ABSTRACT. Browning of the lettuce stem butt is one of the main postharvest changes induced by wounding during harvest. The browning process of the harvested lettuce starts with yellowing, then becomes reddish brown, and finishes with an intense brown pigmentation (Tomás-Barberán et al., 1997). Castañer et al. (1996) reported promising results to prevent butt discoloration of iceberg lettuce with solutions of acetic acid (10 ml/L and 50 ml/L), and vinegar.

ABSTRACT. This study aimed to identify genomic regions influencing growth traits in Nellore cattle and evaluate the predictive ability of each trait based on results obtained from single-step genome-wide association analyzes (ssGWAS) considering different single nucleotide polymorphims (SNP) densities of markers. The National Association of Breeders and Researchers provided the dataset, from eighteen Nellore herds participating of the Nellore Brazilian breeding program.

ABSTRACT. Prosopis strombulifera (Lam.) Benth. is a spiny shrub with the maximum tolerance limits reported for halophytic plants. This species is frequently found in the salinized areas in south-western of Córdoba and San Luis provinces, Argentina. Little is known about the genetic diversity within this species in a native population. Genetic diversity in 60 plants of P. strombulifera in south-western San Luis was investigated using AFLP analysis. Polymorphism was found among the samples tested.

ABSTRACT. Defining the composition and properties of manure in livestock production is critical in order to minimise possible environmental impacts stemming from its management. In this study, a nitrogen balance was carried out during two identical fattening periods (Experiments 1 and 2) in growing rabbits from weaning (age 28 d and live weight about 0.6 kg) to slaughter (age 61 d and live weight about 1.8 kg). The breeding conditions were typical for Spanish rabbit production.

The claim that organic agriculture produces higher levels of phytochemicals has been controversial for decades. Using strawberries as a model crop in field conditions, a preharvest leaf wounding stress was applied to study the production of phytochemicals in fruits. As a result phenolic compounds (PCs) and total soluble sugars increased significantly, where specific phenylpropanoids showed increment up to 137% and several genes related to PCs biosynthesis and sugar transport were overexpressed.

The claim that organic agriculture produces higher levels of phytochemicals has been controversial for decades. Using strawberries as a model crop in field conditions, a preharvest leaf wounding stress was applied to study the production of phytochemicals in fruits. As a result phenolic compounds (PCs) and total soluble sugars increased significantly, where specific phenylpropanoids showed increment up to 137% and several genes related to PCs biosynthesis and sugar transport were overexpressed.

ABSTRACT. Olive scab caused by Venturia oleaginea is one of the most important diseases of olive worldwide. The fungus infects young leaves and fruits by asexually produced conidia. The sexual stage and its importance in the epidemiology and genetics of the pathogen population is unknown. A collection of 52 fungal isolates was obtained from scabbed leaves collected in 16 orchards from three major regions in Uruguay. All isolates were identified as V. oleaginea by PCR with specific primers and sequence analysis of the TEF-1α gene region.

ABSTRACT. Autoregressive (AR) and random regression (RR) models were fitted to test-day records from the first three lactations of Brazilian Holstein cattle with the objective of comparing their efficiency for national genetic evaluations. The data comprised 4,142,740 records of milk yield (MY) and somatic cell score (SCS) from 274,335 cows belonging to 2,322 herds. Although heritabilities were similar between models and traits, additive genetic variance estimates using AR were 7.0 (MY) and 22.2% (SCS) higher than those obtained from RR model.

ABSTRACT. Gastrointestinal nematode infections, including Haemonchus contortus, are one of the main causes of economic losses to ovine farmers worldwide. In order to contribute to the control of nematode infections and avoid parasite spreading we generated divergent resistant and susceptible sheep breeds and evaluated the adaptive immunity of these animals developed upon experimental infection against H. contortus. The selection of resistant or susceptible animals from the Corriedale Breed has been based on Expected Progeny Differences for faecal egg counts per gram.