The present study aimed to evaluate the activation characteristics of the leaping mullet spermatozoa and diluted with four different media (D1, D2, D3, D4) for 250 h at 4±2°C. The semen was collected from nine wild fish in Homa Lagoon, İzmir, Turkey in July, during reproductive season. In each trial (n = 9), semen samples were collected and mixed to reduce sperm quality variation to obtain the required gametes for the experiment. The semen was activated with natural seawater (salinity of 34, pH 7.9 and 4±2°C) to determine: motility time, motility rate and viability of sperm. Dilution with inactivation media 1:3 increased motility time of diluted semen than control group. At the end of the experiment, no significant difference was found for the duration of survival in the D2 and D4 groups. The highest survival rate was found in D2 group.

The subject of the study is to evaluate the Niğde Akkaya Dam with SWOT analysis and to make recommendations in terms of recreational use. The aim of the study is to identify the strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities of the Akkaya dam and to determine its goals and strategies in terms of recreation. In line with this purpose, the socio-economic, cultural and natural features, landscape potential of the area were evaluated using the SWOT, the opportunities that the positive and negative aspects of the area, were presented, and the possible or existing threats were determined. At the same time, the current recreation potential of the dam was determined, and suggestions were developed in line with the data in order to offer alternatives that can be evaluated in terms of sustainable use of the areas. It was determined that pollution occurs in the dam water due to environmental wastes, as a result of this pollution, harmful creatures multiply and bad smells are formed. However, it is accepted that the dam is home to a large number of migratory birds, that it has not lost its naturalness, and that most of the dam is in the university campus. Threats to the dam are; low water level, fishing, duck hunting etc. damage to ecological life due to activities, smell gradually increased. Their opportunities are determined as providing a suitable environment for bird watching, having a suitable infrastructure for ecological research, and being suitable for recreational activities for water. At the end of the study, suggestions were developed in terms of suitability of Akkaya Dam for recreational activities.

In this study, the genetic and non-genetic parameters were estimated for growth traits of Karacabey merino sheep. Growth performance data refer to 1863 lambs born between 2016 and 2018. Analyses were carried out by restricted maximum likelihood fitting animal models and disregarding or including maternal genetic or maternal permanent environmental effect. Six different animal model were fitted for all traits, and the most suitable model for each trait was chosen after Akaike information criterion test (AIC). Year of birth, age of dam, type of birth and lamb sex were significant sources of variation on birth weight (BW), average daily gain (ADG), Kleiber ratio (KR), weaning weight (WW) and six month weight (6MW). Direct heritability (h^2) for BW, ADG and 6MW were 0.12, 0.02 and 0.04, respectively, however, for KR and WW were 0.00 model 6 (which the best). The estimates of maternal heritability (m^2) for ADG, KR and WW were 0.12, 0.04 and 0.04, respectively in model 5, also maternal heritability were low for BW and 6MW. Maternal permanent environmental effects (c^2) have high contribution to the explanation growth traits and were estimated between 0.19 and 0.75 for these traits. These results showed that selecting for improved maternal and/or direct effects for Karacabey merino in the herd would generate very slow genetic improvement in growth traits.

The demand of consumers to minimally processed, fresh-like foods can be meet with the non-thermal technologies, because of the undesirable effects of conventional thermal process on the quality parameters of fruit juices. Decrease in nutritional value, loss of colour pigments and vitamins, formation of some flavour defects can be reduced with ultrasound applications. Especially the advantage of ultrasound which is protecting or improving the bioactive component content have increased interest in ultrasound in recent years. In this study, the effects of ultrasound applications on bioactive components of fruit juices were reviewed and evaluated separately as the effect on ascorbic acid, anthocyanin, flavonoids and carotenoid contents. The increasing, decreasing or insignificant effects of ultrasound on bioactive content of juices which were observed in researches might be resulted from the differences between juice matrixes as well as ultrasonication parameters. Because of this, investigating ultrasound technology in different juices and optimizing the ultrasonication parameters for each fruit juice are important.

The aim of this study was to determine the yield and various quality characteristics of two different strawberry cultivars (Fragaria x ananassa var. Festival and Camarosa), grown in the ecological conditions of Sultanhisar, Aydın, Turkey. The study was conducted over two years, in ten randomly selected open grown plantations for each of the two cultivars. When the fruits reached harvest maturity, they were harvested and their yield values, mean fruit weight, fruit diameter, fruit length, fruit firmness, colour, pH, titrable acidity, water-soluble dry matter, vitamin C content, total antioxidant capacity and total phenolics were determined. According to the results obtained, yield values fell in the second year of the study, but mean fruit weight, diameter and length increased. Similarly, the fruit firmness of both varieties was considerably greater in the second year, and these differences between the years were found to be statistically significant. While the highest antioxidant capacity and phenolic content were obtained from the Festival cultivar, the highest vitamin C content was found in the Camarosa cultivar. The changes of total antioxidant capacity and the amount of total phenolics according to years of both varieties were found to be statistically significant.

Turkey as well as in the developing world science, technology and the changing rural development and manufacturing approach accordingly with industry, has changed the shape of the realization of agricultural activities. As a result of new production methods, environmental and human health deteriorated and scientists have turned to organic agriculture. Organic farming practices, which started in the 1980s in our country, have improved significantly with the publication of the organic farming regulation in 1994 and the regulation was last regulated in 2018. Our country with conditions favourable for organic agriculture in terms of soil and water resources, climate, variety of products, this study was prepared in order to see how organic agriculture has progressed over the years and at what stage it is today. In 1990, 8 organic products were produced in Turkey with 313 farmers in an area of 1,037 ha. According to the latest data 73,563 farmers have grown 2,371,612 tons of organic products in 626,885 ha organic agriculture area. In addition, the organic product range produced was increased to 213. When we look at the export situation, it is seen that the total export amount is 111,690,675 tons and a significant amount of this export amount is 41.633,896 tons of wheat and wheat products. Looking at the import data, it is known that the total import amount is 175,865,85 tons and the most imported product is soybeans (non-seed) (99,446 tons). Although a significant increase in organic agriculture production has been observed compared to previous years, it is anticipated that this increase may increase even further considering Turkey's agricultural potential.

Geographical indications and designation of origins is an industrial property right describing a product originated from any region or attributable to any region due to its quality, reputation or other characteristics. Particularly, the geographical indications (GI) provide information about the raw material or final products’ geographical roots to consumers and characterize the degree of its quality. Two types of GI were defined: Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). On the other hand, the products that cannot be registered as a designation of origin or geographical indication could be registered as Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) products specialty guaranteed if it can be proven that the product is on the traditional market for at least 30 years. The main goal of this research is to examine Turkey’s current status about labelled geographic agricultural material with a comparative statistic overview.

Reports have indicated that lipid peroxidation is a key factor in soybean daddawa deterioration and Alliums are rich in antioxidants. The present study was carried out to investigate the preservative abilities of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Onion (Allium cepa L) on stored soybean daddawa compared with Sodium Chloride treated samples. Soybean (Glycine max (L). Merr.) seeds fermented into soybean daddawa was preserved with both extracts (at 3, 5 and 7% concentration) and NaCl (at the concentrations of 0, 3 and 5%). The samples stored at 30±2°C for up to 14 days were analyzed for peroxide value (POV), free fatty acid (FFA), pH, titratable acidity (TTA), water absorption capacity (WAC) and fat absorption capacity (FAC). Type of solvent used in extraction did not have significant effect on all the storage indices. Extracts of Onion significantly lowered the POV, FFA and TTA generated in stored soybean daddawa. The pH of stored soybean daddawa samples treated with the NaCl and aqueous extract was not significantly affected while the ethanolic extract significantly reduced the pH from 8.26 – 8.34 to 5.72 – 5.89. The tested extracts lowered the WAC significantly while the FAC of treated soybean daddawa was not significantly affected compared to those treated with NaCl. Results of this study indicate that both extracts of Onion are more effective in lowering peroxidation in stored soybean daddawa and thus could be exploited for soybean daddawa preservation.

In aquaculture, size grading application is made in order to protect against the disadvantages caused by the length difference between fish. Via this activity, large and small individuals separate each other during the feeding period. In this study designed for this purpose, it was aimed to determine whether the large individuals added to the herd had an effect on the growth performance of small individuals in the culture of Oreochromis niloticus♀ x Oreochromis aureus♂ hybrids. In the experiment, 0 age 1-4 g hybrid juvenile which just complete the juvenile period were stocked as 40 fish / m³ in 500 l fibre tanks placed in a greenhouse and cultured for 75 days. The experimental groups were designed as a graded group (G1) containing 1 g small individual, 1 g + 2 g (G2), 1 g +3 g (G3) and 1 g + 4 g (G4). At the end of the study, it was observed that grading did not positively effect on the growth of tilapia hybrids. In contrast, it was revealed that small individuals (18,60 ± 0,33g) in the G2 group, which included large individuals, grew better than small individuals in the other groups. However, the G2 group reached a better FCR (1.39 ± 0.05) than the other groups. The best economic conversion rate was again achieved in the G2 group (11.12 ± 0.75). As a result, it was observed that the culture practice with individuals of different sizes had a positive effect on the development of hybrid tilapia juvenile, especially when juvenile were stocked as 1+2g stocking composition, as a result of well competition can be established and this situation had a positive effect on the production cost.

The tomato plant exhibiting leaf rolling, witches’ broom, distorted and elongated flower’s sepals in Iğdır province, Turkey, was observed. Total DNA extraction was performed from the symtomatic fresh tomato sample. All DNAs were subjected to Direct and Nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with universal primer sets that amplified the 16S rRNA of phytoplasmas. PCR products were purified from agarose gel and cloned into the pGEM T-Easy cloning vector. Recombinant plasmids were introduced into the prokaryotic cloning bacteria by electroporation. Plasmid isolation was performed by selecting one of the positive clones randomly and sequencing was performed by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). Sequencing results revealed that the 16S rRNA gene associated with phytoplasma was 1251 nucleotides in size, and this sequence was denominated as ‘Iğdır 10’ isolates and recorded in the GenBank under the MT344968 accession number. The virtual restriction fragment length polymorphism (V-RFLP) and phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rDNA sequence confirmed that the cause of disease in infected tomato plants was 'Candidatus Phytoplasma trifolii' ('Ca. P. trifolii') (16SrVI-A, Clover proliferation group), with a 1.00 similarity coefficient. This present study is the first report of ‘Ca. P. trifolii’ and its nucleotide sequence analysis in naturally infected tomato in Iğdır province.