M. Y. Rafii

• B. Agric. Sc., M. Agric. Sc. (Plant Breeding & Genetics), PhD (Genetics)
• Professor at Universiti Putra Malaysia

Purpose: To identify the presence of GR24 and other strigolactones in 27 maize genotypes in experiments 2 and 3 m-derived from a 7 x 7 full diallel single crossing of Striga resistant and susceptible maize genotypes including their parents and two checks varieties in experiment 1-using an LC/MS/MS analytical procedure, as well as the level of stimu...

Kenaf is an economically important fiber crop globally for multipurpose industrial uses such as paper making, interior car components and building boards. Correlation and path coefficient analysis help breeders create breeding procedures that maximize yield through selection by assisting in the understanding of trait interactions. This research exa...

Mitochondrial genomes are essential components of eukaryotic cells, understanding their structural characteristics and codon usage bias is critical. Winter squash (Cucurbita maxima Duch ex Poiret) is an economically important cucurbit crop. To clarify its structural characteristics and codon usage bias of mitochondrial genome, as well as the evolut...

Abstract In an effort to control anthracnose disease, one of the major problems that has been faced by farmers, 14 chilli hybrids and their parents were screened phenotypically using the fruit inoculation method under laboratory conditions. Genotypic screening of 14 chilli hybrids and their parents was done by the identified polymorphic markers, Hp...

Induced mutation for the creation of desirable traits through chronic gamma irradiation provides an opportunity for the selection and development of new chili varieties. This study was conducted to assess the effects of different doses of chronic gamma irradiation on morpho-physiological traits in chili. Ten plants from each variety were exposed to...

The evaluation of various desirable traits in eggplant genotypes has facilitated the efficient process of selecting and improving them. Morphological parameters have proven to be valuable in assessing the similarities or differences among different accessions, while molecular data have been used to support the conclusions drawn from the morphologic...

Low-light stress is known to have a significant impact on pumpkin yield in greenhouse conditions, it is crucial to understand the characteristics of low-light tolerance and identify resistant germplasm resources. In this study, four pumpkins ( Cucurbita moschata ) varieties were used, including three inbred lines (10–32, NY-1, and JB-1) and one hyb...

The evaluation of various desirable characteristics in eggplant genotypes has facilitated the efficient process of selecting and improving their traits. Morphological parameters have proven to be valuable in assessing the similarities or differences among different accessions, while molecular data have been used to support the conclusions drawn fro...

Soil phosphorus (P) enrichment due to increased P fertilizer use in agriculture contributes to eutrophication and adverse environmental impacts. Thus, one of the biggest global concerns is to reduce enriched P from the soil. One appealing way to remove excessive of P in soil is through phytoextraction. Therefore, a study was conducted to evaluate c...

The genetic impacts of induced mutations have led to irreversible changes in genetic material, which are then transferred on to the exposed individual's offspring. This technology has contributed significantly to agricultural development through development and release of thousands improved crop varieties. Plant breeders could not rely on spontaneo...

The present study aimed to characterize the potential plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) based on biochemical tests based on eight bacterial isolates, and to identify potential PGPR based on the 16S rRNA sequencing molecular method. Eight potential PGPR strains (UPMC1166, UPMC1168, UPMC1254, UPMC1376, UPMC1389, UPMC1393, UPMC703 and UPMC70...

Salinity is one of the most serious issues in rice cultivation and production. Salt stress significantly reduced seedling growth performance of rice. This research was conducted to study the effects of vegetative stage salinity stress on morphological, biochemical, molecular and genetic variation of 12 rice genotypes as well as 2 check varieties, M...

A better understanding of the various desirable characteristics present in chili (Capsicum annuum L.) genotypes has aided in developing more effective selection methods for crop improvement. Identifying genetically superior parents is critical in selecting the best parents and inbred lines for breeding purposes. This study was conducted over two...

Bacterial leaf blight (BLB) of rice is among the most devastating pathosystem of rice in nearly all the rice-growing localities in tropical and temperate regions. In Malaysia, the disease was initially detected in paddy fields of Peninsular Malaysia in 1967, with yield losses reaching 70%. Devastating BLB spread was in 2013 at Sekinchan, Selangor w...

Increasing food and water security via sustainable agriculture is vital, particularly in light of climate change. Researchers and farmers have recently shown a great deal of interest in the agricultural applications of hydrogels. This research aims to evaluate the impact of hydrogel on Capsicum annuum crop productivity and irrigation water use effe...

Despite massive economic contributions to Malaysia, the oil palm industry faces devastating threats from basal stem rot (BSR) disease. An array of treatments was designed to evaluate the potential of biological control agents (BCAs) as a single and combination of applications in a greenhouse study of six months. Oil palm enzymes, phenolic content,...

Chili pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) cultivation is hampered by biotic and abiotic stressors, with poor performance caused by high temperatures exceeding 42 • C and anthracnose infestation. Chemical constituents such as anti-oxidants, phenols, capsaicin, and dihydrocapsaicin have a relationship with biotic and abiotic tolerance or resistance. Experime...

Introduction Among the rice diseases, rice blast caused by the pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae is a major threat to the global rice cultivation. This experiment was aimed at investigating the genotype by environment interaction effects on the severity of blast disease and variability of the advanced blast resistant rice lines using quantitative charact...

Reproductive stage drought (RSD) significantly reduces the harvestable grain yield of rice. The grain yield (GY) is commonly used as a direct selection criterion in breeding drought-tolerant rice, while the leaf relative water content (LRWC) as a secondary selection criterion. The aim of this study was to compare the degree of association between l...

Cucurbita maxima Duch is a widely cultivated and consumed vegetable with high economic and nutritional value. The complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of C. maxima was characterized by Illumina paired-end sequencing and is reported here. The size of the complete mt genome was 640,814 bp, and its GC content was 43.37%. Sequence analyses showed that th...

Phosphorus (P) enrichment of soil due to the intensification of P fertilizer usage in crop production has resulted in eutrophication and serious economic consequences. Further, rapidly decreasing P reserves have renewed interest in improving more sustainable soil P management through monitoring diverse soil P reactions in contrasting soils. Therefo...

The rice plant accumulates silicon (Si) in greater quantity, which varies among the rice genotypes. This study was conducted to determine the optimum fertilization rate and its effect on growth, yield, yield attributes, and soil nutrient uptake. Six different silicon dioxide (SiO2) rates, including 0, 50, 75, 100, 125, and 150 kg SiO2/ha, were appl...

The oil palm (OP) Elaeis guineensis is a robust feeder of nutrients and necessitates the adjustment and adequate allocation of nutrients for optimum growth and yields. Therefore, information on leaf nutrient concentrations during the immature stage is essential for maximal OP yield at the mature stage. Currently, in Malaysia, fertilizer by the stan...

Correlation and path coefficient analysis aid in developing breeding strategies aimed at increasing yield traits through selection by providing a better understanding of the relationship. This study was conducted on yield and yield-related traits to determine their direct and indirect effects among thirty-one kenaf mutant lines to identify selectio...

Water management is rapidly becoming one of the most pressing issues facing all countries in semi-arid and arid parts of the world. Global water consumption is predicted to increase by 50% in 2030, resulting in an acute water shortage. Presently, the agricultural sector consumes more than 70% of freshwater in most regions of the world, putting more...

Hybrid incompatibility and F1 hybrid dysgenesis in the interspecific hybridization between pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch.) and winter squash (Cucurbita maxima Duch.) have been previously noted. For this reason, it is difficult to obtain F2 generations due to F1 sterility. However, back-crossing and add-crossing can be utilized to overcome these...

Nine morphologically distinct kenaf genotypes were hybridized to produce 36 hybrids following a half diallel mating design. The combining ability and gene action of 15 yield and yield components were assessed in hybrids and their parents across two environments. Except for the mid diameter and plant height traits, there were highly significant diff...

Elaedobius kamerunicus (EK) is the most effective oil palm pollinator, and has positively improved the rate of pollination and oil yield. However, the decline in the oil palm fruit set and oil yield is alarming in oil palm industries. Therefore, this study investigated the EK population abundance and its impact on the oil palm fruit set. A signific...

One of the most important challenges to continuously maximizing crop production on limited areas of agricultural land is maintaining or enhancing soil fertility. Organic fertilizer application is needed to replace nutrients recovered by crops from the fields in order to restore the crop production potential of the soil. The utilization of chicken m...

Blast disease caused by a pathogenic fungus, Magnaphorthe oryzae, is the most destructive disease and has resulted in more than 50% of crop losses worldwide, including in Malaysia. The present study was conducted to investigate genetic variability among 36 advanced lines of MR264 × PS2 rice with blast resistance genes introduced at the Faculty of A...

Addressing genetic diversity and application of appropriate breeding strategies are imperative for Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L.) improvement as a newly introduced legume in Malaysia. It has become a “miracle lucrative” legume for Asia and Africa because of its drought resilience, excellent nutritional profiles, and versatile uses. This c...

High yield potential in rice is indirectly determined by yield-related traits. These traits are complex and regulated by several genes whose expression is affected by environmental conditions. It is of great importance to disclose the genetic relationships between yield and its yield components for multi-trait improvement in rice. Therefore, the pr...

Anthracnose disease in chilli is one of the major problems that has been faced by farmers worldwide. This problem is further aggravated due to the lack of resistant genotypes against Colletotrichum species. It is very important to identify genotypes with resistance genes. Thirty-two inbred lines were challenged with Colletotrichum truncatum using t...

Rice blast disease is one of the major bottlenecks of rice production in the world including Bangladesh. To develop blast resistant lines, a cross was made between a high yielding but blast susceptible variety MR263 and a blast resistant variety Pongsu seribu 2. Marker-assisted backcross breeding was followed to develop F1, BC1F1, BC2F1, BC2F2, BC2...

In a breeding program, studies of genotypic and phenotypic relationships among agricultural crop traits are useful to design, evaluate, and develop selection criteria for desirable traits. Using path coefficient analysis, the present study was executed to estimate the phenotypic, genotypic, and environmental correlation coefficients between yield a...

my (Nusaibah Syd Ali). Hevea brasiliensis, or rubber tree, is the primary source of natural rubber, and second major commodity crop in Malaysia after oil palm. It is known that rubber trees are prone to a wide range of foliar diseases, resulting in significant yield losses. To date, a new emerging severe leaf disease epidemic tentatively termed as...

Information on molecular genetic diversity among Hibiscus cannabinus L. lines is crucial for developing a new variety from the existing germplasms based on consumer demand. Based on this premise, the allelic diversity of thirty-one kenaf genotypes were assessed using polymorphic EST-SSR. From the 72 EST-SSR primers tested, 10 showed sharp and clear...

Information on molecular genetic diversity among Hibiscus cannabinus L. lines is crucial for developing a new variety from the existing germplasms based on consumer demand. Based on this premise, the allelic diversity of thirty-one kenaf genotypes were assessed using polymorphic EST-SSR. From the 72 EST-SSR primers tested, 10 showed sharp and clear...

Soil salinity exert negative impacts on agricultural production and regarded as a crucial issue in global wetland rice production (Oryza sativa L.). Indigenous salt-tolerant plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (Bacillus sp.) could be used for improving rice productivity under salinity stress. This study screened potential salt-tolerant plant growt...

Soil salinity exert negative impacts on agricultural production and regarded as a crucial issue in global wetland rice production (Oryza sativa L.). Indigenous salt-tolerant plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (Bacillus sp.) could be used for improving rice productivity under salinity stress. This study screened potential salt-tolerant plant growt...

Bambara groundnut is a highly nutritious underutilized legume with enormous potential to sustain food security in resource-poor countries. However, its potential for improvement through conventional breeding (< 2% success rate) limitation due to the nature of the flowers. Thus, the most viable method of improving this crop is by creating genetic va...

___ Though many studies on gene action of yield and yield related traits have been conducted on bambara groundnut, none of these focused on seed size and weight. Hence, this study was conducted to established inheritance pattern based on seed weight. Five bambara groundnut genotypes from Nigeria, namely Giwa, Duna, Cancaraki, Jatau, and Maiki were...

Abstract The stability and high yielding of Vigna subterranea L. Verdc. genotype is an important factor for long-term development and food security. The effects of G × E interaction on yield stability in 30 Bambara groundnut genotypes in four different Malaysian environments were investigated in this research. The experiment used a randomized compl...

Nine morphologically distinct kenaf genotypes were hybridized to produce 36 hybrids following a half diallel mating design. The combining ability and gene action of 15 yield and yield components were assessed in hybrids and their parents across two environments. Except for the mid diameter and plant height traits, there were highly significant diff...

This book presents reviews on the application of the technology for crop improvement towards food and nutrition security, and research status on mutation breeding and associated biotechnologies in both seed crops and vegetatively propagated crops. It also presents perspectives on the significance of next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics in...

Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) is an herbaceous crop and plays an important role as common spices and vegetables. Pepper (Capsicum spp.) is one of the most cost-effective and agricultural vegetables in the world. The most significant characteristics of peppers, as spices and in various pharmacological uses, are pungency and oleoresin (color). Cabsicum...

The world’s food and agricultural programs have gradually declined into an unsustainable situation due to challenges such as increase in world population, varied agro-climatic regions, increase temperature, extreme sole-culture growing techniques, and water shortage. A considerable emphasis has been put on few staple food crops coupled with repeate...

Abiotic and biotic stresses adversely affect rice growth, development and grain yield. Traditional rice breeding techniques are insufficient in modern agriculture to meet the growing population’s food needs on a long-term basis. The development of DNA markers closely linked to target genes or QTLs on rice chromosomes, and advanced molecular techniq...

Eggplant is an essential vegetable crop that is rich in health-related compounds, and the content of these compounds can be increased through grafting. It was reported that grafting with vigorous wild relatives’ rootstocks can improve eggplant’s fruit quality. The study was conducted to investigate the fruit yield, composition and physicochemical t...

Rice has been subjected to a great deal of stress during its brief existence, but it nevertheless ranked first among cereal crops in terms of demand and productivity. Weeds are characterized as one of the major biotic stresses by many researchers. This research aims to determine the most potential allelopathic rice variety among selected rice acces...

Citation: Anisuzzaman, M.; Rafii, M.Y.; Jaafar, N.M.; Izan Ramlee, S.; Ikbal, M.F.; Haque, M.A. Effect of Organic and Inorganic Fertilizer on the Growth and Yield Components of Traditional and Improved Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Genotypes in Malaysia. Agronomy 2021, 11, 1830.

Saline water submergence is a newly emerge abiotic stress jeopardizing rice production especially for the rice fields located nearby or alongside coastal areas. The stress was caused by the intrusion of sea water into those rice fields causing flash flood mainly during monsoon season. The present study was conducted to evaluate susceptibility level...

Eleven morphologically diverse cultivated eggplant accessions were used for hybridization following half diallel mating design to obtain 55 hybrids. Evaluation of hybrids along with the parents was conducted over two locations followed by randomised complete block design with three replications to study gene action and combining ability of 15 morph...

Silicon (Si) is a micronutrient that can increase the resistance of certain plants against multiple biotic or abiotic stresses. It is known that Si has a beneficial effect on plant growth, beginning in the soil, which could lead to a good crop yield. Despite its benefits, Si is not listed among the generally essential elements or nutrients for rice...

Eggplant is the fifth economically most important vegetable in the Solanaceae family after tomato, potato, chili, and tobacco. Apart from the well-cultivated brinjal or aubergine eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), two other underutilized eggplant species, the African eggplant (S. macrocarpon L.) and the scarlet eggplant (S. aethiopicum L.), were also...

Rice, generally classified as a typical glycophyte, often faces abiotic stresses such as excessive drought, high salinity, prolonged submergence, cold, and temperature, which significantly affects growth, development, and ultimately, grain yield. Among these negative impacts of abiotic factors in rice production, salinity stress is a major constrai...

The knowledge of genetic variability and breeding techniques is crucial in crop improvement programs. This information is especially important in underutilized crops such as Bambara groundnut, which have limited breeding systems and genetic diversity information. Hence, this study evaluated the genetic variability and established the relationship b...

Rice, generally classified as a typical glycophyte, often faces abiotic stresses such as excessive drought, high salinity, prolonged submergence, cold, and temperature, which significantly affects growth, development, and ultimately, grain yield. Among these negative impacts of abiotic factors in rice production, salinity stress is a major constrai...

The key to a successful crop improvement program lies in the great discovery of genetic diversity, which uncovers the roles of genes and traits in developing optimally while facing multiple biotic or abiotic factors. The objective of the present study was to investigate the genetic variation of six local mega rice varieties in Malaysia for twelve a...

Aims: The main objective of this study is to quantify the genetic variability and relationship among the quantitative traits of the torch ginger germplasm collected across Peninsular Malaysia. Study design: Initially, the experimental design was randomized complete block design (RCBD) but there were unequal number of replications due to limited pla...

One of the most critical aspects of marker-assisted backcross breeding is recurrent parent genome recovery (RPGR). RPGR ensures that only the genes of interest are retained without further segregation in the recombined progenies while the unwanted genomic segments are completely deleted. This experiment aimed to introgress multiple bacterial leaf b...

As a new crop in Malaysia, forty-four Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L. verdc.) genotypes were sampled from eleven distinct populations of different origins to explore the genetic structure, genetic inconsistency, and fixation index. The Bambara groundnut, an African underutilized legume, has the capacity to boost food and nutrition security...

Indo-Burmese region was the primary center of eggplant diversity from where the crop extended to several secondary origins of diversity. In this study, the genetic diversity among fifty-six eggplant accessions collected from three countries was assessed using sixteen polymorphic SSR markers to determine suitable parents for heterotic hybridization....

This study investigated oil palm inflorescence sex ratio (ISR) and fruit set (FS) yield among 24 dura × pisifera biparental progenies on fibric peat soil, hybridized from ten genetic origins. Three-month intervals of data collection on ISR and “S-shape” procedure for FS determination were carried out in an independent complete randomized design for...

Genetic improvement of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) through conventional breeding approaches depends mainly on the availability of diverse germplasm and the amount of genetic variability present in the population. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the extent of genetic variability in the 1995 Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia...

Indo-Birmanian is considered as the domesticated region and primary center of eggplant diversity from where it spread to other secondary centers of diversity. In this study, the genetic diversity among 56 eggplant genotypes from three secondary centers of diversity (Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand) was assessed using 11 morphological traits. The...

Rice provides 76% calorie intake of mostly the Southeast Asian population and 21% food need. Improved lines were developed from three parents with bacteria leaf blight resistant, blast resistant and drought tolerance, respectively, whose devastating effects affect potential of rice yield. The improved lines were assessed for agro-morphological and...

High kernel elongation (HKE) is one of the high-quality characteristics in rice. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of ageing treatments, gene actions, and inheritance pattern of kernel elongation on cooking quality in two populations of rice and determine the path of influence and contribution of other traits to kernel elon...

The world’s food and agricultural schemes have gradually fallen into an alarming state due to challenges such as high population birth rates, diverse agro-climatic zones, a lack of measures to counter global warming, severe practices of sole-culture cultivation, and asset reduction. A very high dependency on limited staple food crops is associated...