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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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Subject: Biotechnology × Author: Athul, V S × Start date: 2013 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development of molecular markers for blight disease resistance in taro using bioinformatics tools
    (Department of Plant Biotechnology College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 2018) Athul, V S; Sreekumar, J
    Development of molecular markers using sequential information publicly available in the biological databases has enhanced their credibility over the years. The study entitled “Development of Molecular markers for blight disease resistance in taro using bioinformatics tools” was conducted at the Central Tuber Crop Research Institute (CTCRI) during 2017-2018. The objectives of the study included the development and evaluation of various Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) and Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) prediction pipelines, computational prediction and validation of the molecular markers for blight disease resistance in taro. The preliminary data set for the study was obtained from the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) section of NCBI. A total of 6,479,882 sequences obtained initially were reduced to 6,319,834 after pre-processing. The processed sequences were reduced to 79,608 sequences after de novo assembly and were finally assembled to 8547 contigs and 59,242 singlets. The contigs were then processed with various prediction pipelines to predict SSRs and SNPs. The tools, QualitySNP and AutoSNP were employed to detect the SNPs present within the contig sequences. The efficiency of these tools in determining the number of synonymous and non-synonymous SNPs was also analyzed. The tools, MISA and SSRIT were used to detect the SSRs within the sequences. The efficiency in predicting more number and types of reliable repeats were considered. The analysis was done with a wide range of repeats such as mono-, di-, tri-, tetra-, penta-, hexa-, and poly repeats and their numbers. QualitySNP identified 518 synonymous and 44 non-synonymous SNPs from the 8547 contigs. MISA identified 967 mono-, 1484 di-, 558 tri-, 14 tetra-, 2 penta-, 9 hexa-, and 393 compound SSRs. Five SNP and SSR primers were designed and synthesized from the contigs containing SSRs and SNPs. The synthesized SNP and SSR primers were then validated against tolerant and susceptible varieties of taro leaf blight. Among the primers synthesized the SSR primer CeSSR4 and SNP primer CeSNP3 were capable of differentiating leaf blight resistant and susceptible varieties. The markers need to be analyzed further with a large number of samples to develop them as a marker for taro leaf blight. Once analyzed, they could be used in marker-assisted selection and breeding programmes of taro.