Genetic divergence studies for yield and quality traits in high protein landraces of rice (Oryza sativa L.)

The present study was undertaken to study the extent of genetic diversity in high protein rice landraces with respect to yield, yield components and quality characters. In this direction, 30 high protein rice landraces, collected from different parts of country by ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (ICAR-IIRR), Hyderabad along with the high protein check, CR DHAN 310 were evaluated during Kharif 2021 at ICAR-IIRR farm located at International Crops Research Institute of Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad. The study examined the genetic divergence of high protein rice cultures for yield, quality and nutritional parameters. Multivariate analysis techniques of Mahalanobis D2 and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were used to estimate the genetic diversity in the experimental material. In Mahalanobis D2, the 31 high protein rice cultures were divided into six clusters. Cluster I had highest number of rice cultures (19), followed by Cluster III and V with five, four cultures, respectively. The clusters, II, IV, VI were mono-genotypic. It was discovered that grouping of these cultures into several clusters was random and was not related to geographical diversity. Inter-cluster distances between clusters V and VI were maximum. Cluster V had also exhibited higher intra-cluster distance. Further, Cluster VI had showed maximum yield plant-1, grains per panicle-1, zinc content and test weight, while, Cluster V had recorded high protein content. The greatest contribution to genetic divergence was recorded by yield plant-1 (21.60%), followed by iron (10.54%) and zinc content (9.54%). In Principal Component Analysis, the first five Principal Components (PCs) with eigen values >1 accounted for cumulative contribution of 67.69% to the total variability. The three traits, yield plant-1, iron content, and amylose content contributed the most to variability. The 2D scatter diagram exhibited 18 different clusters, out of which 11 clusters were mono-genotypic. Mahalanobis D2 Statistic and PCA concluded maximum genetic diversity between the landraces, JAK 248-3 and JAK 638 with JAK 611

Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Rice: Insight in Climate Change Scenario

Rice, world’s second major, staple cereal crop that feed the more than 50% of world’s population. To safeguard the production and to fulfill the demand of ever the increasing population and urbanization there is need to increase the rice production. Though the rice yield has increased due to the development of modern technology and climate resilient high yielding cultivars but still it is 10–15 per cent lower than its potential yield due to various biotic and abiotic stress. Drought, extreme temperature, salinity, harmful radiation, heavy metals, gaseous pollutants are the most detrimental abiotic stresses factors that cause the morphological, physiological and biochemical changes in the rice crops and ultimate result is the reduction of rice production globally. Tolerance against these stresses through exploitation of potent biotechnological tools, molecular markers, QTL mapping omices approaches, phytohormones which could offer a more adequate and rapid solution to overcome these abiotic stresses and to enhance the ultimate grain yield of rice

Multiparent-Derived, Marker-Assisted Introgression Lines of the Elite Indian Rice Cultivar, ‘Krishna Hamsa’ Show Resistance against Bacterial Blight and Blast and Tolerance to Drought

Major biotic stresses viz., bacterial blight (BB) and blast and brown plant hopper (BPH) coupled with abiotic stresses like drought stress, significantly affect rice yields. To address this, marker-assisted intercross (IC) breeding involving multiple donors was used to combine three BB resistance genes—xa5, xa13 and Xa21, two blast resistance genes—Pi9 and Pi54, two BPH resistance genes—Bph20 and Bph21, and four drought tolerant quantitative trait loci (QTL)—qDTY1.1, qDTY2.1, qDTY3.1 and qDTY12.1—in the genetic background of the elite Indian rice cultivar ‘Krishna Hamsa’. Three cycles of selective intercrossing followed by selfing coupled with foreground selection and phenotyping for the target traits resulted in the development of 196 introgression lines (ILs) with a myriad of gene/QTL combinations. Based on the phenotypic reaction, the ILs were classified into seven phenotypic classes of resistance/tolerance to the following: (1) BB, blast and drought—5 ILs; (2) BB and blast—10 ILs; (3) BB and drought—9 ILs; (4) blast and drought—42 ILs; (5) BB—3 ILs; (6) blast—84 ILs; and (7) drought—43 ILs; none of the ILs were resistant to BPH. Positive phenotypic response (resistance) was observed to both BB and blast in 2 ILs, BB in 9 ILs and blast in 64 ILs despite the absence of corresponding R genes. Inheritance of resistance to BB and/or blast in such ILs could be due to the unknown genes from other parents used in the breeding scheme. Negative phenotypic response (susceptibility) was observed in 67 ILs possessing BB-R genes, 9 ILs with blast-R genes and 9 ILs harboring QTLs for drought tolerance. Complex genic interactions and recombination events due to the involvement of multiple donors explain susceptibility in some of the marker positive ILs. The present investigation successfully demonstrates the possibility of rapid development of multiple stress-tolerant/resistant ILs in the elite cultivar background involving multiple donors through selective intercrossing and stringent phenotyping. The 196 ILs in seven phenotypic classes with myriad of gene/QTL combinations will serve as a useful genetic resource in combining multiple biotic and abiotic stress resistance in future breeding programs

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Not AvailablePolyphenol oxidases (PPOs) in different Solanum species including eggplant have been studied. PPOs have been implicated in undesirable enzymatic browning of eggplant fruit and also in plant defense. The main objective of this study was to identify and accelerate the further functional characterization of additional eggplant PPOs that are involved in food biochemistry and defenserelated functions. Eggplant PPOs identified earlier were used in ‘‘Basic local alignment search tool (BLAST)’’ search against expressed sequence tag and nucleotide databases. We have identified seven additional sequences which were almost complete in length. The sequences of the PPOs were aligned and their phylogenetic and evolutionary relationships established. The sequences are quite diverse, broadly falling into two major clusters; three PPOs form a separate branch/minor cluster. The thirteen sequences had conserved copper A binding sites but copper B binding sites differed considerably in two new PPO sequences (AFJ79642 and ACR61398). A third conserved ‘Histidine-rich’ region has been identified at the ‘C’ terminus of the eggplant PPOs. In addition, all the seven new PPOs exhibited at least one glycosylated sequon in the mature PPO sequence. Identification of additional PPO genes will further help in functional and biological characterization of these PPOs.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableTecomella undulata (Sm.) Seem commonly called Rohida or Desert teak (family bignoniaceae) is an important agroforestry tree having an important pharmacological and therapeutic uses. Its distribution is restricted to hot arid regions of India and Pakistan having <150 to 500 mm annual rainfall. Genetic diversity status of this important endangered timber tree species designated state flower of Rajasthan remains unrevealed. Genetic diversity of 21 populations (108 accessions) encompassing yellow, red and orange coloured flower bearing morphotypes collected from all 12 districts of western Rajasthan, India, has been examined using start codon targeted (SCoT) polymorphism for the first time. Fingerprinting with 22 SCoT primers (out of 36 screened) generated 294 amplicons of 100 to 3000 bp size, of which 212 (71.6%) were polymorphic. Amplicon number varied from 4 (SCoT-9) to 24 (SCoT-15) with an average of 13.4 amplicons per primer. Average polymorphism information content (PIC), Nei’s diversity index (H) and Shannon index (I) were 0.54, 0.22 and 0.36, respectively. Dendrogram generated using unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) delineated the 108 accessions into 5 clusters while 2 accessions out grouped. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) also revealed similar clustering. High level of genetic differentiation among accessions/populations was attributed to cross pollination and continuous evolution under harsh agro-climatic conditionsNot Availabl

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Not AvailableTecomella undulata (Sm.) Seem commonly called Rohida or Desert teak (family bignoniaceae) is an important agroforestry tree having an important pharmacological and therapeutic uses. Its distribution is restricted to hot arid regions of India and Pakistan having <150 to 500 mm annual rainfall. Genetic diversity status of this important endangered timber tree species designated state flower of Rajasthan remains unrevealed. Genetic diversity of 21 populations (108 accessions) encompassing yellow, red and orange coloured flower bearing morphotypes collected from all 12 districts of western Rajasthan, India, has been examined using start codon targeted (SCoT) polymorphism for the first time. Fingerprinting with 22 SCoT primers (out of 36 screened) generated 294 amplicons of 100 to 3000 bp size, of which 212 (71.6%) were polymorphic. Amplicon number varied from 4 (SCoT-9) to 24 (SCoT-15) with an average of 13.4 amplicons per primer. Average polymorphism information content (PIC), Nei’s diversity index (H) and Shannon index (I) were 0.54, 0.22 and 0.36, respectively. Dendrogram generated using unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) delineated the 108 accessions into 5 clusters while 2 accessions out grouped. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) also revealed similar clustering. High level of genetic differentiation among accessions/populations was attributed to cross pollination and continuous evolution under harsh agro-climatic conditions.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableCluster bean is an important legume crop of the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. In the present study, 140 germplasm lines of cluster bean were evaluated for agronomic and yield traits. Wide variation was observed among agronomic and yield-related traits among the accessions, making selection possible for different characters. High heritability (> 85%) coupled with high genetic advance (> 30%) was observed for yield per plant (TY), pods per cluster (PDSCL), and clusters on main branch (CLMN). Pod length (PDLT) and total pods per plant (TDP) explained 30% and 72% of variability in seed number per pod (SDN) and TY, respectively. Principal component analysis revealed significant variation among the characters with the first four principal components explaining about 70.8% of the total variation. Projecting the germplasm accession onto the first two principal components revealed two groups: (i) accessions showing high PDSCL, TPD, and TY and (ii) accessions having high SDN. Among the 140 germplasm lines evaluated, IC-421815 (TY - 31.5 g plant-1; TPD - 139.8; and PDSCL - 6.6) and IC-370563 (31.2 g plant-1, 134.0 and 7.4) were the best performing lines compared to the checks. The information presented in this manuscript would be used for cluster bean breeding.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableCluster bean is an important legume crop of the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. In the present study, 140 germplasm lines of cluster bean were evaluated for agronomic and yield traits. Wide variation was observed among agronomic and yield-related traits among the accessions, making selection possible for different characters. High heritability (> 85%) coupled with high genetic advance (> 30%) was observed for yield per plant (TY), pods per cluster (PDSCL), and clusters on main branch (CLMN). Pod length (PDLT) and total pods per plant (TDP) explained 30% and 72% of variability in seed number per pod (SDN) and TY, respectively. Principal component analysis revealed significant variation among the characters with the first four principal components explaining about 70.8% of the total variation. Projecting the germplasm accession onto the first two principal components revealed two groups: (i) accessions showing high PDSCL, TPD, and TY and (ii) accessions having high SDN. Among the 140 germplasm lines evaluated, IC-421815 (TY - 31.5 g plant-1; TPD - 139.8; and PDSCL - 6.6) and IC-370563 (31.2 g plant-1, 134.0 and 7.4) were the best performing lines compared to the checks. The information presented in this manuscript would be used for cluster bean breeding.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableBackground: The global shift in food consumption patterns accompanied by a sedentary lifestyle has been driving the upsurge of non-communicable diseases, projected to remain as a global health challenge for the coming decades. Sustainable food-centric interventions should be developed and strengthened to mitigate the growing health concerns with huge socio-economic implications. Scope and approach: Milled white rice is typically starch-rich, serves as the major daily caloric source for a majority of the world population especially in Asia. Most rice varieties are of high glycemic index (GI), a food quality inferenced to contribute to the health problems surrounding high-calorie intake and dysregulated glucose metabolism. Manipulation of GI through various approaches will significantly help in the fight against diabetes and related diseases. Key findings and conclusions: A multidisciplinary approach of (a) introducing low to moderate GI property to modern varieties of rice through genetic manipulations, and (b) diet-based diversification solutions in a healthy plate of well-balanced portions of macronutrients with low GI food matrix together with elevated nutrient density and dietary fibre (DF) offers a sustainable solution to address the growing concern in meeting double burden nutritional challenges