Since the 1960’s, attempts have been made to reduce alfalfa flower damage from Lygus bug feeding by developing resistant alfalfa varieties. Much of this work was conducted at New Mexico State University by Dr. B. A. Melton and his graduate students (Vering 1968, Knipe 1969, Arledge 1972, Auld 1973). In order to identify plants that could withstand damage from Lygus. bug feeding these workers de...

poses a marketing problem for brewing companies because nobody wants to consume a “toxin” and DON has Fusarium head blight (FHB), incited by Fusarium graminearum been associated with beer gushing (Schwarz et al., 1995). Schwabe, has caused devastating losses in both yield and quality of barBeer gushing or overfoaming is the most easily identifiley (Hordeum vulgare L.) produced in the northern G...

Winter chilling is critical for flowering and fruiting of many temperate fruits, with evidence that blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum L.) cropping has been adversely affected by warm winters. Accurate models of chill accumulation in blackcurrant are required so that breeding strategies can be formulated for the generation of new cultivars with resilience to future climates. Existing models for chill a...

Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) is an important cause of quality loss in many cereal crops and is particularly prevalent and damaging in wheat. Resistance to PHS is therefore a valuable target trait in many breeding programs. The Phs-A1 locus on wheat chromosome arm 4AL has been consistently shown to account for a significant proportion of natural variation to PHS in diverse mapping populations. Ho...

In the hard winter wheat region of the Great Plains, Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a sporadic disease. Drought is more common than rain at flowering, however, within the region, rain at and after flowering often occurs in some parts of the region leading to severe FHB in localized areas. Hence the need to identify lines with FHB tolerance is needed, but most plant breeding programs have insuffi...

Seventy-two sorghum accessions were randomly selected from the Ethiopia, Mali, Sudan, and Uganda germplasm collections maintained by the US National Plant Germplasm System to evaluate variation in anthracnose resistance. The accessions were planted in a randomized complete block design in College Station, Texas during the 2007 and 2008 growing seasons. Twenty-six accessions exhibited a resistan...

Understanding the distribution of genetic variations and accession structures is an important factor for managing genetic resources, but also for using proper germplasm in association map analyses and breeding programs. The globe artichoke is the fourth most important horticultural crop in Europe. Here, we report the results of a molecular analysis of a collection including globe artichoke and ...

Because of their adaptation to a diverse set of habitats and stresses, wild species of cultivated crops offer new sources of genetic diversity for germplasm improvement. Using an Infinium array representing a genome-wide set of 8303 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), phylogenetic relationships and allelic diversity were evaluated within a diversity panel of germplasm from Solanum sect. Pet...