Improvement of Egyptian Loofahs (Luffa egyptica L.) Using Recurrent Selection

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted at Mootoubs, Kafr Elsheikh, Egypt during four successive seasons of 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Commercial seed lots in the terms of original population denoted in (C0) were cultivated at first season and selfpollination was done. Cultivation on May,15 was done with plant spacing of 4X6 m 2 . The selection was performed on the plants of Co , recurrent 1 denote in (C1), recurrent2 denoted in (C2) and recurrent3 denoted in (C3) of luffa were also sown, and transplanted on May 15, 2013, 2014 and 2015 seasons at private farm at Of about 150 plants were selected for good plant characteristics. Seeds with the original population C0 and other recurrent populations were sown into a randomized complete blocks design with four replications, Each replicate for each population was represented by 50-70 plants 4 * 6m. The main results could be summarized as follows; The different recurrent selection cycles had apparent significant effect and marked improvement for all studied characters. Fruit diameters, fruit length, stem length, harvest numbers, Marketable fruit, number of ears per fruit and number of seeds per fruit were gradually increased as recurrent progressed from C0 to C3 recurrent selection. The yields of loofahs involving average yield a time or yield fed -1 were only improved significantly when plants were selected for three times (C3). Number of fruits plant -1 and early yield kg fed -1 were clearly decreased as recurrent selection progressed in the terms of advanced recurrent selection. From going discussion, it could be concluded that the simple recurrent selection had high affinity to improve morphological characteristics rather than yield. Yield improvement need more cycle of selection for getting more improvement since the C3 showed reasonable improvement in yield of loofahs.

Production and Optimization of L-glutaminase from Halophilic Fusarium solani-melongenae Strain CRI 24 under Submerged and Solid State Fermentation

“…9 Many terrestrial fungi, including Penicillium, Phoma, Aspergillus, Phomopsis, Trichoderma, Cladosporium, Drechslera, Mucor, Chaetomium, and Emericella species, have been shown to produce L-glutaminase. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Apart from terrestrial fungus, marine fungus are also used to produce L-glutaminase. There are relatively few reports available on L-glutaminase production from marine fungi.…”