Purpose: Water spinach (WS) (Ipomoea aquatica) is a popular leafy vegetable. However, WS is highly prone to bioaccumulation of toxic heavy metals. Sweet potato (SP) (Ipomoea batatas) is primarily a root tuber crop with fast growing shoots that can be used to replace WS to safe guard the human and livestock health. However, SP is an under-utilized leafy vegetable and no studies have been conducted to assess the consumer preference and food safety except photochemical assessments to profi le its high nutritious value. Therefore, in the present study, we assessed the heavy metal content, consumer preference and phytochemical contents to test the applicability of using shoot-tops of SP to replace bioaccumulation prone WS if grown in polluted sites. We also conducted a DNA barcoding analysis to discriminate SP from WS. Research Method:We obtained three greenhouse grwon shoot-top samples from WS (WS1, WS2 and WS3) and two greenhouse grown SP samples (SP1 and SP2) for all the analyses and two additional WS collected from the market (WSC) and a polluted site (WSP) a for XRF analysis. To assess the consumer preference we carried out a taste panel with 30 human subjects. For qualitative detection of the phytochemical contents, we performed routine laboratory tests. Finally, we carried out molecular based analyses using agarose gel electrophoresis and DNA barcoding using the markers rbcL and ITS. Findings:The sensory analysis revealed that human subjects equally preferred both WS and SP dishes. According to phytochemical assessment, SP contained higher amounts of anthocyanin, fl avonoids, phlobatannins, reducing sugars, tannins and terpenoids. The XRF analysis revealed that SP shoot-tops did not accumulate toxic heavy metals while WS shoot-tops grown in the same garden soil accumulated toxic heavy metals in trace amounts. Commercially available WS in Sri Lanka contained Hg (4500 mg/ Kg), Cd (1056 mg/Kg), As (598 mg/Kg) and Cr (74 mg/Kg). WSP contained Hg (1820 mg/Kg), Cd (228 mg/Kg), As (126 mg/Kg), Cr (138 mg/Kg), Sb (114 mg/Kg), Sn (464 mg/Kg) and Pb (2100 mg/Kg) and the highest amount of Fe (6894 mg/Kg). Research Limitation:It is imperative to study the heavy metal profi les of WS samples grown in diverse locations of Sri Lanka in collaboration with state consumer protection agencies to profi le the food safety levels.Originality/ Value: It is apparent from the present study that the consumption of WS is unsafe to human and animal health. DNA barcoding assays can be successfully employed by the consumer protection agencies to confi rm the identity of SP. Out of the two tested markers, ITS is more straight forward in exhibiting the length polymorphism. The sequence data confi rms band sizes detected using agarose gels and ITS is more informative in studying the genus Ipomoea than rbcL.

The efficacy of modern rice varieties has been challenged by global warming because of their incapability to tolerate heat stress. Breeding for heat tolerance (HT) is therefore essential. Molecular breeding studies on HT in hybrid rice is sparse although HT quantitative trait loci (QTL) have been discovered. China is the leading country for hybrid rice production, however, introgression of HT alleles to hybrids is not practiced in breeding programmes. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to introgress HT alleles from indica donors Bg 90-2 and Mengguandamagu to SH 527, a popular parent in hybrid variety development, and to identify the associated DNA markers with HT to facilitate hybrid rice molecular breeding in China. The BC 2 F 2:4 introgression lines were produced by crossing donor and recurrent parents and their performances were evaluated at two provinces of China in 2011 and 2012 under normal and heat stress conditions. The data were subjected to ANOVA and HT was compared against the standard heat-check variety N22. Out of 600 SSR markers, 61 and 59 markers were polymorphic for the two crosses SH 527/ Bg 90-2 and SH 527/ Mengguandamagu, respectively and introgression lines were subsequently genotyped. The single-marker analysis was performed to detect marker trait associations. A total of 46 HT introgression lines were obtained with 88.3 % of homozygosity for HT alleles and seven high yielding HT lines were specifically selected for the provinces. Under heat stress, 42 significant marker trait associations were detected. Two of these were previously reported in HT QTLs implying their applicability in rice breeding programmes.

Plant patents (PPs) and Plant Breeders' Rights (PBR) are two forms of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) granted to improved novel crop varieties. The government of the state of authority issues PPs and PBR after confirming the uniqueness of varietal identity. The uniqueness relies on distinctiveness, uniformity, and stability of the new variety. Morphological, physiological and biochemical descriptors are less capable in varietal discrimination to obtain IPR in the presence of large number of closely related varieties as the reference collections, but advanced molecular tools such as DNA fingerprinting and sequencing have high potentials to detect the uniqueness. DNA fingerprinting and sequencing have identified varietal identities of many crops such as rice, apple, wheat, and soybean revealing the potential of the successful use of molecular descriptors in granting patents or PBR. The novelty verification is the first step in the process of allowing patents or PBRs. The patent or plant variety protection office requires an application from the breeder that includes all the details of the plant variety fulfilling all statutory requirements to grant varietal ownership via a patent certificate or a plant variety protection certificate. Currently, Sri Lanka has no developed system of IPRs to allow PBR or patents for improved crop varieties. The efforts made by breeders in developing novel varieties can be justified and appreciated by granting plant varietal ownerships. For this purpose, molecular descriptors must be used instead of inefficient morphological, physiological and biochemical characters to avoid ambiguities and to clearly define the inventor of a particular variety.

Purpose : The aril/flesh of the fruitlets is the main edible part of jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.). There are two flesh types; soft flesh (SF) (Wela) and firm flesh (FF) (Waraka) (i.e. highly preferred). There is no strategy available to identify FF plants at nursery or vegetative stages. Thus the present study was conducted to assess the applicability of leaf morphological variation and DNA bar-coding to differentiate SF and FF bearing jackfruit plants. Research Method : The syncarp morphology and sensory parameters of SF and FF ripen flesh were also assessed to check the variation with 10 trees from each flesh type. The trees were chosen from SF and FF types and leaves and mature syncarps were collected. The leaf and syncarp morphological variation, pH, soluble solids and ascorbic acid content were measured. The sensory parameters of the flesh types were ranked by employing a taste panel. The DNA bar-coding was carried out for two loci rbcL and ITS to identify the sequence variants.Findings : The leaf tip length was longer in SF, ascorbic acid content was higher in FF and all the other parameters were not different (P < 0.05). The SF leaves were elliptical whereas FF leaves were obovate. The association analysis revealed that the sweetness and sourness of flesh were inversely associated. The DNA bar-coding for rbcL and ITS showed that rbcL locus was not informative however, ITS locus can be used to characterize the genetic diversity of jackfruit.Research Limitations : The detected haplotypic variants must be further validated with a larger set of jackfruit trees collected from diverse sites.Originality/value : Three haplotypes were detected within ITS locus where CC haplotype is characteristic to SF and CT or TC is detected in FF enabling marker assisted seedling selection. This is the first reported study attempting to use sequence variants to differentiate SF and FF typed trees in jackfruit.

The Rice Research and Development Institute (RRDI) of Sri Lanka has developed five exportable rice cultivars; At 362, Bg 94-1, Bg 360, Bg 1165-2, and Bw-Bs-1-2-31.The present study was conducted to establish the identities of these five cultivars at caryopsis level in comparison compared to those of mega rice cultivars (Bg 352, Bg 300, Bg 358, Bg 359, Bg 357, Bg 379-2, and At 353) in Sri Lanka using DNA fingerprinting and sequencing. These rice cultivars were grown in a greenhouse and a field using breeder-seeds. The seeds were harvested and subjected to a morphometric analysis using decision tree algorithms based on the size and colour of seeds and caryopses. The algorithms estimated the percentage accuracy of detection based on morphometric analysis ranged from 3.13-84.38 %. Similar seed and caryopsis combinations were grouped and exposed them to a panel of human subjects to discriminate the samples in each combination and subjected the data to calculate Kappa (K) and inter-rater reliability (IRR) statistics. The K was always 0.00, and IRR was 27% implying the inability of accurate visual differentiation. In the DNA fingerprinting analysis, a set of six SSR markers (RM206, RM246, RM251, RM335, RM475, and RM23744) were selected that can establish the cultivar identity. In addition, the combined analysis of DNA sequencing of 12 cultivars with three selected loci, (Seq 7-8, HvSSR12-34 and RM23744) authenticated the varietal identities.