Gul Zaffar

Evaluation of oats (Avena sativa L.) genotypes for β-glucan, grain yield and physiological traits

The present investigation was undertaken to identify suitable cultivars for commercial grain production for human consumption on the basis of nature of inter-relationship between β-glucan, grain quality and yield. The experimental material comprised of ten oats (Avena sativa L.) genotypes which were evaluated under temperate conditions of Kashmir for chlorophyll content, leaf area index, grain protein content, β-glucan content and grain yield. The highest chlorophyll content and leaf area index was recorded in genotype SKO-211 and highest grain protein in genotype SKO-209. The highest β-glucan and grain yield was achieved in genotype SKO-208. Correlation studies on the degree of interrelationship between various parameters revealed that grain yield exhibited a significant positive genotypic correlation with chlorophyll content, leaf area index and β-glucan. From the study it appears oats genotypes viz., SKO-208, SKO-209 and SKO-207 may be suitable for commercial grain production for human consumption on the basis desirable grain quality characteristics and grain yield but these genotypes need further testing under different environments.

Genetic variability in saffron (Croccus sativus L.) clones

The present investigation was carried out at saffron research station pampore, SKUAST-Kashmir during 2010. Fifty clones were planted in a randomized bock design with three replications. Observations were recorded on 10 randomly selected and tagged competitive plants for 11 morphological, physiological, floral and corm traits viz, plant height (cm), number of radical leaves per plant, stomatal frequency, stomatal size (microns), chlorophyll content (%), number of flowers per corm, fresh pistil weight per corm (mg), pistil length (cm), stigma length (cm), number of daughter corms/mother corm and average weight of daughter corms per mother corm (g). Genotypic differences were highly significant for all the tested traits. Components of variability indicated that a wide range of variability existed for number of flowers per corm (0.80–1.96), fresh pistil weight corm−1 (29.00–65.46), pistil length (4.05–5.83), plant height (23.20–35.60), stomatal frequency (11.20–16.40), stomatal size (microns) (21.03–51.18), number of daughter corms/mother corm(3.46–9.30), average weight of daughter corms per mother corm (g) (3.04–10.60) and number of radical leaves per plant (15.40–26.60). Per se performance of genotypes under evaluation revealed a gross fresh pistil weight of 46.36mg corm−1 from 1.26 flowers corm−1 resulting in 3 kg laccha ha−1 with planting density of 5 lakh corms ha−1 showing an increase of 26% over state average. Estimates of phenotypic variance were higher than the corresponding estimates of genotypic variance, thereby revealing influence of environment in the expression of the traits studied. High values of heritability were recorded for all the traits.

Genetic effects of combining ability on forage quality traits and forage yield in diallel crosses of oats (Avena sativa L.)

Studies in oats (Avena sativa L.) were carried out to generate information on combining ability (general and specific), nature and magnitude of gene effects and heterosis for forage quality and yield. The experimental material comprised of 10 diverse parents and 45 F1 crosses (excluding reciprocals) generated through a 10 x 10 diallel mating design. Significant interaction between combining ability effects were observed for all the quality traits and yield. The estimates of additive variance were higher in magnitude than their corresponding dominance variance estimates indicating the role of additive gene action, except green forage yield and dry matter yield. The parent SKO-213 had highly significant and desirable GCA effects for crude protein content, SKO-210 for neutral detergent fibre, SKO-204 for acid detergent fibre, SKO-208 for crude fibre parent, SKO-207 for ash content and SKO-212 for both green forage and dry matter yields. Cross combinations viz., SKO-212 x SKO-213, SKO-204 x SKO-211, SKO-205 x Sabzaar, Sabzaar x SKO-212 and SKO-205 x SKO-211 exhibited high and desirable sca and heterobeltiosis effects simultaneously for all the quality traits, green forage yield and dry matter yield ha−1.