Ajmer Dhatt

Punjab Agricultural University | PAU · Department of Vegetable Science

Pumpkin seeds are one of the functional foods with most potential having myriad of uses, and functioning as both edible seeds and oilseeds. Nevertheless, their utilization is restricted to the presence of a thick seed coat (hull) which subjects them to the process of decortication, increasing the farmers’ expense as well as limiting their utilizati...

Pumpkin seeds have great therapeutic value but remain underutilized due to its hulled character. However, a hull-less mutation revolutionized the fate of pumpkin seeds in the oil industry by omitting the decortication process. Therefore, the present research was conducted to understand the histological and physiological changes caused by this mutat...

The present investigation was conducted at Vegetable Research Farm, Department of Vegetable Science and Physiology Laboratory, Department of Botany Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The experiment was laid out in split plot design keeping the salinity levels as main factor and genotypes as sub main factor. One hundred and two genotypes of b...

Solanum melongena is a widely consumed vegetable crop comprising health-benefiting phenolic compounds. It has a complex network of biosynthetic enzymes involved in synthesizing nutraceuticals, including anthocyanins. The present study was conducted to investigate the activities of key enzymes involved in biosynthesis and accumulation of anthocyanin...

The hull-less pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) seed does not require de-hulling before use for human consumption, as a result highly preferred by the oil, nut, and baking industries. In hull-less seeds, a single recessive gene is responsible for the absence of outer thick seed coat layers; however, the genomic region and gene(s) controlling the trait are u...

Pumpkin seeds are used globally for snacks, bakery, and oil due to their nutritional and medicinal properties. The seeds of pumpkin have 35–45% oil, rich in health-enhancing fatty acids especially linoleic (52.7%), oleic (28.3%), and palmitic (12.7%). However, the presence of thick leathery seed coat (hull) limits the use due to decortication proce...

Fusarium wilt [Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. melonis (Fom)], is one of the most serious disease of muskmelon in India. Fifty accessions of muskmelon and its relatives collected from diverse sources were subjected to molecular screening with Fom1 and Fom2 gene specific markers. Presence of Fom1 (R) gene was confirmed using RG-9-2 marker where as suscepti...

Vegetables are integral part of our diet and mainly grown on soil in kitchen gardens as well as open fields. In post COVID-19 era, people start growing vegetables in pots, particularly in urban areas. But lack of nutrient rich media, optimum pot size and ideal home garden model restricts its adoption at large. Therefore, experiments were planned to...

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) system has been exploited worldwide in field and vegetable crops. In eggplant, alloplasmic CMS lines were developed through interspecific hybridization between Solanum aethiopicum L. × S. melongena L., while the restorer (R) lines were isolated from the reciprocal cross. The knowledge about inheritance of Rf gene is...

Vegetable-based agroforestry is one of the means to diversify from cereal-based intercrops under agroforestry system. Onion (Allium cepa L.) is one of the most important vegetable crops used for consumption in India and the highest foreign exchange earner among the fruit and vegetables. In this context, the current study was carried out to assess t...

In present investigation, 110 locally developed genotypes from different breeding programmes in brinjal were classified into eleven clusters on the basis of their D2 values computed from Mahalanobis D2 statistics of twelve morphological traits, wherein inter-and intra-cluster distances highlighted the genetic divergence of the genotypes grouped amo...

Pumpkins and squashes which belong to genus Cucurbita are among the four important genera of Cucurbitaceae family, with widest adaptation from temperate to tropics. These are mainly cultivated for fruits (immature and mature) and seeds for snacks and oil. The diversity in fruit colour, size and shape, leaf morphology, plant stature, shelf life and...

The bulb onion (Allium cepa L.) is grown on all continents except Antarctica and is prized by essentially all of the world’s cultures for its flavour and health-enhancing attributes. Both open-pollinated (OP) and hybrid cultivars are commonly grown, with hybrids predominating in most regions of the world. Hybrids are produced using cytoplasmic male...

Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) has great genetic wealth in its centre of origin, which is a foundation for crop improvement. So far, conventional breeding approaches were commonly used for improvement of yield, quality and resistance to insect pests and diseases, but the advent of biotechnological tools like embryo rescue, haploid induction, geneti...

An experiment was conducted in a factorial randomized block design during rabi 2016-18 at ludhiana. There were 14 treatments consisting of two factors. Factor i comprised two levels of inorganic fertilizers [100% rDF (recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers) and 75% rDF] and factor ii consisted of six combinations of biofertilizers along with a c...

Alliums are widely consumed as food and medicine but modestly understood for their genetic constitution and design. Huge, complex and repetitive genomes, biennial life cycle, strong inbreeding depression and apomixes have thwarted development of optimal genotypes, especially in the third world. However, genetic diversity assessment, marker-assisted...

In the present study, twenty-six eggplant genotypes were characterized using morphological traits and seventy simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Information of the genetic diversity of eggplant is imperative to support management and conservation programme that will subsequently aid in sustainable production of this crop. Multivariate analysis (...

In this study, thirty onion (Allium cepa L.) genotypes grown in subtropical region of India were analysed for diff erent physico-chemical attributes. There were signifi cant diff erences among genotypes, and the onion genotypes showed a tendency to be classifi ed according to diff erent colours. The cultivars of the same colour exhibited similar te...

The growth and fruit yield of tomato plants grown under wick type self-suction and drip substrate hydroponic systems was compared. Tomato plants were cultivated under these two substrate hydroponic systems in summer and winter seasons. Four nutrient solutions having different proportions of N and K for vegetative and reproductive stages were applie...

Genetic diversity among 26 eggplant accessions was assessed using Mahalanobis D2 statistics. Thirteen quantitative traits were tested for Principal Component analysis (PCA) for expression of variability. The PCA revealed that the first six PCs with eigenvalues >0.1 contributed for 89.1 per cent of total variation. The genotypes were classified into...

The present investigations were carried out at Vegetable Research Farm and Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Vegetable Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana with an aim to study the changes in total sugars, fructans and alcohol insoluble solids contents under ambient storage conditions in thirty genotypes of onion (Allium cepa L.)....

For in vitro micropropagation, short day tropical varieties of onion 'Agrifound Dark Red', 'Punjab Naroya' and 'PRO-6' were exposed to different concentrations and combinations of growth hormones. Pre-sterilization of basal plate of onion in 0.5% solution of bavistin followed by treatment with 0.1% mercuric chloride for 10 min. produced the highest...

The present study compared the nutraceuticals in thirty different genotypes of brinjal, cultivated in the Punjab state of India. Activity of enzyme polyphenol oxidase was studied in selected genotypes of brinjal in correlation with the phenolic compounds. The free radical scavenging capacities were evaluated by three assays viz. 2,2′- azinobis (3-e...

M arker Assisted Selection (MAS) using mitochondrial DNA based marker cytochrome b (cob) was integrated with phenotypic evaluation to isolate male sterile and maintainer lines from open pollinated onion varieties adapted to North Indian agro-climatic region. Cytotype (N/S) determination by cob marker followed by morphological and microscopic study...

Anthocyanins are important class of secondary metabolites responsible for different colours of fruits. They are involved in protection from UV irradiation, insect attack in plants. Anthocyanins are thought to have anti-inflammatory, antiulcer, antioxidant and antimutagenic activities in humans. Brinjal is known to be a rich source of anthocyanins,...

The improvement of pumpkin(Cucurbita moschata Duch ex Poir.) for intensive cultivation necessitates genetic studies, wherein, heterosis and combing ability were studied in half di-allel fashion involving bushy plants and butternut fruits. The genotypes, P-3621 was best general combiner for short vine, internode, equatorial diameter and high fruit s...

The present study was carried out to determine the influence of wick and drip substrate hydroponic systems and different ratios of nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) in the nutrient solution on fruit yield and quality (titratable acidity, total soluble solids, ascorbic acid, total soluble sugars, firmness, lycopene, carotenoids) in tomato. Summer and w...

Fusarium wilt incited by f. sp. (Fom) cause severe losses up to 100% in melon worldwide. is epidemic due to continuous cultivation of susceptible varieties. Different edaphic factors influence wilt development in melon. Among preventive measure, resistant varieties are the most reliable control measure in hand. Four physiological races were identif...

Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) is the most important vegetable crop of southern and south-east Asia, Africa and sub-tropics of India. It is also known as eggplant, aubergine and belongs to Solanaceae family. Brinjal is ranked among top 10 vegetables in terms of antioxidant capacity which is mainly due to the presence of phenolic compounds. The phen...

p>A total of forty one genotypes of onion were evaluated for their relative response to purple blotch complex caused by Alternaria porri and Stemphylium vesicarium under artificial epiphytotic condition in field during Rabi 2014-2015 and 2015-2016. Significant variation in disease severity among the onion genotypes was found over two years but the...

p>Six systemic fungicides viz. , Kitazin 48 EC (iprobenfos), Tilt 25 EC (propiconazole), Folicur 25 EC (tebuconazole), Score 25 EC (difenoconazole), Amistar Top 325 SC (azoxystrobin 18.2% + difenoconazole 11.4%) and Nativo 75 WG (trifloxystrobin 25% + tebuconazole 50%), and two non-systemic fungicides viz. , Indofil M-45 75 WP (mancozeb) and Kocide...

Hull-less seed is an important trait to use as snacks and oil of pumpkin seeds. The present investigation was undertaken with the objective to evaluate the advance breeding lines for growth, yield and quality traits of hull-less seeded pumpkin at PAU, Ludhiana. Experiment was conducted in the Department of Vegetable Science during 2014 and 2015 inv...

Twelve genotypes of eggplant in BC3, BC4 and BC5 generations of CMS-lines derived from Solanum ae-thiopicum × Solanum melongena cross along with their maintainers were evaluated for eighteen quantitative charac-ters at Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana. Analysis of variance depicted significant variation (P ≤ 0.05) for all the characters in a...

Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) fruits were harvested at physiological maturity stage and packed in polymeric flms, viz heat shrinkable flm (15μ) and cling flm (15μ). The flm packed and unpacked (control) fruit were stored under ambient conditions. Both flms proved quiet effective in improving the post harvest life and maintaining the quality of fru...

Marker assisted selection (MAS) using mitochondrial DNA based marker cytochrome b (cob) was integrated with phenotypic evaluation to isolate male sterile and maintainer lines from openpollinated onion varieties adapted to North Indian agro-climatic region. Cytotype (N/S) determination by cob marker followed by morphological and microscopic study of...

Combining ability effects were estimated for different characters in a line × tester crossing programme comprising 96 onion hybrids produced by crossing of 3 male sterile lines and 32 testers. Parents and hybrids differed significantly for gca and sca effects, respectively. Among the lines, 30A and 97A and among the testers CT-1201, CT-1202, CT-120...

This study reports the activity of anthocyanidin synthase (ANS) in leaf and fruit tissues of 14 genotypes of brinjal. It was found that the activity of ANS in leaves of all genotypes and fruits of green and white colour progressively decreased from 7 to 21 days after anthesis (DAA) while a progressive increase was observed in purple fruits during t...

Garlic is grown throughout the world but the crop invariably suffers from productivity lower than its potential, owing to several inherent and extrinsic factors, especially in developing countries like India. The objectives of garlic improvement, thus, should be induction of sterility, creation of variability and molecular elucidation of genome for...

In this study, already developed pot based Hybrid Hydroponics Technology (HHT) (soilless) is experimentally tested by installing the same inside a micro-climatically controlled greenhouse to determine its effect on plant growth, yield, water & nutrient savings and cost reductions. It was observed that the effect of hybridization was much higher on...

Parthenocarpy is the growth of ovary into seedless fruit in the absence of pollination and fertilization. It may occur naturally or can be induced artificially by exogenous application of hormones or their enhanced endogenous level. Parthenocarpy improves the yield, quality and processing attributes of vegetable crops like cucumber, eggplant and wa...

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is an important dietary and medicinal crop of India and globally. Garlic is attacked by viruses of genera Potyvirus, Carlavirus and Allexivirus. These viruses accumulate and disseminate through vegetative propagation and responsible for reducing yield and quality of this herb. During December, 2014 garlic cultivars with v...

Bioactive compounds (i.e. anthocyanin, total phenols, ascorbic acid, total carotenoids and β-carotene) and antioxidant activity were analyzed in seven genotypes of onions viz Punjab Naroya, Punjab White, PRO-6, P-305, POH-1, POH-2 and CLX-18021. PRO-6 contained maximum anthocyanin, ascorbic acid and total phenols i.e. 2.32 mg, 11.40 mg and 283.57 m...

Garlic virus D (GarV-D) was detected in garlic plants exhibiting yellow stripes,dwarfing and mosaic symptoms,by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). These plants were co-infected with Onion yellow dwarf virus (OYDV). Amplicons of ca. 750 bp and ca. 450 bp from infected plants were cloned and sequenced. By BLASTn analysis,virus...

Bulb onion (Allium cepa L.) is an ancient crop that is thought to have originated in Central Asia and has been cultivated for over 5000 years. Classical genetic and plant breeding approaches have been used to improve onion yield, quality, and resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses. However, its biennial life cycle, cross-pollinated nature a...

Allium sativum L. (garlic) and A. cepa L.(onion) are important Allium species cultivated in Indian Punjab. Onion is planted both in kharif and rabi seasons by bulb set or by seed, whereas, garlic in rabi by cloves. Among viruses attacking allium, Onion yellow dwarf virus (OYDV), Leek yellow stripe virus (LYSV), Garlic common latent virus, Shallot l...

Direct plant regeneration of three eggplant genotypes, viz., BL-5, BR-14 and BSR-23 was studied with hypocotyl, cotyledon and leaf explants on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium fortified with different concentrations BAP and Kin. The interaction of genotype, medium and explant gave 80.36% regeneration from cotyledons of BL-5 on MS medium fortified wi...

The 43 accessions of bulb onion were analyzed for genetic variability studies based on morphological and biochemical traits. The germplasm under investigation grouped into seven divergent clusters irrespective of their geographical origin based on Mahalanobis D2 analysis. It was found that cluster-I was largest of all with 12 genotypes while cluste...

As a novel method of identifying S and N cytoplasms in onion, a mitochondrial DNA based marker cytochrome b (cob) was used to cytoplasmically characterize Indian onion populations. The oligonucleotides amplified 414 bp DNA for S-cytotype and 180 bp for N-cytotype in open-pollinated populations, namely, Punjab Naroya, Punjab Selection, Punjab White,...

Eggplant is highly responsive to various tissue culture techniques. Somatic embryogenesis and direct organogenesis are widely studied protocols in this crop, but potential of regeneration varies with genotype, explant and culture media supplemented with different combination and concentration of growth hormones. The genotype is the most important f...

Among different explants, cotyledon showed highest regeneration and number of buds per explant on all media combinations. However, highest regeneration potential was observed on MS fortified with 3.0 mgl−1 BAP (80.36%), but number of buds per explant were highest (21.76) on MS media supplemented with 2.5 mgl−1 BAP+ 1.0 mgl−1 Kin. Plant regeneration...

Fifty genotypes of brinjal having fruits of different colours were evaluated for dry matter, total soluble sugars, total phenols, ortho-dihydroxy phenols (ODHs) and flavonols in two years i.e 2012 and 2013. It was found that brinjal has low sugar content and it is a rich source of phenolic compounds. Highest total phenol content was found in genoty...

Onion powder has an extensive demand and wide application worldwide as flavour additive in convenience foods and medicinal products. Conventionally onion powder is prepared by hot air drying of onion slices followed by grinding. Convective air drying when used alone demands longer drying time and thus has a high expense of energy. As bulk of onion...

Cotyledon explants of eggplant genotype BL-5 were used for standardizing Agrobacterium transformation. To develop regeneration baseline, cotyledon explants of in vitro grown seedlings of eggplant genotype i.e. BL-5 were regenerated on MS medium fortified with 2.0-3.0 mgl-1 BAP with or without 1.0 mgl-1 kin. Cotyledon was found the best for plant re...

Brinjal were regenerated from callus derived from hypocotyl, cotyledon and root explants of five genotypes, namely Punjab Barsati, Punjab Sadabahar, Jamuni Gola, PBSR-11 and BB-93C on MS medium containing different concentrations of IAA and BAP. A combination of 2.5 mg/l IAA + 0.5 mg/l BAP was found optimum for adventitious shoot induction from all...

In vitro plant regeneration of brinjal genotype BL-3 was tried using hypocotyl, cotyledon and leaf explants from in vitro raised seedlings on Murashige and Skoog medium fortified with 6-benzylamino purine (BAP) and kinetin (kin) combination (2.0-3.0 mgl -1 BAP with or without 1.0 mgl -1 kin). The cotyledon explant gave cent percent regeneration on...

Induction of somatic embryos in cultured hypocotyl, cotyledon and leaf explants of BL 5, BR 14 and BSR 23 genotypes of eggplant (Solanum melongena) was investigated on MS medium fortified with different concentrations of IBA and BAP. The statistical analysis showed significant differences among various interactions. Cotyledon of BL 5 exhibited 89.0...

Fruits of a winter tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum L.) hybrid were harvested at mature green stage and a first lot was exposed to ethylene gas (100 ppm) for 24h in a ripening chamber at 20±1°C and the second lot was treated by immersion in a solution of ethephon {(2-chloroethyl) phosphonic acid} at 2 different concentrations (500 and1000 ppm) and f...

The nursery raising of tropical cauliflower faces major set backs during hot and rainy months under north Indian conditions. In order to identify suitable shade nets to protect nurseries against adversities of weather and suitable nursery growing media in plug-trays, an experiment was conducted with split plot design. Among the three shade treatmen...

In some locations, fruit of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is only available for short times. Excess production of tomato during these short periods leads to a saturated market and low prices. These periods can be followed by scarcity and high prices. A few mutant genes, i.e., alcobaca (alc), ripening inhibitor (rin) and non-ripening (nor),...

A field experiment was conducted during 2003-06 to evaluate 5 elite clones of turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) for growth, yield and quality attributes. The maximum yield was recorded in 'PH 3'(31.96 tonnes/ha), followed by 'PH 4' (28.92 tonnes/ha). 'PH 4' was the earliest to mature (214.64 days) and 'PH 3' was the latest (238.25 days). In terms of qual...

The present investigation was conducted to find the effect of two genotypes (PH-3 and PH-4) and three planting materials (mother rhizome, primary fingers, secondary fingers) on plant growth, yield and rhizome size of turmeric. The genotype and genotype x planting material exerted non-significant effects, while planting material showed significant d...