Radiosensitivity of seedling traits to varying gamma doses, optimum dose determination and variation in determined doses due to different time of sowings after irradiation and methods of irradiation in faba bean genotypes.

PURPOSE: Three experiments were conducted to assess the effect of different doses of gamma radiation on various seedling traits; determine the optimum doses of gamma radiation for different faba bean genotypes; find out the variation in optimum doses with respect to the different times of sowings after irradiation and methods of irradiation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Five faba bean genotypes viz., L-2013-060, L-2013-092, Anandnagar Local, Gazipur Local and Bangla Gangachar were used in these experiments. In Experiment I, seeds of five experimental genotypes were exposed to different doses (100 Gy 200 Gy, 300 Gy, 400 Gy, 500 Gy, 600 Gy, 700 Gy and 800 Gy) of gamma radiation and were sown immediately after irradiation. In Experiment II, seeds of Bangla Gangachar and L-2013-060 were exposed to varying doses (100-800 Gy) of gamma radiation and were sown at seven sowings starting from 0 h to 24 h at 4-h intervals after irradiation. In Experiment III, L-2013-092 genotypes was exposed to different doses (100 -800 Gy) of gamma radiation with two different methods of irradiation. RESULTS: In Experiment I, the lethal dose 50 (LD50) values have arrived at 140 Gy, 669 Gy, 575 Gy, 386 Gy and 158 Gy for L-2013-060, L-2013-092, Anandnagar Local, Gazipur Local and Bangla Gangachar, respectively. The growth reduction 50 (GR50) doses for different seedling traits ranged from 130 Gy to 320 Gy for L-2013-060, 250 Gy to 480 Gy for L-2013-092, 130 Gy to 370 Gy for Anandnagar Local, 200 Gy to 350 Gy for Gazipur Local and 250 Gy to 400 Gy for Bangla Gangachar. In Experiment II, the values for LD50 of the genotypes Bangla Gangachar and L-2013-060 were significantly singular for different time intervals of sowing. The values of GR50 for most of the seedling traits were found to increase with the delay in sowing after irradiation from 4 to 24 h when compared with the immediately sown seed lots. In Experiment III, LD50 for L-2013-092 was 337 Gy with Method 1 and 669 Gy with Method 2. In Method 1, most of the growth parameters attained GR50 doses lower than Method 2. The first method was found to increase the radiosensitivity of L-2013-092. CONCLUSION: Every experimental genotype used in these three experiments showed dose-dependent retardation of different seedling traits. These optimized doses may be employed to establish mutant populations for exploiting the novel traits of faba bean. The time of sowing after irradiation and method of irradiation was found to be essential for confirming optimum doses.

Selection of Lentil (Lens Culinaris (Medik.)) Genotypes Suitable for High-Temperature Conditions Based on Stress Tolerance Indices and Principal Component Analysis.

Legumes, including lentil, are a valuable source of carbohydrates, fiber, protein and vitamins and minerals. Their nutritional characteristics have been associated with a reduction in the incidence of various cancers, HDL cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Among these quality parameters, lectins have been associated with reducing certain forms of cancer, activating innate defense mechanisms and managing obesity. Protease inhibitors such as trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitors have been demonstrated to reduce the incidence of certain cancers and demonstrate potent anti-inflammatory properties. Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor has been associated with a reduction in hypertension. Therefore, legumes, including lentils, should be part of our daily food intake. However, high temperatures at the terminal stage is a major abiotic constraint leading to a reduction in lentil yield and seed quality. Thus, the selection of heat-tolerant genotypes is essential to identifying the potential for high yields with stable performance. To select lentil genotypes, an experiment was conducted with 60 genotypes including local landraces, advanced breeding lines, commercial varieties and exotic germplasm under stress and non-stress conditions from 2019 to 2020. This study was followed by a subset study involving screening based on a few physicochemical parameters and reproductive traits along with field performances. Different tolerance indices (i.e., stress susceptible index (SSI), relative heat index (RHI), tolerance (TOL), mean productivity (MP), stress tolerance index (STI), geometric mean productivity (GMP), yield index (YI), yield stability index (YSI), heat-resistance index (HRI), modified stress-tolerance index (MSTI), abiotic tolerance index (ATI) and stress susceptibility percentage (SSPI)) were used for the selection of the genotypes along with field performance. Biplot analysis was further performed for choosing the most suitable indices. Based on principal components analysis, the GMP, MP, RRI, STI, YI, YSI, ATI and MSTI indices were identified as the most reliable stress indicators, and these indicators might be used for distinguishing heat-tolerant genotypes. Based on the stress indices, the genotypes BLX 05002-3, BLX 10002-20, LRIL-21-1-1-1-1, LRIL-21-1-1-1-1-6 and BLX 09015 were selected as the most stable and heat-tolerant genotypes. In contrast, the genotypes LG 198, Bagura Local, BLX 0200-08-4, RL-12-178, Maitree, 91517 and BLX 11014-8 were selected as the most heat sensitive. Data also exhibited an average yield reduction of 59% due to heat stress on the lentils. Moreover, eight heat-tolerant (HT) genotypes (BLX 09015, PRECOZ, LRL-21-112-1-1-1-1-6, BLX 05002-3, LR-9-25, BLX 05002-6, BARI Masur-8 and RL-12-181), and two heat-susceptible (HS) genotypes (BLX 12009-6, and LG 198) were selected from the screened genotypes and subjected to further analysis by growing them in the following year under similar conditions to investigate the mechanisms associated with heat tolerance. Comparative studies on reproductive function and physiochemical traits revealed significantly higher pollen viability, proline accumulation, relative water content, chlorophyll concentration and a lower membrane stability index in HT genotypes under heat stress. Therefore, these heat-tolerant genotypes could be used as the parents in the hybridization program for achieving heat-tolerant transgressive segregation.

Does oil impact gold during COVID-19 and three other recent crises?

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has inspired an examination of the oil-gold prices nexus during four recent crises: the COVID-19 pandemic, the gold market crash, the European sovereign debt crisis, and the global financial crisis. Using daily data from May 2007-August 2021, we employ the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag method to reveal five novel findings. First, this study contrasts with much of the literature, which infers that the relationship between oil and gold prices is strongly positive. Second, we find no oil and gold price relationship in the long term during all the crisis periods. Third, oil prices have substantially lost their power to predict gold prices in recent times and the oil-gold price linkage is not functional across all crisis periods. Fourth, in the short term, only negative Brent and negative West Texas Intermediate price changes cause positive gold price changes during the pandemic and gold market crash, respectively. Fifth, Brent prices have shown no link to gold prices before COVID-19. We argue that gold prices are less sensitive to oil prices than ever, and the uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 crisis has attracted investors to gold. Our main findings hold under robustness analyses using fractional cointegration/integration models, lag length, and heteroskedasticity-consistent standard errors.

Genotypic variation in root architectural traits under contrasting phosphorus levels in Mediterranean and Indian origin lentil genotypes.

The development of phosphorus-efficient crop cultivars boosts productivity while lowering eutrophication in the environment. It is feasible to improve the efficiency of phosphorus (P) absorption in lentils by enhancing phosphorus absorption through root architectural traits. The root architectural traits of 110 diverse lentil genotypes of Indian and Mediterranean origin were assessed, and the relationships between traits were investigated. In a hydroponics experiment, the lentil lines were examined at the seedling stage under two conditions: adequate P supply and deficient P supply. The Pearson correlation coefficients between root architectural traits and genetic diversity among lentil lines were assessed. To estimate variance components, a model (fixed factor) was used. In this experiment, both phosphorus (P) and genotype were fixed variables. Our lentil lines showed significant genetic variability and considerable genetic diversity for all traits under both treatments. The TRL (total root length) and PRL (primary root length) showed strong positive associations with all other characteristics excluding root average diameter (RAD) in both P treatments. In both P treatments, the RAD revealed a negative significant association with Total Root Tips (TRT), as well as total root volume (TRV) and total root forks (TRF) in the deficit conditions of P. Total root volume (TRV), total surface area (TSA), and total root tips had higher coefficient variance values. The first two principal components represented 67.88% and 66.19% of the overall variance in the adequate and deficit P treatments respectively. The Shannon-Weaver diversity index (H') revealed that RAD, PRL, and TSA had more variability than TRT and TRF under both treatments. According to the Comprehensive Phosphorus Efficiency Measure (CPEM), the best five highly efficient genotypes are PLL 18-09, PLS 18-01, PLL 18-25, PLS 18-23, and PLL 18-07, while IG112131, P560206, IG334, L11-231, and PLS18-67 are highly inefficient genotypes. The above contrasting diverse lentil genotypes can be utilized to produce P-efficient lentil cultivars. The lentil germplasm with potentially favorable root traits can be suggested to evaluated for other abiotic stress to use them in crop improvement programme. The scientific breakthroughs in root trait phenotyping have improved the chances of establishing trait-allele relationships. As a result, genotype-to-phenotype connections can be predicted and verified with exceptional accuracy, making it easier to find and incorporate favourable nutrition-related genes/QTLs in to breeding programme.

Plot-level impacts of improved lentil varieties in Bangladesh.

The advent of improved lentil varieties (ILVs) in the mid-1990s solved the disease problem which almost halted lentil production in Bangladesh. Levels of adoption of ILVs have been documented in the literature, but little is known about their impacts. Applying an instrumental variables regression to data collected from a sample of 1,694 lentil plots and DNA fingerprinting for varietal identification, this study provides estimates of the plot-level impacts of adoption of ILVs in Bangladesh. Model results show that adoption of ILVs is associated with 14.3% (181.14 kg/ha) higher yields and 17.23% (US$169.44/ha) higher gross margins. Since 45% of lentil area is under ILVs, they generated over 8.77 tones (6%) more supply of lentils from domestic sources, saving the country US$8.22 million in imports in 2015 alone. By investing in the generation and scaling of ILVs, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries with similar agro-ecologies can increase production and decrease dependency on lentil imports.

Genetic diversity of Lathyrus sp collected from different geographical regions.

BACKGROUND: The demand for grass peas (Lathyrus sativus L.) had increased as high nutritional safe food, but most of the accessions of South Asia and Africa had low grain harvest. Therefore, this study had been undertaken to collect grass pea germplasm for boosting yields and quality improvement. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study, 400 accessions of grass pea from different geographical regions had characterized by using 56 Simple Sequences Repeat (SSRs) markers. In total 253 alleles were detected, the maximum and minimum polymorphic information content (PIC) indices were 0.70 and 0.34 found in markers G17922 and G18078, correspondingly. The germplasm was split into two main and one sub-group by cluster assay, by SSR assay, and three populations by model-based population structure analysis (Pop1, Pop2 and admixed). Neighbors joining tree assay showed the tested germplasm highly diverse in structure. Three-dimensional principal components analysis (PCA) and two dimensional principles coordinate analysis (PCoA) exhibited two main and one admixed group (P1, P2 and P1P2). In addition, FST population value of pairwise mean and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed high population structure across all pairs of populations on an average 0.1710 advocating all population structure categories varied significantly. The average predictable heterozygosity distant was 0.4472-0.4542 in same cluster for the individuals. CONCLUSION: Discovery from this study revealed SSR markers based polymorphic bands showed in the diversified grasspea germplasm which might be utilized as genetic resource of a breeding scheme and prospective uses for mapping analyses of recombinant inbred lines (RIL).

Do volatility indices diminish gold's appeal as a safe haven to investors before and during the COVID-19 pandemic?

This study addresses the research question of whether volatility indices of different asset classes reduce gold's appeal as a safe-haven asset before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use daily data for seven volatility indices and gold prices and apply the suitable nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag method to analyze the data. Our results indicate that during COVID-19, only the negative Eurocurrency volatility has diminished gold prices in the long term, whereas in the short term, the positive gold, silver, emerging market, and (lagged) financial market volatilities have diminished gold prices. During the pre-COVID-19 normal period, volatilities in the financial, energy, gold, silver, and eurocurrency markets improved gold prices, whereas in the short term, only lagged negative oil volatility diminished gold prices. A robustness test for the 2011-2015 pre-COVID-19 period reveals that this period is to an extent comparable to that of COVID-19. This study reveals no direct effects from emerging markets volatility on gold prices. Notwithstanding, a long memory in gold prices persists and uneven spillover effects exist. Finally, those volatilities predominantly increase gold prices under the normal economic conditions but decrease gold's appeal as a safe haven during crises in the comparable periods. We delineate the implications for investors.

Comparative Inter- and IntraSpecies Transcriptomics Revealed Key Differential Pathways Associated With Aluminium Stress Tolerance in Lentil.

Aluminium stress causes plant growth retardation and engenders productivity loss under acidic soil conditions. This study accentuates morpho-physiological and molecular bases of aluminium (Al) tolerance within and between wild (ILWL-15) and cultivated (L-4602 and BM-4) lentil species. Morpho-physiological studies revealed better cyto-morphology of tolerant genotypes over sensitive under Al3+ stress conditions. Mitotic lesions were observed in root cells under these conditions. Transcriptome analysis under Al3+ stress revealed 30,158 specifically up-regulated genes in different comparison groups showing contigs between 15,305 and 18,861 bp. In tolerant genotypes, top up-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found to be involved in organic acid synthesis and exudation, production of antioxidants, callose synthesis, protein degradation, and phytohormone- and calcium-mediated signalling under stress conditions. DEGs associated with epigenetic regulation and Al3+ sequestration inside vacuole were specifically upregulated in wild and cultivars, respectively. Based on assembled unigenes, an average of 6,645.7 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and 14,953.7 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were spotted. By quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), 12 selected genes were validated. Gene ontology (GO) annotation revealed a total of 8,757 GO terms in three categories, viz., molecular, biological, and cellular processes. Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes pathway scanning also revealed another probable pathway pertaining to metacaspase-1,-4, and -9 for programmed cell death under Al-stress conditions. This investigation reveals key inter- and intraspecies metabolic pathways associated with Al-stress tolerance in lentil species that can be utilised in designing future breeding programmes to improve lentil and related species towards Al3+ stress.

Identification and morphological characterization of promising kabuli chickpea genotypes for short-season environment in central India.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important food legume crop grown in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. In India, kabuli chickpea is grown in central India in ~0.5 million ha, predominantly under short winter (<110 days). Efforts are underway to select promising genotypes at the Food Legume Research Platform (FLRP), Amlaha, located in intensive kabuli chickpea growing area of India. Sixty-four kabuli chickpea lines were evaluated for agronomic traits during 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 crop seasons at FLRP following simple 8 X 8 lattice design with two replications. The analysis of variance over two years revealed significant variation exists for days to flowering, plant height, maturity period, biomass, seed size and seed yield. It was observed that with similar maturity time (106 days), FLIP09-432C produced 2273 kg/ha, which out-yielded the popular variety in central India, JGK-3 by 15%. The breeding lines, FLIP09- 436C, FLIP09-171C, FLIP09-373C and FLIP09-247C were also found promising for earliness (104-110 days), and high yielding with the good yield ability (1003-2273 kg/ha). These promising genotypes for a short duration with good yield have been selected and can be used for various chickpea breeding programmes to develop high yielding varieties in central India.

Evaluation of disease resistant and high yielding faba bean germplasm in India.

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is one of the earliest domesticated food legumes after chickpea and pea in the world. It is been produced in many countries including China, Ethiopia, Egypt, northern Europe, the Mediterranean region, central Asia, East Asia, Latin America and as a minor crop in India. The crop is affected by many diseases and alternaria leaf blight (Alternaria spp.) is one of the serious threat to faba bean production. Twenty-five lines of faba bean were selected from three international nurseries and were evaluated at ICARDA-FLRP-Amlaha during 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, to identify resistant lines against alternaria blight disease. A wide range of variation to disease reaction was observed among faba bean genotypes. One faba bean line (S2011-134) found tolerant, six genotypes (S2011-116, FLIP15-139, FLIP15-156, FLIP15-159, FLIP15-164-S2 and FLIP15-169) were found moderately tolerant and 16 genotypes were found susceptible to alternaria blight. The faba bean genotypes showed resistance to the disease scoring (0-9) with high yield as compared to the checks, Giza and Gwalior local. The identified sources of resistance can be utilized in faba bean breeding programmes for the development of disease tolerant cultivars with high yield.

Ecological perspectives on water, food, and health security linkages: the Minamata case in Japan.

Extant studies address water, food, and health security issues considerably separately and within narrow disciplinary confines. This study investigates the links among these three issues from an ecological viewpoint with a multidisciplinary approach in a modified Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework developed by the United Nations. The modified framework includes water, food, and health security considerations as the three constituents of human well-being from an ecological (more specifically, ecosystem services) viewpoint. This study examines the links through published data associated with the Minamata incident, which was a historic and horrific methylmercury-induced water, food, and health poisoning crisis in Japan. The results show that when heavy metal pollution changes one component (marine water) of the provisioning ecosystem services, this change subsequently affects another component (seafood) of the services. This then defines the linkages among water, food, and health security as the three constituents of human well-being within the modified framework. The links can have immediate and far-reaching economic, social, legal, ethical, and justice implications within and across generations. This study provides important evidence for emerging economies that ignore the water-food-health security nexus.

Rediscovering the Potential of Multifaceted Orphan Legume Grasspea- a Sustainable Resource With High Nutritional Values.

The genus Lathyrus consists of more than 184 herbaceous annual and perennial species suitable for multifaceted sustainable food and feed production system in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. The grasspea is a promising source of protein nutrition. However, its potential is not being utilized fully due to the presence of neurotoxin content (ß-N-oxalyl-l-α, ß diaminopropionic acid, ß-ODAP), a causal agent of non-reversible lower limbs paralysis. The high protein contents in seeds and leaves with ~90% digestibility make it sustainable super food to beat protein malnutrition in future. Therefore, it is desired to breed new grasspea cultivars with low ß-ODAP contents. Limited research has been carried out to date about this feature. A draft genome sequence of grasspea has been recently published that is expected to play a vital role in breeding and identifying the genes responsible for biosynthesis pathway of ß-ODAP contents in grasspea. Efforts to increase awareness about the importance of genus Lathyrus and detoxify ß-ODAP in grasspea are desired and are in progress. Presently, in South Asia, systematic and dedicated efforts to support the farmers in the grasspea growing regions by disseminating low ß-ODAP varieties has resulted in a considerable improvement in reducing the incidence of neurolathyrism. It is expected that the situation will improve further by mainstreaming grasspea cultivation by implementing different approaches such as the development and use of low ß-ODAP varieties, strengthening government policies and improved detox methods. The present review provides insight into the multifaceted characteristics of sustainable nutritious grasspea in the global and Indian perspective.

Agro-Morphological Characterization of Lentil Germplasm of Indian National Genebank and Development of a Core Set for Efficient Utilization in Lentil Improvement Programs.

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is one of the major cool-season pulse crops worldwide. Its increasing demand as a staple pulse has led to the unlocking of diverse germplasm collections conserved in the genebanks to develop its superior varieties. The Indian National Genebank, housed at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi, India, currently has 2,324 accessions comprising 1,796 indigenous and 528 exotic collections. This study was conducted to unveil the potential of lentil germplasm by assessing its agro-morphological characteristics and diversity, identifying trait-specific germplasm, and developing a core set. The complete germplasm set was characterized for two years, i.e., 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, and data were recorded on 26 agro-morphological traits. High phenotypic variability was observed for nine quantitative and 17 qualitative traits. A core set comprising 170 accessions (137 Indian and 33 exotic) was derived based on the characterization data as well as geographical origin using a heuristic method and PowerCore software. This core set was found to be sufficiently diverse and representative of the entire collection based on the comparison made using Shannon-Weaver diversity indices and χ2 test. These results were further validated by summary statistics. The core set displayed high genetic diversity as evident from a higher coefficient of variance in comparison to the entire set for individual traits and overall Shannon-Weaver diversity indices (entire: 1.054; core: 1.361). In addition, the total variation explained by the first three principal components was higher in the core set (70.69%) than in the entire collection (68.03%). Further, the conservation of pairwise correlation values among descriptors in the entire and core set reflected the maintenance of the structure of the whole set. Based on the results, this core set is believed to represent the entire collection, completely. Therefore, it constitutes a potential set of germplasm that can be used in the genetic enhancement of lentils.

Do currency exchange rates impact gold prices? New evidence from the ongoing COVID-19 period.

We apply the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag method to examine the relationships between seven leading currency exchange rates and gold prices using daily data from January 2017 to April 2021. The results reveal that in the short term, while negative United States dollar (USD) to United Kingdom pound, negative USD to Canadian dollar, negative USD to Japanese yen, negative USD to Danish krone, and positive USD to euro exchange rates increase gold prices, a lagged positive USD to euro and lagged positive USD to Danish krone exchange rates decrease gold prices. A test of the pre-pandemic normal period reveals that the uneven and unpredictable impacts of six exchange rates on gold prices are particularly due to COVID-19. We find efficiency in the gold market, in line with the market efficiency hypothesis and random walk theory. Our findings indicate that gold acts as a safe-haven asset for investors during COVID-19.

Identification of Allelic Variation in Drought Responsive Dehydrin Gene Based on Sequence Similarity in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.).

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an economically important food legume grown in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Chickpea is cultivated mainly in the rainfed, residual moisture, and restricted irrigation condition. The crop is always prone to drought stress which is resulting in flower drop, unfilled pods, and is a major yield reducer in many parts of the world. The present study elucidates the association between candidate gene and morpho-physiological traits for the screening of drought tolerance in chickpea. Abiotic stress-responsive gene Dehydrin (DHN) was identified in some of the chickpea genotypes based on the sequence similarity approach to play a major role in drought tolerance. Analysis of variance revealed a significant effect of drought on relative water content, membrane stability index, plant height, and yield traits. The genotypes Pusa1103, Pusa362, and ICC4958 were found most promising genotypes for drought tolerance as they maintained the higher value of osmotic regulations and yield characters. The results were further supported by a sequence similarity approach for the dehydrin gene when analyzed for the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and indels. Homozygous indels and single nucleotide polymorphisms were found after the sequencing in some of the selected genotypes.

Evaluation and identification of wild lentil accessions for enhancing genetic gains of cultivated varieties.

Domesticated lentil has a relatively narrow genetic base globally and most released varieties are susceptible to severe biotic and abiotic stresses. The crop wild relatives could provide new traits of interest for tailoring novel germplasm and cultivated lentil improvement. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate wild lentil accessions for identification of economically viable agro-morphological traits and resistance against major biotic stresses. The study has revealed substantial variations in seed yield and its important component characters. Further, the diversity analysis of wild accessions showed two major clusters which were bifurcated into sub-clusters, thereby suggesting their wider genetic divergence. However, principal component analysis exhibited that seed yield plant-1, number of seeds plant-1, number of pods plant-1, harvest index and biological yield plant-1 contributed significantly to the total genetic variation assessed in wild lentil taxa. Moreover, some of the wild accessions collected from Syria and Turkey regions showed resistance against more than one disease indicating rich diversity of lentil genetic resources. The identification of most promising genotypes carrying resistance against major biotic stresses could be utilized in the cultivated or susceptible varieties of lentil for enhancing genetic gains. The study has also identified some trait specific accessions, which could also be taken into the consideration while planning distant hybridization in lentil.

Transgressive segregations for agronomic improvement using interspecific crosses between C. arietinum L. x C. reticulatum Ladiz. and C. arietinum L. x C. echinospermum Davis species.

The wild species of chickpea have tremendous potential for enhancing genetic gains of cultigen and have resistant accessions against major biotic and abiotic stresses. In the present study, two wild annual accessions, one each of C. reticulatum Ladiz. (ILWC 229) and C. echinospermum Davis (ILWC 246) were assessed for their agro-morphological features and hybridized with different cultivated varieties (BGD 72, PBG 5, ICKG 96029, Pusa 372 and JG 11) of chickpea. Fertile F1 plants were developed as revealed by their normal meiotic chromosomal configuration including high pollen stainability percentage and seed set. The effect of genetic and non-genetic factors on crossability performance with respect to pod and seed set was also evident under two growing conditions of North-Western Indian Himalayas. The segregation analysis using F2 phenotypic ratio of some distinct morphological (plant growth habit, stem pigmentation at seedling stage and testa texture) characters indicated their monogenic inheritance pattern. The study would also be useful to chickpea breeders to identify true to type interspecific plants. Further, the F1, F2 and F3 generations of all seven crosses along with parents were evaluated under natural field condition to determine the extent of variability created into the cultivated background of chickpea. There was a wide range of variation in F3 population against cold stress, suggesting selection of tolerant recombinant lines at an early stage. We also studied fruitful heterosis (%) as a useful approach, instead of residual heterosis to identify better performing transgressive segregants. The values of most of the interspecific crosses for important traits assessed in F2 and F3 generations were higher than that of better parent, suggesting isolation of inbred vigour for pod numbers and earliness. The results indicated that wild Cicer annual accessions of C. reticulatum and C. echinospermum species can be exploited after proper screening for traits of interest for diversification of cultivated gene pool and subsequent use in chickpea improvement.

Analysis of genetic variability and genotype × environment interactions for iron and zinc content among diverse genotypes of lentil.

Deficiencies of iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) are major problems in developing countries especially for woman and preschool children. Biofortification of staple food crops is a sustainable approach to improve human mineral intake via daily diet. Objectives of this study were to (1) determine the genetic variability for Fe and Zn content in cultivated indigenous and exotic lentil genotypes, and (2) determine the effect of genetic (G) × environmental (E) interaction on Fe and Zn content in 96 lentil genotypes grown in India over the 2 years. Significant genetic variability was observed for Fe and Zn content in lentil genotypes. Content ranged from 71.3 to 126.2 mg/kg for Fe, and 40.1 to 63.6 mg/kg for Zn. For Fe, cultivars and parental lines (71.3-126.2 mg/kg) showed slightly higher content than the breeding lines (76.8-124.3 mg/kg). For Zn, content were similar for both cultivars and breeding lines. However, year and the genotype × year interaction were significant for both Fe and Zn. Broad sense heritability estimates were found to be 45.8, 45.4 and 40.1 for Fe; 30.0, 63.0 and 69.0 for Zn content in breeding lines, cultivars/parental lines, and exotic lines, respectively. These heritability estimates indicated the potential of these lentil genotypes towards genetic improvement for increased Fe and Zn content using hybridization and selection over several generations. Significant positive correlation of Fe content and seed weight suggested a selection strategy for developing large seeded lentil for accumulation of more Fe in the seeds. No correlation was observed between Fe and Zn content. Further, recombination of Fe and Zn content is possible by developing recombination breeding. Thus present study findings would be useful in future for mapping and tagging the genes/QTL controlling Fe and Zn content and developing the improved biofortified cultivars.

Bio-fortification potential of global wild annual lentil core collection.

Lentil, generally known as poor man's' meat due to its high protein value is also a good source of dietary fiber, antioxidants and vitamins along with fast cooking characteristics. It could be used globally as a staple food crop to eradicate hidden hunger, if this nutritionally rich crop is further enriched with essential minerals. This requires identification of essential mineral rich germplasm. So, in the present study, a core set of 96 wild accessions extracted from 405 global wild annual collections comprising different species was analyzed to determine its bio-fortification potential. Impressive variation (mg/100 g) was observed for different minerals including Na (30-318), K (138.29-1578), P (37.50-593.75), Ca (4.74-188.75), Mg (15-159), Fe (2.82-14.12), Zn (1.29-12.62), Cu (0.5-7.12), Mn (1.22-9.99), Mo (1.02-11.89), Ni (0.16-3.49), Pb (0.01-0.58), Cd (0-0.03), Co (0-0.63) and As (0-0.02). Hierarchical clustering revealed high intra- and inter-specific variability. Further, correlation study showed positive significant association among minerals and between minerals including agro-morphological traits. Accessions representation from Turkey and Syria had maximum variability for different minerals. Diversity analysis exhibited wide geographical variations across gene-pool in core set. Potential use of the identified trait-specific genetic resources could be initial genetic material, for genetic base broadening and biofortification of cultivated lentil.

Reducing anti-nutritional factor and enhancing yield with advancing time of planting and zinc application in grasspea in Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is an important pulse crop for food, feed and sustainable crop production systems in Ethiopia. Despite its advantages in nutrition and adaptability to harsh climate and low fertile soil, it contains a neurotoxin, ß-N-oxalyl-α,ß-diamiono propionic acid (ß-ODAP), which paralyses the lower limbs and is affected by genotypic and agronomic factors. To determine the effect of zinc application and planting date on yield and ß-ODAP content of two genotypes, experiments were conducted in two regions of Ethiopia. RESULTS: The main effects of variety, sowing date and zinc and their interactions were significant (P < 0.001) for ß-ODAP and seed yield, which had a linear relationship with zinc. For the improved grasspea variety, an application of 20 kg ha-1 zinc showed a reduction of ß-ODAP from 0.15% to 0.088% at Debre Zeit and 0.14% to 0.08% at Sheno and increased its yield from 841 kg ha-1 to 2260 kg ha-1 at Debre Zeit and from 715 to 1835 kg ha-1 at Sheno. Early sowing showed a reduction in ODAP content in relation to the late sowing. CONCLUSION: An application of Zn beyond even 20 kg ha-1 with an early sowing is recommended for the improved variety. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.