LABHILILI M.’s research while affiliated with Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique and other places

This study presents the first comprehensive catalogue of the Megastigmidae from Morocco. After sorting through the existing bibliography and visiting various museums, we identified two genera occurring in this country: Bootanomyia Girault, 1915 and Megastigmus Dalman, 1820 represented by one and ten species, respectively. Here we provide data on the known distribution and biology of each of the species in Morocco. Dataset published through GBIF (DOI: 10.15470/mr3xom)

Revisió de les espècies de Chalcidoidea (Insecta, Hymenoptera) conservades al Museu d’Història Natural de l’Institut Científic de Rabat (Marroc) Aquest treball presenta la revisió de 12 espècies de la superfamília Chalcidoidea (Insecta, Hymenoptera) conservades al Museu d’Història Natural de l’Institut Científic de Rabat (Marroc). S’aporten dades referents a la biologia i els hostes d’aquestes espècies, com també un mapa de distribució al nord d’Àfrica. Dades publicades a GBIF (Doi: 10.15470/q0ya99)

Drought and temperature extremes are major factors limiting wheat productivity particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. The selection of a high and stable yield are an important objective in these environments. This is particularly true in the Mediterranean basin where harsh and fluctuating climatic conditions lead to the occurrence of qualitative genotype × environment interactions. Breeding relies, usually, on selection for yield and few alternatives to direct selection for yield have been adopted.

Pyrenophora teres f. teres (Ptt), causing net blotch in barley, is an important and frequently isolated leaf pathogen across the globe. The virulence spectrum of Ptt from North Africa including Morocco is poorly understood. Sixteen barley genotypes were challenged, at seedling stage, with 15 Ptt isolates that were collected from different agroecological zones of Morocco. The experiment was conducted in a factorial arrangement of treatments in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. The ANOVA revealed highly significant (P < 0.001) effects of genotype (G), isolate (I) and G×I interaction explaining 23.2, 62.5, and 13.9% of the variation, respectively. Therefore, the current study revealed highly diverse virulence pattern of Moroccan isolates. Furthermore, the results indicated that minor virulence of Ptt isolates dominated over virulence interaction. In addition, Taffa (6-rowed) and Aglou (2 rowed), had the highest level of resistance to Ptt, while Coast and Rabat071 were the most susceptible genotypes. Pt2, Pt7, Pt8 and Pt4 were being the most virulent isolates, while Pt10 and Pt11 were the least virulent isolates. The emergence of the new Ptt pathotypes, which were highly virulent to durable resistance in Rabat071 posed a risk of breaking down the currently deployed resistance to net blotch in Morocco. A careful evaluation and selection of Ptt isolates based on minor virulence pattern to barley genotypes is essential for successful barley breeding program for resistance to net blotch in Morocco. Keywords: barley, GGE biplot, net blotch, Pyrenophora teres, virulence

Physiological traits are receiving increasing attention as screening tools for stress resistance to enhance both yield potential and yield stability under stressful conditions. This study was undertaken to investigate the discriminating ability of bioassays applied to durum wheat lines subjected to heat shock at the seedling growth stage and to study their relationships with grain yield stress tolerance indices. Sufficient amount of variability was observed in the responses of the eight durum wheat genotypes evaluated. Heat shock increased proline, soluble sugars and damage to cell membrane and decreased Fv/Fm ratio, relative water content and chlorophyll content. Genotype responses varied according to stress intensity. Different genotypes were declared as tolerant to stress based on different parameters. Base on proline and soluble sugars results Korifla was identified as stress tolerant. Bousselam was declared stress tolerant based on membrane stability, relative water and chlorophyll contents results. Waha was tolerant based on Fv/Fm ratio. P index identified three varieties as stable and high yielding. Correlations study indicated that the relationships between bioassays parameters and with tolerance indices varied according to stress levels, suggesting that these physiological traits could not be recommended to replace grain yield field testing, under the Algerian conditions of durum production.

RESUME L'étude de la diversité génétique d'une population de Septoria tritici (Rob. ex Desm.) sur blé tendre a été réalisée par la caractérisation culturale et pathogénique d'isolats collectés dans différentes régions céréalières du Maroc. La caractérisation culturale de 38 isolats in vitro a montré une différence très marquée entre les isolats étudiés et entre/intra régions. En effet, le champignon a présenté 2 formes, l'aspect de levure et l'aspect de bourrelets stromatiques. Concernant la couleur: 6 couleurs ont été notées. Elle varie entre rose, orange, blanche, vert olivâtre, marron, et noir. On a noté la dominance de la couleur rose, orange et blanche avec 77% du total des cultures. Aussi, la classification des 26 isolats étudiés sur la base du pourcentage de la surface foliaire nécrosée moyennant la technique des feuilles détachées a donné lieu à trois groupes (Avirulent-Moyennement virulent-Virulent). De plus, la classification hiérarchique de 14 isolats a donné lieu à 9 pathotypes. Cette différence nette entre les isolats montre qu'il y'a une grande diversité au sein de cette population.

In durum wheat, marker-trait associations were studied for six agronomic traits using a set of 25 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers , with a set of 40 wheat genotypes including drought, semi-tolerant and non-drought tolerant genotypes. According to the factorial discriminate analysis (FDA) for phenotype traits and to the Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) cluster, the 40 genotypes, were classified into five distinct groups. The first two components of FDA results for phenotype traits, explained 74% of total variation. The results show that landraces were earlier and relatively taller than the improved varieties. A total of 14 SSR markers showed significant associations with studied agronomic traits on chromosomes of durum wheat. Some markers (wmc54 (3B), wms118 (5B) and wmc165 (3A), showed significant associations with several traits and were associated with Number of grains per main spike (NGS), Number of spike per meter square (NS/m 2)and throusand kernel weight (TKW) as well as with grain yield (GY) and its components. In total, 136 alleles were obtained with a mean of 13 alleles/locus. The average PIC value was 0.74 suggesting a high degree of genetic diversity. The analysis using the Mantel matrix correspondence test, revealed a positive and highly significant correlation (r=0.6096; p<0.01, 1000 random permutations) between the agro-morphological traits and the microsatellite marker-derived similarity matrices. Furthermore, the molecular variance analysis (AMOVA) showed that the proportion of variance explained by within and among geographical groups diversity was 83 % and 17%, respectively. Thus, our study showed significant variation in morphological traits and microsatellite DNA polymorphisms among wheat varieties.

Net blotch caused by Pyrenophora teres f. teres is the most harmful foliar disease in barley generating significant economic losses in Morocco. Populations of P. teres f. teres were collected from different regions of Morocco. Thirty five (35) P. teres f. teres isolates, single conidial, were isolated and were subjected to molecular study using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technique. Out of the fourteen primers combinations tested, four primers combinations were selected to disclose the polymorphism between the different P. teres f. teres isolates. The molecular characterization of these isolates showed high degree of polymorphism reaching 95% and identifying 25 specific genotypes. The genetic variability of the different isolates of P. teres f. teres within and between Moroccan regions was highlighted, disclosing no linkage between the isolates and their geographical origins. This result might be due to informal material flow between regions.

L’amélioration des céréales par le biais des croisements entre les variétés est basée sur la sélection des caractères améliorés des deux parents. En l’absence du caractère recherché, La création de nouveaux génotypes par la mutagenèse (EMS) et l’utilisation de la génétique inverse (TILLING), permet la création de nouveaux gènes d’intérêt et d’étudier leurs fonctions. Une population de lignées a été crée à partir de la variété ChamI à large adaptation. L’analyse des caractères agronomiques (hauteur des plantes, nombre de grains/épis, poids de grains/épis...) a montré une large variabilité génétique entre les génotypes de cette population avec certains génotypes plus performants que ChamI. De même, l’évaluation pathologique (septoriose et rouille brune) de cette population a permit de sélectionner certains génotypes tolérants voir résistants. Les génotypes plus performants que ChamI peuvent constituer une source pour l’amélioration génétique du blé dur. Les paramètres de qualité tel que les profiles protéiques des gluténines et l’analyse moléculaires du marqueur associé à la sous-unité de gluténine de faible poids moléculaire (LMW) de type 1, ont montré pour certains génotypes, des mutations au niveau des gluténines de haut poids moléculaires et de faible poids moléculaires (LMW). Ces mutations peuvent engendrées une amélioration de la qualité technologique de blé dur.