Avaliação de tecidos que receberam acabamento de "mínimos cuidados"

Amostras de tecidos tratadas e não tratadas com acabamento de "mínimos cuidados" (DURABLE PRESS e SOIL-RELEASE) foram analisadas e comparadas quanto à mudanças na estabilidade dimensional e resistência à tração após lavagem e secagem automática. Tanto nos tecidos acabados como nos não acabados não foi detectado um grau de alteração estatisticamente significativo na estabilidade dimensional. As amostras não acabadas apresentaram maior resistência à tração que as acabadas, tanto no sentido do fio urdume como no sentido do trama.

Variability of apparently homogeneous soilscapes in São Paulo state, Brazil: II. quality of soil maps

The quality of semi-detailed (scale 1:100.000) soil maps and the utility of a taxonomically based legend were assessed by studying 33 apparently homogeneous fields with strongly weathered soils in two regions in São Paulo State: Araras and Assis. An independent data set of 395 auger sites was used to determine purity of soil mapping units and analysis of variance within and between mapping units and soil classification units. Twenty three soil profiles were studied in detail. The studied soil maps have a high purity for some legend criteria, such as B horizon type (> 90%) and soil texture class (> 80%). The purity for the "trophic character" (eutrophic, dystrophic, allic) was only 55% in Assis. It was 88% in Araras, where many soil units had been mapped as associations. In both regions, the base status of clay-textured soils was generally better than suggested by the maps. Analysis of variance showed that mapping was successful for "durable" soil characteristics such as clay content (> 80% of variance explained) and cation exchange capacity (≥ 50% of variance explained) of 0-20 and 60-80 cm layers. For soil characteristics that are easily modified by management, such as base saturation of the 0-20 cm layer, the maps had explained very little (< 15%) of the total variance in the study areas. Intermediate results were obtained for base saturation of the 60-80 cm layer (56% in Assis; 42% in Araras). Variance explained by taxonomic groupings that formed the basis for the legend of the soil maps was similar to, often even smaller than, variance explained by mapping units. The conclusion is that map boundaries have been very carefully located, but descriptions of mapping units could be improved. In future mappings, this could possibly be done at low cost by (a) bulk sampling to remove short range variation and enhance visualization of spatial patterns at distances > 100 m; (b) taking advantage of correlations between easily measured soil characteristics and chemical soil properties and, (c) unbending the link between legend criteria and a taxonomic system. The maps are well suited to obtain an impression of land suitability for high-input farming. Additional field work and data on former land use/management are necessary for the evaluation of chemical properties of surface horizons.

Análise dialélica para avaliação de híbridos interpopulacionais de cajueiro

Os objetivos deste trabalho foram obter informações dos componentes de médias de populações de cajueiro (Anacardium occidentale L.), por meio de análise dialélica parcial, e verificar o potencial per se de dois grupos distintos de parentais: um, constituído por clones comerciais de cajueiro-anão-precoce (CCP06, CCP76, CCP09 e CCP1001), e o outro, por matrizes de cajueiro comum (CP07, CP12, CP77, CP96 e BTON), e a heterose em suas respectivas combinações híbridas. Utilizou-se o delineamento experimental de blocos casualizados, com quatro repetições. Os caracteres avaliados foram altura da planta, diâmetro da copa, número da castanhas por planta, produtividade de castanhas, peso médio da castanha, peso médio da amêndoa e relação peso da amêndoa/peso da castanha. Constatou-se que os efeitos de parentais e heterose são importantes componentes das médias das populações em estudo, em relação a todos os caracteres. Entre os componentes heteróticos, a heterose média apresentou-se como o mais expressivo, indicando presença de dominância e considerável divergência genética entre os dois grupos. Apenas em relação aos caracteres número de castanhas e produtividade a capacidade específica de combinação foi significativa. As combinações híbridas CCP76 x CP07, CCP09 x BTON e CCP09 x CP77 são as mais promissoras, sendo indicadas para formação de populações-base para programas de melhoramento do cajueiro.

Concepts in plant disease resistance

Resistance to nearly all pathogens occurs abundantly in our crops. Much of the resistance exploited by breeders is of the major gene type. Polygenic resistance, although used much less, is even more abundantly available. Many types of resistance are highly elusive, the pathogen apparently adapting very easily them. Other types of resistance, the so-called durable resistance, remain effective much longer. The elusive resistance is invariably of the monogenic type and usually of the hypersensitive type directed against specialised pathogens. Race-specificity is not the cause of elusive resistance but the consequence of it. Understanding acquired resistance may open interesting approaches to control pathogens. This is even truer for molecular techniques, which already represent an enourmously wide range of possibilities. Resistance obtained through transformation is often of the quantitative type and may be durable in most cases.

Genetic variability of Puccinia triticina Eriks. in Brazil

Studies on the genetic variability of Puccinia triticina in inoculum collected in Brazil started in 1941 with Vallega (20). The pioneering work in Brazil dates from 1949 (16) at "Instituto Agronômico do Sul", Ministry of Agriculture (MA), in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul State (RS), and continued after 1975 at Embrapa Wheat in Passo Fundo, RS. In 2002, analyses for the identification of P. triticina races continued at OR Seed breeding, simultaneously to Embrapa's program, both in Passo Fundo. The investigators involved in the identification of races in Brazil were Ady Raul da Silva in Pelotas (MA), Eliza Coelho in Pelotas (MA) and in Passo Fundo (Embrapa), Amarilis Labes Barcellos in Pelotas (MA) and in Passo Fundo (Embrapa and OR), Camila Turra in Passo Fundo (OR) and Marcia Chaves in Passo Fundo (Embrapa). From 1979 to 2010 growing season, 59 races were determined, according to the differentiation based on the expression of each Lr resistance gene. On average, one to three new races are detected per year. Research has focused on the use of vertical resistance; however, lately some institutes have searched more durable resistance, of the adult-plant type (horizontal, less race-specific). The uninterrupted monitoring of the wheat rust pathogenic population in Brazil during so many decades allowed the understanding of the evolution and virulence of races. The use of international nomenclature adopted by some programs has allowed the comparison of the fungus variability in Brazil with that in other countries, especially where frontiers are not barriers for spore transportation, confirmed by the occurrence of the same races all over one region.