Front Plant Sci
November 2024
Background: Orange maize genotypes are sources of provitamin A (PVA) carotenoids, which are precursors of vitamin A. PVA deficiency and drought constitute major challenges causing increasing food and nutritional insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Breeding of drought-tolerant provitamin A hybrid maize can mitigate these challenges.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The establishment of heterotic groups of inbred lines is crucial for hybrid maize breeding programs. Currently, there is no information on the heterotic patterns of the Provitamin A (PVA) inbred lines developed in the maize improvement program of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to form productive PVA enriched hybrids for areas affected by vitamin A deficiency. This study assessed the feasibility of classifying PVA-enriched inbred lines into heterotic groups based on PVA content without compromising grain yield in hybrids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDevelopment and deployment of high-yielding maize varieties with native resistance to Fall armyworm (FAW), turcicum leaf blight (TLB), and gray leaf spot (GLS) infestation is critical for addressing the food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa. The objectives of this study were to determine the inheritance of resistance for FAW, identity hybrids which in addition to FAW resistance, also show resistance to TLB and GLS, and investigate the usefulness of models based on general combining ability (GCA) and SNP markers in predicting the performance of new untested hybrids. Half-diallel mating scheme was used to generate 105 F hybrids from 15 parents and another 55 F hybrids from 11 parents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProbiotics and related preparations, including synbiotics and postbiotics, are living and non-living microbial-based multi-components, which are now among the most popular bioactive agents. Such interests mainly arise from the wide range and numerous beneficial effects of their use for various hosts. The current minireview article attempts to provide an overview and discuss in a holistic way the concepts, methodologies, action mechanisms, and applications of probiotic-based multi-components in human, animal, plant, soil, and environment health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVitamin A deficiency poses health risks for children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Southeast Asia. Provitamin A-biofortified maize varieties can contribute to minimizing the adverse effects of vitamin A deficiency in areas where maize is a staple food crop. Identifying suitable testers is important to breed provitamin A-biofortified hybrid maize.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Temperate maize inbred lines with expired Plant Variety Protection Act certificates (Ex-PVP) are potential sources of desirable alleles for tropical germplasm improvement. Up to now, the usefulness of the Ex-PVP inbred lines as a potential source of novel beneficial alleles for Striga hermonthica resistance breeding to enhance genetic gain in tropical maize has not been reported.
Results: This study was thus conducted to characterize the combining ability of 24 Ex-PVP inbred lines in crosses with two tropical Striga resistant inbred testers under Striga-infested and non-infested conditions and across three locations for 2 years.
The increasing global human population is projected to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050. This population growth is currently linked to the trends of world-wide urbanization, growth of megacities and shifting dietary patterns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe recent invasion, rapid spread, and widescale destruction of the maize crop by the fall armyworm (FAW; (J.E. Smith)) is likely to worsen the food insecurity situation in Africa.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) is the most harmful virus that affects irrigated and lowland rice in Africa. The RBe24 isolate of the virus is the most pathogenic strain in Benin. A total of 79 genotypes including susceptible IR64 (Oryza sativa) and the resistant TOG5681 (O.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA desirable tester that elicits greater genetic difference in Striga resistance among test crosses in a breeding program has not been reported. Therefore, this study was conducted to characterize 30 Striga resistant yellow endosperm maize inbred lines and three testers with varying resistance levels to Striga using DArTseq SNP markers and agronomic traits to identify a suitable tester for resistance hybrid breeding. Marker-based and agronomic trait-based genetic distances were estimated for yellow endosperm maize inbred lines and testers with varying resistance levels to Striga.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF(Del.) Benth parasitism, low soil N, and nutritional deficiencies of normal-endosperm maize ( L.) threaten maize yield and exacerbate nutritional problems in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFYam ( spp.) is a nutritional and medicinal staple tuber crop grown in the tropics and sub-tropics. Among the food yam species, water yam ( L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPoor milling and grain appearance is a common feature of locally produced rice ( L.) in West Africa. Development of genotypes with high yield and uniform milled grain size will enhance the market for the locally produced rice.
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