Intraspecific crossability and compatibility within .

Understanding hybridization barriers is relevant for germplasm conservation and utilization. The prezygotic barriers to hybridization include floral morphological differences like pistil and stamen length, pollen characteristics and pollen-pistil interactions. This study sought to elucidate the reproductive biology of ; its mating systems and compatibility barriers.

Farmer preferred traits and genotype choices in Solanum aethiopicum L., Shum group.

Background: Solanum aethiopicum L. is a nutrient dense African indigenous vegetable. However, advancement of its improved varieties that can increase productivity, household income, and food security has not been prioritized.

Identification of growth stage-specific watering thresholds for drought screening in Solanum aethiopicum Shum.

Effective phenotyping for drought resistance is a pre-requisite for identification of modest crop varieties for farmers. For neglected and underutilized crops such as Solanum aethiopicum Shum group, no drought screening protocol based on rigorous iterations has been documented. A split-plot nested treatment structure was arranged in an experiment to identify growth stage-specific watering thresholds for this crop.

Accuracy of using leaf blade length and leaf blade width measurements to calculate the leaf area of Shum group.

Leaf area is an important parameter when determining growth response under normal as well as stressed environments. No attempt had been made to come up with an affordable but accurate alternative of measuring leaf size in research neglected leafy vegetable crops. Other techniques such as use of leaf area meters are either destructive, expensive or both.

Physiological and molecular characterization of drought responses and identification of candidate tolerance genes in cassava.

Cassava is an important root crop to resource-poor farmers in marginal areas, where its production faces drought stress constraints. Given the difficulties associated with cassava breeding, a molecular understanding of drought tolerance in cassava will help in the identification of markers for use in marker-assisted selection and genes for transgenic improvement of drought tolerance. This study was carried out to identify candidate drought-tolerance genes and expression-based markers of drought stress in cassava.