No abstract

Brassica juncea is an important industrial and commercial oilseed crop grown primarily in India. This study aimed to assess 56 genotypes of Indian mustard to quantify genetic diversity, which aids the breeder in identifying genetically divergent parents to evaluate the proportional contributions of various components towards overall divergence. All the 56 Indian mustard genotypes were tested in RBD with three replications for 2 consecutive years i.e. 2016-17 and 2017-18 during the rabi season. Observations were recorded for 11 yield and its attributing traits. The findings revealed that height up to first branching, aphid count, penetration force and seed yield per plant had maximum PCV and GCV signifying that genetic factors have a greater impact on the inflow of these traits. Height up to first branching, secondary branches per plant, primary branches per plant, siliquae per plant, aphid count and 1000 seed weight had strong heritability combined with GA as % of mean. These indicate that the traits were controlled by additive gene action. Seed yield per plant was significantly correlated with penetration force and siliquae per plant. As a result, it's reasonable to predict that improving these traits by selection, could lead to significant yield gains. Four of the eleven PCs had eigen values greater than 1.0, accounting for 69.94% of the variance. PC I, which explained 30.31% of the overall variance. Mahalanobis D2 statistics revealed considerable genetic diversity among the genotypes. 56 genotypes were distributed into 7 clusters. This is anticipated that genotypes within a cluster are almost genetically related to one another. Cluster VII and II showed maximum inter-cluster divergence. From a breeding perspective, a divergence analysis revealed that genotypes like SKJM-05, RNWR-09-3, RW-351, B-85, DRMR-4001, RGN-386, TM52 276 and SKM-1313 can be selected as genetically divergent parents for hybridization to obtain desirable segregants.

A total of 14 local potato cultivars were screened against late blight resistance under field conditions with no artificial inoculation. All the cultivars were genotyped with three Microsatellite markers (SSRs) linked to the genes governing late blight resistance viz., Rpi - blb1, Rpi - bt1, and R3a. The aim of the investigation was to identify late blight resistant cultivars from some local potato cultivars so that these resistant cultivars can be utilized in genetic enhancement programs as resistant varieties are an important component of disease management. Two cultivars namely, Deshi-1 and Deshi-2 had moderate resistance towards the late blight in field condition. The rest of the twelve cultivars were expressed susceptible reactions. Through genotyping a late blight resistant gene was identified and characterized in those cultivars showing resistant disease reaction as they expressed band for the R3a gene based primer.

A study was undertaken in Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) seeds to assess the mutagenic sensitivity of physical mutagen. Germination percentage gradually decreased in general with increase in dose/concentration of mutagen as similar condition was found in case of plant height. Here, 9and 14 different gamma doses were used to study the LD 50 and GR 30 /GR 50 , respectively. LD 50 value was 590.03 Gy based on germination percentage. GR 30 and GR 50 values based on regression formula on shoot length were 179.50 Gy and 318.68 Gy, respectively. The doses in between the range of 318 Gy -179 Gy doses were most appropriate to induce variation in cowpea.

Potato is a major global food crop grown for tubers (underground storage stems) that are high in carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins. The presence of anthocyanins in tuber skin and flesh can have a significant impact on customer preferences. Potatoes are also high in resistant starches, which have a variety of health benefits, including enhanced fullness, cholesterol reduction, and a reduced risk of colon cancer etc. In West Bengal, diabetes is prevalent. Similarly, according to ICMR studies, colon cancer affects 8.9% of all cancer patients in West Bengal cancer which is caused by ill eating habits or the consumption of foods that are low in antioxidants. 5-10% of colon cancers are genetically caused, while the remainder are caused by poor eating habits or the consumption of foods that are low in antioxidants. To address these issues, one strategy is to eat foods with a low glycemic index and high antioxidant content as a staple food. The tuber tissues of the potato (S. tuberosum L.) accumulate various quantities of anthocyanins, which are commonly consumed around the world. Anthocyanins are pigments that range in colour from red to purple and are found throughout the plant kingdom. Anthocyanins are powerful antioxidants that are water soluble. The red skin potato is well-known among the general public. The epidermal layer contains a high quantity of red anthocyanins, which causes the skin to be red. With this background the present study has been undertaken to address the following objectives morphological (quantitative and qualitative traits) and biochemical characterization of local potato cultivars and identification of most stable genotypes based on the anthocyanin content and tuber yield of local potato cultivars. For our recent research 14 local potato cultivar from North Bengal were collected and evaluated for DUS characterization showed wide range of variability with respect to different phenotypic variants of ten characters. Overall predominant DUS characters of local potato cultivars found in North Bengal are medium sized apical length of sprout, short stem height, compact foliage structure, open leaf structure, ovate lanceolate type leaflet shape, purple leaf sprout predominant colour, spherical leaf sprout shape, medium intensity of anthicyanin coloraton at the base, light intensity of anthicyanin coloraton at the tip and weak nature of light sprout pubescence base. The results of the present investigation suggest that local potato cultivars collected from the northern part of West Bengal showed a high level of genetic variation. The differences between genotypes were highly significant at the 1% and 5% alpha level for all characters like tuber yield, length and weight of tuber, length of sprout, chlorophyll content, canopy temperature, and number of tuber per plant, according to the analysis of variance. Three quantitative traits namely tuber yield, tuber breadth, tuber length played major role in the genetic variance. Anthocyanin content had more contribution to diversify the local potato cultures according to biochemical characterization AMMI analysis suggested that Jalpai from CoochBehar is the most stable potato cultivars in respect to anthocyanin content and tuber yield per plant.