Northern corn leaf blight (NCLB), a severe fungal disease causing yield losses worldwide, is most effectively controlled by resistant varieties. Genomic prediction could greatly aid resistance breeding efforts. However, the development of accurate prediction models requires large training sets of genotyped and phenotyped individuals. Maize hybrid breeding is based on distinct heterotic groups t...

Fruit brown rot caused by Monilinia spp. is the most important fungal disease of stone fruits worldwide. Several phenotyping protocols to accurately characterize and evaluate brown rot infection have been proposed; however, the outcomes from those studies have not led to consistent advances in resistance breeding programs. Breeding for disease resistance is one of the most challenging objective...

Acerola fruit has gained prominence for its high nutraceutical value, associated with levels of ascorbic acid and phenolic compounds. The objectives this study were to analyze the chemistry composition antioxidant capacity in seven Brazilian varieties acerola. All acerola genotypes harvested at red ripe maturity stage, subjected metabolite analyses by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography. pre...

Plant propagation originated  from the mature tissues is the most desirable method in producing clonal plants, however microbial contamination usually is the main concern during regeneration processes. Moreover, commercial production of plants using clonal propagation is considered as high throughput method due to the   removal of seasonal barriers, lower cost of production with higher yield wh...

Biotechnology can offer useful tools to complement conventional breeding programs. The techniques of in vitro selection, that exploit phenomenon, called somaclonal variation, by screening cell cultures for resistance to herbicides, different types of stress or diseases, already helped to obtain tolerant lines of flax (Linum usitatissimum), which were used in further commercial breeding programs...

In developing countries minimal and erratic performance and pedigree recording impede implementation of large-sized breeding programs. Small-sized nucleus programs offer an alternative but rely on their economic performance for their viability. We investigated the economic performance of 2 alternative small-sized dairy nucleus programs [i.e., progeny testing (PT) and genomic selection (GS)] ove...

AUSTRALIAN sugarcane breeding programs in the past have maintained fairly separate breeding and selection programs targeting different regions. This structuring implied an assumption that genotype x region interactions are important relative to genotype x environment interactions within regions, but this had not been tested. A research project was initiated in 1997 to help address this issue an...

The study provides information on the reproductive performance of ostriches maintained at different stocking rates and male:female (M:F) ratios under intensive commercial conditions in the Little Karoo, South Africa. Breeding ostriches are concentrated on relatively small areas and through trampling have a most significant impact on the vegetation in the Little Karoo. Reproductive performance, ...