Field experiments were conducted in 2012 and 2013 during drought conditions in South Texas and the Texas High Plains to test whether cotton water-deficit stress, age, and cultivars are moderating and interacting factors that affect cotton fleahopper, Pseudatomoscelis seriatus (Reuter) (Hemiptera: Miridae), abundance and yield loss. Irrigation and sequential plantings of several cultivars were u...

The effect of water deficit on carbohydrate status and enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism (alpha and beta amylases, sucrose phosphate synthase, sucrose synthase, acid and alkaline invertases) in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was investigated in the seedlings of drought-sensitive (PBW 343) and drought-tolerant (C 306) cultivars. The water deficit was induced by adding 6% mannitol (water potential...

Inoculation of plant pathogenic bacteria in field plots has been improved by the use of organosilicone surfactants. Factors, such as cultivars, number of applications, crop stage, plant density, concentration of bacteria, and irrigation application method (overhead spray versus drop hoses), that may affect field screening of cotton cultivars for resistance to bacterial blight caused by Xanthomo...

A sand culture experiment was conducted to answer the question whether or not exogenous KNO(3) can alleviate adverse effects of salt stress in winter wheat by monitoring plant growth, K(+)/Na(+) accumulation and the activity of some antioxidant enzymes. Seeds of two wheat cultivars (CVs), DK961 (salt-tolerant) and JN17 (salt-sensitive), were planted in sandboxes and controls germinated and rais...

Drought stress induced pollen sterility is a detrimental factor reducing grain number in wheat. Exploring the mechanisms underlying pollen fertility under drought conditions could assist breeding high-yielding wheat cultivars with stress tolerance. Here, by using two Chinese wheat cultivars subjected to different levels of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced drought stress, possible links between...

Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assay was performed to estimate genetic polymorphism in six different rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars viz. Basmati 370, DM 25, IRATOM 24, Binadhan 6, TNDB 100 and Y 1281. Three out of the 15 decamer random primers showed amplification of genomic DNA in 24 individuals. The primers produced a total of 26 bands of which 14 were polymorphic. Proportion of po...

Nematode management decisions should be based, in part, on knowledge of the damage threshold population density, and this value is likely to vary based on the level of resistance of the cotton cultivar. The damage functions of two cotton cultivars resistant to the root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) were compared with that of a susceptible cultivar in field microplots using a 3 x 7 facto...

Ethylene has long been considered the key regulator of ripening in climacteric fruit. Recent evidence showed that auxin also plays an important role during fruit ripening, but the nature of the interaction between the two hormones has remained unclear. To understand the differences in ethylene- and auxin-related behaviours that might reveal how the two hormones interact, we compared two plum (P...

Effects of yard waste compost and maize (Zea mays) cultivar on population densities of plant-parasitic nematodes were examined in four experiments in north Florida. In one experiment, eight maize cultivars were evaluated; the other three experiments involved split-plot designs with compost treatments as main plots and maize cultivars as subplots. The three compost treatments used in these exper...

Drought is the major yield-limiting abiotic factor of tea cultivation. In the present study, influence of drought stress on cellular ultrastructure and antioxidants was studied drought-tolerant (TV-23) and -sensitive (S.3/A3) tea cultivars by imposing drought stress for 21 days. Drought stress led to considerable structural alterations in mitochondria, chloroplast and vacuole. Lesser membrane i...