A field experiment at the Maize Research Station, General Authority of Agricultural Research in Abu-Ghriab, Iraq, began on six inbred lines of maize (1- UMGW 16, 2- UMGW 4, 3- DAQ, 4- HNG 9, 5- FAR 30, and 6- ABS – 32) as samples to generate 15 F1 single crossings through half-diallel cross. Crossing the parents and single crosses sought to produce 60 three-way cross hybrids. Grown seeds of three-way crosses became specimens to study the most effective traits that could affect the yield and become selective indicators to improve maize grain yield. The experiment proceeded as a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replicates. The analysis of variance results revealed statistically significant differences among all studied traits. The values of genetic variance were higher than the environmental variance for all studied traits except for plant height. The highest broad-sense heritability (0.956) appeared in grain yield per plant, followed by the days from planting to 50% silking (0.803). A significant positive genetic and phenotypic correlation was apparent between grain yield, 100-grain weight, and the number of grains per row, while a negative genetic correlation between grain yield and the number of days from planting to 50% silking occurred. The path analysis revealed that the number of grains per row has the highest positive direct effect (0.537) and the total of all effects (0.828). The number of grains per row gave the utmost indirect positive influence of 0.259 by the 100-grain weight.

Keywords: Maize (Zea mays L.), genetic variability, path coefficient analysis, genotypic and phenotypic variances, broad-sense heritability, yield-related traits

Key findings: Quantitative inheritance methods contribute to choosing the researcher’s direction toward selection or crossing between genotypes. Correlation and pathway analysis also helped in understanding the appropriate breeding method and which traits directly impact increasing the yield.

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum burmannii Blume) plant leaf extracts contain phytochemicals and have been used as potential biofungicides against plant pathogenic fungi by inhibiting the growth of their colonies, biomass, and spores, both in vitro and ex vivo. This past study demonstrated that cinnamon leaves differed in phytochemical compounds from one habitat to another. Cinnamon leaves from Belok Sidan Village, Petang Subdistrict, contain flavonoids, steroids, phenolics, tannins, and those from Bedugul Village, Baturiti Subdistrict, contain alkaloids, steroids, phenolics, and saponins. The probing study aimed to unveil whether the phytochemical variations in cinnamons are due to biotic and abiotic factors. The cinnamon species’ identification from two distinct habitats engaged two molecular markers, rbcL and mat-K genes. Comparing both habitats’ environmental parameters, i.e., soil, water, minerals, temperature, humidity, wind speed, coordinates, and altitudes, took place. The DNA barcode analysis revealed that the two cinnamon plant types were likely of the same species, namely, Cinnamomum tamala or C. osmophloeum. Soil and climate analyses indicated contrasting conditions between Petang and Bedugul habitats. The C, N, and K contents were higher in the Bedugul soil than in the Belok Sidan. The soil water contents differed in both locations, especially the percentage of dry air (DA) and field capacity (FC). The two sites also differed in temperature, humidity, wind speed, coordinates, and altitude. This study provides solid evidence that environmental factors highly contribute to the phytochemical variations in cinnamon species.

Keywords: Cinnamon, DNA barcoding, phytochemical diversity, physical factors, soil, species identification

Key findings: The first reports of Cinnamon species (Cinnamomum tamala and C. osmophloeum) emanated in Bali, Indonesia. Cinnamon plants collected from two distinct locations have different phytochemical compounds. The variations in phytochemical contents have shown influences by environmental factors.

Shallots are valuable horticultural products consumed worldwide that offer numerous health benefits. Fusarium wilt disease severely limits shallot production, reducing bulb yield by up to 50%; furthermore, wilt disease-resistant shallot cultivars are insufficient. This study confirmed that the ‘Batu Ijo’ cultivar is resistant to Fusarium wilt, with the lowest percentage of affected bulbs (29.5%). In contrast, the cultivar ‘Bima Brebes’ showed the highest incidence of Fusarium infection (41.6%). Neither ‘Batu Ijo’ nor ‘Katumi’ became resistant parents when crossbred with susceptible plants because both failed to bloom until the end of the plant generative stage. Thus, to generate diverse segregating populations, a cross combination derived from ‘Biru Lancor’ (resistant parent) and ‘Bima Brebes’ ensued. The results showed lower values for the number of mature capsules, true seed shallot weight per plant, and seedling vigor were evident in the progenies than in the parental genotypes. These poor crossing results were due to several factors, including an inappropriate photoperiod for the crossbreeding of ‘Bima Brebes’ and ‘Biru Lancor.’ Out of 30, 17 plants showed symptoms of Fusarium wilt disease. Meanwhile, the 13 resistant individuals exhibited similarities with the male parent ‘Biru Lancor’ during ISSR molecular analysis, suggesting that the male parent may play a role in transmitting disease resistance. The selection of parental individuals and crossbreeding factors are crucial for successful shallot crossbreeding. This study bears significant implications for further development of shallot crossbreeding, potentially leading to new disease-resistant cultivars.

Keywords: Shallot (Allium cepa var. aggregatum), Fusarium wilt resistance, cross breeding, self-compatibility, ISSR markers, inheritance

Key findings: Flower-based research plays a vital role in shallot breeding. Fusarium wilt resistance in offspring populations can be a basis for developing new resistant shallot cultivars.

Rice grain dark spots are harmful, damaging the grains and, eventually, affecting the grain quality. Dark spots appear due to insect pests of the family Pentatomide, which feed on caryopsis tissues with a bite-puncture from the upper lip of their oral apparatus transformed into a needle. Mechanical damage to the grain leads to the penetration of microbes into the grain tissues, resulting in its darkening. The practical study aimed to determine the effects of the ripening stage on the ratio of dark spots on rice grains and their damage. Experiments assessed the influence of panicle age on rice grain damage caused by the southern green stink bug (Nezara viridula L.). Data recording on various parameters progressed by placing one and three bugs on the rice panicle. After crop maturity, evaluating the cut panicles continued based on empty grain content, grain size, and damaged grains. Other treatments had bugs placed during the flowering and five, 10, 15, 25, and 30 days after. Higher rice grain damage occurs when infested with three stick bugs in the first 10–15 days after flowering, revealing this period was the most vulnerable. Infection at later stages of ripening caused no significant damage to rice grains. The scientific literature does not provide information on dividing rice varieties into groups according to the degree of grain damage in the field in the form of dark spots. Based on the results, groups of pecky rice appeared for the first time according to the degree of damage, depending on the infection period, i.e., surface type, medium degree, and extensive damage type to the rice grains.

Keywords: Rice, pecky rice, stink bug (Nezara viridula L.), grain dark spots, grain quality traits, grain sterility, grain size

Key findings: The results showed an incisive increase in rice grain damage and sterility and a decrease in grain size after infecting rice plants in the first 15 days after flowering with stink bugs (Nezara viridula L.), revealing this period was the most vulnerable. By damaging the grains at the milky phase, the damage classification was with deep penetration into the caryopsis.

Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) is an unusual crop in Northern Kazakhstan. For its introduction in the region, seven sweet sorghum cultivars and two hybrids with a shorter vegetation period achieved cultivation and evaluation from 2020 to 2022 in the Northern Kazakhstan region. The results identified responsive genotypes to the new climatic conditions during the vegetation period. The biomass fodder values analysis referred to its chemical composition. The cultivar Volzhskoe 51 showed distinction by having a higher crude protein and fat content. Based on the acquired findings, sweet sorghum becomes highly recommendable for introduction as a fodder culture. The water-soluble sugar content determination in the central stem juice employed the refractometric method. Cultivars Kapital and Sevilia showed higher water-soluble sugars contained in the stem juice. The established fractional composition used high-performance liquid chromatography. Likewise, cultivars with a prevalent monoand disaccharide content succeeded in attaining isolation. Depending on the fractional composition, the study proposes a possible direction of sugar-sorghum juice processing for producing bioethanol and dietary food syrup. The results obtained contribute to further work on developing local sweet sorghum cultivars.

Keywords: Sweet sorghum (S. bicolor L.), biomass yield, chemical composition, metabolizable energy, sugars in stem juice, silage, syrup, bioethanol

Key findings: The presented study identifies the sweet sorghum (S. bicolor L.) cultivars capable of producing higher yields in Northern Kazakhstan. Biomass chemical composition and fractional analysis of stem juice show prospective use of the crop for forage, food syrups, and bioethanol.

Increasing maize production by expanding to marginal areas in the tropics faces substantial challenges, such as drought and acidic soil. Acidic soils may have low availability of plant nutrients because of the soil’s low pH and heavy metals. This study aimed to a) elucidate the response of maize genotypes under optimum and acidic soil, b) determine the correlation between several tolerance indices, and c) predict the response to selection performance based on multiple traits. Thirty-six genotypes, including six checks, laid out in an augmented RCBD, had three replications for the checks under optimum and acidic soil conditions in Bogor, Indonesia. Acidic soil induced late flowering and reduced agronomic performance and yield traits. Genotype, environment, and genotype-by-environment interaction (GEI) had highly significant (P < 0.01) effects on yield and several traits. G05, G15, and G20 were tolerant and high-yielding genotypes evaluated and ranked using tolerance indices. The mean productivity (MP), harmonic mean (HM), geometric mean productivity (GMP), and stress tolerance index (STI) showed significant correlations with yield under both conditions. The multi-trait genotype-ideotype distance index (MGIDI) suggested that genotypes G15 and G20 were better selections in acidic soil, whereas G05’s was better in the tolerance index values. Using tolerance indices can help determine the most tolerant genotypes, whereas the multiple-trait index enables researchers to assess the performance of genotypes and identify the most effective traits. These two parameters require recommendations as tools for describing tolerant genotypes in acidic soils in tropical maize breeding programs.

Keywords: Abiotic stress, maize breeding, MGIDI, tolerance indices

Key findings: The multiple-trait combination index enables researchers to identify desired maize genotypes adapted to optimum and acid soil conditions and elucidate their strengths and weaknesses. Several tolerance indices, i.e., MP, HM, GMP, and STI, revealed correlations with yield in optimum and acid soil conditions.

Lycopene is an essential antioxidant found in tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.) that can inhibit and prevent cell damage in the body. Thus, enhancing lycopene content is one of the crucial objectives in tomato breeding. Efforts should focus on assembling the tomato with high fruit yield and good quality by conducting transgressive segregant selection through plant breeding programs. The study aimed to select tomato lines with the potential for transgressive segregation based on high fruit yield and lycopene content. The research began in an augmented design combined with factors comprising 54 non-repeated tomato lines, compared with four repeated standard cultivars (Mawar, Chung, Karina, and Tymoti). The tomato lines’ planting into seven blocks had no repeats, while the check cultivars for comparison engaged in repeated planting in each block. The observations underwent the analysis of variance (ANOVA), path analysis, correlation, heritability (narrow sense), and transgressive segregants. Based on transgressive segregation, the high-yielding tomato lines selected bore analysis for lycopene content. Based on the plant height and productive bunches per plant (directly supporting the fruit yield), the 14 promising transgressive segregant families’ selection comprised 10 MC crosses, MC10.10, MC10.4, MC11.4, MC12.3, MC27.12, MC27.7, MC29.4, MC35.7, MC74.12, and MC8.3 and four KM crosses, KM23.2, KM26.1, KM30.5, and KM.5.5. For increased lycopene content, the five F4 families MC10.10, MC27.12, MC35.7, KM23.2, and KM30.5 showed better performance wherein selecting 10 transgressive segregant lines resulted with high lycopene content and fruit yield.

Keywords: Correlation, heritability, lycopene content, transgressive segregant, tomato

Key findings: Selected tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) lines are potentially transgressive segregants based on high fruit yield and lycopene. The results also revealed that the traits of plant height and productive bunches per plant directly influenced the fruit yield in tomatoes and showed 10 transgressive segregant lines with high fruit yield and lycopene content.

In breeding chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.), the prime objective is high-protein genotypes’ development for a balanced diet with plant-origin products. The pertinent research also aimed to develop drought-resistant and highly productive chickpea cultivars with better quality, adapting well to the soil and climatic conditions of Kazakhstan. The article summarized the results of many years of research on chickpea world collection in the dry-steppe and foothill zones of Southeast Kazakhstan. Chickpea genotypes’ characterization has included as essential base material for subsequent breeding programs with specific economically valuable traits, i.e., early maturity, high-seed productivity, seed size, plant height, height of the lower pods, and shape of the bush. In the collection nursery, 223 chickpea cultivars incurred analysis. A structural analysis ensued based upon the following characteristics, i.e., the bush structure, plant height, height of the lower pods, the number of lateral branches, the number of productive nodes, the number of pods per plant, seed weight per plant, and 1000-seed weight. On the flowering and maturity period, 132 chickpea samples were at the standard level, for which the period was 80–88 days, while 62 genotypes matured 5–6 days earlier than the standard. The use of 13 drought-resistant genotypes, i.e., 12216, 12227, 12118, 3046, 12125, 12108, 12119, 31107, 42134, 31105, 31108, 31232, and 42145 was necessary to enhance the chickpea productivity with quality through hybridization program. Overall, the study identified 42 chickpea cultivars based on growth and yield traits for chickpea breeding under the environmental conditions of Southeast Kazakhstan.

Keywords: Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), world collection, conventional breeding, hybridization, drought resistance, growth and yield traits, selection, Southeast Kazakhstan

Key findings: Through the chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) breeding program, identifying droughtresistant, highly productive, and better-quality genotypes was successful. Based on the economically valuable and quality properties, the selected genotypes will serve in the parental genotypes‟ selection for crossing through conventional hybridization.

Solanaceae is one of the prominent plant families that provide medicine and food. For the diagnosis of its species (Physalis peruviana and Physalis angulata), the use of molecular markers with reliable and precise nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) ITS sequences has helped in the presumption of molecular evolution and phylogenetic studies of the plants. It precisely measured the variance between two samples of Physalis L. Purified fragments’ sequencing using BLAST to align each sequence, evaluate its relationship with other sequences, and confirm the species of different sequences. The genetic analysis program, MEGA V.11, aided in performing multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis. The first sample showed a relation to the species Physalis peruviana voucher Smith 217 (WIS) placed in the GenBank with the serial number DQ314161.1 by 96.91%, which belonged to a strain located in the USA. The researcher registered the species as Physalis peruviana isolate AH-ZE1, with serial number OQ616506.1. However, the second sample, after contrasting it with the global species sequences, indicated a connection to the species Physalis angulata isolate LHR28I deposited in the Genome Bank with the serial number MK412130.1 at a rate of 98.02%, which belonged to a Spanish strain. The species’ registration by the researcher continued as Physalis angulata isolate AHZE1, sequence number OQ616509.1. The current study results revealed the diagnosis of two species of Physalis identified for the first time in Iraq, as they incur registration in the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The recording depended on the molecular characteristics’ differences in the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) region, knowing the evolutionary relationship between the Physalis species and comparing them to the sequences found in the GenBank for previously defined types. The results also showed that the ITS2 region provided success ability. Therefore, using other DNA barcodes as auxiliary factors to distinguish between Physalis species would be beneficial.

Keywords: Ground cherry (Physalis L.), phylogeny, molecular identification, ITS2, phylogenetic relationship

Key findings: The species Physalis peruviana with isolate AH-ZE1 attained registration in the GenBank with serial number OQ616506.1. The second species, Physalis angulate, with isolate AH-ZE1, also incur recording in the GenBank with serial number OQ616509.1.

The presented study sought to phenotype the rice cultivars procured from the Unique Scientific Installation (USI) – Collection of Federal Scientific Rice Centre, Krasnodar, Russian Federation, as sources of valuable grain quality traits, as well as BC₂ populations with the selection of the best genotypes for quality traits in developing the red grain rice cultivars with high nutritional properties. The studied rice plant material, grown in the artificial climate chambers of FSBSI – Federal Scientific Rice Centre, had the following conditions: temperature – 28–30 °C during the day (12 h) and 24 °C at night (12 h); illumination – 30,000 lux, and humidity = 70%. Rice determination and phenotyping for grain quality traits commenced on high-tech certified equipment per GOSTs. The experiment results had the parental genotypes used in the backcrossing program assigned to the group of medium-grain cultivars, except for the long-grain cultivars, i.e., Svetlana and Gagat. The 1000-grain weight ranged from 23.0 to 27.4 g, filminess (17.8% to 19.9%), and total milling yield (65.0% to 70.4%). Low fracturing appeared in rice cultivars, viz., Rubin, Alliance, Kurazh, Gagat, and VNIIR10163, while a high vitreosity emerged in rice cultivars Veles, Svetlana, VNIIR10163, and Khaw-sri-nin. BC₂ plant populations’ evaluation depended on the technological quality traits. The effective heterosis was evident for most grain quality traits. Rice genotypes selected based on lower fracturing and higher grain size will undergo further breeding work to develop the high-yielding rice genotypes with desirable grain quality traits.

Keywords: Rice, cultivars, backcrosses, rice breeding, technological grain quality traits, grain vitreosity, grain fracturing

Key findings: In the accelerated breeding program of rice cultivars, using the BC₂ populations helped identify the promising rice genotypes with lower fractures and a larger grain size than the parental genotypes. The best-isolated rice samples with lower grain fracturing distinctly included BC₂ Gagat/Svetlana//Svetlana, Dig.2327/Veles//Veles, and Dig.2327/Alliance//Alliance. Noting also the heterotic effects based on the grain size occurred in BC₂ populations Mavr/Svetlana//Svetlana and Mavr/Kurazh//Kurazh. These hybrid combinations and their parental genotypes are deployable in an accelerated breeding of rice cultivars.