Assessment of Promising Diverse Germplasm Accessions for Stability with Respect to Yield and Its Attributing Traits in Vegetable Amaranth

Vegetable amaranth is one of the popular leafy vegetable that occupies a prominent place in India owing to its high nutritive value and fast growing ability. The presence of considerable genetic variability in the amaranth along with very high phenotypic plasticity demands the development of stable genotypes to secure sustainable production. The present research was carried out to quantify the effect of genotype x environment interaction on the performance of 30 identified promising genotypes of vegetable amaranth. The experiment was laid out in the Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications at three locations viz., Arabhavi, Dharwad and Bagalkot during kharif 2018-19. Stability analysis was done as per the linear regression model described by Eberhart and Russell [1] that measures the genotypic response to changing environments. Variance due to environment + (genotype x environment) was significant for four of the studied traits viz., fresh green yield per hectare, fresh green yield per plant, plant height and leaf length which specified the existence of noteworthy interaction between the genotypes and the environmental conditions. The accessions, VA-16, CO-1, IC-553719 and IC-469645 have been identified as the high yielding stable genotypes for fresh green yield. Stable accessions for plant height include IC-536714, IC-541407, Arka amaranth, IC-469579 and IC-553719 and for leaf length were CO-1, IC-550143, IC-551472, IC-536714 and IC-469722. Further, some stable accessions for yield and its attributes were indicated that can be, commercialised or used in future breeding programs

Germplasm Characterization for Morphological Diversity in the Potential Futuristic Crop Amaranthus (Amaranthus spp.)

The present study was carried out to characterize 209 Amaranth germplasm consisting of 124 grain amaranth and 85 vegetable amaranth accessions for various morphological traits in accordance with the DUS guidelines of PPVFRA, New Delhi. The genotypes were characterized for two seasons viz., kharif and summer, wherein same level of expression was observed for the traits. A total of 17 characters were scored, eight in grain amaranths and nine in vegetable amaranths related to vegetative morphology, inflorescence and seed traits. Distinct forms with respect to leaf colour, inflorescence colour, stem colour and other studied traits were observed among the genotypes. The majority of the grain amaranth accessions were green leaved with yellowish green stem, ridged stem surface having yellowish green, erect and dense inflorescence. Seed colour was predominantly creamish. Shannon-Weaver Diversity Index ranged from 1.778 (inflorescence colour) to 0.524 (presence of leaf blotch). Vegetable amaranth accessions had largely medium green leaf blade colour with green inflorescence and green stem. Further, most of the accessions were cutting types with black coloured seeds. Shannon-Weaver Diversity Index in vegetable amaranths varied from high for leaf blade colour (1.529) and stem colour (1.158) to low index for the trait presence of leaf blotch (0.190). Collection, morphological characterization and classification of germplasm helps in identifying distinct genotypes with contrasting characters, which would in turn facilitate to broaden the germplasm base and varietal identification

Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene over vanadia-alumina catalysts in the presence of nitrous oxide: structure-activity relationship

A series of vanadia-alumina catalysts with different vanadia contents were prepared by a wet impregnation method. The influence of the local structure of vanadia in these catalysts on the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene with nitrous oxide was investigated. The use of N<SUB>2</SUB>O as a co-feed remarkably enhanced the styrene yield compared with the use of N<SUB>2</SUB>. Characterization of these vanadia catalysts by XRD, FTIR, UV-vis, TPR, XPS, and <SUP>51</SUP>V NMR techniques suggests that the nature of the VO<SUB>x</SUB> species depends on the vanadia loading; the predominant species are monomeric vanadia at lower loadings, two-dimensional polyvanadates at intermediate loadings, and bulk-like V<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>5</SUB> and AlVO<SUB>4</SUB> at higher loadings. The rate of oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of ethylbenzene per vanadium atom increases with vanadia loading and reaches a maximum at 10 wt%, the loading at which the surface predominantly contains polyvanadate species. The observed variation in the selectivity of products with vanadium loading indicates that the monomeric V<SUP>5+</SUP> species favors dehydrogenation, whereas bulk-like V<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>5</SUB> preferentially participates in the dealkylation of ethylbenzene. The vanadium species remains at a higher oxidation state in the presence of N<SUB>2</SUB>O, leading to a higher styrene yield, than in a N<SUB>2</SUB> atmosphere. The ODH turnover rates increased with decreasing energy of the absorption edge in the UV-vis spectrum, at low VO<SUB>x</SUB> coverages of less than one monolayer on the Al<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB> surface