Antagonistic Activity of Trichoderma ISolates against Sclerotium rolfsii : Screening of Efficient Isolates from Morocco Soils for Biological Control

Seventy Trichoderma spp. isolates collected from different regions of Morocco were tested for their capacity to inhibit in vitro mycelial growth of Sclerotium rolfsii, and for their effect on the viability of S. rolfsii sclerotia in the soil. The Trichoderma spp. isolates inhibited mycelial growth of S. rolfsii to various degrees, with 52% of isolates expressing an average inhibition, varying between 45 and 55%. The effect on the viability of sclerotia in the soil also varied between isolates of Trichoderma, with the majority (84%) having a slight effect. A group of twenty isolates identified as Trichoderma harzianum when tested in sterilized soil, significantly reduced sclerotial viability though not in natural soil. Four of these isolates (Nz, Kb2, Kb3 and Kf1) showed good antagonistic activity against S. rolfsii and were also highly competitive in natural soil. These isolates would therefore be candidates for development in biological control program

The Berber and the Berbers – genetic and linguistic diversities

In Northern Africa, two main blocks of languages are spoken: the vernacular Arabic varieties and the Berber languages. Our objective is to correlate linguistic characters to genetic data. The precise language affiliation of the samples is controlled. Relationships with Arabic speakers are examined. Four informative genetic markers have been studied: two are autosomal (Gm allotypes and Alu sequences) and the other two are of maternal (mitochondrial DNA) and paternal (Y chromosome) lineages. Four populations were studied (514 samples): three are from Morocco (Asni, Bouhria and Figuig oasis) and the fourth from Egypt (the Siwa oasis). The results were compared with previously published analyses. The genetic differentiation between North-Western and North-Eastern African Berbers (Siwan) seems to be correlated with linguistic studies

Prosodic shaping of consonant gemination in Cypriot Greek

This paper presents an experimental investigation of durational variation in lexical and post-lexical geminate alveolar laterals, under different stress conditions, in Cypriot Greek. Lexical geminates are found to be longer than post-lexicals, and both geminates and non-geminates are longer in word-initial position. The durational distinction is robust in all conditions, but particularly for word-initial lexical geminates. Post-lexical geminates and word-initial lexical geminates are significantly longer when pre-stress. Word-initial geminates are longer when preceded by a word-final nasal (the condition for post-lexical gemination), thus creating a kind of ‘supergeminate’ consonant and indicating that word-final nasals are not deleted, as has previously been thought to be the case. Implications for the phonological analysis of Cypriot Greek geminates and the role of prosodic and phonotactic restrictions are considered