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Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur

The history of agricultural education in Kerala can be traced back to the year 1896 when a scheme was evolved in the erstwhile Travancore State to train a few young men in scientific agriculture at the Demonstration Farm, Karamana, Thiruvananthapuram, presently, the Cropping Systems Research Centre under Kerala Agricultural University. Agriculture was introduced as an optional subject in the middle school classes in the State in 1922 when an Agricultural Middle School was started at Aluva, Ernakulam District. The popularity and usefulness of this school led to the starting of similar institutions at Kottarakkara and Konni in 1928 and 1931 respectively. Agriculture was later introduced as an optional subject for Intermediate Course in 1953. In 1955, the erstwhile Government of Travancore-Cochin started the Agricultural College and Research Institute at Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at Mannuthy, Thrissur for imparting higher education in agricultural and veterinary sciences, respectively. These institutions were brought under the direct administrative control of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Animal Husbandry, respectively. With the formation of Kerala State in 1956, these two colleges were affiliated to the University of Kerala. The post-graduate programmes leading to M.Sc. (Ag), M.V.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees were started in 1961, 1962 and 1965 respectively. On the recommendation of the Second National Education Commission (1964-66) headed by Dr. D.S. Kothari, the then Chairman of the University Grants Commission, one Agricultural University in each State was established. The State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) were established in India as an integral part of the National Agricultural Research System to give the much needed impetus to Agriculture Education and Research in the Country. As a result the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) was established on 24th February 1971 by virtue of the Act 33 of 1971 and started functioning on 1st February 1972. The Kerala Agricultural University is the 15th in the series of the SAUs. In accordance with the provisions of KAU Act of 1971, the Agricultural College and Research Institute at Vellayani, and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, were brought under the Kerala Agricultural University. In addition, twenty one agricultural and animal husbandry research stations were also transferred to the KAU for taking up research and extension programmes on various crops, animals, birds, etc. During 2011, Kerala Agricultural University was trifurcated into Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU), Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) and Kerala Agricultural University (KAU). Now the University has seven colleges (four Agriculture, one Agricultural Engineering, one Forestry, one Co-operation Banking & Management), six RARSs, seven KVKs, 15 Research Stations and 16 Research and Extension Units under the faculties of Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering and Forestry. In addition, one Academy on Climate Change Adaptation and one Institute of Agricultural Technology offering M.Sc. (Integrated) Climate Change Adaptation and Diploma in Agricultural Sciences respectively are also functioning in Kerala Agricultural University.

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  • ThesisItemOpen Access
    Molecular marker development for cassava mosaic disease resistance using bioinformatics tools
    (Department of Plant Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 2015) Ambu, Vijayan; KAU; Sreekumar, J
    The study entitled “Molecular marker development for cassava mosaic disease resistance using bioinformatics tools” was conducted at ICAR-CTCRI, Sreekariyam, Thiruvananthapuram during October 2104 to October 2015. The objectives of the study included development and evaluation of various SNP and SSR prediction pipelines, computational prediction and characterization of SNP and SSR in cassava, verification of SNP and SSR markers for cassava mosaic disease (CMD) resistant and susceptible breeding lines. The preliminary data set for the identification of SSR and SNP markers was obtained from the EST section of NCBI and the cassava transcript sequences from the Phytozome. A total of 120461 sequences was classified into 20 cultivars. The dataset was reduced to 14336 sequences after several pre-processing and screening steps. The resulting sequences were assembled and aligned using CAP3 and 2088 contigs were obtained. SNPs and SSRs were predicted from these datasets using respective prediction tools. The SNP prediction tools such as QualitySNP and AutoSNP were compared for their performance. Analysis was performed to identify the tool with the ability to annotate and identify more viable nonsynonymous and synonymous SNPs. The SSR prediction tools such as MISA and SSRIT was compared for their performance. Analysis was performed to identify the tool having the ability to predict more viable SSRs and the ability to classify them as mono, di, tri, tetra, penta, hexa and poly SSRs. Using QualitySNP, thirty nonsynonymous SNPs and twenty-six synonymous SNPs were identified. Using MISA, n 217 mono SSRs, 132 di SSRs, 139 tri SSRs, 3 tetra SSRs, 1 penta SSRs, 3 hexa SSRs and 42 complex SSRs were identified. Five sequences from identified SNPs and SSRs which have high hit percentage were selected for validation and primer designing for CMD resistant genes. These primers were validated using 5 resistant and 5 susceptible cassava varieties. Among the 10 primers after validation in wet lab, one SNP (SNP896) and one SSR (SSR 2063) primer was able to clearly differentiate between the resistant and susceptible varieties which can be used as potential markers in the breeding program for screening CMD resistance in cassava.