Development Of High-yielding Cultivars Research Articles

Millet production, challenges, and opportunities in the Asia-pacific region: a comprehensive review

Global warming, water scarcity, population growth, rising food prices, urbanization, and other socio-economic factors pose significant threats to agriculture and food security in the 21st century. This situation is particularly grave for low-income individuals in the Asia-Pacific region. To tackle this challenge and eradicate hunger and poverty, it is imperative for scientists to explore alternative food sources, covering all stages from production through processing to consumption. Cereal grains serve as a crucial food source and hold substantial importance in human diets. Therefore, revamping the food system becomes crucial to achieve food and nutritional security. A pragmatic approach toward reaching this goal involves ensuring universal access to affordable, wholesome, and nourishing food through the utilization of millets—nutrient-dense grains (often referred to as Nutri-cereals) that offer a rich array of vital macronutrients, micronutrients, carbohydrates, protein, dietary fiber, lipids, and phytochemicals. Leveraging these grains holds the potential to significantly alleviate the challenges of food insecurity and malnutrition. Millet, a drought-resistant grain, constitutes a primary source of carbohydrates and proteins for populations residing in semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia. Given its crucial contribution to national food security and potential health advantages, there is a growing focus among food scientists. Additionally, the United Nations designated 2023 as the International Year of Millet, underscoring its importance. This article delves into various methods of production and processing, highlighting opportunities to enhance the production and nutritional qualities of millet. We attribute millets to inadequate rainfall distribution, poor crop management high prices of farm inputs such as fertilizer and pesticides and low adoption of improved varieties by the farmers. It also outlines the constraints, challenges, and future prospects associated with promoting millet as a viable food source for the burgeoning population. Despite the promise that millets hold, they have not received adequate research attention. Therefore, increased research efforts on integrating genomics in genome-wide marker-trait association are imperative, encompassing germplasm collection, protection, evaluation, consumption patterns, development of high-yielding cultivars, processing techniques, and policy interventions. Such initiatives are necessary to bolster the cultivation of millets and harness their potential to address the escalating global food challenge.

Profiling Cultivars Development in Kersting's Groundnut [Macrotyloma geocarpum (Harms) Maréchal and Baudet] for Improved Yield, Higher Nutrient Content, and Adaptation to Current and Future Climates

Kersting's groundnut [Macrotyloma geocarpum(Harms.) Maréchal and Baudet], Fabaceae, is an important source of protein and essential amino acids. As a grain legume species, it also contributes to improving soil fertility through symbiotic nitrogen fixation. However, the crop is characterized by a relatively low yield (≤500 kg/ha), and limited progress has been made so far, toward the development of high-yielding cultivars that can enhance and sustain its productivity. Recently, there was an increased interest in alleviating the burdens related to Kersting's groundnut (KG) cultivation through the development of improved varieties. Preliminary investigations assembled germplasms from various producing countries. In-depth ethnobotanical studies and insightful investigation on the reproductive biology of the species were undertaken alongside morphological, biochemical, and molecular characterizations. Those studies revealed a narrow genetic base for KG. In addition, the self-pollinating nature of its flowers prevents cross-hybridization and represents a major barrier limiting the broadening of the genetic basis. Therefore, the development of a research pipeline to address the bottlenecks specific to KG is a prerequisite for the successful expansion of the crop. In this paper, we offer an overview of the current state of research on KG and pinpoint the knowledge gaps; we defined and discussed the main steps of breeding for KG' cultivars development; this included (i) developing an integrated genebank, inclusive germplasm, and seed system management; (ii) assessing end-users preferences and possibility for industrial exploitation of the crop; (iii) identifying biotic and abiotic stressors and the genetic control of responsive traits to those factors; (iv) overcoming the cross-pollination challenges in KG to propel the development of hybrids; (v) developing new approaches to create variability and setting adequate cultivars and breeding approaches; (vi) karyotyping and draft genome analysis to accelerate cultivars development and increase genetic gains; and (vii) evaluating the adaptability and stability of cultivars across various ecological regions.

QTL mapping of agronomic traits in wheat using the UK Avalon × Cadenza reference mapping population grown in Kazakhstan

BackgroundThe success of wheat production is largely dependent on local breeding projects that focus on the development of high-yielding cultivars with the use of novel molecular tools. One strategy for improving wheat productivity involves the deployment of diverse germplasms with a high potential yield. An important factor for achieving success involves the dissection of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for complex agronomic traits, such as grain yield components, in targeted environments for wheat growth.MethodsIn this study, we tested the United Kingdom (UK) spring set of the doubled haploid (DH) reference population derived from the cross between two British cultivars, Avalon (winter wheat) and Cadenza (spring wheat), in the Northern, Central, and Southern regions (Karabalyk, Karaganda, Kyzylorda) of Kazakhstan over three years (2013–2015). The DH population has previously been genotyped by UK scientists using 3647 polymorphic DNA markers. The list of tested traits includes the heading time, seed maturation time, plant height, spike length, productive tillering, number of kernels per spike, number of kernels per meter, thousand kernel weight, and yield per square meter. Windows QTL Cartographer was applied for QTL mapping using the composite interval mapping method.ResultsIn total, 83 out of 232 QTLs were identified as stable QTLs from at least two environments. A literature survey suggests that 40 QTLs had previously been reported elsewhere, indicating that this study identified 43 QTLs that are presumably novel marker-trait associations (MTA) for these environments. Hence, the phenotyping of the DH population in new environments led to the discovery of novel MTAs. The identified SNP markers associated with agronomic traits in the DH population could be successfully used in local Kazakh breeding projects for the improvement of wheat productivity.

Discovery of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers in hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) by transcriptome sequencing and SSR-based characterization of hazelnut cultivars

ABSTRACT Current cultivation and breeding strategy based on selections from local and wild vegetation does not meet the hazelnut demand. This situation would benefit from the development of high-yielding cultivars with greater tolerance to abiotic and biotic stress conditions. Molecular markers are useful tools to support these breeding efforts. In the current study, EST-SSR markers were developed from RNA-sequencing data obtained from three hazelnut varieties. The transcriptome sequences contained 86,542 unigenes and a total of 25,391 SSRs, most of which (50.9%) were di-nucleotide repeats. A set of 40 primer pairs were randomly selected to validate their usefulness for investigating genetic diversity in 19 C. avellana cultivars and one accession of Corylus colurna. Of the 40, 28 were highly polymorphic with average values of observed heterozygosity, polymorphism information content and number of alleles per locus of 0.45, 0.67 and 6.11, respectively. The principal coordinate and dendrogram analysis separated the C. colurna accession from the C. avellana cultivars, and separated the cultivars for date of leaf bud burst. These new EST-SSRs and others that could be developed from the transcriptome sequences increase the number of markers for cultivar fingerprinting and may be useful for identifying marker-trait associations and further genetic diversity analyses.

IAC-Alvorada and IAC-Diplomata: new common bean cultivars

The aim of common bean breeding programs is the development of high-yielding cultivars, with multiple disease resistance and high technological and nutritional grain quality. Two cultivars, IAC-Alvorada with carioca grain, and IAC-Diplomata with black grain, meet these standards, according to the results of trials of Value for Cultivation and Use (VCU) 2005/2006/2007 in Sao Paulo. The cultivars, developed by the Instituto AgronUmico de Campinas, were registered by the MAPA/RNC.

Genotype × Environment Interactions for Shelf Life and Yield Attributes in Tomato Hybrids Heterozygous at rin, nor, or alc Loci

ABSTRACT Development of high-yielding cultivars with better shelf life and consistent performance across seasons is one of the important objectives of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Miller) breeding programs. Heterozygous individuals, i.e., F1 hybrids, are reported to be more stable to environmental variation than homozygous ones due to their ability to perform better under stress conditions. The present study was conducted to identify F1 hybrids heterozygous at rin, nor, or alc loci having wider adaptability across main and late planting conditions, besides possessing higher yield and better shelf life than check hybrids. The variation among environments was linear. All hybrids showed genotype×environment interactions for all traits. Shelf life of different hybrids significantly fluctuated from their respective linear response to environments and was non-predictable, while yield attributes (total yield/plant and number of fruits/plant) did not fluctuate and were predictable. Most of the tomato hybrids heterozygous at rin, nor, or alc loci showed above average stability for shelf life and yield attributes. However, 19 hybrids showed below average stability for total yield/plant and were suitable for main season planting only. The most stable hybrid was Spectrum × alc-IIHR-2050 having high-mean yield (1.25 kg/plant), nearing unity regression coefficient (0.91) and nonsignificant deviation from regression (-0.11). It possessed higher yield and better shelf life index (9.31) than check hybrids viz., TH-1 (0.92 kg/ plant, 5.49) and Naveen (0.84 kg/plant, 6.01) and is recommended for multilocation trials across the state for cultivation in main and late planting conditions.