Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. tracheiphilum (Fot) is a soil-borne fungal pathogen that causes vascular wilt disease in cowpea. Fot race 3 is one of the major pathogens affecting cowpea production in California. Identification of Fot race 3 resistance determinants will expedite delivery of improved cultivars by replacing time-consuming phenotypic screening with selection based on perfect markers, the...

We have examined the biochemical responses of two sorghum cultivars of differing drought tolerance, Samsorg 17 (more drought tolerant) and Samsorg 40 (less drought tolerant), to sustained drought. Plants were exposed to different degrees of drought and then maintained at that level for five days. Responses were examined in terms of metabolic changes and the expression of drought induced protein...

Global climate change, especially, increases in carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and the associated increases in temperature will have significant impact on the crop production. Grain-sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] cultivar DeKalb 28E was grown at daytime maximum/nighttime minimum temperature regimes of 32/22, 36/26, 40/30 and 44/34 8C at ambient (350 mmol CO2 mol ) and elevated (700 m...

Clones have been constructed that contain full-length cDNA copies of cowpea mosaic virus RNA1 and RNA2, downstream of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter. The clones, when linearized downstream of the viral sequences, give rise to cowpea mosaic virus-like symptoms when inoculated onto cowpea plants. Viral RNA and virions can be detected in the inoculated plants, demonstrating that the clo...

We created a detailed model of the Maruca vitrata (F.) and cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp] system to study the possible evolution of resistance by the insect to transgenic insecticidal cowpea, which is under development. We focused on population dynamics and genetics in a region of west Africa. We simulated single-toxin and pyramided (two-toxin) cowpea and emphasized conservative, worst-c...

Two field experiments were conducted to know the effect of different doses of nitrogen fertilizer on the growth, botanical parameters and yield of maize and jumbo fodder cultivated with cowpea as inter crop and evaluation of silage. The experimental plots for Jumbo with cowpea and maize with cowpea were applied to nitrogen (N2) levels as urea 0, 100, 150kg ha-1 and 0, 150, 220 kg/ha, respective...

Six cowpea genotypes (Danila, IT96D-772, IT90K-277-2, IT95K-1091-3, IT96D-740, IT96D-757) were intercropped with a local millet cultivar using four row arrangements (1:1, 1:2, 2:2 and 2:4 millet to cowpea rows) in a field experiment conducted at Minjibir near Kano in the Sudan savanna ecological zone of Nigeria during the 1999 and 2000 wet seasons. Cowpea genotypes and row arrangement had no ef...

Population diversity was examined in individual and natural mixed infections of Cowpea chlorotic mottle virus (CCMV) and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) isolates in two systemic hosts, cowpea and Nicotiana benthamiana. Isolates of CCMV and CMV obtained from a cowpea field in Arkansas were separated biologically in cowpea and tobacco plants, respectively. After separation, individual and mixed cultu...

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata [L.] Walp.) yields are considerably low in Namibia due to lack of improved varieties and biotic and abiotic stresses, notably, recurrent drought. Thus, genetic improvement in cowpea aims to develop cultivars with improved grain yield and tolerance to abiotic and biotic stress factors. The objective of this study was to identify agronomically desirable cowpea genotypes ...