Assessment of Agro-Morphological Variability in a Durum Wheat Collection Maintained in the Moroccan Gene Bank

Durum wheat is one of the most important cereal crops in Morocco. The development of high-yielding varieties of durum wheat is one of the major goals of breeding programs in Morocco. Crop genetic diversity should play an essential role in this context. The objective of this study was to assess the genetic variation among 280 durum wheat accessions conserved at the Moroccan Gene Bank by using twelve agro-morphological characters. All accessions are planted in field conditions and arranged in augmented design. The results showed a large variability among the durum wheat accessions. Analysis of variance demonstrated significant to highly significant differentiation between the accessions for the most traits. The number of plants at the emergence stage, the biomass of the plant at the flowering stage, the chlorophyll content, and the number of spikes showed high genetic advance coupled with high heritability (broad sense). Moreover, highly significant coefficients of correlation were revealed between agro-morphological characters offering the possibility of direct or indirect selection. The first two axes of the principal component analysis explained 45% of the total variation and showed that Moroccan landraces and North American cultivars shared similar morphological characters. However, Moroccan cultivars have shown better agronomic characters. This important agro-morphological variation should be utilized as a gene pool in durum wheat improvement to develop novel varieties with high productivity and the best quality.

Selection and evaluation the corn lines from multiple-cross progeny based on targeted selection environment on acid soil

Development of tolerant variety can be conducted in the targeted area. It will increase efficiency in producing the acid-tolerant lines. However, the availability of diversity is key in selection. Multiple crosses or crosses between F1 hybrids can be one approach in creating high population diversity. Therefore, the development and selection of offspring of the selfing 1 generation from a cross of two hybrids can be a solution in producing tolerant lines. This study aimed to select multiple-cross maize lines in the generation S1 in an acidic environment. The research was carried out from August to November 2019 at the Maros Cereal Research Center, South Sulawesi. This study was designed with an Augmented Design as an experimental design and a randomized block design as an environmental design. The lines used consisted of 100 S1 lines from crosses of NK7328/HJ28 that did not repeat and six comparison varieties, namely NK7328, HJ28, Sukmaraga, Srikandi Kuning, Bima-9, and Piooner 36 repeated in each block. Based on the results of this study, the evaluation of maize S1 lines under acid soil showed a good variability, especially on generative traits. The ear weight is the best secondary character supported the Grain weight per Ear as the main character. The result of selection showed that 20 S1 lines recommended to selfing cross for continued on the next generation.

Phenological, Morphological and Yield based Characterization of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Germplasm Lines

Background: The characterization of chickpea genetic resources is a vital step to explore genetic variability in breeding programs. In the present study, we characterized 90 germplasm lines of desi chickpea collected across the Indian chickpea growing region. The identified trait-specific germplasm lines will be used as a valuable genetic resource for the chickpea improvement programme. Methods: An experiment was conducted in augmented design to characterize germplasm lines of chickpea for 13 qualitative and 17 quantitative agro-morphological traits under Bundelkhand agro-climatic conditions. Result: Ample variation was observed for qualitative and quantitative traits. The study revealed that the presences of high variability in qualitative and quantitative traits are useful in the identification of plant genotype for a specific trait, genetic purity analysis, germplasm conservation and also possible use of potential genotype in the breeding program.

Evaluation of Hararge coffee (Coffea arabica L.) landraces for moisture stress tolerance

Arabica Coffee is an important export commodity for Ethiopia, contributing 25 to 30 % of the country’s total foreign exchange earnings. Moisture stress is one of the major constraints of coffee production in Hararge, Eastern Ethiopia. Moisture stress affects the growth, yield and quality of coffee. Local coffee landraces are source of desirable traits including moisture stress tolerance. Accordingly, this study was conducted to evaluate Hararge coffee landraces for moisture stress tolerance. Treatments consisted of 200 coffee landraces (178 from seven districts of east Hararge Zone and 22 from two districts of west Hararge Zone). The coffee landraces were field planted in July 2005 at Mechara Agricultural Research Center using augmented design with six trees per plot or accessions. Moisture stress tolerance was recorded from three randomly selected coffee trees per plot, three times a day (in the morning, noon and night) from January 05 to 25, 2014. The stress tolerance was determined using 1-5 scale by visual scoring (1- all leaves green and turgid, 2- most leaves still turgid but younger leaves show leaf folding; 3- all leaves wilt or fold, 4- Leaves partially turning pales, and partly shed showing severe wilting and 5-leaves completely turning brown and dry, mostly dropping). The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The result of this study revealed that the coffee landraces varied in their level of tolerance to moisture stress. The 200 coffee landraces were grouped into seven clusters based on their level of tolerance to moisture stress. Nine coffee landraces (4.5%) were highly tolerant to moisture stress, 25 (12.5%) were tolerant, and 36 (18%) were moderately tolerant. On the other hand, 60 coffee landraces (30%) were less tolerant; while 57 (28.5%), 11(5.5%) and 2 (1%) were moderately sensitive, sensitive and highly sensitive to moisture stress, in that order. There was variation in coffee landraces for moisture stress tolerance both between and within areas of the collection. Hence, it is advisable to maintain and use promising coffee landraces in coffee breeding. Screening of the landraces under controlled conditions like green house and studying of mechanisms of moisture stress is also the way forward.

Silicon Die with Integrated Epoxy for Improved Interface Adhesion

Breakthroughs and innovations are constantly being developed in electronic packaging industry to address the manufacturing challenges and overcome existing assembly limitations. An augmented design of thin Silicon die is introduced to establish a robust and improved interface adhesion between the die and the die attach material during the die attach process. The wafer preparation flow is also presented. The realization of the augmented die design with integrated epoxy material would ultimately provide a robust connection and would mitigate the die attach related issues such delamination, die cracks and voids.

Evaluation and identification of promising advanced breeding lines for quality and yield traits in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

Kernel size coupled with the nutritional quality will determine the worth of groundnut for direct consumption or export. Focusing on this objective one hundred and fifty advanced breeding lines (ABLs) in both Spanish and Virginia botanical varieties were evaluated with four checks under Augmented Design during Kharif, 2018 at ICAR- Directorate of Groundnut Research, Junagadh, Gujarat. Significant difference was observed for days to 50% flowering, hundred pod weight (g), hundred kernel weight (g), sound mature kernel (%), shelling percent, pod weight per plant (g), and protein percent. Pod yield per plant (g) registered highest estimates of GCV and PCV. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean was recorded for 100 pod weight (g), 100 kernel weight (g), sound mature kernel percentage and pod yield per plant (g) traits which indicates a significant role of additive gene action for inheritance of these traits which may be exploited through simple selection methods. Eleven genotypes viz., PBS 19013, PBS 19015, PBS 19018, PBS 29079 B, PBS 29082, PBS 29124, PBS 29167, PBS 29196, PBS 29197, PBS 29212 and PBS 29219 had good confectionery quality traits viz., large seed size (HKW: >55 g; KL: >1.5cm and KW: >0.7cm), high protein (>30%), high total soluble sugar (>5 %), moderate oil (42- 48%), uniform pod size and shape, high pod yield per plant (> 10g) and good shelling percentage (>60%). These promising genotypes can directly be released as a variety after testing in multi-location AICRP-G trials or can be used in hybridization programmes as donor parents for improving confectionery qualities in groundnut.

Trait Based Modelling Approach for Selection of Elite Germplasm Accessions in Soybean [Glycine max (L). Merrill]

Background: Identification of suitable factors that influence significantly to the response is crucial for the traits based breeding program to make a better decision about improvement in productivity. Multiple linear regression (MLR) is the benchmark method commonly using to identify suitable factors for crop improvement. It doesn’t work always due to stringent assumption (Multicollinearity, Linearity) behind the MLR model. Here we tried to develop an efficient model for the selection of major traits that contribute to seed yield in soybean by comparing different models.Methods: Field experiment was conducted using 98 soybean core population through augmented design.18 morphometric traits obtain from soybean core population were considered under the study as regressors.Multiple linear regression (MLR), Principle component Regression (PCR), Regression tree and Random Forest models were compared to select traits based on prediction accuracy.Result: All the models identified the number of pods per plant (NPP) has the most influencing variable to the soybean yield. However random forest has a much higher prediction power (RMSE=4.59, MAPE=0.18) compared to other models under study. The results of random forest revealed that the number of pods per plant, number of branches per plant and other associated characters like plant height at harvest as highly influencing traits for seed yield in soybean.Finally, tried to identify genotypesthat possess superiority about most influencing morphological characters on seed yield using cluster analysis.

Responses and screening of white jute (Corchorus capsularis L.) genotypes against salinity stresses

Soil salinity, a serious threat to jute cultivation in saline areas (southern parts) of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) has developed a moderately salt tolerant White Jute variety (BJRI Deshi pat-8; BJC 2197) in 2013 which can’t grow well in saline areas having more than 8.0 dSm-1 salinity stress. Hence, 23 whitejute accessions and one control variety (BJC 2197) were tested to isolate the salt tolerant accession(s) for hybridization purpose followed by augmented design in farmers’ field having nearly 8.0-9.0 dSm-1 salinity at Patuakhali district during mid-March to mid-August 2019. The experimental plot size was 3.0 m2 (3 m × 1 m) for each genotype having 3 lines of 1.0 m length, plant-plant: 10-15 cm and line- line: 30 cm distance. Soil salinity was recorded during sowing, vegetative and plant maturity stages. In this study, the highest plant height 2.84 m was recorded in Acc. 2750 followed by Acc. 2589 (2.76 m) and Acc. 1779 (2.69 m). The highest fiber yield (9.0 g plant-1) was observed in Acc. 1779 followed by Acc. 2589 (8.40 g plant-1) and Acc. 2750 (8.0 g plant-1). The lowest plant mortality rate (2.5%) was found in Acc.2750 followed by Acc.1779 (6.24%), Acc. 1780 (7.50), Acc. 3556 (11.10%), Acc. 2589 (11.20%) and BJC 2197 (16.5%). Few seeds were germinated in Acc. 3020 and Acc. 3658 but plants were died after 20 days of sowing. Six genotypes of cluster I showed higher diversity in Euclidean cluster analysis. The Acc. 2750, Acc. 1779, Acc. 2589 of cluster I having relative salinity tolerance and good fiber yield capacity would be grown in next year for confirmation as well as hybridization with the existing salinity susceptible variety to develop high yielding white jute variety for saline areas.

Augmented Leadframe Design for Stable Multi-Wire Ground Bonding

Technological change has brought the global market into broad industrialization and modernization. One major application in the semiconductor industry demands safety and high reliability with strict compliance requirement. This technical paper focuses on the package design solution of quad-flat no leads (QFN) to mitigate the leadframe bouncing and its consequent effect of lifted wire and/or non-stick on leads (NSOL) defects on multi-wire ground connection. Multi-wire on single lead ground (or simply Gnd) connection plays critical attribute in the test coverage risk assessment. Cases of missing wire and/or NSOL on the multi-wire Gnd connection cannot be detected at test resulting to Bin1 (good) instead of Bin5 (open) failure. To ease the failure modes mechanism, a new design of QFN leadframe package with lead-to-diepad bridge-type connection was conceptualized for device with extended leads and with multiple Gnd wires connection. The augmented design would provide better stability than the existing leadframe configurations during wirebonding. Ultimately, the design would help eliminate potential escapees at test of lifted Gnd wire not detected.