PI: Dr Sewa Ram
Co PIs: Drs Sneh Narwal; O.P. Gupta, Vanita Pandey and Vikas Gupta
Development of RILs of HD 2967 and Glu-B1 line (1660): Using the Gpc-B1 lines provided by PAU, Ludihana, crosses were made with high yielding variety as HD 2967 for developing RILs. The analysis of F6 material showed large variations in grain protein, Fe and Zn contents. In addition, several backcross generations have also been developed with DPW 621-50 and DBW 88. Various combinations of reported markers viz., XCUW108 and 109 and CAPS marker XUHW 106, 86 and 84 were evaluated to identify Gpc-B1 in hexaploid backgrounds and as per the marker data generated, no correlation between Gpc-B1and grain protein content was observed. Therefore, efforts are being made to identify molecular marker associated with high grain protein content in RIL of HD 2967 and Gpc-B1 line.
Association mapping: QTL associated with high Fe and Zn content were identified using more than 16000 SNP data of 96 diverse wheat genotypes. 30 QTL with Fe content and 15 QTL for Zn content showed significant association across different chromosomes.
Assessing variability in phytase and phytic acid levels in wheat varieties: Three hundred released wheat varieties of India were analysed for their variability in phytase and phytate levels using Direct assay method developed in IIWBR laboratory. The extraction and assay of the enzyme was faster and cost effective as compared to other methods. There were 6 fold variations in phytase levels and variation of 0.90 to 1.98% of phytic content among the varieties. Though, there was significant effect of both genotype and environment on phytate and phytase levels, higher heritability values (0.96 and 0.92 for phytase and phytate) suggested the potential of improving phytase levels through breeding.
Development and identification of mutant for high phytase and low phytic acid levels: More than 400 lines of mutants developed in the background of PBW 502 using EMS mutagenesis were evaluated for phytic acid and phytase levels using microlevel tests developed in IIWBR laboratory. Many of the lines showed very high phytase levels up to 2400 FTU/kg, while PBW 502 exhibited 720 FTU/kg. All the lines were evaluated for hectolitre weight for identification of lines with sound grains for further use in crossing with high yielding varieties.
Molecular understanding of Fe and Zn uptake and transport in Fe Zn-sufficient and Fe Zn-deficient wheat genotypes: A total of four Fe and Zn rich and deficient wheat genotypes (Sonora-64, Vinata (N-8223), PAU 1660 and DBW-17 were selected and grown in sand culture. One-month old seedlings were subjected to De-novo transcriptome analysis. From a total of 415.03 million (150x2) reads, 376.71 million high quality adapter free reads were utilized in the analysis. Pooled assembly resulted in an average of 315,904 transcripts (average length of 937 bp and N50 of 1,294 bp). Assembled transcripts were further clustered into an average of 225,845 unique representative transcripts (with an average length of 890 bp and N50 of 1,199 bp). 62.81% of transcripts were functionally annotated using Uniprot. Frequency of top 10 abundant GO terms under biological process, molecular function and cellular component categories showed transcripts involvements in various pathways. Ten GO terms in molecular function category showed about ~1.96% heme binding, ~3.4% zinc ion binding and ~3.8% metal ion binding transcripts.
Experiment on application of Fe and Zn fertilizers: Ten wheat varieties were sown in two replications under control, Fe fertilizer and Zn fertilizer and combined Fe and Zn application for understanding the effect of Fe and Zn fertilizers on grain Fe and Zn content. Fe and Zn application was done in two stages at flowering and grain development. Samples have been collected and grains will be analyzed for the micronutrient content.