Germination and field emergence are delayed and their duration is prolonged due to the declining soil temperature during the spring season, which is reflected in the subsequent stages of crop growth, therefore, this study aimed to improve germination. Under a wide range of environmental conditions, a laboratory factorial experiment was carried out to study the effect of seed stimulation with potassium nitrate (distilled water only (0), 2, 4, and 6 mg L-1) and with an aqueous extract of licorice roots (distilled water only (0), 3, 6, and 9 g L-1) on the seed viability and vigor. The laboratory experiment was carried out according to the Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with four repetitions. The results showed the superiority of the intera

The study was conducted during the spring season of 2000 and2001. The objective was to study the changes in leaves number of sunflower plants and its leaf area during growth stages under hardening conditions to drought tolerance. Agricultural practices were made according to recommendations.Asplit-split plots design was used with three replications.The main plots included irrigation treatments:irrigation to100%(full irrigation),75and50%of available water.The sub plots were the cultivars Euroflor and Flame.The sub-sub plots represented four seed soaking treatments:Control(unsoaking), soaking in water ,Paclobutrazol solution(250ppm),and Pix solution(500ppm). The soaking continued for 24 hours then seeds were dried at room temperature

The objective of the work was to study the changes in height and stem diameter of sunflower plants during growth stages under hardening conditions to drought tolerance. Field experiments were carried out during the spring season of 2000 and2001. Agricultural practices were made according to recommendations.Asplit-split plots design was used with three replications.The main plots included irrigation treatments:irrigation to100%(full irrigation),75and50%of available water.The sub plots were the cultivars Euroflor and Flame.The sub-sub plots represented four seed soaking treatments:Control(unsoaking), soaking in water ,Paclobutrazol solution(250ppm),and Pix solution(500ppm). The soaking continued for 24 hours then seeds were dried at room

Drought is a major abiotic stress, severely affecting the physiological processes and  growth of plants. The present investigation aimed to evaluate the impacts of drought stress with three periods for irrigation: every 3 days(control), every 6 days, and every 12 days and foliar spray with different concentrations of ascorbic acid (0, 75, 150, 225) mg.L^-1  on the wheat plant. Pots experiment was conducted as a completely randomized design with three replications in the green house, Department of Biology, College of Education for Pure Science (Ibn Al- Haitham), University of Baghdad, during the growing season, 2018 – 2019. The results indicated that drought stress decreased plant growth and hastened the senescence of flag l

Osmotin and osmotin-like proteins belong to the PR-5 pathogenesis-related group of proteins and are induced in response to various types of biotic and abiotic stresses in several plant species. Carrot was transformed with a tobacco osmotin gene that encodes a protein lacking the vacuolar-sorting motif that is composed of a 20-amino-acid sequence at the C-terminal end, under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter, using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Transgene integration and expression were confirmed by Southern and western blot analyses, and three selected transgenic lines were evaluated for their ability to tolerate drought stress. Under drought stress conditions, all transformants exhibited slower rates of wilti

     Drought is a complex phenomenon that has severe impacts on the environment. Vegetation and its conditions are very sensitive to drought effects. This study aimed to monitor and assess the drought severity and its relationships to some ecological variables in ten districts of Erbil Governorate (Kurdistan Region), Iraq, throughout 20 years (1998-2017). The results revealed that droughts frequently hit Erbil throughout the study period. The Landsat time-series- based on Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) significantly correlated with precipitation, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), and latitude. Extreme VCI-based drought area percentages were recorded in 1999, 2000, 2008, and 2011 by 43.4%, 67.9%, 43.3%, and 40.0%, respe

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a mycotoxin produced mainly by fungi Aspergillus flavus in food and animals feed. It is considered as a carcinogenic toxin for human and animals. The current study is designed to investigate the incidence of mycoflora in twenty four samples of local stored maize collected from Iraqi governorates; investigate the presence of aflatoxin B1 on these samples using TLC and ELISA techniques. The fungi recovered from maize samples were Aspergillus flavus (18.57 % ), Fusarium spp. (12.8 % ), A. ocraceus (9.96 % ) , A. terrus (9.07 % ), A. fumigatus (8.46 % ) , Alternaria spp. (6.40 % ) Rhizopus spp. (4.98 % ), A. niger spp., A. oryzae spp. (4.80 % ), Penicillium spp. (4.53 %) A. versicolor spp., Rhizoctonia spp. (4.27 %), A