BACKGROUND Several species belonging to the ecological group of white-rot basidiomycetes are able to bring about the remediation of matrices contaminated by a large variety of anthropic organic pollutants. Among them, polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) are characterized by a high recalcitrance due to both their low bioavailability and the inability of natural microbial communities to degrade them at si...

BACKGROUND Plant height is an important agronomic trait that affects yield and tolerance to certain abiotic stresses. Understanding the genetic control of plant height is important for elucidating the regulation of maize development and has practical implications for trait improvement in plant breeding. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In this study, two independent, semi-dwarf maize EMS mutant...

BACKGROUND Stable isotope analysis is being utilized with increasing regularity to examine a wide range of issues (diet, habitat use, migration) in ecology, geology, archaeology, and related disciplines. A crucial component to these studies is a thorough understanding of the range and causes of baseline isotopic variation, which is relatively poorly understood for nitrogen (δ(15)N). Animal excr...

The primary maize (Zea mays L.) production areas are in temperate regions throughout the world and this is where most maize breeding is focused. Important but lower yielding maize growing regions such as the sub-tropics experience unique challenges, the greatest of which are drought stress and aflatoxin contamination. Here we used a diversity panel consisting of 346 maize inbred lines originati...

Prediction of single-cross performance has been a major goal of plant breeders since the beginning of hybrid breeding. Recently, genomic prediction has shown to be a promising approach, but only limited studies have examined the accuracy of predicting single-cross performance. Moreover, no studies have examined the potential of predicting single crosses among random inbreds derived from a serie...

Corn (Zea mays L.) is one of the most widely grown cereals in world. However, Cameroon, particularly Far North Region, yields remain low because diseases increasing due to farming practices and climate change. This work aimed characterize Brown Spot Stalk Rot corn evaluate susceptibility two maize varieties Physoderma maydis field conditions. Two varieties, CMS9015, CMS8704 were evaluated a ran...

Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance in wheat and triticale has a high priority the European Union because of strict guidelines for major mycotoxins deoxynivalenol (DON) zearalenone (ZON) admission policy regulatory authorities. Potentially 70% arable land Germany about 60% Austria can be affected by Fusarium. Although epidemics occur only some years and/or regions, DON ZON are detected every ...