Exploring the genetic variability in yield, nutritional and digestibility traits in oat grains through ruminant nutrition.

Oat is a dual-purpose crop used for both food and feed for animals. The objective of this work is to characterize oat varieties for their genetic diversity in yield, physical traits, and nutritional composition, aiming to identify potential parent varieties for breeding programs to develop new oat varieties for improved livestock feed and diverse industrial applications. To conduct, chemical analysis for protein and carbohydare fractions, energy and digestible nutrient estimated, stastical analyses performed to assess genetic variations for traits among vaieties. Significant genetic variation (p < 0.05) for grain yield, grain density, sieving percentage, crude protein, ether extract, neutral and acid detergent fiber, cellulose, lignin, neutral and acid detergent insoluble nitrogen were observed in grains of eight oat varieties. All protein fractions exhibited significant differences (p < 0.05). Total carbohydrate content ranged significantly (p < 0.05) from 73 % to 79 %. The grains contained higher levels of intermediately degradable starch and pectin (54.12-60.16 %) compared to the slowly degradable cell wall (26-33 %), lignin bounded cell wall (6-10 %), and rapidly degradable sugars (2-8%). Significant variation (p < 0.05) was observed in terms of gross energy, digestible energy, metabolizable energy, net energy for maintenance and lactation about (2 Mcal/kg dry matter), gain (1.6-1.8 Mcal/kg dry matter), total digestible nutrients, digestible dry matter, rumen degradable protein, and total digestible nutrients related to crude protein, fatty acid, neutral detergent fiber, and non-fiber carbohydrate. Organic matter and ether extract were positively associated (p < 0.01) with total digestible nutrients, digestible and metabolizable energy, dry matter digestible and truly digestible non fibrous cabohydrates, while neutral and acid detergent fiber and cellulose showed negative correlation. The research shows that oat varieties vary widely in their yield, physical features, and nutritional content, offering potential for breeding better varieties for both animal feed and industrial uses.

Effect of salt, alkali and combined stresses on root system architecture and ion profiling in a diverse panel of oat (Avena spp.).

The co-occurrence of salinisation and alkalisation is quite frequent in problematic soils and poses an immediate threat to food, feed and nutritional security. In the present study, root system architectural traits (RSAs) and ion profiling were evaluated in 21 genotypes of Avena species to understand the effect of salinity-alkalinity stress. The oat genotypes were grown on germination paper and 5-day-old seedlings were transferred to a hydroponic system for up to 30days. These seedlings were subjected to seven treatments: T0 , treatment control (Hoagland solution); T1 , moderate salinity (50mM); T2 , high salinity (100mM); T3 , moderate alkalinity (15mM); T4 , high alkalinity (30mM); T5 , combined moderate salinity-alkalinity (50mM+15mM); and T6 , combined high salinity-alkalinity (100mM and 30mM) by using NaCl+Na2 SO4 (saline) and NaHCO3 +Na2 CO3 (alkaline) salts equivalently. The root traits, such as total root area (TRA), total root length (TRL), total root diameter (TRD), total root volume (TRV), root tips (RT), root segments (RS), root fork (RF) and root biomass (RB) were found to be statistically significant (P + and K+ content analysis in root and shoot tissues revealed the ion homeostasis capacity of different Avena accessions under stress treatments. Principal component analysis (PCA) covered almost 83.0% of genetic variation and revealed that the sharing of TRA, RT, RS and RF traits was significantly high. Biplot analysis showed a highly significant correlation matrix (P <0.01) between the pairs of RT and RS, TRL and RS, and RT and RF. Based on PCA ranking and relative value for stress tolerance, IG-20-1183, IG-20-894, IG-20-718 and IG-20-425 expressed tolerance to salinity (T2), IG-20-425 (alkalinity; T4) and IG-20-1183, IG-20-894 and IG-20-1004 were tolerant to salt-alkali treatment (T6). Multi-trait stability index (MTSI) analysis identified three stable oat genotypes (IG-20-714, IG-20-894 and IG-20-425) under multiple environments and these lines can be used in salinity-alkalinity affected areas after yield trials or as donor lines for combined stresses in future breeding programs.

Recent developments in multi-omics and breeding strategies for abiotic stress tolerance in maize (Zea mays L.).

High-throughput sequencing technologies (HSTs) have revolutionized crop breeding. The advent of these technologies has enabled the identification of beneficial quantitative trait loci (QTL), genes, and alleles for crop improvement. Climate change have made a significant effect on the global maize yield. To date, the well-known omic approaches such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics are being incorporated in maize breeding studies. These approaches have identified novel biological markers that are being utilized for maize improvement against various abiotic stresses. This review discusses the current information on the morpho-physiological and molecular mechanism of abiotic stress tolerance in maize. The utilization of omics approaches to improve abiotic stress tolerance in maize is highlighted. As compared to single approach, the integration of multi-omics offers a great potential in addressing the challenges of abiotic stresses of maize productivity.

First report of Curvularia penniseti causing leaf blight of Bajra Napier hybrid grass in India.

Bajra Napier hybrid (Pennisetum glaucum x Pennisetum purpureum) is a perennial, high yielding grass and is widely grown for fodder in India. During August-2021, Bajra Napier hybrid germplasm line (NBN 15-2) showed severe leaf blight symptoms at ICAR-Indian Grassland and fodder research institute, Jhansi (25.527890 N, 78.5451400 E). Symptoms were initial irregular yellow spots on the leaf lamina, which later became brownish, coalesced and gave blighted appearance to the leaf surface. Disease severity recorded was 55 to 60 percent. To isolate the pathogen, 10 symptomatic leaf samples were cut into small pieces (~4 mm2), surface-sterilized with 70% ethanol for 30 seconds and rinsed with sterile water. Sterilized leaf pieces were transferred to potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated at 28°C for 7 days. Four similar fungal isolates (BNHCP-1 to BNHCP-4) were obtained from the affected portions. The colonies were grayish-brown with dark brown margins. Conidia were mostly clavate, elongated, straight or bent at the terminal cell, with 2-3 septa with dimensions of 17.5 to 30 µm × 10 to 12.5 µm (avg. 24 µm × 12 µm; n=40). The third cell from the base was broader and darker. These morphological characteristics were consistent with previous descriptions of Curvularia penniseti (Mitra) Boedijn (Ellis, 1971). To confirm the species, BNHCP-1 was chosen as representative isolate for further studies. Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene of isolate BNHCP-1 was amplified with primers ITS1F/ITS4R (White et al. 1990) and GDF/GDR (Templeton et al. 1992), and sequenced. The sequences were deposited in GenBank (ITS: OM073980; GAPDH: OM103702.2). BLASTn analysis showed 99.6% and 98% similarity of ITS and GAPDH gene respectively with GenBank accession numbers MH859833.1 (548 bp/550 bp) and MN688838.1 (130 bp/133 bp) of C. penniseti. A maximum-likelihood phylogenetic analysis based on concatenated sequences of ITS and GAPDH gene using MEGA X placed the isolate BNHCP-1 within a clade comprising C. penniseti. Pure culture of BNHCP-1 was deposited in National Agriculturally Important Microbial Culture Collection (NAIMCC), Maunath Bhanjan (Uttar Pradesh) with accession number NAIMCC-F-04251. For pathogenicity, root slips of Bajra Napier hybrid germplasm line NBN 15-2 were transplanted in pots (6 pots; 2 root slips per pot) and kept for fresh growth in a growth chamber at 25 0C for 21 days. Bajra-Napier hybrid plants were sprayed until runoff with conidial suspension (5 × 105 conidia/ml) made from 2-week old fungal colony grown on PDA petri dish. The pots were covered with plastic bag for 48 h to maintain humidity. Inoculated plants displayed small, brown, oval-shaped lesions within seven days on the lamina and edges of the leaf which later enlarged and gave blighted appearance to the leaf. Control plants were asymptomatic. The pathogen was re-isolated from the inoculated leaves and confirmed morphologically, fulfilling Koch's postulates. C. penniseti has been reported earlier from Pennisetum americanum, P. clandestinum, Sorghum and Triticum sp. from different parts of the world (Sivanesan, 1987). However, there is no report of C. penniseti in Bajra Napier hybrid. Thus, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of C. penniseti from Bajra-Napier hybrid grass in India. Further studies on economic impact of this disease on Bajra-Napier hybrid production and its presence on commercial cultivars are needed.

Analysis of an intraspecific RIL population uncovers genomic segments harbouring multiple QTL for seed relevant traits in lentil (Lens culinaris L.).

Improving seed related traits remains key objective in lentil breeding. In recent years, genomic resources have shown great promise to accelerate crop improvement. However, limited genomic resources in lentil greatly restrict the use of genomics assisted breeding. The present investigation aims to build an intraspecific genetic linkage map and identify the QTL associated with important seed relevant traits using 94 recombinant inbreds (WA 8649090 × Precoz). A total of 288 polymorphic DNA markers including simple sequence repeat (SSR), inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) were assayed on mapping population. The resultant genetic linkage map comprised 220 loci spanning 604.2 cM of the lentil genome, with average inter-marker distance of 2.74 cM. QTL mapping in this RIL population uncovered a total of 18 QTL encompassing nine major and nine minor QTL. All major QTL were detected for seed related traits viz., seed diameter (SD), seed thickness (ST), seed weight (SW) and seed plumpness (SP) across two locations. A considerable proportion of the phenotypic variation (PV) was accounted to these QTL. For instance, one major QTL on LG5 controlling SW (QTL 15) explained 50% PV in one location, while the same QTL accounted for 34.18% PV in other location. Importantly, the genomic region containing multiple QTL for different seed traits was mapped to a 17-cM region on LG5. The genomic region harbouring QTL for multiple traits opens up exciting opportunities for genomics assisted improvement of lentil.

Analysis of genetic structure and interrelationships in lentil species using morphological and SSR markers.

Genetic structure and relationships of 130 lentil accessions belonging to six taxa were analysed. For this purpose, seven morphological traits and 31 polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers were used for this purpose. Morphological traits grouped lentil accessions into five main clusters. SSR primers collectively amplified 139 polymorphic alleles in a range of 2-10 with an average of 4.48 alleles. The size of amplified alleles varied from 50 to 650 bp. Polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0.02 to 0.85 with an average of 0.46. Neighbour-joining tree grouped accessions broadly according to their taxonomic ranks, except L. culinaris ssp. odemensis. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that a major portion (82.0%) of genetic variance resided within species, while only 18% resided among species. Bayesian model-based STRUCTURE analysis assigned all accessions into five clusters and showed some admixture within individuals. Cluster analysis showed that cultivated Lens accessions of Ethiopian origin clustered separately, from other cultivated accessions indicating its distinct lineage. Among the analysed lentil species, L. culinaris ssp. odemensis seemed to have conserved genetic background and needs revision of its taxonomic status. Results of present study provide important information on genetic diversity and relationships among different wild and cultivated taxa of lentil. Thus, these results can be useful in designing breeding strategies for future improvement and taxonomic implications in lentil.