The yield and quality of tomato largely depend on soil and climatic conditions and also on variety. Plant growth regulators function as chemical messengers for intercellular communication. In tomato, different growth regulators and zinc play a pivotal role in germination, root development, branching, flower initiation, fruiting, lycopene development, synchronization and early maturation, parthenocarpic fruit development, ripening, TSS, acidity, seed production etcetera. The field experiment was conducted at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University Farm, Dhaka, Bangladesh Islam et al.; IJPSS, 32(1): 1-9, 2020; Article no.IJPSS.54344 2 during October 2017 to April, 2018 to evaluate the effect of foliar application of IBA, GA3 and Zn on yield and quality of tomato [1]. Single variety BARI Tomato-14 and foliar application of IBA 5 ml/L, GA3 5 ml/l and Zn were used to conduct this experiment. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) having three factors and replicated three times. Data were collected on chlorophyll content of leaf, number of flowers cluster per pant, number of fruit per plant, yield per hectare, Vitamin-C content and TSS% content. A statistically significant variation was recorded in terms of the above characters about yield and quality of tomato. All the characters shows maximum result in treatment of T 7 (IBA+GA3+Zn).The treatment combination of T 7 (IBA 5 ml / L, GA3 5 ml / L and Zn 1 kg/ha) and T 4 (IBA 5 ml / L, GA3 5 ml / L) gave the maximum yield (100.00 t/ha) and the minimum yield (39.75 t/ha) was found from the treatment combination on T 0 (control). The highest Vitamin C content (113.10 mg/100 gm) and highest TSS (%) (7.000) were found from T 7 (IBA 5 ml / L, GA3 5 ml / L and Zn 1 kg/ha) than that of control under present experiment. So, it can be concluded that treatment combination of T 7 (IBA 5 ml / L, GA3 5 ml / L and Zn 1 kg/ha) is the best for yield and quality of tomato and can be tested further under different field conditions. Original Research Article

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Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L) is considered as major textile fiber around the world. This research aimed to analyze the molecular diversity among 9 cotton genotypes collected from Cotton Development Board, Bangladesh using the 7 Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. Some total of 18 DNA bands were obtained and among them, 13 were polymorphic bands. The range of DNA amplification varied from 180 to 800 bp. The percentage of polymorphism was about 50.71. Genetic diversity ranged from 0.22 to 0.44 with an average value of 0.34. Nei’s genetic distance ranging from 0.1667 to 0.6667 and most importantly PIC value ranged from 0.18 to 0.35 with an average value of 0.27. The PIC value indicated that most of the studied cotton genotypes were moderately diversified and homogenous as well as no heterozygosity found. A dendrogram indicating the relative genetic similarity of the Bangladeshi cotton genotypes was constructed which followed in two major clusters (A and B) among the studied material. The Cotton Development Board (CDB), Bangladesh committed to working on cotton improvement and this investigation will be helpful for the selection of diversified genotypes in varietal improvement in cotton. The output of this research will be a baseline for future molecular research work on cotton genotypes in Bangladesh.

The present research was carried out in Biotechnology Laboratory of the Department of Biotechnology, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207 from the period of September 2017 to June 2018. This research aims to study the effect of Benzyladenine (BA), Kinetin (KIN) and Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) either in combination or alone on In vitro propagation of papaya (Carica papaya). The shoot tips of young shoots were used as explant, which was sterilized using freshly prepared 0.1% HgCl2 mixing with few drops of Tween-20, were inoculated in MS media supplemented with 0.1% activated charcoal. The minimum days to shoot induction (10.25) were recorded on MS medium containing 0.5 mg/L BA. The highest shoots (4.5) and length of shoot (5.75 cm) observed in 1.0 mg/L BA. The combined treatment 1.0 mg/L BA+0.75 mg/LKIN gave the highest number of shoots (5.25) and length of shoot (5.78 cm).The minimum days (8.5) to root induction was reported in 2.0 mg/L NAA along with maximum 8.25 roots per plantlet. The highest length of root (6.92 cm) was observed in 2.0 mg/L NAA. In regenerated plantlets, 80% survival rates were observed in growth chamber conditions and 75% in the open atmosphere were achieved. Finally, the in vitro regeneration protocol described herein can potentially be used as a tool in molecular breeding programs for the improvement of different cultivars and genotypes of papaya.

Aims: The objectives of the research work were to evaluate the effects of mulching on soil water content, maize performance and weed growth in dry land area of Bangladesh Study Design: The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications Place and Duration of Study: Central research field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207 during November 2019 to April 2020. Methodology: The experimental field is divided into 3 blocks to represent 3 replications. There are 6 unit plots (each unit plot consists of 3m ´ 2m area) in the experimental farm. Distances of 1 m and 0.5 m are maintained between replication to replication and plots to plots, respectively. Plant to plant and row to row distances are considered to be 0.25 m and 0.75 m, respectively. The treatments are assigned in random plots. The land is ploughed four times followed by laddering to have fine tilth of the soil. The maize cultivars Shuvra and KS-510 are used as plant materials. Fig. 1 represents the six mulch treatments are imposed on the plants: Control (without mulch, CK), water hyacinth dry (10 t/ha, WH), rice straw dry (10 t/ha, RS), black polythene (4m ´ 3m, BP), white polythene (4m ´ 3m, WP), and transparent polythene (4m ´ 3m, TP) (S2). The mulches are applied as per treatment in each plot just after sowing to maintaining an equal thickness throughout the plot. Dried and cleaned mulches are used before applying to the experiment. The significance of the difference among the treatment means were estimated by the MSTAT-C package programme at 5% level of probability. Results: It is found in the experimental results that the soil water content of the no-mulching treatment is lower as compared to that of the other treatments from 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm soil depths. It is also observed that the RS mulching provides the highest soil water content, leaf area index (LAI), chlorophyll contents, and total biomass. Significant enhancement of maize yield (20.55 ton/ha) is recorded for the rice straw mulching. In contrast, the weed dry weight of 7.45g/m2 is observed in the RS mulching, which is lower than the other treatments. Conclusions: Therefore, it can be concluded that the RS mulching, compared to other mulching, would be more efficient for maximum utilization of limited water resources, weed suppression as well as to increase the maize yield. The present research approach would be applicable to manage the soil water for enhancing the maize production in dry land area.