Selecting tropical wheat genotypes through combining ability analysis.

The selection of parents to originate promising base populations, as well as the knowledge of the gene effects controlling agronomic traits by means of diallel, are useful to drive genetic gains in Brazilian tropical wheat breeding programs. The goals of this study were to select tropical wheat parents with a high frequency of favorable alleles and segregating populations with high potential to originate superior progenies through partial diallel analysis. Thus, 14 parents were divided in two groups and crossed in a 7 × 7 partial diallel scheme to originate 49 F1 combinations.

Physiological responses of beet and cabbage plants exposed to copper and their potential insertion in human food chain.

Copper (Cu) can be toxic to vegetables when it is absorbed and accumulated at large concentrations, a fact that increases the risk of excessive addition of this metal to the human food chain. The aims of the current study are (1) to determine the Cu concentrations that have critical toxic effects on beet and cabbage plants, and the potential of these plants to enter the human food chain, as well as (2) to assess the physiological and biochemical responses of representatives of these vegetables grown in nutrient solution presenting increasing Cu concentrations. Beet and cabbage plants were grown for 75 days in pots filled with sand added with nutrient solution presenting six Cu concentrations: 0.