Adequacy of Material Resources Required for Effective Implementation of Upper Basic Education Business Studies Curriculum in Nigeria.

This work is a descriptive survey of the adequacy of the material resources required for effective implementation of upper basic education business studies curriculum in Ebonyi State. Two research questions and two hypotheses  guided the study. The entire population of two hundred and forty-one (241) business studies teachers were used for the study. A four point structured questionnaire, with a reliability coefficient of 0.81 was administered on the 241 respondents. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while t-test was used to test the hypotheses. The two null hypotheses were accepted at 0.05 significant level. The results showed that business studies facilities are lowly adequate; business studies curriculum, compliant textbooks are lowly adequate; there is no significant difference between the adequacy of business studies facilities in public and private junior secondary schools; and there is no significant difference between the adequacy of business studies curriculum compliant textbooks in urban and rural junior secondary schools. The study recommended that government and other stakeholders should pool their resources together to ensure that business studies facilities and textbooks are adequately provided since education for all is the responsibility of all.

Comparative efficacy of three plant extracts for the control of leaf spot disease in fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis Hook F.)

The production and leaf quality of Fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis hook f) in Nigeria are threatened by leaf spot and blight. The comparative efficacy of Siam weed (Chromolaena odorata (L.), Utazi leaf (Gongronema latifolium and Bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) and a synthetic fungicide (Forcelet) against the mycelia growth of the leaf spot pathogen (Phoma sorghina), leaf spot disease, growth and yield of fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis hook f) was studied in vitro and in vivo. In 2013 and 2014. The experiments design for the in vitro experiment was Completely Randomize Design (CRD) with six replicates and Randomize Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications in the in vitro study. All plant extracts consistently inhibited the growth of P. sorghina in vitro, and suppressed leaf spot development by between 26.2 and 53.54% in 2013 and by between 26.3 and 51.79% in 2014 under field conditions. Leaf and pod yield were also enhanced, C. odorata leaf extract was significantly (p≤0.05) superior to all other treatments followed by V. amygdalina whose effect did not differ significantly (P≥ 0.05) from Forcelet in all the parameters measured. These results show that leaf extracts of C.odorata and V. amygdalina could be used for the control of leaf spot disease and enhanced yield in fluted pumpkin. Keyword: Efficacy, Plant extract, Control, Leaf spot disease, Yield

Cytological Study of 2n Pollen Formation in Musa

Current Musa breeding strategies are complex and time consuming involving the selection of tetraploids from 3x - 2x crosses. Secondary triploids are then obtained by crossing these tetraploids with diploids. Considering the very low hybrid seed set, routine embryo rescue procedures of hybrid seeds and the long growth cycle of banana, it takes approximately 10 - 12 years to produce an acceptable banana hybrid. The banana breeding process could benefit tremendously if triploid bananas could be obtained directly from 2x - 2x crosses through the process of unilateral sexual polyploidization. There are few reports on the mechanisms through which Musa species produce 2n pollen. This study investigated the type of meiotic irregularities that lead to 2n pollen formation in diploid, triploid and tetraploid Musa accessions using cytological analyses. The results showed that aberrations in cytokinesis and karyokinesis during microsporogenesis are possible mechanisms for 2n pollen formation in Musa. The meiotic aberrations described in this study have implications for Musa breeding. It appears that 2n pollen formation in Musa occurs via both first division restitution (FDR) and second division restitution (SDR). FDR is said to be more promising in transferring more heterozygosity from parents to offspring

An improved method for examining meiotic chromosomes in Musa L.

Meiotic studies in Musa L. have been hampered by: 1) time-consuming efforts required to find the correct stages of cell division; 2) rigidity of the microsporocyte cell wall that makes preparation of smears difficult; and 3) poor staining of prophase chromosomes. This study describes an improved technique to examine meiosis in Musa. The procedure involves dissection of microsporocytes from the anthers, centrifugation to obtain large number of microsporocytes, enzymatic digestion of cell walls and treatment of cells with acetic-alcohol that results in spontaneous bursting of the protoplasts and release of chromosomes. Previous meiotic studies in Musa used acetocarmine that stained only highly condensed metaphase and anaphase chromosomes easily but not the relaxed prophase stages. In this study, we found that silver nitrate, Giemsa and Leishmans’ stain were also effective for staining Musa chromosomes. Silver staining was most effective for the less contracted prophase chromosomes. By providing an improved procedure to examine all the meiotic stages in Musa, this technique will be useful to develop pachytenekaryotypes, characterize new hybrids and identify nuclear restitution mechanisms that are important in breeding schemes

Taxonomic value of calcium oxalate cystals in Musa germplasm

Epidermal and histological characterization of Musa species and cultivars were carried out to investigate the descriptor value of calcium oxalate between groups and subgroups of cultivars. Epidermal peels of the bracts of selected plantain and banana cultivars stained with 0.01% safranin solution and permanent mounts of microtometric sections of fruits, bracts and peduncles stained with hydrogen peroxide and silver nitrate were microscopically examined for their crystal content and features. Bract epidermal features discriminate between the ‘AAB' plantains and ‘AAA' bananas. The major form of occurrence of calcium oxalate in the vegetative and reproductive tissues is bundle raphide. The bract adaxial epidermic of bananas show the occurrence of raphide idioblasts which contain a bundle raphide each. The idioblasts and bundles are more-or-less absent in the plantain bracts. Calcium oxalate occurs in the fruit peel as bundle raphides and in the pulp as intra-amylar crystals. Histological characterization of Musa germplasm helps to elucidate the limits of diversity in the germplas

Multivariate pattern of quantitative trait variation in triploid banana and plantain cultivars

Plantains and bananas (Musa spp. L.) are inter- or intraspecific triploid hybrids derived from crosses between M. acuminata Colla. (A genome) and M. balbisiana Colla. (B genome). Cultivars have been assigned to different taxonomic groups (AA, BB, AAA, AAB, ABB, etc.) based on morphological qualitative descriptors. Principal component analysis of 15 quantitative traits was carried out to establish a more objective taxonomic relationship of cultivar groups and subgroups in the Musa germplasm. Fruit traits, number of neutral flowers, total number of leaves, plant girth at 50 cm, and days to flowering and harvest were the major discriminating traits in the germplasm. Principal components analyses grouped Musa germplasm into AAB plantains, AAA dessert bananas and ABB cooking bananas. The AAB starchy bananas appear to be separated into two subgroups with one being close to the AAB plantains and the other being close to the ABB cooking bananas. The dwarf French AAB plantain cultivar ‘Njock Kon' appears to be a mutant of a giant AAB plantain cultivar

Sectional relationships in the genus Musa L. inferred from PCRRFLP of organelle DNA sequences

The objective of this study was to construct a molecular phylogeny of the genus Musa using restriction-site polymorphisms of the chloroplast (cpDNA) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Six cpDNA and two mtDNA sequences were amplified individually in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) experiments in 13 species representing the four sections of Musa. Ensete ventricosum (W.) Ch. was used as the outgroup. The amplified products were digested with ten restriction endonucleases. A total of 79 restriction-site changes were scored in the sample. Wagner parsimony using the branch and bound option defined two lines of evolution in Musa. One lineage comprised species of the sections Australimusa and Callimusa which have a basic number of x = 10 chromosomes, while most species of sections Eumusa and Rhodochlamys (x = 11) formed the other lineage. Musa laterita Cheesman (Rhodochlamys) had identical organellar genome patterns as some subspecies of the Musa acuminata Colla complex. The progenitors of the cultivated bananas, M. acuminata and Musa balbisiana Colla, were evolutionarily distinct from each other. Musa balbisiana occupied a basal position in the cladogram indicating an evolutionarily primitive status. The close phylogenetic relationship between M. laterita and M. acuminata suggests that species of the section Rhodochlamys may constitute a secondary genepool for the improvement of cultivated bananas

PCRRFLP of the ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacers (ITS) provides markers for the A and B genomes in Musa L.

Musa acuminata Colla (AA genomes) and Musa balbisiana Colla (BB genomes) are the diploid ancestors of modern bananas that are mostly diploid or triploid cultivars with various combinations of the A and B genomes, including AA, AAA, BB, AAB and ABB. The objective of this study was to identify molecular markers that will facilitate discrimination of the A and B genomes, based on restriction-site variations in the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of the nuclear ribosomal RNA genes. The ITS regions of seven M. acuminata and five M. balbisiana accessions were each amplified by PCR using specific primers. All accessions produced a 700-bp fragment that is equivalent in size to the ITS of most plants. This fragment was then digested with ten restriction enzymes (AluI, CfoI, DdeI, HaeIII, HinfI, HpaII, MspI, RsaI, Sau3AI and TaqI) and fractionated in 2% agarose gels, stained with ethidium bromide and visualized under UV light. The RsaI digest revealed a single 530-bp fragment unique to the A genome and two fragments of 350-bp and 180-bp that were specific to the B genome. A further 56 accessions representing AA, AAA, AAB, AB and ABB cultivars, and synthetic hybrids, were amplified and screened with RsaI. All accessions with an exclusively A genome showed only the 530-bp fragment, while accessions having only the B-genome lacked the 530-bp fragment but had the 350-bp and 180-bp fragments. Interspecific cultivars possessed all three fragments. The staining intensity of the B-genome markers increased with the number of B-genome complements. These markers can be used to determine the genome constitution of Musa accessions and hybrids at the nursery stage, and, therefore, greatly facilitate genome classification in Musa breeding