Global warming promotes soil calcification and salinization processes. As a result, soil phosphorus (P) is becoming deficient in arid and semiarid areas throughout the world. In this pot study, we evaluated the potential of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) for enhancing the growth and P uptake in maize under varying levels of lime (4.8%, 10%, 15% and 20%) and additional P supplements (farmyard manure, poultry manure, single super phosphate and rock phosphate) added at the rate of 45 mg P2O5 kg−1. Inoculation and application of P as organic manures (Poultry and farm yard manures) improved maize growth and P uptake compared to the control and soils with P applied from mineral sources. Liming adversely affected crop growth, but the use of PSB and organic manure significantly neutralized this harmful effect. Mineral P sources combined with PSB were as effective as the organic sources alone. Furthermore, while single supper phosphate showed better results than Rock phosphate, the latter performed comparably upon PSB inoculation. Thus, PSB plus P application as organic manures is an eco-friendly option to improve crop growth and P nutrition in a calcareous soil under changing climate.

-Introduction. Barberry (Berberis aristata DC.), a small fruit, is found growing in the wild in the temperate region of northern Pakistan. Materials and methods. Three different locations of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, i.e., Topa, Banjosa and Neriyan Sharif, were explored; thirty accessions of barberry were identified and characterized on the basis of their growth habit, flowering, fruiting and chemical composition of fruits. Results. The accessions exhibited high diversity in their phenotypical/morphological traits such as growth habit, intensity and time of flowering, fruit setting, ripening time, productivity, and fruit shape and color. The location had a great impact on quantitative parameters. Accessions collected from Neriyan Sharif had significantly greater plant height, higher number of branches per plant, extended flowering duration (days), took more time to maturity (days) and had high fruit setting (%), while those from Topa had large-sized leaves and fruits with greater average fruit weight. The nutritional composition of fruits indicated that the accessions from Topa had higher carbohydrate, ash, total soluble solids and Mn contents, with significantly higher juice pH, and lower acidity; while the accessions from Neriyan Sharif had significantly higher moisture, protein, fat, fiber, K, Ca, Na, Fe, Cu, Pb and Cr contents and were highly acidic. The accessions collected from Banjosa were almost intermediate for the quantitative characteristics studied. Conclusions. The results suggested that not only the genotype but its growing location as well are the main factors that determine the growing habit, productivity and nutritional composition of barberry fruits, and this ultimately provides important information on how to make the best use of them.Pakistan / Berberis aristata / biodiversity / fruits / physicochemical properties / proximate composition / genotype environment interaction Caractérisation du matériel génétique indigène de l'épine-vinette au Pakistan : variabilité des caractéristiques morphologiques et de la composition nutritionnelle.Résumé -Introduction. L'épine-vinette (Berberis aristata DC.), qui produit de petits fruits, se développe à l'état sauvage dans la zone tempérée du nord du Pakistan. Matériel et méthodes. Trois localités différentes (Topa, Banjosa et Neriyan Sharif) de l'Azad Jammu-et-Cachemire ont été explorées ; trente accessions d'épine-vinette ont été identifiées et caractérisées sur la base de leur port, floraison, fructification et composition chimique des fruits. Résultats. Les accessions étudiées ont présenté une forte diversité de caractéristiques phénotypiques et morphologiques (port, intensité et durée de floraison, nouaison, maturation, productivité, forme et couleur du fruit). La localisation a eu une grande incidence sur les paramètres quantitatifs. Les accessions collectées auprès de Neriyan Sharif ont significativement présenté de plus grands plants, un plus grand nombre de branches par plant, une durée de floraison plus longue, un temps de maturation plus l...

The genetic control of dormancy is poorly understood in most plant species, but dormancy is a prominent feature for the potato industry. We used the microtuber system, in which tubers were produced in vitro and stored at 20°C, to perform quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis for dormancy and gibberellic acid (GA3) content in an F1 population consisting of 178 genotypes derived from an interspecific cross between Solanum chacoense acc. PI 320285 (long dormancy) and Solanum phureja acc. DM1-3 516 R44 (short dormancy). In this analysis, 163 markers were used to construct a genetic map with a total length of 591.8 cM. Through QTL analysis, we identified 22 markers closely linked to the timing of dormancy release and GA3 content. The male parent alleles were closely related with long dormancy, with the most significant effect on chromosome I, which accounted for 9.4% of phenotypic variation. The dormancy and GA3 QTLs localized to the same position in the genome, confirming that same genomic region controls GA3 content at different developmental stages or in dormant and sprouting tubers. The identified QTLs may be useful for future breeding strategies and studies of dormancy in potato.

Banana is one of the major cash and fruit crops of Pakistan. The lack of information concerning genetic diversity and purity within locally cultivated banana varieties is a major bottleneck in improving its genetics. Due to the existence of a narrow genetic background, it’s quite important to find genomic variations in banana varieties. DNA marker-based techniques have been used to effectively characterize banana varieties. In the current study, Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers were used to characterize banana cultivars and to assess the genetic diversity of 14 local banana varieties grown in Pakistan. Out of the 45 primers used, 40 primers revealed reproducible results and produced 121 polymorphic bands, which contributed a ratio of 47.87 polymorphism. The ISSR UBC-835 and UBC-834 possessed the highest PIC ranged between (86–88%) in banana varieties, while the lowest PIC (46%) was detected in the case of UBC−857 marker with (100–1500 bp) PCR product size. Pairwise Jaccard’s similarity coefficient values were also calculated, and these were ranged from 0.56–0.88. Multivariate analysis divided 14 banana varieties into two distinct groups—A and B respectively—and furthermore into subgroups, clusters, and sub−clusters. Our results indicated that at the molecular level, the banana varieties in group—A were found to be 66% similar whereas in group B were 88% similar. Nei’s genetic diversity, PCA analysis, and a minimum spanning tree depicted Fenjiao, Dajiao, and NIGAB-2 as the most diverse members as compared to all other varieties of the three populations. Out of 14 varieties used, 11 varieties were uniquely identified by 54 polymorphic ISSR bands of different sizes. Some varieties like NIGAB-2 and NIGAB-3 were uniquely identified only with one band while others were tagged by multiple unique bands. In future, this study will be utilized to establish a molecular-based protocol for the identification of banana varieties.

Abscisic acid (ABA) is known to impact many areas of plant growth and development and is also assumed to facilitate plant stress regulation. ABA is also involved in the rapid suberization of wounds and is the essential dormancy release regulator. The direct application of DNA markers to plant populations enables the use of mapping to help determine the regulation of a quantitatively inherited trait isolated in a population. QTLs represent a chromosomal region that is linked to a marker gene and that significantly affects the quantitative trait under review. In the present study, we investigated the ABA content after harvest and after sprouting in a diploid population. The most noticeable QTLs related to ABA were found on chromosomes I and IV, and these QTLs fully explained 6.5% and 7% of the entire phenotypic variance, respectively. The acquired information advances our understanding of the inheritance of traits applicable for variety development.