Paprika (Capsicum annuum) cannot grow or set fruit in temperatures that are higher than the optimal level. This study assesses the characteristics of 52 paprika accessions introduced from the agrobiodiversity center and the world vegetable center during a high temperature period in order to develop heat tolerant lines. As a result of controlling the temperature in two greenhouses by side ventilation and fogging system, the average daily temperature of the high temperature regime was 34.3℃, which was 2.4℃ higher than that of the normal temperature regime. Plant height, stem diameter, fruit set, fruit weight, fruit shape, pericarp thickness, soluble sugar content, yield, and marketable fruit development rate were all investigated as vegetative and reproductive growth-related parameters. Plant height, fruit weight, pericarp thickness, and yield were all reduced during high temperature treatment. Six germplasm lines (T12, T15, T26, T29, T32, and T36) were selected as high-temperature tolerant lines based on these parameters. The selected lines will be used to breed heat-tolerant cultivars as well as crossbreeding for genetic analysis.

Low-temperature damage at the seedling stage is one of the most significant natural obstacles to wheat’s growth. In domestic wheat breeding programs, the selection of cold-tolerant varieties is crucial for the development of superior wheat varieties. Traditionally, the extent of damage caused by freezing wheat is estimated through visual observation. In this study, we compared the RGB image analysis method with conventional visual evaluation and chlorophyll content analysis methods to determine if this method could accurately quantify the cold tolerance discrimination of wheat in the field. First, single-leaf-level RGB image analysis revealed a pattern similar to dead leaf ratio and chlorophyll content in three grades of freezing injury. Next, we compared the significance of plant-level RGB image analysis. The greenness index by RGB image analysis showed a higher correlation with dead leaf ratio by visual evaluation. Finally, 40 wheat varieties were planted in the field and wheat canopy images were collected at the seedling stage after wintering. There was a high correlation between the greenness index and the visual evaluation. However, there was no correlation between dead leaf ratio and visual evaluation or greenness index as determined by RGB image analysis. These findings suggest that using RGB image analysis rather than visual evaluation can be useful in assessing freeze damage in wheat fields.

In this study, phenotypic distribution of 15 major fruit quality traits were analyzed using 252 progenies derived from a cross between ‘Tano Red’ (seed) and ‘Ruby Seedless’ (seedless), to obtain basic data for improving the breeding efficiency of grapevine cultivars. Berry skin color was dark red-violet in 46.4% of the progenies, which is the color of ‘Tano Red’ and ‘Ruby Seedless’, and berry shape was elliptic in 48.4%. Most of the progenies were very juicy with soft flesh, and closely related to the characteristics of ‘Tano Red’. Seeds were well developed in 67.1% of the progenies, rudimentary in 30.1%, and 2.8% were seedless, with seed weight being less than 0.15 g in 84.9% of the progenies. Among the 15 fruit quality traits assessed, bunch density, ease of berry detachment from pedicel, berry weight, berry seed number, berry longitudinal diameter, berry transverse diameter, berry soluble solids, and berry acidity showed normal distributions. Heritability of berry weight, berry longitudinal diameter, berry transverse diameter, berry soluble solids, and berry acidity was 0.89, 0.82, 0.78, 0.86, and 0.93, respectively. Berry weight was positively correlated with seed weight (r = 0.486^**), presence of seeds (r = 0.483^**), and seed number (r = 0.211^**). Seed weight significantly increased with presence of seeds (r = 0.607^**) and seed number (r = 0.725^**). In addition, presence of seeds was positively correlated with seed number (r = 0.319^**). These results could be useful for the identification of quantitative trait loci associated with fruit quality to assist in grapevine breeding.

Cup arrangement ranking method (CARM) is a method for a rapid and small-sample sensory evaluation of cooked rice in rice breeding program. This study was compared to four different scale ranges (1~11, 1~9, 1~7 and 1~5) for improving the efficiency of CARM using sixteen Japonica and four Tongil-type cultivars. The wide scale ranges were higher of that than narrow scale range on determination coefficient between standard sensory evaluation method (SSEM) and CARM. However, the wide scale ranges were required more time and efforts than those of the narrow scale ranges for eating sensory evaluation of cooked rice. The wide scale ranges of 1~11 and 1~9 were difficult to distinguish the differences between the cultivars in the scale 3 and 4. On the other hand, the narrow scale ranges of 1~7 and 1~5 could distinguish the difference between cultivars in all scales. We suggest that two scale ranges for CARM were 1~7 (7 classes) in including Tongil type cultivars and 1~5 (5 classes) in Japonica cultivars.

Rice breeders or sensory evaluators are striving to develop the rapid and correct sensory evaluation method of the cooked rice with a small-sample. This study was conducted to develop a method of cooking condition and sensory evaluation of the cooked rice rapidly and correctly with a small-sample by introducing a concept of arrangement ranking to the conventional sensory evaluation method by cooking in the cup, which has been used only as a simple test. A method of simultaneous cooking of the five samples for one round of test was developed. And, an arrangement ranking method was developed just like stacking a tower by arranging the cups in the sensory evaluation. The proposed method was named as cup arrangement ranking method. The correlation analysis between the cup arrangement ranking method (CARM) and the standard sensory evaluation method (SSEM) showed a high significance of correlation (r=0.83^**~0.91^**, ‘13~’14). Further, when effectiveness of proposed method was compared with the standard sensory evaluation method, the sample quantity was a 30g level for one round of test, which is a tenth of SSEM. The time consumed for sensory evaluation was two minutes per one sample, which was a reduced value by half as compared with the time consumption by SSEM. Therefore, the cup arrangement ranking is expected to be an effective method in the selection of excellent rice line or variety having good taste by evaluating the cooking quality rapidly with a small-sample in early generation.