ABStrACt. Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam., commonly called jackfruit, is a medium-sized evergreen tree that bears high yields of the largest known edible fruit. Yet, it has been little explored commercially due to wide variation in fruit quality. The genetic diversity and genetic relatedness of 50 jackfruit accessions were studied using amplified fragment length polymorphism markers. Of 16 primer pairs evaluated, eight were selected for screening of genotypes based on the number and quality of polymorphic fragments produced. These primer combinations produced 5976 bands, 1267 (22%) of which were polymorphic. Among the jackfruit accessions, the similarity coefficient ranged from 0.137 to 0.978; the accessions also shared a large number of monomorphic fragments (78%). Cluster analysis and principal component analysis grouped all jackfruit genotypes into three major clusters. Cluster I included the genotypes grown in a jackfruit region of Karnataka, called Tamaka, with very dry conditions; cluster II contained the genotypes collected from locations having medium to heavy rainfall in Karnataka; cluster III grouped the genotypes in distant locations with different environmental conditions. Strong coincidence of these amplified fragment length polymorphism-based groupings with geographical localities as well as morphological characters was observed. We found moderate genetic diversity in these jackfruit accessions. This information should be useful for tree breeding programs, as part of our effort to popularize jackfruit as a commercial crop.

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Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.) being an important dryland horticultural tree, grows well with minimum care and maintenance. The study aimed at identifying the genetic diversity present in twenty jackfruit genotypes for different pulp colours. The genotypes were identified for commercial cultivation, based on fruit and flake quality characters viz., fruit weight, fruit rind weight per kg fruit, number of flakes per kg fruit, weight of flakes per kg fruit, individual fresh flake weight and TSS as per the Jackfruit descriptors given by IPGRI, Rome. The best genotypes identified from the study were Swarna, Lalbagh Madhura, Byrachandra, NSP, Ashoka Yellow and NEL and these can be used for commercial purpose. Molecular diversity analysis was also carried out using 22 SSR primers, out of which six primers (SSR 9, SSR 10, SSR 30, SSR 34, SSR 45 and SSR 48) showed polymorphism among twenty genotypes. The genetic similarity co-efficient ranged from 0 to 0.96, indicating a vast variation in genetic diversity for pulp colour. A dendrogram was constructed by UPGMA analysis revealed three major clusters. The genotypes with cream and yellow colour pulp grouped in cluster I and II, followed by yellow, orange and red in cluster III. These markers effectively segregated the genotypes based on different pulp colours and hence, can be used for both diversity analysis and in breeding applications.

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Background: French bean or kidney bean is a rich source of protein, fibers and minerals in diet and is used by poor people in several Asian countries as a cheap source of protein and mineral vegetable/seed grain. Thus, the study on micronutrient variations in French bean local genotypes was undertaken to screen for Fe, Zn, Cu and Mn content in comparison to developed varieties. Methods: Selected twenty local genotypes/accessions and four released varieties of French bean were grown in the field. The morphological characterization was carried out as per crop descriptors. The micronutrient analysis for Fe, Zn, Mn and Cu content was carried out using AAS. Further, accessions were screened using fourteen SSR markers linked to Fe and Zn content.Result: The results revealed that accession IC342273 exhibited significantly higher dry pod (58.94 g) and seed yield (809.74 g) per plot. The accession IC538420 (177.31 ppm) exhibited significantly higher mean Fe content and was on par with Arka Suvidha (176 ppm). Accession EC500226 showed significantly higher Zn (26.91 ppm), Mn (15.31 ppm) and Cu (8.55 ppm) content over other accessions and varieties. Among fourteen SSR primers amplified, two genomic SSR markers (BM154 and BM211) exhibited higher polymorphism among the accessions. The SSR markers classified the accessions and varieties into two clusters, which can be used in crop improvement programmes on French bean for micronutrients bio-fortification studies.