Genetic diversity of stay-green sorghums and their derivatives revealed by microsatellites

The genetic variability of 28 sorghum genotypes of known senescence phenotype was investigated using 66 SSR markers well-distributed across the sorghum genome. The genotypes of a number of lines from breeding programmes for stay-green were also determined. This included lines selected phenotypically for stay-green and also RSG 03123, a marker-assisted backcross progeny of R16 (recurrent parent) and B35 (stay-green donor). A total of 419 alleles were detected with a mean of 6.2 per locus. The number of alleles ranged from one for Xtxp94 to 14 for Xtxp88. Chromosome SBI-10 had the highest mean number of alleles (8.33), while SBI-05 had the lowest (4.17). The PIC values obtained ranged from zero to 0.89 in Xtxp94 and Xtxp88, respectively, with a mean of 0.68. On a chromosome basis, mean PIC values were highest in SBI-10 (0.81) and lowest in SBI-05 (0.53). Most of the alleles from B35 in RSG 03123 were found on chromosomes SBI-01, SBI-02 and SBI-03, confirming the successful introgression of quantitative trait loci associated with stay-green from B35 into the senescent background R16. However, the alternative stay-green genetic sources were found to be distinct based on either all the SSRs employed or using only those associated with the stay-green trait in B35. Therefore, the physiological and biochemical basis of each stay-green source should be evaluated in order to enhance the understanding of the functioning of the trait in the various backgrounds. These genetic sources of stay-green could provide a valuable resource for improving this trait in sorghum breeding programmes.

In vivo and in vitro disappearance of energy and nutrients in novel carbohydrates and cereal grains by pigs

In vivo and in vitro experiments were conducted to determine digestibility of GE and nutrients, as well as DE and ME of carbohydrates fed to growing pigs. The objective of Exp. 1 was to determine the DE and ME of 4 novel carbohydrates fed to pigs. The 4 novel carbohydrates were 2 sources of resistant starch (RS 60 and RS 70), soluble corn fiber (SCF), and pullulan. These carbohydrates were produced to increase total dietary fiber (TDF) intake by humans. Maltodextrin (MD) was used as a highly digestible control carbohydrate. The DE and ME for RS 60 (1,779 and 1,903 kcal/kg, respectively), RS 75(1,784 and 1,677 kcal/kg, respectively), and SCF (1,936 and 1,712 kcal/kg, respectively) were less (P < 0.05) than for MD (3,465 and 3,344 kcal/kg, respectively) and pullulan (2,755 and 2,766 kcal/kg, respectively), and pullulan contained less (P < 0.05) DE and ME than MD. However, there was no difference in the DE and ME for RS 60, RS 75, and SCF. The varying degrees of small intestinal digestibility and differences in fermentability among these novel carbohydrates may explain the differences in the DE and ME among carbohydrates. Therefore, the objectives of Exp. 2 were to determine the effect of these 4 novel carbohydrates and cellulose on apparent ileal (AID) and apparent total tract (ATTD) disappearance, and hindgut disappearance (HGD) of GE, TDF, and nutrients when added to diets fed to ileal-cannulated pigs. The second objective was to measure the endogenous flow of TDF to be able to calculate the standardized ileal disappearance (SID) and standardized total tract (STTD) disappearance of TDF in the 4 novel fibers fed to pigs. Results of the experiment indicated that the AID of GE and DM in diets containing cellulose or the novel fibers was less (P < 0.05) than of the maltodextrin diet, but the ATTD of GE and DM was not different among diets. The addition of RS 60, RS 75, and SCF did not affect the AID of acid hydrolysed ether extract (AEE), CP, or ash, but the addition of cellulose and pullulan reduced (P < 0.01) the AID of CP. The average ileal and total tract endogenous losses of TDF were calculated to be 25.25 and 42.87 g/kg DMI, respectively. The SID of TDF in diets containing RS 60, SCF, and pullulan were greater (P < 0.01) than the SID of TDF in the cellulose diet, but the STTD of the SCF diet was greater (P < 0.05) than for the cellulose and pullulan diets. Results of this experiment indicate that the presence of TDF reduces small intestinal disappearance of total carbohydrates and energy which may reduce the DE and ME of diets and ingredients. Therefore, the objective of Exp. 3 was to determine the DE and ME in yellow dent corn, Nutridense corn, dehulled barley, dehulled oats, polished rice, rye, sorghum, and wheat fed to growing pigs and to determine the AID and ATTD of GE, OM, CP, AEE, starch, total carbohydrates, and TDF in these cereal grains fed to pigs. Results indicated that the AID of GE, OM, and total carbohydrates was greater (P < 0.001) in rice than in all other cereal grains. The AID of starch was also greater (P < 0.001) in rice than in yellow dent corn, dehulled barley, rye, and wheat. The ATTD of GE was greater (P < 0.001) in rice than in yellow dent corn, rye, sorghum, and wheat. With a few exceptions, the AID and ATTD of GE and nutrients in Nutridense corn was not different from the values for dehulled oats. Likewise, with a few exceptions, the AID, ATTD, and HGD of GE, OM, total carbohydrates, and TDF in yellow corn, sorghum, and wheat were not different from each other. The AID of GE and AEE in dehulled barley was greater (P < 0.001) than in rye. The ATTD of GE and most nutrients was greater (P < 0.001) in dehulled barley than in rye. Dehulled oats had the greatest (P < 0.001) ME (kcal/kg DM) whereas rye had the least ME (kcal/kg DM) among the cereal grains. Results of the experiment indicate that the presence of TDF and RS may reduce small intestinal digestibility of starch in cereal grains resulting in reduced DE and ME in these grains. Digestibility experiments involving animals are time consuming and expensive. Therefore, the objective of Exp. 4 was to correlate DM and OM digestibility obtained from 3 in vitro procedures with ATTD of GE and with the concentration of DE in 50 corn samples that were fed to growing pigs. The second objective was to develop a regression model that can predict the ATTD of GE or the concentration of DE in corn. The third objective was to evaluate the suitability of using the DaisyII incubator as an alternative to the traditional water bath when determining in vitro DM and OM digestibility. Results indicated that corn samples incubated with Viscozyme for 48 h in the DaisyII incubator improved (P < 0.001) the ability of the procedure to detect small differences in the ATTD of GE or to detect small differences in the concentration of DE in corn. Likewise, compared with using cellulase or fecal inoculum, the variability in the ATTD of GE and the variability in the DE in corn was better (R2 = 0.56; P < 0.05 and R2 = 0.53; P < 0.06, respectively) explained if Viscozyme was used than if cellulase or fecal inoculum was used. A validated regression model that predicted the DE in corn was developed using Viscozyme and with the corn samples incubated in the DaisyII incubator for a 48 h. In conclusion, this present work used the pig as a model for human gastrointestinal function and evaluates carbohydrates from 2 different nutritional perspectives – humans and animals. The addition of novel carbohydrates reduced the digestibility of energy in the diets without necessarily reducing the digestibility of other nutrients. Thus, supplementation of novel carbohydrates in the diets may be beneficial for the management of diabetes. Aside from diabetic management, cereal grains such as rye and sorghum, may also help in BW management because of there low caloric value, but for undernourished individuals, dehulled oats, dehulled barley, and rice are the ideal grains. From an animal nutrition standpoint, high concentration of dietary fiber is undesirable because it reduces feed efficiency. Therefore, the inclusion of feed ingredients that have a high concentration of dietary fiber is often limited in animal diets. Although in vivo determination is ideal, in vitro procedures are useful tools to determine caloric value of food and feed ingredients.

make half your grains whole : 10 tips to help you eat whole grains

Any food made from wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley, or another cereal grain is a grain product. Bread, pasta, oatmeal, breakfast cereals, tortillas, and grits are examples. Grains are divided into two subgroups, whole grains and refined grains. Whole grains contain the entire grain kernel—the bran, germ, and endosperm. People who eat whole grains as part of a healthy diet have a reduced risk of some chronic diseases

Does fumigation of durum wheat and semolina with sulfuryl fluoride affect quality of the grain, semolina, and derived spaghetti and bread?

There is no information on the effect of sulfuryl fluoride (SF) on durum wheat technological properties and products made from fumigated durum wheat. Durum wheat and semolina were exposed to a range of SF applications under conditions that might be typically encountered in bulk storage facilities used in many countries. SF greatly reduced the germination percentage of fumigated durum wheat, with increasing impact under higher SF concentration, grain moisture content, and fumigation temperature. SF greatly reduced seed germination percentage, impacting more the higher the SF concentration. SF had little to no effect on grain test weight, 1,000-grain weight, hardness, protein content, semolina ash content, and mixograph properties. At the highest SF concentration (31.25 mg/L for 48 h) there was a tendency for pasta cooking loss to be increased but still acceptable, and other pasta properties were largely unaffected. Fumigation with SF did not have any impact on the baking properties of a wholemeal durum flour-commercial flour mix. Therefore, SF is not recommended if the grains are to be used as seeds for agricultural production, but for the production of semolina, pasta, and bread, SF used under typical fumigation conditions has little to no impact on technological properties of durum wheat. © 2016 AACC International, Inc.

Supplemental Coverage Option Expanding as Part of the Farm Safety Net

The 2014 Farm Bill created Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO), a new add-on crop insurance option which provides supplemental coverage on a producer’s underlying crop insurance policy. SCO operates by mimicking a producer’s individual crop insurance coverage and covering a portion of the deductible based on county-level yield or revenue. SCO is available in select Maryland counties for apples, barley, corn, grain sorghum, green peas, oats, peaches, processing beans, soybeans, sweet corn, and winter wheat, as of the 2017 crop year. USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) continues to expand covered counties and crops covered, and begin distinguishing by practices (such as irrigated compared to non-irrigated).

Análise conjunta de regressões : ajustamento e zonagem agrícola

A Análise conjunta de regressões, ACR, é uma técnica utitilizada para estudar a interação gentipo x ambiente baseada em regressões. Nesta técnica ajusta-se uma regressão linear por cultivar. Nestas regressões a variável controlada é o índice ambiental que mede a produtividade dos vários ambientes. Nas culturas anuais, os ambientes compreendem aos pares (local, ano). Os valores dos índices ambientais e dos coeficientes das regressões são ajustados simultaneamente. Até agora a ACR tem sido aplicada a uma única cultura de cada vez. Neste trabalho vamos procurar ultrapassar essa limitação através da modelação dos logaritmos dos índices ambientais tendo-se desenvolvido um modelo da forma: zi, j  v  l j  j , i  1,...,n, J  1,...,n onde zi , j é o logaritmo do índice ambiental para o i-essimo ambiente na j  essima cultura , v um valor médio geral , li j  essimo cultivar. o efeito do i  essimo local e  j o efeito do Ao utilizar esta modelação, os locais corresponderão a estações experimentais de forma a poder-se ter várias culturas no mesmo local. Ora, as estações experimentais são escolhidas por forma a serem representativas das regiões onde estão implantadas. Assim, os índices ambientais correspondentes às várias estações experimentais e, consequentemente, às respetivas regiões, pudesse ser utilizados para agrupar regiões contíguas com índices semelhantes obtendo-se assim, um elemento interessante para a Zonagem agrícola no que diz respeito às culturas que se trabalha. Pode-se ainda procurar uma Zonagem para grupos de cultivares. Por exemplo, adiante trabalharemos com dados da cevada e trigo os quais são cereais. ABSTRACT: Joint Regression Analysis, JRA, is one of the techniques for the study of genotypeXenvironment interaction based on the use of regressions .In JRA a linear regression of the yields of each cultivar on a controlled variable, the environment index ,is adjusted .The index miss erasures the productivity of each environment .In yearly cultures the environments correspond to the pairs (location ,years) .These indexes and the correlation coefficients are adjusted simultaneously. Up to now JRA has been applied to single crops .Now we try to overcome this restriction through modeling of the logarithms of the environmental indexes .We developed a model τ i , j = v + l j +λ j , i = 1,..., b, J = 1,...J where τ i , j is the logarithm of the environmental index for the i-th environment and the j-th crop , v is the general mean , li is the effect of the i-th environment and λ j is the effect of the j-th crop . When applying this model the location will correspond to experimental situations in order to have several crops in the same locations .Now experimental stations are chosen to be representative of the regions in which they are located .Then the l1 ,..., lb can be used to group contiguous regions with similar location effects .We thus get an useful tool for Agricultural Zoning for the crops we used or, even, for the group to which those crops belong . For instance we worked with barley and wheat that are cereals.

Sinal amarelo.

2016

DIETARY ESSENTIAL AMINO ACID SUPPLEMENTATIONS (In a Sex and Growth-Phase Split Feeding in Pig )

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menyelidiki pengaruh suplementasi ransum dasar (BD, ransum kontrol yang disusun menurut NRC, 1988) dengan asam amino esensial lysine, methionin, threonine (SD1 dan SD2, ransum perlakuan) terhadap konsumsi ransum dan kinerja pada ternak babi. Bahan utama ketiga ransum terdiri dari tepung barley, gandum, dan kedele. Masing-masing ransum mengandung kadar protein kasar (18% untuk grower dan 16,5% untuk finisher) dan enerji (14,2 MJ/kg). Ransum diberikan dengan cara dipecah (splitted) menurut periode pertumbuhan (grower dan finisher) dan jenis kelamin (jantan dan betina ). Ransum kg BB dan SDI dipecah menjadi 2 fase pemberian (grower: 20 - 60 kg berat badan (BB), dan finisher: 60 - 105 kg BB), ransum SD2 dipecah menjadi 4 fase pemberian (grower I: 20 - 40 kg, grower II:  40 - 60 kg, finisher I : 60 - 80 kg, dan finisher II: 80 - 105 kg BB).Babi dengan berat awal 20 kg sebanyak 72 ekor (36 jantan dan 36 betina) dikandangkan dengan kondisi lingkungan yang serupa (200C) selama penelitian. Suplementasi ransum dasar dengan asam amino esensial tidak mempengaruhi konsumsi ransum harian (2,49, 2,43, dan 2,36 kg masing-masing untuk BD, SD1 dan SD2, P>0,05). Babi pada masa pertumbuhan finisher mengonsumsi ransum harian terbanyak (2,77 - 2,83 kg) dibanding masa pertumbuhan lainnya (P<0,01). Babi jantan cenderung mengonsumsi  ransum harian  lebih banyak (P<0,11) dibanding babi betina (2,49 kg vs. 2,36 kg). Babi yang diberi ransum yang diperkaya dengan asam amino tumbuh lebih cepat (0,93 dan 0,96 kg/hari untuk SD1 dan SD2) dibanding babi yang diberi ransum kontrol (0,82 kg/hari), P<0,01. Pertumbuhan tercepat terjadi pada masa awal finisher (60 - 80 kg BB), yaitu 1,07 kg/hari, sedangkan kecepatan pertumbuhan pada masa pertumbuhan yang lain sebanding(0,85; 0,86; dan 0,83 kg/hari). Babi yang diberi ransum yang diperkaya dengan asam amino esensial dapat menggunakan ransum dengan lebih efisien (2,68 dan 2,58 kg ransum/kg PBB untuk SD1 dan SD2) dibanding babi yang diberi ransum kontrol (3,03 kg ransum/kg PBB), P<0.01. Diantara masa pertumbuhan, awal masa pertumbuhan grower (20-40kg BB) mempunyai efisiensi penggunaan ransum tertinggi(2,16 kg ransum/kg PBB) dan akhir masa pertumbuhan finisher (80-105 kg BB) mempunyai nilai efisiensi terendah(3,55 kg ransum/kg PBB),P<0.01. Babi jantan cenderung lebih efisien dalam menggunakan ransum dibanding babi betina (2,66 vs 2,87 kg ransum/kg PBB), P<0,09. (Animal Production 4(1): 1-10 (2002) Kata kunci: Ransum, suplementasi,asam amino, babi, konsumsi, kinerja