Characterization and Maintenance of Yam (Dioscorea Spp.) Germplasm

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted with 60 germplasm accessions of yam (Dioscorea spp.) at Plant Genetic Resources Centre of BARI for characterization and conservation of germplasm. Fifty-nine germplasm accessions of D. alata L. and one accession of D. bulbifera L. from different districts of Bangladesh were used. Clockwise twining direction was found in D. bulbifera and anti-clockwise twining direction was exhibited in all D. alata germplasm accessions. Potato like aerial tuber was found in D. bulbifera. Round, oval, elongate, flattened to irregular aerial tuber shape were found. Grayed-brown, brown to grayed-orange skin colour with yellow, yellow-orange to grayed-orange of aerial tuber flesh colour were observed among the yam germplasm accessions. Oval-oblong, cylindrical, flattened, corm, rhizome to irregular shape of underground stem or tubers were observed. Low, medium to dense types of spiniess of roots were found on the tubers. Grayed-orange, red to black tuber skin colour along with white, yellowish-white, yellow, yelloworange, red to purple tuber flesh colours were found. Significant variations were also observed in stem shape at base, colour of stem, wing and petiole wing, position of leaf, leaf shape and distance between leaf lobes. Low to high phenotypic diversity was exhibited among the germplasm accessions. The germplasm accessions produced 1 to 30 under ground tubers per plant. The main tuber length ranged from 5.4 to 66.4 cm and breadth from 2.5 to 15.5 cm. The germplasm accessions produced 0.51 kg to 16.45 kg tuber yield per plant. The maximum variability was found in tuber yield per plant (98.74%) and the minimum was found in leaf length (12.55%).The under ground tubers of yam were harvested and replanted at an interval of two to three years from 1995 at PGRC. The plants were grown on bamboo trail in the field genebank. Necessary intercultural operations are done for maintaining the yam germplasm accessions. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjar.v36i4.11748 Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 36(4): 605-621, December 2011

DIVERSITY AND UTILIZATION OF Dioscorea spp. TUBER AS ALTERNATIVE FOOD SOURCE IN NGANJUK REGENCY, EAST JAVA

“…is distributed in the tropical, subtropical and temperate regions of the world especially in West Africa, parts of Central America and the Caribbean, the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia (Maneenoon et al, 2008). Dioscorea plants produce edible tubers, bulbils, corms or rhizomes (Islam et al, 2011). Wild edible Dioscorea tuber contents are good source of protein, lipid, crude fibre, starch, vitamins (especially vitamin A and C) and minerals (calcium, iron, phophorus, I.).…”

“…The most advantageous factor from this crop is that it can be cultivated even by the side of the roads, homestead gardens, houses and in the forest, etc. with less consideration to cultivation practices (Islam et al 2011).…”

Yield Evaluation of Selected Clones Apomictic Iles-Iles (Amorphophallus muelleri Blume) on Second Growing Period

“…Nevertheless, it needs further study because the shape of corm is commonly used to distinguish tuberous genotype like in Dioscorea sp. (Islam et al, 2011;Chinedu, 2017). In term of production potential, assuming the planting density in the production field was 4 plant m -2 , five accessions had production potential about 40 ton ha -1 of freshtuber or larger, i.e., CK, CR, DPG, DPP and SBM (Figure 4).…”

Physicochemical, enzymatic and molecular characterisation of the storage protein of aerial tuber, Dioscorea bulbifera Linn.

“…There are 8 genera and 880 species of yam plant. They produce edible tubers, bulbils, corms or rhizomes [ 2 ] that are basically made up of carbohydrates and are important sources of proteins and micronutrients [ 3 ]. Yam tubers are widely utilized as food due to their compositions [ 4 ].…”