed classes (intact, bruchid-damaged, parasitoid-damaged seeds) were tested for SY, quality traits and tolerance to bruchids. Though insect damaged seeds showed significant reduction in emergence rates (from −57% up to −91%), there were no differences in SY (19.11–24.53 g plant⁻¹, F_2,8 = 0.86, p > .05) and yield components (seeds per pod, 1000-seed weight, number of pods per plant). However, seeds of plants derived from parasitoid-damaged seeds had higher concentration of the neurotoxin ODAP (4.92 mg g⁻¹, F_2,8 = 8.76, p < .01). On the other hand, seeds of plants derived from bruchid-damaged seeds showed higher percentage of damaged seeds by the endoparasitoid Triaspis thoracica (2.25% vs. 0.67%–1.00%, F_2,8 = 5.47, p < .05). Concluding, flower and testa colour cannot be used as biomarkers of seed yield and quality in grass pea, but it seemed that a tripartite interaction (grass pea–bruchid–endoparasitoid) may occur that affects ODAP concentration and the susceptibility of seeds to insect damages.

At present, intelligent and sustainable agriculture presupposes a compromise between maximising crop yield and minimising its risk of genetic vulnerability. Breeding programmes should implement strategies that allow the development of superior genotypes and preserve genetic diversity, especially in perennial plants. The Macaúba palm (Acrocomia aculeata) is a species with the potential to produce oil at a level comparable to that of the oil palm, even in water-deficient areas, which motivates its commercial interest and drives an increase in demand for seedlings from natural populations for commercial plantations. Therefore, to evaluate the impact of this selection procedure on the reduction of genetic diversity and, consequently, the genetic vulnerability of commercial planting, in the present study we analysed the population mating system and the genetic diversity of Open-Pollinated Progenies (OPPs) from selected seed-trees in relation to the genetic diversity of respective native populations (NPs). To achieve this, we evaluated the mating system and genetic diversity employing 14 microsatellite markers (SSR). The mating system indices estimated for A. aculeata palm indicated that the species present a mixed mating system ($��{\hat{t}}_m�=�0.877�$) with a predominance of outcrossing. However, at the population level, the outcrossing rate ranged from $��{\hat{t}}_m�=�0.986��\text{to}��1.00�$. The biparental inbreeding rate was considered moderate ($��{\hat{t}}_m�-�{\hat{t}}_s�=�0.312�$), with some variation between populations (from 0.0005 to 0.275). The multilocus correlated paternity was $��{\hat{r}}_p�$

Asian rice gall midge is one of the important pests of rice, which attacks the crop from nursery to the end of the tillering stage. Managing this pest through plant resistance is the most viable and economical. Two hundred-two rice genotypes were phenotyped against Asian rice gall midge, Orseolia oryzae (Wood-Mason) and the mechanism of resistance in terms of antixenosis and antibiosis was studied. Antixenosis mechanism for adult settlement and egg laying indicated that the susceptible genotypes were preferred more than the resistant genotypes in a free choice test. First instar maggots were found and did not continue their growth on resistant genotypes further. However, in susceptible genotypes, they molted successfully and emerged as adults. No choice tests revealed that the emergence of adults in susceptible genotypes took less time than in resistant genotypes. Higher adult sex ratio was found in susceptible genotypes. Estimation of biochemical components in rice shoot apices of selected genotypes revealed that higher levels of total phenols, wax content, total flavonoids and total free amino acids were present in the resistant genotypes. Still, the number of total sugars, reducing sugars and total protein contents were significantly higher in the susceptible genotypes. Hence, the resistance mechanism in rice gall midge was displayed as a combination of antixenosis and antibiosis mechanism. The output of the study would be helpful in breeding for rice varieties resistant to Asian rice gall midge.