Sanjeev Kumar

Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research | IISR · Crop Improvement

Sucrose is the prime product of sugarcane and a significant variation has been observed among different sugarcane genotypes for the time taken to initiate sucrose accumulation. High sucrose accumulation in sugarcane at early crop phase is one of the most desirable traits, since it can help in reducing its long growth cycle. This study is based on a...

The genetic improvement efforts in sugarcane are largely centered around increasing its sucrose accumulation potential. Sugarcane genotypes show variable regulation of genes involved in synthesis, accumulation, transport, storage and subsequent retention of sucrose. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which are a class of small non-coding RNAs play a very importan...

Among the biotic factors, which affect the productivity and quality of sugarcane, red rot disease caused by the fungal pathogen, Colletotrichum falcatum is the most devastating that cause enormous loss to millers as well as cane growers. We present a highly contiguous genome assembly of C. falcatum pathotype Cf08 which is virulent to popular sugarc...

Intercropping of mustard or potato in sugarcane in relation to traditional non-intercropping rotation on microbial diversity, soil quality and crop productivity was assessed in a 3-year cropping system trial. The systems consisted of sugarcane + mustard–ratoon–cowpea (SmRC), sugarcane + potato–ratoon–wheat (SpRW) and a standard sugarcane–ratoon–whe...

In the last two decades, the productivity of rice-wheat system in the upper Indo-Gangetic Plains of India has come to a plateau, and, as a result, farmers are now shifting to other crop grown systems to achieve a higher net productivity. Inclusion of other crop grown system in place of rice-wheat system affect overall crop productivity, however, th...

In the last two decades, the productivity of rice-wheat system in the upper Indo-Gangetic Plains of India has come to a plateau, and, as a result, farmers are now shifting to other crop grown systems to achieve a higher net productivity. Inclusion of other crop grown system in place of rice-wheat system affect overall crop productivity, however, th...

Wheat-rice cropping system has several negative effects on sustainability factors like underground water, soil structure, nutrient availability, soil organic carbon and productivity. In order to alleviate the obstacles of intensive cultivation of wheat-rice system, the impact of different cropping systems, viz., wheat-rice (W-R), lentilrice (L–R),...

Sugarcane improvement programmes in India have concentrated on development of improved varieties suited to the different locations. Along with the early maturing sugarcane varieties, mid-late maturing varieties facilitate a proper varietal planning for efficient and extended functioning of sugar mills. ICAR-Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, L...

Sugarcane improvement programmes in India have concentrated on development of improved varieties suited to the different locations. Along with the early maturing sugarcane varieties, mid-late maturing varieties facilitate a proper varietal planning for efficient and extended functioning of sugar mills. ICAR-Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, L...

Sugarcane is one of the most important economic crops and contributes more than 80% of the sugar globally. Developing superior sugarcane varieties is a long-term process due to polyploidy, high chromosome numbers, large complex genome size and also many other practical constraints like long breeding cycle, etc. The recent advancements in molecular...

Sucrose is the key economic trait in sugarcane which is a highly polyploid multi-species hybrid and shows a complex pattern of trait inheritance. The excessively large genome of sugarcane is comparatively less explored through Next Generation Sequencing tools for creating superior varieties. In this study, RNAseq libraries of two extreme bulks from...

Yellow leaf disease (YLD) of sugarcane is one of the emerging and serious diseases of sugarcane in India. YLD is a complex disease because it is caused by a single or mixed infections of Sugarcane yellow leaf virus (SCYLV) and sugarcane yellows phytoplasma (SCYLP). So far no control measure of this disease is available except the resistant genotype...

Testing the genetic fidelity of micropropagated clones with DNA markers could curtail the losses caused by somaclonal variation in sugarcane tissue culture industry. Evaluation of 32 inter-retrotransposon amplified polymorphism (IRAP) markers and 100 inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) in 47 sugarcane accessions identified 20 (8 IRAPs and 12 ISSR...

Genetic diversity in 92 sugarcane varieties of sub-tropical India was assessed using 30 morphological descriptors and 643 simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker loci. Out of the 30 morphological descriptors, 14 were found polymorphic, and significant variability was recorded for plant height, cane diameter and number of millable canes. Grouping traits...

Sugarcane (Saccharum species hybrid) is the major source of sugar (> 80% sugar) in the world and is cultivated in more than 115 countries. It has recently gained attention as a source of biofuel (ethanol). Due to genomic complexity, the development of new genomic resources is imperative in understanding the gene regulation and function, and to fine...

Thirty-eight isolates of Trichoderma spp. established from the rhizosphere of sugarcane were characterized using a multiplex PCR assay and further assessed for the production of hydrolytic enzymes chitinase and cellulase. The results of multiplex PCR assay successfully identified 29 isolates and revealed T. harzianum to be the predominant species (...

Sugarcane, one of the most photosynthetically efficient crops, is an important source of sugar and feedstock for green energy and co-generation. The high level of polyploidy and genomic peculiarities in this crop point towards a complex mechanism of regulation for the economically important traits like sugar content, cane yield related traits, resi...

Host preference of evolving insect vectors has a direct correlation in transmitting plant viruses. The presence of more than 50 lakh species of insects on the earth has been estimated and, approximately 5000 virus species infecting plants, animals, bacteria, fungi have been known to exist on the earth. Among several insect orders, Insecta is the ma...

Diseases in sugarcanes like red rot, leaf scald, ratoon stunting, grassy shoot and mosaic are carried to succeeding crops through infected seeds. Thus, heavy financial losses occur annually on account of reduction in cane yield and sucrose recovery. In this context, use of healthy seed of recommended varieties through hot air treatment and tissue c...

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India, in the year 2005, established a National Certification System for Tissue Culture-raised Plants (NCS-TCP). The aim of NCSTCP is to enhance the production and distribution of tissue culture-raised genetically uniform and virus-free planting materials to the farmers. In this endeavour, a Managemen...

Ninety two sugarcane varieties from sub-tropical India were subjected to molecular profiling with 174 simple sequence repeat markers and characterized for 23 qualitative (morphological descriptors) and nine quantitative traits that directly or indirectly contribute to yield and juice quality. Using STRUCTURE-based population stratification study an...

An efficient in vitro propagation system was developed for large-scale multiplication of a high yielding line (IIVRPG-102) of pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.) utilizing nodal segments. A procedure for surface sterilization, involving a combination of treatments with cetrimide (1.0%) for 30 min, trimethoprim (0.05%) and dimethycarbendazim...

Genetic diversity in 143 Indian bean [Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet] accessions from India was assessed using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. A total of 134 SSR markers developed from common bean, cowpea, mung bean, moth bean and Faba bean were used to assess their transferability to Indian bean. Quantitative traits as well as SSR marker data w...

Red rot is a serious disease of sugarcane caused by the fungus Colletotrichum falcatum that has a colossal damage potential. The fungus, prevalent mainly in the Indian sub-continent, keeps on producing new pathogenic strains leading to breakdown of resistance in newly released varieties and hence the deployment of linked markers for marker-assisted...

Testing and Certification of Tissue Culture Raised Quality Planting Material

Yellow leaf disease (YLD) of sugarcane is one of the emerging and serious diseases of sugarcane in India. YLD is a complex disease because it is caused by a single or mixed infections of Sugarcane yellow leaf virus (SCYLV) and sugarcane yellows phytoplasma (SCYLP). So far no control measure of this disease is available except the resistant genotype...

Somatic hybridization (SH) using protoplast fusion is a promising tool to produce symmetrical and asymmetrical polyploidy somatic hybrids in many agricultural crops. The technique of SH could facilitate conventional breeding by providing of novel lines so as to use them as elite breeding materials in conventional crosses for both scion and rootstoc...

Four different F2 populations were developed involving Solanum habrochaites accession ‘EC-520061’ that is highly resistant to Tomato leaf curl virus (ToLCV) disease and four ToLCV-susceptible cultivars of tomato (S. lycopersicum L.), ‘Punjab Chhuhara’ (PBC), ‘H-24’, ‘H-86’, and ‘DVRT-2’. The segregation ratios of tomato leaf curl disease developmen...

Four different F2populations were developed involving Solanum habrochaitesaccession ‘EC-520061’ that is highly resistant to Tomato leaf curl virus (ToLCV) disease and four ToLCV-susceptible cultivars of tomato (S. lycopersicumL.), ‘Punjab Chhuhara’ (PBC), ‘H-24’, ‘H-86’, and ‘DVRT-2’. The segregation ratios of tomato leaf curl disease development i...

Linkage disequilibrium (LD)-based marker-trait association (MTA) was used to identify markers for sucrose and yield contributing traits in a panel of 108 sugarcane genotypes from sub-tropical India. Population structure (Q), kinship (K), and MTA study exploited a set of 989 marker loci generated from 123 genomic- and expressed sequence tag-SSR prim...

Snapmelon (Cucumis melo var. momordica) is native to India and many of its accessions have been used as source for disease and insect pest resistance, worldwide. Inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were used to evaluate intra-specific genetic diversity among twenty-two snapmelon accessions, variable for fruit cracking, peeling patterns, f...

Indian bean [Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet] is an underexploited nutritious legume vegetable found in tropical regions of Asia and Africa. The nutritional and anti-oxidant properties of 21 pole type Indian bean genotypes were analysed in edible pods in terms of protein, sugar, chlorophyll, carotenoids, phenol, and proline contents. The analyses revea...

French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is one of the most important sources of proteins, carbohydrates, fibres, certain minerals and vitamins, and adds specific nutritional value to human diet. In this study interrelation between number of pods per plant and pod size (length and width) and nutritional (protein, carotenoids, sugar, lipid, ascorbic acid...

Transgenic tomato lines (cv. Kashi Vishesh) over-expressing AtDREB1A/CBF3 driven by stress-inducible rd29A promoter showed significantly higher activities of key antioxidant enzymes when exposed to water-deficit for 7, 14, and 21 days. Transgenic tomato plants exposed to water-deficit recorded lower levels of hydrogen peroxide and superoxide anion...

Pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.) is one of the most important cucurbit vegetables in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, particularly in India and Bangladesh. Pointed gourd is morphologically distinct from other cucurbitaceous species due to its well-established dioecism, perennial nature, and vegetative means of propagation. F...

An efficient protocol for rapid in vitro clonal propagation of spine gourd (Momordica dioica Roxb.) genotype RSR/DR15 (female) and DR/NKB-28 (male) was developed through enhanced axillary shoot proliferation from nodal segments. Maximum shoot proliferation of 6.2 shoots per explant with 100 % shoot regeneration frequency was obtained from the femal...

Fifty two sexual progeny of pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.), raised through embryo culture, were used for identification of RAPD markers associated with sex expression traits. Genomic DNA from male and female progeny plants and from a parthenocarpic clone (IIVRPG-105) were extracted individually and bulked by sex type. Forty-one random d...

An efficient protocol was developed for Agro-bacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) cultivars using cotyledon explants. The transformation frequency was assessed in response to several different factors, including seed germination medi-um, seedling age, pre-culture duration, pre-culture and co-cultivation med...

Genetic variability and nature of association among lodging resistance and yield and yield related components were assessed in 56 diverse pea genotypes. The high estimates of PCV and GCV for lodging score, plant height, pods per plant and seed yield per plant revealed that genotypes had a broad genetic background and would respond to selection. Cor...

The present research aimed to evaluate the effect of silver nitrate (AgNO3) on sex modification in sweet gourd (Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng.), and to explore the possibility of sexual crossing between two genetically female plants. Spray applications of AgNO3 on 30days’ old female plants induced hermaphrodite flowers. Male plants were insensit...

Pepper leaf curl virus (PepLCV) is the most destructive pathogen of pepper and causes substantial economic losses of chilli production worldwide. Curling and puckering of leaves and stunted growth of the plants are typical symptoms of the viral infection. For a reliable detection of PepLCV, coat protein specific primer pairs were designed and after...

Gene action, combining ability and heterosis for quality and yield attributes in pumpkin was studied involving 21 cross combinations obtained from seven diverse inbreds in half-diallel fashion for four characters. The analysis revealed that none of the parents was a good general combiner for all the characters consistently; however, the parent, pum...

Seed storage proteins are synthesized in high abundance during seed development and maturation, and are characterized as mid-embryogenesis and late-embryogenesis abundant proteins. The regulation of transcription of seed-protein gene families is not coordinated and transcription of each gene family is independently regulated. All seed protein gene...