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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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20171
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Subject: Agricultural Biotechnology × Author: Kumar, Ajay × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Genome wide association study for identification of genes related to ion accumulation in rice grain
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2017) Kumar, Ajay; Sharma, V. K.
    A study was conducted to investigate and identify the candidate genes in relation to cadmium and zinc transportation and accumulation in rice. Using 281 diverse rice accessions and employing genome wide association analysis to relate 46294 single nucleotide polymorphic panel and cadmium and zinc ionomic data, mixed linear model was adopted to establish the association, if any, between genotypic and ionomic data. Statistical tools used and computational applications adopted during the analyses include Discriminant Analysis of Principal Components (DAPC), Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA), Neighbour Joining Tree, Structure, Haploview and R-tool. Differential accumulation of cadmium and zinc in different vegetative tissues of two diverse rice accessions was also investigated under cadmium induced stress condition. Finally, expression profiles of OsHMA2, OsHMA3 and OsPCSs genes under cadmium induced stress condition were examined. Differential cadmium accumulation was recorded in grains of rice accessions evaluated under alternate wetting and drying and permanent flooding conditions as well as across the conditions. While in the case of zinc, differential accumulation was observed between accessions but differences recorded between conditions were not so pronounced. PCoA based on SNPs data derived using 297 accessions clearly indicated that 12 entries were very diverse from rest of the entries under evaluation. Further, an analysis using neighbour joining tree based on distance matrix also revealed that these 12 genotypes were remarkably distant from rest of the entries. Cluster analysis applied to detect population genetic structure clearly indicated that 10 out of these 12 accessions belonged to a separate cluster. Finally, an analysis carried out after exclusion of 16 accessions including 12 accessions, which were found to be more diverse based on PCoA and neighbour joining tree and 4 very late maturing accessions, established that remaining 281 accessions belonged to three clusters. DAPC employed to find out the optimum number of clusters confirmed the results obtained through PCoA, neighbour joining tree and cluster analysis applied to detect population genetic structure in the present investigation. Association analysis revealed twelve and two markers; seven and one candidate loci; and 109 and 10 candidate genes associated with cadmium and zinc accumulation, respectively. Haplotype analysis of polymorphic markers identified in relation to cadmium and zinc accumulation, therefore, resulted in allocation of seven and one loci, respectively, in question to haplotype groups. Result of the present study led to the identification of candidate genes involved in cadmium and zinc accumulation under aerobic condition. Altogether, eight and five genes appeared to be involved in cadmium and zinc accumulation, respectively. Present study, therefore, provided the evidence based on which the candidate genes most likely to be involved in zinc accumulation have been proposed. Most probable involvement of MATE and PEZ family genes in cadmium accumulation in rice grain was confirmed on the basis of results of present study. Cadmium accumulation property appeared less dependent on its uptake by the plants but more dependent on the capacity of the accession to trap the cadmium into the roots by synthesizing two folds non-protein thiol content, thereby preventing its translocation or mobility from root to shoot. Antagonistic effect of cadmium accumulation was observed in respect of zinc accumulation in rice accessions. Expression analysis in relation to cadmium ion translocation reflected that OsHMA3 was more expressed in less efficient accession as compared to the efficient accession. Therefore, the overexpression of OsHMA3 most probably resulted in low accumulation of cadmium in the plants of less efficient accession due to lesser translocation.