Selection of alfalfa genotypes for resistance to the foliar pathogen Curvularia geniculata

ABSTRACT Foliar diseases impose severe restrictions on the persistence and productivity of Medicago sativa, both of which may be increased by developing disease resistant and more competitive genotypes that can improve pasture quality. We found Curvularia geniculata as the principal alfalfa foliar pathogen in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS). Growth chamber experiments evaluated the resistance of alfalfa genotypes ‘E1C4’, ‘CPPSul’, ‘ABT 805’ and ‘CUF-101’ to C. geniculata as compared the control ‘Crioula’ genotype. These genotypes were also evaluated in field trials at a sea level site in Eldorado do Sul in central RS and at two sites £200 m above sea level, one in Bagé municipality in south west RS and the other at a farm near the town of Alto Feliz in north east RS. Plants were spray-inoculated with 1.6 x 106 ml-1 of C. geniculata spores and visually evaluated for leaf damage 14 days later. The C. geniculata infection rates varied from zero to 100%. Alfalfa persistence and forage mean dry mass (DM) production at the Eldorado site were measured during different seasons from November 2013 to January 2015 by calculating the incidence of invasive plants and morphologically separating leaves from stems and calculating both leaf and stem DM. Data were analysed using mixed statistical models. The best results for persistence and forage DM were shown by the ‘CPPSul’ genotypes (DM = 16,600 kg ha-1) and ‘Crioula’ (DM = 15,750 kg ha-1). These two genotypes will be used for subsequent investigations and selection cycles

Don't Blame the Idealizations (revised version)

Idealizing conditions are scapegoats for scientific hypotheses, too often blamed for falsehood better attributed to less obvious sources. But while the tendency to blame idealizations is common among both philosophers of science and scientists themselves, the blame is misplaced. Attention to the nature of idealizing conditions, the content of idealized hypotheses, and scientists' attitudes toward those hypotheses shows that idealizing conditions are blameless when hypotheses misrepresent. These conditions help to determine the content of idealized hypotheses, and they do so in a way that prevents those hypotheses from being false by virtue of their constituent idealizations