Production costs in Brazilian agriculture have increased with the rising prices of imported soluble fertilizers. To circumvent this import dependence, low-cost indigenous nutrient sources have been tested, including basalt rock powder (BRP). In this study, we assessed BRP and limestone effects on soil fertility, and soybean and maize dry mass (DM) accumulation. Four greenhouse pots experiments were arranged in a 2 × 4 factorial design with two soils (Clay and Sandy Clay Loam) and four doses of each material (0, 33, 66, and 99 Mg ha^-1 BRP and 0, 1, 2, and 4 Mg ha^-1 limestone), evaluated in two species (soybean and maize). At the end of the experiments, DM, shoot P and K concentrations, and soil pH and P, K, Ca, and Mg concentrations were assessed as a function of BRP and limestone application. Applying BRP increased DM production and improved soil fertility parameters such as pH, and Ca and P concentrations, with leaf P content also increasing. Meanwhile, limestone only triggered significant changes in pH and soil Ca content.

Jatropha curcas is a multi-purpose plant species, with many advantages for biodiesel production. Its potential oil productivity is 1.9 t/ha, beginning the fourth year after planting. Nevertheless, limitations such as high harvest cost, lack of scientific konowledge and low profitability have prevented it from being utilized commercially. In order to provide information that could be useful to improve the status of this species as a bioenergy plant, we elucidated the center of origin and the center of domestication of J. curcas (Mexico). Evidence of the antiquity of knowledge of J. curcas by Olmeca people, who lived 3500-5000 years ago, reinforces its Mexican origin. The existence of non-toxic types, which only exist in that country, along with DNA studies, also strongly suggest that Mexico is the domestication center of this species. In Brazil, the Northern region of Minas Gerais State presents types with the highest oil content. Here we propose this region as a secondary center of diversity of J. curcas.

Jatropha curcas, internationally and locally known, respectively, as physic nut and pinhao manso, is a highly promising species for biodiesel production in Brazil and other countries in the tropics. It is rustic, grows in warm regions and is easily cultivated. These characteristics and high-quality oil yields from the seeds have made this plant a priority for biodiesel programs in Brazil. Consequently, this species merits genetic investigations aimed at improving yields. Some studies have detected genetic variability in accessions in Africa and Asia. We have made the first genetic evaluation of J. curcas collected from Brazil. Our objective was to quantify genetic diversity and to estimate genetic parameters for growth and production traits and seed oil content. We evaluated 75 J. curcas progenies collected from Brazil and three from Cambodia. The mean oil content in the seeds was 31%, ranging from 16 to 45%. No genetic correlation between growth traits and seed oil content was found. However, high coefficients of genetic variation were found for plant height, number of branches, height of branches, and stem diameter. The highest individual narrow-sense heritabilities were found for leaf length (0.35) and width (0.34), stem diameter (0.24) and height of branches (0.21). We used a clustering algorithm to genetically identify the closest and most distant progenies, to assist in the development of new cultivars. Geographical diversity did not necessarily represent the genetic diversity among the accessions collected. These results are important for the continuity of breeding programs, aimed at obtaining cultivars with high grain yield and high oil content in seeds.

The objective of this study was to determine the duration of the main phenological stages, plant growth development, yield, and cone quality of hop cultivars grown under artificial light (17 h per day) during vegetative development (early season) in a subtropical climate region. The study was conducted in Palotina, Paraná, Brazil (24° S), during the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons. The plants were cultivated in a 5.5 m high trellis system with artificial light supplementation during vegetative development. The hop cultivars Hallertau Mittelfrüher, Mapuche, Northern Brewer, Spalter, and Yakima Gold were used in the treatments. The duration of the phenological stages, vegetative growth (plant height, fresh mass of the plants, number of lateral branches per plant), components of productive yield (number of cones per side branch, number of cones per plant, fresh mass, length, and width of the cone, production of fresh cones per plant, and yield), and chemical components of the cones (alpha- and beta-acid contents, and essential oil concentrations) were recorded. The duration of the phenological stages was visually evaluated, and plant growth was analyzed using non-linear log-logistic regression. The remaining data were subjected to analysis of variance and the means were compared using Tukey’s test. The data were also subjected to multivariate analysis using the principal components test, correlation analysis, and hierarchical grouping. The cultivar Mapuche was considered an early hop in both seasons, and the cultivars Spalter and Yakima Gold were considered early cultivars in the second season. In both seasons, the productive yield components were positively correlated with the precocity of the cultivars, in which Mapuche in the 2021 season and Mapuche, Spalter, and Yakima Gold in the 2022 season had the highest mean of the number of cones per side branch and per plant, production per plant, and productivity. The cultivar Yakima Gold had a positive correlation with the chemical quality of cones, alpha and beta acid contents, and essential oil concentrations, for both seasons.

The main goal of our research was to search for SSRs in the Eucalyptus EST FORESTs database (using a software for mining SSR-motifs). With this objective, we created a database for cataloging Eucalyptus EST-derived SSRs, and developed a bioinformatics tool, named Satellyptus, for finding and analyzing microsatellites in the Eucalyptus EST database. The search for microsatellites in the FORESTs database containing 71,115 Eucalyptus EST sequences (52.09 Mb) revealed 20,530 SSRs in 15,621 ESTs. The SSR abundance detected on the Eucalyptus ESTs database (29% or one microsatellite every four sequences) is considered very high for plants. Amongst the categories of SSR motifs, the dimeric (37%) and trimeric ones (33%) predominated. The AG/CT motif was the most frequent (35.15%) followed by the trimeric CCG/CGG (12.81%). From a random sample of 1,217 sequences, 343 microsatellites in 265 SSR-containing sequences were identified. Approximately 48% of these ESTs containing microsatellites were homologous to proteins with known biological function. Most of the microsatellites detected in Eucalyptus ESTs were positioned at either the 5 or 3 end. Our next priority involves the design of flanking primers for codominant SSR loci, which could lead to the development of a set of microsatellite-based markers suitable for marker-assisted Eucalyptus breeding programs