Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R.Br.] is a major warm-season cereal, grown primarily for grain production in the arid and semi-arid tropical regions of Asia and Africa.

Development of crop cultivars with elevated levels of micronutrients is being increasingly recognized as one of the approaches to provide sustainable solutions to various health problems associated with micronutrient malnutrition, especially in developing countries. To assess the prospects of this approach in pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), a diverse range of genetic materials, consisting of 40 hybrid parents, 30 each of population progenies and improved populations, and 20 germplasm accessions, was analysed for grain iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) content, deficiencies of which adversely affect human health. Based on the mean performance in two seasons at ICRISAT, Patancheru, India, large variability among the entries was found, both for Fe (30.1-75.7 mg/kg on dry weight basis) and Zn (24.5-64.8 mg/kg). The highest levels of grain Fe and Zn were observed in well-adapted commercial varieties and their progenies, and in the parental lines of hybrids, which were either entirely based on iniari germplasm, or had large components of it in their parentage. There were indications of large within-population genetic variability for both Fe and Zn. The correlation between Fe and Zn content was positive and highly significant (r ¼ 0.84; P < 0.01). These results indicate that there are good prospects of simultaneous selection for both micronutrients, and that selection within populations, especially those with the predominantly iniari germplasm, is likely to provide good opportunities for developing pearl millet varieties and hybrid parents with significantly improved grain Fe and Zn content in pearl millet.

A field experiment was conducted with thirty hybrids produced by line x tester mating design from eleven sesame genotypes involving five branched and six monostem / shy branching types. Observations were recorded on days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of branches per plant, number of capsules per plant, capsule length, capsule breadth, number of seeds per plant, 100 seed weight, seed yield per plant and oil content. The traits, number of branches per plant, number of capsules per plant and seed yield per plant showed high PCV and GCV estimates. There is scope for selection based on these characters, and the diverse genotypes can provide materials for a sound breeding programme. High heritability combined with high genetic advance (as per cent of mean) observed for plant height, number of branches, number of capsules and seed yield per plant showed that these characters were controlled by additive gene effects and phenotypic selection for these characters would likely to be effective. Seed yield per plant showed significantly positive correlation with plant height, number of branches per plant, number of capsules per plant, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity and 100 seed weight. Capsule breadth showed significantly negative association with seed yield per plant.

A field experiment was conducted with five sesame genotypes, two branched, TMV 4 and TMV 5, and three monostemed / shybranched KS 990837, KS 990813 KS 9908513 and six cross combinations of branched x monostemed to develop F 1 , F 2, BC 1 and BC 2 populations. Six generations P 1 , P 2 , F 1 , F 2 , BC 1 and BC 2 were raised in a non replicated trial to estimate the gene effects for branching and some other yield attributing characteristics. The additive, dominance and duplicate dominance gene effects were found to be important for number of branches per plant. Additive component was significantly positive for days to first flowering, days to maturity and plant height in TMV 4 x KS 99037; plant height and number of branches in TMV 5 x KS 990813; days to first flowering and days to maturity in the cross TMV 5 x KS 99153; indicating the presence of additive gene action. Additiive x additive fixable gene interaction was also reported in different crosses. In most of the crosses, duplicate epistasis was found to be predominant when compared to complementary epistasis. Thus gene effects for a given characteristics varied among crosses. Inheritance study using five crosses viz., TMV 4 x KS 99037, TMV 4 x KS 990813, TMV 5 x KS 99037, TMV 5 x KS990813 and TMV 5 x KS99153, showed a monogenic inheritance of 3:1 with simple dominance recessive relationship for branching and monostem / shy branching characteristic, respectively. The cross TMV4 x KS 99153 which showed 15:1 ratio, fitted to the expected ratio of 3:1 for branching : shybranching respectively of the test cross progenies. This cross also showed duplicate epistasis for the number of branches per plant in generation mean analysis.

The experiment was carried out to induce variability in the sunflower varieties Morden and CO 4 (TNAUSUF 7) by a physical mutagen, i.e., gamma rays. The LD 50 value was fixed at 15 kR for both varieties based on germination percentage. Progressive decreases in germination and survival with increase in gamma ray dose were recorded in the M 1 generation. Stimulatory and inhibitory effects were noticed in quantitative characters with lower and higher doses, respectively. The mean expression and variability in quantitative characters increased considerably in the M 2 generation. The different mutagenic treatments showed an inconsistent relationship with respect to mutagen mean and variability. However, considerable increase in variance was observed in traits such as plant height, seed yield per plant and oil content. Regarding seed yield per plant, heritability and genetic advance were maximum at 20 kR and 5 kR in the genotypes Morden and CO 4, respectively.