Irrigation interval and fertilizer nutrient sources influenced growth and biomass yield of ‘PITA 24’ plantain (Musa spp. AAB) --IJAAR

• Simon Chinekenwa Aba1*, Kayode Paul Baiyeri1,2

1. Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria
2. Visiting scientist to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, P.M.B 5320, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

In the current global climate change scenario, there are predictions of drought and water shortages. This study evaluated varying fertilizer treatments (organic – 20 t.ha-1 of composted poultry manure, inorganic – 400 kg N +600 kg K2O + 100 kg P2O5 per hectare, and

the complementary doses thereof, and a no- fertilizer control) alongside three irrigation intervals (every 3 days, 6 days or 9 days) on growth and biomass yield of micro propagated‘PITA 24’ plantain. Results showed significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences in growth and dry matter yield (DMY), and the distribution pattern following the irrigation and fertilizer treatments. Plant performances (height,girth, biomass yield, and leaf canopy indices) were superior and sometimes similar in plants that received organic fertilizer or the combined doses of organic/inorganic fertilizers. Similarly, plants that received water every 3 days had the best growth and DMY, followed by those of the 6 days interval. Growth lag and leaf losses were obvious in plants watered every 6 or 9 days interval. The worst hit by the transient moisture stress were the control plants and those plants grown with mineral fertilizers alone. DMY was significantly high in plants that received organic fertilizer alone, followed closely by plants that had the complementary fertilizer doses.

These plants allotted greater proportion of the DMY to the aerial components, whereas the control plants accumulated more underground components. Results from the study suggest that transient moisture stress in plantains could be managed with judicious use of manure or complementary application with mineral fertilizers.

Journal Name: International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research (IJAAR)

Publication Name: International Network For Natural Sciences (INNSPUB)

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Analysis of response to water deficit in three Indian varieties of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) for drought tolerance--IJAAR

• Bhupendra Koul1*, Devindra Vijay Amla1, Indraneel Sanyal1, Ruchi Singh

1. Plant Transgenic Lab, CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, P.O. Box 436, Rana Pratap
   Marg, Lucknow-226 001, India
2. Plant Physiology Lab, CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, P.O. Box 436, Rana Pratap
   Marg, Lucknow-226 001, India

Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses in agriculture for losses in crop productivity worldwide. Three chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) varieties namely P362, P1103 and SBD377 were assessed for response to drought tolerance during vegetative stage, in stress and non-stress environments, under contained conditions. Several physiological parameters including gas exchange, photosynthesis rate, fluorescence, stomatal conductance and water loss per day were monitored simultaneously.

P362 variety showed maximum photosynthesis rate in irrigated as well as in drought conditions. This variety also maintained its relative water content (RWC)and water potential (WP) during imposition of similar duration of drought. Due to the maximum elasticity of leaf cells, it maintained its cell turgidity upto 68% RWC to protect itself from water stress, compared to variety P1103 and SBD377. The effective solute concentration and osmotic potential in the irrigated controls at full turgor was lowest in P362 variety, compared to the other two varieties. 

Osmotic adjustment (OA) was assessed as a capacity factor which is rate of change in turgor pressure with RWC.P362 variety showed a maximum OA value of 0.27 while the values for SBD377 and P1103 were 0.22 and 0.21, respectively. During water stress, the chlorophyll content was minimally reduced in P362 variety, therefore effective quantum yield of photosystem II (Fv/Fm) and photosynthesis rate was maximally maintained. The higher photosynthesis rate under irrigated conditions and maintenance of higher RWC under drought conditions makes P362 variety a promising option for optimum yield under prolonged terminal drought or under rain-fed conditions.

Journal Name: International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research (IJAAR)

Publication Name: International Network For Natural Sciences (INNSPUB)

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Effect of application of Nitrogen and Potassium fertilizers on some vegetative and reproductive traits in Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) -IJAAR

• Shiva Ghasemi, Khadijeh Abbaszadeh, Mostafa Ghasemi*, Morteza Salari, Fatemeh
  Zarei

1. Department of Horticulture, Hormozgan University, Bandar Abbas, Iran

A pot experiment was carried out to examine the effect of application of nitrogen and potassium fertilizers on some vegetative and reproductive traits in Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa). Treatments were included control with no fertilizer (T1); 70 mg N per kg soil (T2); 50 mg K2O per kg soil (T3); and combination of T2 and T3 (T4) that applied on 30 day old seedlings.

In the end of experiment (30 days after flowering), the parameters stem height, stem diameter, number of leaves and flowers, flower diameter, calyx length, number of shoots, fresh and dry weight of organs and vitamin C were evaluated. The results showed that were significant differences in some parameters among applied treatments.

Treatments 3 and 4 showed no significant differences in studied parameters. Application of nitrogen fertilizer decreased the levels of vitamin C while potassium fertilizer and integrated use of N and K increased the levels of vitamin C.

The traits stem height, stem diameter, number of leaves, number of flowers, number of shoots, biomass of leaves and flowers were not significantly affected by fertilizer treatments. The highest flower diameter (2.63 cm), calyx length (2.91 cm) and flower dry weight (10.56g), were obtained at treatment of 50 mg K2O kg-1 soil. The results showed that the treatments K alone and combination of N with K were more efficient than either N or no fertilizer in improving traits of Roselle.

Journal Name: International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research (IJAAR)

Publication Name: International Network For Natural Sciences (INNSPUB)

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Mycological flora of Clarias gariepinus exposed to an oilfield wastewater in Nigeria-IJMM

Nedie Patience Akani*, Omokaro Obire

• Department of Microbiology, University of Port Harcourt. P.M.B. 5323, Choba - Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

The Mycological flora of Clarias gariepinus exposed to sub-lethal concentrations of an oilfield wastewater were investigated. The concentrations included 0% (control), 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60% respectively. Physico-chemistry and mycoflora of wastewater and tissues of Clarias gariepinus were determined using standard methods.

Mean values obtained were; temperature 25.93± 6.7oC, pH 7.73±0.31, turbidity 40.33±1.53 NTU, salinity 6584±137mg/l, conductivity 15200± 1058.68μs/cm,total dissolved solids 8436.33±501.68mg/l, total suspended solids 4.67±0.58mg/l, alkalinity 1296.33±2168mg/l, dissolved oxygen 1.83±0.38mg/l, biochemical oxygen demand 1.3±0.7mg/l and Total hydrocarbon 40.54±50mg/l.

Temperature, DO, BOD and THC were below allowable FEPA limits while all other components were higher. Mean counts of total fungi and petroleum degraders in the oilfield wastewater were 4.7±0.46 x 106 sfu/ml and 59.7±25.7% respectively. Fungal counts in the tissues of Clarias ranged from 0.20±0.00 x 104sfu/g to 3.00±0.00 x 104sfu/g (skin), 0.48±0.05 x104sfu/g to 7.25±0.96 x 104sfu/g (gills), and 1.13±0.15 x 104sfu/g to 5.75± 0.50 x 104sfu/g(intestine). The intestine had higher fungal counts, but the gills recorded the highest at 10% concentration. Fungi isolated included; Aspergillus fumigatus (46.43%), Aspergillus niger (100%),Fusarium spp. (100%), Mucor spp. (24.99%), Penicillium spp. (57.14%), Rhizopus spp. (32.13%) and Saccharomyces spp. (34.3%).

 

All except Saccharomyces spp were isolated from oilfield wastewater. Aspergillus spp. Penicillium spp, Mucor and Rhizopus are considered normal flora, but can still cause infection which may result in the mortality of the fish and eventually economic loss to the aquarium fish industry. Proper treatment of oilfield wastewater prior to discharge into the recipient water body is advocated to reduce Eco toxicological problems.

Journal Name: International Journal of Microbiology and Mycology (IJMM)

Publication Name: International Network For Natural Sciences (INNSPUB)

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Extraction of β-galactosidase and β-glucosidase from the seeds of Tamarindus indica-- IJBB

• Shlini Purushothaman*, Siddalinga Murthy K R

• Central College Campus, Bangalore University, Bangalore, Karnataka. India

The enzymes β–galactosidase and β–glucosidase were extracted from the tamarind seeds using different buffers at different pH.Highest activity was obtained with 10 mM sodium acetate buffer, pH 5.6 and 10 mM tris buffer, pH 7.4. The effect of NaCl and Triton X–100 at different concentrations on the extraction of the enzymes indicated 10 mM sodium acetate buffer, pH 5.6 containing 1 M NaCl as a better extractant of the enzyme.

The enzyme assay was carried out using p–nitrophenyl–β–D–galactoside and p–nitrophenyl β–D–glucoside as substrates. Highest enzyme activities were observed on 6th and 24th day of germination. The protein content gradually decreased upto 5th day of germination and suddenly increased on 6th day. However, on subsequent days of germination, the protein content greatly decreased upto 11th day.

During the latter period of germination (18th day onwards) the content remained almost constant.The kinetic parameters varied for both β–galactosidase and β–glucosidase. The activity of β–galactosidase was show to have an optimal operating condition at pH 5.5 and a temperature of 500C. The thermostability of the enzyme was in the range of 400C – 700C with the pH stability in the range of 5.0 – 7.0. The Km and Vmax values for pNPGal were determined as 66μM and 2.27nmolesmin-1.

In contrast the activity of β–glucosidase was shown to have an optimal operating condition at pH 5.0 and a temperature of 300C. The thermostability of the enzyme was in the range of 270C – 350C with the pH stability in the range of 4.0 – 7.0. The Km and Vmax values for pNPGlu were determined as 121μM and 5.26nmolesmin-1. The presented study is a preliminary work carried out for the standardization of protocols. The purification and characterization of β–galactosidase and β–glucosidase is under progress.

Journal Name: International Journal of Biomolecules and Biomedicine (IJBB)

Publication Name: International Network For Natural Sciences (INNSPUB)

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Molecular characterization of rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes using target region amplification polymorphism (TRAP) markers in relation to grain iron content

• Pavan J. Kundur1,2,3*, Prakash G. Patil1,4, B.G. Harish2, 3, C.K. Ramesh5, H.E. Shahidhar1

1. Department of Plant Biotechnology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru -560065, India
2. M. S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bengaluru- 560054, India
3. Visveshwarya Technological University, Belagavi- 590018, India
4. Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur-208024, India
5. Sahyadri Science College, Shivamogga – 577203, India

In the present investigation, based on the seven rice putative candidate iron transporter genes, novel TRAP markers were developed.These markers were successfully employed in the molecular diversity study among 30 rice genotypes representing improved rice cultivars and land races with varied grain iron content (7.38 - 30.58 ppm).

Totally, thirty TRAP primer combinations were screened, which generated 703 bands out of which 654 were polymorphic (93%) with an average of 21.8 bands per primer combination. The average polymorphic information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.09(Osysl4b+ME05) to 0.25 (Osnramp5c+ME05, Osnramp1b+ME02 and Osysl4a +ME02). Gene diversity (H ˆ) ranged from 0.10 (Osysl4b+ME05) to 0.31 (Osnramp1b + ME02 and Osysl4a +ME02). The Jaccard dissimilarity ranged from 0.15 to 0.52, explaining 37% of genetic variation (Table 4).

Grouping of genotypes based on UPGMA and principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) were found comparable and grouping of genotypes into a different cluster was found mainly on the basis of pedigree relationships. TRAP markers revealed well resolved relationships among rice genotypes. The information generated from this study will helps to select parental combinations for breeding high iron content rice varieties.

Journal Name: International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research (IJAAR)

Publication Name: International Network For Natural Sciences (INNSPUB)

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