Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute

About: Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute is a facility organization based out in New Delhi, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Small area estimation. The organization has 454 authors who have published 870 publications receiving 7987 citations.

Cytoplasmic male sterile and doubled haploid lines with desirable combining ability enhances the concentration of important antioxidant attributes in Brassica oleracea

Abstract: The Brassica vegetable crops are rich source of important antioxidant compounds having anticancer and health promoting properties. Development of F1 hybrids with better nutritional traits is one of the main breeding objectives in different vegetable crops. Our study is the first report of determining heterotic combinations utilizing cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) and doubled haploid (DH) inbred lines for antioxidant compounds in snowball cauliflower. Twenty genetically diverse Ogura CMS lines of cauliflower and six DH male fertile inbred lines were crossed to develop 120 F1 hybrids in line × tester mating design. The resulting 120 test cross progenies along with 26 parents and 4 standard checks were evaluated in 10 × 15 alpha lattice design with three replications during next cropping season. The CMS lines Ogu33-1A, Ogu122-5A and Ogu119-1A were good general combiner and CMS line Ogu118-6A was poor general combiner for majority of traits. Most of the heterotic hybrids were associated with high positive SCA effects. The proportions of σ2A/D and $$\upsigma^{2}_{\text{gca}} /\upsigma^{2}_{\text{sca}}$$ ratios were less than unity in all the cases indicating preponderance of non-additive gene action in the genetic control of all the traits. Highest number of heterotic hybrids with SCA effects in desired positive direction was recorded for ascorbic acid content and phenolic content followed by total carotenoid content. The F1 hybrids with better combining ability and better per se performance could be useful in accumulation of favourable allele for higher concentration of important anti-oxidant compounds.

Small area prediction of counts under a non-stationary spatial model

Abstract: There is a growing need for current and reliable counts at small area level. The empirical predictor under a generalised linear mixed model (GLMM) is often used for small area estimation (SAE) of such counts. However, the fixed effect parameters of a GLMM are spatially invariant and do not account for the presence of spatial nonstationarity in the population of interest. A geographically weighted regression extension of the GLMM is developed, extending this model to allow for spatial nonstationarity, and SAE based on this spatially nonstationary model (NSGLMM) is described. The empirical predictor for small area counts (NSEP) under an area level NSGLMM is proposed. Analytic and bootstrap approaches to estimating the mean squared error of the NSEP are also developed, and a parametric approach to testing for spatial nonstationarity is described. The approach is illustrated by applying it to a study of poverty mapping using socio-economic survey data from India.

Structural, Functional, and Evolutionary Characterization of Major Drought Transcription Factors Families in Maize.

Abstract: Drought is one of the major threats to the maize yield especially in subtropical production systems. Understanding the genes and regulatory mechanisms of drought tolerance is important to sustain the yield. Transcription factors (TFs) play a major role in gene regulation under drought stress. In the present study, a set of 15 major TF families comprising 1,436 genes was structurally and functionally characterized. The functional annotation indicated that the genes were involved in ABA signaling, ROS scavenging, photosynthesis, stomatal regulation, and sucrose metabolism. Duplication was identified as the primary force in divergence and expansion of TF families. Phylogenetic relationship was developed for individual TF and combined TF families. Phylogenetic analysis clustered the genes into specific and mixed groups. Gene structure analysis revealed that more number of genes were intron-rich as compared to intron-less. Drought-responsive cis-regulatory elements such as ABREA, ABREB, DRE1, and DRECRTCOREAT have been identified. Expression and interaction analyses identified leaf-specific bZIP TF, GRMZM2G140355, as a potential contributor toward drought tolerance in maize. Protein-protein interaction network of 269 drought-responsive genes belonging to different TFs has been provided. The information generated on structural and functional characteristics, expression, and interaction of the drought-related TF families will be useful to decipher the drought tolerance mechanisms and to breed drought-tolerant genotypes in maize.

Development and validation of whole genome-wide and genic microsatellite markers in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.): First microsatellite database (OpSatdb).

Abstract: The availability of large expressed sequence tag (EST) and whole genome databases of oil palm enabled the development of a data base of microsatellite markers. For this purpose, an EST database consisting of 40,979 EST sequences spanning 27 Mb and a chromosome-wise whole genome databases were downloaded. A total of 3,950 primer pairs were identified and developed from EST sequences. The tri and tetra nucleotide repeat motifs were most prevalent (each 24.75%) followed by di-nucleotide repeat motifs. Whole genome-wide analysis found a total of 245,654 SSR repeats across the 16 chromosomes of oil palm, of which 38,717 were compound microsatellite repeats. A web application, OpSatdb, the first microsatellite database of oil palm, was developed using the PHP and MySQL database ( https://ssr.icar.gov.in/index.php ). It is a simple and systematic web-based search engine for searching SSRs based on repeat motif type, repeat type, and primer details. High synteny was observed between oil palm and rice genomes. The mapping of ESTs having SSRs by Blast2GO resulted in the identification of 19.2% sequences with gene ontology (GO) annotations. Randomly, a set of ten genic SSRs and five genomic SSRs were used for validation and genetic diversity on 100 genotypes belonging to the world oil palm genetic resources. The grouping pattern was observed to be broadly in accordance with the geographical origin of the genotypes. The identified genic and genome-wide SSRs can be effectively useful for various genomic applications of oil palm, such as genetic diversity, linkage map construction, mapping of QTLs, marker-assisted selection, and comparative population studies.