​Character Association and Path Analysis in Heterotic Recombinant Inbred Lines in Garden Pea (Pisum sativum L.)

Background: Garden pea is one of the principal vegetable crops cultivated in the temperate and sub- tropical areas of the world for its green pods. It is an important food legume worldwide after Phaseolus vulgaris. The knowledge about the interdependence of characters in a particular crop can effectively be employed to breed desirable cultivars and to challenge the consequences of the unprecedented biological, physical and chemical stresses of the future growing conditions. The regression and path analysis further has significance for the assured selection of the varieties with desirable traits and hence adaptation of species in different agro-climatic conditions; hence it is also one of the prerequisites for crop improvement programmes. Correlation and path analysis in garden pea explained that among all the yield contributing traits, number of pods per plant and pod weight have significant contribution in increasing the green pod yield per plant. Methods: 14 heterotic recombinant inbred lines and 17 existing cultivars of garden pea, were put to experimentation for working out the association of the yield and yield contributing component characters under the open field conditions of Regional Horticultural Research and Training Station, Bajaura Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, India. This association was further elaborated through the coefficient of correlation and regression analysis and path coefficient analysis. Result: The genotypic correlation coefficients were found higher than the phenotypic correlation coefficients for all the characters studied. The correlation coefficients revealed that green pod yield per plant had highly significant and positive association with pod weight and number of pods per plant. The path coefficient analysis also revealed that the maximum positive direct effect on green pod yield per plant was exerted by the number of pods per plant, pod weight and 100-seed weight. Through regression equation analysis it became clear that number of pods per plant, pod weight contributed significantly in increasing the green pod yield per plant. With a unit increase in these independent characters, the green pod yield per plant will increase by 2.34 and 33.45 per cent. It can thus be concluded that despite of the positive correlation of almost all the characters with green pod yield per plant, only number of pods per plant and pod weight are important and significant independent characters for increasing the green pod yield per plant.

Use of phytoremediation techniques for elimination of lead from polluted soils

The effect of chelating agent – EDTA (ethylene-diamine-tetra-acetic acid) was used for induced phytoextraction to increase intensity of lead transfer from roots to aboveground parts of garden pea. Pot experiments with contaminated soil substrata (50 mg Pb.kg-1 and 100 mg Pb.kg-1) were established for experimental purposes in growth chamber. The results showed that application of 5 and 10 mmol EDTA.kg-1 to experimental variants with 100 mg Pb.kg-1 doubled the increase of lead uptake by pea roots in comparison with variants without EDTA addition, which was statistically confirmed. Intensive lead transfer was observed from roots to aboveground parts of pea after application of 5 and 10 mmol EDTA.kg-1 in variant with 50 mg Pb.kg-1 (40-fold increase), as well as in variant with 100 mg Pb.kg-1 (17-fold increase). The results showed that induced phytoextraction can improve the mobility of lead from soil to plant roots. Application of 5 mmol EDTA.kg-1 resulted to 40-fold increase of lead transfer to green plant parts, despite the fact, that garden pea does not belong to conventional metal hyperaccumulating plant species. Following the results, pea could be used for decontamination of arable soil. The optimal EDTA concentration seems to be 5 mmol.kg-1. Therefore, application of 10 mmol EDTA.kg-1 decreased root mass about 55%, which resulted to decrease the intensity of lead uptake.

Evaluation of Growth and Yield Characters of Garden Pea Genotypes at Dailekh, Mid-Western Nepal

Knowledge of phenotypic variation among the germplasm is important for the breeding program of garden pea. This study was conducted to evaluate the growth and yield traits of garden pea genotypes and to identify high yielding, and powdery mildew resistant genotype at Horticulture Research Station (HRS), Dailekh, Mid-western Nepal. Eleven garden pea genotypes were evaluated in the main production season (2018-2019) and compared with 'Sikkim Local' as standard variety, and the experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. The analysis of variance revealed that genotypes had significant variation for all the traits studied except few insignificant traits. Significantly higher number of green pod/plant, green pod yield/plant, seed number/pod and seed yield/plant were recorded in genotypes DGP-12-18-2 and DGP-12-18-1 as compared with other studied genotypes. Genotype DGP-12-18-2, and DGP-12-18-1 exhibited resistant (2) to powdery mildew disease and these genotypes showed 45.8% and 16.6% yield advantage over the standard check 'Sikkim Local' variety. Therefore, genotypes DGP-12-18-2 and DGP-12-18-1 can be recommended to produce for fresh green pod and seed yield at on-farm condition of Mid-Western Nepal.

Evaluation of Garden Pea (Pisum sativum var. hortense L.) Genotypes Under Irrigated and Rainfed Condition under Foothills of Terai Agro-ecological Region of West Bengal

The experiment was carried out to study the performance of garden pea genotypes for growth, yield and quality during rabi season (November to april) of 2017–18 and 2018–19 with the help of split plot design through three number of replications. The results of the study revealed that, early flowering, flowering at early node and days to first harvest was earlier by 2.32, 2.90 and 0.89 days, respectively in rainfed conditions. Yield parameters like individual plant yield, number of pods plant-1, individual pod weight and total fresh yield were significantly reduced by water stress condition. Number of nodules plant-1 (7.93) and nodule dry weight (97.01 g) decreased in rainfed conditions, whereas root length (22.33 cm) was higher in rainfed condition. Considering yield, benefit cost ratio and moisture stress tolerance of garden pea genotypes, TSS content of fresh seeds was higher in rainfed conditions. Quality parameters such as protein content and shelling percentage were higher in irrigated conditions. Ascorbic acid content remained unchanged under both growing conditions. The varieties such as Arka Apoorva, Arka Priya, Goldie and GS-10 may be selected for cultivation under both irrigated and rainfed conditions. On the basis of per se performance and drought tolerant indices Arka Apoorva, Arka Priya and Jindal-10 may be selected as suitable for growing under moisture stress condition in terai agro-ecological condition of West Bengal.

Analysis of Trait Association and Genetic Diversity in Garden Pea (Pisum sativum L.) Genotypes under Middle Gangetic Plain Region of India

Background: Garden pea is a cool season vegetable crop cultivated extensively throughout the world. Besides nutritional quality it also boosts soils through the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. The most important task of pea breeding is to develop varieties with high and stable production, different maturity types and resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses. To fulfil these objectives, analysis of genetic diversity is the prerequisite to choose genetically diverse parents for a successful hybridization program and to know the source of genes for a particular trait within the available germplasm. Methods: A study was conducted at ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR), Varanasi during 2015, using principle component analysis, correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis approaches to assess the genetic diversity present in 160 pea genotypes for the identification of diverse parents for use in crop improvement. Result: Based on the phenotypic data, three superior genotypes VRPD-2, VRPR-15 and VRP-292 were identified on the basis of pod yield, number of pods per plant, ten pod weight, pod length and number of seeds per pod whereas three other genotypes VRPE-45-1, VRPE-55 and VRPE-36 were found early flowering. Principle Component Analysis revealed that first four principle components contributed to 85% of the total variation so these four were given due importance for further explanation. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that number of pods per plant, ten pod weight and number of internode for first pod were the best predictors of pod yield per plant.

Phenotypic diversity of garden peas for ecological agricultural production

The aim of the present study was to determine the phenotypic diversity in 57 pea accessions determined by conventional CPVO descriptors. The study was conducted in the period 2019-2020 under irrigation conditions in the experimental field of the Maritsa Vegetable Crop Research Institute (MVCRI), Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Based on the analysis, the studied materials of peas do not have anthocyanin coloration; the majority of plants are medium tall with an average number of nodes up to and including the first fertile node; with green colour foliage; common leaf type; flecking stipules; white flowers and two pods per node. The pods are green, short and medium long with a medium width and the presence of a parchment; blunt shape of distal part (blunt ending); an average number of ovules from which develop an average of five light to dark green grains. Five groups of peas were differentiated according to the time of flowering according to CPVO-TQ / 007/2. The hierarchical cluster analysis was applied to identify the similarity and proximity of the garden pea accessions, and are grouped into two main clusters - A and B. The cluster B was the smallest and only genotype FR Ofe was involved in it with the highest values of the pod length and grains number per pod. Group "A" was divided into two subgroups: "A2" with genotype IZK-12, which differs in productivity expressed by the number and weight of pods and the weight of grains from a plant and subcluster "A1" with all other plant genotypes.

Application of biological products at cultivation of garden pea Pisum sativum l.

The possibilities of using the biological products “Trichodermine” (Trichoderma viride Pers ex Fr.), “Gliocladine” (Gliocladium virens Miller et al.) and the mycorrhizal activator “Rhizo VAM Basic” (Glomus intraradices Schenck&Smith) for control of fungal diseases in garden pea and and their impact on the biometric indicators of young plants were studied. Biological preparations based on antagonistic fungi Trichoderma viride and Gliocladium virens improve the phytosanitary condition of the plants, the mycorrhizal fungus Glomus intraradices stimulates the formation of the root system and tuber formation, but has a weak fungicidal effect against Fusarium wilt in this culture. The experiment was performed on an artificial infectious background by Fusarium oxysporum Schlecht. f. sp. pisi (Hal.) Raillo, isolated from diseased plants. The effect of application of the biological products“Trichodermine” and “Gliocladine” is 34-68%, from “Rhizo VAM Basic” - 8% compared to the infected control. The combined application of biological preparations with fungicidal and mycorrhizal action significantly protects the crop from infection with the causative agent of Fusarium wilt of garden pea.

Mapping B-Cell Epitopes for Nonspecific Lipid Transfer Proteins of Legumes Consumed in India and Identification of Critical Residues Responsible for IgE Binding

Nonspecific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) have been categorized as panallergens and display widespread occurrence across plant-kingdom. Present study, investigated B-cell epitopes for LTPs from chickpea, mung-bean, cowpea, pigeon-pea, and soybean via in silico methods. In-silico predicted regions were evaluated for epitope-conservancy and property-based peptide similarity search by different allergen databases. Additionally, the in-silico predicted regions were compared with the experimentally validated epitopes of peach-LTP. Sequence-homology studies showed that chickpea and mung-bean LTPs shared significant homology, i.e., >70% and >60%, respectively, with other LTP allergens from lentil, garden-pea, peanut, etc. Phylogenetic-analysis also showed chickpea and mung-bean LTPs to be closely related to allergenic LTPs from lentil and peanut, respectively. Epitope-conservation analysis showed that two of the predicted B-cell epitopic regions in chickpea and mung-bean LTPs were also conserved in other allergenic LTPs from peach, peanut, garden-pea, lentil, and green-bean, and might serve as conserved B-cell epitopes of the LTP protein family. Property-distance index values for chickpea and mung-bean LTPs also showed that most of the epitopes shared similarity with the reported allergens like-lentil, peanut, apple, plum, tomato, etc. Present findings, may be explored for identification of probable allergenicity of novel LTPs, on the basis of the reported conserved B-cell epitopes, responsible for potential cross-reactivity.