Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology
Volume:17 Issue: 7, Dec 2015

Olive oil is one of the foods that are preferred by consumers seeking healthy nutrition. Healthy, safety and high quality olive oil production can only be achieved in olive oil enterprises that follow these criteria. Therefore, food safety and quality management systems should be placed in these olive oil enterprises. The aim of this study was to determine behaviors and attitudes of firm owners towards the application of food safety and quality management systems in olive oil enterprises in the Milas district of Mugla province. The material used in this study was collected by face-to-face surveying of the 60 firm owners of the olive oil enterprises in Milas. Sample size was determined by using proportional sampling. In this study, five-point likert scale was usedin terms of attitudes and behaviors on food safety and quality management systems of firm owners in olive oil enterprises. In this research, the knowledge level of olive oil enterprise owners on food safety and quality management systems was determined to be inadequate. In addition, logistic regression analysis was made with the aim of determining the factors that are effective on the tendencies of firm owners to utilize food safety and quality management systems in their olive oil enterprises. At the end of the analysis, it was determined that knowledge status of production capacity, capacity usage ratios and food safety are effective in utilizing food safety and quality management systems in the facilities.

The purpose of this paper was to determine the factors affecting farmers’ satisfaction from Water Users Associations (WUAs) in the Harran Plain-Turkey. The data used in this study come from a sample of 378 farmers among 23,204 in the Şanlıurfa-Harran Plain. They were chosen via simple random sampling method and interviewed face to face. Sampling was conducted in 52% of the settlements. To analyze the collected survey data, SPSS 15 was used together with Kruskal Wallis, Mann-Whitney, Pearson Chi-square and the correlation tests. The results indicated the existence of relationship between satisfaction and education levels, knowledge level about WUA, and status of ownership, land area, age, farming experiences, income, and service quality given by WUAs. These factors significantly explained satisfaction of farmers. The average of variables’ highest satisfaction was calculated as 47.4%. The highest satisfaction was 68.5% and belonged to the status of ownership; the lowest one was 28.3% in the case of farming experiences. The managers of WUAs should be concentrating on these factors in order to increase satisfaction and provide training and information for farmers.

This study determines the consumers’ willingness to pay for organic milk in Tehran by using Contingent Valuation Method and Single Bounded Dichotomous Choice questionnaire. Logit regression model was used to evaluate the effect of explanatory variables on willingness to pay and the model parameters were estimated by using maximum likelihood approach. For this purpose, 450 questionnaires were completed in the city by respondents who had independent income in 2012. Shazam, SPSS, and Maple softwares were used to obtain the results. According to the results, variables such as income, family’s illness history, age, educational level, distance to the shopping center, apprising respondents, organic milk quality, and the offered price had a significant effect on consumer's willingness to pay for organic milk. Overall, 80.3% of the respondents were willing to buy organic milk. The average of consumer's willingness to pay was estimated at 28,600 Rials per liter of organic milk. The results showed this product to be important for people; and this point can help producers, planners, and managers for further development of this product.

Energy and mass transfer investigations in thermal processing of fruits serve as a breakthrough in the design and scale up of drying systems. Diffusivity characteristics and specific energy consumption for drying of fig fruit in a laboratory scale microwave dryer were assessed. Several intervals for microwave power intensity including 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, and 2.5 W g-1, and 6 levels of power on-off stated as pulsing ratios of 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, and 4 were employed. The results showed that the drying rate decreased with the pulsing ratio and increased with microwave power intensity. Effective moisture diffusivity as an indicator of mass transfer was obtained to be higher at elevated microwave power intensities. Also, increased pulsing ratios had a reducing effect on moisture diffusivity. Using 2nd law of Fick, moisture diffusivity was calculated to be varying from 5.93E-10 to 1.42E-08 m2 s-1 depending on the experimental conditions. Furthermore, the activation energy of fig fruit was obtained to be in the range of 60.094 to 92.189 kJ mol-1. Specific energy consumption variations showed a positive correlation with pulsing ratio and drying time. However, due to the dependence of energy consumption on MW power intensity, a multiple regression analysis with R2 of 0.968 was developed.

Solar radiation data play an important role in solar energy relevant researches. These data are not available for some locations due to the absence of the meteorological stations. Therefore, solar radiation data have to be predicted by using solar radiation estimation models. This study presents an integrated Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach for estimating solar radiation potential over Iran based on geographical and meteorological data. For this aim, the measured data of 31 stations spread over Iran were used to train Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural networks with different input variables, and solar radiation was the output. The accuracy of the models was evaluated using the statistical indicators of Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and Correlation Coefficient (R); hence, the best model in each category was identified. The Stepwise Multi NonLinear Regression (MNLR) method was used to determine the most suitable input variables. The results obtained from the ANN models were compared with the measured data. The MAPE and RMSE were found to be 2.98% and 0.0224, respectively. The obtained R value was about 99.85% for the testing data set. The results testify to the generalization capability of the ANN model and its excellent ability to predict solar radiation in Iran.

This study investigated the effect of CarboxyMethyl Cellulose (CMC), tragacanth, and Saalab hydrocolloids in two concentrations (0.3 and 0.7%) and different frying media (Refined Canola Oil (RCO), RCO+1% Bene Kernel Oil (BKO), and RCO+1 mg L-1 UnSaponifiable Matter (USM) of BKO on acrylamide formation in fried potato slices. The hydrocolloid coatings significantly reduced acrylamide formation in potatoes fried in all oils (P< 0.05). Increasing the hydrocolloid coating concentration from 0.3 to 0.7% produced no effective inhibition of acrylamide (P> 0.05). The 0.7% CMC solution was identified as the most promising inhibitor of acrylamide formation in RCO oil, with a 62.9% reduction in acrylamide content. The addition of BKO or USM to RCO led to noticeable reduction in the acrylamide level in fried potato slices. The findings suggest that a 0.7% CMC solution and RCO+USM are promising inhibitors of acrylamide formation in fried potato product.

Genetic parameters were estimated in a base and closed population of Iranian honeybee colonies. Data were obtained on 500-700 Iranian native population of honey­bee colonies (honeybee breeding project in central region of Iran) subject to 9 successive generation of selection. These populations had been selected for honey production, swarming behavior, and defense behavior. Heritability of honey production, swarming behavior, and defense behavior were 0.22, 0.34, and 0.44, respectively. Phenotypic and genetic correlations between honey production with swarming tendency and defense behavior were -0.16, -0.59, and 0.21, 0.48, respectively. Phenotypic and genetic correlations between swarming and defense behavior were -0.52 and -0.67 respectively. The genetic and phenotypic trends of swarming behavior, defense behavior, and honey production in the honeybee colonies during the 1999-2009 were desirable. Lower heritability of honey production and its higher dependence on apiary management and environmental or climatic factors caused lower improvement of honey production in breeding plans.

Plant quality in herbivores’ diet may affect the performance of both herbivore and its parasitoids. In the present research, parasitism capacity of Diadegma semiclausum (Hellen) on Plutella xylostella (L.) reared on different genetically manipulated Brassica plants including the canola’s progenitor (Brassica rapa L.), two cultivated canola cultivars (Cultivar-Opera and Cultivar-RGS003), one hybrid (Hybrid-Hyula401), one gamma mutated (Mutant-RGS003), and one transgenic (Transgenic-PF) genotype was determined. All experiments were carried out in a growth chamber at 25±1˚C, 65±5% RH, and a photoperiod of 16:8 (L: D) hour. The value of the net parasitism rate (C0) of D. semiclausum was 14.94, 20.12, 14.95, 12.20, 13.94, and 12.55 hosts on B. rapa, Cultivar-Opera, Cultivar-RGS003, Hybrid-Hyula401, Mutant-RGS003, and Transgenic-PF, respectively. The transformation rate from host population to parasitoid offspring (Qp) on all genotypes was close to 1 (C0 R0). Moreover, the value of the finite parasitism rate was 0.271, 0.285, 0.277, 0.202, 0.205, and 0.202 host parasitoid-1 day-1 on the above-mentioned genotypes, respectively. The finite parasitism rate considers the finite rate of increase, the stable age-stage distribution, and the age-stage specific parasitism rate; therefore, this parameter could be used to assess the efficiency of a parasitoid. In conclusion, D. semiclausum had higher parasitism capacity on canola’s progenitor and the cultivated genotypes which were more suitable for parasitoid’s host based on secondary metabolites concentration.

A four-year field experiment was conducted to understand the characters of nutrient accumulation and distribution in maize under different yield levels, so as to provide scientific guidance for effective utilization of mineral fertilizers, and eventually for high yield of spring maize. The grain yield, nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium) accumulation and uptake efficiency were evaluated under different agronomic managements and nitrogen application treatments. The data showed that the two-year average grain yield under high Yield Management (HY) was significantly increased by 35.3% as compared with Traditional Farming management (FP). Interestingly, the increased range of grain yield may be associated with harvest ear numbers, indicating that high planting density could lead to high maize production. Moreover, the total amounts of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium in maize significantly increased and the ratio of accumulation after flowering was also improved under HY management. Our results suggested that the high grain yield and nutrient use efficiency would ultimately be achieved through integrating and optimizing high yield cultivation techniques, which not only improve biomass and harvest index, but also promote the growth and nutrient accumulation of maize.

Wild barley has invaded wheat fields ever since flamprop-isopropyl was outdated in Iran. Newly developed herbicides such as sulfosulfuron or sulfosulfuron plus metsulfuron-methyl can control it at higher than recommended dosages, but causing significant wheat injury. Hence, two dose-response experiments were conducted to evaluate their efficacy when tank-mixed with thirteen different vegetable oils, at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, during 2013. Moreover, a wheat cultivar (Gaskogen) was also treated with effective dose of 90% (ED90) of both herbicides (21.44 grams active ingredient (g ai) of sulfosulfuron ha-1 and 41.95 g ai of sulfosulfuron plus metsulfuron-methyl ha-1) with and without each vegetable oil to check selectivity. Averaged over vegetable oils, the effective dose of 50% (ED50) was decreased 2.6- and 3.0-fold with sulfosulfuron and sulfosulfuron plus metsulfuron-methyl, respectively. Among the evaluated vegetable oils, cottonseed and coconut oil were the best ones to enhance the efficacy of both herbicides. The castor oil had the least effect. A negative correlation was observed between the efficiency of vegetable oils and its unsaturated/saturated fatty acids ratio. No phytotoxic effect on wheat was observed when these herbicides were applied with or without the vegetable oils.

Evaluating fertilizer quality is important in selecting the appropriate fertilizers for agricultural production. In this experiment, the effectiveness of Composite Inorganic Fertilizer (CIF), Composite Organic Fertilizer (COF) and Foliar Spray of Multi-Nutrients (FSMN) on the growth, yield, and fruit quality of cherry tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) were compared. The results showed that the applications of fertilizers enhanced the leaf area, photosynthesis rate, fruit setting rate, and average fruit weight, and yield. The fruit setting rate and average yield in COF treatment increased by, respectively, 25.16% and 81.91% when compared to the control (without fertilization). Also, the contents of reducing saccharide, vitamin C, and lycopene in tomato fruit improved, especially in the COF treatment, in which the contents of saccharide, vitamin C, and lycopene were higher than the control by 40.84%, 28.74% and 13.97%. Treatment CIF had similar effects on growth and yield when compared to COF, but the influence of CIF on the fruit quality was lower than that of COF. Meanwhile, treatment CIF also had the highest contents of nitrate and nitrite in the fruit (2.32 and 1.42 mg kg-1, respectively). In this study, FSMN was ineffective when used separately.

To evaluate the genetic variations in eleven fennel populations in Iran, 55 accessions were analyzed by SRAP markers. Twelve primer combinations produced 171 polymorphic bands. The cumulative dendrogram delineated fennel accessions into five major groups in accordance to the geographical regions from which the populations were originated. About 43.57% of total genetic variation was detected among the populations, while 56.43% of total variation were observed within the populations. The studied populations showed high genetic differentiation (Gst= 0.52) and low gene flow (Nm= 0.46). Among the studied populations, Yazd and Kerman accounted for the highest values of PPB (%), Shanon index (I), and heterozygosity. The self-pollinated seeds were in the range of 2.01% in Paveh-2 to 9.24% in Isfahan-2 accessions. The essential oil content ranged from 0.62% in Isfahan-3 to 2.21% in Tabriz-3. Generaly, the dwarf populations viz., Tabriz and Paveh, had higher essential oil yield and their pollination was less affected by environmental factors than the average.

Transgenic tomato plants of south Indian cultivar Arka Vikas were developed using Agrobacterium strain EHA 105, harbouring Bt Cry2A gene with a construct containing 35S CaMV promoter, OCS terminator and nptII selectable marker, through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. This study was conducted to improve the regeneration and transformation protocol for south Indian cultivar Arka Vikas. Hypocotyl was used as explant source for transformation due to high regeneration efficiency, molecular analysis through PCR for putative transformants in T0 generation and qualitative ELISA method was performed for Bt protein expression followed by insect bioassays. Insect bioassay studies was conducted using neonate larva of helicoverpa armigera to screen the plants and the plants expressing good resistance with molecular and phenotypic characters were carried further for successive generations. The experimental results concluded that Bt gene was deployed in tomato cultivar successfully and had developed resistance to neonate larva of Helicoverpa armigera at laboratory conditions. These results signified that transgenic lines expressed substantial quantity of Bt Cry2A protein efficient in management of Helicoverpa armigera. Precise screening of transgenic T1 lines is highly important to obtain single copy number plants since the expression of Bt protein in successive generations promotes effective management of this pest in the future.

Grafting of Cucurbitaceae species to some rootstocks seems to be especially beneficial for the nitrogen nutrition of these plants. Moreover, melons (Cucumis melo L.) have been considered among those plants that could benefit from the addition of Silicon (Si) in the Nutrient Solution (NS). Thus, two experiments were carried out in the following order: (i) it was investigated how grafting affects nitrate absorption (following the disappearance of nitrates from NS), leaf water relations, leaf gas exchange, chlorophyll parameters and antioxidant activity, and (ii) it was also assayed which of the aforementioned physiological factors could be associated with Si supply in melon plants at early developmental stage when metabolism is intense. Results revealed that grafting and Si supply could improve photosynthesis, nitrate absorption, and biomass production in melon plants with respect to non-grafted or plants not receiving extra Si. Grafting melon on Cucurbita rootstock improved photosynthetic performance associated with higher antioxidant activity in melon leaves. Silicon supplementation results lend support to an active role of Si in biochemical processes at chloroplast level in melons. Increased assimilation rates in grafted and Si treated plants (20 to 35%), resulted in higher nitrate depletion from the medium (17 to 18%), which boosted shoot biomass production (23 to 26%) compared to the control plants. Our results suggest that grafting and Si supply in melon plants may lead to a better crop performance and a lower environmental impact of greenhouse fertigation effluents with respect to nitrate leaching, in some instances.

Multi-environment trials play a significant role in selecting the best cultivars to be used at different locations. The objective of this study was to identify grain and forage yields stability of grass pea advanced lines across different locations. The 14 advanced lines of grass pea, developed by the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), were tested at three different research stations in semi-warm regions of Iran for three consecutive years. Ten non-parametric measures of stability were used to identify stable lines across nine environments. Three non-parametric tests (Bredenkamp, Hildebrand and De Kroon and Van der Laan) for Genotype-Environment (GE) interaction were highly significant, recommending differential responses of the lines to the test environments. Mean yields had a significant positive correlation with Si(6), NP2, NP3, NP4, Fox-rank and Kang’s rank-sum statistics. The results of correlation analysis and principal components analysis indicated that only non-parametric superiority measure could be useful for simultaneous selection of high yielding and stable lines. According to cluster analysis by forage and grain mean yields and non-parametric statistics, the line L3 with the highest forage and grain yields and Fox-rank as well as the lowest values of other non-parametric statistics could be introduced as high yielding stable cultivar for rain-fed conditions of semi-warm areas.

Cyphomandra betacea (Cav.) is a native species from South America that is cultivated because its fruits have a high content of vitamins. In Colombia, it is common to find periods of drought between the rainy seasons or during ENSO events such as El Niño. An adequate nutritional status of K+ in plants helps to increase the chance of tolerating the negative effects of drought stress. Regarding this situation, a study was conducted to determine the effect of the interaction between the nutritional status of potassium (K+) and the levels of water availability in the soil. Twenty-week-old Tamarillo seedlings were transplanted into 1 L plastic pots containing peat as substrate. Fifteen Days After Transplanting (DAT), the plants were irrigated with nutrient solutions with two different concentrations of K+ (0.05 and 2.5 mM KCl) until the end of the experiment. When differences in growth due to the two levels of K+ were observed, drought stress treatments were established during two drought periods of two weeks. The results showed that plants under drought stress and/or a lack of K+ had a lower growth rate, total plant dry weight, transpiration (E), and stomatal conductance (gs). Plants grown with an optimal nutritional status of K+ showed a better performance under drought conditions, as their Water Use Efficiency (WUE) did not fall sharply despite having low E and gs. These results suggest that a good supply of K+ can improve the acclimation of plants of C. betacea during periods of drought stress.

Turfgrasses are usually important groundcover plants in many landscapes. They occupy the lowest surface of the landscape, close to pollutant particles. So, they can be an attractive option for environmental remediation. Today, high concentrations of hazardous chemicals such as lead are among the most serious environmental problems. In vitro selection of turfgrass accumulator or tolerant of toxic ions may lead to production of plants that have better adaption to polluted sites. This study was undertaken to investigate the tolerance or accumulation potential in Bermuda grass to high concentrations of lead under tissue culture condition and identifying differences at the molecular level among accumulators by RAPD markers. Callus that were used for in vitro selection were exposed to different concentrations of lead in the media. After the first mowing, tolerant plantlets were evaluated for lead accumulation potential. All plants of Bermuda grass originating mainly from regeneration pathways had undergone genetic changes. The results revealed that occurrence of somaclonal variation via somatic embryogenesis and organogenesis of Bermuda grass culture with a frequency of 33%. Although some in vitro derived plants showed increase in uptake potential of lead in their shoots (2 times higher Pb extraction), there were some regenerates with decreased lead accumulation in shoot, and some varieties without any changes in lead uptake properties in comparison to the control. Molecular marker could be efficient in determining the genetic changes induced by somaclonal variation. The improvement of lead accumulation in lead extraction varieties indicated a successful mutation in Bermuda grass for breeding traits such as phytoremediation purpose.

Brassica juncea L. is an important oilseed crop which occupies premier position in Indian agriculture. Developing high yielding genotypes has been a major breeding objective in Indian mustard. Present study was conducted at Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research, India, during 2010-2013 to determine General combining ability (GCA) and Specific combining ability (SCA) of parental lines and better parent heterosis of 36 crosses of Indian mustard. Parents and F1 hybrids were evaluated in RCBD with 3 replications. Line×tester analysis involving nine breeding lines and four testers revealed the operation of both additive and non-additive gene actions with predominance of non-additive gene action in controlling yield and contributing traits. Four lines, namely, DRMR 2243, DRMR 2341, DRMR 2486, DRMR 2613, and one tester, NRCHB 101, were adjudged the best general combiner possessing highly significant positive GCA effects for seed yield and yield contributing traits. Significant SCA effects for seed yield, 1000-seed weight, oil content, and other attributing traits in desirable direction were recorded in a series of hybrids and a close association between SCA effects and heterosis was observed amongst the best hybrids identified on the basis of SCA effects. Hybrids DRMR 2243/NRCHB 101, DRMR 2269/NRCHB 101, DRMR 2326/NRCHB 101, DRMR 2341/NRCDR 2, DRMR 2398/NRCHB 101, DRMR 2486/Ashirwad and DRMR 2613/NRCDR 2 exhibited highest magnitude of better parent heterosis with highly significant SCA effects and higher per se performance for seed yield. The high yielding crosses may be exploited for developing superior genotypes and the parents involved may be converted to well adapted cytoplasmic male sterile or restorer lines.

The aim of this study was to evaluate Genotype×Environment Interaction (GEI) of chlorophyll meter readings (SPAD) of ten durum wheat cultivars, using data obtained from multi-environment trials during two years, at eight locations. Stability and genotypic superiority for SPAD reading was identified using ANOVA and GGE biplot analysis. Furthermore, the interrelationships among SPAD reading and other yield components and cultivars-by-traits, environment-by-traits, and cultivars-by-environment were studied using scatter, ranking, and comparison of biplot techniques. Substantial variations were found among SPAD reading, yield components, and quality criteria as related to each other, environment, and cultivars. There were positive correlations among SPAD reading with GY, some quality criteria [Protein Content (PC); Wet Gluten (WG), Vitreous Kernels (VIT)], and yield components [stalks m-2 (SS); ear m-2 (ES); Plant Height (PH), Length of Spike (LS)], while Maturation Time (MT) had negative correlation with SPAD. Also, there was relationship among SPAD and SC (Semolina Color) and SDS (Mini Sedimentation) with obtuse angles (< 900), but the correlation was not significant. The GGE biplot indicated that Kızıltepe environment (E6) and Eyyubi cultivar (G3) were the best in terms of SPAD reading. The GGE biplot provided useful information for experimentation of SPAD readings of cultivars when grown under multi-environment. Moreover, SPAD should be considered as the preferred tool, when the breeder is looking for the best and useful tool to determine flag leaf chlorophyll content.

Pasting is one of the most important properties of wheat starch determining the flour quality and functionality. Twenty three New Plant Type (NPT) wheat derivatives along with three checks (PBW 343, HD 2329, and Raj 3765) have been studied in multi-location trials to assess the variation and environment induced fluctuations for their starch pasting properties. Although all flour pasting characteristics varied, Breakdown Viscosity (BV) and Setback Viscosity (SV) exhibited greater variability across environments. Additive Main effects and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) analysis indicated significant interactions between Genotypes and Environments Interaction (GEI) in starch pasting properties. Genotypes accounted largest proportion (39.78%) of the Sum of squares (SQ) for peak viscosity (PV) followed by environments (33.30%) and GEI (33.30%). Trough Viscosity (TV), GEI accounted for the largest proportion (40.44%) of the SQ followed by environments (31.76%) and genotypes (27.80%). Genotypes accounted for the largest proportion (44.0%) of the SQ for (BV) followed by environments (33.30%) and GEI (21.59%). With respect to FV, environments accounted for the largest proportion (43.07%) of the SQ followed by GEI (30.84%) and genotypes (26.09%). Environments accounted for the largest proportion (52.48%) of the SQ followed by genotypes (23.89%) and GEI (23.65%) for SV. The interactions between genotype and locations differed greatly; however, some genotypes apparently found to be specifically adaptable to growth location. Correlation among starch pasting characteristics revealed that significant positive correlations were found between PV and BV, FV and TV, as well as SV and FV in all the individual environments tested that can be utilized in selection and simultaneous improvement in for starch quality improvement.

Three species belonging to three genera of the family Tylenchidae, namely, Cephalenchus leptus, Eutylenchus excretorius, and Lelenchus leptosoma were discovered as first reports for Iran's nematode fauna. They were characterized by morphological, morphometric and molecular phylogenetic studies. The two latter genera are new for Iran. Iranian population of Cephalenchus leptus is characterized by lateral field with six lines in females, stylet length of 16-20 µm and tail length of 153-290 µm with pointed tip. The recovered population of Eutylenchus excretorius is characterized by 848-1,038 µm long females’ body, stylet length of 20.0-21.5 µm, having advulval flaps and absence of male. The Iranian population of Lelenchus leptosoma is defined by its narrow slender body, flattened lip region, sinuous amphidial opening and absence of lateral field. The phylogenetic relationships of the three recovered species were studied using the partial sequences of 28S rDNA D2/D3 segment and revealed the genera Cephalenchus and Eutylenchus forming a monophyletic clade, while, Lelenchus was placed inside the clade of currently sequenced species of Malenchus in Bayesian tree.

In the present study, the effect of two species of AMF, Glomus mosseae and Glomus intraradices, alone and in combination, was evaluated on the growth criteria, chlorophyll content, and root rot disease caused by Fusarium solani f. sp. pisi, on chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under greenhouse conditions. Chickpea seeds were sown into pots containing 100 g of AMF inoculum (more than 1,000 propagules g-1) and, after four weeks, root of seedlings were inoculated with conidia suspension (106 conidia mL-1) of F. solani f. sp. pisi. Six weeks after pathogen inoculation, shoot and root dry weight, shoot height, chlorophyll content and mycorrhizal and Fusarium colonization were measured. Results showed that inoculation of G. mosseae was more effective than G. intraradices and dual inoculations (G. intraradices+G. mosseae) on the above criteria. Inoculation of F. solani f. sp. pisi without AMF treatments reduced shoot height, shoot and root dry weight, and chlorophyll content significantly compared with the control. In the presence of AMF, root colonization by F. solani f. sp. pisi and disease severity decreased and individual inoculation with G. mosseae was more effective than the other treatments. Inoculation of G. mosseae and G. intraradices caused a significant increase in plant height, shoot and root dry weight, and chlorophyll content of pathogen-inoculated plants compared with inoculated chickpea plants with F. solani f. sp. pisi. Based on the results, application of G. mosseae was found to be the best for reducing the root rot disease and improving plant growth parameters of chickpea, followed by G. intraradices and dual inoculations.

The present study was carried out with the objective of validating linked SSR markers to Rf genes and adopting Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) for restorer/non-restorer line detection in Wild Abortive (WA) type of Cytoplasmic Male Sterility (CMS). Twelve SSR markers reported to be linked to Rf genes were analyzed in the mapping population of NedaA/Pajouhesh. Among these, three markers, namely, RM258, RM171, and RM3148 proved to be associated with Rf genes. In this study, on a set of rice lines including 2 restorers, 4 maintainers, and 9 conventional varieties (totally 15 genotypes of rice), MAS with RM258 and RM171, a major Rf locus on chromosome 10, and RM3148, another Rf locus on chromosome 1, both of the Rf alleles in Hashemi and Deylamani varieties were amplified the same as restorer lines. However, Pouya, Khazar, and Shastak had one Rf locus (partial restorer). Cultivars Shiroudi, Tabesh, Fajr, and Shafaq were identified as non-restorer (maintainer) lines. Results demonstrated that these markers could be used for screening of genotypes to identify restorers and non-restorer lines in hybrid rice breeding programs.