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Background: Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses and the most limiting factor in agricultural production worldwide, affecting the growth, development, and final yields of crops. Rapeseed is one of the most important sources of oilseeds in the world, and its seeds contain more than 40% of oil. Moreover, the meal obtained from oil extraction has more than 35% protein, hence it currently ranks third among oil crops in the world after soybean and oil palm, making it necessary to identify the genotypes that tolerate salinity stress. The development and improvement of rapeseed cultivars with salinity tolerance and acclimation offer promising prospects for improving sustainable production in this area. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the responses of rapeseed genotypes to salinity stress through analyses of agronomic and biochemical traits. Methods: The genetic diversity between rapeseed lines in terms of agronomic, morphological, and physiological traits in saline soils was investigated in an experiment based on a randomized complete block design with 17 autumn rapeseed genotypes with three replicates in the research farm of East-Azarbaijan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center. The measured traits were plant height, the number of fertile pods, number of seeds per pod, pod length, pod area, plant growth rate, 1000-seed weight (TSW), seed yield, oil content, and oil yield. The relationships between yield, yield components, and morphological traits were explored using the analysis of variance (ANOVA), comparison of averages, correlation analysis, cluster analysis, and biplot to understand the relative importance of traits affecting the yield of the studied genotypes. Results: The studied genotypes were significantly different from each other in pod length, pod area, number of fertile pods, number of seeds per pod, plant growth rate, seed oil percentage, plant height, TSW, grain yield, and oil yield. However, there were no significant differences between the studied genotypes in terms of harvest index and number of actual pods to potential pods. According to the mean comparisons, genotypes 5, 11, and 15 can be introduced as salinity-tolerant lines, and genotypes 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 can be considered salinity-sensitive lines. According to the other traits, genotype 11 produced a high pod length, number of fertile pods, oil percentage, and oil yield, genotype 5 had a high growth rate and oil percentage, and genotype 15 presented a high height and number of fertile pods. According to the cluster analysis, the second and third groups contained tolerant and susceptible genotypes, respectively. The genotypes in the second group had the highest percentage of positive deviation from the overall mean for grain yield, plant height, harvest index, seed oil percentage, pod length, pod area, and number of fertile pods. Based on the biplot analysis, Karaj 8 and 14 genotypes had a strong relationship with the number of fertile pods, number of seeds per pod, pod length, pod area, and plant growth rate. Based on the obtained results, the plant height, TSW, seed yield, and oil content traits were closely correlated with Karaj 5, 7, 11, 10, and 15 genotypes. Based on the results of correlation analysis, the correlation coefficient of seed yield was positive and significant for three traits, i.e., plant height, oil percentage, and number of fertile pods, and the highest correlation coefficient (r = 0.879) was obtained for seed yield with seed oil percentage. Positive and significant correlations were measured for the number of seeds in pods with pod length (r = 0.699), pod area (r = 0.555), number of fertile pods (r = 0.678), and number of actual pods. Therefore, genotypes characterized by longer and more abundant pods play a crucial role in improving seed quantity, a key component of grain yield in saline environments. Consequently, the size and number of pods per plant serve as indicators of high-yield potential under such conditions. Based on the results of the principal component analysis (PCA), the first and second components had the highest relative variances, accounting for 44.66% and 31.22% of the total variance, respectively. Together, these two components accounted for 75.88% of the total variance. Factor loadings showed that traits such as number of fertile pods, seed yield, oil yield, and seed oil content had the highest factor loadings in the first component. Similarly, the plant growth rate had the highest factor load in the second component among all the studied traits. Cluster analysis divided the genotypes into four groups, and its dendrogram showed that all the studied genotypes were divided into four separate groups based on all the measured traits. The first group comprised three Karaj 1, 13, and 16 genotypes, the fourth group (like the first group) contained three Karaj 5, 11, and 15 genotypes, and the third group had five genotypes, namely Karaj 3, 7, 8, 10, and 14. The remaining genotypes were assigned to the second group. Conclusion: The results of the present study demonstrate acceptable genetic diversity among rapeseed genotypes in terms of the evaluated traits in saline lands. This shows the importance and the possibility of using these genetic resources to achieve promising and superior genotypes in breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background : Lentil is a popular legume crop in the Mediterranean region, widely grown for its nutritious seeds and improving soil fertility. Interest in legumes is increasing as a protein source to replace meat in the future. Identification of high-yield genotypes with adaptation to a wide range of environments is one of the major goals in crop and lentil breeding programs. Combining the best linear unbiased predictions (BLUP), additive main effects, and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) methods in multi-environment experiments and multi-trait stability selection (MTSI) helps to better evaluate plant genotypes and achieve more accurate results. Additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and BLUP are two methods for analyzing multi-environment trials. The linear mixed effects model (LMM) and the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) estimator methods are among the important methods that have been proposed to analyze the data of multi-environmental experiments. In this regard, the BLUPs obtained from the interaction of genotype and environment are performed with principal component analysis or single value analysis on the matrix. This method uses the stability index of the weighted average of absolute scores of the best unbiased linear forecasts (WAASB), the weighted average of the stability index of WAASB, and the dependent variable (WAASBY). Researchers have also proposed an MTSI based on factor analysis, in which grain yield, other traits, and the stability of each are simultaneously used to identify stable genotypes. This research aimed to identify stable and high-yielding lentil genotypes in autumn cultivation. Methods: To evaluate the seed yield stability of 12 lentil genotypes along with three check genotypes, including Kimia, Bileh Sawar, and local landrace, an experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with three replications at Agricultural Research Stations of Khorramabad (Lorestan), Zanjireh (Ilam), and Sararoud (Kermanshah) in three cropping years (2019-2022). Each plot consisted of four lines with a length of 4 m and a distance of 25 cm from each other. iIn addition to the usual crop care such as weeding and pest control, the desired traits and characteristics, such as the number of days to 50% flowering, plant height, and number of days to maturity, were measured during the growing season. Hundred-seed weights and the yield of each plot were measured after the maturity and harvesting of experiments. Combined analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed using SAS software, and the average traits of the treatments were compared using the LSD test. For statistical analyses, the Metan Ver.1.9.0 (multi-environment trial analysis) package was used in the R software environment. To estimate stability quantities, singular value decomposition (SVD) was applied to the matrix of BLUPs obtained from genotype-by-environment interactions with an LMM. Variance components were estimated by the REML method. After analyzing the variance of the data, the stability parameters of WAASB and WAASBY (for simultaneous selection based on average performance and stability) were estimated using the eigenvalues obtained from the AMMI analysis on BLUP, and the best genotypes were selected with these two indicators. Genotypic stability values were obtained from the Harmonic Average of the Genotypic Values (HMGV) index. The compatibility of genotypes was evaluated based on the relative performance index of genotypic values (RPGV). The harmonic mean index and relative performance of genotypic value (HMRPGV) were used to simultaneously evaluate stability, compatibility, and seed yield. Results: The effect of environment, genotype, and genotype × environment interaction were significant on seed yield, plant height, days to flowering, days to maturity, seed filling period, seed filling ratio, seed yield formation rate, rainfall efficiency, and single seed weight. The genotype effect was significant on all traits, except for the seed-filling period. Based on the biplot analysis, genotypes 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10 had higher yield stability in addition to the highest seed yield. The Scree test showed that the first three principal components explained 45.41, 19.13, and 14.34% of the genotype × environment interaction variation obtained from BLUP for grain yield, respectively; in total, they justified 78.87% of the variation. Based on a weighted average of absolute scores of WAASB, genotypes 6, 10, and 12 were high-yielding and stable. Genotypes 1 and 10 were superior based on the (MTSI). The harmonic mean and HMRPGV introduced genotypes 10, 9, 4, and 12 as the genotypes that had high stability and compatibility in addition to high seed yields. Conclusion: Based on all the analyses, genotype 10 was the most stable genotype, which, in addition to seed yield, was superior to other genotypes in terms of the other measured traits and can be a candidate for introduction as a new cultivar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The production of peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.) as one of the vital industrial plants is affected by the environment, genotype, and their interaction. Therefore, the environment × genotype interaction on peanut yield should be evaluated before the introduction of cultivars. Evaluation of the genotype × environment interaction provides valuable information regarding the performance of plant cultivars in different environments. It plays a crucial role in evaluating the stability of the performance of breeding materials. This experiment evaluated the stability and yield of superior peanut genotypes in three regions of Guilan province, Iran, in the 2018 and 2019 crop years. Methods: In this study, the top 10 peanut genotypes (130, 140, 113, 115, 128, 176, 178, 192, 201, and 208 from ICRISAT) along with the NC2 variety as a control were assessed in a complete randomized block design trial with three replications across three regions Rasht, Masal, and Talash. Each plot comprised six lines, each with 5 m long, 50 cm row spacing, and 20 cm plant spacing. Upon reaching physiological ripeness, a 5- m 2 area was harvested from the middle four rows of each plot after removing 0.5 m from both ends to eliminate marginal effects. The plant height (cm), average number of sub-branches per plant, number of pods per plant, and number of seeds per pod were randomly recorded and counted from 10 plants. After drying, biomass, pod, and seed yields were calculated in kg/ha. Following seed separation from the shell, five random samples of 100 seeds were taken from each plot to measure the 100 seed weight (HSW). Additionally, the length and width of peanut pods and seeds were recorded (in mm) using a digital caliper. To determine seed oil percentage, 150 g of peanut seeds were randomly selected from each plot, and their oil percentage was measured using the Soxhlet method after grinding the samples. Composite variance analysis was conducted after ensuring the uniformity of experimental error, and the mean traits were compared using the leastsignificant difference (LSD) method. The stability of peanut genotypes was assessed using the GGE bi-plot analysis. Results: The variance analysis revealed that the interaction of location × genotype significantly affected the peanut plant's height, sub-branches, and pod diameter at a one percent probability level. Additionally, the year × location × genotype interaction significantly affected other traits such as pods per plant, seeds per pod, HSW, pod yield, seed yield, seed oil percentage, oil yield, shell yield, pod length, and peanut seed length and width at the 1% probability level. Notably, genotype 208 in the Rasht region exhibited the tallest average plant height (103.5 cm), which was not significantly different from line 201. Furthermore, the highest number of peanut pods (31.72 pieces) was observe d for genotype 128 in the Rasht region in the first crop year, showing no significant difference with line 128 in the first and second crop years. Significant differences were also noted in the number of seeds per pod across different genotypes and regions. For instance, the second crop year in the Rasht region and genotype 113 yielded the highest peanut HSW (71.45 g), which was not significantly different from some lines in the two crop years in the Masal and Rasht regions. Furthermore, the pod yield of genotype 192 in the first crop year was superior in Rasht (5583 kg/ha), Masa l (5233 kg/ha), and Talash (4166 kg/ha) regions compared to the other genotypes. Genotype 192 exhibited the highest seed yield (3777 kg/ha) in the first crop year in Rasht, representing a 133% increase compared to the control (NC2). These results underscor e the significant influence of climatic conditions on peanut seed yield and the genetic potential variations among different genotypes in diverse regions. Additionally, genotype 192 in the first cropping year and Rasht region attained the highest peanut oi l yield (1841 kg/ha), aligning with findings from other researchers regarding varying oil yields among different peanut lines. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, all traits measured in peanuts were impacted by the interaction of genotype and environment. Line 192 displayed significantly superior quantitative and qualitative performance of peanut seeds to the NC2 variety, known as the Goli native variety, and the other studied lines. The increase in the number of pods per plant, seeds per pod, and the peanut HSW were important agronomic indicators in improving the performance of line 192 in the Guilan region. The results indicated that the interaction effect of genotype and environment led to changes in the yield components, resulting in changes in the yield of peanut seeds and pods per unit area, with the oil yield increasing in parallel with the grain yield. Using the GGE bi-plot method to evaluate performance stability, peanut line 192 was identified as a high-yielding line with high performance and stability in all environments. Therefore, groundnut genotype 192 is recommended for achieving the highest seed yield in the region's climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As one of the most important cereals, bread wheat is an essential part of food security in the world, which supplies one -fifth of the total calories of the world population. Nowadays, the yield of wheat has been affected by climate change -driven drought as one of the most important abiotic stresses that has become an important threat to food security in the world. Root and stomatal traits are especially important in breeding plants to withstand drought stress. Stomata play a key role in controlling carbon dioxide uptake and water loss through transpiration. Therefore, stomatal characteristics are used as indicators of water status and plant growth, especially in drought stress conditions. Having a wide range of physiological and morphological characteristics, roots play an essential role in absorbing water and nutrients. They are also the first organ that sends signals to control the stomata in response to dryness. Therefore, the difference in the structure of the root system can cause the difference between the performance in different cultivars. This study was conducted to investigate stomatal characteristics and their relationship with the root system and plant performance in 24 bread wheat lines and cultivars. Methods: To investigate the relationship between stomatal dimensions and density with the root system, an experiment was conducted on 24 bread wheat genotypes in the form of a randomized complete block design with three replications in the rainfed conditions of the research farm at Zanjan University Faculty of Agriculture in the crop year 2018 -2019. In this experiment, PVC pipes were used to study the root system. Twelve seeds were planted in each tube, which were thinned to seven after germination. In each experimental unit, there were two tubes for each genotype, one of which was used to evaluate traits and final yield, and the second tube was used for root studies. Stomatal traits, including the length and width of stomata and number of stomata per unit area, root traits including root length, root diameter, root volume, root surface, and root biomass, and seed yield were measured in the end. The resulting data from the measured traits were analyzed in the form of a randomized complete block design, and the averages were compared using the LSD method. The data were analyzed using multivariate statistical analy ses, including regression analysis, path analysis, and factor analysis, and cluster analysis was used to group genotypes. Statistical calculations were done using SAS 9.0 and SPSS 21 software. Results: The results of analysis of variance and mean comparison showed high variability among genotypes for all measured traits. The results of the mean comparison of genotypes showed that genotypes 2, 5, 8, and 16 had the highest yield, and genotype 23 had the lowest yield among the examined genotypes. The highest number of stomata on the upper and lower leaf surface s belonged to genotypes 5 and 2. In terms of root traits, the highest diameter, volume, length, root surface, and root dry weight at a depth of 0 -25 cm were recorded for genotypes 2, 3, 18, and 5, respectively. There was a high and significant correlation between the yield and the number of stomata on the upper and lower leaf surface s, the length and width of the stomata on the upper leaf surface, diameter, volume, dry weight, and root surface at a depth of 0 -25 cm in the soil. Based on the results of stepwise regression analysis, two variables, the number of stomata on the lower leaf surface and root dry weight at a depth of more than 25 cm explained 91.4% of the changes in grain yield. According to the results of the causality analysis of the number of stomata on the lower leaf surface, the most direct effect had a positive effect on seed yield. The results of factor analysis grouped the studied traits into three factors with 82.48% variability justification. The share s of the first, second, and third facto r s to explaining data changes were 48.86%, 24.62%, and 8.99%, respectively. Based on the plot obtained from factor analysis, genotypes 2, 5, 8, and 16 had high values for the first and second factors. According to the coefficients of the factors, it can be claimed that the genotypes located in this area have high performance, a high number of stomata, and strong root traits, which were found at the soil depth of 0 -25 cm. For this reason, these are the genotypes that could produce high yields by absorbing water from the surface layers of the soil by having a large number of stomata and carrying out more photosynthesis. Moreover, the investigated genotypes were divided into three groups from cluster analysis by the ward method and Euclidean distance. Genotypes 2, 5, 8, and 16 were placed in the first group and had the highest mean values for grain yield traits, number and width of stomata on the upper and lower leaf surfaces, and root traits including diameter, volume, and dry weight at a soil depth of 0 - 2 5 cm, and root diameter at a depth greater than 25 cm. The lowest values for stomatal length were observed in both leaf surfaces. These were the best genotypes for cultivation in dry conditions. Conclusion: A strong superficial root system can provide the plant with water from scattered rains that occur with low frequency at the end of the growth period. On the other hand, the increase in the number of stomata along with their smaller size reduces leaf pores and enables a faster response of the stomata, and the rapid response of the stomata maximizes water use efficiency. Therefore, having a strong superficial root system along with high stomatal density can increase seed yield in dry conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Objective: Maize (Zea mays L.) is the third most important cereal after wheat and rice, which accounts for 26% of total cereal cultivated area and 37% of their production. Maize is a valuable raw material for extracting oil, starch, alcohol, glucose, plastic, lactic acid, acetic acid, acetone and paint, and it is possible to made paper, cardboard, and nitrocellulose from its stalks. As an important nutrient, phosphorus plays important role in energy transfer, photosynthetic oxidation-reduction reactions, as well as in biochemical compounds including nucleic acids, structural proteins, enzymes, and signal transmission. Due to the predominance of calcareous soils with high pH in arid and semi-arid agricultural climates, the amount of available phosphorus is limited. In order to increase available phosphorus for plants, large amounts of phosphorus chemical fertilizers are needed regularly. However, a large amount of phosphorus in fertilizers may be converted to insoluble phosphate, immediately by reaction with calcium in the soil after its application. On the other hand, indiscriminate use of phosphorus chemical fertilizers leads to many environmental problems such as surface runoff of phosphorus, eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems, reduction of biodiversity and abnormal changes in soil salt concentration and pH. Breeding cultivars that absorb phosphate or phosphorus more efficiently is one of the solutions to deal with the stress of phosphorus deficiency as a trait with low heredity. The use of selection indices can be an effective method for the indirect selection of traits with complex genetics. Material and Methods: 93 maize genotypes prepared from different research centers were evaluated in terms of agromorphological traits under normal and phosphorus deficit conditions using completely randomized design with three replications in the crop year 2016-2017 in an open area conditions. For this purpose, after analyzing the soil of different regions, soil with low phosphorus content (7.240 mg/kg) was selected and the pots (15 kg) were filled with soil and sand in a ratio of two to one. Usable soil phosphorus was determined by the Olsen method in the soil science laboratory of Urmia University. In both optimal and phosphorus deficit conditions, soil was strengthened with nitrogen fertilizers (in the amount of 9 g/pot (during three stages during the growth period)), potassium sulfate (in the amount of 13.5 g/pot), Sequestrin (1.5 g /pot), manganese sulfate (0.225 g/pot), zinc sulfate (0.99 g/pot), copper sulfate (0.3 g/pot) and boric acid (0.21 g/pot). In optimal conditions, phosphorus fertilizer in the form of triple superphosphate was added to each pot in the amount of 6 g/pot. Phosphorous fertilizer was not added to the soil in the phosphorus deficit conditions. With the beginning of the tasseling stage, various agro-morphological and chemical traits were measured. In the physiological maturity stage, the ears relating to each replication were separated from the plants. Seed yield per plant was determined by separating the seeds on the ears of each plant and weighing it. In order to select the desired genotypes, four selection indexes including Smith-Hazel, Pesek-Baker, Brim and Robinson indices were calculated. In this study, the same weight was considered for the attributes, which is done in this way in most studies. To select the best selection index, different criteria, including the genetic gain of traits (ΔG), expected gain (ΔH) and relative efficiency of selection index (RE) were calculated. Results: According to analysis of variance results, the effect of genotype and stress was significant on all studied traits at the probability level of 1%. Also, the interaction effect of genotype × stress was significant on all studied traits except for flag leaf length (FLL), flag leaf width (FLW), number of leaves (NL), plant height (PH), stem diameter (SD), ear length (EL), number of rows per ear (RpE), number of grain per row (GpR), ear diameter (ED) and 100 seeds weight (HGW). In the normal conditions (without stress) in the Smith-Hazel index (optimal index), the highest coefficient (7.21 and 3.98) was observed in FLW and ear length (EL) traits, respectively, and the lowest ones (-3.03) was observed in RpE trait. In the phosphorus deficit conditions, the highest coefficient (3.91) was observed in EL and the lowest ones (-5.35) was observed in RpE trait. In the Pesak-Baker index, under normal conditions, the highest coefficient (5.64) was observed in GpR trait and the lowest ones (-9.28) was observed in EL. In phosphorus deficit conditions, the highest coefficient (8.49) was seen in FLW trait, followed by EL (4.53) and the lowest ones (-2.17) was observed in RpE. The highest coefficient in Robinson's index under normal conditions was 2.21 for LW, which was -5.91 for that under phosphorus deficit conditions. In this index, the lowest coefficient was seen in RpE (-0.92). In Robinson's index, under phosphorus deficit conditions, the highest coefficient (1.46) was seen in EL, and the lowest ones (-5.92) was seen in FLW, followed by RpE with a value of -2.13. The Smith-Hazel index with expected gain (ΔH) value of 296.306 and 229.374, and relative efficiency of (RE) of 1.0011 and 1.0839 and the Brim with expected gain (ΔH) value of 296.217 and 233.083, and relative efficiency of selection index (RE) of 0.9995 and 1.0836, in normal and phosphorus deficit conditions, respectively, were the best indices. Under both normal and phosphorus deficit conditions, biomass yield, seed yield, and plant height had the highest coefficients for these indices. Based on both indices, genotype with cod number 7 and the genotype with cod number 10 are introduced as superior genotypes under normal and phosphorus deficient conditions, respectively. Conclusion: In general, the results of present investigation showed that in both normal and phosphorus deficit conditions, selection based on the Smith-Hazel and Brim indices will increase the biomass yield, seed yield and plant height due to their highest relative efficiency and expected gain. The selected genotypes after validation at the molecular level with different technologies, such as studying the expression of genes involved in tolerance to phosphorus deficit conditions using Real time PCR, can be used in the production of hybrid varieties as a way to reduce the use of phosphorus fertilizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Objective: Lentil (Lens Culinaris Medik.) belongs to cool season pulses. It is annual, self pollinated and diploid crop and its seed is rich in protein. Lentil, such as other legumes that are in symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria plays an important role in reducing fertilizer consumption and increasing the productivity of other crops that are in rotation with lentil. Success in breeding programs depends on genetic diversity, heritability and selection. Investigating the genetic diversity is the basis of breeding and releasing high-yielding cultivars with high quantitative and qualitative characteristics and capacities. Therefore, the evaluation of genetic diversity in crops is essential for breeding programs and the protection of genetic resources. For this purpose, it is necessary to collect plant germplasm to be evaluated as a base population, and genotypes with yield potential and other desirable traits are identified and exploited. Due to the low yield potential of the exsistance cultivars, investigating the genetic diversity among native lentil lines and comparing them with control cultivars could assiste the breeder in selecting superior lines in terms of yield potential and agromorphological triats. Material and Methods: To select and introduce new cultivars, native lentil lines collected from the target areas in Zanjan province were evaluated in the two cropping years of 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 in the experimental farm of Zanjan University's Faculty of Agriculture. In both years of the experiment, improved cultivars such as Kimia, Sabz Koohin, Gachsaran, Maragheh and Bilehsavar were used as control cultivars. The first year, the experiment was conducted in the augmented design based on randomized complete bloke design with 200 lines. Each experimental unit consisted of one metere row. The distance between the rows was 25 cm, the distance on the rows was 5 cm, and the planting depth was 5 cm. At the beginning and end of each block, two rows of Sabz Koohin were planted as borders. The second year, Due to echeaving enough seeds from the first year, the experiment was carried out in square lattice design with tow replications and larger experimental units for the selected lines from the first year. Each experimental unit consisted of two one-meter rows. The distance between the rows, the distance on the rows and the planting depth were similar to the first year experiment. At the beginning and end of each incomplete blocks, two rows of Sabz Koohin were planted as borders. Results: In the first year, the results of analysis of variance showed that there is significant difference among lentil lines in terms of canopy temperature difference, podding period, number of seed per plant, seed yield per plant, harvest index per plant, number of seed per area, seed yield per area and 1000-seed weight at 0.01and 0.05 level. in this year, canopy temperature difference, podding period, first branch height, number of pod per plant, number of vacant pod per plant, number of seed per plant, seed yield per plant, harvest index per plant, number of seed per area, seed yield per area and 1000-seed weight had high value of genetic variation coefficient, heritability and genetic advance. lines 14, 68 and 165 were the superior lines in terms of phonological traits. The height of the plant and the height of the first pod in lines 85, 92, 193 and 195 were higher than other lines. Lines 32, 90 and 156 had the highest number of full pods. Lines 122, 163, 165 and 200 had the highest seed yield per plant. The 1000-seed weight in lines 163, 166, 171 and 174 was higher in compared with other lines. The highest seed yield was observed in lines 23, 150, 192 and 200. Finaly, based on the results of comparison of mean with superior control cultivar for each trait by LSD method and considering the degree of importance of traits, the 95 superior lentil lines from 200 examined lines were selected. In the second year, the results of analysis of variance indicated a significant variation among lentil lines in terms of all studied traits except for the first branch height at 0.01 and 0.05 levels. The canopy temperature difference, number of vacant pods per plant and number of seed per plant had high value of genetic variation coefficient. High heritability was observed in the days to 50% flowering, flowering period, days to 50% podding, days to 50% physiological maturity, seed filling period and straw yield per plant. The canopy temperature difference, flowering period, first pod height, number of vacant pod per plant, seed yield per plant, biomass per plant and straw yield per plant had high genetic advance. lines 150, 155, 173 and 176 were the superior lines in terms of phonological traits. The highest plant height and the highest height of the first pod was observed in lines 146 and 180 and lines 12, 47 and 130 respectively. Lines 1, 131 and 176 had the highest number of full pods. In terms of yield and yield components per plant, lines 1, 131 and 176 had the highest number of seeds and seed yield. The 1000-seed weight in lines 23, 52, 163 and 178 was higher in compared with other lines. In terms of yield and yield components, lines 55, 69, 86, and 176 were recognized as the superior lines. Finally, based on the results of comparison of mean lines with superior control cultivar for each trait by LSD method and considering the degree of importance of traits, the 44 superior lentil lines from 100 examined lines were selected. Conclusion: The evaluated lines were significantly different from each other in terms of most traits. High heritability was observed in the days to 50% flowering, flowering period, days to 50% podding, days to 50% physiological maturatry, seed filling period and straw yield per plant. Comparing to the control cultivars, the evaluated lines had a higher mean in most of the studied traits. Therefor by selecting superior lines in terms of yield potential and agromorphological traits this genetic potential can be used to create superior population and introduce high yield cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Objectives: Lathyrus sativus L. is an annual plant from the legume family, used as a very valuable protein source for livestock and poultry, as well as for human nutrition. This genus has several useful agronomic characteristics such as high grain yield capacity and high protein content of its grains. Legumes produce economic performance in different environmental conditions and have a high potential for use in marginal areas with low rainfall. In fact, this has made it a popular crop in subsistence agriculture, especially in developing countries. The greatest importance of grass pea is related to the high resistance of this plant to harsh environmental conditions, such as drought, low soil fertility, and resistance to pests and plant diseases, which makes its production and cultivation economical. Salinity stress is an important abiotic stress that has harmful effects on plant performance and product quality and is a limiting factor for plant growth. Although salinity stress can occur in all growth stages of the plant, but considering that the initial establishment of the plant has a great impact on the final performance. Salinity stress in the seedling stage can be one of the most harmful stages for the plant. To improve the salinity tolerance in crops, genetic diversity between and within species can be used through selection and breeding. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the response of early-maturing grass pea genotypes to different levels of salinity by evaluating some agronomic traits and identifying salinity-tolerant genotypes. Materials and Methods:In order to evaluate the response of grass pea early maturing genotypes to salinity stress, 26 genotypes were studied as factorial experiment on based randomized complete block design with two replications at Research Farm of Plant Production and Genetics Department, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Maragheh. The salinity treatments were applied to four levels (0, 40, 80, 120 mM) of NaCl and different seedling and agronomic traits such as shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, fruit fresh weight, fruit dry weight, number of grains, number of grains per pod, plant height, leaf angle to the stem, leaf length, leaf width, number of leaves, number of shoots, location of the first shoot from the soil surface, root length were evaluated. Also, during the experiment, the date of flowering, the date of pod formation, the date of pod filling and the date of grain maturity were also recorded for each pot. Before data analysis, the assumptions of data variance analysis were checked with tests of normality and homogeneity of variances, and mean comparisons were made using Duncan's method at the 1% probability level. For the grouping of genotypes, cluster analysis was done by Ward's method and Euclidean distance measure using standardized variables. In order to determine the contribution of each trait in the total variation, reduce the amount of data and better interpret the relationships, principal components was used. Results:The difference between genotypes and salinity levels was significant in most seedling traits and with increasing salinity, the dry forage yield was decreased. Genotypes 19, 14, 13, 21, 10, 7, 25, 15, 24 and 12 were the best genotypes in terms of dry forage yield in seedling stage. Also, in the agronomic traits, differences between genotypes and salinity levels were significant in most traits. In general, the yield attribute decreased with increasing salinity. In cluster analysis with Ward's alghorithm, the genotypes were divided into three clusters. The first cluster with the genotypes 8, 23, 11, 21, 7, 20, 2, 22, 3, 10 and 26 had the best genotypes for yield improvement. In principal component analysis, the first four principal components explainaed 82.08% of total variation. Based on the results, the first component could be identified as a component of biological yield and the second component as a forage yield. Thus traits of shoot length, root length, seedling length and the ratio of shoot length to root length were significant for the effect of genotype, salinity and the interaction of genotype × salinity at the probability level of 1%. The traits shoot dry weight, root dry weight and seedling dry weight had a significant effect of salinity at the probability level of 1%, and the trait of the ratio of shoot dry weight to root dry weight had not significant difference for any of the effects. Genotypes 19, 14, 13, 21, 10, 7, 25, 15, 24, and 12 were the best genotypes in terms of dry forage yield in seedling stage. In field traits, the difference between genotypes and salinity levels was also significant in most of the traits. In cluster analysis by Ward's method, the genotypes were divided into three clusters. The first cluster with genotypes 8, 23, 11, 21, 7, 20, 2, 22, 3, 10 and 26 had the best genotypes for yield improvement. In principal components analysis, the first three main components explained 82.08% of the total variation. The first component accounted for 38.31%, the second component for 25.31% and the third component for 19.74% of the total variation. Based on the obtained results, the first component can be named as the biological yield component and the second component as the forage yield. Findings: The difference between genotypes and salinity levels was significant in most seedling traits, and dry forage yield decreased with increasing salinity. Thus, the characteristics of shoot length, root length, seedling length, and the ratio of shoot length to root length were significant for the effect of genotype, salinity, and the interaction of genotype in salinity at the probability level of 1%. The traits dry weight of shoot, dry weight of rhizome and dry weight of seedling had a significant effect of salinity at the probability level of 1%, and the trait of the ratio of dry weight of shoot to root had no significant difference for any of the effects. The results of seedling stage showed that genotypes 2, 6, 10, 13 and 26 (local) had high yield and genotypes 1, 3 and 5 had the lowest forage yield. The field results showed with the increase of salinity levels, a decrease in yield was observed. Conclusion:Generally, with increasing salinity, forage yield decreased. The genotypes 10, 20, 22 and 23 the most tolerant genotypes and genotypes 16, 17, and 18 were identified as the most sensitive genotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Objectives: Oilseed rape is one of the most important sources of vegetable oil in the world, and its seed contains more than 40% of oil, and the meal obtained from oil extraction has more than 35% of protein, and currently it ranks third among oil plants after soybean and oil palm. in the world. The existance of environmental stresses, such as drought stress, causes a significant decrease in oilseed rape yields. Therefore, breeding for drought tolerance is very important, and creating high yielding and early maturing or drought tolerant cultivars is one of the important goals of breeders. The purpose of this study was to determine the best general and specific combiners and the amount of heterosis compared to the superior parent in spring rapeseed using line×tester analysis in two conditions of normal irrigation and drought stress. Material and Methods: Seven high-yielding rapeseed lines were crossed with five testers with a range of early maturity in the 2018-2019. The first generation hybrids along with 12 parents (47 genotypes in total) were evaluated in the randomized complete block design with three replications in two conditions of normal irrigation and terminal drought stress (irrigation cut off at the beginning of podding stage) in the 2019-2020. The studied traits included physiological maturity date, plant height, number of pods per plant, pod length, number of grains per pod, height of the first pod from the ground, 1000-grain weight, seed yield, oil percentage and oil yield. Results: The results of analysis of variance in both normal irrigation and drought stress conditions showed a significant difference between hybrids for all investigated traits, which indicated a significant diversity between genotypes. In analyzing the effect of hybrids into the relevant components, the interaction effect of line × tester was significant for all the traits under normal irrigation conditions and also under drought stress conditions except for the height of the first pod from the ground, and oil yield. The effect of parents versus hybrids was significant in normal for all traits except the number of seeds per pod under normal irrigation conditions and except for plant height, pod length and number of seeds per pod in drought stress conditions, which indicates the existence of heterosis for these traits. For the trait of physiological maturing, among the lines, line 6 showed the highest negative general combining ability under normal irrigation and drought stress conditions, and tester 5 showed the highest negative general combining ability among the testers under normal irrigation and drought stress conditions. Tester 5 was contributed in early maturing T5×L3 hybrid under drought stress conditions. L1 and L5 in both conditions and T2, and L3 and L4 in normal irrigation conditions and T1 in drought stress conditions were identified as the best general positive and significant combiner for the number of pods per plant, and hybrids T5×L1, T1× L5, T2×L4, T4×L4, T1×L7, T1×L6, T2×L7, T3×L2, T5×L7, and T4×L3 were the best specific combiner to increase the number of pods per plant in both experiment conditions. T4 was the most significant positive general combiner under normal irrigation conditions and drought stress for the 1000-grain trait. Also, regarding the positive significant specific combining ability for this trait hybrids T2×L7, T3×L7 in both conditions, and in addition hybrids T1×L7 and T5×L4 under normal irrigation conditions and hybrids T1×L6 and T3×L5 under drought stress conditions showed the highest amount. The most significant positive general combining ability in grain yield was determined to T5 and L1 and L6 in both conditions. The best significant positive specific combining ability were T2×L7 and T3×L7 in both conditions. The highest positive and significant amount of general combining ability of the amount of oil, was given to T3 and T5 and L6 in both experimet conditions, and T4 and L7 in normal irrigation conditions and L5 in drought stress conditions. T1×L6, T5×L1, T2×L5, T3×L1, T5×L3 and T4×L4 were among the best hybrids in both conditions. In normal irrigation conditions, T2×L3, T4×L3, T5×L1, T4×L6, and T5×L3 and in drought stress, T5×L1, T2×L3, T2×L4, T4×L4, T4×L3, T4×L5 and T2×L7 had the highest amount of heterosis in the positive direction for the number of pods per plant. The trait of the number of grain per pods, T2×L3, T4×L3, T5×L1, and T2×L5 under normal irrigation conditions and T5×L6, T3×L6, and T5×L3 under drought stress condition had the highest amount of heterosis. Conclusion: The estimation of traits' combining ability showed that T5 and L1 and L6 were the best general combiners to increase grain yield. T3×L7 and T2×L7 hybrids were the best specific combiner for increasing grain yield under normal irrigation and drought stress conditions. Also for the 1000-seed trait, T3×L6, T4×L1, T5×L4 and T1×L1 hybrids under normal irrigation conditions and T3×L7, T1×L6, T2×L6 and T3×L3 hybrids under drought stress conditions have the highest amount of heterosis. The number of pods per plant and the number of grain per pods under normal irrigation conditions, T2×L3, T4×L3 and T5×L1 had significant positive heterosisTherefore, their parents can be suggested for hybrid varieties production programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Objective: Drought is one of the most important global threats to food production, in addition to that, climate change and the increase in the global population also widen the dimensions of this problem. One of the ways to solve this problem is to create new cultivars with greater tolerance to drought stress. Wheat has been one of the most important sources of human food all over the world and it is used in various food products and processing industries. Wheat together with rice and corn provide more than 60% of calories and protein needed for human nutrition. In areas like Iran, where most of the rain occurs in winter and early spring, wheat will face water shortage and drought stress at the end of the growing season. In crops, one of the effective methods that can minimize the effect of this phenomenon in combination with other methods of water deficit management is the use of high-yielding and drought-tolerant cultivars. Despite the numerous scientific sources published in this field, there are still many gaps in these studies, so studying the effects of drought stress is always a research priority. Ilam province, as one of the irrigated wheat production areas, suffers from the lack of cultivars that are resistant or tolerant to low irrigation conditions, so investigating the response of different wheat genotypes in low irrigation conditions as low input production systems is very important and is addressed in this study. Material and Methods: In order to evaluate some bread wheat genotypes under normal and drought stress co ditions, 36 wheat genotypes were evaluated in the form of a randomized complete block design in three replicates in the crop year of 2019-2019 in Darehshahr city located in Ilam province. The examined traits include spike length, spike number per plant, spike length, peduncle length, sub-peduncle axis, flag leaf length, flag leaf width, number of stem nodes, plant height, number of spikes per plant, number of seeds per spike, number of seeds per plant. plant, number of tillers, hundred seed weight, single plant seed weight and seed yield. Based on performance under stress (Yp) and normal (Ys), drought tolerance indices such as average productivity tolerance index, harmonic mean, geometric mean productivity (GMP), stress sensitivity index, stress tolerance index, performance stability index (YSI) and Relative Stability Index (RSI) and Performance Index (YI) were calculated. The mean comparison test was performed using Duncan's method and using R software. Simple correlation (Pearson), decomposition into components, decomposition into factors were also performed between the tested traits. SAS 9.1 statistical software was used for statistical analysis of traits. Results: The results of the analysis of variance in drought and normal stress conditions showed that there was a significant difference between genotypes in all traits at the probability level of 1%. The most important significant correlation coefficient in both conditions between seed yield was related to the seed weight of a single plant and the number of seeds per plant. Considering the high and significant correlation of grain yield under stress and non-stress conditions with drought tolerance indices, higher productivity indices, geometric mean productivity (GMP), geometric mean and stress tolerance index as the best indicators. were chosen. It seems that in order to evaluate stress tolerance, the selection of genotypes should be based on several indicators. Factor analysis at the drougth stress condition indicated that the two first factors expalined a total of 97. 57% of the variance. The first factor was called the performance stability factor and the second factor was named the Stability Factor. The biplot diagram also showed that the genotypes of no. 13 and 47 were placed in the vicinity of the ranges related to drought resistance indices (STI, MP, GMP, and HM) and were introduced as superior genotypes. Conclusion: According to the data obtained from analysis of variance in both normal and drought stress conditions, the genotypes were significant in terms of all traits. The significance of the studied traits indicates the existence of diversity between genotypes in terms of the studied traits, and some of these traits can be used to evaluate stress tolerance. The best genotypes had the best averages for peduncle length of genotype 33, for the number of seeds per plant of genotype 5, for seed weight of a single plant and seed yield of genotype 1. The heat map shows the relationship between drought tolerance based on different yield and drought stress tolerance indices. Considering the high and significant correlation of grain yield under stress and non-stress conditions with drought tolerance indices, average productivity indices, GMP, geometric mean and stress tolerance index were selected as the best indices that are able to distinguish tolerant genotypes from other Screen the genotypes. The yield index (YI) had the highest correlation coefficient with grain yield under stress conditions. Based on biplot results, genotypes No. 13 and 47 were the most tolerant genotypes under drought stress conditions more than other genotypes and were introduced as superior genotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The application of bio-fertilizers, especially mycorrhizal fungi, is known as one of the most important nutritional approaches in sustainable agriculture and agricultural ecosystem management. Among the numerous microorganisms in the rhizosphere, some have positive effects on plant growth promotion. These microorganisms are bio fertilizers such as plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria, which colonize the rhizosphere and roots of many plant species and confer beneficial effects to plants. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of two species of arbuscular mycorrhizal funguswas assessed on yield and yield components of three Iranian ecotypes of black seed medicinal plant. Materials and Methods: To determine the inoculation of mycorrhizal fungi on yield and yield components of different ecotypes of black seed, a factorial experiment in randomized complete block design with three replications was conducted. The experiment was conducted as factorial in Sarayan faculty of agriculture at 2018, with two factors, the Rhizophagus fasciculatum and Rhizophagus mosseae species of mycorrhizal as first factor, Sarayan, Hamedan, and Shahrekord ecotypes of black seed as second factor, in three replications. The traits studied in this research were plant height, stem diameter, number of branches, the average height of the first branch, root length, total chlorophyll, number of flowering branches, the average height of the first capsule, capsule length, capsule diameter, number of capsules per plant, number of seeds per capsules, 1000-seed weight, grain yield, biological yield, harvest index, and straw yield. Results and Discussion: The analysis of variance showed significant differences among investigated ecotypes of black seed for all traits. However, none of the above traits were affected by the interaction of Ecotype * mycorrhiza. In addition, the highest values of plant height (19.85 cm), the average height of the first branch (8.99 cm), root length (13.63 cm), the average height of the first capsule (19.16 cm), and capsule length (8.38 cm) for Hamadan ecotype, the highest values of the number of seeds per capsule (53.31 grains), biological yield (75.8 g.m-2), grain yield (26.16 g.m-2), and straw yield (49.64 g.m-2) for Shahrekord ecotype, and the highest 1000-seed weight (2.34 g) and harvest index (42.67%) for Sarayan cultivar were obtained. In other hand, the means of pod diameter, pod length, and number of flowering branches were increased in plants treated with both species of mycorrhizal bio-fertilizer than the control treatment so that the highest values in the number of flowering branches (8.24 cm) and capsule length (8.18 cm) were obtained under the application of Rhizophagus mosseae, and the thickest capsules (8.24 cm) were achieved under the application of frtilizers contained Rhizophagus fasciculatum. The results of simple correlation analysis showed the positive and significant correlation of seed yield trait with root length, number of secondary branches, number of flowering branches, number of pods per plants, and number of seeds per pod, at 5% probability level, and with biological yield and straw yield traits at 1% probability level. Results of path analysis showed positive direct effect of number of flowering branches and biological yield traits on grain yield and the highest positive direct effect was recorded for biological yield. In contrast, the highest negative direct effect on the grain yield of investigated ecotypes was obtained for the straw yield. Conclusion: It was shown that there was a significant difference between the three black seed ecotypes in morphological and functional traits, so that Shahrekord and Hamedan ecotypes were superior in all traits (except thousand seed weight and harvest index) compared to Sarayan ecotype. In general, our findings demonstrated the relationship between morphological traits and yield components of black seed ecotypes under the inoculation of mycorrhiza strains, which can be employed in black seed breeding programs as a reference. Also, it is suggested that ecotypes/genotypes that are better in biological and straw yield traits were used for cretia selection traits in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The world population is increasing daily, while the scope for expansion and development of agricultural land is very narrow due to limited water resources. All of this can affect agriculture indirectly or directly. Quinoa is a pseudo-cereal, belongs to the Amaranthaceae family, and is native to South America. This crop is important for human and animal nutrition due to its medicinal and agro-industrial properties. Water and nitrogen (N) are two major challenges in quinoa cultivation that can be addressed by better understanding related agronomic features. Under water deficit conditions, selecting and cultivating crop species tolerant to drought stress is an approach to maintaining and/or increasing crop production levels. Although it is widely reported that quinoa is a highly drought-tolerant crop, its growth has been significantly suppressed under severe drought stress conditions. Materials and Methods: The experiment was conducted as a split factorial arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Treatments included four irrigation regimes (100, 80, 60, and 40% of crop water requirement) as the main factor, three quinoa cultivars (TITICACA, Q29, and GIZA1), and three nitrogen fertilizer rates (0, 100, and 200 kg ha1 from urea sources) as subfactorial. The field preparation operations prior to planting included plowing and disc Planting was done on March 22, 2021. The net amount of nitrogen-based nitrogen fertilizer treatments of 100 and 200 kg ha-1 was equal to 46 and 92 kg, respectively. According to the soil test results, the soil was not poor regarding phosphorus and potassium elements, so only urea fertilizer was used. The distance between two rows and between plants on the row in quinoa cultivation was 50 cm and 10 cm, respectively. Results and Discussion: There was a significant interaction effect between irrigation, N, and cultivar on root traits and grain yield. The effects of irrigation regimes, N rates, and their interactions were significant on plant height at the level of one percent, and the highest (109 cm) and lowest (50 cm) plant heights were obtained with normal irrigation and 100% N application in the GIZA1 cultivar and 40% of the water requirement of 100 kg ha-1 N application in cultivar Q29, respectively. The highest 1000-seed weight was obtained with the normal irrigation (2.93 g) regime to meet 80% of the water requirement (2.91 g) in the GIZA1 cultivar. The lowest 1000-seed weight was obtained with 40% of the plant water requirement in all three cultivars. Thousand-grain weight in Q29 and TITICACA cultivars is the same in all irrigation regimes. Two treatments of the normal irrigation, N application and GIZA1 cultivar; and 40% of water requirement, 200 to 100 kg ha-1 of N rate and Q29 cultivar obtained the highest (3326 kg ha-1) and lowest (686 kg ha-1) seed yield, respectively. The N addition reduced seed yield in quinoa cultivars under water -deficit conditions. In water deficit conditions, the application of nitrogen fertilizer decreased the biological yield of quinoa cultivars, and increasing the irrigation water and using urea fertilizer significantly increased the biological yield of quinoa. Also, in 60, 80, and 100 % of water requirement treatments, the amount of biological yield in the cultivar GIZA1 was higher than the other two cultivars. Conclusion: This research showed that the quinoa plant has a high drought tolerance. In such a way, it could complete its growth period and have acceptable performance in conditions of intense stress. With the higher N application, the GIAZ1 cultivar performed better than the others. Although the TITICACA cultivar recorded a lower grain yield under optimum irrigation conditions, it showed a higher grain yield under severe stress conditions than others. It can be concluded that under the conditions of 100% water requirement and the application of 200 N kg ha-1, GIAZ1 variety is suitable for the growth of quinoa in the ecological conditions of the Ilam region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) is an old medicinal plant that is usually used as food and traditional medicine. The main goal of studying genetic diversity and relationships between germplasm sets is to use the information obtained from the diversity of native cultivars to develop and release cultivars with higher yields among cultivated species. Materials and methods: To investigate genetic diversity and relationships among morphological traits, an experiment was performed using a completely randomized design with 3 replications on 11 fennel ecotypes in the greenhouse of Payame Noor University of Qom, in 2020. The measured traits included number of days to germination, number of days to 50% flowering, number of days to maturity, plant height, the number of branches per plant, the number of umbels per plant, the number of umbellets per umbel, the number of flowers per umbellets, 1000-seed weight, and grain yield per plant. After data collection, analysis of variance, mean comparison (with Duncan's test), correlation between traits (using Pearson's method) and stepwise regression were performed. In order to determine the relative contribution of each of the measured traits in creating diversity among the studied ecotypes, factor analysis was used, and Ward's cluster analysis was used to group them. SPSS software was used to analyze the data. Environmental, genetic and phenotypic variance components were estimated based on mathematical expectation of mean squares to calculate trait heritability with Excel software. Results and discussion:Based on the results of the analysis of variance, a significant difference was observed among the studied ecotypes for all traits. Most of the studied traits had high broad-sense heritability. Seed yield per plant had a positive and significant correlation with the number of umbellets per umbel (0.64), number of umbels per plant (0.59), and number of branches per plant (0.56). Factor analysis showed that three main and independent factors explained 78.74 percent of the total variance in all ecotypes. Cluster analysis using the Ward method grouped 11 studied ecotypes into four separate clusters. The second cluster ecotypes (Ardebil and Moghan) are valuable due to their high values of plant height, number of branches per plant, number of umbels per plant, number of umbellets per umbel, number of flowers per umbellets, 1000-seed weight, and seed yield, and these ecotypes can be used to select of high yielding ecotypes and desirable morphological traits in breeding programs. Conclusion:The results showed that fennel ecotypes had many differences in terms of the studied traits. Among them, the early maturing ecotypes (Ardebil and Moghan) with high values of the number of umbels per plant, umbellets per umbels and flowers in umbellets, and number of branches per plant had high seed yield. While long maturing ecotypes (Hajiabad, Qazvin, Sardasht and Sari) with low values of the number of umbels per plant, umbellets per umbels and flowers per umbellets, the number of branches per plant had low seed yield. Therefore, in order to produce ecotypes with desirable agricultural characteristics in breeding and selection programs, crossing between superior ecotypes from different clusters and testing their results can be done. The results of stepwise regression analysis were consistent with correlation analysis, so that the number of umbellets per umbels, which had the highest correlation coefficient with yield, was entered into the model as the first trait. The next trait, the number of umbels per plant, was entered into the model, which had a positive and significant correlation with yield. Considering that the traits number of umbels per plant and number of umbellets per umbels were good indicators for yield, therefore, the selection of these traits can cause the maximum increase in yield compared to other traits of yield components. In this research, the ecotypes of Ardebil and Moghan are introduced as superior ecotypes, which can be used to apply all kinds of improvement methods on them and achieve the ecotypes with favorable morphological characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Indole acetic acid (auxin) is a plant hormone that, in addition to plants, is produced by a number of bacteria. The aim of the present study was to optimize the production of indole acetic acid from whey substrate by bacteria isolated from rhizosphere and phyllosphere of plants. Materials and Methods: The desired bacteria were isolated and purified from phyllosphere and rhizosphere of green beans, cowpea, mint, and parsley plants. The ability of isolates to grow in whey substrate and production of auxin was evaluated. The effect of pH and temperature parameters on the function of isolates was investigated. Impure auxin powder was prepared from the bacterial culture in whey substrate and its function was evaluated on the seed growth rate of lentil and mung bean plants. Results: Out of 26 isolated bacterial samples, 5 isolates (19.2%) had the ability to produce indole acetic acid and grow in whey substrate simultaneously. Two isolates with the highest auxin production capacity were identified using 16S rDNA region sequencing. One isolate had 97% similarity to Enterobacter soli and the other isolate had 99% similarity to Enterobacter mori. These isolates showed the highest auxin production capacity at 30 and 35°C respectively and in pH 7. Seed irrigation of the studied plants with produced auxin solutions significantly increased the longitudinal growth of stems of these plants in comparison with control solutions. Discussion and Conclusion: Auxin-producing strains can be isolated from soil and plants, and by using inexpensive substrates such as whey, this phytohormone can be produced on an industrial scale and used as a plant growth stimulant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in the needs of the population for protein causes research on natural and plant products that can be a good substitute for animal proteins. Lentil is a rich source of protein containing 20/6 to 31/4% protein. As a result, trying to investigate the physicochemical properties of its protein and replacing animal proteins is considered important. In this research, the optimization of water and oil absorption capacity of Bilesawar green lentils was investigated using the response surface method and Design Expert 11 software. For this purpose, central composite design with three independent variables and 6 central points was used. 20 treatments resulting from the combination of three independent variables pH (8/5 -10) and centrifugation time (20 -60 minutes) and centrifugation temperature (4 -30°C) were evaluated. The results showed the decreasing effect of pH and time on the water absorption capacity, indicating that with the increase of pH and time, the water absorption capacity decreased. Temperature and pH had decreasing effect and time had an increasing effect on oil absorption capacity. Applying the optimized conditions, the oil and water absorption capacity for the optimum point were obtained 1/235 and 1/373, respectively. For validation, optimized predicted and experimented data were compared using T student test (p<0/05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: An experiment was conducted to study the effect of two plant growth regulators (gibberellic acid and quinine) on seed germination and initial seedling growth and salinity tolerance in both Kimia and Shirvan local cultivars.Materials and Methods: This experiment was performed as a factorial experiment with a completely randomized design. Two separate experiments were performed to investigate the response of different lentil genotypes to salinity stress applied with salt (Nacl) under different treatments of gibberellic acid (GA3) and kinetin growth regulators. In each of these experiments, 32 treatments were performed in three replications. The first experiment was performed as a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with three factors: genotype (local and chemical), salinity (0,60, 120 and180 mmol) and gibberellic acid (0,2, 4 and 6 mg/l) The second experiment was performed in the same way with three factors: genotype (local and chemical), salinity (0,60, 120 and 180 mmol) and kinetin (0,2, 4 and 6 mg/l)Findings: The results of the study of the main and interaction effects of genotype, salinity and growth regulator of gibberellic acid on the evaluated traits of lentil showed that the alchemy genotype had the highest mean in the study of traits (dry weight, root to shoot, root length). What is the total seedling length and germination percentage and the best genotype in terms of maximum mean in the study of traits (relative water content, tissue water content, stem length, number of roots and germination percentage) It was related to Ilam genotype.Conclusion: Statistical analysis of the studied traits at germination and seedling growth stage showed that salinity reduced the rate of germination and seedling growth in both cultivars. The results showed that the inhibitory effects of salt on seedling growth of Shirvan local cultivar were significantly higher than Kimia cultivar, which in fact indicates the similarity of salinity tolerance at germination and full plant stages in these two cultivars.Gibberellic acid increased germination rate in both cultivars, but Kimia genotype had the highest mean in the study of traits (root length, total seedling length, root-to-stem ratio). However, Shirvan local genotype had the highest mean in the study of traits such as (relative water content, tissue water content, stem length, number of roots). The trend of reduced root and stem growth in comparison with the control due to gibberellic acid treatment showed that the local cultivar was more sensitive to this growth regulator. Significant interaction was observed between different levels of salinity and gibberellic acid, meaning that the growth response of seedlings was different under the combined effects of salinity and gibberellicacid.

In order to investigate the effect of zeolite on growth indices, yield and grain yield components and protein of lentil in dryland and supplementary irrigation conditions, a field study was conducted in Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran. The experiment was performed as a split plot in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The main factor included three levels of irrigation (rainfed, one stage of supplementary irrigation and two stages of supplementary irrigation) and the second factor included the application of three levels of zeolite (0, 10 and 20 tons ha-¹). The results showed that supplementary irrigation increased the grain yield. Application of zeolite moderated the effect of drought stress. Zeolite improved grain yield, this improvement occurred under both supplementary irrigation and rainfed conditions. Though, the interaction of supplementary irrigation and zeolite on yield and yield components was not statistically significant. Supplementary irrigation and zeolite had a significant effect on growth indices and improved growth indices during the growing season. The highest grain yield (1741 kg ha-1) was obtained when supplementary irrigation was applied at two stages. Application of 20 tons ha-1 of zeolite increased grain yield by 50% compared to the control. Therefore, according to the findings of the present study, in conditions of water restriction, application of 20 tons ha-1 of zeolite may benefit lentil cultivation in Shahrekord, Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among legumes, lentil is very rich in protein and is called the meat of poor people.In this study physicochemical, nutritional value and antioxidant properties of two cultivars of Iranian black and green lentils, including moisture and volatiles, total ash, total fat, protein, crude fiber, carbohydrate,measurement of total antioxidant activity and carotenoids content were investigated. Obtained results show that, green lentil containsa higher amount of moisture and volatiles (6.72 g/100g) and carbohydrate (59.34 g/100g), in comparison black lentil had a higher amount of ash (mineral element) (3.66 g/100g), crude fiber (7.40 g/100g), fat (1.95 g/100g), protein (26.02 g/100g) and higher antioxidant activity based on DPPH (IC50= 2408.8 mg/L) and FRAP (concentration of Fe2+ ion= 0.4 mM) experiment. The carotenoid content of black lentil was determined 0.024 μg/g and was higher than green lentil (0.011 μg/g). So it can be said that,despite the advantages of black lentil over green lentil, it remains unknown nutritionally, and it seems very appropriate both economic and agricultural recommending people to consume and to put up black lentil in their diet, with regard to rainfed of lentil and dryland cultivation source in our country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lentil is one of the most important proteinous plant sources in the world. There is also some reports on the effect of germination on increasing of legume’s nutritional value. So the aim of this study is investigation on the effect of malting on γ- aminobutyric acid (GABA) content as a functional non proteinous 4 carbon amino acid with therapeutic properties and biological effects, the concentration of free and bound phenolic compounds, DPPH radical scavenging capacity and the Fe content in lentil. All of the measurments were performed on Kimia and Gachsaran Iranian lentil flour cultivars at ungerminated (control) and germinated (24 and 48 h) forms. According to the obtained results, generally malting caused significant (p<0.05) increase of GABA content at both cultivars, whereas decreased the Fe concentration. Measuring the free and bound phenolics content indicated the unsignificant effect of malting one free and bound phenolic compounds of Kimia cultivars (p≥0.05) while caused the significant decrease of these compounds in Gachsaran cultivar(p<0.05). Also in general, malting decreased DPPH radical scavenging capacity in both cultivars. Regarding to the results, malting process can be introduced as a suitable and cost benefit approach for increasing of GABA concentration in lentil specially in kimia cultivar and using it on formulation of functional food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sophora yellow stunt-associated virus (SYSaV) (Nanovirus, Nanoviridae) is a new nanovirus that recently identified in Iran with wide distribution. In the present study, the SYSaV infection of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus), liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra L.), esfand (Peganum harmala L.) and milk vetch (Astragalus sp.) showing typical nanovirus symptoms including dwarfing and yellowing was tested by PCR and full-length sequencing of selected genome components. Results indicated that these samples are infected with SYSaV. In transmission experiments, the capability of cowpea aphid (Aphis craccivora ) and pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) to transmit SYSaV to healthy plants was evaluated under greenhouse conditions. While Aphis craccivora transmitted the virus from infected to healthy sophora plants, Acyrthosiphon pisum collected on naturally infected sophora plants transmitted the virus to sophora, chickpea and cowpea seedlings. Based on the results of this study, beside the main host (sophora), SYSaV is able to infect two other medicinal plants. In addition, the host range of the virus is not limited to the wild species and at least two legume crops are infected with SYSaV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]