the melon aphid, aphis gossypii glover (hemiptera: aphididae), is one of the most important pests of agricultural products in iran. in this study, susceptibility of melon aphid that collected from seven regions (yazd, varamin, mohammadshahr, esfehan, karaj, hashtgerd and ramsar) was compared to pirimicarb and malathion after 24 hours in 2009. bioassay experiments on adults were carried out by u...

Several nematicides have been used to disinfest rice seeds contaminated with the white tip nematode, Aphelenchoides besseyi. We measured the efficacy of a standard disinfestation treatment that consists of soaking seeds in an aqueous emulsion of fenitrothion or fenthion and subsequently air-drying the seeds. We also measured the efficacy of the same treatments but without addition of nematicide...

There have been several outbreaks of food poisoning linked to the consumption of raw sprouts. The two most common pathogens associated with sprout consumption are Salmonella spp and verocyto-toxin producing Escherichia coli. During sprouting the warm, humid and nutrient rich conditions are ideal for bacterial growth. Pathogenic bacteria can infect seeds at very low numbers only to grow to dange...

Plastic containers, capable of being evacuated to 50 kPa, were investigated for maintaining quality of fruits and vegetables. Celery, lettuce, broccoli, grapes, green beans, melon, and strawberry were kept at 4°C, broccoli, okra and tomato were kept at 8°C in vacuum containers and in conventional, sealed, plastic food containers. For each produce item, similar concentrations of carbon dioxide a...

In a field study in Hawaii, color-marked protein-deprived and protein-fed female melon flies, Bactrocera cucurbitae Coquillett, were released within canopies of unsprayed sorghum plants (a nonhost of melon flies) outside of a border area of unsprayed or bait-sprayed sorghum plants or open space that surrounded cucumbers, a favored host of melon flies. Application of bait spray to sorghum or sug...

This study investigated whether a jasmonic acid (JA) elicitation strategy developed in a conventional cell suspension culture could evoke melon resistance mechanisms, including secondary metabolite production. Twenty one day cultured melon cell suspensions grown in MS1 medium were supplemented with JA at the concentrations of 0.5, 5.0 and 10 μmol. Melon cultures were sampled 24, 48 and 72 h pos...

Schistosoma mansoni cercariae were removed from clear and turbid water by flocculation with Sudanese bentonite clays, with Moringa oleifera seeds as well as with pure bentonite. The flocculation technique employed corresponds to that used to clarify Nile water in Sudanese villages. Moringa seeds, pure bentonite and one type of bentonite clay were able to reduce the number of cercariae by more t...

The success of a biological invasion relies on the environment and is closely linked to factors such as water and temperature. Invasive plant species display different seed characteristics, including shape. Field sandbur (Cenchrus pauciflorus) is a globally widespread invasive species capable of adapting to broad environmental conditions. However, its germination response to water and temperatu...

In this work we investigated whether priming with auxin, cytokinin, gibberellin, abscisic acid and ethylene, alters the physiological responses of seeds of pigeon pea germinated under water and cadmium stress. Seeds treated with water or non-treated seeds were used as control. Although compared to non-treated seeds we found that the hormone treatments improve the germination of pigeon pea under...

The genus Fusarium has a wide host range and causes many different forms of plant disease. These include seed rot and seedling blight diseases of cultivated plants. The diseases caused by Fusarium on wild plants are less well-known. In this study, we examined disease development caused by Fusarium sp. n on nondormant seeds of the important rangeland weed Bromus tectorum as part of broader studi...