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The cereal cyst nematode (Heterodera latipons) is becoming an economically important species in global cereal production as it is being identified in many new cereal cultivated areas and causes significant losses. Consequently, understanding its biology becomes crucial for researchers in identifying its vulnerabilities and implementing effective control measures. In the current study, different morphological and biochemical changes of H. latipons cysts containing eggs with infective juveniles from a barley field in Jordan were studied during the summer of 2021, at two sample dates. The first, at the harvest of the cereal crop (June 2021), when the infective second-stage juveniles (J2s) were initiating diapause, and the second, before planting the sequent cereal crop (late October 2021), when the J2s were ending diapause. The studied population was characterized morphologically and molecularly, showing 98.4% molecular similarity to both JOD from Jordan and Syrian "300" isolates of H. latipons. The obtained results and observations revealed that there were dramatic changes in all the investigated features of the cysts and eggs they contained. Morphological changes such as cyst color, sub-crystalline layer, and thickness of the rigid eggshell wall were observed. A slight change in the emergence time of J2s from cysts was observed without any difference in the number of emerged J2s. The results of biochemical changes showed that the total contents of carbohydrates, glycogen, trehalose, glycerol, and protein were higher in cysts collected in October when compared to those cysts collected in June. The SDS-PAGE pattern indicated the presence of a protein with the size of ca. 100 kDa in both sampling dates, whereas another protein (ca. 20 kDa) was present only in the cysts of October. Furthermore, the expression of trehalase (tre) gene was detected only in H. latipons collected in October. The outcomes of this study provide new helpful information that elucidates diapause in H. latipons and may be used for the implementation of new management strategies of cyst nematodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mediterranean olive cultivars (Olea europaea), including the historic cultivar 'Mehras,' were analyzed using ISSR to identify and study the genetic relationships among them. Three ISSR primers (UBC-807, ISSR 810, ISSR 825) generated 784 data entries (221 for present and 563 for absent bands), which were analyzed using SPSS and Structure software. Results showed that fragment size ranged between 250 to 1700 bp. The similarity among the fourteen cultivars ranged from 10% between cultivars 'Nabali Muhasan' and 'Arbosana' up to 59% between genotypes 'Qaisi' and 'Kafari Baladi.' When primers were evaluated for their discriminating power, it was found that all of them had a value equal to 1. Moreover, the primer PIC values were 0.29, 0.31, and 0.31 for ISSR 807, ISSR 810, and ISSR 825, respectively. The constructed dendrogram showed four main clades, while Nabali Muhasan did not cluster with any. The first clade clustered included five cultivars. The second clade included four cultivars. Both the third and fourth clades included two cultivars each. The genome structure confirms the dendrogram tree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to detect the presence of parasporin genes in ninety local Jordanian strains of Bacillus isolated from different habitats. Five set of primers pairs were designed depending on consensus regions revealed by multiple sequence alignment for available parasporin types deposited in NCBI Genbank by using dedicated bioinformatics software. Eight out of eleven clones gave positive results. These sequences were analyzed using Blastn and tBlastx searches against sequences in NCBI databases. The Blastn resulted in similarities to several strains of Bacillus species. In addition, tBlastx resulted in similarities to Ps-1 and Ps-4 parasporin genes recorded from Japan and Vietnam. Our data opens the door for further analysis for the utilization of parasporins isolated from local Jordanian stains for potential medical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dubas bug (Ommatissus lybicus De Bergevin) is a major pest for date palm in several countries and mainly in the Arabian Gulf. The intensive use of insecticides to control the dubas bug might lead to induced resistance. To investigate the diversity of this insect, isolates were collected from three populations from Oman (Batinah and Daklia regions) and Jordan (Safi region). Total genomic DNA was successfully isolated from individual insects using in-house developed freeze-thaw protocol. The isolates were investigated for genetic diversity using an inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) marker. The data showed huge diversity within and between the assayed dubas bug populations. Moreover, the Cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene was amplified and sequenced for random isolates from all three populations. The sequences were used to generate a phylogenetic tree based on maximum likelihood method. The data confirms the genetic diversity within and between the assayed dubas bug populations. Nonetheless, a group of dubas bug isolates from Oman have clustered in two major clades, indicating their uniqueness among other assayed international isolates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dubas bug, Ommatissus lybicus De Bergevin is an important pest of date palm, Phoenix dactylifera in Gulf countries, Middle East and north Africa regions. The intensive use of insecticides in Oman to control the dubas bug might lead to resistance. An entomological field study was carried out to test pesticides against dubas bug insect on autumn generation in Al-Batinah region in sultanate of Oman. Four insecticides were used: Decis, Oberon, Mospilan and Nimbecidine (which is neem extract) and the control was sprayed by water only. The number of the nymphs were counted visually on the trees before one day and after 3, 7, 10 and 14 days of the treatments. There were no significant differences between the means of densities one day before treatment for the five used plots. The number of alive nymphs for Nimbecdine (azadirachtin) and for Mospilan (acetamiprid) were the least compared with Dices and Oberon after 10 days of treatments, but without significant differences. Insect densities of alive dubas bug nymphs after 14 days of the applied treatments showed significant differences between the treatments. Mospilan treatments showed the least number of alive dubas bug significantly compared with the other tested pesticides. Overall means within the whole experimental work from three days spraying to 14 days of the same applications indicated that all used pesticides were effective in decreasing the dubas bug population, leading to effective control. However, preferable to spray insecticides when dubas bug nymphs in the fourth instars, or when more than 75% of egg have hatched, treated the dubas bug in autumn generation with the Mospilan insecticide under field conditions is more effected to control this pest and even the Nimbecdine gave low results in the pest control, but it is good to be used in pesticide application programmes, because they are a biological, eco-friend insecticides, less residues and to avoid pesticide resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The date palm is the main host of dubas bug, which is also known as the palm bug. Dubas bug, Ommatissus lybicus De Bergevin is a destructive pestin Gulf countries. The intensive use of insecticides in Oman to control the dubas bug might lead to resistance. An entomological field study was conducted to test pesticides against dubas bug insect on spring generation in Al-Batinah region in sultanate of Oman. Four pesticides were used: Decis, Oberon, Mospilan and Ecodaneem (which is neem extract) and the control was sprayed by water only. There were no significant differences for the five used plots one day before spraying treatments. Insect densities of alive dubas nymphs after 10 days of the spraying treatments were decreased gradually in the treatments. At the present study, the pesticides treatments were carried in the first week of April which explained the decreased populations of nymphs in all treatments including the control. However, the number of alive nymphs in the Oberon treatment was the highest without significant difference with the control treatment. In conclusion, the efficacy of the tested insecticides was Oberon, Ecodoneem, Mospilan and Decis, in a descending order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production of common fig in Jordan has dropped more than 20-folds during the last five decades, due to several challenges, including biotic and abiotic stresses. The present study was conducted to asses a new protocol of shoot and callus development from fig apical buds. Explants of three local genotypes (Khdari, Mwazi and Zraki) were collected and grown in three culture establishment media: Murashige and Skoog (MS), Olive Medium (OM) and Woody Plant Medium (WPM). Two months later, shoot growth and callus development were measured, followed by transplanting into subculturing medium in test tubes with MS media. After additional two months, the same parameters were measured again. The results of the culture establishment showed that the highest shoot growth was obtained with OM and the highest callus development was obtained with WPM. On the other hand, the subculturing in MS medium showed prominent carryover effect of the first inoculation media, where the highest shoot growth was obtained in cultures transplanted from OM and the highest callus development was obtained in cultures transplanted from WPM. The present study delivers an improved protocol for establishment of common fig by tissue culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The availability of molecular markers in camels is limited. The aim of this study was to develop new simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Four breeds of pooled dromedary genome were sequenced at low coverage utilizing Roche and Illumina platforms. A total of 65,746 contigs, covering approximately 52 Mb (2316 contigs > 2 kb), were assembled. The partial genome revealed 613 SSR loci with a minimum number of 5 repeat units. Comparative chromosomal location for 60 camel loci was predicted against bovine genome assembly Baylor Btau_4.6.1/bosTau7. Ten markers (16.7%) returned matches with a >100 score and >80% identity. SSR abundance was 1 in every 84.3 kb of contigs. The SSR loci mainly comprised di- (80.8%), tri- (10.8%), tetra- (7.6%), and pentamer (0.8%) motifs. (TA)n and (AC)n were the most abundant (58.6%) dimers. Thirty SSR loci were experimentally characterized for both dromedary (16 animals) and Bactrian camels. The number of alleles ranged from 1 to 3, and the average number of fragments scored per animal ranged from 0.81 to 2. Polymorphic information content ranged from 0 to 0.66 with a mean value of 0.38. These SSR markers will be a valuable resource for further genetic studies of camels and related species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]