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Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa

In the imperial Gazetteer of India 1878, Pusa was recorded as a government estate of about 1350 acres in Darbhanba. It was acquired by East India Company for running a stud farm to supply better breed of horses mainly for the army. Frequent incidence of glanders disease (swelling of glands), mostly affecting the valuable imported bloodstock made the civil veterinary department to shift the entire stock out of Pusa. A British tobacco concern Beg Sutherland & co. got the estate on lease but it also left in 1897 abandoning the government estate of Pusa. Lord Mayo, The Viceroy and Governor General, had been repeatedly trying to get through his proposal for setting up a directorate general of Agriculture that would take care of the soil and its productivity, formulate newer techniques of cultivation, improve the quality of seeds and livestock and also arrange for imparting agricultural education. The government of India had invited a British expert. Dr. J. A. Voelcker who had submitted as report on the development of Indian agriculture. As a follow-up action, three experts in different fields were appointed for the first time during 1885 to 1895 namely, agricultural chemist (Dr. J. W. Leafer), cryptogamic botanist (Dr. R. A. Butler) and entomologist (Dr. H. Maxwell Lefroy) with headquarters at Dehradun (U.P.) in the forest Research Institute complex. Surprisingly, until now Pusa, which was destined to become the centre of agricultural revolution in the country, was lying as before an abandoned government estate. In 1898. Lord Curzon took over as the viceroy. A widely traveled person and an administrator, he salvaged out the earlier proposal and got London’s approval for the appointment of the inspector General of Agriculture to which the first incumbent Mr. J. Mollison (Dy. Director of Agriculture, Bombay) joined in 1901 with headquarters at Nagpur The then government of Bengal had mooted in 1902 a proposal to the centre for setting up a model cattle farm for improving the dilapidated condition of the livestock at Pusa estate where plenty of land, water and feed would be available, and with Mr. Mollison’s support this was accepted in principle. Around Pusa, there were many British planters and also an indigo research centre Dalsing Sarai (near Pusa). Mr. Mollison’s visits to this mini British kingdom and his strong recommendations. In favour of Pusa as the most ideal place for the Bengal government project obviously caught the attention for the viceroy.

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20211
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Subject: Agricultural Biotechnology × Author: KUNDU, SAYANTA × End date: 2021 × Start date: 2021 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    CHARACTERIZATION OF CAMTA TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR FAMILY WITH RESPECT TO DROUGHT TOLERANCE IN CHICKPEA (Cicer arietinum L.)
    (DRPCAU, PUSA, 2021) KUNDU, SAYANTA; BHUTIA, K. L.
    Chickpea is the second most valued, protein rich annual legume that is abundant in dietary fibers, minerals, iron and phosphorus. It is cultivated in almost 50 countries and India is the largest producer of chickpea. However, the production is not enough to fulfill the demand. As chickpea is grown in arid and semi-arid region, the production faces huge loss under drought stress. So, the only solution of this problem is to generate drought tolerant varieties. CAMTA is a transcription factor family which specifically binds to Ca2+-calmodulin complex and regulates gene expression in response to various stress conditions including drought. Therefore, CAMTA family of chickpea was characterized using in silico and qRT-PCR based wet lab approaches under drought stress. Fifteen protein members basically encoded by 7 genes and their splice variants of CAMTA family were identified in chickpea and new names were assigned (CaCAMTA) to them as it is the first genome wide characterization of chickpea CAMTA gene family. The collected protein annotation and biological function depicts that the genes code for calmodulin-binding transcription activator proteins of different isoforms having role in gene regulation in response to stress tolerance i.e., freezing, salt and wounding etc. Among numerous cis-acting elements identified from 5’ upstream of CaCAMTA genes, MYBCORE, ABRELATERD1 and MYB1AT are the cis-acting elements having important roles during water stress conditions. The conserved domains present on polypeptide chains of each member of CaCAMTA family are CG-1 and IPT domain, ankyrin containing repeat domain, and IQ domain functioning as DNA binding, signal transducing and calmodulin binding domain. Dendrograms obtained for top 5 orthologs of 7 base genes suggested best hit orthologs gene were from Medicago truncatula and Vigna unguiculata. As the 15 proteins were basically the products of 7 CAMTA genes and their splice variants, products of the same CaCAMTA gene and their splice variants were clustered together in amino acid based phylogenetic analysis. Interaction analysis of CaCAMTA proteins revealed that each CaCAMTA proteins have network of interactions with various characterized and uncharacterized proteins. Under 15 days of drought treatment, growth and development of three chickpea genotypes namely RSG 888, Vijay and Pusa 256 were not much hampered, therefore were considered as drought tolerant genotypes. Similarly, the growth of chickpea genotype JG 14 was severely reduced during 15 days of drought treatment as compare to control plant, therefore, it was considered as susceptible genotype. The chlorophyll contents in treated plants were increased in RSG 888 and Vijay, but decreased in Pusa 256 and JG-14. The differential expression study of CAMTA genes using qRT PCR in chickpea under drought stress showed that CaCAMTA 1.1.2, 6.2.3, 7.1.1, and 5.1.1 are upregulated among the tolerant genotypes i.e., RSG 888, Vijay, and Pusa 256; and CaCAMTA 1.2.1 is downregulated in tolerant genotypes RSG 888 and Pusa 256 and up-regulated in susceptible genotype JG-14. The genome wide characterization of CAMTA family in chickpea will broaden the idea of drought stress mechanisms in Chickpea. The candidate gene-based markers could be designed targeting these differentially expressed genes to be utilized in marker trait association studies and if found significantly associated to yield attributing traits of chickpea, it can be utilized in marker assisted breeding of Chickpea for drought tolerance.