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This study was the only report for exploiting gynoecy for studying combining ability and hybrid development in bitter gourd. Thirty-six F 1 hybrids and nine inbred lines including one gynoecious line were used to assess combining ability for earliness and yield in bitter gourd Momordica charantia L.). Among parents, gynoecious parent; DBGy-201 showed maximum GCA effect in desirable direction for node to first female flower, days to first picking, numbers of fruits and yield per plant. The parent, P 6 (Priya) exhibited highest GCA effect for fruit length, weight and diameter. These parents were good general combiners for yield and earliness and could be used to improve these traits in bitter gourd breeding programmes for the accumulation of favourable genes. The parent P 1 (DBGy-201) also exhibited earliest in per se performance with first female flower at *7th node and the gynoecious hybrids DBGy-201 9 Pusa Vishesh and DBGy-201 9 Pusa Do Mausami had female flower at lower node (*8th node). The best gynoecious hybrids were DBGy-201 9 Priya for numbers of fruits per plant and DBGy-201 9 NDBT-12 for fruit yield per plant.The findings of second experiment (i.e. Line 9 Tester mating design) confirmed the potentiality of gynoeciuos 9 monoeciuos hybrids for high yield and earliness. The gynoecious inbred, DBGy-201 showed maximum GCA effect in desirable direction for node to first female flower, days to first picking, numbers of fruits and yield per plant and additive gene action is more important for breeding by selection.

A study was undertaken at West Bengal, India with Indian mustard var. varuna, during winter season of 2010-11 and 2011-12 in a split-plot design with three levels of irrigation (main-plots) and four levels of sulphur (sub-plots) with three replications. Experimental results revealed that application of two irrigations at 30 and 60 DAS, along with 45 kg S ha -1 influenced growth attributes and seed yield significantly.Further increase in S level upto 60 kg ha -1 although gave higher seed yield but the difference was non-significant. Highest consumptive use of water was recorded with two irrigations (at 30 and 60 DAS) while it was increased slightly with increase in S levels from 0 to 60 kg ha -1 . Sulphur @ 45 kg ha -1 recorded highest water use efficiency at all irrigation levels. Irrigation (twice at 30 and 60 DAS) fetched higher net return over single irrigation. At all irrigation levels, 45 kg S ha -1 recorded the highest net return and B:C ratio. Seed yield showed positive significant correlation with all the independent variables and CGR revealed the highest degree of correlation followed by RGR, NAR, plant height and number of primary branches plant -1 . It is obvious from path analysis that RGR had highest direct and positive effect on seed yield followed by CGR and number of primary branches plant -1 . Thus CGR, RGR and NAR were under genotypic control and this positive correlation toward seed yield would be favourable to breeder for genetic improvement of Indian mustard.

Halophytes have superior capacity to withstand soil salinity and are appropriate resources to study the mechanism of salt tolerance which can be harnessed to develop crops to withstand salinity. In this communication, we report the effect of salinity (200 mM NaCl) and elevated carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) treatments in tandem, on select halophytes that have different photosynthetic pathways: C3 and C4. The plants were raised in ambient (380 ppm) and enriched (500 ppm) concentrations of CO 2 using a mini-FACE facility. Total chlorophyll content, total soluble sugar concentration, lipid peroxidation level and electrolyte leakage were measured from fresh leaf samples collected at different time points. The results show a positive effect for elevated CO 2 concentration on salt tolerance in both C3 and C4 plants, and indicate that halophytes may benefit from rising atmospheric CO 2 concentration. The results also suggest that C4 halophytes may benefit from the rising atmospheric CO 2 concentration than C3 halophytes.

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