Arfang Badji

Makerere University Regional Centre for Crop Improvement

Cowpea bruchid (Callosobruchus maculatus) is a major storage insect pest that reduces cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) yield and seed quality, making it unsafe for consumption. This study seeks to identify and map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with resistance to cowpea bruchids. A total of 120 F2 lines from a cross between MU9 (susceptible) a...

The present study was conducted to find the effect of vermicompost application on yield and some other parameters of cabbage under highly weathered soils of Uganda. Five rates of vermicomposte (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 t/ha) were applied on cabbage, planted in plots and arranged in RCBD during three seasons with three replications each. Plant height, nu...

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) is an annual legume grown widely in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA), having several advantages over other legumes, such as high protein content (23-32%), drought resilience, and high nitrogen fixation ability. Cowpea grains, leaves, and immature pods are important sources of plant-based proteins and essential nutrients...

Trehalose serves as a crucial osmolyte and plays a significant role in stress tolerance. The influence of exogenously added trehalose (1 and 5 mM) in alleviating the chromium (Cr; 0.5 mM) stress-induced decline in growth, photosynthesis, mineral uptake, antioxidant system and nitrate reductase activity in Vigna radiata was studied. Chromium (Cr) si...

Developing improved common bean varieties with short cooking time (CT) and good canning quality traits (CQTs) is very key for accelerating bean consumption among the urban and middle‐class population. The objective of this study was to assess the genotypic variability and identify single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers associated with CT and...

Breeding for common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) genotypes with optimal canning quality holds the potential for increased dry bean consumption among middle-class income urban dwellers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Understanding the genetic control of canning quality traits is central for the improvement of common bean genotypes for desired canning q...

Climate change poses a significant threat to global food security by altering temperature and precipitation patterns, leading to increased pest and disease pressure on crops. In order to mitigate these challenges and ensure sustainable agricultural production, it is crucial to enhance crop protection and yield through innovative strategies. Climate...

Ethiopian mustard (Brassica carinata A. Braun) also known as Carinata is gaining an increasing significance as a non-food cover crop and fully non-GMO plant protein sources, highlighting its environmental sustainability attributes. Historically as a condiment and leafy vegetable, it has recently garnered attention as a promising source of oilseed f...

Legumes play a pivotal role in sustainable agriculture and global food security due to their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, enrich soil fertility, and provide protein-rich dietary staple foods. Among legumes, cow-pea (Vigna unguiculata L.) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) stand out as crucial crops, particularly in regions with resourc...

Soybean is a globally important industrial, food, and cash crop. Despite its importance in present and future economies, its production is severely hampered by bruchids (Callosobruchus chinensis), a destructive storage insect pest, causing considerable yield losses. Therefore, the identification of genomic regions and candidate genes associated wit...

Cowpea is a grain legume that is commonly grown in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for a variety of uses including food, feed, and soil fertility enhancement through nitrogen fixation. Genetic improvement in cowpea can be accomplished by creating breeding populations from high-performing but genetically diverse parental lines. The goal of this study was t...

Soybean is a high oil and protein-rich legume with several production constraints. Globally, several fungi, viruses, nematodes, and bacteria cause significant yield losses in soybean. Coniothyrium glycines (CG), the causal pathogen for red leaf blotch disease, is the least researched and causes severe damage to soybean. The identification of resist...

Molecular markers such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and SilicoDArT are important in dissecting the genetic diversity of a population at DNA level. The two marker types were analyzed using the same genotyping platform. Although the two marker types were analyzed using the same genotyping platform, they were filtered using a different ma...

Common bean is the world’s most important directly consumed legume food crop that is popular for calories, protein and micronutrients. It is a staple food in sub-Saharan Africa, and a significant source of iron for anemic people. However, several pests, soil and weather challenges still impede its production. Long cooking time, and high phytic acid...

Developing common bean genotypes that possess short cooking time and good traits for canning is very key in accelerating bean consumption among both the urban poor and the middle class population. With the objective of assessing the genotypic variability and with Genome wide association studies (GWAS) identify SNP markers associated with the two tr...

Common bean is a grain legume of global importance especially for proteins and micronutrients. The crop is a staple food in sub-Saharan Africa, where it has gained importance in iron biofortification for people prone to anemia. However, biotic and abiotic constraints, long cooking time, and high phytic acid and polyphenols both of which affect bioa...

The excessive application of mineral fertilizers in maize cultivation leads to progressive soil contamination in the long term and increases the cost of production. An alternative to reduce over-fertilization is to perform a partial replacement with microbes that promote nutrition and growth, such as Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF). A pot experi...

The focus of this study was to determine the genomic prediction (GP) algorithms with the highest prediction accuracies for reducing the breeding and selection cycles in Vitellaria paradoxa. The efficiency of the GP algorithms were compared to evaluate five Shea tree growth traits in 708 genotypes with 30734 Single Nucleotide Polymorphic (SNPs) mark...

Climate change poses significant challenges to Africa, impacting various sectors and regions across the continent. This comprehensive review examines the effects of climate change in Africa through case studies in the Sahel, West Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and Central Africa. These studies highlight commonalities and interconnections, em...

Short cooking time (CT) is a highly desired trait in common beans, and several quantitative trait loci (QTL) were identified for bean grain quality traits (GQT), including CT. However, although several correlations were reported among these traits, these genomic regions were limitedly integrated and characterized. In this study, we collected 245 QT...

Maize is part of the essential food security crops for which yields need to tremendously increase to support future population growth expectations with their accompanying food and feed demand. However, current yield increases trends are sub-optimal due to an array of biotic and abiotic factors that will be compounded by future negative climate scen...

Identification of genes associated with bruchid resistance variations in cowpea accessions would help breeders to generate new cowpea cultivars with improved resistance and quality. In this work, 107 cowpea collections from various areas in six countries were phenotyped for their responses to Callosobruchus maculatus and genotyped with Single Nucle...

Improving maize yield is an objective of utmost importance for food security in Uganda. In the evaluation of soil microorganisms in crop production, it is important to assess the composition and diversity of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) species in different agroecosystems. AMF play an important role in improving crop growth and yield. We...

Many of the world's soils are experiencing degradation at an alarming rate. Climate change and some agricultural management practices, such as tillage and excessive use of chemicals, have all contributed to the degradation of soil fertility. Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMFs) contribute to the improvement of soil fertility. Here, a short review fo...

The fungus Magnaporthe oryzae causes rice blast disease leading to substantial yield losses. This study aims at understanding the effectiveness of R-genes to the isolate of M. oryzae from Namulonge in Central Uganda to decide the incorporation of their carrier lines in local gene pyramiding programs. Eighty-three genotypes (73 monogenic resistance...

Postharvest darkening (PHD) of seed coat, resulting from the oxidation of proanthocyanidins, is a critical challenge to the marketability of common bean since this characteristic is associated with long cooking time by consumers, thus lowering market values of darkened seed. Extensive research has been done to elucidate the phenotypic, biochemical,...

The involvement of metabolites in cowpea resistance to aphids has been poorly investigated. We determined changes of metabolites (alkaloids, tannins and phenolics) in cowpea leaves as a response to aphid infestation. Infestation increased biochemical constituents in cowpea leaves. This is an indication of their defensive role against aphid

A single paragraph Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) establish symbiotic relationships with many crops. These soil microbiotas improve the soil fertility through the soil physical, chemical and biological properties. extending the root absorbing area. In return, the symbiont receives plant carbohydrates for the completion of its life cycle. AMF al...

Stay green is the ability of a plant to maintain photosynthetically functional green leaf area for longer periods, even under excessive water stress. This study was done to establish the physiological capacity of Ugandan drought tolerant maize inbred lines to stay green under water shortage conditions using various stay green physiological determin...

Genomic selection (GS) can accelerate variety improvement when training set (TS) size and its relationship with the breeding set (BS) are optimized for prediction accuracies (PAs) of genomic prediction (GP) models. Sixteen GP algorithms were run on phenotypic best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) and estimators (BLUEs) of resistance to both fall...

Genomic selection (GS) can accelerate variety improvement when training set (TS) size, and its relationship with the breeding set (BS) are optimized for prediction accuracies (PA) of genomic prediction (GP) models. Sixteen GP algorithms were run on phenotypic best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) and estimators (BLUEs) of resistance to both fall...

Genomic selection (GS) can accelerate variety release by shortening the variety development phase when factors that influence prediction accuracies (PA) of genomic prediction (GP) models such as training set (TS) size and relationship with the breeding set (BS) are optimized beforehand. In this study, PAs for the resistance to fall armyworm (FAW) a...

Genomic selection (GS) can accelerate variety release by shortening variety development phase when factors that influence prediction accuracies (PA) of genomic prediction (GP) models such as training set (TS) size and relationship with the breeding set (BS) are optimized beforehand. In this study, PAs for the resistance to fall armyworm (FAW) and m...

Several species of herbivores feed on maize in field and storage setups, making the development of multiple insect resistance a critical breeding target. In this study, an association mapping panel of 341 tropical maize lines was evaluated in three field environments for resistance to fall armyworm (FAW), whilst bulked grains were subjected to a ma...

Several herbivores feed on maize in field and storage setups making the development of multiple-insect resistance a critical breeding target. In this study, an association mapping panel of 341 tropical maize lines was evaluated in three field environments for resistance to FAW (fall armyworm) whilst bulked grains were subjected to MW (maize weevil)...

Several herbivores feed on maize in field and storage setups making the development of multiple-insect resistance a critical breeding target. In this study, an association mapping panel of 341 tropical maize lines was evaluated in three field environments for resistance to FAW whilst bulked grains were subjected to MW bioassay, genotyped with Diver...

Background: Continuous storage root formation and bulking (CSRFAB) in sweetpotato is an important trait from agronomic and biological perspectives. Information about the molecular mechanisms underlying CSRFAB traits is lacking. Results: Here, as a first step toward understanding the genetic basis of CSRFAB in sweetpotato, we performed a genome-w...

Kumi F, Badji A, Mwila N, Odong T, Ochwo-Ssemakula M, Tusiime G, Gibson P, Biruma M, Prom KL, Cuevas HE, Agbahoungba S, Rubaihayo P. 2019. New sources of sorghum resistant genotypes to downy mildew disease in Uganda. Biodiversitas 20: 3391-3397. Sorghum downy mildew (SDM) disease is still prevalent in Uganda at varying levels of incidence and sever...

Knowledge of response to selection (R) helps to analyze the efficiency of crop-improvement programs and devise appropriate selection strategies. The objective of this study was to determine response to selection of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) genetic pyramids for diseases and yield traits. Populations evaluated included pyramided parents, c...

Anthracnose (Colletotrichum lindemuthianum), Angular leaf spot (Pseudocercospora griseola) and Pythium root rot are important pathogens affecting common bean production in the tropics. A promising strategy to manage these diseases consists of combining several resistance (R) genes into one cultivar. The aim of the study was to determine genetic lin...

Insect pests are primary constraints in maize (Zea mays) production in many places in sub-Saharan Africa. Stem borers and storage pests are responsible for severe yield losses and health hazards due to mycotoxin contamination. Integrated pest management (IPM) strategies have moved from control methods and transgenic resistance to recognizing the ne...

Several metabolites are linked to cassava resistance to whitefly. There is limited information however, on the mode of gene action of the metabolites associated with cassava resistance to whitefly (Bemisia tabaci). The objective of the study was to determine the combining abilities and mode of gene action of salicylic acid, antioxidative capacity,...

Groundnut leaf miner (GLM) (Aproaerema modicella) (Deventer) is one of the most destructive pests of soybean and groundnuts. In this study, the mode of inheritance, general combining ability (GCA), specific combining ability (SCA) effects, maternal effects of resistance to GLM and grain yield ha⁻¹ were determined. Thirteen soybean parental genotype...

Sorghum is the third most important staple cereal crop in Uganda after maize and millet. Downy mildew disease is one of the most devastating fungal diseases which limits the production and productivity of the crop. The disease is caused by an obligate fungus, Peronosclerospora sorghi (Weston & Uppal) with varying symptoms. Information on the geneti...

Cassava resistance to Bemisia tabaci is a result of many plant processes which involve plant biochemical constituents, shown to be affected by genotype and environment. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of genotype × environment interactions on concentrations of tannin, flavonoid, total phenolic content, antioxidative capacity an...

Combinatorial insect attacks on maize leaves, stems, and kernels cause significant yield losses and mycotoxin contaminations. Several small effect quantitative trait loci (QTL) control maize resistance to stem borers and storage pests and are correlated with secondary metabolites. However, efficient use of QTL in molecular breeding requires a synth...

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) ranks as the third most important staple cereal food crop in Uganda after maize and millet. The crop is hampered by several biotic stresses of which Sorghum Downy Mildew disease is one of the most devastating diseases. The disease is caused by a soil-borne fungus Peronosclerospora sorghi but it is also air-borne through co...

The flower bud thrips, Megalurothrips sjostedti, is a major pest of cowpea that can cause yield losses of up to 100%. The use of cowpea cultivars resistant to thrips is among the most promising control measures. Six cultivars were evaluated in 2016 in Uganda for resistance to thrips under field conditions and analyzed for total carbon, total reduci...

Flower thrips [Megalurothrips sjostedti (Trybom)] is the most damaging insect pest on cowpea. However, information regarding the nature of gene action governing the inheritance of resistance to thrips is not available for cowpea genotypes in Uganda. This study was carried out to determine the inheritance pattern of cowpea resistance to flower thrip...

Sorghum is the third most important staple cereal crop in Uganda after maize and millet. Downy mildew disease is one of the most devastating fungal diseases which limits the production and productivity of the crop. The disease is caused by an obligate fungus, Peronosclerospora sorghi (Weston & Uppal) with varying symptoms. Information on the geneti...

Yield in legumes is the result of many plant processes, which are usually expressed in yield and have been shown to be affected by management, genotype and environment. The objectives of this study were to assess the extent of genotype x environment interaction and to select the stable cowpea genotypes in Ugandan environments over seasons. Seventy-...

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is a legume attacked by several field insect pests, with flower thrips (Megalurothrips sjostedti Trybom) being the most damaging. It causes 20 to 100% yield losses. Cowpea constitutes an important source of protein for resource poor households in Africa. The objective of this study was to identify cowpea lines...