Water use and yield of winter wheat in Northern India as affected by timing of last irrigation

Summary Standard local practice in Northern India is to continue irrigation of winter wheat crop almost up to harvest, based on the farmer's belief that this treatment increases grain weight and yield. The effect of an early cut-off of irrigation on the water use was studied in a three-year experiment on a deep, sandy-loam soil.Wheat, sown during the second or third week of November, received its first irrigation four weeks later. Subsequently treatments included irrigations of 7.5 cm water depth applied after 10 cm of cumulative pan evaporation minus rainfall had elapsed since the previous irrigation up till mid-April; irrigations of 7.5 cm up till mid-February and thereafter irrigation equal to 75 and 100% soil-water deficit in the 0–180 cm profile around March 10 with no later irrigation; and a similar treatment with one additional irrigation after making up the water deficit.Least irrigation water was used from the treatment in which 75% water deficit was restored around March 10 and no further irrigation was applied. This treatment increased the average extraction of profile water by 4 cm compared to treatments in which irrigation was continued until mid-April. Profile water depletion was inversely related to the amount of irrigation. Grain weight and yields from the various treatments harvested in the last week of April were unaffected by the treatments.The authors are grateful to the ICAR for financing this research     

Yield,water use and root distribution of wheat as affected by pre-sowing and post-sowing irrigation

Irrigation water is a limited resource, and therefore irrigation practices must be rationalized for high water-use efficiency. Little is known about the influence of stored water in deep soils on the water needs and the post-sowing irrigation requirements of crops. A 3-year field experiment was conducted to determine the effects of combinations of light and heavy pre-sowing irrigations with two post-sowing irrigation regimes on yield, root growth, water use and water-use efficiency of wheat on a deep alluvial sandy loam soil. Post-sowing treatments consisted of (i) five 75-mm irrigations at five growth stages, and (ii) irrigations based on pan evaporation, i.e. at IW/PAN-E ratio of 0.75 (75 mm of irrigation water were provided as soon as the open-pan evaporation minus rainfall since previous irrigation was 100 mm).The latter regime required 175 mm less water than that with irrigation at growth stages. Profile water utilization was inversely related to post-sowing irrigation water. Where pre-sowing irrigation was light, post-sowing irrigations based on pan evaporation yielded significantly less than those based on growth stages. With heavy pre-sowing irrigation, irrigation based on the pan evaporation yielded as much as five irrigations at growth stages. The former decreased the mean water application by 153 mm and increased the water-use efficiency by 26%. Irrigation based on pan evaporation stimulated greater utilization of stored water by increasing the rooting density in deeper layers.It is indicated that for higher water-use efficiency and yield, wheat should be sown after a heavy pre-sowing irrigation, and post-sowing irrigation should be based on 0.75 pan evaporation.     

Production of Wild Buffalo (Bubalus arnee) Embryos by Interspecies Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Using Domestic Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) Oocytes

The objective of this study was to explore the possibility of producing wild buffalo embryos by interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer (iSCNT) through handmade cloning using wild buffalo somatic cells and domestic buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) oocytes. Somatic cells derived from the ear skin of wild buffalo were found to express vimentin but not keratin and cytokeratin‐18, indicating that they were of fibroblast origin. The population doubling time of skin fibroblasts from wild buffalo was significantly (p < 0.05) higher, and the cell proliferation rate was significantly (p < 0.05) lower compared with that of skin fibroblasts from domestic buffalo. Neither the cleavage (92.6 ± 2.0% vs 92.8 ± 2.0%) nor the blastocyst rate (42.4 ± 2.4% vs 38.7 ± 2.8%) was significantly different between the intraspecies cloned embryos produced using skin fibroblasts from domestic buffalo and interspecies cloned embryos produced using skin fibroblasts from wild buffalo. However, the total cell number (TCN) was significantly (p < 0.05) lower (192.0 ± 25.6 vs 345.7 ± 42.2), and the apoptotic index was significantly (p < 0.05) higher (15.1 ± 3.1 vs 8.0 ± 1.4) for interspecies than that for intraspecies cloned embryos. Following vitrification in open‐pulled straws (OPS) and warming, although the cryosurvival rate of both types of cloned embryos, as indicated by their re‐expansion rate, was not significantly different (34.8 ± 1.5% vs 47.8 ± 7.8), the apoptotic index was significantly (p < 0.05) higher for vitrified–warmed interspecies than that for corresponding intraspecies cloned embryos (48.9 ± 7.2 vs 23.9 ± 2.8). The global level of H3K18ac was significantly (p < 0.05) lower in interspecies cloned embryos than that in intraspecies cloned embryos. The expression level of HDAC1, DNMT3a and CASPASE3 was significantly (p < 0.05) higher, that of P53 was significantly (p < 0.05) lower in interspecies than in intraspecies embryos, whereas that of DNMT1 was similar between the two types of embryos. In conclusion, these results demonstrate that wild buffalo embryos can be produced by iSCNT.     

Laboratory and field trials with formalin-inactivated Escherichia coli (O78)-Pasteurella anatipestifer bacterin in white pekin ducks

A combination Escherichia coli serotype O78 and Pasteurella anatipestifer bacterin was developed and tested in white pekin ducks in laboratory and field trials. Inoculations with bacterin at 2 and 3 weeks of age provided significant protection against challenge with virulent E. coli O78 and Pasteurella anatipestifer serotypes 1, 2, and 5. No significant cross-protection was observed against heterologous E. coli serotypes, although there was a slight reduction in mortality in ducklings challenged with E. coli serotypes O2a and O119. In field trials, the E. coli-P. anatipestifer bacterin produced significant reduction of mortality in commercial white pekin ducks compared with P. anatipestifer bacterin.     

Inheritance of a plant type mutant and its utilization in chickpea

Summary A macro-mutant, E 100Y(M) in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) was found to affect several plant and seed characters. For plant type monogenic inheritance was observed. A single pair of recessive genes pt/pt was ascribed to this mutant. The mutant locus seemed to be exerting pleiotropic action. The utilization of this mutant for chickpea improvement has been discussed.     

Inter-relationships among cane yield and commercial cane sugar and their component traits in autumn plant crop of sugarcane

Seventeen diverse clones of sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) (7 early, 6 mid season and 4 late) were planted in October 1991 and 1992 in flooded (FE) and non flooded (NFE) environments for evaluation of cane yield, commercial cane sugar (CCS), internode length, internode number, stalk length, stalk thickness (circumference), stalk number, sugar recovery, and stalk weight. Cane yield showed significant positive phenotypic correlation coefficient (PCC) with stalk number in FE (P ≤ 0.05) and NFE (P ≤ 0.01). Stalk length had a significant positive PCC with stalk weight in both environments, and with internode length in FE (P ≤ 0.05). Commercial cane sugar also expressed significant positive PCC with cane yield in both environments (P ≤ 0.01), but with stalk number only in NFE (P ≤ 0.05). Genotypic correlation coefficients were generally in the same direction as PCC but higher in magnitude. In both environments, stalk number and stalk weight had relatively high positive direct effects on cane yield. However, flooding tended to enhance the direct effect of stalk weight and diminish the direct effect of stalk number on cane yield. Only cane yield and sugar recovery had high direct effects on CCS. Selection for improvement of cane yield can be based on stalk number and stalk weight in both environments. High yielding clones can be further screened for more sugar recovery to improve CCS. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Identification of a diverse mini‐core panel of Indian rice germplasm based on genotyping using microsatellite markers

Identification of a small core germplasm set representing the available genetic diversity is essential for its proper evaluation and subsequent utilization in rice improvement programmes. For constituting a small diverse mini‐core panel of Indian rice germplasm, a representative set of 6912 accessions drawn based on their geographic origin from the whole rice germplasm collection available in the National Gene Bank was genotyped using 36 microsatellite markers. Automated fragment analysis of amplicons yielded a total of 435 alleles, with an average 12.4 and range of 3–29 alleles per locus. Polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0.08 (RGNMS190) to 0.86 (RM552) with an average of 0.528. Based on genotyping data, a mini‐core consisting of 98 genotypes was identified. Ninety‐four per cent of the alleles present in the core set were present in the mini‐core. The identified small but diverse panel will be useful for further intensive trait‐specific evaluation and utilization in allele mining.