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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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20121
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Subject: Plant Biotechnology and Molecular Biology × End date: 2014 × Start date: 2010 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Molecular characterization and testing hybridity of interspecific crosses in black pepper (Piper Nigrum L.)
    (College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 2012) Ashok, Babadev Jagtap; KAU; Sujatha, R
    Although India is one of the leading producer of the economically important spice crop black pepper (Piper nigrum L.), the productivity of the crop is low due to various factors among which infestation by Phytophthora capsici has been identified as a major factor. Wild relatives of crops are valuable sources of desirable characteristics for genetic improvement of crops. Attempts were made in the past to transfer genes for disease resistance through interspecific hybridization in black pepper also using the related species like P. attenuatum (Sasikumar et al., 1999), P. colubrinum (Vanaja et al., 2008) etc. However, the major problem was cross incompatibility and hybrid sterility caused by the difference in chromosome number between the different species. As it is a perennial crop, a reliable method for identification of hybrids at the early stage of development, preferably at seedling stage itself, is essential. Hence the study entitled “Molecular characterization and testing hybridity of interspecific crosses in black pepper (Piper nigrum L.)” was carried out at the Centre for Plant Biotechnology and Molecular Biology, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara during the period 2010-2012. The objectives of the study were to characterize the partially fertile interspecific hybrid (Culture P5PC-1) from the cross P. nigrum x P. colubrinum tolerant to Phytophthora foot rot and to test the hybridity of putative F1 hybrids developed at Pepper Research Station (PRS), Panniyur, using Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers. Six interspecific hybrids produced by crossing two cultivars (Uthirankotta, Karimunda) and four high yielding varieties (Panniyur 1, Panniyur 2, Panniyur 3 and Panniyur 5) of P. nigrum as female parents and P. colubrinum as male parent were used for the study. Morphological observations were taken from the field grown vines of parents and putative hybrids maintained at PRS, Panniyur. The hybrids resembled the respective female parents for the most of the leaf, stem and spike characters recorded as per the descriptor for Piper sp. except for berry setting percentage which was found significantly low in hybrids compared to respective female parents. For SSR and RAPD assay, genomic DNA was extracted from the first leaf from tip of the stem of all the plants using the CTAB procedure reported by Rogers and Bendich (1994) with slight modification which yielded good quality DNA for further analysis. Thirty RAPD primers and fifty four SSR primer pairs were screened with DNA of black pepper var. Panniyur 5 for amplification and those which gave reliable distinct banding pattern were selected for further analysis. Genomic DNA of six interspecific hybrids and their parents were amplified with 10 selected decamer primers and 11 SSR primer pairs. The presence or absence of the markers were scored and entered into a binary data matrix and was used for calculating the similarity coefficient using Dice coefficient (Nei and Li, 1979) using software DARwin (Version 5.0.158) and Jaccard’s coefficient (Jaccard, 1908) using software NTSYS pc version 2.02i (Rohlf, 1993). Cluster analysis was done using the UPGMA method and dendrograms were constructed by neighbor joining. The marker data were analyzed separately as well as in combination for the two marker systems. In the dendrogram with NTSYS pc and DARwin, all the interspecific hybrids showed highest similarity with their respective female parents and values of similarity ranges from 96 per cent (in Panniyur 1, Panniyur 2, Panniyur 3 and Panniyur 5) to 100 per cent (in Uthirankotta, Karimunda). All interspecific hybrids showed greater diversity from the male parent P. colubrinum (52-72%). The markers were efficient in revealing the varietal difference of the various genotypes of P. nigrum and grouped each of the putative hybrid along with the respective genotype used as the female parent. However, with respect to RAPD assay, one band each present in female parent was absent in the hybrids P5PC and P2PC. The Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) worked out for the different primers ranged between 0.72 to 0.87 in RAPD and 0.23 to 0.57 in SSR analysis; indicating the capacity of the primers selected to distinguish hybrids. Based on PIC, five SSR and two RAPD primers selected for further charaterization of open pollinated progeny of hybrid culture P5PC-1. The seeds produced by the partially fertile hybrid (Culture P5PC-1) (Vanaja et al., 2008) were subjected to germination test and the seedlings obtained from viable seeds were used for molecular characterization using RAPD and SSR primers selected based on PIC, along with the reported hybrid P5PC-1 and grandparents Panniyur 5 and P. colubrinum. Most of seedlings showed SSR banding pattern similar to Panniyur 5 and female parent. In RAPD, primer OPA 30 showed a polymorphic band which was present in Panniyur 5 and the Hybrid P5PC-1 but absent in three seedlings. The present study using 87 RAPD and 33 SSR markers and the morphological characters revealed significantly high similarity of interspecific hybrids to respective female parents. However the low berry setting percentage as well as the presence of one or two polymorphic bands in two hybrids needs further investigation. Also the number of black pepper specific SSR markers reported is insufficient to cover the large genome of black pepper. Hence more SSR markers as and when they are available as well as efficient markers like AFLP and SNP may be included for genome wide coverage during screening of these hybrids to develop hybrid specific markers.