The performance of a soybean genotype under water deficit stress at an early vegetative stage might be related to its general tolerance to drought. To investigate the plasticity of root and shoot seedling traits in response to drought at an early vegetative stage, a set of 32 soybean genotypes adapted to southeast European growing conditions was grown under polyethylene glycol (PEG) 8000-induced drought stress and well-watered control conditions. Under drought, mean tap root length (RL), shoot length (SL), root fresh weight (RFW) and shoot fresh weight (SFW) decreased significantly by 11, 17, 38 and 34%, respectively, while root dry matter (RDM) and shoot dry matter (SDM) increased significantly by 13 and 11%, respectively. Of the four derived traits, the ratios of RL/SL, RL/RFW and SL/SFW increased significantly by 8, 45 and 28%, respectively, under drought, while the ratio of RFW/SFW decreased significantly by 4%. However, a wide variation between genotypes was observed for all 10 studied seedling traits under both control and drought conditions. Broad sense heritability ranged from 0.53 (RL) to 0.97 (SL) under control conditions and from 0.56 (RL/RFW) to 0.96 (SL) under drought conditions. The correlation coefficients between the traits were either weak or moderate, indicating that the studied traits can be modified independently by selection.

The development of maize varieties with enhanced tolerance to drought stress has become a high-priority goal for maize breeding programs worldwide. In order to assess the variability of root and shoot traits in response to drought at an early vegetative stage, a set of 32 maize single-cross hybrids was grown under polyethylene glycol 8000-induced drought stress and well-watered control treatments. Drought stress significantly reduced hybrid seedling root and shoot lengths (RL and SL) as well as root and shoot fresh weights (RFW and SFW), while an increase in seedling root and shoot dry matter (RDM and SDM) and root fresh weight-to-shoot fresh weight ratio (RFW/SFW) was observed. The high heritability estimates for the four directly and easily measured traits, namely, RL, SL, RFW, and SFW (0.83, 0.83, 0.74, and 0.74, respectively), and medium-to-very-strong positive correlations among these traits under drought conditions indicate their applicability for the assessment of maize drought tolerance at the seedling stage and may represent a practical contribution to maize breeding programs for improved drought tolerance. Among the studied hybrids, hybrids 30, 3, and 23 were characterized by the largest RL under drought conditions and small relative change in RL between control and drought treatments. Hybrid 30 also showed one of the smallest relative reductions in SL, RFW, and SFW between the two treatments, while hybrids 3 and 23 were among those which exhibited the highest relative RL/SL and RFW/SFW increase between the two treatments, which supports their potential as parental lines in drought-tolerant breeding.

Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) of wheat poses a major challenge to global food security due to its negative impact on grain yield and quality. In the present study, we conducted the validation of previously published markers or functional markers associated with PHS resistance in a panel of 200 wheat cultivars adapted to Southeastern European conditions. In field experiments conducted in four environments in Croatia, the germination index (GI) was assessed, and significant genetic, environmental, and genotype–environment interactions were detected. The broad-sense heritability for GI was high (0.86), confirming the predominant role of genetic factors in determining PHS resistance. Twenty-two polymorphic SNP markers were analyzed for their effects on GI, of which nine markers from chromosomes 3A, 3B, 4A, 5A, and 7B showed significant genotypic effects across environments, especially TaMKK3-A and wsnp_Ex_rep_c66324_64493429. In addition, nine marker combinations were identified, which showed significant differences in GI between allele combinations. Overall, this study elucidates the genetic basis of PHS resistance in wheat cultivars adapted to the agro-climatic conditions of Southeast Europe and provides insights for marker-assisted breeding strategies to improve PHS resistance.

One of the most severe winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) diseases is Fusarium head blight (FHB). It is believed that selection for resistance to FHB is better in high disease pressure environments, for which various methods of artificial inoculation are used. The standard spray method of artificial inoculation is believed to be technically demanding and labour intensive. Therefore, scattering Fusarium-infected maize stalks onto trial plots after wheat emergence is suggested as a suitable alternative. The aim of this study was to compare the mean values and heritability of the visual rating index (VRI) and the percentage of Fusarium-damaged kernels (FDK) between the two abovementioned methods of artificial inoculation and natural infection, and to determine the phenotypic correlations between the three methods for the studied traits. The achieved levels of VRI and FDK were comparable for the two methods of artificial inoculation and considerably lower under natural conditions. Heritability for VRI ranged over four years from 0.68 to 0.91 for the spray method, from 0.73 to 0.95 for the infected maize stalks, and from 0.26 to 0.65 for natural infection, whereas for FDK it ranged from 0.56 to 0.85, 0.38 to 0.83, and 0.11 to 0.44 for the three inoculation methods, respectively. The strong positive correlation between the two applied methods of artificial inoculation for studied traits suggests that scattering infected maize stalks could serve as a reliable supplement for the technically and labor-intensive spray method of artificial inoculation.

Development of maize varieties with enhanced tolerance to drought stress has become a high-priority goal for maize breeding programs worldwide. In order to assess the variability of root and shoot traits in response to drought at an early vegetative stage, a set of 32 maize single-cross hybrids available on the Croatian market was grown under polyethylene glycol 8000 induced drought stress and well-watered control treatments. The induced drought stress negatively affected the growth and development of the maize seedlings. Significant differences among the hybrids, water treatments, and their interaction were found for the four directly measured traits (root and shoot length, and root and shoot fresh weights), as well as for the majority of four derived traits (root and shoot dry matter content, root-to-shoot length ratio, and root fresh weight to shoot fresh weight ratio). In the studied set of hybrids, heritabilities for the four directly measured traits were generally high, and the correlations among traits were strong under both water treatments, indicating their suitability for assessment of drought tolerance at the seedling stage.

Po zasijanim je površinama ozima pšenica (Triticum aestivum L.) jedna od najvažnijih ratarska kultura kako u svijetu, tako i u Republici Hrvatskoj. Pored uroda zrna, u posljednje vrijeme u proizvodnji pšenice sve veću važnost imaju i parametri kvalitete, a posebno se tu naglašava sadržaj proteina u zrnu. U trogodišnjem istraživanju provedenom na 10 lokacija diljem Republike Hrvatske procijenjen je utjecaj godine, lokacije i sorte na urod zrna i sadržaj proteina u zrnu na 6 sorata ozime pšenice. Analizom varijance utvrđen je signifikantan utjecaj godine, lokacije i sorte na sadržaj proteina i urod zrna. Interakcija godina × lokacija bila je signifikantna, dok interakcije godina × sorta i lokacija × sorta nisu bile signifikantne niti za jedno proučavano svojstvo. Na osnovi udjela sume kvadrata pojedinih izvora varijabilnosti u ukupnoj sumi kvadrata, najveći utjecaj na svojstvo sadržaja proteina imala je godina, zatim sorta, a najmanji lokacija. Godina je također imala najveći utjecaj na urod zrna, zatim slijedi lokacija, a najmanji utjecaj imala je sorta. Na osnovi izračunanoga koeficijenta varijacije po godinama, lokacijama i sortama, sadržaj proteina pokazao se stabilnijim svojstvom od uroda zrna.