Ageratum conyzoides, Chromolaena odorata, and Lantana camara, are common weed species in Cameroon. Essential oil extracts from their leaves were tested for efficacy on the morality of the maize grain weevil, Sitophilus zeamais (Coleoptera, Curculionidae). Concentrations of the essential oils relative to the maize grains of 0.013, 0.025, 0.05 and 0.1% (v/w) were used for A. conyzoides and 0.063,...

Background Increasing the oil yield is a major objective for oilseed crop improvement. Oil biosynthesis and accumulation are influenced by multiple genes involved in embryo and seed development. The leafy cotyledon1 (LEC1) is a master regulator of embryo development that also enhances the expression of genes involved in fatty acid biosynthesis. We speculated that seed oil could be increased by ...

The needs of a growing human population require rapid and efficient development of improved cultivars by plant breeders. The doubled haploid (DH) technology enables generating completely homozygous lines in a single step and, thus, is central to modern genetics and breeding approaches. Rapid and reliable identification of seeds with a haploid embryo after in vivo haploid induction is elementary...

The maize lines, Illinois High Oil, Illinois Low Oil, and their F(1) generation contained about 18%, 0.5%, and 10%, respectively, of kernel lipids, which were present mostly in the scutella. We explored to see if the activities of gluconeogenic enzymes which appeared in postgerminative growth were proportional to the lipid content in each maize line. This proportionality was found to be valid i...

1. Rat dams given a diet containing 100 g maize oil/kg for approximately two weeks before mating and during the first 14 d of gestation, were given the same diet or one containing 100 g hydrogenated coconut oil/kg (essential fatty acid (EFA)-deficient) in place of maize oil until parturition. After parturition the dams were given the same diets and all progeny were weaned to the maize oil diet ...

BACKGROUND Maize-bambara groundnut complementary foods are deficient in calcium, iron, zinc and vitamin A. Food-to-food fortification could be cheaper, safer and more easily adopted by local communities compared to the use of chemically pure compounds and vitamins to enrich such foods. RESULTS Maize-bambara groundnut complementary foods fortified for iron, zinc, calcium and vitamin A by blend...

The storage triacylglycerols in seeds are confined to discrete spherical organelles called oil bodies (10). Each oil body of 1 ,um diameter contains a matrix of triacylglycerols surrounded by a layer of phospholipids embedded with abundant and unique proteins called oleosins (2, 6). Oleosins are hydrophobic proteins of low Mr ranging from 16 to 26 kD, depending on the isoforms and plant species...

The extensive genetic variation present in maize (Zea mays) germplasm makes it possible to detect signatures of positive artificial selection that occurred during temperate and tropical maize improvement. Here we report an analysis of 532,815 polymorphisms from a maize association panel consisting of 368 diverse temperate and tropical inbred lines. We developed a gene-oriented approach adapting...