Drought stress is a major constraint on cowpea productivity, since the crop is grown under warm conditions on sandy soils having low water-holding capacity. For enhanced performance of crops facing terminal drought stress, like cowpea, water-saving strategies are crucial. In this work, the growth and transpiration rate (TR) of 40 cowpea genotypes with contrasting response to terminal drought were measured under well-watered conditions across different vapour pressure deficits (VPD) to investigate whether tolerant and sensitive genotypes differ in their control of leaf water loss. A method is presented to indirectly assess TR through canopy temperature (CT) and the index of [...]
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Resistance of αAI-1 transgenic chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) dry …
Dry grain legume seeds possessing αAI-1, an α-amylase inhibitor from common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), under the control of a cotyledon-specific promoter have been shown to be highly resistant to several important bruchid pest species. One transgenic chickpea and four cowpea lines expressing αAI-1, their respective controls, as well as nine conventional chickpea cultivars were assessed for their resistance to the bruchids Acanthoscelides obtectus (Say), Callosobruchus chinensis L. and Callosobruchus maculatus F. All transgenic lines were highly resistant to both Callosobruchus species. A. obtectus, known to be tolerant to αAI-1, was able to develop in all transgenic lines. While the cotyledons [...]
Phenotypic approaches to drought in cassava: review
Cassava is an important crop in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Cassava can be produced adequately in drought conditions making it the ideal food security crop in marginal environments. Although cassava can tolerate drought stress, it c…
Aluminium tolerance in maize is associated with higher MATE1 gene copy number
Genome structure variation, including copy number variation and presence/absence variation, comprises a large extent of maize genetic diversity; however, its effect on phenotypes remains largely unexplored. Here, we describe how copy number variation underlies a rare allele that contributes to maize aluminum (Al) tolerance. Al toxicity is the primary limitation for crop production on acid soils, which make up 50% of the world’s potentially arable lands. In a recombinant inbred line mapping population, copy number variation of the Al tolerance gene multidrug and toxic compound extrusion 1 (MATE1) is the basis for the quantitative trait locus of largest effect on [...]
Functional roles of the plasticity of root system development in biomass production and water …
Fluctuation of soil moisture conditions between wet and dry is a normal occurrence in rainfed lowland and irrigated rice fields where water saving production systems are implemented, which can constrain rice productivity. In this study, we evaluated the functional roles of root plasticity for water uptake and dry matter production under such fluctuating water stress conditions. Introgression lines (INLs) of IR64, whose yield performances were previously evaluated in aerobic fields, were evaluated in the field and greenhouse under soil culture conditions using slant tube and root box methods. Under field conditions, greater root system development of INLs YTH183 and YTH304 [...]
