Bio-hardening of in-vitro raised plants of Bhagwa pomegranate (Punica granatum)

A pot culture experiment on bio-hardening of the in-vitro raised plants of Bhagwa pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) was conducted to find out the effect of two commercially available bio-formulations containing Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) and Aspergillus niger strain AN-27. Observations on root colonization, population dynamics of microbes in rhizospheric soil, growth, physiological and biochemical parameters of biohardened plants were recorded at 180 days after inoculation. Results revealed that AMF colonization in roots of in-vitro raised pomegranate plants was found at par in plants inoculated with AMF (71.12%) and AMF + Asp (65.00%) the root colonization in these two treatments was significantly higher than Contral (10.00%). Population of Aspergillus niger in the rhizospheric soil was found significantly higher in soil inoculated with Aspergillus niger strain AN-27 (6 × 104 cfu/g of soil) as compared to non-inoculated control (2 × 104 cfu/g of soil). Significant improvement in plant height (27.0% increase), shoot fresh weight (24.8% increase), root fresh (23.3% increase) and dry weight (15.7% increase) was observed in bio-hardened plants than untreated ones. Physiological processes were also significantly improved by bio-hardening as AMF and AMF + Asp treated plants registered significantly better RWC (92.34 and 91.74 %, respectively) and photosynthesis (12.69 and 12.78 µmol CO2m-2s-1, respectively) as compared to control (87.76 % and 9.07 µmol CO2m-2s-1, respectively) and only Asp treated plants (89.99% and 9.70 µmol CO2m-2s-1, respectively). AMF inoculated and AMF + Asp treated plants registered significantly higher total leaf chlorophyll (2.97 and 3.14 mg/g fresh weight, respectively) and total phenolic content (53.00 and 52.50 mg catechol equivalent/ 100 g fresh wt., respectively) than the control and only Asp treated plants

Biochemical profiling in pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) cultivar ‘Bhagawa’.

Not AvailableThe investigation on biochemical profiling in pomegranate cultivar ‘Bhagawa’ was carried out at experimental orchards located at ICAR-NRCP, Solapur. Fruit size, total soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity, total phenolics, total and reducing sugars, total anthocyanin and ascorbic acid contents were measured at various fruit developmental stages. Significant increase in total soluble solids, sugar content, total anthocyanins and ascorbic acid was observed, however, there was significant decrease in total phenolic content and titratable acidityas the fruits advanced to maturity (MS1 to MS5 stage).The ratio of TSS/TA is an important factor for deciding fruit maturity. Moreover, the significant increase in TSS/TA ratio from second to third and fourth to fifth maturity stages (MS2 to MS3 and MS4 to MS5) was observed due to increment in TSS and decrement in titratable acidity. A correlation matrix revealed significantly (P<0.05) strong relationships among almost all the parameters assessed. TSS showed positive correlationwith pH (0.682) and strong negative correlation (r = -0.882) with TA. TSS was also found to be strongly correlated with total sugars, reducing sugars and anthocyanins. Though, total phenolic contentwas negatively correlated with other variables except titratable acidity. Therefore, right proportions of these biochemical constituents could serve as reliable maturity markers to determine optimum fruit quality and fruit readiness for harvest.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableThis genetic diversity study aimed to estimate the population structure and explore the use of association mapping strategies to identify linked markers for bacterial resistance, growth and fruit quality in pomegranate collections from India. In total, 88 accessions including 37 cultivated types were investigated. A total of 112 alleles were amplified by use of 44 publicly available microsatellites for estimating molecular genetic diversity and population structure. Neighbor-joining analysis, model-based population structure and principal component analysis corroborated the genetic relationships among wild-type and cultivated pomegranate collections from India. Our study placed all 88 germplasm into four clusters. We identified a cultivated clade of pomegranates in close proximity to Daru types of wild-type pomegranates that grow naturally near the foothills of the Himalayas. Admixture analysis sorted various lineages of cultivated pomegranates to their respective ancestral forms. We identified four linked markers for fruit weight, titratable acidity and bacterial blight severity. PGCT001 was found associated with both fruit weight and bacterial blight, and the association with fruit weight during both seasons analyzed was significant after Bonferroni correction. This research demonstrates effectiveness of microsatellites to resolve population structure among the wild and cultivar collection of pomegranates and future use for association mapping studies.Not Availabl