RESUMEN
In this study, an extensive exploration survey of wild progeny was conducted which yielded 18 candidate plus trees (CPTs) of Terminalia bellerica. Seeds of these CPTs were collected from diverse locations between 10°54' and 28°07' E longitude, and 76°27' and 95°32' N latitude, covering 18 different locations across 5 states of the Indian subcontinent. The objective of the progeny trial was to assess genetic associations and variability in growth and physio-chemical characteristics. Significant variations (p < 0.05) were observed among the growth traits, encompassing plant height, basal diameter, girth at breast height and volume, as well as physio-chemical characteristics such as leaf length, width, area and chlorophyll content, carotenoids, and protein in the progeny trial. Broad-sense heritability (h2b) estimates were consistently high, exceeding 80% for all growth and physiological related traits under investigation except for plant height, leaf length, and girth at breast height. A correlation study revealed that selecting based on plant height, leaf area, and girth at breast height effectively enhances T. bellerica volume. A moderate genetic advance in percent of the mean (GAM) was observed for most traits, except leaf length, leaf width, girth at breast height, and plant height. Across all 13 traits, phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) surpassed genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV). Utilizing principal component analysis (PCA) and dendrogram construction categorized the genotypes into seven distinct groups. In conclusion, the study has demonstrated that targeting girth at breast height and plant height would be a highly effective strategy for the establishment of elite seedling nurseries and clonal seed nurseries for varietal and hybridization programs in the future.
RESUMEN
Traditional rice is gaining popularity worldwide due to its high nutritional and pharmaceutical value, as well as its high resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. This has attracted significant attention from breeders, nutritionists, and plant protection scientists in recent years. Hence, it is critical to investigate the grain metabolome to reveal germination and nutritional importance. This research aimed to explore non-targeted metabolites of five traditional rice varieties, viz., Chinnar, Chithiraikar, Karunguruvai, Kichili samba, and Thooyamalli, for their nutritional and therapeutic properties. Approximately 149 metabolites were identified using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) library and Human Metabolome Database (HMDB) and were grouped into 34 chemical classes. Major classes include fatty acids (31.1-56.3%), steroids and their derivatives (1.80-22.4%), dihydrofurans (8.98-11.6%), prenol lipids (0.66-4.44%), organooxygen compounds (0.12-6.45%), benzene and substituted derivatives (0.53-3.73%), glycerolipids (0.36-2.28%), and hydroxy acids and derivatives (0.03-2.70%). Significant variations in metabolite composition among the rice varieties were also observed through the combination of univariate and multivariate statistical analyses. Principal component analysis (PCA) reduced the dimensionality of 149 metabolites into five principle components (PCs), which explained 96% of the total variance. Two clusters were revealed by hierarchical cluster analysis, indicating the distinctiveness of the traditional varieties. Additionally, a partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) found 17 variables important in the projection (VIP) scores of metabolites. The findings of this study reveal the biochemical intricate and distinctive metabolomes of the traditional therapeutic rice varieties. This will serve as the foundation for future research on developing new rice varieties with traditional rice grain metabolisms to increase grain quality and production with various nutritional and therapeutic benefits.
