Six male sterile with four male fertile sorghum, Sorghum bicolor(L.) Moench, LINES were crossed in a factorial mating design in 1998. Twenty four F1 hybrids and ten parental LINES were planted in a randomized complete block design in three replications, at Seed and Plant Improvement Institute, Karaj, Iran in 1999. Two cuttings forage were harvested from all genotypes (F12 and parents). Four traits including plant height, tiller no., green yield and dry matter were measured. There were significant differences among genotypes, cuttings and genotype X cutting interaction for all traits at 1% level of probability. Analysis of variance showed that, there are significant effects of genotypes, parent, parent vs. crosses (except for tiller no. at average of cuttings), LINES (for plant height in 2nd cut and mean), testers and line tester interaction. There were differnces among LINES and testers GCA which shows the importance of additive effects of genes for this traits, therefore, the selection methods can be used for breeding programmes. Heretiability of some traits were different in first, second and average of cuttings. Therefore, in each cutting, the heretiability should be considered in multi cutting sorghum LINES. Significant differences were observed among SCA of some parents which shows the importance of dominance effects of genes for majority of traits in hybrids. Hence the hybridization method can be used for breeding programmes. The highest positive SVA was obtained for green fodder from crossing of A__ICS 84 × R__2 , A__ICS88005× R__1, A__ICS31×R__28 & A__1×R__112, and for dry matter from crossing of A__ICS88005×R__1, A__ICS__31×R__28, A__2×R__112, A__ISC84×R__112& A__ICS31× R__2 at average of two cutting. The highest yield of two cuttings was obtained for green fodder from crossing of A__ICS84×R__2 and for dry matter from crossing of A__ICS31×R__2 with 144.8 and 34.5 tha^-1 , respecticely.

To evaluate and identify high yielding triticale LINES syuiable to cold, temperate and warm agro-climatic conditions of Fars province, a field experiments were carried-out in Eqlid, Zarghan, and Darab agricultural research stations in 2012-2013 growing season. Twenty-nine triticale advanced LINES (received from CIMMYT) were cultivated along with Juanilo 92 variety (check) in randomized complete block design with three replications. Each plot was four meters long with 1.2 meter in width. Fertilizers were applied based on soil analysis. The results showed that the highest grain yield (7450 kg ha-1) obtained from Darab and the lowest (2800 kg ha-1) from Eqlid. In Zarghan, Juanilo 92 variety had the highest grain yield (7300 kg ha-1). In Darab, the highest grain yield belonged to LINES no. 2 and 21 with 8966 and 8900 kg ha-1, respectively. The results showed that the average grain yield of LINES no. 8, 7 and 21 in all three locations were 1.8, 3.5 and 12.9 percent higher than Juanilio 92, respectively.

Crosses of 40 maize inbred LINES with five tester LINES, KL17/2-5, K74/1, K1264/1, B73 and MO17, and 10 crosses among tester LINES were evaluated in two locations (Karaj and Gorgan) in 2004. Specific combining ability of each line was estimated according to line tester analysis. The highest yields of 11.200 and 11.08 tha-1 were produced by crosses of K3615/2, a late synthetic derived line, with MO17 tester line and KLM7610/1-13, a CIMMYT germplasm originated line with B73 tester line, respectively. Good combining ability revealed in crosses between inbred LINES originated from CIMMYT germplasm, firstly with MO17 and then with B73 tester LINES, and inbred LINES originated from late synthetic variety with both testers. Results of this study indicated that, in addition to Lancaster Sure Crop (LSC) and Ride Yellow Dent (RYD), there might be two more new heterotic groups in Iranian maize germplasm. LSC  CIMMYT germplasm and RYD x Late Synthetic, could be promising heterotic patterns.

Twenty eight crosses of four temperate maize testers (MO17, K18, K166B and A679) with seven LINES originated from CIMMYT germplasm were evaluated using a randomized complete block design with three replications, at seven locations (Karaj, Shiraz, Dezful, Jiroft, Moghan, Gorgan and Kermanshah), Iran, in 2012. In 2013, number of LINES were increased to 13, and 52 crosses were obtained with the same testers as in 2012. Hybrids No. 28 (XT02×K166B), 10 and No. 23 had 10.160, 9.867 and 9.822 t.ha-1 grain yield, respectively, that revealed to be of high yield potential hybrids. Combined analysis of Line ×Tester showed no significant differences between LINES and testers, but significant line × tester interaction effect was observed. Significant general combining ability (GCA) effects were obtained for the four testers, but none of the LINES showed significant GCA. Results showed the possibility of germplasm enhancement in temperate maize program, using CIMMYT germplasm (tropical and subtropical), especially those sources produced under similar conditions as Iran (such as CIMMYT program in China). This experiment revealed that crossing these germplasm with temperate maize germplasm prior to selfing, has no significant effect on derived LINES. Using more sources, as well as testers, from each group is necessary to facilitate the success in development of adapted maize germplasm.

Xenopus laevis has been widely used for molecular, cellular, and developmental studies. With development of the sperm-mediated transgenic method, it is now possible to study the gene function during vertebrate development by using this popular model. On the other hand, maintenance of transgenic LINES is both expensive and labor-intensive, as for other animal species. In this study, we investigated the possibility of using sperm cryopreservation as a means of preserving the transgenic frog LINES. We demonstrated that cryopreserved sperms are viable but not fertilizing under in vitro fertilization conditions. However, by microinjecting the nuclei from cryopreserved sperms, we could successfully regenerate the transgenic line carrying a double promoter transgene construct. One promoter drove the marker gene encoding the green fluorescent protein (GFP), and the second, the heat shock-inducible promoter, drove the expression of GFP fused to matrix metalloproteinase stromelysin-3 (ST3-GFP). We demonstrated the functional transmission of the ST3-GFP transgene by analyzing the phenotype of the F1 animals after heat-shock induction of the transgene expression. Our method thus provides an inexpensive means to preserve transgenic frog LINES and a convenient way for distributing the transgenic LINES for studies. Furthermore, easy microinjection of nuclei compared to the technically demanding transgenesis procedure with variable outcomes can encourage more laboratories to use transgenic Xenopus laevis for functional studies in vivo.