Abstract: Heat-stress resilience is vital for poultry in tropical/subtropical regions where
high temperatures impair productivity. Ake chickens, as the only naked-neck chicken breed
in China, exhibit robust resistance to heat stress, but this breed lacks clarity in its genetic
origins. This study utilized the next-generation sequencing data from 22 chicken breeds
to conduct phylogenetic and population analyses. Gene flow analysis revealed a gene
migration event from Iranian naked-neck chickens and Indian local breeds to Ake chickens,
and population separation estimates suggested that the naked-neck gene was introduced to
China around 500–600 years ago. NJ-tree, PCA, and population structure analyses showed
that Ake chickens cluster with Yunnan native breeds, which diverged only 100–200 years
ago. A selective sweep in the candidate region on chromosome 3 (97.0–97.37 Mb) showed
elevated genetic differentiation (FST) and educed nucleotide diversity (π) compared to
the genome-wide average, indicating rapid fixation of the trait under natural/artificial
selection. Demographic reconstruction indicated that the current effective size of Ake
chickens is stable at 2000–3000 individuals. These findings deepen our understanding of
Ake chicken evolution and provide valuable insights for conservation and the development
of heat-stress-resistant poultry breeds.
 

Cluster and berry thinning are management techniques that adjust over-crop and provide a method for improving the quality. Furthermore, lately, a lot of attention is focused on minimizing the heavy amounts of mineral fertilizers by applying organic and bio-fertilizers such as vermicompost and humic acid. Therefore, these treatments were applied to increase the productivity and quality of Ruby Seedless table grape. To achieve this aim of this study, this study was conducted during two successive seasons of 2022 and 2023 on Ruby Seedless grape cultivar which was cultivated at the orchard of Pomology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University. Six treatments were carried out control, humic acid at 2%/vine, humic acid to the soil at 5g/vine, vermicompost extract at 3.3ml/L, vermicompost extract at 5ml/L, cluster thinning by Removing the second cluster. Yield components, vegetative properties, berry attributes in addition to quality of grape berries were measured. The results revealed that all of the treatments were effective in improving both productivity and berry quality of the Ruby Seedless grape cultivar. In addition, spraying with vermicompost extract could be recommended as the best treatment.

Sugar solutions are a valuable tool in the beekeeper’s arsenal. Understanding the nutritional value and diverse effects of sugar solutions on individual and colony populations allows beekeepers to ensure the successful wintering of honey bee colonies. The efficacy of feeding three types of sugar solutions (sucrose, glucose + fructose, invert sugar) compared to honey as a control on honey bees’ physiological and morphological parameters was studied during nursing. The results showed that the feeding type influenced consumption, digestibility, wax gland development, and hemocytic parameters. While honey topped the charts in all parameters, sucrose also reflected improvement of wax gland development (oenocytes area) and significantly increased hemolymph plasmatocytes as an index for bee immunity, making it a compelling alternative among the tested solutions. The glucose and fructose solution mixture exhibited neither significant bee attraction nor positive impacts on the fourth wax mirror area, wax gland development, or bee immune response. Invert sugar exhibited the lowest consumption and bee attraction among the solutions, yet it demonstrated a noteworthy effect on the fourth wax mirror expansion. The highest spindle hemocyte percentage of bees fed Invert sugar suggested they experienced stress. In this study, honey, followed by sucrose, is the best feeding choice to prepare bee colonies for winter to promote honey bee immunocompetence. While invert sugar potentially offers several economic advantages. Its limited influence on key colony parameters, such as wax production and overwintering success, requires further study.