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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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  • ThesisItemOpen Access
    Molecular dissection of quantitative trait locus in relation to drought tolerance in rice
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, Samastipur, 2019) Kumar, Pankaj; Sharma, V.K.
    Thirty-one genotypes of rice were evaluated for various morpho-physiological characters and to study the microsatellite markers based polymorphism for their characterization and genetic diversity among these rice genotypes. Identification of putative gene within QTL (qDTY1.1) and their expression profiling for enhance the drought tolerance. Experimental materials were estimated in randomized block design with three replications during two consecutive years. Molecular characterization was done of the genomic DNA using a set of 23 microsatellite primer pairs. Gene expression response of drought tolerant (Nagina22 and Sahbhagi dhan) and drought sensitive (IR64) rice genotypes to 15 days of drought stress in reproductive stage. Statistical methods and parameters used for deriving inference were analysis of variance, range, mean values, pooled analysis, relative mean performance, and drought tolerance indices. An analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters evaluated during present study. On the basis of the relative mean performance of 15 genotypes, namely, Sahbhagi, Nagina22, MTU1010, Silhatidhan, RAU1417-11-2, Rajendra Bhagwati, RAU1415-7-1, Anandidhan, Rajendra Nilam, Aus257, IR7343-71-1, Chengari2, Kali-Aus, Dangar and Dular out of 31 genotypes were appeared to be relatively more drought tolerant than other genotypes under evaluation. Four tolerance indices viz. TOL, SSI, DTE and STI were used. On the basis of stress tolerance level, stress susceptible index, stress tolerance index and drought tolerance efficiency, 18 genotypes, namely, IR7343-71-1, Chengari2, Aus257, MTU1010, Dangar, Anandidhan, Silhatidhan, Dular, Kali-Aus, Nagina22, Sahbhagidhan, Rasi, Vandana, R.Nilam, R.Bhagwati, RAU1421-12-4, RAU1417-11-2 and RAU1415-7-1 out of 31 genotypes were identified as relatively more tolerant to drought stress. A total 179 and 73 unique allelic variants were detected among the eighteen rice genotypes with an average of 7.8 alleles per primer. The primers RM 5359, RM 7025, RM 10772 and RM 11008, appeared to be highly polymorphic and comparatively more informative primers. Analysis of divergence pattern based on microsatellite markers allowed differentiation and classification of rice genotypes into two groups. The first multi-genotypic group consisted of ten genotypes, namely, IR7343-71-1, Chengar2, Aus257, MTU1010, Dangar, Anandidhan, Silhatidhan, Dular, Kali-Aus and Nagina22 whereas the second multi-genotypic group consisted of eight genotypes, namely, RAU1401-18-5, RAU1428-54-5, RAU1421-15-7, RAU1421-12-4, RAU1417-9-3, Sahbhagidhan, RAU1397-18-7 and Rasi. The magnitude of similarity coefficient between Anandidhan and Dangar (0.739) was found to be the maximum which indicating that these were more closely related. A set of microsatellite markers used for molecular characterization in the present study showed very high degree of efficiency in discrimination of genotypes in relation to drought tolerance. In this study we have identified 73 genes within QTL (qDTY1.1) using sequence information available in rice genome database and bioinformatics tools. The expression of identified genes were analysed. Our studies showed that two genes namely LOC_OS01g66520 and LOC_01g 66170 were upregulated consistently in the time point after drought imposed. Most of the genes were in downregulated.
  • ThesisItemOpen Access