scholarly journals Improvement of a Yairipok Chujak Maize Landrace from North Eastern Himalayan Region for β-Carotene Content through Molecular Marker-Assisted Backcross Breeding

Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 762
Author(s):  
Maqbool Qutub ◽  
Sarankumar Chandran ◽  
Krishnakumar Rathinavel ◽  
Vellaikumar Sampathrajan ◽  
Ravikesavan Rajasekaran ◽  
...  

In the North Eastern Himalayan region (NEHR) of India, maize is an important food crop. The local people cultivate the maize landraces and consume them as food. However, these landraces are deficient in β-carotene content. Thus, we aimed to incorporate the crtRB1 gene from UMI285β+ into the genetic background of the NEHR maize landrace, Yairipok Chujak (CAUM66), and thereby enhance the β-carotene content through marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC). In this regard, we backcrossed and screened BC1F1 and BC2F1 plants possessing the heterozygous allele for crtRB1 and then screened with 106 polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The plants having maximum recurrent parent genome recovery (RPGR) were selected in each generation and selfed to produce BC2F2 seeds. In the BC2F2 generation, four plants (CAUM66-54-9-12-2, CAUM66-54-9-12-11, CAUM66-54-9-12-13, and CAUM66-54-9-12-24) having homozygous crtRB1-favorable allele with maximum RPGR (86.74–90.16%) were selected and advanced to BC2F3. The four selected plants were selfed to produce BC2F3 and then evaluated for agronomic traits and β-carotene content. The agronomic performance of the four lines was similar (78.83–99.44%) to that of the recurrent parent, and β-carotene content (7.541–8.711 μg/g) was on par with the donor parent. Our study is the first to improve the β-carotene content in NEHR maize landrace through MABC. The newly developed lines could serve as potential resources to further develop nutrition-rich maize lines and could provide genetic stock for use in breeding programs.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Senthil Natesan ◽  
Thangjam Surchandra Singh ◽  
Thirusenduraselvi Duraisamy ◽  
Neelima Chandrasekharan ◽  
Sarankumar Chandran ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-335
Author(s):  
Nenavath Krishna Kumar Rathod ◽  
Jyoti Kumari ◽  
Firoz Hossain ◽  
Rashmi Chhabra ◽  
Somnath Roy ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 243
Author(s):  
Gaurav Mishra ◽  
Krishna Giri ◽  
Abhishek Jangir ◽  
Duraisamy Vasu ◽  
Jesús Rodrigo-Comino

Shifting cultivation (jhum cultivation), a common practice of converting forest land into agricultural land by slash and burn is threatening the ecosystem. This study assesses the effect of shifting cultivation cycles on soil quality in the North-eastern Himalayan region using a minimum of soil properties. To achieve this goal, a soil quality index (SQI) approach and multivariate techniques were used for surface (0-30 cm) and subsurface (30-70 cm) layers of soils in the forest, jhum land, and jhum fallow areas. The highest variability among land uses was found for clay content, SOC (soil organic carbon), exchangeable Mg and K, CEC (cation exchange capacity), and the Ca/Mg relationship. On the contrary, the lowest variation was recorded in bulk density (BD), porosity, and pH. The results of the principal component analysis (PCA) show BD, soil texture, available nitrogen (Nav), available phosphorus (Pav), available potassium (Kav), calcium (Ca) and sodium (Na) as the major indicators of soil quality. The study indicated that surface layers of forest soils have a lower soil quality when compared to jhum lands. Although jhum lands show a better soil quality compared to forests, their continued cultivation without any fertilisation and subsequent depletion of the soil nutrients can cause a degradation of soil quality as observed in jhum fallow lands. The use of these selected indicators for soil quality assessment was useful in terms of saving time and costs.


Soil Research ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lungmuana ◽  
B. U. Choudhury ◽  
Saurav Saha ◽  
S. B. Singh ◽  
Anup Das ◽  
...  

Land-use change, particularly soil organic carbon (SOC) loss induced by shifting cultivation (jhum) is a common land degradation issue in the hilly tracts of the humid tropics. The SOC concentration comprises different pools (labile and recalcitrant fractions), and each fraction responds to temporal dynamics of adopted management practices at varying magnitudes, such as deforestation followed by cultivation. However, information on the variation of different SOC pools due to cultural practices of vegetation burning and postburn agricultural practices (crop production) associated with shifting cultivation remains inadequate. In the present investigation, we examined the effect of burning and postburning cultivation on SOC pools across different forest fallow periods at Kolasib district, Mizoram state of the north-eastern Himalayan Region of India. Results revealed increase in the soil C stocks and total organic carbon (TOC) due to the increase in the length of fallow periods ranging from 3 to 23 years. The TOC decreased significantly compared with antecedent concentrations before vegetation burning. This was mostly attributed to the reduction in contribution of active pools (very labile and labile) to TOC from 69% to 60%. However, contribution of passive pools (less labile and nonlabile) to TOC concentration increased from 31% to 40%. Postburn cultivation also resulted in reduction of TOC as well as considerable variation in the proportion of different SOC pools to TOC concentration. Among the different pools of SOC, the very labile C pool was most sensitive to land-use change induced by shifting cultivation (phytomass burning and postburn cultivation). The labile SOC pools can act as a sensitive indicator for devising suitable location specific management practices for restoration of soil health through SOC dynamics in degraded jhum lands in hilly ecosystems.


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