Landraces are a potential source of genetic diversity and provide useful genetic resources to cope with the current and future challenges in crop breeding. Afghanistan is located close to the centre of origin of hexaploid wheat. Therefore, understanding the population structure and genetic diversity of Afghan wheat landraces is of enormous importance in breeding programmes for the development of high-yielding cultivars as well as broadening the genetic base of bread wheat. Here, a panel of 363 bread wheat landraces collected from seven north and north-eastern provinces of Afghanistan were evaluated for population structure and genetic diversity using single nucleotide polymorphic markers (SNPs). The genotyping-by-sequencing of studied landraces after quality control provided 4897 high-quality SNPs distributed across the genomes A (33.75%), B (38.73%), and D (27.50%). The population structure analysis was carried out by two methods using model-based STRUCTURE analysis and cluster-based discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC). The analysis of molecular variance showed a higher proportion of variation within the sub-populations compared with the variation observed as a whole between sub-populations. STRUCTURE and DAPC analysis grouped the majority of the landraces from Badakhshan and Takhar together in one cluster and the landraces from Baghlan and Kunduz in a second cluster, which is in accordance with the micro-climatic conditions prevalent within the north-eastern agro-ecological zone. Genetic distance analysis was also studied to identify differences among the Afghan regions; the strongest correlation was observed for the Badakhshan and Takhar (0.003), whereas Samangan and Konarha (0.399) showed the highest genetic distance. The population structure and genetic diversity analysis highlighted the complex genetic variation present in the landraces which were highly correlated to the geographic origin and micro-climatic conditions within the agro-climatic zones of the landraces. The higher proportions of admixture could be attributed to historical unsupervised exchanges of seeds between the farmers of the central and north-eastern provinces of Afghanistan. The results of this study will provide useful information for genetic improvement in wheat and is essential for association mapping and genomic prediction studies to identify novel sources for resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses.

The quality of cotton fiber plays a pivotal role for both producers and processors, influencing the market value and end-product quality. Certain cotton fiber properties, such as length, strength, micronaire, and uniformity index, are crucial determinants of cotton quality. Despite its prominence as a cotton-producing region, the Aegean region in Türkiye lacks comprehensive studies examining the quality of its cotton fiber across different subregions and seasonal variations. This study aimed to address this gap by investigating the variations in cotton fiber quality across different years and subregions within the Aegean. This study involved the evaluation of a total of 368,686 individual fiber quality analyses conducted over seven years across three subregions within the Aegean in Türkiye. The fiber samples collected from Bergama, Söke, and Menemen underwent high-volume instrument (HVI) analysis to evaluate the variations in cotton fiber quality across years and subregions, considering the phenological stages of cotton and climate conditions. The findings highlighted significant variations in the fiber quality traits among subregions, with environmental factors such as temperature and humidity playing crucial roles. Higher average daily temperatures during the flowering stage to boll formation contributed to higher strength values, while limitations on fiber length were observed due to prevalent high temperatures. Additionally, variations in micronaire values were linked to temperature and humidity conditions during boll development stages. This study underscores the importance of comprehensively considering climatic factors to understand their impacts on cotton fiber quality and suggests further research into the cotton plant’s phenology and specific climate conditions for a more thorough understanding of environmental effects on fiber quality.

Perennial wheat (Triticum aestivum L. × Thinopyrum spp.) presents a promising alternative to conventional annual wheat for sustainable agriculture, offering advantages such as enhanced soil health and reduced environmental impact. This study evaluated the early establishment performances of 20 perennial wheat genotypes sourced from diverse donors alongside two commercial wheat varieties under rain-fed conditions in Bornova, Izmir, Türkiye. Two separate field trials were conducted over two growing seasons (2018/19 and 2020/21), assessed key yield components, including plant height (PH), spike number (SN), spike length (SL), thousand grain weight (TGW), and overall grain yield (GY). Results showed that perennial wheat genotypes exhibited higher plant height and spike length compared to common wheat but had lower grain numbers per spike and TGW. On average, perennial wheat achieved 40% of the grain yield of commercial wheat varieties, with significant variability among genotypes. Notably, the genotype Pw18 demonstrated satisfactory grain yield performance, achieving 5.21 tons ha-1, close to common wheat yields evaluated in the study. These findings highlight the potential of specific perennial wheat genotypes for further development in sustainable cropping systems. However, further investigation is needed to assess the quality characteristics of these genotypes, which will be crucial for their potential use.

The rising demand for sustainable food production due to climate challenges has increased tthe interest in perennial crops as potential solutions. Perennial wheat, a hybrid derived from crossbreeding traditional wheat (Triticum spp.) and perennial species generally Thinopyrum spp., offers promising ecological benefits, including enhanced soil health, reduced erosion, and carbon sequestration. This study evaluates the first-year yield performances of 20 perennial wheat genotypes and 23 F1 hybrids obtained from intraspecific crosses among these lines, compared to two commercial bread wheat cultivars. The field experiments were conducted over two consecutive growing seasons (2021-2022 and 2022-2023) at experimental fields of Ege University Field Crops Department, the seeds were sown in a randomized complete block design for the perennial lines and a randomized incomplete block design for F1 hybrids. Key agronomic traits measured were plant height (PH), grain number per spike (GNS), thousand kernel weight (TKW), and plot yield (PY). The ANOVA indicated significant genotypic effects on all traits (p

Understanding diurnal canopy orientation in crops is important for interpreting plant responses to light and environmental conditions, yet field-based quantification remains limited. In this study, we present Heliocot, a field RGB imaging approach that converts time-resolved images into reference-area standardized projected leaf area (PLA) time series to quantify within-day canopy orientation dynamics in early-season cotton. Leaf instance segmentation was performed using YOLOv8m-seg and refined through a 144-combination post-processing optimization. On the held-out early-stage validation/tuning set, the selected workflow showed strong agreement with manual ground truth (R² = 0.948; NRMSE = 0.082) and destructive leaf area measurements (R² = 0.836). Derived diurnal metrics, including Daily Orientation Amplitude (DOA) and Peak Orientation Index (POI), consistently revealed a midday maximum (13:15) in canopy projection. Exploratory genotype-level analysis suggested negative associations between orientation indices and selected plant traits, including specific leaf area (SLA) versus DOA (r = −0.71, p = 0.021, R² = 0.508), destructive leaf area (LA) versus DOA (r = −0.69, p = 0.028, R² = 0.471), and stem dry weight (SDW) versus POI (r = −0.74, p = 0.014, R² = 0.554), while plant height was not significantly associated with POI and DOA (p > 0.05). Although currently limited to early-season conditions and two field-imaging dates, this approach provides a practical workflow for field-based monitoring of canopy projection dynamics in cotton, while broader temporal and environmental validation remains necessary.

Amaç: Bu çalışmanın amacı Rus buğday afidine dayanıklılık sağlayan Dn100695 geninin bulunduğu 7D kromozomunu SSR markörleriyle ayrıntılı bir şekilde taramak ve dayanıklılık genini çevreleyen yeni SSR markörlerini belirlemektir. Materyal ve Yöntem: Basribey x IG 100695 melezinin 190 bireyinden oluşan F2 populasyonu haritalama amacıyla kullanılmıştır. Haritalama populasyonu daha önceki markörlere ilave olarak 7D kromozomunda bulunan 20 yeni SSR markörleri ile taranmıştır. Zararlının populasyondaki kloroz, kıvrılma ve afit yoğunluğu özellikleri fenotipik veriler olarak ele alınmıştır. Araştırma Bulguları ve Sonuç: Çalışma sonucunda 85 polimorfik markör içerisinden 46’sı toplamda 1226.9 cM’lık bir genom bölgesini haritalandırmış ve 14 farklı bağlantı grubu oluşturmuştur. 7D kromozomu üzerinde dayanıklılık genini çevreleyen özgün bir SSR markörü (GWM121) belirlenmiş ve Dn100695 genini her iki yönden çevreleyen markörler haritalanmıştır. Ayrıca markör regresyon analizi sonucunda Rus buğday afidi dayanıklılığına katkı sağlama potansiyeli bulunan SSR markörleri de saptanmıştır.