Effect of sowing dates on yield and yield-attributes of some sunflower hybrids

To determine the optimum sowing date for some sunflower hybrids i.e. A11 x Rf7, A11 x Rf9, A12 x Rf9, A8 x Rf10, A11 x Rf10, A8 xRf12, A9 x Rf12, A15 x Rf12, A2 x Rf20 and the check variety Sakha 53, along with to assess their genetic variability and to determine selection criteria for improving their yield. These materials were sown at four adjacent field represent four sowing dates i.e. 20th of April, 20th of May, 20th of June and 20th of July using randomized complete block design with three replications at the experimental Farm of El Mattana Agricultural Research Station, (latitude of 25.17o N and longitude of 32.33o E), Luxor Governorate, during the two successive summer seasons 2018 and 2019. Results revealed that early sown plants on 20th of April had high yield potential compared to other sowing dates. The promising sunflower hybrid for seed yield feddan-1 and more yield attributes was A12 x Rf9 when sown on 20th of April and across sowing dates, whereas A15 x Rf12 when it sown on 20th of July and across sowing dates was the best for seed oil content. Considerable genetic variability was detected among sunflower genotypes, and hence the selection would be effective to genetic improvement of seed weight plant-1 for these materials, which can be achieved through selecting genotypes having the largest head diameter and the heaviest weight of 100-seed.

Genetic diversity, chemical composition and oil characteristics of six sesame genotypes

The nutritional factors and characteristics of sesame (Sesame indicum L.) seeds and extracted oil of six genotypes: G2, G3, G4, G5 and G6 cultivated in Upper Egypt were subjected to comparative evaluation with control (G1), for its genetic diversity, physicochemical properties, fatty acid composition, antioxidant activity and oil oxidative stability (Rancimat test). Estimates of genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation revealed high value in seed yield. For heritability estimates, the data showed that four traits out of eight recorded the highest heritability values over of 90%. These traits were oil yield (99.56%), seed yield (98.83%), plant height (96.33%) and seed index (90.03%). Sesame seeds have a high oil content (39.56 to 54.64 g/100g dry weight). The fatty acid profile was varied among the genotypes, in particular oleic acid (37.15 to 46.61%) and linoleic acid (37.49 to 44.33%). Results indicated that G4 has significantly higher in most agricultural traits as well as seed yield, while the G5 was the highest in oil yield and has significantly higher oxidative stability (26.57 h) among the genotypes

High Salt Diet Affects the Reproductive Health in Animals: An Overview

Salinity is a reliable issue of crop productivity loss in the world and in certain tropical and subtropical zones. However, tremendous progress in the genetic improvement of plants for salinity tolerance has been made over several decades. In light of this, halophytic plants can be used as animal feeds and have promising features because they are a good feed resource. However, the main constraint of saline pasture systems is the extreme concentration of NaCl salt in drinking water and forage plants for grazing animals. Ecological reports revealed that excess diet salt causes mortality and morbidity worldwide. Animal fed halophytic forages may have adverse effects on growth performance and reproductive function in males and females due to inducing reductions in hormone regulation, such as testosterone, FSH, LH, and leptin. It was indicated that high salt intake promotes circulating inflammatory factors in the placenta and is associated with adversative effects on pregnancy. This review focuses on the scientific evidence related to the effect of high salt intake on growth performance, spermatogenesis, sperm function, and testicular morphology changes in male animals. In addition, the review will also focus on its effect on some female reproductive features (e.g., ovarian follicle developments, placental indices, and granulosa cell function)