Heterosis refers to the increase in biomass, stature, fertility, and other characters that impart superior performance to the F1 progeny over genetically diverged parents. The manifestation of heterosis brought an economic revolution to the agricultural production and seed sector in the last few decades. Initially, the idea was exploited in cross-pollinated plants, but eventually acquired serious attention in self-pollinated crops as well. Regardless of harvesting the benefits of heterosis, a century-long discussion is continued to understand the underlying basis of this phenomenon. The massive increase in knowledge of various fields of science such as genetics, epigenetics, genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics persistently provide new insights to understand the reasons for the expression of hybrid vigor. In this review, we have gathered information ranging from classical genetic studies, field experiments to various high-throughput omics and computational modelling studies in order to understand the underlying basis of heterosis. The modern-day science has worked significantly to pull off our understanding of heterosis yet leaving open questions that requires further research and experimentation. Answering these questions would possibly equip today’s plant breeders with efficient tools and accurate choices to breed crops for a sustainable future.

Wheat is one of the important food crops worldwide while wheat bread is the most commonly consumed form of it in different populations. As Nigella sativa is rich in several phytochemicals that possess disease preventive properties hence, the proximate and sensory analysis of the breads supplemented with Nigella sativa extract and oil have been discussed in this study. Nigella sativa is one of the famous medicinal plants that has been used for treatment of various illnesses in different parts of the world. Compositional analysis revealed that Nigella sativa extract supplemented bread contains 14.75% moisture content, 10.32% crude fat content, 4.40 % ash and 3.55 % crude fiber, 11.89% crude protein and 55.09% Nitrogen Free Extract (NFE). In comparison, analysis of Nigella sativa oil supplemented revealed that it contains 14.23%, moisture content, 10.53% crude fat content, 4.10% ash and 3.20 % crude fiber, 11.79% crude protein and 56.15% NFE. Sensory evaluation was evaluated using 9 points-hedonic scale. Maximum score for overall acceptability was recorded for Nigella sativa extract fortified bread. In the meantime, the requests for wheat-based items with value addition are developing quickly in the previous couple of decades, as customers understood that eating foods with medical advantages is superior to taking medicine. The breads fortified with Nigella sativa will not only meet the consumer demands in terms of sensory attributes but might also aid in improving their health.

This paper addresses the effect of office harassment on the quality of work life of employees while job stress and organizational commitment were tested as mediators. Results suggested that organizational commitment mediated the relation between office harassment and quality of work life while job stress did not mediate the relationship. Furthermore, analysis confirmed that there existed an inverse relationship between office harassment and quality of work life. In the future, researchers could conduct the study across sectors as well as those sectors where women work under traditional roles settings.

Intercropping is considered as an improved system of multiple cropping systems which safeguards crop stand and improves crop production. The main goal of intercropping is to produce high yield from piece of a land by judicious use of available resources which otherwise may not be exploited by a single crop. A study was executed to investigate productivity and resource use in a maize–grain legume intercropping at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad during 2017 and 2018. Experimental treatments included maize, mungbean, mash-bean, and cowpea monocultures (sole crops), and intercropping combinations of maize + mungbean, maize + mash-bean, and maize + cowpea. Highest maize grain yield was observed in maize sole cropping (6520 and 6813 kg ha-1) and maize + mungbean intercropping (6375 and 6542 kg ha-1) during 2017 and 2018 growing seasons, respectively. Maximum seed yield in grain legumes was observed in mung and mash bean sole cropping during both years. Land equivalent ratio (LER) was maximum in maize + cowpea (1.83 and 1.87) and maize + mungbean intercropping (1.77 and 1.80) during both years, respectively. Maximum net economic return (ER) of PKR 134158 ha-1 (≈900 USD) was obtained from maize + mash bean intercropping system with highest benefit cost ratio (2.03) during 2017 while PKR 149358 ha-1 (≈1003 USD) along with benefit cost ratio (2.15) during 2018. Overall, LER and ER results indicated that maize-grain legume intercropping systems were beneficial in terms of land resource utilization and economic returns. The maize-grain legume intercropping systems are more sustainable option for small land-holding farmers in Pakistan. © 2021 Friends Science Publishers

No abstract