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Excessive use of chemical fertilizers, in agriculture, has negative impacts on water, soil and affects the environment and health. In recent decades, researchers have been interested in the natural benefits of natural microorganisms and how they could be a good alternative to the use of chemical fertilizers. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of soil inoculation with strains of mycorrhizae and beneficial bacteria on soil properties and productivity of table grapes. Field trials were conducted on a commercial table grape production farm (Vitis vinifiera cv. Mousca), located in northeastern Morocco. Twelve-yearold plants were used. Control plants were not inoculated (T1). The prototype plants were inoculated with 1.2 × 104 of Glomus iranicum var. tenuihypharum/100 g (T2), a mixture of 1/2 concentration of Glomus iranicum var. tenuihypharum and 1/2 concentration of Pseudomonas putida (T3) and 1 × 108 CFU · g-1 of Pseudomonas putida (T4). The inoculations were realized twice; the first inoculation was completed on July 19, 2019 while the second inoculation on February 21, 2020. Soil analyses were carried out, both physicochemical (pH, electrical conductivity (EC), salinity, % of dry matter) and microbiological properties (total flora, fungi and actinobacteria). Plant growth (length of the plant, number and diameter of sticks, number of clusters per tree, number of nodes per stick, distance between nodes and bud burst), yield and fruit quality (number of berries per cluster, cluster weight, cluster length and width, pH, Brix degrees, acidity, EC and % dry matter) were measured. Results showed slight trends regarding the effects of treatments on the physicochemical and microbiological properties of the soil, plant growth and fruit quality. The number of clusters was significantly higher in Glomus (T2) Pseudomonas (T4) and Glomus than in control treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Leptospirosis is an anthropozoonotic reemerging neglected infectious disease underreported in most developing countries. A cross-sectional study was performed between 17 and 23 February 2014 to estimate the seroprevalence of leptospirosis among high-risk populations in Casablanca (Morocco). Methods. A total of 490 human serum samples (97.6% males) were collected in 3 high-risk occupational sites including the biggest meat slaughterhouse (n = 208), a poultry market (n = 121), and the fish market (n = 161). A total of 125 human blood samples were also collected from the general population and used in this study as a control group. To detect the presence of anti-Leptospira, sera were screened with in-house IgG and IgM enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Positive samples were tested by Microscopic Agglutination Technique (MAT) using a panel of 24 serovar cultures and cut point of 1 : 25. Results. Seroprevalence of leptospirosis among the control group was 10.4% (13/125). A high seropositivity among the overall seroprevalence of 24.1% (118/490) was observed in the high-risk groups of which 7.3% (36/490), 13.7% (67/490), and 3.1% (15/490) were for anti-Leptospira IgM, IgG, and both IgG and IgM antibodies, respectively. Most of the positive individuals were occupationally involved in poultry (37.2%), followed by the market fish (26.1%) and the meat slaughterhouse (14.9%) workers. Among all ELISA-positive serum samples, 20.3% (n = 24) had positive MAT responses, of which the Icterohaemorrhagiae (n = 7) is the most common infecting serogroup followed by Javanica (4), Australis (2), and Sejroe, Mini, and Panama (one in each). In the remaining 8 MAT-positive sera, MAT showed equal titers against more than one serogroup. Conclusion. Individuals engaged in risk activities are often exposed to leptospiral infection. Therefore, control and prevention policies toward these populations are necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argania spinosa (Sapotaceae), an important endemic Moroccan oil tree, is a primary source of argan oil, which has numerous dietary and medicinal proprieties. The plant species occupies the mid-western part of Morocco and provides great environmental and socioeconomic benefits. The complete chloroplast (cp) genome of A. spinosa was sequenced, assembled, and analyzed in comparison with those of two Sapotaceae members. The A. spinosa cp genome is 158,848 bp long, with an average GC content of 36.8%. The cp genome exhibits a typical quadripartite and circular structure consisting of a pair of inverted regions (IR) of 25,945 bp in length separating small single-copy (SSC) and large single-copy (LSC) regions of 18,591 and 88,367 bp, respectively. The annotation of A. spinosa cp genome predicted 130 genes, including 85 protein-coding genes (CDS), 8 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, and 37 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes. A total of 44 long repeats and 88 simple sequence repeats (SSR) divided into mononucleotides (76), dinucleotides (7), trinucleotides (3), tetranucleotides (1), and hexanucleotides (1) were identified in the A. spinosa cp genome. Phylogenetic analyses using the maximum likelihood (ML) method were performed based on 69 protein-coding genes from 11 species of Ericales. The results confirmed the close position of A. spinosa to the Sideroxylon genus, supporting the revisiting of its taxonomic status. The complete chloroplast genome sequence will be valuable for further studies on the conservation and breeding of this medicinally and culinary important species and also contribute to clarifying the phylogenetic position of the species within Sapotaceae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]