The experiment was conducted during three growing seasons and two planting dates. The cultivation site is placed at the ITGC Setif characterized by a semi-arid environment. The objective of the study is the analysis of phenotypic variability of traits measured for 15 varieties of durum wheat, through the average effects, to decline the ways, characters and varieties could play in favour of performance under the constraining semi-arid conditions. The year effect indicates that given the difficulty of predicting the performance enabled by years, it then makes sense to go straight for this performance within genotypes. Analysis of the effect genotype highlights characters connected to performance and is the Setifis variety that lends itself well. For the effect of sowing date, it is that early sowing promotes a better expression of the characteristics compared to late sowing.

Rugose wood disease constitutes one of the major grapevine disease complexes causing significant economic damage worldwide. It is widely distributed in all grapevine growing areas of the world and comprised of four individual syndromes, which may be caused by different viruses. These syndromes are Corky bark, LN 33 stem grooving, Kober stem grooving and Rupestris stem pitting (RSP). The present study focuses on the prevalence of three viruses associated with rugose wood complex (RWC) in Algeria.Field inspections and collection of symptomatic samples were conducted on autumn 2012 in the table wine and autochthone accession in the western and central regions of Algeria. A total of 202 samples were tested by RT-PCR using specific primers for Grapevine virus A (GVA), Grapevine virus D (GVD) and Grapevine rupestris stem pitting associated virus (GRSPaV).The results of RT-PCR indicated the presence of the viruses GVA, GVD and GRSPaV with 68,81% (139 out of 202 infected samples) total average infection rate. The results also indicated the predominance of GRSPaV compared to the prevalence of GVA and GVD with an infection rate of 57,92% vs. 36,63% (74 out of 202) and 2,97% (6 out of 202), respectively. Mixed infections of these three viruses were not observed in any of the samples analysed, however the mixed infection of GVA and GRSPaV was noted with a high rate of 26.73%. The grapevine cultivars; Kings Rubi, Carignan and Mersguerra were the most infected, while the Alicante Bouschet cultivar presented the lowest infection rate. To the best of our knowledge, the present study reports for the first time on the presence of GVD in Algeria.

V IGOROUS seedling growth is important for good crop establishment, particularly under drought conditions. Our study was set out to identify useful traits and genotypes to enhance early drought tolerance of durum wheat. Two experiments were carried out. In the first one, thirty-five genotypes (Landrace and improved) were tested in a phytotron at germination and early seedling stages, subjected to three osmotic stress levels induced by polyethylene glycol PEG 6000 (0, -3, -6 bar). The second experiment was conducted in the field, with 27 out of the 35 genotypes. Root and shoot traits were measured at seedling stage in both experiments. High PEG 6000 treatment decreased final germination percentage (FGP) by 2.7% and delayed the time to reach 50% germination (t50) by 2.9h. Shoot length was the trait most affected by drought (40% reduction) as compared with other root traits, which even increased under drought, like root to shoot length ratio, root to shoot weight ratio, root dry weight and root number. Coleoptile length (CL) showed a contrasting relationship with other traits, it was negatively correlated in general under no stress, but with positive correlations under stress. Based on drought susceptibility index (DSI), Algerian wheat landraces were the most tolerant compared to modern genotypes. Correlations between traits measured in field and controlled conditions were low. CL could be a potential trait for screening drought tolerant genotypes. Algerian wheat landraces presented a clearly distinct ability for early drought tolerance, and could be a good resource for breeding programs.