aliakbar mohammadi mirik

Pistachio is one of the garden products that its product is affected by temperature fluctuations. Failure to chilling requirements of flower buds, spring frost, lack of effective pollination and fertilization, as well as the sickling of the fruit and its bursting are the consequences of temperature fluctuations in pistachio. The present study was carried out in order to evaluate four commercial cultivars of pistachio to circadian temperature fluctuations in laboratory conditions in two consecutive years. The factors included the cultivar in four levels ('Akbari', 'Ahmad Aghaei', 'Kale Ghochi' and 'Sefid Pistaha Nug'), and the number of temperature fluctuations in 4 levels (without temperature fluctuations as a control, 2, 4 and 6 temperature cycles). The results showed that in the cultivar 'Kale Ghochi', 4 and 6 temperature cycles caused an increase in ion leakage in shoots and buds compared to the control, while in other cultivars no significant difference was observed between the temperature cycle and the control, which indicates the greater sensitivity of the 'Kale Ghochi' cultivar compared to other cultivars to temperature fluctuations. Comparing ionic leakage rate of shoots and buds in temperature cycles showed that the buds had less ionic leakage than the shoots.

Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum L. is one of the most important destructive flax diseases that markedly decrease the production and yield of this crop. The cultivation of flax cultivars resistant to F. oxysporum is the most effective method for managing this disease. In this study, the changes in content of phenylalanine ammonia lyase, peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase enzymes, total protein, proline and soluble sugars were measured in 12 different genotypes of flax infected to wilt Fusarium and non-infected conditions under greenhouse conditions. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications. 21 days after inoculation of the plant with the pathogen, biochemical components changes were measured by spectrophotometry. Based on the results of ANOVA, the soluble sugars content in infected genotypes was higher compared to control and healthy genotypes. Also, this parameter increased in resistant and highly resistant genotypes of flax, meanwhile this trait decreased in susceptible genotypes in contaminated conditions. The activity of phenylalanine ammonia lyase, peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase enzymes as well as proline content in leaves of resistant and highly resistant genotypes were significantly increased in wilt Fusarium infected treatment. Total protein content in non-infected genotypes of flax was higher than infected genotypes. Therefore, increasing the activity of antioxidant enzymes, proline content and soluble sugars can play a possible role in inducing resistance to Fusarium wilt disease in flax genotypes.

Oilseed crops have an effective role in nutrition and industry. Flax (Linum usitatissimum) seeds contain approximately 30 to 40 percent of oil rich in unsaturated fatty acids, especially linolenic acid. Previous studies in flax had showed significant positive correlation of seed yield with number of branches per plant, number of capsules per plant and 100 seed weight. It had reported that the number of capsules per plant is the most important selection criteria for genetic improvement of seed yield in flax. The present study was conducted to investigate relationship between seed yield and its related traits in breeding lines derived from KO37× SE65 cross using correlation, regression and path analysis to determine the best indirect selection criteria for genetic improvement of seed yield in flax.

In order to study the relationships between traits, 112 breeding lines along with six genotypes as control (including parental genotypes) were evaluated in augmented experiment design. Genotypes were planted in a randomized complete block design with 3 replications. Morphological, phonological and agronomic traits such as number of days to 50% flowering, end of flowering, period of flowering, number of branches per plant, number of capsule per plant, biological yield, and seed yield per plant were measured and analyzed using SAS software(Version, 9.1).

Number of capsule per plant, number of branches per plant, seed weight per capsule and biological yield per plant were positively correlated with seed yield per plant. Based on the results of stepwise regression analysis, number of capsule per plant could enter to the model in the first step and accounted 78% of the total variation. Seed weight per capsule and the number of branches per plant were entered in the subsequent steps and could explain the 86.87% of total variation. Path analysis results indicated that number of capsule per plant had the most direct effect on seed yield per plant, whereas, number of branches per plant had the most indirect effect through number of capsule per plant. Number of capsule per plant was recognized as the most important component explaining seed yield variation in the studied population. Four factors explained the most of variation of studied traits and could explain more than 68% of the total variation.

According to the results, number of capsule per plant had the most impact on seed yield variation and also there was no significant negative correlation between this trait and other seed yield components. Therefore, number of capsule per plant can be used as an indirect selection criteria for genetic improvement of seed yield in flax.

Introduction:

 Rising global demand for food, along with the limitation of arable land, has posed a significant challenge on agricultural researchers to find solutions to overcome this issue. Given that the development of agricultural lands is not practically possible, most attention should be focused on increasing the production yield per unit area. One of the basic approaches to increase crop yield is the consumption of chemical fertilizers, although their application has detrimental effects on humans, soil and the environment. However, organic fertilizers can be considered as a suitable solution to solve this problem. Organic compounds and biomass are the main features of soil fertility and productivity. Applying organic fertilizers such as living compounds (bacteria, yeast, Azolla) and non-living compounds (compost tea, amino acids, humic acid and fulvic acid) can increase soil organic substances. Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) are considered as beneficial microorganisms promoting plant growth by establishing a symbiotic relationship with plants. The colonization of plant roots by these fungi increases plant resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, enhances the plant growth through increasing elements uptake, the improvement of the water flow of plants, and the protection of the plants against diseases. Due to the importance of some food products, such as maize, investigating various aspects of mycorrhizal fungi application and their effect on these products is essential.

Materials and Methods:

 to investigate the effects of some organic compounds and microorganisms on the colonization of AMF and the concentration of some elements, a factorial experiment in greenhouse conditions was conducted in a completely randomized design at three replications for 3 months. The factors included mychorhizal inoculation consisted of Funneliformis mosseae (FM), Rhizophagus intraradices (RI), Rhizophagus irregalaris (RIr), and organic growth enhancers (Azolla, P. fluorescens VUPf5, amino acid complex, humic acid, yeast, bacterial siderophore and compost tea).

Results and Discussion:

 the results showed that the highest root mycorrhizal colonization percentage by Funneliformis mosseae (FM) was observed in bacterial (93%), humic acid (90%) and Azola (76%) treatments. The use of Azola and humic acid and compost tea showed the highest R. intraradices (Ir) root colonization with 96 and 82%, respectively. The highest effect of the treatments on R. irregalaris (Rir) root colonization was observed regarding Azola (96%) and compost tea (90%), respectively. According to the results, the prominent increase in root colonization by three mycorrhizal species was observed in Azola, humic acid, compost tea and bacterial treatments. In addition, the results showed that some compounds increased the concentration of nutrients in the roots and shoots of the treated plants. According to the results, all mycorrhizal species significantly increased the amount of phosphorus in the shoot under the compost tea treatment. Also, the treatment of amino acid combined with R. irregaluris caused an increase in the concentration of iron, compared to the control. The use of R. intraradices along with amino acid increased manganese concentration in the plant aboveground organs by 2.87 times compared to the control. Simultaneous application of siderophore and RI, FM and Rir increased the zinc concentration by 2.16, 2.55 and 1.81 times compared to the control, respectively. The highest uptake of phosphorus, zinc and manganese was observed by R. intraradices soil inoculation and the maximum iron concentration was obtained in plants inoculated with R. irregaluris. The mean comparison of different treatments revealed no significant differences between non-mycorrhiza and mycorrhiza-treated samples, while in comparison with the control, their differences were substantial. Overall, co-treatment of mycorrhizal fungi and Azolla, bacterial and humic acid caused the most significant increase in the mycorrhizal root colonization and the compost tea, amino acid complex and siderophore treatments had the highest impact on the nutrient content of the plant.

In the present study, all treatments had an additive effect on root colonization. However, Azolla, bacteria, humic acid and tea compost treatments caused the most mycorrhizal colonization. These treatments utilized with mycorrhizal fungus had a favourable effect on the growth factors of corn by increasing the rate of colonization. Also, this study revealed that all three species of mycorrhizal fungi increased the concentration of elements and the effect of these fungi along with compost tea, amino acid complex and bacterial siderophore increased colonization and nutrient content in the shoots compared to the control group.

Drought stress is one of the most important abiotic stresses and limiting factors for plant development and plant production. In order to evaluate the impact of concomitant application some of microorganisms and chemical compounds with three species of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Funneliformis mosseae, Rhizophagus intraradices and Claroideoglomus etunicatum as mycorrhizal inoculum on antioxidant enzymes activities and phenolic compounds in corn cultivar 705SC, an experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications. In the present study, treatment of living and non-living compounds at seven levels (included Pseudomonas flurescens VUPF5, Issatchenkia orientalis yeast, Azolla, compost tea, humic acid, siderophore biologist, amino acid complex), treatment of arbuscular mycorrhizal (included three species of fungi and control) and drought stress at one level (30% of field capacity) were examined. Six, twelve and eighteen days after the start of drought stress, the interaction effect of treatments with species of arbuscular mycorrhiza on the activity of peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase, phenylalanine ammonialyase enzymes and total phenol was evaluated. According to the results, in all three fungal species, the activity of peroxidase enzyme in siderophore treatment with fungus was higher compared to other treatments. Also, the highest activity of polyphenol oxidase enzyme was observed in R. intraradices mixed with compost tea treatment. Phenolic compounds in mycorrhizal plants and non-mycorrhizal plants reached the highest level on the twelfth day, depending on the treatment and type of fungal species. In conclusion, among the different treatments inoculated with corn, amino acid complex, siderophore, tea compost and humic acid increased antioxidant enzyme activity compared to the control treatment and reached its maximum on the twelfth day..

One of the major problems with commercial production of micro-propagated plants is low survival and poor growth after transplanting. In order to investigation the effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis on establishment, survival, growth, as well as nutrients absorption on Pyrodwarf micropropagated rootstock in drought stress conditions, a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with two factors including mycorrhizae in two levels (with and without) and drought stress in three levels (three, five and seven days irrigation intervals) in three replications in greenhouse conditions. The plants harvested two months after drought stress. The results of variance analysis showed that mycorrhizal symbiosis significantly increased vegetative indices at all levels of drought stress. The total leaf area, stem height, total leaf fresh weight and root dry weight of mycorrhizal seedlings were 3.6, 1.3, 3.1 and 1.9 times higher than non-mycorrhizal plants, respectively. The content of P, Mn, Cu, Zn and K and in root and shoot tissues increased significantly in mycorrhizal treatments than control. Generally, the results of this study showed that pear seedlings treated by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi had better acclimatization, growth and more tolerance at normal and drought stress condition.

In order to investigate the genetic variation and transgressive segregation of some agronomic traits in F6 linseed breeding lines derived from KO37 × CAN1066 cross, 824 breeding lines (selected from 106 F5 lines) evaluated using an augmented design along with five-control genotypes. The highest genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) were observed for seed weight / capsule (53.39%), whereas, number of days to maturity showed very low GCV (2.71%). Overall, considerable variation was observed for studied traits among breeding lines. The average seed yield per plant of breeding lines was 0.270g with a range of 0.126 to 0.480 g among F5 families, whereas seed yield /plant in KO37 and CAN1066 parent were 0.490 and 0.158 gr/plant, respectively. The highest broad sense heritability was obtained for number of branches/plant (97.03%( but, seed yield ha-1 had the lowest value (64.34%). Heritability of seed yield/plant was 83.33%. Number of capsule/plant showed the most positive transgressive segregation (28/08%). Also, considerable positive transgressive segregation was observed for days to 50% flowering (26/43%) and number of branches/plant (6.61%). The genetic gain for seed yield/plant, number of capsules/plant, number of branches/plant was 85.18, 77.99 and 68.10 %, respectively. The range of heterobeltiosis varied from 2.46 to 3.60, from14.35 to 18.50 and from 0.039 to 0.041 for number of branches/plant, number of capsules /plant and seed yield /plant, respectively. Because of high genetic variation in this population there is the possibility of selecting superior lines for evaluation and production of new varieties.

The aim of this research was to assessment of drought tolerance in bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia L.) ecotypes. For this purpose, 16 ecotypes collected from four provinces (East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan) of Iran, were evaluated using randomized complete block design with four replications in three separate experiments (60, 90 and 120 mm water evaporation from A pan) during 2017-2018 growing season in the Research Field of Faculty of Agriculture at Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan. The result of combined analysis of variance showed there were significant differences at 1% level between the ecotypes for all traits except thousand kernel weight in their reaction to drought stress. Drought stress caused decrease in stem height, root length, pod number per plant, seed number per pod, seed number per plant, biomass and grain yield, significantly. Ecotype Byghout produced the most biomass (by an average of 82.345 g/m2) and grain yield (by an average of 35.038 g/m2) over all irrigation levels. Means comparisons showed that ecotypes Ghareaghaj and Byghout (respectively) was more stable in biomass production as well as ecotypes Byghout and Saghazchi (respectively) was more stable in grain yield production across all irrigation levels. In general, these ecotypes that were less affected by drought stress can be used as promising genotypes in future breeding programs with the objective of enhanced drought resistance.

Pistacia vera ‘Badami-Riz-Zarand’ is used as rootstock in Iranian pistachio orchards due to the low sensitivity to the Phytophthora, resistance to salinity, and graft compatibility with commercial cultivars. In this study, the effects of culture media (MS and DKW) along with type and concentration of plant growth regulators were investigated on micropropagation of this rootstock. The highest growth of explants was obtained in ½ DKW culture media. Supplementing the culture media with antioxidants and activated charcoal has no significant effect on explants establishment. Most of the microshoots (5 to 6 microshoot in each explant) were induced on DKW+1 mg L-1 BA, DKW+2 mg L-1 BA + 0.5 mg L-1 GA, and also on ½  DKW culture media supplemented with 0.5 mg l-1 BA or combination of 1 or 2 mg L-1 BA + 0.5 mg L-1 GA, whereas, the length of the microshoots were higher in MS medium (3.84 to 5 cm). At rooting stage, half strength MS media supplemented with 2 mg L-1 IBA and 0.05 mg L-1 NAA showed the highest root length (4.48 cm), number of roots per microshoot (4.5), and rooting frequency (86.36%).

To study the effect of bacterial siderophore on the second cropping of maize (SC645) under drought stress conditions, a factorial experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Two irrigation treatments (75 (I1: unstressed control) and 120 mm evaporation from Class-A pan (I2: delayed irrigation)) and two siderophore application treatments (S1: with and S2: without application) were considered as experimental factors. The foliar application of siderophore (2000 mg l-1) were applied two times at 4-6 and 12-14 leaf growth stages. In addition, 20 Kg siderophore ha-1 was applied with irrigation at jointing stage. The results showed leaf pigments, leaf relative water content (RWC), membrane stability, leaf area index(LAI) and specific leaf area (SLA) increased at I1 compared to I2, while sucrose (saccharose), lipids peroxidation (MDA), guaiacol peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase activities decreased. S1 compared to S2, showed increased leaf pigments, the ability of osmotic adjustment, antioxidant enzymes activities, RWC, membrane stability, LAI and SLA and decreased MDA. The interaction effect showed that siderophore application increase chlorophylls (a, b and total), proline and soluble sugars of leaf in each irrigation levels. The highest forage fresh yield (8697 gm-2) belonged to I1. S1 increased forage fresh yield (1644 gm-2) compared to S2. In general, bacterial siderophore can improve the morphological, physiological and biochemical capabilities of maize and is effective in mitigating the effects of drought and in increasing photosynthetic capacity.

Pomegranate is one of the most important horticultural crops in Iran. Selection of suitable and resistant varieties to environmental conditions with high performance plays an important role in increasing the economic exploitation of this fruit. In order to study the genetic diversity of some Iranian pomegranate varieties, 20 morphological characteristics of leaf, flower and fruit were evaluated for two years. Results indicated that morphological characteristics were significantly affected by varieties. So that, the most coefficient variable (cv) was observed related to aril number, seed hardness, fruit weight, aril weight and fruit bark weight. Results of factor analysis separated morphological characteristics to eight factors which the most important one, was related to aril. Cluster analysis of morphological traits divided genotypes to three groups. According to results, ‘Tabolarz’ and ‘Mahan’, ‘Gabri Dane Siah’ and ‘Siah Dane Pishva’, ‘Shirin Bi haste’ and ‘Shirin Hastedar’ had high similarity that can be postulated that they have family relationship.

To study the effect of bacterial siderophore on the second crop of maize (SC645) under drought stress conditions, a split-factorial experiment, arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications was conducted in Faculty of Agriculture, Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan at summer 2014. Sampling time was considered as main factor. Five samplings were performed after imposing the irrigation treatments. The factorial combination of two irrigation intervals (75 (unstressed control) and 120 mm evaporation from Class-A pan) and two siderophore application treatments (with and without application) were considered as sub factors. The foliar application of siderophore (2000 mg l-1) was applied two times. In addition, 20 kg siderophore ha-1 was applied with irrigation. The chl a, b and carotenoids decreased with delay in irrigation while increased with siderophore application in each irrigation. Also, proline, soluble sugars and sucrose accumulated with increasing irrigation intervals and delay in irrigation. Increase in intervals and delay in irrigation without siderophore application resulted in an increase in membrane lipid peroxidation. The trend of changes in traits was significantly influenced by the availability of soil moisture, and modifications in the above-mentioned trait values were observed with delays in irrigation. Irrigating (rewatering) of plants subjected to water deficit stress did not improve their traits values compared with the unstressed control, indicating that short-term effects of drought would not recover by irrigation. Bacterial siderophore enhances the ability of osmotic adjustment and photosynthetic capacity and is effective in ameliorating the harmful effects of drought.

In order to study morphological variation within seeds and seedlings of a pistachio population of ‘Badami-Riz-e-Zarand’, 20 quantitative traits were measured in sixty-seven nut and seedlings originated from them. Results showed that there was positive and significant correlation between traits of nuts (seeds) and kernels, not between seedling height and crown diameter. According to measured parameters and cluster analysis, seedlings clustered to three groups. In the first seed group, petiole width and length as well as petiole diameter at the bottom and the middle were more than the other two groups. In the first group, kernel weight, leaf length and seedling height was significantly more than third group. Similarly, it was found that seedlings in the second group had nut length, nut diameter, kernel length and width, the ratio of length to width of leaves, SPAD index and stem diameter greater than the third group. Results of this experiment showed that despite the fact that all of the nuts had the same female parent; there was high morphological diversity within seeds of a pistachio population of cv. Badami-Riz-e-Zarand. Also, results revealed, characteristics associated with vigor of seedlings can be estimated before planting by defining a regression formula between some of seed traits.

In pistachio rootstocks breeding, correlation of characteristics and their relationships with plan vigor is very important. Banebaghi is a natural cross of Pistacia subspecies that have a high variation in generated seedlings. In order to study these variations and relationships among morphological characteristics, an experiment was designed with 108 seedlings of Banebaghi. Fourteen growth characteristics such as seedling primary growth type, length and diameter of shoot, leaf and leaflet, dimensions of leaf and leaflet, leaf and leaflet number and two physiological parameters, including chlorophyll index and chlorophyll florescence were evaluated. Based on results, a high morphological variation was observed in Banebaghi seedlings, so that seedlings divided in two groups based on types of growth: pistachio growth type and mastic tree growth type. In both growth types, there were positively and negatively correlations among vigor of seedling and stem length, leaf number, stem diameters and chlorophyll index. Based on stepwise regression analysis, in both growth types stem volume and leaf number influenced the stem length and diameters of seedlings.

In order to investigate genetic diversity of two flax species، 50 genotypes were evaluated. The results showed that there was significant difference between two subspecies and also among different regions in subspecies for some seed yield components and Us subspecies was superior than Md for number of capsules/plant but Md subspecies had more 1000 seed weight. Genetic variation in each region was different depending on the trait. Genetic variation ranged for number of capsules/plant from13. 9 to 81. 7، for number of seed/capsules from 5. 4 to 9. 22 and for 1000seed weight from 2. 5 to 6. 4 gram. Seed yield/plant varied from 0. 3 to 9. 06 gram and seed yield ranged from 188. 7to 1453 kg/ha in Norway1005 and Lybia1686 genotypes، respectively، indicating the existence of genetic potential to improve important traits in flax. Cluster analysis classified genotypes into six groups. Genotypes within group one having highest capsule/plant along with genotypes within group two and three had high seed yield/plant. Number of capsules/plant showed highest genetic correlation due to high direct effects along with negative indirect effect through 1000 seed weight on seed yield/plant

To investigate the effects of salinity stress on some germination and vegetative growth indices of lentil (Lens culinaris Medic) genotypes، two separate experiments were conducted at glasshouse and laboratory of College of Agriculture، Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan. In the first one، three electrical conductivities (including one، three and seven dS. m-1) were applied on germinating seeds of seven accessions and two cultivars of lentil and germination indices were investigated. In the second experiment، same salinities were applied on soils of pots on the same genotypes. After four weeks، dry mass and leaf areas were measured. Results showed that germination percentage، radical to plumule ratio، leaf area and dry matter per plant reduced with increasing in salinity levels; however there was no significant difference between EC= 4 and 7، except for germination percentage. On the other hand، considerable genotypic variation was observed in response to salinity in both stages but there was no significant correlation between tolerance to salinity in germination and vegetative growth phases. In the situation of this study، it seems that damage to growth at germination and vegetative phase induced by EC= 7 was relatively higher than EC=4.

To investigative the effect of benzyladenine and eliminate of irrigation in winter on vegetative growth parameters and chemical composition of tree and nut quantitative characteristics of pistachio trees cv. Kaleh-Ghoochi، an experiment was done in 2010 to 2012 years. In this study، the effect of two irrigation regimes includes irrigation and non-irrigation in winter combined with three levels of benzyladenine (0، 20 and 40 mg L-1) was investigated. The experiment design was randomized complete block design with three replications. The data obtained from both experiment analyzed as the combined analysis. Irrigation treatment was done as similar as common irrigation program in orchard، and in non- irrigation treatment، there wasn’t irrigation from January to April in both years. Application of benzyladenine treatment was done at inflorescence buds swollen time. The results showed، 40 mg L-1 benzyladenine had the most effective on vegetative growth of trees compared with the other treatments. Also benzyladenine treatments compared with the control had significant increase in the ecophysiological parameters; leaves biochemical compounds contents، leaves nutrient elements concentration and caused reducing in percentage of early splitting fruit and bud abscission significantly. Also، results showed that elimination of irrigation in winter had no significant effect on the mentioned parameters. Thus، based on the results of this study it seems that elimination of winter irrigation doesn’t have any effect on vegetative growth and development of pistachio tree، but application of BA in late winter has positive effects.