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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Intra and inter generic hybridization and molecular charatrization in monopodial orchids
(Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 2008) Beena, Thomas; KAU; Lekha Rani, C
A research programme entitled “Intra and inter generic hybridization and molecular characterization in monopodial orchids” was carried out in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Vellayani during 2005-2008 with the objective of undertaking intra and intergeneric hybridization, in vitro embryo culture and molecular characterization in monopodial orchids, as a preliminary step to develop novel hybrids. Fifteen monopodial orchid genotypes comprising of six genera viz., Aranda, Aranthera, Kagawara, Mokara, Renanthera and Vanda, with good cut flower qualities and high demand in the market were selected as parents after initial evaluation. They were evaluated adopting completely randomized design with five replications. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences for almost all the characters studied. Genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation were high for thickness of leaf, leaf area and number of aerial roots. High heritability (>70 %) combined with high genetic advance (>70 %) was observed for number of aerial roots, width of leaf, thickness of leaf, leaf area, number of spikes per shoot and number of flowers per inflorescence. Significant positive inter-correlation at genotypic and phenotypic levels was observed for length of flower and width of flower with number of spikes per shoot. The character number of spikes per shoot recorded significant positive correlation with leaf area. Number of flowers per inflorescence was positively correlated with number of leaves per shoot and length of inflorescence. Out of the six genera studied, four viz., Aranda, Aranthera, Kagawara and Mokara, exhibited free-flowering nature. Seasonal flowering was observed mainly from June to December in Vanda, whereas it was confined to two seasons, from February to March and August to October in Renanthera. Inflorescence axis was found to be arching in Aranthera and Renanthera while the rest of the genotypes produced erect inflorescence axis. The 15 parental genotypes were crossed in all possible combinations after preliminary studies on floral biology. A total of 225 cross combinations were attempted including 105 crosses, 105 reciprocals and 15 selfs. Incompatibility reactions were noticed at different stages ranging from flower abscission before the onset of any visible post pollination change to instances where seeds germinated but aborted in culture. Mature green capsules were harvested from 70 combinations at 70 to 90 per cent maturity. Among them 15 combinations did not yield any seeds in the capsule while the remaining 55 combinations were cultured axenically. Among the 55 combinations inoculated in vitro, no germination was obtained from seeds of 12 combinations. Out of the 43 combinations that germinated successfully, seven combinations showed arrested development. Thus out of the total 55 combinations inoculated in vitro 36 combinations developed successfully. These were subcultured three to four times. Seedlings having 2-3 leaves and 2-3 roots were deflasked and planted out. MS half strength was selected as the best basal medium. For improving the in vitro growth of hybrid monopodial orchid seedlings refinement of this medium by supplementing with IAA (8 mg l-1) and NAA (2 mg l-1) was beneficial. Significant differences among the combinations were observed with respect to number of days taken for germination initiation, number of days taken for development of protocorms, chlorophyll, first leaf, first shoot and first root primordia and for deflasking. Significant differences in seedling morphology were observed among the 36 hybrid combinations at deflasking. These were kept in humidity chamber for acclimatization for one month, transferred to net house for hardening and maintained there for further growth. In the present study, RAPD was employed for studying the genetic diversity and for the fingerprinting of 20 monopodial orchid hybrids, making use of arbitrary primers to amplify random DNA sequences in the genome. To identify the promising primers for RAPD analysis, 70 decamer primers of kit A, B, C and D were screened using the DNA of hybrid H-2. Based on the performance in DNA amplification, eight decamer primers were identified for RAPD analysis. Primers that produced highest number of polymorphic bands which were intense and reproducible were selected. They were OPB-07, OPB-15, OPB-l7, OPC-04, OPC-05, OPC-08, OPC-15 and OPD-02. a total of 57 scorable bands (average of 7.125 bands per primer) were generated by the selected eight primers of which six were monomorphic and the remaining 51 were polymorphic (89.47%). The estimation of Jaccard’s coefficients and construction of dendrogram by using UPGMA revealed the presence and extent of genetic similarities among the 20 monopodial orchid hybrids. The overall similarity coefficients ranged from 0.40 to 0.84. Cluster analysis revealed that at 0.69 similarity coefficient, the 20 monopodial orchid hybrids got divided into six groups. Among the 20 hybrids, H-18, H-7, H-13, H-17, H-19 and H-20 stood separately in clusters II, III A, III B, IV, V and cluster VI respectively. This substantiates the moderately broad distribution of genetic variability, which can be attributed to the broad genetic base in their ancestry. Cluster I A contained four hybrids viz., H-1, H-10, H-3 and H-9. This grouping is justified by the presence of a common parent i.e., Arachnis Maggie Oei Red Ribbon in their parentage. Moreover, two common species viz., Arachnis hookeriana and Arachnis flos-aeris are involved in their ancestry. All these support their belonging to the same cluster. The three hybrids such as H-5, H-6 and H-8 fell in cluster I B. RAPD technique is relatively simpler, quicker, less expensive and non-radioactive than other molecular characterization techniques. The results of present investigation proved that it can detect sufficient polymorphisms in genetic distance studies in monopodial orchids. A research programme entitled “Intra and inter generic hybridization and molecular characterization in monopodial orchids” was carried out in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Vellayani during 2005-2008 with the objective of undertaking intra and intergeneric hybridization, in vitro embryo culture and molecular characterization in monopodial orchids, as a preliminary step to develop novel hybrids. Fifteen monopodial orchid genotypes comprising of six genera viz., Aranda, Aranthera, Kagawara, Mokara, Renanthera and Vanda, with good cut flower qualities and high demand in the market were selected as parents after initial evaluation. They were evaluated adopting completely randomized design with five replications. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences for almost all the characters studied. Genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation were high for thickness of leaf, leaf area and number of aerial roots. High heritability (>70 %) combined with high genetic advance (>70 %) was observed for number of aerial roots, width of leaf, thickness of leaf, leaf area, number of spikes per shoot and number of flowers per inflorescence. Significant positive inter-correlation at genotypic and phenotypic levels was observed for length of flower and width of flower with number of spikes per shoot. The character number of spikes per shoot recorded significant positive correlation with leaf area. Number of flowers per inflorescence was positively correlated with number of leaves per shoot and length of inflorescence. Out of the six genera studied, four viz., Aranda, Aranthera, Kagawara and Mokara, exhibited free-flowering nature. Seasonal flowering was observed mainly from June to December in Vanda, whereas it was confined to two seasons, from February to March and August to October in Renanthera. Inflorescence axis was found to be arching in Aranthera and Renanthera while the rest of the genotypes produced erect inflorescence axis. The 15 parental genotypes were crossed in all possible combinations after preliminary studies on floral biology. A total of 225 cross combinations were attempted including 105 crosses, 105 reciprocals and 15 selfs. Incompatibility reactions were noticed at different stages ranging from flower abscission before the onset of any visible post pollination change to instances where seeds germinated but aborted in culture. Mature green capsules were harvested from 70 combinations at 70 to 90 per cent maturity. Among them 15 combinations did not yield any seeds in the capsule while the remaining 55 combinations were cultured axenically. Among the 55 combinations inoculated in vitro, no germination was obtained from seeds of 12 combinations. Out of the 43 combinations that germinated successfully, seven combinations showed arrested development. Thus out of the total 55 combinations inoculated in vitro 36 combinations developed successfully. These were subcultured three to four times. Seedlings having 2-3 leaves and 2-3 roots were deflasked and planted out. MS half strength was selected as the best basal medium. For improving the in vitro growth of hybrid monopodial orchid seedlings refinement of this medium by supplementing with IAA (8 mg l-1) and NAA (2 mg l-1) was beneficial. Significant differences among the combinations were observed with respect to number of days taken for germination initiation, number of days taken for development of protocorms, chlorophyll, first leaf, first shoot and first root primordia and for deflasking. Significant differences in seedling morphology were observed among the 36 hybrid combinations at deflasking. These were kept in humidity chamber for acclimatization for one month, transferred to net house for hardening and maintained there for further growth. In the present study, RAPD was employed for studying the genetic diversity and for the fingerprinting of 20 monopodial orchid hybrids, making use of arbitrary primers to amplify random DNA sequences in the genome. To identify the promising primers for RAPD analysis, 70 decamer primers of kit A, B, C and D were screened using the DNA of hybrid H-2. Based on the performance in DNA amplification, eight decamer primers were identified for RAPD analysis. Primers that produced highest number of polymorphic bands which were intense and reproducible were selected. They were OPB-07, OPB-15, OPB-l7, OPC-04, OPC-05, OPC-08, OPC-15 and OPD-02. a total of 57 scorable bands (average of 7.125 bands per primer) were generated by the selected eight primers of which six were monomorphic and the remaining 51 were polymorphic (89.47%). The estimation of Jaccard’s coefficients and construction of dendrogram by using UPGMA revealed the presence and extent of genetic similarities among the 20 monopodial orchid hybrids. The overall similarity coefficients ranged from 0.40 to 0.84. Cluster analysis revealed that at 0.69 similarity coefficient, the 20 monopodial orchid hybrids got divided into six groups. Among the 20 hybrids, H-18, H-7, H-13, H-17, H-19 and H-20 stood separately in clusters II, III A, III B, IV, V and cluster VI respectively. This substantiates the moderately broad distribution of genetic variability, which can be attributed to the broad genetic base in their ancestry. Cluster I A contained four hybrids viz., H-1, H-10, H-3 and H-9. This grouping is justified by the presence of a common parent i.e., Arachnis Maggie Oei Red Ribbon in their parentage. Moreover, two common species viz., Arachnis hookeriana and Arachnis flos-aeris are involved in their ancestry. All these support their belonging to the same cluster. The three hybrids such as H-5, H-6 and H-8 fell in cluster I B. RAPD technique is relatively simpler, quicker, less expensive and non-radioactive than other molecular characterization techniques. The results of present investigation proved that it can detect sufficient polymorphisms in genetic distance studies in monopodial orchids.
Open Access
Genetic analysis of resistance to pod borers and yield in yard long bean(Vigna unguiculata subsp.sequipedalis(L.) verdcourt)
(Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 2009) Jithesh, V G; KAU; Radhadevi, D S
Yard long bean [Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis (L.) Verdcourt] known as asparagus bean or vegetable cowpea is one of the important vegetable crops grown in Kerala. The long tender pods are highly nutritious containing carbohydrate, minerals, fibre, calcium, phosphorus, iron and many vitamins. Infestation by pod borers Maruca vitrata (Fab.) and Lampides boeticus (Linn.) which are the most important post-flowering pests of yard long bean. This research programme was carried out at the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Vellayani during 2006-2008 with the objective to study the genetic basis and inheritance pattern of important quantitative and qualitative characters for resistance to pod borers and yield and to formulate a suitable breeding programme for developing varieties resistant to pod borers and with high yield in yard long bean. Fifty genotypes of yard long bean collected from different parts of Kerala were evaluated adopting randomized block design with three replications. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences for almost all the characters. High GCV was observed for pod length, pod weight, pods per plant, pod clusters per plant, pod yield per plant and 100-seed weight, which indicate that there exists high genetic variability and better scope for improvement of these characters through selection. The characters pod clusters per plant, pods per plant, pod yield per plant, pod weight, pod length, seeds per pod and 100-seed weight had high heritability coupled with high genetic advance. In the present study high heritability and low genetic advance was noted for pod breadth and seeds per pod. Yield per plant showed strong positive correlation with pod weight, pod length, pod breadth, seeds per pod and 100-seed weight. The characters pod weight, pods per plant, 100-seed weight, seeds per pod and pod clusters per plant had positive direct effect. Mahalanobis D2 analysis clustered the 50 genotypes in to nine groups. Maximum divergence was shown between the clusters I and VI. Among the seven characters considered pod yield per plant contributed maximum towards divergence. Selection indices were computed based on yield and yield related traits, five genotypes viz; Trailing Red Poded (L1), NS 621 (L2), Ettumanoor local (L3), Vellayanai local (L4) and Palakkad local (L5) with high yield were selected as female parents in the line x tester analysis. The same fifty genotypes were screened for various damage parameters of pod borers by using randomized block design with two replications. All the damage parameters exhibited remarkable variability with respect to different genotypes. Based on all the damage parameters three genotypes with low plant resistant indices namely Kurappunthara local (T1), Kanichar local (T2) and KMV-1 (T3) were selected as testers in the line x tester analysis. Significant variability was present for different morphological and biochemical characters among the 50 genotypes. High coefficient of variation was noticed for number of trichomes on pod wall. High heritability was noticed for all the characters except crude fibre content. The characters peduncle length, trichome number and protein content of pods showing high genetic advance. In line x tester analysis L1 showed high values of gca effect for pods per plant, seeds per pod, pods per cluster, 100-seed weight and pod length. Among the testers T1 showed significant negative gca effects for all the damage parameters for pod borers. In morphological and biochemical traits line L3 showed positive gca effect for peduncle length, trichome number and protein content of pods but L1 for leaf chlorophyll content. Tester T1 showing positive gca effect for all the morphological and biochemical traits. Based on specific combining ability, the crosses L1 x T1, L3 x T1 and L5 x T1, showed maximum sca for yield attributes and minimum for damage parameters. Many of the crosses showed significant positive sca effects for most of the morphological and biochemical traits. The crosses L1 x T1, L3 x T1 and L5 x T1 exhibited significant positive estimates with high magnitude of yield attributes and morphological and biochemical traits indicating considerable heterosis with respect to the important yield characters. Further the relative and standard heterosis exhibited significance in the negative direction for all damage parameters. This results leads to the conclusion that low relative performance of pod borers larvae in these crosses may be due to its trichome number, protein content of pods, leaf chlorophyll content or fibre content which can offer resistance to pod borers in yard long bean and can form the basis for selection of yard long bean genotypes for pod borer resistance or tolerance. The three superior crosses viz., L1 x T1 (Traling Red poded x Kurappunthara local), L3xT1 (Ettumanoor local x Kurappunthara local) and L5 x T1 (Palakkad local x Kurappunthara local) were utilized for generation mean analysis inorder to detect the gene action with regard to the various traits. Presence of epistasis was tested and subsequently interaction effects viz; additive x additive, additive x dominance and dominance x dominance effects were computed. Significance of scale A and B for most of the characters suggested that the simple additive x dominance model was inadequate for defining the inheritance of these characters. Presence of non-allelic interactions was noticed for days to 50 per cent flowering, primary branches per plant and days to first harvest. Hybridization and selection can be resorted to for improving the character of earliness in this crop. The positive significance of dominance x dominance interactions for pod weight points out that a breeding strategy for improving pod weight should be based on direct selection or hybridization and selection for high pod weight. Presence of all three types of digenic interactions was observed for pods per plant and pod yield per plant. The direction of dominance effect and dominance x dominance interactions suggests the presence of non-allelic duplicate gene action for crop duration, main stem length, pod clusters per plant, pod weight and pod breadth in their expression. For damage measurements additive gene action was significant for all the damage parameters. Additive x dominance gene action was significant for peduncle length. The same direction of dominance gene effect and dominance x dominance interactions is an indication of non-allelic complementary gene action in the expression of this character. For leaf chlorophyll content additive gene action was significant for all the hybrids. The L1 x T1 had positive significance in dominance x dominance epistatic interaction for number of trichomes on pod wall. Predominance of additive gene action in a positive direction was observed for protein content but significant additive x dominance interaction in a negative direction. Additive gene effect was significant for crude fibre content of pods. The positive significance of dominance x dominance interactions points out that a breeding strategy for reducing the fibre content should be based on direct selection or hybridization. The result suggest ample scope of improvement of yield through selection based on the characters pod weight and pod length. The genetic analysis for yield and resistance to pod borers brought to light genotypes which could be used as source of resistance. Two superior crosses in which high yield potential and tolerant to pod borers were identified. Less attack of pod borers larvae to these crosses may be due to high values for any of the two characters namely trichome number or crude fibre content coupled with mechanical barriers with restricts their access to pod surface compared to other crosses. The magnitude and direction of the gene effects underlying the pest damage parameters offers a favourable background for the breeder to develop pod borer resistant/tolerant yard long bean genotypes. Presence of additive, dominance and epistatic interactions for all the characters identified indicated that recurrent selection or recombination breeding can be followed for future breeding programme

Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur

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