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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: Genetics and Plant Breeding × Author: JAISWAL, PRIYANKA × End date: 2023 × Start date: 2020 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    GENETIC ANALYSIS IN BREAD WHEAT (Triticum aestivum L.) AND VALIDATION OF SSR MARKERS FOR MICRONUTRIENT CONTENT IN GRAIN
    (Dr.RPCAU, Pusa, 2021) JAISWAL, PRIYANKA; SINGH, SATISH KUMAR
    Biofortification plays a significant role in reducing hidden hunger by development of improved cultivar having improved nutritional status on ground of increased uptake, mobilisation and translocation of Zinc and Iron to the edible part. Being the 2nd most important staple crop in India, wheat is a better alternative for biofortification to circumvent the hidden hunger by improving the micronutrient composition of wheat grains by either increasing its concentration in edible parts or its bioavailability. In this context, the present investigation entitled “Genetic analysis in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and validation of SSR markers for micronutrient content in grain” was carried out during Rabi season of 2018, 2019 and 2020 at wheat research farm Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University (RPCAU), Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar to determine the gene architecture of various morpho-physiological and biochemical traits in six basic populations (P1, P2, F1, F2, B1 and B2) of four crosses of bread wheat. The experimental procedure involves making crosses in Rabi 2018 & Rabi 2019 and final evaluation of crosses along with different generation and parents during Rabi 2020 in field condition while the molecular analysis involving molecular characterization of selected F2 plants in crosses HPYT 461 × HD 2733 and BHU 31× HD 2967 using 13 SSR primers linked with grain Zinc content followed by validation of these primers was carried out in 2021 at Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, RPCAU, Pusa. In addition to this, the F2 population comprising of 50 plants in each four crosses were characterised for micronutrient content (Zinc and Iron) in grain. Observations recorded on various parameters were statistically analysed to estimate the mean performance which was used in generation mean analysis to detect the presence or absence of epistasis for the traits under study in four crosses followed by identifying the main gene effect and their interactions involved in expression of these traits by either three parameter model or six parameter model on the basis of presence or absence of inter-allelic interaction in the studied population. The interpretation of experimental results showed that mean sum of square of generations that represents the differences among the generations for all the traits under study were significant in all four crosses which indicated the presence of considerable genetic variability in the experimental material for effective selection for the improvement of traits in desired direction. Mean performance of F1 and F2 was lower, in between or higher than the both parents for various traits under study while the mean performance of F2 was higher than F1 for most of traits under study and mean performance of B1 and B2 was lower but closer to the respective parent for most of the traits under study. Scaling and joint scaling test showed that epistasis was observed for most of the traits under study except chlorophyll content. Generation mean analysis by six parameter model exhibited that mean effects were highly significant for all traits in all four crosses. Additive and/or dominant gene effects along with additive × additive, additive × dominance and dominance × dominance interactions alone or in combinations were observed to govern the expression of various traits. Almost all traits in all four crosses HPYT461 × HD 2733, BHU31 × HD2967, BHU31 × HD2733 and HPYT485 × HD 2967 exhibited duplicate type gene interaction which tends to cancel the effect of each other in hybrid combination therefore selection has to be delayed till later segregating generations where dominance effect is almost dissipated and additive effect become predominant in the population. Broad sense heritability was recorded high for most of the traits except for spike length and number of grains per spike for which it was moderate to high while narrow sense heritability was recorded high for days to 50% flowering and plant height in all the crosses. Genetic advance as percent of mean was moderate to high for plant height and spike length. Characterisation of F2 population for micronutrient content in grain showed that for grain Zinc content highest mean was observed in cross I (HPYT 461 × HD 2733) while for grain Iron content highest mean value was observed in cross II (BHU 31× HD 2967). In cross II (BHU 31× HD 2967) one plant showed micronutrient concentration higher than the both parent for each grain Zinc and grain Iron content. Phenotypic correlation study among grain Zinc, grain Iron content and grain yield per plant exhibited a highly significant and positive correlation between grain Zinc and grain Iron content in all four crosses while both grain Zinc and grain Iron content showed a significant negative correlation with grain yield per plant in all four crosses. Molecular characterisation of F2 population with grain Zinc content linked SSR markers showed positive amplification for most of the primers in the expected range of amplified products. Among the 13 primers included in the study, four primers in cross I (HPYT 461 × HD 2733) and three primers in cross II (BHU 31× HD 2967) were validated and showed moderate association with the grain Zinc content. In a nutshell, the genotypes evaluated and the SSR primers validated in present study can be utilized for future studies on identification of superior genotypes with higher grain Zinc content.