Yoryncita C. Marfori, Merdelyn T. Caasi-Lit, and Tonette P. Laude Received: March 11, 2020/ Revised: February 24, 2021/ Accepted: July 15, 2021 Laboratory and screen house studies were conducted to assess the efficacy of selected twenty-six maize varieties against Asian corn borer (ACB), Ostrinia furnacalis (Guenée). Hierarchical tree based on resistance parameters clearly revealed that the twenty-six maize varieties are best classified into three groups, viz. resistant, intermediate, and susceptible. In laboratory test, the varieties RCS2, RCS4, RCS5, ‘IPB Var13’, Bt2, Bt3, and Bt4 were consistently identified as highly resistant. Further examinations in stalk feeding assay showed that the resistant varieties had sharp decline in larval survival (LS) on the 2nd to the 5th day of larval feeding in stalk tissue. On the other hand, the susceptible varieties showed high LS across the 5-day feeding duration. This research highlighted that resistant maize varieties were mainl...

Muzammal Mateen Azhar, Qurban Ali, Arif Malik, Elham Khalili, Muhammad Arshad Javed, and Muhammad Saleem Haidar Received: January 10, 2021/ Revised: June 01, 2021/ Accepted: August 05, 2021 The substrate of rice (Oryza sativa) straw employed in this study was procured from local market and stored in polyethene bags until needed. The study was conducted to find out the effects of process optimization of ethanol production from enzymatically saccharified biomass of acid-pretreated rice straw. The results indicated that acid pretreatment has reduced lignin content about 50%. Resultantly, pretreatment raised cellulose contents up to 52% making it suitable for enzymatic saccharification. Optimization of saccharification illustrated that parameters such as biomass, enzyme concentration, temperature, incubation time and agitation indeed affected the action of cellulase on pretreated biomass releasing sugars up to 31.0g/L. The results clearly indicate the need for optimization at every poin...

David Mangussad, Ana Teresa Sucgang, Mia Clare Marie Clemencia, Marlon Manalo, Lawrence Yves Uy, and Mary Ann Torio Received: November 30, 2020/ Revised: August 13, 2021/ Accepted: August 16, 2021 Hypertension is a leading cause of disease burden in developing countries. Leading factors are obesity, increased cholesterol levels, and long-term oxidative stress. Since commercially available drugs for cardiovascular diseases such as antioxidants and ACE receptor blockers are expensive, preventive cheaper alternatives derived from foods are sought after. Lakatan, one of the most abundant and cheap food sources in the Philippines has been proven to have antioxidant and antihypertensive properties but studies exploring the proteins and bioactive peptides responsible for its health benefits are very limited. In this study, proteins from Lakatan (Musa acuminata Colla) have been studied to understand the components of banana that gives its health benefits. In silico analysis was done to dete...

Faiza Anum, Naveed Iqbal Raja, Tahira Sultana, Abeer Kazmi, Amir Ali, Bushra Qayyum, Anza Afzal, Aneela Nijibat, Zia-ur-Rehman Mashwani Received: April 05, 2021/ Revised: July 27, 2021/ Accepted: July 29, 2021 Citrus reticulata is a common fruit, belongs to the family Rutaceae. It contains terpenes, phenolics, flavonoids, and vitamin C in conjugation with sugars, amino acids, minerals, organic acids and other biologically important compounds. Application of light elicitation strategies in in vitro plant cultures is acquiring more interest for their potential in feasible biomass accumulation and therapeutically important secondary metabolites production. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of different monochromatic lights (white, red, blue, green, and yellow) on the proliferation and secondary metabolites accumulation in callus cultures of Citrus reticulata raised in response to treatment with AgNPs and TDZ. Silver NPs were synthesized by using green method, fo...

Medet İtmeÇ, Ali Bayat, and Ömer Barış ÖzlÜoymak Received: December 14, 2020/ Revised: July 14, 2021/ Accepted: August 20, 2021 Wind drift is a very critical issue in pesticide applications. In recent experiments, the application of pesticides is focus on precision farming. In this study, a spraying system that could manipulate trajectories of droplets to decrease drift was tested in a wind tunnel. Three nozzles (XR11002, AIXR11002 and TTJ6011002) were used at three operating pressures (200 kPa, 300 kPa, 400 kPa), with four orientation angles of nozzles against wind direction (0°, 5°, 10°, 15°), and three wind velocities (1.5 m s-1, 2 m s-1 and 2.5 m s-1) with three repetitions. A statistical factorial CRD was used with Tukey Post Hoc Test to determine the significance of the differences between treatment means. The results from the experiment showed that the downwind drift as spray pattern displacements were significantly reduced in the angled position of the nozzles compared to th...

Yusuf Aydın Received: February 19, 2021/ Revised: August 31, 2021/ Accepted: September 02, 2021 It is suggested by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to use the FAO56-Penman-Monteith (FAO56-PM) model as the standard model in reference crop water consumption studies. However, the climate parameters required by the standard model cannot be fully and reliably obtained in under developed or developing countries. Hence, the Hargreaves-Samani (HS) equation is used as an alternative to the FAO56-PM model since it can be used for calculations with less climate data. In the present study, ETo-PM and ETo-HS values calculated at 8 provinces in Southeastern Turkey using the IAM-ETo software were evaluated and compared in order to examine whether the HS equation can be alternative to the FAO-PM equation or not. It was observed at the end of the study that the daily calculated ETo-HS values yielded 16% overestimation on average compared with ETo-PM. Statistically hi...

Jonathan Jaime G. Guerrero, Teresita U. Dalisay, Nolissa D. Organo, and Ireneo B. Pangga Received: July 17, 2019/ Revised: July 16, 2021/ Accepted: July 22, 2021 The effects of copper oxide (CuO) and zinc oxide (ZnO) in bulk and nano forms on soil fungal community was determined. Lipa clay loam soil collected from the University of the Philippines Los Baños were placed in polypropylene bags and amended with 300 mg/L of CuO or ZnO in either forms. Colony-forming units (CFU) as well as average well color development (AWCD), functional richness and stress index were determined on day 1, 8 and 15 via indirect viable plate count method and community – level physiological profiling (CLPP). Fungal isolates from the same soil samples were likewise identified and tested in vitro in terms of radial growth when treated with varying concentrations of the metal oxides. Results indicated no significant difference in CFU, AWCD, functional richness and stress index among treatments. In vitro, respo...

Ma. Carla Angelica E. Deladia, Leni G. Yap-Dejeto, Kenneth Abuda, and Margarita Dela Cruz Received: May 03, 2020/ Revised: August 16, 2021/ Accepted: August 24, 2021 The decline in production and quality of Kappaphycus alvarezii is primarily associated with occurrence of “ice-ice” disease and epiphyte infestations. K. alvarezii var. tambalang (brown) in the nursery farms of Balangiga and Lawaan, E. Samar harbored such infestations. This study identified the dominant Epiphytic Filamentous Algae (EFA) on the seaweeds in these farms using microscopic morphological characteristics. Microscopic examinations revealed that the main epiphyte in the farms studied was Melanothamnus apiculatus (Hollenberg) Díaz-Tapia & Maggs (former: Neosiphonia apiculata (Hollenberg) Masuda et Kogame). The epiphytes observed have rhizoids separated from the pericentral cells, unicellular trichoblasts, globose cystocarp and tetrasporangia arranged in spiral series, with four pericentral cells a...

Jacqueline Marjorie R. Pereda, Neil Andrew D. Bascos, and Mudjekeewis D. Santos Received: June 14, 2021/ Revised: October 02, 2021/ Accepted: November 17, 2021 Reversible protein phosphorylation is a significant regulatory mechanism in many cellular functions, such as the dephosphorylation of Serine/Threonine protein residues catalyzed by protein phosphatase. In this study, the full-length STPP1-α gene from Penaeus monodon was cloned, characterized, and analyzed for its constitutive expression in WSSV-negative P. monodon organs. The gene was originally an isotig isolated from the gills of P. monodon that survived WSSV infection. PmSTPP1-α gene (GenBank: KX385833) has a total of 2,171 bp, with a 990 open reading frame (ORF) that encodes 329 amino acids (aa), sharing a 93% sequence identity with human Serine/Threonine PP1-α catalytic subunit. The protein has a single conserved catalytic domain and shares almost all the conserved sites and functional residues of the human protein phosp...

Frolan A. Aya, Vicar Stella N. Nillasca, and Luis Maria B. Garcia Received: January 20, 2021/ Revised: October 11, 2021/ Accepted: November 29, 2021 The silver therapon Leiopotherapon plumbeus is an important but dwindling freshwater food commodity in the Philippine freshwater habitats. The influence of feeding regimes on growth performance and survival of first-feeding silver therapon larvae fed euryhaline rotifers (Brachionus rotundiformis and B. plicatilis) as starter food was examined. Larvae at 2 days post-hatch (DPH) (1.93 ± 0.07 mm; 200 larvae/basin) were initially reared on rotifers for 12 days followed by Artemia nauplii from 14 to 35 DPH as follows: (A) B. rotundiformis from 2-13 DPH; (B) B. rotundiformis from 2-7 DPH and Moina micrura from 8-13 DPH; and (C) B. plicatilis from 2-13 DPH. After 35 days of rearing, mean survival rates were significantly higher in larvae fed B. rotundiformis (69.2%) than those co-fed B. rotundiformis and M. micrura (34.6%) or B. plicatilis alo...