Winter, spring and biennial varieties of Brassica napus that vary in vernalization requirement are grown for vegetable and oil production. Here, we show that the obligate or facultative nature of the vernalization requirement in European winter oilseed rape is determined by allelic variation at a 10 Mbp region on chromosome A02. This region includes orthologues of the key floral regulators FLOWERING LOCUS C (BnaFLC.A02) and FLOWERING LOCUS T (BnaFT.A02). Polymorphism at BnaFLC.A02 and BnaFT.A02, mostly in cis-regulatory regions, results in distinct gene expression dynamics in response to vernalization treatment. Our data suggest allelic variation at BnaFT.A02 is associated with flowering time in the absence of vernalization, while variation at BnaFLC.A02 is associated with flowering time under vernalizing conditions. We hypothesize selection for BnaFLC.A02 and BnaFT.A02 gene expression variation has facilitated the generation of European winter oilseed rape varieties that are adapted to different winter climates. This knowledge will allow for the selection of alleles of flowering time regulators that alter the vernalization requirement of oilseed rape, informing the generation of new varieties with adapted flowering times and improved yields.Background Stored grain insects are controlled with fumigant insecticides which can select resistant insect populations and cause environmental and applicator contamination. Thus, resistant cultivars and chemical constituents of essential oils are an alternative to the use almost exclusive of these insecticides. The effects of the combination of cowpea cultivars Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. with chemical constituents of essential oils against Callosobruchus maculatus were determined. Four cowpea cultivars BRS Tracuateua, BR 17 Gurgueia, Epace 10 and Sempre Verde (insect rearing) untreated were used in the experiments and combined with chemical constituents of essential oil eugenol, geraniol and trans - anethole. The biological parameters observed were total of egg number and egg per grain, egg viability (%), insects emerged and insects per grain, immature stage viability (%), instantaneous rate of growth (ri), insect dry weight (mg), grain weight loss (%) and egg-adult period. Results When compared all biological parameters, the cultivars BRS Tracuateua and BR 17 Gurgueia were harmful to C. maculatus. In the toxicity tests, the results showed that LC30 and LC50 of the chemical constituents ranged from 54.77 to 103.48 ppm and 60.99 to 125.18 ppm, respectively. In most of the biological parameters, LC50 had adverse effect significantly higher than LC30 and BR 17 Gurgueia treated were harmful to C. maculatus. Conclusions Overall, the findings showed that BR 17 Gurgueia combined with eugenol and geraniol affected more significantly the biological parameters of C. maculatus than when associated with trans - anethole, reducing egg number, insects emerged and egg viability. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Background Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera Aleyrodidae) represents one of the greatest threats to agricultural crops. Chemical control is the primary tool used in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programmes. However, the release of the predator Nesidiocoris tenuis (Hemiptera Miridae) in tomato plants is highly recommended as a control tactic. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the commercial borax plus citrus oil (BCO) product against B. tabaci in the presence and absence of N. tenuis. The synthetic insecticide lambda-cyhalothrin was used as a positive control. Additionally, we evaluated the sublethal effects of this botanical insecticide on the behaviour and predation rate of N. tenuis. Result Our results demonstrated that BCO, alone and at its maximum recommended field rate for B. tabaci, was not effective on controlling this pest under laboratory conditions. The simultaneous application of this botanical insecticide and N. tenuis release was not able to reduce the increase in the B.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/ITF2357(Givinostat).html  tabaci population. The effective control of B. tabaci was achieved using only N. tenuis. However, the synthetic lambda-cyhalothrin pyrethroid tested here as a standard reference caused high mortality of the pest and led to the on-site extinction of N. tenuis, which did not occur for insects exposed to BCO. Lambda-cyhalothrin and BCO significantly affected the foraging behaviour of N. tenuis, reducing the predation rate, especially following exposure to lambda-cyhalothrin. Conclusion The insecticide lambda-cyhalothrin achieved satisfactory results on suppressing B. tabaci, yet it was harmful to N. tenuis. Additionally, lambda-cyhalothrin and BCO affected the predator's behavior. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Iron is virtually an essential nutrient for all organisms, to understand how iron contributes to virulence of plant pathogenic fungi, we identified ClFTR1 and ClNPS6 in maize pathogen Curvularia lunata (Cochliobolus lunatus) in this study. Disruption of ClNPS6 significantly impaired siderophore biosynthesis. ClFTR1 and ClNPS6 did mediate oxidative stress but had no significant impact on vegetative growth, conidiation, cell wall integrity and sexual reproduction. Conidial germination delayed and appressoria formation reduced in ΔClftr1 comparing with wild type (WT) CX-3. Genes responsible for conidial germination, appressoria formation, non-host selective toxin biosynthesis and cell wall degrading enzymes were also downregulated in the transcriptome of ΔClftr1 and ΔClnps6 compared with WT. The conidial development, toxin biosynthesis and polygalacturonase activity were impaired in the mutant strains with ClFTR1 and ClNPS6 deletion during their infection to maize. ClFTR1 and ClNPS6 were upregulated expression at 12-24 and 48-120 hpi in WT respectively. ClFTR1 positively regulated conidial germination, appressoria formation in the biotrophy-specific phase. ClNPS6 positively regulates non-host selective toxin biosynthesis and cell wall degrading enzyme activity in the necrotrophy-specific phase. Our results indicated that ClFTR1 and ClNPS6 were key genes of pathogen known to conidia development and virulence factors.