A field experiment conducted in 2013 and 2014 at the Agriculture Experimental Station of King Abdulaziz University to study the effects of water deficit on growth, yield and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) of three cowpea cultivars. The deficit irrigation treatments were applied at vegetative (T1), flowering and bud setting (T2), bud filling (T3), vegetative and bud filling (T4) and flowering and bud filling (T5) stages. The plants of cowpea provided with the full water requirements were used as control treatment (T0). The experiments were laid out in split plot design using 3 replicates. The cultivar ‘Balady’ revealed significant increase in all assessed growth, yield component and yield parameters and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) in both seasons except no. of seeds/pods in 2013. Applying water deficit at vegetative growth stage significantly increased no. of branches/plant, no. of pods/plant, no. of seeds/pod, weight of seeds/plant (g), weight of 100 seeds(g), total yield of dry seeds (kg/ha) and IWUE (kg mm-1ha-1). Growing the plants under water deficit at the stage of flowering and pod filling (T5) caused significant reduction in all measured growth, yield component and yield parameters as well as irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE). Enhanced growth, yield and irrigation water use efficiency were observed for plants of the cultivar ‘Balady’ under water deficit stresses at vegetative stage (T1). Least performance was observed for plants of the cultivars ‘Carem7’ and ‘TVu9443’ under water deficit stresses at vegetative and flowering stage (T4) and flowering and pod filling stages (T5). The cowpea cultivar ‘Balady’ can be presented for cultivation under water deficit stresses particularly at vegetative stage.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) production is severely affected by many diseases caused by many pathogens and among them viruses are the most serious pathogen. Begomoviruses causes yellow mosaic and leaf curl disease of tomato in the tropical, subtropical, temperate, and even semiarid regions. Yellow leaf curl disease is caused by Tomato yellow leaf curl virus belonging to the genus Begomovirus of the family Geminiviridae. In this study, naturally infected tomato leaf samples were collected during field survey and causal virus was identified by PCR using tomato yellow leaf curl virus-specific primers and transmitted by whiteflies to healthy tomato seedlings. The full-length viral genome was amplified by rolling circle amplification technology while betasatellites from viral genome were amplified by PCR using universal betasatellites primers. The full-length viral genome (~2.7kb) and betasatellites (~1.4kb) were cloned and sequenced bi-directionally. The generated sequences were assembled and analyzed to find out the genetic variability by using bioinformatics tools and the genetic variability and phylogenetic relationships with selected begomoviruses were analyzed. The complete viral genome sequences showed highest (99.5%) similarity with an isolate of Tomato Yellow leaf curl virus-Jizan 103 isolate and 92.8% similarity with Tomato Yellow leaf curl virus-Al-Qasim isolate while the lowest (71.6%) were found with Tomato Yellow leaf curl virus-Egypt isolate. The newly identified virus formed the closest cluster with Tomato yellow leaf curl virus isolates from Jizan and Al-Qasim, Saudi Arabia. On the basis of sequence similarity and phylogenetic relationship and recombination analysis, it is concluded that the virus causing tomato yellow leaf curl disease is a variant of tomato yellow leaf curl virus either from Jizan or Al-Qasim isolate circulating in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The present work was conducted in 2013/2014 at Agriculture Research Station, Hada Al-Sham, King Abdul-Aziz University, to study genetic variability and traits correlation among 100 F2 individuals of tomatoes. The F2 population derived from crosses between two tomatoes accessions LA1421 (as male) and LA2711 (as female). LA2711 (LycopersiconesculentumvarEdkawi)considered as high growth vigor, medium yield, salinity tolerance, and big, high TSS% and misshaped fruits. LA1421” (Lycopersiconesculentum.varcerosiforme)considered as medium growth, low fruit yield, and uniform, compact, high lycopene contents and small size fruits. The genetic variability was estimated by measuring genetic variance (VG), phenotypic variance(VP), phenotypic co-efficientof variance (PCV), genotypicco-efficient ofvariance (GCV), broad sense heritability (

Effect of Prednisolone supplementation on the primary sex ratio of Fayoumi chicken’s offspring M. S. Hassan2, M. A. M. Sayed1, M. El-Sagheer1, and M. S. G. Hassanien2 1Dept. of Poultry Production, Fac. of Agric., Univ. of Assiut, Egypt. 2Animal Production Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture, Egypt. Abstract: The current study aimed to evaluate the effects of supplementing the diets with different pharmacological doses of the glucocorticoid drug Prednisolone on; the primary sex ratio of Fayoumi chicken offspring, egg-laying performance, and birds' general health, during the period 32-36 wks of age. Birds were assigned to 4 treatment groups, according to the glucocorticoid level in the diet, each with 3 replicates of 10 females + 1 male. Birds in groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 were fed a commercial diet having glucocorticoid level of 0, 5, 10 or 20 mg Prednisolone/kg diet, respectively. The results showed that all pharmacological doses of Prednisolone affected offspring sex ratios which became more female-biased compared to the control group (P0.05). Feeding Prednisolone had no effect on fertility rate, hatchability percentage, hen-day egg production and feed conversion ratio. Providing birds with 5 and 20 mg Prednisolone/kg feed reduced body weight by 2.53 and 6.41%, respectively as compared to control group. Hens provided with 20 mg Prednisolone/kg feed consumed less amount of feed and had smaller eggs compared to the control group. No significant differences were observed among treatment groups in plasma concentrations of liver enzymes (AST and ALT) and of estrogen, cortisol, cholesterol, creatinine, calcium, and phosphorus. Hens offered diet with 20 mg Prednisolone/kg feed had higher plasma total protein levels; while those receiving 10 mg Prednisolone /kg feed had higher urea levels when compared to the control. From these results, it can be concluded that; Prednisolone supplementation through feed is capable of altering offspring sex ratio in Fayoumi chickens without having negative effects on the hens' general health. Prednisolone dosage of 5 mg/kg is economically preferable and has no effect on egg weight.

Effect of Prednisolone supplementation on the primary sex ratio of Fayoumi chicken’s offspring M. S. Hassan2, M. A. M. Sayed1, M. El-Sagheer1, and M. S. G. Hassanien2 1Dept. of Poultry Production, Fac. of Agric., Univ. of Assiut, Egypt. 2Animal Production Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture, Egypt. Abstract: The current study aimed to evaluate the effects of supplementing the diets with different pharmacological doses of the glucocorticoid drug Prednisolone on; the primary sex ratio of Fayoumi chicken offspring, egg-laying performance, and birds' general health, during the period 32-36 wks of age. Birds were assigned to 4 treatment groups, according to the glucocorticoid level in the diet, each with 3 replicates of 10 females + 1 male. Birds in groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 were fed a commercial diet having glucocorticoid level of 0, 5, 10 or 20 mg Prednisolone/kg diet, respectively. The results showed that all pharmacological doses of Prednisolone affected offspring sex ratios which became more female-biased compared to the control group (P0.05). Feeding Prednisolone had no effect on fertility rate, hatchability percentage, hen-day egg production and feed conversion ratio. Providing birds with 5 and 20 mg Prednisolone/kg feed reduced body weight by 2.53 and 6.41%, respectively as compared to control group. Hens provided with 20 mg Prednisolone/kg feed consumed less amount of feed and had smaller eggs compared to the control group. No significant differences were observed among treatment groups in plasma concentrations of liver enzymes (AST and ALT) and of estrogen, cortisol, cholesterol, creatinine, calcium, and phosphorus. Hens offered diet with 20 mg Prednisolone/kg feed had higher plasma total protein levels; while those receiving 10 mg Prednisolone /kg feed had higher urea levels when compared to the control. From these results, it can be concluded that; Prednisolone supplementation through feed is capable of altering offspring sex ratio in Fayoumi chickens without having negative effects on the hens' general health. Prednisolone dosage of 5 mg/kg is economically preferable and has no effect on egg weight.

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