Scientific Conference for Agricultural Research (SCAR2012)

The genetic diversity of 13 local Palestinian fig (Ficus carica L.) genotypes was investigated using RAPD markers. Among the 30 tested primers, 28 revealed various banding patterns and 2 generated no polymorphic bands. In addition, 13 primers (46.4%) produced good amplification products with high intensity and pattern stability. A total of 84 DNA fragments (loci), separated by electrophoresis on agarose gel were detected, ranging in size from 190 to 1300 bp. Of these fragments, 65 (77.4%) were polymorphic and 19 (22.6%) were monomorphic. A minimum of three and a maximum of seven DNA fragments were obtained using (OPH-02 and OPT-10) as well as (Z-08 and OPY-07) primers respectively. The maximum percentage of polymorphic markers was 100.0 (Z-5, Z-12, and OPT- 10) and the minimum was 60.0 (OPH-02). Primers OPY-07 and OPH-19 revealed high collective resolving power (Rp) values with 3.020 and 4.120 respectively and therefore, they were the most useful RAPD primers to assess the genetic diversity in the Palestinian figs. Genetic distance matrix showed an average distance range from 0.155 to 0.557 with a mean of 0.35. Thus, the cultivars tested in this study were characterized by large divergence at the DNA level. To our knowledge, this is the first report using RAPD marker to assess genetic diversity of Palestinian figs.

The olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae (Gmelin) (Diptera: Tephritidae) is the most serious insect pest of olive fruits in the world. This insect was observed infesting olive orchard in Palestine. If not controlled, crop losses may reach 80% in the oil producing areas and 100% in areas growing table olive varieties (Broumas et al, 2001). This research was designed to be conducted in two years (2011-2012).

First year included monitoring the flight activity of the olive fruit fly in three sites
in Bethlehem (Bateer, Hendaza and Tqoa); and recording the rate of infestation in each orchard, and depending on the results of the first year, a management program will be applied in the second year using control measures including: mass trapping using pheromone traps and food baits. Preliminary results of the first year showed that, the rate of infestation in orchards was at harvesting period as follows: Handaza 90%, Bateer 56%, and Tqoa 64%.

This research study was carried out in 2009 summer growing season in Al- Baqaa area near Amman to test six increasing rates of plant populations on growth and yield of okra, variety `Clemson spineless. Treatments consisted of six planting populations (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 thousand plants/ha). Field lay out was a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results showed that increasing plant population increased yield up to 50,000 plants/ ha. Although, there was an increasing trend, okra yield under 60,000 plants/ha was not significant over that of the 50,000 plants/ha.However, plant population significantly affected plant height, number of leaves per plant, number of pods per plant and number of branches per plant but there was no significant effect
of different plant populations on dry pod weight. Constant trend towards higher
pod N, P and K contents by using lower planting populations were significantly
noticed. At the conditions of this study, it could be concluded that, the okra yielding ability was statistically similar under the most higher plant populations of 40, 50 and 60 thousand plants/ha.

The incidence of watermelon chlorotic stunt disease and the molecular characterization of the Palestinian isolate of Watermelon chlorotic stunt virus (WmCSV-[PA]) were studied. In 2008, and 2010, symptomatic leaf samples were collected from watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thunb.), squash (Cucurbita pepo), and cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) plants. Disease incidence ranged from 8-98% and was associated with whitefly (Bemesia tabaci) infestation. Analysis of collected samples by PCR and RCA revealed that 42.6 % (101 out of 237) of the samples collected from Jenin and Qalqilieh were infected with WmCSV-[PA]. 27 out of the 110 samples collected from Jenin were found to be mixed infected with WmCSV-[PA] and Squash leaf curl virus. The amplified full-length DNA-A of WmCSv [PA] was cloned and sequenced. The sequence of 2017 bp was deposited in the GenBank under accession number JN201809. Sequence analysis reveals that WmCSV-[PA] fragment comprising the conserved region of the coat protein (AV1), AC5, AC3, AC1, and AC2 genes, is closely related to other virus isolates from WmCSV-[JO] (99%), Israel (WmCSV-[IL]) (99%), Lebanon (WmCSV- [LB]) (99%), Sudan (WmCSV-[SD]) (98%), Iran (WmCSV-[IR]) (98%), and Yemen (AJ012081) (97%). The new emergent disease in Palestine was detected in all the surveyed fields in regions where cucurbits are intensively grown, only a few kilometers east of Israel. This suggests that the introduction of WmCSV to the PA might have occurred through transplant movement between Israel and the PA or through viruleferous whiteflies that moved from infected plants in Israel to neighboring fields in Jenin and Qalqilia. The virus endangers the production
of watermelon in the affected areas to the point of becoming the limiting factor
of growing watermelon in open fields. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a WmCSV (whitefly-transmitted geminivirus infecting cucurbits) in Palestine

A collection of 120 different accessions of oats from different countries in the
region were used in this study to find new sources of resistance to oat leaf rust, and
powdery mildew and to characterize the resistance to rust in oats under controlled conditions to study the components of resistance to the macroscopic level. A local wild accession collected from the experimental farm of the Faculty of Agriculture at Tulkarm, Palestine was used as a susceptible control. Accessions were sown in November 2008 in three complete randomized blocks. Each accession was represented by 25–30 seeds in a single row, 1 m long per replicate. A spreader row, of the local accession, was sown every five accessions of the collection as a spreader and control. Disease severity (DS) was estimated three times during the growing season as the percentage of leaves covered by the pathogens. These 3 evaluations were used to calculate Area under Disease Progress Curve (AUDPC).

The susceptible local accession (control accession) showed 56% DS (100% AUDPC) of powdery mildew. DS ranged from very high to very low, and the frequently distribution was markedly skewed towards high DS. During the same growing season the susceptible local accession (control accession) showed 48% DS (100% AUDPC) of rust. DS of rust ranged from very high to very low, and the frequently distribution was markedly skewed towards low DS. Nearly half of the collection displayed AUDPC < 50%. Thirteen of them, with AUDPC ≤ 20% (10.8% of the collection), were selected to study their reaction to leaf rust at seedling stage. These resistant accessions were selected and grown in the field to obtain seeds for further studies.