Nitrogen doses and splitting in top dressing in the production and macronutrient content in fruits of zucchini

Nitrogen fertilization in cucurbits must be splitted, one part being supplied before planting and the rest applied in top dressing. However, there is a lack of research about this splitting throughout the cycle. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of nitrogen doses and splitting of this fertilization in top dressing on production and macronutrient content in fruits of zucchini. Two experiments were carried out, with thirteen treatments, in the factorial scheme 4x3+1, with four nitrogen doses in top dressing (62.5, 125.0, 187.5, 250.0 kg ha-1 of N), three splitting forms (1/6+1/3+1/2; 1/4+1/2+1/4; 1/3+1/3+1/3 of total dose in each application) and one treatment without fertilization in top dressing (control = dose zero), with four replicates. Experiment 1 and 2 were conducted in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Total and commercial fruit production (g), total and commercial fruit number per plant, length, diameter and average commercial fruit weight were evaluated. Only in experiment 2 the macronutrient content in the fruits were evaluated. In experiment 1, the 1/4+1/2+1/4 splitting provided greater number of total and commercial fruits per plant. In experiment 2, the increasing of the doses in the 1/6+1/3+1/2 and 1/3+1/3+1/3 splitting resulted in a linear increase in total and commercial fruit production. The decreasing order of macronutrient content in fruits was K>N>P>Ca>Mg>S

Castor bean cake in top-dressing application as a source of nitrogen on the production and quality of zucchini organic seeds

Studies in vegetables show that fertilization influences seed production positively, however, when the quality of the seeds is analyzed, the results are mostly inconsistent. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of castor bean cake (CBC) dose splitting in top-dressing application on the production and quality of zucchini organic seeds, as well as its effect on the macronutrient content of fruits and seeds. The experimental design was a randomized block design and four replications. There were 13 treatments with four doses of CBC in top-dressing (1.7, 3.4, 5.1 and 6.8 t ha-1) per three applications (33.3-33.3-33.3%, 50-50% and 33-50-17%) and the control treatment without any kind of top-dressing fertilization. The study evaluated the number of ripe fruits per plant, the production (number and mass) of seeds per fruit and per plant, the mass of one hundred seeds, seed germination, first germination count, and macronutrient content in the diagnosis leaf, in mature fruits (without seeds) and seeds. The number of ripe fruits per plant was not affected by the CBC doses in top-dressing, neither by the splitting of the applications. It was observed that the number of seeds per fruit, mass of seeds per fruit and mass of seeds per plant showed quadratic behavior. Regarding seed quality, only the 1.7; 3.4 and 5.1 t ha-1 doses produced seed with superior quality than the other doses. In conclusion, the CBC doses increased the number of seeds per fruit, mass of seeds per fruit and per plant up to the 4.5t ha-1 dose, approximately

Transcriptional profiles of the human pathogenic fungus paracoccidioides brasiliensis in mycelium and yeast cells

This work was supported by MCT, CNPq, CAPES, FUB, UFG, and FUNDECT-MS. PbGenome Network: Alda Maria T. Ferreira, Alessandra Dantas, Alessandra J. Baptista, Alexandre M. Bailão, Ana Lídia Bonato, André C. Amaral, Bruno S. Daher, Camila M. Silva, Christiane S. Costa, Clayton L. Borges, Cléber O. Soares, Cristina M. Junta, Daniel A. S. Anjos, Edans F. O. Sandes, Eduardo A. Donadi, Elza T. Sakamoto-Hojo, Flábio R. Araújo, Flávia C. Albuquerque, Gina C. Oliveira, João Ricardo M. Almeida, Juliana C. Oliveira, Kláudia G. Jorge, Larissa Fernandes, Lorena S. Derengowski, Luís Artur M. Bataus, Marcus A. M. Araújo, Marcus K. Inoue, Marlene T. De-Souza, Mauro F. Almeida, Nádia S. Parachin, Nadya S. Castro, Odair P. Martins, Patrícia L. N. Costa, Paula Sandrin-Garcia, Renata B. A. Soares, Stephano S. Mello, and Viviane C. B. ReisParacoccidioides brasiliensis is the causative agent of paracoccidioidomycosis, a disease that affects 10 million individuals in Latin America. This report depicts the results of the analysis of 6,022 assembled groups from mycelium and yeast phase expressed sequence tags, covering about 80% of the estimated genome of this dimorphic, thermo-regulated fungus. The data provide a comprehensive view of the fungal metabolism, including overexpressed transcripts, stage-specific genes, and also those that are up- or down-regulated as assessed by in silico electronic subtraction and cDNA microarrays. Also, a significant differential expression pattern in mycelium and yeast cells was detected, which was confirmed by Northern blot analysis, providing insights into differential metabolic adaptations. The overall transcriptome analysis provided information about sequences related to the cell cycle, stress response, drug resistance, and signal transduction pathways of the pathogen. Novel P. brasiliensis genes have been identified, probably corresponding to proteins that should be addressed as virulence factor candidates and potential new drug targets

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Densidade de plantio na produção de ervilha-de-vagem

É comum os produtores de ervilha aproveitarem a estrutura de tutoramento utilizado para a produção de tomate. Porém, este aproveitamento de estruturas pré-estabelecidas dificulta o aumento da população de plantas via redução no espaçamento entre plantas. Uma alternativa é conduzir duas plantas na mesma cova, aumentando assim a densidade no plantio da ervilha. O trabalho foi conduzido na Fazenda Experimental São Manuel – UNESP/FCA, São Manuel/SP, com o objetivo de avaliar a produtividade de ervilha de vagens comestíveis em diferentes densidades de plantio, variando o espaçamento entre plantas e o número de plantas por cova. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi de blocos ao acaso, com oito tratamentos no esquema fatorial 4 x 2 (espaçamentos entre covas de 0,2, 0,3, 0,4 e 0,5 m com 1 ou 2 plantas por cova), representando densidades de 20.000 à 100.000 plantas por hectare para o espaçamento de 1,0 m entre linhas, com seis repetições. Foram avaliadas as seguintes características: produtividade; número de vagens comerciais por hectare e por planta; número de ramificações nas hastes principais; comprimento e largura de vagem comercial. Os dados foram submetidos ao teste F e análise de regressão. Foi obtida maior produtividade de vagens e menor produção por planta, quanto menor o espaçamento. Porém, se o produtor for plantar com um espaçamento maior, aconselha-se o uso de duas plantas por covaIt is common for producing peas utilize structure staking used for tomato production. However, the use of pre-defined structures difficult to increase the population of plants by reducing the distance between plants. An alternative is to conduct two plants in the same hole, thus increasing the density of planting. The work was carried out in São Manuel Experimental Farm - UNESP/FCA, São Manuel/SP, with the objective of evaluating the productivity of edible pea pods at different planting densities, varying the spacing between plants and the number of plants per hole. The experimental design was randomized blocks with eight treatments in a factorial scheme 4 x 2 (hole spacing of 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 m with 1 or 2 plants per hole), representing densities of 20,000 to 100,000 plants per hectare to 1.0 m spacing between rows, with six replications. The following characteristic were evaluated: yield; number of commercial pods, total and per plant, number of branches in the main stem, length and width of commercial pods. The data were submitted to the F test and regression analysis. It was obtained higher yield and lower production per plant, the smaller the spacing. However, if the producer decides to plant with a greater spacing, it is recommend the use of two plants per holeConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq