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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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20231
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Subject: Biotechnology and molecular Biology × Author: Borah, Bhabna × Start date: 1992 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Morpho-physiological characterization and gene expression profiling of foxtail millet genotypes for waterlogging tolerance at seedling stage
    (RPCAU, Pusa, 2023) Borah, Bhabna; Anjani, Kumari
    The present study entitled “Morpho-physiological characterization and gene expression profiling of foxtail millet genotypes for waterlogging tolerance at seedling stage” was carried out to identify the best screening methodologies for early seedling stage waterlogging tolerance, identification of tolerant genotypes and identification of candidate genes responsible for ameliorating waterlogging tolerance. Altogether, 26 foxtail millet genotypes were used for morpho-physiological characterization and screening at three stages of growth under six different conditions (two in each stage) of waterlogging, to identify the best screening method and tolerant genotypes. The selected highly tolerant and highly susceptible genotypes were used for the gene expression study of the identified candidate genes, to determine their differential expression pattern in leaves under the identified short- and long-term stress conditions. The screening at germination stage revealed that foxtail millet is vulnerable to waterlogging stress. A significant reduction in the performance of the 26 genotypes evaluated in the present study was observed for both 3 days and 8 days stress conditions. A significant change in the performance of 26 genotypes under 12 h and 24 h waterlogging stress was observed at the seedling establishment stage. The waterlogging tolerance indices, waterlogging tolerance coefficient (WTC), root length stress index(RLSI), shoot length stress index (SLSI) and seed vigour wrt seedling length (SVI), significantly contributed to the variations observed among the genotypes, as revealed by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and were found to be significantly correlated. A significant reduction in these parameters during 12 h stress suggests that even 12h of flooding at seedling establishment stage causes waterlogging stress in foxtail millet.The grouping of the genotypes based on WTC values, identified 4 genotypes (IIMR FxM-7, SiA-4245, GPUF-17) to be highly tolerant, 6 susceptible (CRS FxM-4, SiA-4243, ST.4, ST.5, ST.7 and RK.1) and 16 tolerant. The cluster analysis based on Euclidean distances using UPGMA method grouped the genotypes into five clusters at 40 phenon level. The genotypes RK.1 and ST.4 were present in mono-genotypic clusters. The screening of the selected 14 genotypes at seedling stage showed significant variations in all the six observed morphological characters for 3 days and 6 days stress conditions. A significant variation in physio-biochemical parameters were observed under both stress conditions. An overall reduction in chlorophyll A and total chlorophyll was observed, while value of chlorophyll B showed increase during 3-day stress and decrease 6-day stress. The proline content showed significant reduction while peroxidase activity showed an average increase during 5 day stress. It was notable that the changes in susceptible genotypes were more drastic than tolerant genotype. The performance of the genotype IIMR FxM-7 was found to be the best for both the stress conditions while genotype ST.5 showed poor performance was selected as highly susceptible genotype. The cluster analysis grouped all the susceptible genotypes in a single cluster while the highly tolerant genotype IIMR FxM-7 was present in single mono-genotypic cluster, indicating the effectiveness of this method of characterization in identification of waterlogging tolerant genotypes. The results of all the screening methods concluded that the 12 h waterlogging is short term stress for foxtail millet while 3 days is threshold for early seedling stage. The in-silico candidate gene search identified 14 candidate genes having probable role in waterlogging tolerance in foxtail millet. Most of the genes belong to ERF, WRKY and RBOHB gene family. The gene expression analysis of the selected five genes (SiRAP 2.2, SiRBOHB, SiRAP2.3, SiRAP2.12 and SiEREB180) in the leaves for tolerant and susceptible genotype under 12 h and 3 days stress revealed differential expression pattern suggesting a role of these genes in waterlogging tolerance mechanism in foxtail millet. The findings provide a fundamental clue for further cloning, characterization and functional analysis of other genes to help understand the molecular mechanism of waterlogging tolerance in foxtail millet.