Kuljit Kaur

Meiotic chromosomal studies in family Zygophyllaceae R. Br. from Rajasthan

Present paper deals with the cytomorphological study of 4 genera and 5 species belonging to family Zygophyllaceae collected from various localities of Rajasthan. Three cytomorphovariants of Tribulus terrestris have been observed with 2n=24, 36 and 48. Peganum harmala with 2n=12 (based on x=6) is reported for the first time from world level, earlier the species is based on x=12. The presence of B-chromosomes also makes the first report of the species from world level. Fagonia cretica (2n=22), Tribulus alatus (2n=24) and Zygophyllum simplex (2n=16) have been cytologically worked out for the first time from India.

Cytogenetic variations in eight species of Saussurea DC. (Asteraceae, Cardueae) from Northwest Himalaya

Abstract The genus Saussurea comprises many species with highly medicinal, religious or other economical values. The chromosome number in the genus ranges from 2n = 24 to 108, based on x = 12, 13, 16, or 17, but the primary base number is still not clear. The present meiotic study cover 8 species (14 populations) of Saussurea from the Northwest Himalayas, and add new or varied cytotypes, as an attempt to solve the enigmatic cytogenetic variations in the genus. The chromosome numbers in Saussurea auriculata (n = 16) is new to the world, while S. costus (n = 17), S. jacea (n = 17) and S. roylei (n = 17) reveal the varied cytotypes at world level. Besides, S. taraxicifolia (n = 16) is a first ever report for Indian populations. The meiotic studies on different populations reveal a substantial amount of meiotic abnormalities in the form of chromosome stickiness, un-oriented bivalents, cytomixis, laggards, etc. leading to the meiocytes with less (aneuploidy) or more (polyploidy) chromosome numbers. These abnormalities may produce unreduced pollen grains and adversely affect pollen viability. The high number of these meiotic abnormalities may be responsible for the chromosome number variation in the genus.

Effect of temperature and rainfall on paddy yield using data mining

Prediction of agriculture yield is a job that requires unification of knowledge from several areas such as data mining, statistics and agriculture. Subject of crop yield prediction has been very popular among various organizations working in agriculture, producers etc. Ρrediction of crop yield helps in managing the storage of crops as well as it directs the transportation decisions, and risk management issues related to crops. Pattern of rainfall and temperature aredynamic due to global warming, and resulting in undergoing impingement on crop productivity. Data Mining focuses upon methodologies for extracting useful knowledge from data and there are several tools to extract the knowledge that is it is a proficiency of examining the dataset such that the end results can be deduced easily and rapidly from the dataset. The knowledge gathered can be used ο forecast the paddy yield. But farmers do not use any knowledge discovery process approach on paddy yield data. Data mining can be used in agriculture for decision making. In this study, we collected data from different government organizations, after preprocessing and discretization of data applied Predictive Apriori algorithm using Data Mining tool (WEKA) for analysis of daily temperature, daily rainfall and paddy yield to predict the paddy yield and to analyze the effect of temperature and rainfall on the paddy yield.

Development and characterization of novel microsatellite markers in Trillium govanianum : a threatened plant species from North-Western Himalaya

Trillium govanianum is a temperate forest understory plant species of high value belonging to the family Melanthiaceae. It is endemic to Himalayan region and facing a bottleneck situation due to reckless extractions from its natural strands. In the present study, 21 microsatellite markers were developed and characterized in 20 accessions of T. govanianum. Collectively, the polymorphic markers amplified 31 alleles in a range of 2–4 with an average of 2.6 alleles per marker. The mean observed heterozygosity (Ho), expected heterozygosity (He), and Shannon information index (I) were 0.46, 0.48, and 0.73, respectively. Average polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.385. The cross-transferability in a related species, namely, Polygonatum verticillatum, showed amplification of ten markers. The newly developed microsatellite markers efficiently distinguished the different accessions on the basis of their geographic origin. Thus, these microsatellites can be useful in exploring genetic diversity in various existing populations of T. govanianum in north-western Himalaya, which may be useful for their conservation, management, and improvement in future.