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Bottle gourd Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl is one of oleaginous cucurbits grown in Côte d'Ivoire with socio-economic and food importance that could play an important role in food security. The increase in the production of this species for improvement of plant yield remains a major challenge that begins with the agro-morphological characterization of local varieties present in different production areas. The objective of this study is to estimate agro-morphological variability within Lagenaria siceraria seed collection of Nangui Abrogoua University. The study focused on 26 accessions collected in the different production areas of the species. The experimental design is a randomized complementary block. Descriptive analyzes under the observation of fourteen descriptors showed existence of a great variability between accessions for the yield characters. Multiple variance analysis showed that there is a highly significant difference between accessions and provenances for the majority of traits studied. The structuring of accessions according to areas collection revealed by principal component analysis is confirmed by discriminant factor analysis. The classification of accessions and identification of the groups were carried out by hierarchical ascending classification which made it possible to elaborate a dendrogram which presents two groups of phenotypic diversity. It appears that the most relevant variables that describe the best variability between groups are fruit size (FH), fruit weight (FW), number of seed (NS), and seed weight (SW). These analyzed characters can thus constitute basic criteria to differentiate accessions and to be used in studies of morphological diversity of L. siceraria.

The search for a suitable medium for In vitro regeneration, whatever the species cultured, is always done by tests including successive steps of removal of components of the culture medium that do not give the expected results. This is the usual procedure. However, the effects of interactions are not taken into account. It is therefore with the aim of taking into account the interactions between the constituents of the culture medium in the formulation of the medium that motivated the present study. Therefore, in order to find the optimal composition with a minimum of experiments or trials, experimental planning was a particularly useful tool. The results of the experiments are analyzed and recommended response values are calculated. A Box-Behnken design wasused by varying three factors: MS mineral elements, sucrose and 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). Agar concentration has been kept constant. Shoot induction depended on the interaction between levels of sucrose, BAP and MS mineral elements in the medium. The optimum formulation for numerous shoots production is medium containing 1.5 strength of MS mineral elements, 35 g/l sucrose and 1 mg/l BAP solidified with 6 g/l agar. After 3 weeks of culture, 76.7% of the cotyledon explants (proximal parts) regenerated shoots with an average of 12 shoots per explant and a mean shoot length of 17 mm. Compared with the usual procedure, this procedure showed an increment of shoots number per explant and shoot length. The shoots regenerated were directly rooted. Overall, these results make a relevant contribution to the optimization of In vitro propagation of Citrullus mucosospermus Fursa oleaginous type and other hard to propagate related species.

Long smut and grain mold are fungal diseases that impact sorghum yield and quality. Long smut infection is most severe in the drier regions of Africa and Asia; whereas, grain mold is the most important disease of sorghum worldwide. In this study, 30 sorghum lines/hybrids were evaluate at the Agronomic Research Stations in Nioro, Senegal, West Africa. Seven lines/hybrids exhibited less than 10% long smut incidence, including AgriPro 2838, and AP 920 that were free of the disease, while NECS 2 had the lowest grain mold severity. The two hybrids AgriPro 2838 and AP 920 may possess genes for long smut resistance and could be utilized in breeding programs for long smut resistance.

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