Androgenesis—Technology for Obtaining Genetically Stable Breeding Material of Capsicum annuum L.

Androgenesis in vitro is a basic method of obtaining haploid plants and DH (doubled haploid) lines of major crops such as potato, rapeseed, tomato, pepper, wheat, maize, and barley, and also many different minor crops and species with lower agricultural impact. Diploid plants appearing among androgenic regenerants are the effect of spontaneous doubling of the chromosome number in haploid cells during an embryo’s early developmental stages and are valuable fully homozygous breeding material. The subject of the presented research is spontaneous diploidization occurring in the development of androgenic, haploid pepper regenerants. In the presented experiment, the formation of diploid seeds was observed in the progeny of an androgenic, haploid plant derived in an anther culture of a hybrid (Capsicum annuum L. ATZ × Capsicum annuum L. `Corno di toro`)F2. Agromorphological and molecular analyses concerned eight diploid plants being progeny of the anther-derived haploid regenerant. Five of the plants constituted a phenotypically balanced group with valuable agromorphological features. Their genetic homogeneity was confirmed using 10 RAPD markers and 16 ISSR markers. Based on the results, it was concluded that anther-derived haploid plants of Capsicum can be the source of diploid, apomictic seeds, and the obtained offspring may constitute genetically stable, valuable breeding material.

Minor Crops: A Path towards Crop Diversification

With passage of time, there has been paradigm shift observed in dietary intake of people henceforth disturb­ing the balance of nutrients required by the body. Due to the leap towards major cereal crops to feed the growing population, impetus towards minor crops have observed a continuous decline. This ap­proach have also led to emergence of various nutritional deficiencies. Though these crops are neglected but are treasure house of various nutrients needed for all-round development of an individual. This re­view examines and compares the nutritional aspects of major cereal crops to minor crops and also dis­cusses the abundant health benefits provided by few minor crops, as well their prevalence in context to Indian subcontinent.

Persistence and Degradation Pattern of Acequinocyl and Its Metabolite, Hydroxyl-acequinocyl and Fenpyroximate in Butterburs (Petasites Japonicus Max.)

Degradation patterns and persistence of acequinocyl and its metabolite, hydroxyl-acequinocyl (acequinocyl-OH), and fenpyroximate residues in butterburs (Petasites japonicus Max.), one of the minor crops in Republic of Korea, were investigated during cultivation. Butterburs were planted in two plots (plot A for double dose; plot B for single dose) in a greenhouse. Each pesticide was applied to the foliage of butterburs at hourly intervals. Recoveries of acequinocyl and acequinocyl-OH were 78.6%−84.7% ± relative standard deviation (RSD) 1.9%−4.8% and 83.7%−95.5% ± RSD 1.0%−3.6%, respectively. The total (Ʃ) of acequinocyl residues in butterburs disappeared by 96.0% at 14 days after the final application in plot A and by 75.9% at 7 days in plot B. The biological half-life of the total (Ʃ) acequinocyl and fenpyroximate was 3.0 days and 4.0 days respectively. These results were used for setting maximum residue levels and safe use standards for the pesticide during butterbur cultivation. The risk assessment showed that the maximum % acceptable daily intake was 4.71% for Ʃ acequinocyl and 8.81% for fenpyroximate. The theoretical maximum daily intake of Ʃ acequinocyl and fenpyroximate were 24.02% and 15.24%, respectively, indicating the concentrations of Ʃ acequinocyl and fenpyroximate in butterburs pose no health risks to Koreans.

Morpho-Physiological Response and Production Potential of Promising Mungbean Cultivars under Varying Planting Dates

Optimization of planting dates under any climatic conditions is pre-requisite to improve the yield and quality of the major and minor crops. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential of various mungbean cultivars for morpho-physiological and yield traits under different planting dates. In this pot study twenty mungbean cultivars (MGP-17, DM-D4, C5/95-3-31, C6/95-3-8, 5-63-94, TM-1407, MGP-01, NM-11, MGP-41, 5-63-1, MGP-16, NM20-21, MUNG-88, NM-121-25, RAMZAN, NM-2016, NM-19-19, 1099, NM-51 and NM13-1) were planted on July 01 and August 01. Results revealed that various planting dates significantly affected all the attributes, however, genotypic variation was observed among the cultivars. Delayed planting reduced the stand establishment attributes as mean germination time (1.90%), germination index (3.10%), final germination percentage (7.34%), seedling growth including shoot length (14.88%), root length (23.31%), number of leaves (23.04%), leaf area (5.74%) and number of nodules (13.02%). Likely, gas exchange traits including photosynthetic rate (15.71%), transpiration rate (17.09%), sub-stomatal CO2 concentration (2.39%), stomatal conductance (30.56%), SPAD chlorophyll contents (7.42%) and water use efficiency (3.28%) were also reduced. Among morphological traits, various planting dates also reduced the number of pods per plant (5.04%), length of the pod (5.69%), number of grains per pod (28.68%) and 1000-grains weight (7.05%). Differential responses of all the mungbean cultivars were observed for all the pragmatic traits. Delayed planting significantly reduced the morpho-physiological and yield attributes of all mungbean cultivars. However, two mungbean cultivars (NM-121-25 and NM-2016) relatively performed better with minimum reductions in growth, yield and physiological attributes even in delayed planting while the DM-D4 and TM-1407 were found to be the most sensitive in delayed planting than other tested cultivars. Therefore, mungbean cultivars NM-121-25 and NM-2016 can be sown in late sown conditions to get higher yield. © 2021 Friends Science Publishers

Constitutive and Induced Salt Tolerance Mechanisms and Potential Uses of Limonium Mill. Species

Limonium is one of the most interesting and biodiverse genera of halophytes, with many species adapted to saline environments. Limonium species have a promising potential as cultivated minor crops as many have ornamental value, or are already used as medicinal plants. Other species are marketed as gourmet food or can be used for decontamination of polluted soils. Design and implementation of specific breeding programmes are needed to fully realise this potential, based on the vast genetic variation and high stress tolerance of wild species within the genus. Most Limonium species are halophytes, but many are also resistant to drought, especially those from the Mediterranean and other arid regions. Such species constitute attractive models for basic research on the mechanisms of stress tolerance, both constitutive and induced. As typical recretohalopyhtes, with excretive salt glands, Limonium species possess remarkable morpho-anatomical traits. Salt tolerance in this genus relies also on ion accumulation in the leaves, the concomitant use of diverse osmolytes for osmotic adjustment, and the activation of efficient antioxidant systems.

The scale dependency of spatial crop species diversity and its relation to temporal diversity

Increasing crop species diversity can enhance agricultural sustainability, but the scale dependency of the processes that shape diversity and of the effects of diversity on agroecosystems is insufficiently understood. We used 30 m spatial resolution crop classification data for the conterminous United States to analyze spatial and temporal crop species diversity and their relationship. We found that the US average temporal (crop rotation) diversity is 2.1 effective number of species and that a crop’s average temporal diversity is lowest for common crops. Spatial diversity monotonically increases with the size of the unit of observation, and it is most strongly associated with temporal diversity when measured for areas of 100 to 400 ha, which is the typical US farm size. The association between diversity in space and time weakens as data are aggregated over larger areas because of the increasing diversity among farms, but at intermediate aggregation levels (counties) it is possible to estimate temporal diversity and farm-scale spatial diversity from aggregated spatial crop diversity data if the effect of beta diversity is considered. For larger areas, the diversity among farms is usually much greater than the diversity within them, and this needs to be considered when analyzing large-area crop diversity data. US agriculture is dominated by a few major annual crops (maize, soybean, wheat) that are mostly grown on fields with a very low temporal diversity. To increase crop species diversity, currently minor crops would have to increase in area at the expense of these major crops.