GhCO and GhCRY1 accelerate floral meristem initiation in response to blue light to shorten cotton breeding

The shoot apical meristem (SAM) is a special category of tissue with pluripotency that forms new organs and individuals, especially floral individuals. However, little is known about the fate of cotton SAMs as a tunica corpus structure. Here, we demonstrate that cotton SAM fate decisions depend on light signals and circadian rhythms, and the genes GhFKF1, GhGI, GhCRY1 and GhCO were responsible for SAM fate decisions and highlighted via RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis of different cotton cultivars, as confirmed by genetic analysis via the CRISPR-Cas9 system. In situ hybridization (ISH) analysis showed that the GhCO gene, induced by a relatively high blue light proportion, was highly upregulated during the initiation of floral meristems (FMs). Further blue light treatment analysis showed that the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth of SAM was promoted by a high proportion of blue light, coupled with high expression of the blue light-responsive genes GhCO and GhCRY1. Taken together, our study suggests that blue light signalling plays a key role in the fate decision of cotton SAM. These results provide a strategy to regulate the SAM differentiation of cotton by using the CRISPR-Cas9 system to change the ratio of red and blue light absorption to breed early-maturity cotton.

Productivity of apple variety Majesti in the foothill zone of Dagestan

The article presents the results of studying the productivity of the parameters of the introduced apple variety Majesti on the clonal rootstock M9 in the agro-ecological conditions of the southeastern foothill sub-province of Dagestan. The purpose of the research is to identify the biological potential of the variety, the adaptive potential for the construction of intensive-type orchards in the industrial horticulture zone. It is especially important to choose the optimal variety-rootstock combinations of apple trees, which should be distinguished by early maturity, annual productivity, high commercial quality of fruits and environmental sustainability. The southeastern foothill sub-province has great prospects for the development of industrial horticulture. Of the unfavorable environmental factors that negatively affect the vital activity of fruit crops, the most often noted are return colds in spring and early frosts in autumn, when fruit plants are still growing. In accordance with the research program of the Federal Agrarian Scientific Center of the Republic of Dagestan, it is envisaged to study the influence of different rootstocks (M9, SK-2, SK-7, MM106) on the productivity of the Majesti variety. Based on the research results, biometric indicators of the growth and productivity of trees in a young garden were determined, depending on the type of planting design. It was noted that at the age of three, the condition of trees on a 5-point scale is good. The height of the trees, depending on the rootstock, reached an average of 2.3 to 2.9 m. On dwarf rootstocks M9, the stem diameter of the Majesti variety was 4.2 cm, of the control variety Renet Simirenko — 3.5. The growth of annual shoots clearly reflects the growth activity of trees with different varieties of rootstock combinations. It has been established that the growth of dwarf rootstocks provides a weakening effect and allows growing lowgrowing trees with a compact crown, a strong stem, that are convenient for earning and harvesting. The largest number of fruit formations was noted in the introduced cultivar Majesti with a 3.0x1.5 planting pattern on a dwarf stock M9 (67 pieces) then in comparison on the control variety Renet Simirenko it was46 pieces. Productivity per tree was 7.1 kg, in the control variety Renet Simirenko — 5.3 kg. Calculated per hectare, productivity of the Majesti variety is 15.7 tons, Renet Simirenko — 11.7 tons.

STATISTICAL STUDY OF SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE AT THE MESO-LEVEL

Significant transformations in the Russian economy in 1990-2000 negatively affected the development of agriculture. The number of workers in the industry has declined, and the production of some types of products has dropped to catastrophic levels. In this regard, we consider it timely and necessary to conduct a statistical study of the state of the industry at the meso-level and the factors that influence it. The aim of the research is to study the development of agriculture at the meso-level in the historical aspect based on statistical methods for assessing the current and forecasting future states. The object of research is Orenburg region and its municipalities, which is due to a number of reasons: the region occupies a stable leading position in the agriculture of Volga Federal District; the industry’s contribution to GRP is about 8%; municipalities of the region are in unequal conditions that affect the development of agriculture in the region. The development of crop production in Orenburg region in 1991-2019 characterized by an increase in sunflower production and a lateral trend in gross grain harvest, while the production of silage, annual and perennial grasses significantly decreased. The lack of a forage base against the background of low early maturity led to a significant reduction in the number of cattle - this negatively affected milk production in the region. Meat production managed to keep from falling only due to the growth of poultry population. The construction of regression models based on panel data covering 35 municipalities (period 2000-2019 and 5 variables) showed that three factors influence the volume of agricultural production - the availability of acreage, investment in fixed assets and the number of cattle. The constructed statistically significant regression model with fixed effects indicates a stable structure of producers and the presence of hidden factors. This determines the direction of further research, which consists in identifying latent variables that have a significant impact on the development of the region’s industry

New High Yielding Mung Bean Variety Phule Chetak for Maharashtra

Background: Mung bean is one of the important pulse crop requiring low inputs. The productivity of kharif mung bean is very low. The present improved varieties have lower yield potential and disease susceptibility. There is a need to develop high yielding varieties combined with early to mid synchronous maturity, better quality and resistance/tolerance to major pests and diseases. Methods: The green gram var. Phule Chetak was developed by pedigree selection method from a cross between SML-668 X Naval at Oilseeds Research Station, MPKV, Jalgaon. It was tested over several locations and environments for its stability performance. Result: The results indicated a significant improvement in yield level under field conditions. The new variety Phule Chetak reported an average yield of 1003 kg/ha which is 26.96%, 36.46%, 29.42%, 21.72%, 17.58% and 13.21 per cent higher than the check varieties Vaibhav, BPMR-145, AKM-8802, BM-2002-1, BM-2003-2 and Utkarsha respectively. It is bold seeded having early maturity, moderately resistant to major diseases like powdery mildew, mungbean yellow mosaic virus under field conditions. Considering its consistent performance, the mung bean genotype PM-707-5 has been released for cultivation in the kharif season for Maharashtra under the name of Phule Chetak in Joint Agresco during 29-30 October, 2020 held at Dr PDKV, Akola.

Comparative Study of AMMI- and BLUP-Based Simultaneous Selection for Grain Yield and Stability of Finger Millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] Genotypes

Finger millet, an orphan crop, possesses immense potential in mitigating climate change and could offer threefold security in terms of food, fodder, and nutrition. It is mostly cultivated as a subsistence crop in the marginal areas of plains and hills. Considering the changes in climate inclusive of recurrent weather vagaries witnessed every year, it is crucial to select stable, high-yielding, area-specific, finger millet cultivars. Sixty finger millet varieties released across the country were evaluated over six consecutive rainy seasons from 2011 to 2016 at the Agricultural Research Station, Vizianagaram. The genotype × environment interaction (GEI) was found to be significant in the combined ANOVA. Furthermore, the Additive Main effects and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) analysis asserted that genotypes and the GEI effects accounted for approximately 89% of the total variation. Strong positive associations were observed in an estimated set of eleven stability parameters which were chosen to identify stable genotypes. Furthermore, Non-parametric and Parametric Simultaneous Selection indices (NP-SSI and P-SSI) were calculated utilizing AMMI-based stability parameter (ASTAB), modified AMMI stability value (MASV), and Modified AMMI Stability Index (MASI) to identify stable high yielders. Both methods had inherent difficulties in ranking genotypes for SSI. To overcome this, the initial culling [i.e., SSI with culling strategy (C-SSI)] of genotypes was introduced for stability. In the C-SSI method, the top ten genotypes were above-average yielders, while those with below-average yield were observed in NP-SSI and P-SSI methods. Similarly, the estimation of best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP)-based simultaneous selections, such as harmonic mean of genotypic values (HMGV), relative performance of genotypic values (RPGV), and harmonic mean of relative performance of genotypic values (HMRPGV), revealed that none of the top ten entries had below-average yield. The study has proven that C-SSI and BLUP-based methods were equally worthy in the selection of high-yielding genotypes with stable performance. However, the C-SSI approach could be the best method to ensure that genotypes with a considerable amount of stability are selected. The multi-year trial SSI revealed that entries Indaf-9, Sri Chaitanya, PR-202, and A-404; and VL324 and VL146 were ascertained to be the most stable high-yielding genotypes among medium-to-late and early maturity groups, respectively.

Energy balance evaluation in Bengal gram ( Cicer arietinum L.) grown in a sub-humid climate

Results of an experiment conducted at the Central Agromet Observatory on gram crop during 1990-1991 winter crop season, to investigate relative contribution of energy balance parameters, presented in the study. The analysis revealed that latent heat is the major source of dissipation of net r early maturity stage. After crop attains maturity, sensible heat predominates over other components.

Genetic Parameters for Determining Useful Parents in Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) Breeding for Early Maturity, Small Seed Size, and High Seed Yield

Early maturity, small seed size, and high seed yield are important characters of mungbean in Indonesia. The objective of the study was to determine the useful parents in mungbean crosses for early maturity, small seed size, and high seed yield varieties by estimating the genetic parameters and their inheritance. The study was conducted at the ILETRI, Malang, East Java, Indonesia, during the dry season of 2014. 20 F1 and 5 parents were evaluated using a randomized block design, repeated three times. Results of the study showed that all observed traits showed the importance of both additive and dominance gene effects. The relative value of general combining ability (GCA) was greater than specific combining ability (SCA) for number of pod clusters per plant, number of branches per plant, plant height, days to maturity, and 100-seed weight which indicated the importance of additive gene effect. The dominance gene effect occurred on number of pods and seed yield per plant. Among five parents, G3 was the best combiner for all the observed characters except pod length; therefore, G3 could be exploited for late maturity, small seed size, high number of branches and pod cluster, and high seed yield. G5 has a high GCA for 100-seed weight. G1 and G2 have good GCA for early maturity. G3 and G5 genotypes are useful as parents in mungbean breeding for small and large seed size varieties, respectively. The best combination for seed yield was G2 × G3 and G3 × G1 crosses and could be proceeded with selection for early maturity, small seed size, and high seed yield varieties.

Simultaneous Selection of Sweet-Waxy Corn Ideotypes Appealing to Hybrid Seed Producers, Growers, and Consumers in Thailand

Multi-trait selection helps breeders identify genotypes that appeal to divergent groups of preferences. In this study, we performed simultaneous selection of sweet-waxy corn hybrids on several traits covering the perspectives of consumers (taller kernel depth, better eating quality), growers (early maturity, shorter plant stature, and high ear yield), and seed producers (high flowering synchrony, acceptable seed yield, and good plant architecture). Three supersweet corn lines and 8 waxy corn lines were intercrossed to generate 48 F1 hybrids according to North Carolina Design II, and these genotypes were laid out in a randomized complete block design with 3 replications across 2 seasons between 2017 and 2018. A sensory blind test on sweetness, stickiness, tenderness, and overall liking was conducted to assess the eating quality of steamed corn samples. Two methods of simultaneous selection, namely unweighted selection index and overall rank-sum index (ORSI), were applied to rank crosses, following all targeted groups of preferences. Genetic parameters and genetic gain were estimated to evaluate the effectiveness of those selection methods. Both approaches had similar patterns of preferable realized gain on each given trait and could identify similar top five crosses with only slight order changes, implying that these methods were effective to rank genotypes according to given selection criteria. One of the tested crosses, 101L/TSC-10 × KV/mon, consistently had the highest unweighted selection index in the dry (7.84) and the rainy (7.15) seasons and the lowest ORSI (310), becoming a promising candidate as synergistic sweet-waxy corn hybrid appealing to consumers, growers, and seed producers. The expected ideotypes of sweet-waxy corn hybrid are discussed.