The applicable study assessed the impact of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars and cytokinin (benzyl adenine) seed soaking on grain vitality, growth, and yield-related traits. The experiment materialized in the winter of 2022–2023 at the Al-Qasim Green University, Babylon, Iraq, laid out in a randomized complete block design with two factors. The first factor was cytokinin with three levels (100, 200, and 300 mg L^-1), while the second factor was the four wheat cultivars (IPA 99, Bohuth 22, Babylon 113, and Mawadah). The wheat cultivar IPA 99 excelled in grains per spike (57.50) and biological yield (17.95 t ha^-1), while the cultivar Mawadah stood out in spike m² (364.2), 1000-seed weight (46.87 mg) and grain yield (7.40 t ha^-1). The cytokinin activation treatments varied significantly, and 200 mg L^-1 treatment led to spike count (359.7), grain yield (7.20 t ha^-1), and biological yield (18.06 t ha^-1). The cytokinin (300 mg L^-1) excelled in 1000-seed weight (47.20 mg). In their interaction, the cultivar Mawadah with cytokinin (200 mg L^-1) exhibited the highest 1000-grain weight (51.38 mg) and grain yield (8.80 t ha^-1). In conclusion, the study highlights the substantial influence of cytokinin treatments and wheat cultivars on key growth and yield parameters.

Keywords: Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), cultivars, cytokinin, seed activation, growth and yield traits

Key findings: Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar Mawadah, under the influence of cytokinins (200 mg L^-1), performed better and positively affected growth and yield-related traits.

Best-quality seeds of high-yielding commercial cultivars are the foundation of the future harvest in all crops. Significant seed damage arises from seed injury during harvesting and tillage. With the use of machinery in all harvesting and processing stages, the issue of seed injury has become severe. Therefore, the presented research sought to determine commercial soybean seeds’ properties and seeding qualities, depending on the cultivar properties and the influence of machinery used in harvesting. The identified degree of soybean seed injury of commercial soybean cultivars depends on the growing strength after harvesting with drum threshing combined with the harvesting equipment’s influence. Based on biological characteristics, the soybean cultivars differed significantly in the number of damaged seeds during harvest using the drum thresher type ‘Sampo SR 2035’. However, the soybean cultivar Birlik KV showed the minimum seed damage (49.5%), whereas the cultivar Zhansaya had the most seed injuries (83.0%). According to laboratory tests, high intensity of initial growth resulted in seeds of soybean cultivars Birlik KV (86.0%), followed by Perizat (82.0%), and Lastochka (78.0%). Seeds of the soybean cultivars Ivushka and Zhansaya had the lowest growth strength (52.0%–60.0%). The most injury-prone soybean cultivar Zhansaya exhibited 21.3% crushed and inured seeds when their threshing used a drum thresher, but when threshed with a rotary thresher, the number of damaged seeds decreased to 2.9%. For injury-resistant soybean cultivar Lastochka, the harvester Sampo SR 2035 produced 12.4% injured seeds, and the harvester ’John Deere’ generated 2.2% crushed seeds.

Keywords: Soybean (Glycine max L.), cultivars, seeds, sowing qualities, seed injury, seed production, harvesting combines

Key findings: The findings revealed that different soybean cultivars grown under the same conditions gained damage in varying degrees and showed various growth strengths due to varietal characteristics.

The presented study determined the effect of biofertilizers on the growth and production of broad bean (Vicia faba L.) cultivars conducted during the autumn season of 2020–2021 at the Al-Mahaweel area, Babylon Governorate, Iraq. The experiment followed a randomized complete block design with two factors and three replicates. The first factor was the three broad bean cultivars—local, Turkish, and Spanish—while the second was four biofertilizer levels(control, Bacillus mucilaginous, and mycorrhizal fungi). The results showed the Spanish cultivar significantly excelled over other cultivars in yield-related traits, pods per plant (16.82), seeds per pod (6.11), seed yield (5,884.29 kg ha^-1), and biological yield (12,599.05 kg ha^-1). The mycorrhizal fungi biofertilizer treatment remarkably excelled for all treatments, i.e., pods per plant (17.84), seeds per pod (6.98), seed yield (5,874.11 kg ha^-1), and biological yield (14,495.79 kg ha^-1). Meanwhile, the interaction treatment (Spanish cultivar + mycorrhiza fungi) superbly shone and gave the highest rate for most studied traits.

Keywords: Broad bean (Vicia faba L.), cultivars, biofertilizer, mycorrhizal, yield-related traits

Key findings: Broad bean (Vicia faba L.) cultivar Spanish and mycorrhiza, individually and in combination, significantly showed better performance for most studied traits.

Highland papaya (Vasconcellea pubescens A.DC.) is a member of the family Caricaceae and native to Ecuador. The plant’s introduction and cultivation were successful in specific highland areas of Indonesia but with limited growing areas. V. pubescens has monoecious and dioecious characteristics and allows fruit production from female dioecious and monoecious plants. This plant is valuable, and the knowledge about its sex pattern, though still limited, is crucial for its efficiency, productivity, and development. Hence, the presented study aimed to explain the patterns of plant segregation, as well as, pollen morphology and germination based on sex in V. pubescens. The investigations began by recognizing the total population of V. pubescens in its cultivated area for grouping and mapping according to sex. Observations on the pollen characteristics, such as, morphology and germination, used light microscopy and a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The results revealed that the basis for plant segregation pattern depended on sex in male and female dioecious and monoecious plants of V. pubescens (1:5:1). In both sexes, the pollen morphological characteristics showed that the unit of monads, prolate spheroidal, radial, tricolporate, isopolar, reticulate, and P/E index of male dioecious pollen was 0.70, while monoecious was 0.52. Anthers and pollen grains from the male plant were round, but those of monoecious elongate more. However, no significant differences occurred among the sexes for pollens. The pollen grains from male flowers on male dioecious plants showed faster germination than monoecious individual plants, having a difference of 25.14 days.

Keywords: V. pubescens, sex types, plant segregation, pollen morphology, pollen germination

Key findings: V. pubescens are of three types growing in Indonesia, i.e., male dioecious, female dioecious, and monoecious. SEM observations showed that the shape of anthers and pollen of flowers in male plants were round, while those in monoecious elongated. Based on germination and the time required for pollen tube formation, pollen from male flowers of male dioecious reached the ovule stage faster than monoecious, with a time difference of 25.14 days.

Soybean is a dual-purpose crop, as it serves as pulse and fodder. Legumes like soybeans have a distinctive characteristic of nodule formation. Nitrogen fixation enhancement can succeed by inoculation of soybeans with specific strains of rhizobia, ensuring adequate levels of healthy bacteria near the seed. The presented study materialized during 2018–2020 at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, and Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Two strains of Bradyrhizobium japonicum—S377 and S379—were treatments for inoculating 80 soybean accessions collected from the National Agriculture Research Center, Islamabad. Sowing 10 inoculated seeds per genotype and two seeds for control continued in a randomized complete block design (RCBD). Fresh root and shoot weights, dried root and shoot weights, nodule dry weight, grain and biomass yield, protein, and oil content increased significantly after inoculating seeds with rhizobial strains. These traits also showed significant genotypic correlations. The protein content, followed by the fresh shoot weight, directly affected nodule formation, increasing nitrogen fixation.

Keywords: Bradyrhizobium japonicum, correlation, path analysis, nitrogen fixation, nodule formation, soybean

Key findings: Eighty accessions inoculated with two strains of B. japonicum showed significant improvement in fresh root and shoot weights, nodule dry weight, protein, and oil content. The protein content and fresh shoot weight directly affected nodule formation, predicting the opportunity to improve yield by precisely selecting these traits in future breeding programs.

Wheat is a globally significant cereal crop crucial for ensuring food security. Plant breeders strive to enhance yield potential by developing optimized and stable genotypes. In Pakistan, an agricultural country facing food security challenges, annual multi-environment trials (MET)’s systematic conduct transpire across various research stations in Punjab province. Precise data analysis of these trials is paramount in strengthening the national agricultural research system. The primary objective of this study was to identify stable wheat genotypes by analyzing data from MET trials in 31 distinct environments within the Punjab province during 2020–2021. The study comprised 50 wheat genotypes laid out under an alpha lattice design. The collected data underwent an analysis based on additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) in combination with other stability measures. The findings revealed that genotype G41 (HYT100-27) exhibited superior performance, ranking within the top five across all five stability measures. Likewise, G27 (TWS17042) and G22 (HYT100-100) genotypes have four stability measures recommending these. Notably, G1 (HYT100-74) demonstrated the highest average yield across all locations and gained support from two additional stability measures. Therefore, G41, G27, G22, and G1 emerged as the most stable and productive genotypes among all those studied. Regarding the environments, MLSI proved the most desirable, followed by RARL. Conversely, the ARFG and ARFK resulted as the least ideal environments.

Keywords: AMMI, AMMI Stability Index (ASI), wheat, genotype by environment interaction (GGE), biplot, stability measures, multi-environment trials

Key findings: The additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis, with other stability analyses, helped in identifying stable genotypes from multi-environment trials conducted in 31 different environments in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The genotypes HYT100-27, TWS17042, HYT100-100, and HYT100-74 exhibited high stability, gaining classification as most stable genotypes. Moreover, the MLSI and RARL proved the most desirable environments for wheat cultivation.

Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) is a significant marketable crop for seed, oil, fiber, and pharmaceutical products. The latest study transpired to assess the morphological, biochemical, and yield traits with inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers to determine the genetic diversity among flaxseeds of Sakha-1, Sakha-2, Sakha-3, Sakha-5, Sakha-6, Giza-12, and Amon genotypes under sandy soil conditions. Results indicated that all flax varieties varied significantly (P > 0.05) in most studied characteristics. Sakha-6 exceeded all genotypes in seed yield (0.888 t ha^-1), straw yield (6.093 t ha^-1), oil yield (0.302 t ha^-1), and biological yield (6.981 t ha^-1). These increases were due to the rise in different biochemical contents of carotenoids (0.601 mg), proline (34.81 mg), free amino acids (396.85 mg), oil (35.46%), phenolic (189.61 mg), and total carbohydrates (32.07%), which reflected on seed yield plant^-1 (0.509 g). Flax genotypes showed high genetic variations; eight of the 15 ISSR primers employed resulted in 74 bands, with 35 as polymorphic. The average percentage polymorphism of the amplified loci ranged from 16.67% to 50%, the average number of polymorphic bands per primer was 4.38, and the average number of amplified bands per primer was 9.25. The marker index for ISSR values ranged from 0.08 to 2.40 for UBC-846 and UBC-825, respectively. The similarity between genotypes ranged from 0.58 to 0.90. Three markers showed significant regression association with the six traits.

Keywords: Flax (L. usitatissimum L.), genotypes, genetic variability, biochemical, physiological, and yield traits, ISSR markers, cluster analysis

Key findings: Seven flax (L. usitatissimum L.) genotypes incurred morphological, biochemical, and ISSR markers evaluation. The flax genotypes varied significantly in all studied traits. They showed a high level of genetic variations, with the genotypes divided into two main clusters and a dendrogram created using the similarity matrix produced by UPGMA.

New plant-type (NPT) rice can increase grain yield globally. Although many studies have shown the association between harvest and yield-related traits in rice, it remains obscure in the case of NPT rice. This study aimed to elucidate the relationship between agronomic and yield features in new plant-type rice based on a 12-years multi-experiment. A large dataset of 704 NPT rice lines of various generations (F₄ to F₁₀), derived from 24 different populations, underwent study. The analysis of variance showed a highly significant population effect (P < 0.01) on all traits studied. The NPT rice populations had groupings into four clusters, with a highly substantial cluster effect (P < 0.01) on the number of total tillers (NTT), number of total grains (NTG), number of filled grains (NFG), and thousand-grain weight (TGW). Standard best NPT lines from each experiment achieved an average of 1.67 t ha^-1 or 26% higher yield than the Ciherang variety. Determining the yield advantage of NPT lines was by higher plant height (PH) (r = 0.37), panicle length (PL) (r = 0.15), NTG (r = 0.28), NFG (r = 0.28), TGW (r = 0.10), and lower days to harvest (DTH) (r = -0.10). The principal component analysis biplot revealed that NFG could better serve as a selection characteristic for enhancing grain yield in developing NPT rice adapted to irrigated tropical ecosystems.

Keywords: Cluster analysis, combined analysis, genotype × trait, grain yield, Pearson correlation, rice breeding

Key findings: The new plant-type rice architecture allows a higher yield (26%) than the green revolution rice type represented by the Ciherang variety. Genetic diversity among the NPT lines is prevalent; therefore, breeding-improved NPT rice varieties are promising.

The root-knot nematode (RKN), Meloidogyne incognita, poses significant challenges for many important crops. Identified distinctive bacterial proteases have emerged as potential nematicides. In this study, the nprE from Bacillus subtilis 168 encoded the neutral metalloprotease, effectively enhancing it through a site-directed mutation. The enzyme-specific activity of pro118, secreted by the modified strain BS118, reached 215.4 U mg^-1. It was twice that of pro168 produced by the wild-type strain BS168, which recorded an enzyme-specific activity of 101.6 U mg^-1. The protease, pro118, caused the highest mortality in M. incognita juveniles, J₂S (91.3% to 84.5%) after 48 h of in vitro treatment. Furthermore, when simultaneously applying pro118 with the nematode infection, it notably decreased the number of J₂S, root galls, and egg masses/root systems by 19.5%, 18.8%, and 26.2%, respectively, compared with its application one week after the nematode infection. This consistent trend also manifested in the plant shoot length and fresh weight enrichment, which showed an increase of 9.7% and 14.7% in the first treatment versus the second. In conclusion, the study asserts that applying neutral metalloprotease as a bioagent to biocontrol M. incognita is a promising approach for mitigating the impact of this agricultural pest.

Keywords: Site-directed mutation, Bacillus subtilis 168, neutral metalloprotease, Meloidogyne incognita, nematicidal agents, growth parameters, eggplant

Key findings: The site-directed mutation, which involves replacing the native promoter with another constitutive one, is a promising approach for constructing strains with higher protease modifications. This method’s subsequent employment as a bioagent against Meloidogyne incognita infection led to significant plant growth and health improvements.

Nickel (Ni) is an essential micronutrient known for improving the growth and yield of various crops at low concentrations. However, the nickel’s adequate information on shallots is insufficient. This study found out the effect of Ni fertilization with four concentrations (0.0, 0.025, 0.1, and 0.4 mg L^-1 derived from NiSO4.6H2O) on plant and bulb weight, nutrient solution usage, and bulb nickel and nitrate content of two shallot cultivars (Lokananta and Sanren F1) using hydroponic condition, arranged in a split-plot design under field conditions. Increased Ni concentration (0.4 mg L^-1) negatively affected plant height, total plant weight, bulb weight per plant, and total nutrient solution usage, while it increased the bulb nickel and leaf carotenoid contents. The Ni concentration (0.025 mg L^-1) can be safer for shallot plant absorption with optimum growth and yield. Shallot cultivar Sanren F1 provides considerably better results in terms of yield components than cultivar Lokananta. Bulb weight per plant appeared positively correlated with the number of leaves, bulbs, total bulb diameter, and total volume of nutrient solution used per plant. The total bulb diameter per plant showed a better direct effect on the shallot bulb yield at various Ni levels.

Keywords: Shallot (Allium cepa L. Aggregatum group), cultivars, Ni nutrition, growth, physiological components, yield traits, path analysis, Pearson’s correlation

Key findings: Ni at a low concentration (0.025 mg L^-1) stimulates the growth and physiological components of shallot plants, which, in turn, increases bulb yield. Leaf carotenoid content and water uptake can assess the response of shallot plants to heavy metal stress conditions.