Research paper

Not AvailableGlobally, blast incited by Magnaporthe oryzae forms major fungal diseases that can cause severe loss in yield to the extent of 70-80% in various rice ecosystems. Marker assisted backcross breeding approach was employed to incorporate blast resistance genes viz., Pi1, Pi2 and Pi54, from the donor lines BPT/lac/tetep and B95-1/A51 into blast susceptible otherwise superior cultivar Improved Samba Mahsuri. Foreground selection coupled with stringent phenotypic selection lead to the identification of 15 superior BC2F2 plants homozygous for three genes. Agro-morphological evaluation of the pyramided lines revealed that three of the selections viz., ISM10-15-101, ISM10-15-119 and ISM10-15-154 showed significant increase in no. of filled grains per panicle (30.22%) and yield (24.23%). BC2F2:3 derived lines, varied in their disease reaction to DRR isolates. Three of the Pi1+Pi2+Pi54 pyramided lines showed complete resistance to mixture of virulent races under artificial inoculation as well as in UBN test locations.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableFoxtail millet [Setaria italica (L.) Beauv.], also known as Italian millet, is valued as a crop of short duration, which is good as food, feed and fodder. Of late, the importance of it was recognized as diabetic food. Foxtail millet provides approximately six million tonnes of food to millions of people, mainly on poor or marginal soils in southern Europe and in temperate, subtropical and tropical Asia. At present in India, foxtail millet is cultivated on a limited area in TS, AP, KA, MH and north eastern states. There is wide genetic diversity available in foxtail millet, and characterizing these resources is a pre-requisite for the genetic improvement of its cultivars. More precise assessment of morphological diversity through characterization and identification of trait specific germplasm is essential. In this context, the present investigation was carried at Centre on Rabi sorghum (ICAR-IIMR), Solapur. A total of 138 Foxtail millet germplasm were evaluated in RCBD with two replications during kharif -2017. Huge amount of variability was observed for various agro-morphological traits. The variability found in Days to flowering (PCV=17.29), Plant height (CV=15.66), Panicle exertion (CV=41.68), Peduncle length (CV=22.71), Grain yield/plant (CV=33.55), Fodder yield/plant (CV=33.55).Qualitative traits viz., plant pigmentation, mid rib colour, leaf colour, and apical sterility was categorized into various classes. Line no. 1003, 1010, 1021, 1025, 1028, 1032, 1037 were of high yielding; Line no. 1043, 1052, 1058, 1065, 1072, 1085 and 1094 were of compact, Non-shattering and non-lodging type. The identified lines may serve as valuable genetic stocks for further crop improvement.ICA

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Not AvailableFinger millet also known as Ragi or African millet is an annual plant widely grown as an important food crop in the arid areas of Africa and south Asia. It ranks third in importance among the millets after sorghum and Pearl millet in India. Finger millet is rich in nutritional qualities with good quality protein, plentiful minerals, dietary fibres, phytochemicals and vitamins. It is the richest source of calcium providing 8-10 times more than that of rice and wheat. Finger millet is essentially a self-pollinated crop. Being a food grain crop, yield improvement is the major goal in varietal improvement. Characterization and evaluation of germplasm thus becomes important to identify the genotypes with novel traits and to break the yield plateau. In this context, the present investigation was carried out at Centre on Rabi sorghum (ICAR-IIMR), Solapur during kharif-2017 to evaluate 38 Finger millet germplasm lines. Trial was conducted in RCBD with two replications. ANOVA revealed there is a significant difference between the lines. The accession no. 5117 showed highest number of fingers/plant (59), 5114 with highest no. of productive tillers/plant (36) and finger length (17.5g), 5141 with highest panicle weight (180g). Most of the lines were of non-pigmented type except line no. 5146. Similarly most of the lines exhibited lodging character except line nos. 5121 and 5122 despite being tall. Some of the lines viz., 5141, 5140 and 5107 showed good grain and fodder yield/plant. The selected lines can be successfully utilized as donors in hybridization for better realization of superior transgressive segregants.ICA

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Not AvailablePearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) is a C4 plant with high photosynthetic efficiency and dry matter production capacity. Pearl millet is widely cultivated in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. It is mostly grown in Rainy (Kharif) season. Its grains are highly nutritious with high levels of metabolizable energy and protein. Utilization of different kinds of germplasm and breeding material is very critical in the diversification of cultivars. Being a cross pollinated crop, it provides very good opportunity for recombination and easy pollen flow, making hybrids more rewarding to the farming community. Identification of good maintainer (B) lines and Restorer (R) lines is of utmost importance to breed for hybrids. In this context, the present investigation was carried out at Centre on Rabi sorghum (ICAR-IIMR), Solapur during Kharif 2017 and the study consists of two sets of material viz., 56 B lines and 65 R lines. These lines were evaluated in a Randomized Block Design with two replications. To utilize large number of lines is difficult hence to bring the number to utilizable size cluster analysis is very useful. The variability in six quantitative traits such as Days to 50% flowering, Plant height, Panicle length, Panicle thickness, Grain yield/plant, Fodder yield/plant was studied. Maximum variation was found in Panicle exertion (B; CV=43.84, R; CV=38.48) followed by fodder yield per plant (B;CV=37.24, R; CV=37.54). All the six traits were used as variables in cluster analysis. In the present study four clusters were assigned a priori in both B and R lines. The frequency classes in the qualitative traits were studied to identify the common and rare types in total set. It was found that 75% of lines were of intermediate Spikelet density and synchrony of maturity, 85.3% were with good Seed Yield Potential and 50% with good Fodder Yield Potential. The promising lines belonging to different clusters are to be crossed to broaden the genetic base. Superior ones are hybridized with their counter A linesICA

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Not AvailableField studies were conducted in Karnataka, India, in 2008-09 and 2009-10, to determine the floral biology in relation to flowering pattern in a spike and within a spikelet, time of flowering, blooming period and period of anther withering in 3 promising finger millet cultivars, i.e. HR 911, PR 202 and GPU 28. Results revealed that all the 3 cultivars showed a basipetal manner of flowering pattern in a spike and acropetal manner within a spikelet. The time of flowering was recorded as 4.15 AM, 3.40 AM and 3.00 AM and the blooming period was recorded as 7-8, 9 and 8 days in GPU 28, HR 911 and PR 202, respectively. The duration of pollen emergence to anther withering in these cultivars ranged from 25 to 30 minutesNot Availabl

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Not AvailablePomegranate (Punica granatumL.), a rapidly emerging commercial fruit crop of India to meet the domestic requirements as well as export demands. It is widely cultivated in India from Jammu & Kashmir to Karnataka, due to its adaptability to the diverse climatic conditions, less natural resource demanding nature and high return on investment. Pomegranate is also an ideal fruit crop for utilizing sub-marginal and degraded lands having pH as high as 8.5 provided there is good drainage. With the need of developing improved cultivars over the existing ones, ICAR-National Research Centre on Pomegranate, Solapur, has collected, conserved and maintained over 350 diverse pomegranate germplasm accessions at its Field Gene Banks. These pomegranate germplasm at Field Gene Banks are maintained with minimum tillage of tree beds following principles of conservation agriculture using brush cutter. The effective utilization of these germplasm resources will be possible only after characterization for each of the desirable characters. In the present study, 25 pomegranate accessions were evaluated for 25 quantitative traits in Randomized Block Design with three replications in mrig bahar of 2016-17. The recorded data has showed the presence of variability for the studied morphological and physico-chemical traits. In ANOVA, significant differences between the germplasm accessions were observed at both 5% and 1% level of significance, indicating adequate variability among the genotypes for all characters. Mean performance of the genotypes for fruit yield attributing traits was observed to be 80.25-207.10g (fruit weight), 4.81-6.61cm (fruit length), 4.94-7.08cm(fruit diameter), 18.77-45.23 g (100 arils weight), 26.65-122.05g(total arils weight), 34.93-82.90g(rind weight), 1.83-3.69 mm (Rind thickness), 8.58-11.4 mm(Aril length), 5.4-7.76 mm(Aril width), 15.86-19.20Brix(TSS), 1.51-3.42% (Acidity), 26.01-52.02%(Fruit Juiciness), 68.4-109.92N (Seed texture).Among all traits, total arils weight(43.55) has showed highest Coefficient of Variation (%) value followed by fruit weight (33.75), rind weight (31.53) and 100 arils weight (29.77). Depending on the breeding objectives, selection can be made among these 25 genotypes for traits of interest to develop improved varieties in pomegranate.Not Availabl

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Not AvailablePomegranate (Punica granatum, L.) is a fruit tree that is increasingly popular worldwide due to the health-related properties of the fruit juice. While several studies highlighted the rich phytochemical diversity, few efforts have been devoted to an integrative understanding of the level of diversity of this species. This study investigated the diversity of 40 pomegranate accessions in an Indian ex situ collection by using twenty-nine morphological traits, six biochemical parameters, and twenty-nine Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers. Among the evaluated traits, fruit volume (23.34% CV), fruit weight (21.12% CV), and fruit color ( * a) (22.69 % CV) largely contributed to the morphological classification. Based on Mahalanobis D2 distance and Tocher’s clustering, the 40 pomegranate accessions were grouped into eight clusters, partly consistent with their origin. Specifically, cultivars introduced from foreign countries were present in distinct clusters. The SSR marker analysis generated 66 alleles. The observed heterozygosity values ranged from 0.05 to 0.63, with a mean value of 0.30. Maximum molecular genetic dissimilarity was observed between ‘IC-3187200 and ‘Gul-e-Shah Red’ (0.30). The neighbor-joining dendrogram separated wild accessions from cultivated varieties. The combination of morphological, biochemical, and molecular characterization allowed for comprehensively characterizing the pomegranate diversity and provided information on the relationships between the different aspects of the diversity. This work also suggests that the origin of the accessions is an important factor of discrimination and that the level of admixture between local and foreign material is currently limited.Not Availabl

Morphological, Biochemical, and Molecular Diversity of an Indian Ex Situ Collection of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.)

Pomegranate (Punica granatum, L.) is a fruit tree that is increasingly popular worldwide due to the health-related properties of the fruit juice. While several studies highlighted the rich phytochemical diversity, few efforts have been devoted to an integrative understanding of the level of diversity of this species. This study investigated the diversity of 40 pomegranate accessions in an Indian ex situ collection by using twenty-nine morphological traits, six biochemical parameters, and twenty-nine Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers. Among the evaluated traits, fruit volume (23.34% CV), fruit weight (21.12% CV), and fruit color (*a) (22.69 % CV) largely contributed to the morphological classification. Based on Mahalanobis D2 distance and Tocher’s clustering, the 40 pomegranate accessions were grouped into eight clusters, partly consistent with their origin. Specifically, cultivars introduced from foreign countries were present in distinct clusters. The SSR marker analysis generated 66 alleles. The observed heterozygosity values ranged from 0.05 to 0.63, with a mean value of 0.30. Maximum molecular genetic dissimilarity was observed between ‘IC-318720′ and ‘Gul-e-Shah Red’ (0.30). The neighbor-joining dendrogram separated wild accessions from cultivated varieties. The combination of morphological, biochemical, and molecular characterization allowed for comprehensively characterizing the pomegranate diversity and provided information on the relationships between the different aspects of the diversity. This work also suggests that the origin of the accessions is an important factor of discrimination and that the level of admixture between local and foreign material is currently limited

In Vitro and In Planta Antagonistic Effect of Endophytic Bacteria on Blight Causing <i>Xanthomonas axonopodis</i> pv. <i>punicae</i>: A Destructive Pathogen of Pomegranate

Pomegranate bacterial blight caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. punicae (Xap) is a highly destructive disease. In the absence of host resistance to the disease, we aimed to evaluate the biocontrol potential of endophytic bacteria against Xap. Thus, in this study, we isolated endophytes from pomegranate plants, identified them on the basis of 16S rDNA sequencing, tested them against Xap, and estimated the endophyte-mediated host defense response. The population of isolated endophytes ranged from 3 × 106 to 8 × 107 CFU/g tissue. Furthermore, 26 isolates were evaluated for their biocontrol activity against Xap, and all the tested isolates significantly reduced the in vitro growth of Xap (15.65% ± 1.25% to 56.35% ± 2.66%) as compared to control. These isolates could reduce fuscan, an uncharacterized factor of Xap involved in its aggressiveness. Lower blight incidence (11.6%) and severity (6.1%) were recorded in plants sprayed with endophytes 8 days ahead of Xap spray (Set-III) as compared to control plants which were not exposed to endophytes (77.33 and 50%, respectively%) during in vivo evaluation. Moreover, significantly high phenolic and chlorophyll contents were estimated in endophyte-treated plants as compared to control. The promising isolates mostly belonged to the genera Bacillus, Burkholderia, and Lysinibacillus, and they were deposited to the National Agriculturally Important Microbial Culture Collection, India

Data_Sheet_1_Reference quality genome sequence of Indian pomegranate cv. ‘Bhagawa’ (Punica granatum L.).docx

Pomegranate is an important fruit crop for ensuring livelihood and nutrition security in fragile semi-arid regions of the globe having limited irrigation resources. This is a high-value, nutritionally rich, and export-oriented agri-commodity that ensures high returns on investment to growers across the world. Although it is a valuable fruit crop, it has received only a limited genomics research outcome. To fast-track the pomegranate improvement program, de novo whole-genome sequencing of the main Indian cultivar ‘Bhagawa’ was initiated by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research–National Research Center on Pomegranate (ICAR–NRCP). We have demonstrated that a combination of commercially available technologies from Illumina, PacBio, 10X Genomics, and BioNano Genomics could be used efficiently for sequencing and reference-grade de novo assembly of the pomegranate genome. The research led to a final reference-quality genome assembly for ‘Bhagawa’ of 346.08 Mb in 342 scaffolds and an average N50 of 16.12 Mb and N90 of 1088.62 Kb. This assembly covered more than 98% of the estimated pomegranate genome size, 352.54 Mb. The LTR assembly index (LAI) value of 10 and 93.68% Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) completeness score over the 1,440 ortholog genes of the completed pomegranate genome indicates the quality of the assembled pomegranate genome. Furthermore, 29,435 gene models were discovered with a mean transcript length of 2,954 bp and a mean coding sequence length 1,090 bp. Four transcript data samples of pomegranate tissues were mapped over the assembled ‘Bhagawa’ genome up to 95% significant matches, indicating the high quality of the assembled genome. We have compared the ‘Bhagawa’ genome with the genomes of the pomegranate cultivars ‘Dabenzi’ and ‘Taishanhong.’ We have also performed whole-genome phylogenetic analysis using Computational Analysis of Gene Family Evolution (CAFE) and found that Eucalyptus grandis and pomegranate diverged 64 (60–70) million years ago. About 1,573 protein-coding resistance genes identified in the ‘Bhagawa’ genome were classified into 32 domains. In all, 314 copies of miRNA belonging to 26 different families were identified in the ‘Bhagawa’ genome. The reference-quality genome assembly of ‘Bhagawa’ is certainly a significant genomic resource for accelerated pomegranate improvement.</p