Biofortification through plant breeding is a cost-effective and sustainable approach towards addressing micronutrient malnutrition prevailing across the globe. Screening cultivars for micronutrient content and identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs)/genes and markers help in the development of biofortified varieties in chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.). With the aim of identifying the genomic regions controlling seed Fe and Zn concentrations, the F 2:3 population derived from a cross between MNK-1 and Annigeri 1 was genotyped using genotyping by sequencing approach and evaluated for Fe and Zn concentration. An intraspecific genetic linkage map comprising 839 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) spanning a total distance of 1,088.04 cM with an average marker density of 1.30 cM was constructed. By integrating the linkage map data with the phenotypic data of the F 2:3 population, a total of 11 QTLs were detected for seed Fe concentration on CaLG03, CaLG04, and CaLG05, with phenotypic variation explained ranging from 7.2% ( CaqFe3.4 ) to 13.4% ( CaqFe4.2 ). For seed Zn concentration, eight QTLs were identified on CaLG04, CaLG05, and CaLG08. The QTLs individually explained phenotypic variations ranging between 5.7% ( CaqZn8.1 ) and 13.7% ( CaqZn4.3 ). Three QTLs for seed Fe and Zn concentrations ( CaqFe4.4, CaqFe4.5 , and CaqZn4.1 ) were colocated in the “ QTL-hotspot ” region on CaLG04 that harbors several drought tolerance-related QTLs. We identified genes in the QTL regions that encode iron–sulfur metabolism and zinc-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase activity on CaLG03, iron ion binding oxidoreductase on CaLG04, and zinc-induced facilitator-like protein and ZIP zinc/iron transport family protein on CaLG05. These genomic regions and the associated markers can be used in marker-assisted selection to increase seed Fe and Zn concentrations in agronomically superior chickpea varieties.

Abstract:The restorer lines are used to get fertile hybrids in hybrid seed production system of sunflower. Improvement of R-lines for fertility and oil content of sunflower is required to get desirable hybrids upon crossing. In the present study, 6 restorer lines were crossed in full diallele and both direct and reciprocal crosses along with parents were evaluated for their combining ability. The analysis of variance revealed higher magnitude of SCA variance than GCA variance for all the characters studied except for days to 50 per cent flowering. Among six parents, GMU-520 and R-GM-41 were best general combiner for plant height, head diameter, test weight and leaf size in the desired direction. However, GMU-520 has advantage of yield per plant and oil content. From 15 direct crosses R-GM-41 x R -GM-49 exhibited significant specific combining ability for viz., days to 50 per cent flowering (-1.08), plant height (13.69), head diameter (4.79), leaf size (0.74), yield per plant (17.14), volume weight (2.54), test weight (1.75) and oil content (0.34) followed by RCR-630 x GMU-520, R-GM-41 x EC-602060, R-GM-49 x GMU-520 and EC-602060 x GMU-520 each exhibiting good specific combining ability for majority of characters. Among reciprocal crosses R-GM -41 x RCR-8 exhibited a high reciprocal effects for head diameter (4.57), yield per plant (15.16), test weight (2.02) and leaf size (0.75).

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Abstract:The present study was conducted to identify the alternate hosts of new leaf curl virus disease of sunflower. In the present study several crops and weed hosts were cross inoculated with leaf curl virus of sunflower under laboratory through insect vector whitefly (Bemisia tabaci), further all inoculated samples were retested (3-4 weeks after inoculation) by molecular based Polymerse chain reaction diagnosis for the presence of virus. The results revealed that the causal virus of the disease was successfully transmitted from sunflower to sunflower (Helianthus annuus), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L) and weed hosts such as Acanthospermum hispidum, Amaranthus viridis and Parthenium hysterophorus in a short incubation period (2-3 weeks after inoculation), while on other hosts Chilli (Capsicum annuum L) and Datura stramonium, infection occurs in delayed incubation period. Further molecular analysis thorough polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostic technique using virus specific primers also confirmed the presence of coat protein (CP) of leaf curl begomovirus in virus inoculated hosts viz., chilli, sunflower, tomato, and tobacco and weed hosts such as Acanthospermum hispidum, Amaranthus viridis, Datura stramonium and Parthenium hysterophorus. Thus, findings substantiate that the above hosts are major sources of the virus inoculum and served as potential alternate hosts of the disease during the off season.

. Further a higher gross return, net returns and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) were observed when compared to the other treatment combinations carried out during the experiment viz., recommended dose fertilizer (RDF) of NPK (Control). Overall, we concluded that the input of STCR approach had positive effects on quantitative and qualitative traits of sunflower in conditions of studied area as compared to RDF method.