http://repository.wyb.ac.lk/handle/1/3052 Fri, 08 May 2026 14:08:59 GMT 2026-05-08T14:08:59Z http://repository.wyb.ac.lk/handle/1/3592 Physicochemical Characteristics, Tannin Content and Sensory Attributes of the Cashew Apple of Eight Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) Varieties Grown in Sri Lanka Walgama, H.W.D.D.; Walakuluge, H.P; Gunasekara, S.G.V.D.H; Ratnayake, RH.M.K; Eeswara, J.P; Herath, H.M.S.P. Wed, 18 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT http://repository.wyb.ac.lk/handle/1/3592 2020-11-18T00:00:00Z http://repository.wyb.ac.lk/handle/1/3591 Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Treatment as a Cost Effective and Eco-Friendly Pre-Treatment Method to Enhance Seed Perfomance in Germination and Early Seedling Growth Hendeniya, N; Sandanuwan, T; Amarasinghe, D.A.S; Attygalle, D; Weragoda, S.C; Ranaweera, B; Rathnayake, K; Lalanka, M Novel methods of improving the seed quality have gained a lot of attention recently, cold atmospheric pressure plasma being one of the most promising methods. The effects of cold atmospheric pressure plasma treatment of chili - MI 2 (Capsicum annuum L.) and snake gourd - MI short (Trichosanthes cucumerina) seeds have been compared with a conventional fungicide seed coating and a biological coating treatment. The plasma exposure times used were 4min, 6min and 10min. Cold atmospheric pressure plasma treatment has shown improved effects on seed germination for both Capsicum annuum L. and Trichosanthes cucumerina seeds. Both seed types showed the best germination results under 6 min treatment while displaying the best Seed Vigor Index through 4 min plasma treatment. Compared with the coating treatments, cold atmospheric pressure plasma has shown a significant stimulation in seed germination and early growth. Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT http://repository.wyb.ac.lk/handle/1/3591 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repository.wyb.ac.lk/handle/1/3590 Non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma: An alternative method to enhance the seed quality in long bean-KPN (Vigna unguiculate L.) seeds Hendeniya, N; Sandanuwan, T; Attygalle, D; Amarasinghe, D.A.S; Weragoda, S; Ranaweera, B; Ratnayake, K; Lalanka, M Non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma treatment has emerged as a promising potential seed quality enhancement method over recent years. This study focuses on the effect of atmospheric pressure plasma treatment on seed germination and growth of Long Bean-KPN (Vigna unguiculata L.) seeds under labora tory conditions. In this study, the Long Bean seeds were exposed to a dry air non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma for different periods between 4 and 10 min to study its effect on seed germination and growth behavior. It was observed that Germination percentage and Seed Vigor Index were negatively affected by plasma treatment for more than 6 min. The performance of seeds treated for 4 min had a slight improvement in germination over the control specimen, while it showed a significant improve ment in average seed vigor index. The study confirmed that non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma treatment can be stimulatory for seed germination and growth of Vigna unguiculate L. seeds if exposed to plasma for periods less than 4 min and it can be inhibitory for the purpose if exposure time exceeds 6 min. Copyright 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer ence on Applied Research and Engineering 2021 Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT http://repository.wyb.ac.lk/handle/1/3590 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repository.wyb.ac.lk/handle/1/3576 In silico molecular and morphological analysis of rice blast resistant gene Pi-ta in Sri Lankan rice germplasm Terensan, S; Fernando, H.N.S.; Silva, J.N.; Perera, S.A.C.N; Kottearachchi, N.S.; Weerasena, O.V.D.S Pi-ta is a major blast resistant gene, introgressed from indica rice varieties. In this study, diversity of the Pi-ta gene of 47 Sri Lankan rice accessions was studied by bioinformatics, and the results were validated with molecular and disease reaction assays. Sequences of rice accessions at the locus Os12g0281300 were retrieved from Rice SNP-Seek Database, and the coding sequence of reference Pi-ta gene of cultivar Tetep (accession no. GQ918486.1) was obtained from GenBank. Comparisons were made at nucleotide, amino acid, and protein structure level, and the 3D models predicted using Phyre2 software were superimposed using TM-align software. Results: In silico analysis revealed that 10 accessions possessed resistant allele of the Pi-ta gene. The remaining accessions recorded high polymorphism in the leucine-rich domain resulting in 9 allele types, leading to single– amino acid substitutions at 27 different positions including a functional mutation of alanine to serine at the 918th amino acid position. None of the genotypes led to truncations in the amino acid sequence. The in silico analysis results were validated on 23 accessions comprising resistant and susceptible genotypes and another 25 cultivars from Northern Sri Lanka, by molecular assay using YL183/YL87 and YL155/YL87 resistant and susceptible allele specific markers. Resistance of Pi-ta gene for the causal fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae, was further validated through pathogenicity assay. Conclusion: The Pi-ta gene, especially the LRD region, revealed significant variations within Sri Lankan rice cultivars leading to high levels of resistance against blast. This information would be highly useful in breeding programmes for resistance against rice blast Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT http://repository.wyb.ac.lk/handle/1/3576 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z