Performance, genetic variations and interrelationships in different traits of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) genotypes

   Eighteen sorghum genotypes were evaluated over three consecutive seasons (2009,2010,and 2011) at three locations ( Rahad Research farm of the Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC), Sudan, Gedarif Research Station farm North Gedarif and South Gedarif region). Both experiments conducted in  North and South Gedarif were rainfed, while that conducted at Rahad station was irrigated. A randomized complete block design with four replicates was used .The objective was to estimate the general performance, genetic variability and interrelationships of grain yield and its components. Data were collected on days to 50% flowering, plant height, number of heads/m², head length (cm), head width (cm),1000 seed weight (g) and grain yield (kg/ha). The study found  that there were highly significant differences among genotypes in  all the characters studied  except head width in season 2011.The early maturing genotypes were Milo (59-64 days), Gesheish      (60-67 days) , AG-8 (59-65 days) and Butana (62-68 days), an indication that these genotypes would fit quite well in short rainy seasons of  North Gedarif environment. The late maturing genotypes were Tabat (68-83days),Wad Ahmed (69-83 days), Faki Mustahi (68-88 days) and Tetron (73-88 days) which were suitable to be grown under Rahad and South Gedarif environments. The highest grain yields (kg/ha) were exhibited by the genotypes Butana (735 kg/ha), Wad Ahmed (2572 kg/ha), and Mugod   (2545 kg/ha). Grain yield was positively   and highly significantly correlated with head width (0.65**)  and number of heads/m² (0.46**) .Accordingly, the simple linear correlation and path coefficient analysis indicated that head width and number of heads/m² could be used as potential selection criteria in breeding programs for developing high yielding sorghum genotypes.           تم تقييم ثمانية عشر سلالة من الذرة الرفيعة  لثلاثة مواسم متتالية (2009، 2010 و2011) في ثلاثة مواقع هي محطة بحوث الرهد ومحطة بحوث القضارف ،( شمال وجنوب القضارف)، هيئة البحوث الزراعية، السودان واللتان تمت فيهما الزراعة بالأمطار أما محطة بحوث الرهد بالري الأنسيابي. استخدم تصميم القطاعات العشوائية الكاملة بأربعة مكررات  وذلك لتقدير أداء انتاجية الحبوب، التباين الوراثي والعلاقة بين الصفات. تم قياس عدد الايام حتي 50% ازهار،  طول النبات ، عدد القناديل/متر² ، طول القندول ، عرض القندول ، وزن الالف حبة وانتاجية الحبوب. أظهرت النتائج وجود فروق معنوية عالية لمعظم الصفات التي درست ماعدا عرض القندول في موسم 2011م. السلالات المبكرة هي مايلو (59-64 يوم) ،قشيش (60–67 يوم) ، أرفع قدمك -8 (59–65 يوم) وبطانة (62–68 يوم). هذا يوضح ان هذه السلالات يمكن زراعتها في المناطق قليلة الامطار وهي تناسب بيئة شمال القضارف. الاصناف المتأخرة هي طابت (68- 88 يوم)، ود أحمد(69-83 يوم) ، فكي مستحي(68-88 يوم) ، وتترون(73-88 يوم) حيث يمكن زراعتها في بيئات مثل الرهد وجنوب القضارف. السلالات ذات الانتاجية العالية هي بطانة (735 كجم /هكتار) ، ود أحمد (2572 كجم/ هكتار) ومقد (2545 كجم /هكتار). ارتبط انتاج الحبوب ايجابياً ومعنوياً مع عرض القندول (** 0.65) وعدد القناديل/ متر² (** 0.46) ، وعليه أوضح معامل تحليل المسار أن عرض القندول وعدد القناديل/ متر² يمكن استخدامها كصفات انتخاب في برامج التربية لتطوير سلالات من الذرة  الرفيعة عالية الانتاجية. &nbsp

Genotype x environment interaction and stability analysis of grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) yield under rainfed and irrigation conditions in central Sudan

     An experiment was conducted over three consecutive seasons (2009, 2010, and 2011) at three locations , Rahad Research farm. Gedarif  Research Station farm (North Gedarif and South Gedarif region) of the Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC), Sudan. Both North and South Gedarif were rainfed, while Rahad station was irrigated. A randomized complete block design with four replicates was used. Sorghum production is highly influenced by the environment where it is grown, thus, the genotype by environment interaction is highly significant when breeding for specific adaptation. The objective was   to assess the genotype x environment interaction and stability of grain yield. The mean squares due to environment, genotypes and genotype x environment interaction were highly significant for grain yield. Significant differences among  genotypes for the studied characters were found in almost all seasons, indicating that these sorghum genotypes were highly variable for the characters studied and , therefore, expected to respond to selection. The interaction effects of genotype x location were highly significant for most traits indicating that genotypes responded differently to different environments and some are environmentally specific. The present study showed that the first two axes PCA1,PCA2 in Additive Main Effect and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI ) accounted for the GE sum of squares by 56.7% and 19.3%, respectively, while the regression analysis accounted for GE sum of squares by 21.9% .Hence, AMMI analysis was superior to regression techniques and more effective in partitioning the interaction sum of squares. From both statistical  stability models used in this study, i.e. Eberhart and Russell (1966) as well as the Aditive Main Effect and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) analysis, they pointed out  that genotypes Mugod (1510 kg/ha), Tabat (1299 kg/ha), Wad-Ahmed (1471 kg/ha), Gadambalia bloom (1428 kg/ha), Safra (1410 kg/ha) and Tetron (1323) were high yielding and stable under the favorable environments of South Gedarif and Rahad irrigated Scheme. Genotypes Wad Baku(1225 kg/ha), Farhoda (1252 kg/ha),Gesheish (1194 kg/ha) and Wad Fahal (1230 kg/ha) were low yielders but quite stable under low rainfall environments like North Gedarif environment         أجريت هذه التجربة  لثلاث مواسم متتالية ( 2009 ، 2010 و 2011 ) وفي ثلاثة مواقع هي مزرعة بحوث الرهد ومحطة بحوث القضارف ( منطقة شمال وجنوب القضارف) ،هيئة البحوث الزراعية، السودان، واللتان تمت فيهما الزراعة بالأمطار ، أما محطة الرهد بالري الانسيابي. استخدم تصميم القطاعات العشوائية الكاملة بأربعه مكررات. وجد أن البيئة لها تأثير كبير علي انتاجية الذرة الرفيعة في مناطق زراعتها وعلية فأن التفاعل الوراثي والبيئي عالي المعنوية في حالة التربية لبيئات محددة. هدفت الدراسة لتقويم التفاعل الوراثي والبيئي وثبات درجة انتاجية الحبوب في الذرة. أظهرت النتائج وجود فروق معنوية عالية للبيئات ‚الأصناف والتفاعل الوراثي والبيئي. أيضاً أظهرت الدراسة فروقات معنوية عالية لمعظم الصفات التي درست في كل المواسم ، وهذا يشير الى وجود فروقات عالية بين سلالات الذرة للصفات التي درست ، وعليه يمكنها الاستجابة للانتخاب . التفاعل الوراثي والبيئي به فروق معنوية لمعظم الصفات وهذا يوضح أن هذه السلالات تختلف في استجابتها باختلاف البيئات وبعضها في بيئات محددة. مقارنة فعالية طريقة تحليل معامل الارتداد الخطي وطريقة الاثر التجميعي الرئيسي والتفاعل المتراكم لتحليل اثر التفاعل بين الصنف والبيئة اوضحت الدراسة ان محور المكون الاول والثاني في طريقة الاثر التجميعي الرئيسي والتفاعل المتراكم فسر %56,7،%19,3  من قيمة تفاعل البيئة مع التركيب الوراثي اما معامل الارتداد قد فسر حوالي 21,9% من قيمة التفاعل بين البيئة والتركيب الوراثي  وعليه ، طريقة الاثر التجميعي الرئيسي والتفاعل المتراكم تفوقت علي طريقة تحليل معامل الارتداد الخطي وهي ذات كفاءة عالية في تقسيم مجموع مربعات الانحرافات. بناءً علي نماذج التحليل (Eberhard and Russel 1966) و Additive Main Effects  and  Multiplicative Interaction) AMMI) لتحديد ثبات الاداء معاً وجد أن السلالات ذات الإنتاجية العالية هي مقد( 1510 كجم/ هكتار) ، طابت (1299 كجم/هكتار)، ود أحمد (1471 كجم/ هكتار) ، زهرة القدمبلية ( 1428 كجم/هكتار) ، صفراء( 1410 كجم/هكتار) وتيترون(1323  كجم/هكتار) ذات انتاجية عالية وثابتة ويمكن زراعتها في جنوب القضارف والرهد والسلالات ود باكو( 1225 كجم/هكتار) ، فرهوده (  1252كجم/هكتار)، قشيش (1194 كجم/هكتار) وود فحل  (1230 كجم/ هكتار)  ذات انتاجية أقل ولكنها ثابتة نسبياً ويمكن زراعتها في شمال القضارف

Assessment of Sudanese sunflower hybrids for yield, yield components and stability

Development of local sunflower hybrids with superior yields and stable across different environments is the main objective in our breeding program. For this purpose, ten local Sudanese sunflower hybrids designated as SFH32, SFH36, SFH37, SFH310, SFH313, SFH314, SFH341, SFH345, SFH302, and SFH325 were evaluated against Hysun-33 for yield potential and its components at Sennar, Wad Medani, Rahad, New Halfa and Suki. The experiment over all irrigated environments was laid out in RCBD with three replicates during the winter season of 2008. There was considerable variation for yield and its components among hybrids and locations. Genotype-environment interactions through different parameters and the performance of six traits of hybrids were studied. The six traits were plant height (cm), number of seeds per head, percentage of empty seeds,    100-seed weight (g),seed yield (kg ha-1) and oil yield (kg ha-1).Significant differences were observed for hybrids (G), locations (E) and G xE interaction for these six traits. Stability analysis after Eberhart and Russell’s model suggested that the hybrids used in this study were all, more or less, responsive to environmental changes. Most of the hybrids performed better in E4 (New Halfa). Stability analysis identified SFH37 and SFH310 as stable hybrids for plant height, SFH345 and SFH302 were identified as stable for number of seeds per head, whereas, Hysun-33, SFH310 and SFH341 were found stable for low percentage of empty seeds and heavy seed weight, respectively. Three hybrids; SFH310, SFH313 and SFH341 performed better than Hysun-33 and other hybrids across five environments and were considered as most stable hybrids for seed and oil yields. In contrast, hybrids such as SFH32 and SFH37 with regression coefficients greater than one were regarded as sensitive to environmental changes for seed and oil yields. The hybrid SFH310 was identified as stable hybrid for various yield components. The three promising local hybrids were released in June 2009 for commercial production and the local seed production of the hybrid SFH310 (Bohooth-1) was adopted by some seed producers in the country. تطوير هجن محلية من محصول زهرة الشمس ذات إنتاجية عالية وثابته  فى مختلف البيئات ، يعتبر من أهم أهداف برنامج التربية. أجريت هذه التجربة للتقييم عشرة هجن محلية بالرموز SFH32، SFH36 ، SFH37، SFH310، SFH313، SFH314، SFH341، SFH345، SFH3302، و25SFH3 واختبارها مع الشاهد Hysun-33 فى خمسة بيئات مروية هى سنار ، واد مدني، الرهد، حلفا الجديدة، والسوكي لمعرفة مقدرتها الإنتاجية الكامنة. أستخدم تصميم القطاعات العشوائية الكاملة بثلاثة مكررات لتنفيذ التجربة فى كل موقع خلال الموسم الشتوي 2008/2009. أوضحت النتائج وجود فروقات كبيرة فى الإنتاجية و مكوناتها بين الهجن والمواقع. كما أوضح تفاعل الطرز الوراثية مع البيئة ((genotype x environment interactions وجود فروقات معنوية عالية لسته صفات تمت دراستها وهى أطوال النباتات (سنتمترات) وعدد البذور بالقرص والنسبة المئوية للبذور الفارغة ووزن المائة بذرة (جرامات) وإنتاجية البذور(كيلوجرامات/هكتار) وإنتاجية الزيت (كيلوجرامات/هكتار).أوضح تحليل ثبات الإنتاجية  stability analysis بإســـــــتخدام نموذج Eberhart and Russell’s model بان جميع الهجن لها استجابات متباينة مع المتغيرات البيئية فى المواقع الخمسة وكان أفضل الأداء فى حلفا الجديدة (.(E4 كما أوضح التحليل بان الهجينين SFH37  و SFH310 هما من الهجن المستقرة و الثابتة الأداء لصفة أطوال النباتات و الهجينين SFH345  و SFH302 لصفة عدد البذور بالقرص ، بينما الهجن Hysun-33  ، SFH310، وSFH341 لصفتي النسبة المنخفضة من البذور الفارغة والوزن المرتفع للمائة بذرة علي التوالي. أوضحت الدراسة ان ثلاثة هجن محلية  (SFH310، SFH313 و SFH341) وخاصة الهجين SFH310 ، لها مقدرة إنتاجية عالية من البذور والزيت وثبات الإنتاجية فى البيئات الخمسة مقارنة مع الشاهد Hysun-33 وباقي الهجن ، بينما هجن اخرى مثل الهجينين SFH32  وSFH37  تعتبر حساسة للتغيرات البيئة فى إنتاجيتها من البذور والزيت. تم التعرف على الهجين SFH310 بأنه أكثر ثباتاً للإنتاجية ومكوناتها. الهجن السودانية الثلاثة الواعدة تمت إجازتها في يونيو 2009 للإنتاج التجاري والأنتاج المحلي لبذور الهجين SFH310 (بحوث-1= Bohooth-1) تم تبنيه من بعض منتجي البذور فى السودان. &nbsp

Effects of Genotype, Season and Nutrition on Sunflower Yield and Hollow Seededness in Gezira (Sudan)

A field experiment was conducted to study the effects of genotype, season and nutrition on sunflower seed yield and hollow seededness in Gezira. Five sunflower cultivars (Damazin-l, Hungarian-A, Rodio, Hysun-25 and Hysun-33), two nitrogen levels (0 and 129 kgN/ha) and two levels of phosphorus  (0 and 129 kg P205/ha) were used over two seasons (autumn and winter 2000) in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Data on 14 characters were collected. results showed that the percentage of empty seeds, self-compatibility 1000-seed weight and seed yield were significantly affected by and its interaction with season. The means of these characters were relatively higher in winter than in autumn season except for the empty seeds. The application of high doses of fertilizer had no significant effect on the percentage of empty seeds, and consequently lie phenomenon of empty seeds could be attributed mainly to genetical  and seasonal effects. The genotypes mean seed yields ranged from 1127 to 1899 kg/ha, with Hysun-33 giving the highest yield. Simple  and genotypic correlation analyses emphasized that seed yield was and positively correlated with days to flowering, harvest index , head diameter, seed number/head, self-compatibility, number filled seeds/head and percent seed set. Both analyses showed negative coefficients between seed yield and empty seeds. The percentage of empty seeds was positively and significantly correlated with plant height and number of heads/plant. The path analysis indicated that head diameter, percentage of seed set, days to flowering and seed weight  were the most important traits related to seed yield where as percentage of seed set, harvest index, and days to maturity were the  most important traits contributing to high degree of self-compatibility in sunflow

Study of heterosis in single-cross hybrids of sunflower

    This study was conducted to estimate the genetic variability and heterosis of 40 F1 hybrids of sunflower for seed yield and its components over two seasons (summer and winter) in 2007 at Sennar Research Station Farm in central Sudan. The plant material consisted of 14 sunflower parents            (4 females and 10 males) and their 40 F1-hybrids. The experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. The traits measured were days to 50% flowering, plant height, head diameter, number of seeds per head, one thousand seed weight and seed yield.  Hybrids showed high genetic variability for all traits studied than their parents which suggested some degree of hybrid vigor. The direction and magnitude of heterosis varied from cross to cross. Over two seasons, the average mid-parent heterosis in preferred direction and magnitude depicted that the hybrid SA2 x SR41 followed by SA3 x SR41 for days to flowering, SA1 x SR14 for plant height, SA2 x SR14 for head diameter, SA2 x SR13 followed by SA3 x SR13 for number of seeds per head, and SA3 x SR7 for one thousand seed weight. With regard to seed yield, the best hybrids with positive average heterosis were SA3 x SR41 (53.42%), SA4 x SR45 (52.75%), SA4 x SR1 (52.25%) and SA3 x SR10 (40.63%) which also combined with high seed yield of 1581 kg/ha, 1479 kg/ha, 1474 kg/ha, and 1457 kg/ha, respectively. These hybrids (involving the female line SA3 or SA4 and the male lines (SR10, SR13, SR41 and SR45) can be used in our breeding program in an attempt to develop local sunflower hybrid (s) with high seed yield and other important agronomic traits and for testing their yield potential and stability across locations and seasons.  أجريت هذه الدراسة بهدف تقدير التباين الوراثي و قوة الهجن  للإنتاجية ومكوناتها لأربعين هجين مفرد من محصول زهرة الشمس، نتجت من تهجين أربعة أمهات ذات عقم ذكرى سايتوبلازمى مع عشرة آباء معيدة للخصوبة. أجريت التجربة بمحطة بحوث سنار فى وسط السودان بالقطاع المروي لموسين             (صيف وشتاء2007). أستخدم تصميم القطاعات العشوائية الكاملة بثلاثة مكررات. كانت الصفات المدروسة هى عدد الايام حتى 50% إزهار، طول النبات، قطر القرص، عدد البذور بالقرص، وزن الآلف حبة، وانتاج البذور. أظهرت النتائج فروقات معنوية لكل الصفات في الموسمين مع تفوق الهجن وتباينها وراثياً مقارنة بالآباء. وفي التحليل المشترك لحساب قوة الهجين لكل الصفات كنسبة زيادة أو نقصان من متوسط الأبويين، ظهر أنّ الهــجينينSA2 x SR41  وSA3 x SR 41 هما الأفضل للإزهار والنضج المبكر، الهجين SA1 x SR14 لطول النبات، الهـجين SA2 x SR14 لقطر القرص ، الهجينين SA2 x SR13  و SA3 x SR13 لعدد البذور بالقرص، الهجين SA3 x SR7 لوزن الألف بذرة. أما بخصوص إنتاجية البذور أظهرت بعض الهجن نسبة قوة هجين موجبة SA3 x SR41 ) (53.42%، (52.73% ) SA4 x SR45،   SA4 x SR1   (52.25%)و SA3 x SR10 ((40.63% وإنتاجية بذور تقدر بـ 1581 كيلوجرام للهكتار، 1479 كيلوجرام للهكتار، 1474 كيلوجرام للهكتار و1459 كيلوجرام للهكتار علي التوالي. ويستنتج من هذه الدراسة ان الهجن التي يدخل في تركبيها الأم SA3 أو الأم SA4 مع الآباء SR41 ، SR45، SR13      و SR10 هى هجن متفوقة لإنتاجية البذور والصفات الأخرى ، ويمكن استخدام تلك الأمهات والآباء في تطوير هجن محلية مفردة من محصول الزهرة واختبار ثبات إنتاجيتها عبر المواسم والمواقع المختلفة

Cooperative Unmanned Air and Ground Vehicles for Landmine Detection

The unmanned aerial vehicle used in this research is multi-functional quadcopter with infrared camera and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). The unmanned aerial vehicle detects the landmines using infrared camera and GPR; maps a pin in digital map for future use by ground vehicle. The ground vehicle used in this research is Belarus132N mobile robot. It has the following onboard sensors: stereo pair camera, GPS, and image processing system. The ground vehicle will use onboard sensors: stereo pair camera, GPS and the map provided by the quadcopter to traverse the region, and locate the mapped landmines. The base station consists of a laptop that provides a communication link between the aerial and ground vehicle systems and for saving information from any destruction. This proposed system will demonstrate how an air-ground vehicle system use to cooperatively detect, locate and traverse of landmines

Candidate malaria susceptibility/protective SNPs in hospital and population-based studies: the effect of sub-structuring

Background: Populations of East Africa including Sudan, exhibit some of the highest indices of genetic diversity in the continent and worldwide. The current study aims to address the possible impact of population structure and population stratification on the outcome of case-control association-analysis of malaria candidate-genes in different Sudanese populations, where the pronounced genetic heterogeneity becomes a source of concern for the potential effect on the studies outcome. Methods: A total of 72 SNPs were genotyped using the Sequenom iPLEX Gold assay in 449 DNA samples that included; cases and controls from two village populations, malaria patients and out-patients from the area of Sinnar and additional controls consisting of healthy Nilo-Saharan speaking individuals. The population substructure was estimated using the Structure 2.2 programme. Results & Discussion: The Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium values were generally within expectation in Hausa and Massalit. However, in the Sinnar area there was a notable excess of homozygosity, which was attributed to the Whalund effect arising from population amalgamation within the sample. The programme STRUCTURE revealed a division of both Hausa and Massalit into two substructures with the partition in Hausa more pronounced than in Massalit; in Sinnar there was no defined substructure. More than 25 of the 72 SNPs assayed were informative in all areas. Some important SNPs were not differentially distributed between malaria cases and controls, including SNPs in CD36 and NOS2. A number of SNPs showed significant p-values for differences in distribution of genotypes between cases and controls including: rs1805015 (in IL4R1) (P=0001), rs17047661 (in CR1) (P=0.02) and rs1800750 (TNF-376) (P=0.01) in the hospital samples; rs1050828 (G6PD+202) (P=0.02) and rs1800896 (IL10-1082) (P=0.04) in Massalit and rs2243250 (IL4-589) (P=0.04) in Hausa. Conclusions: The difference in population structure partly accounts for some of these significant associations, and the strength of association proved to be sensitive to all levels of sub-structuring whether in the hospital or population-based study

JQPro : Join query processing in a distributed system for big RDF data using the hash-merge join technique

In the last decade, the volume of semantic data has increased exponentially, with the number of Resource Description Framework (RDF) datasets exceeding trillions of triples in RDF repositories. Hence, the size of RDF datasets continues to grow. However, with the increasing number of RDF triples, complex multiple RDF queries are becoming a significant demand. Sometimes, such complex queries produce many common sub-expressions in a single query or over multiple queries running as a batch. In addition, it is also difficult to minimize the number of RDF queries and processing time for a large amount of related data in a typical distributed environment encounter. To address this complication, we introduce a join query processing model for big RDF data, called JQPro. By adopting a MapReduce framework in JQPro, we developed three new algorithms, which are hash-join, sort-merge, and enhanced MapReduce-join for join query processing of RDF data. Based on an experiment conducted, the result showed that the JQPro model outperformed the two popular algorithms, gStore and RDF-3X, with respect to the average execution time. Furthermore, the JQPro model was also tested against RDF-3X, RDFox, and PARJs using the LUBM benchmark. The result showed that the JQPro model had better performance in comparison with the other models. In conclusion, the findings showed that JQPro achieved improved performance with 87.77% in terms of execution time. Hence, in comparison with the selected models, JQPro performs better

Y Chromosome Lineage- and Village-Specific Genes on Chromosomes 1p22 and 6q27 Control Visceral Leishmaniasis in Sudan

Familial clustering and ethnic differences suggest that visceral leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania donovani is under genetic control. A recent genome scan provided evidence for a major susceptibility gene on Chromosome 22q12 in the Aringa ethnic group in Sudan. We now report a genome-wide scan using 69 families with 173 affected relatives from two villages occupied by the related Masalit ethnic group. A primary ten-centimorgan scan followed by refined mapping provided evidence for major loci at 1p22 (LOD score 5.65; nominal p = 1.72 × 10(−7); empirical p < 1 × 10(−5); λ(S) = 5.1) and 6q27 (LOD score 3.74; nominal p = 1.68 × 10(−5); empirical p < 1 × 10(−4); λ(S) = 2.3) that were Y chromosome–lineage and village-specific. Neither village supported a visceral leishmaniasis susceptibility gene on 22q12. The results suggest strong lineage-specific genes due to founder effect and consanguinity in these recently immigrant populations. These chance events in ethnically uniform African populations provide a powerful resource in the search for genes and mechanisms that regulate this complex disease