Senthil Natesan

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University | TNAU · Centre for Plant Molecular Biology & Biotechnology

Wild relatives of barley disperse their seeds at maturity by means of their brittle rachis. In cultivated barley, brittleness of the rachis was lost during domestication. Nonbrittle rachis of occidental barley lines is controlled by a single gene (btr1) on chromosome 3H. However, nonbrittle rachis of oriental barley lines is controlled by a major g...

Brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens Stål) is one of the major insect pests of rice. A Sri Lankan indica rice cultivar Rathu Heenati was found to be resistant to all biotypes of the brown planthopper. In the present study, a total of 268 F(7) RILs of IR50 and Rathu Heenati were phenotyped for their level of resistance against BPH by the standard s...

Malnutrition arising from dietary deficiency of critically important mineral micronutrients such as iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) is a serious problem affecting nearly half of the world’s population. Screening for micronutrients rich breeding lines includes the estimation of grain micronutrient contents in the seed samples using atomic absorption spectro...

About 12,000 years ago in the Near East, humans began the transition from hunter-gathering to agriculture-based societies. Barley was a founder crop in this process, and the most important steps in its domestication were mutations in two adjacent, dominant, and complementary genes, through which grains were retained on the inflorescence at maturity...

Mungbean (Vigna radiata) and ricebean (V. umbellata) were utilized to obtain an inter-specific recombinant inbred line (RIL) population with the objective of detecting quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with mungbean yellow mosaic virus (MYMV) resistance. To precisely map QTLs, accurate genetic linkage maps are essential. In the present study...

Rice bean (Vigna umbellata) also known as red bean and mambi bean is a multipurpose crop cultivated mainly in South and Southeast Asian countries. It possesses several nutritional and climate-resilient attributes; however, the potential value of the crop is taken too lightly, and rice bean has remained an underutilized crop. Rice bean is widely gro...

Sweet corn has dominated the urban market due to its sweetness, tenderness, and ease of digestibility. It's import and export values have dramatically increased during the past 10 years as a fresh, processed, and preserved commodity. However, the commercially available sweet corns are deficient in β-carotene. In our study, we introgressed the favor...

Turmeric is an important commercial crop widely grown in Asia due to its pharmacological and nutritional value. India is the centre of turmeric diversity and many turmeric accessions have good rhizome yield, varying curcuminoids content and are well-adapted to various agro-climatic zones. In the present study, we unravel the diversity among 200 Ind...

To understand the nature of the traits in breeding programme, knowledge on heritability, genetic advance and genetic variability are inevitable. The paramount aim of the present study was to estimate the heritability, genetic advance and genetic variability of the backcross and selfed population of sweet corn and β-carotene rich inbred combinations...

Withania somnifera is an important medicinal plant used in various herbal preparations due the presence of its key metabolites-withanolides. The present study focuses on the effect of seaweed extract and different in vitro culture conditions on the biomass and key metabolite content in in vitro shoot cultures of Withania somnifera. The commercially...

Soybean is an important leguminous crop because its seed is a rich source of protein and oil. It is necessary to increase soybean production to meet the needs of the rapidly increasing human population in the world. Pythium root rot (PRR) caused by Pythium spp. is a major seedling disease of soybean. The breakdown of PRR resistance is the reason fo...

Kadam (Neolamarckia cadamba (Roxb.) is an evergreen tropical tree widely grown in Asia, particularly in India. Neolamarckia cadamba commonly known as kadam, cadamba or burflower tree. The roots, leaves, barks, and fruits of N. cadamba possess medicinal properties and are commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry. Fruit peels are the main waste a...

Drought stress poses a serious threat to production and nutritional security. In recent years, foliar application of plant growth regulators (PGRs) and nutrients are increasingly employed to overcome physiological constraints resulting in enhanced crop production. Melatonin is a new biomolecule recently found to ameliorate the effect of biotic and...

Endophytes are important microorganisms that enhance the plant's stability through a symbiotic relationship, without any harmful effects and symptoms in the host plant. To study the effect of endophytes on overall performance of COH(M)8 hybrid maize seeds, the present study was conducted with different endophytic seed priming for 12 hrs duration...

The number of genes controlling the morphological and yield-related traits and their mode of action plays a vital role in selecting traits and favourable progenies in a segregating population. In this study, we analysed the skewness and kurtosis in the backcrossed and selfed populations of SC11-2×UMI1230β1+. Negative skewness refers to redundant ge...

One of the amazing and economical spices is Chilli (Capsicum annum L.) and also called "wonder spice, " and it gives great significance to traditional household use and export as well as such a remarkable cash crop in India. However, the important constraints in chilli production are chilli leaf curl disease which has been caused by whitefly (Bemis...

Sorghum downy mildew (SDM), caused by the biotrophic fungi Peronosclerospora sorghi, threatens maize production worldwide, including India. To identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with resistance to SDM, we used a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from a cross between resistant inbred line UMI936 (w) and susceptible inbr...

Mungbean (Vigna radiata) is an important short-season legume widely cultivated in Asia, particularly India. It is highly susceptible to bruchids and developing bruchid resistance is an important goal in mungbean breeding programs. In the present study, 52 mungbean genotypes were evaluated for bruchid resistance based on the “no-choice test” and ide...

Minor millets are an underutilized group of cereal crops, and their grains are nutritionally superior to cereals. These millets have a unique ability to survive under adverse environmental conditions where the cultivation of major cereals is either not popular or fails to produce considerable yield. Although minor millets possess tolerance to envir...

Black gram (Vigna mungo) is an important pulse crop of India. The leaf crinkle disease caused by the urdbean leaf crinkle virus (ULCV) is a severe threat to black gram production. Black gram plants infected by ULCV show a considerable decline in plant growth and yield. However, detailed information about the interactions between the host, black gra...

Background: One of the amazing and economical spices is Chilli (Capsicum annum L.) and also called "wonder spice, " and it gives great significance to traditional household use and export as well as such a remarkable cash crop in India. However, the important constraints in chilli production are chilli leaf curl disease which has been caused by whi...

Minimizing Aspergillus flavus growth is an effective strategy to mitigate aflatoxin contamination in food and agricultural products. In the present investigation, we attempted to utilize soil-associated yeasts from the Western and Eastern Ghats of India against A. flavus to reduce aflatoxin contamination. Forty-five yeast isolates were screened aga...

Losses of seed produce in pulses due to seed beetles is a very serious problem faced by farmers and traders during storage. Resistance (or susceptibility) and the degree of damage in legume seeds differ with respect to different bruchid species. The seed beetles, Callosobruchus chinensis and C. maculatus , are the two most widespread bruchid specie...

Maize (Zea mays L.) is the leading cereal crop and staple food in many parts of the world. This study aims to develop nutrient-rich maize genotypes by incorporating crtRB1 and o2 genes associated with increased β-carotene, lysine, and tryptophan levels. UMI1200 and UMI1230, high quality maize inbreds, are well-adapted to tropical and semi-arid regi...

Mungbean is a nutritionally and economically important pulse crop cultivated around Asia, mainly in India. The crop is sensitive to drought at various developmental stages of its growing period. However, there is limited or almost no research on a comparative evaluation of mung-bean plants at the flowering stage under drought conditions. Hence, the...

Seed beetles, commonly known as bruchids, are serious insect pests of Indian pulses inflicting high damage during storage. Earlier, a bruchid resistant rice bean landrace (TNAU Red) from Manipur and a susceptible mung bean variety (VRMGg1) from Tamil Nadu were reported and their inter-specific cross was made in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. I...

Aim: Forage preference of Indian honey bee on neonicotinoid insecticides treated sunflower Study Design: Randomized Block Design (RBD) Place and Duration of Study: Insectary, Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore between August 2021 to December 2021 during the Adipattam season Methodology: Bee activit...

Yellow mosaic disease (YMD), incited by mungbean yellow mosaic virus (MYMV), is a primary viral disease that reduces mungbean production in South Asia, especially in India. There is no detailed knowledge regarding the genes and molecular mechanisms conferring resistance of mungbean to MYMV. Therefore, disclosing the genetic and molecular bases rela...

Assessment of genetic diversity and identification of superior genotypes are the basic objectives of any crop improvement program. In the present study, two multiloci markers viz., RAPD (51), ISSR (15) and single locus marker SSR (10) were used to assess the genetic diversity among 39 genotypes of lablab bean

As a crop plant, tomato is one of the best characterized plant systems. During its evolution and domestication, L. esculentum has undergone various genetic ‘bottlenecks’ imposed by self pollination, founder effects, artificial and natural selection, and extreme inbreeding of limited genotypes. Although practical and morphological traits are subj...

Combining ability effects, heterosis and gene action of selected sorghum lines for yield and yield contributing traits were assessed. Twenty hybrids were synthesized involving five lines and four testers through L x T mating design. The hybrids, parents and check variety CO 30, were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with three replica...

Herbal products are frequently reported with the contamination of mycotoxins. In this present study, we assessed the occurrence of fungal contaminates associated with senna leaves (n=128) which collected from the different time period such as preharvest, drying, processing and storage. The most prevalent fungal genera were isolated as Aspergillus,...

Indian honey bees are the important managed pollinators of several agricultural and horticultural crops in India. At present, bee colony decline is the biggest crisis amongbeekeepers. The use of neonicotinoid insecticides is considered the prime factor, and they were found to cause a direct impact on bees by mortality and indirectly impair the fora...

Azadirachta indica A. Juss., (Neem), a prodigious multipurpose tree, has immense potential to benefit mankind and to protect the environment. In order to investigate the effects of three different explants for its regeneration potential, de embryonated cotyledon, immature zygotic embryo and nodal segments from a 30 year old neem plus tree were used...

Knowledge about the association between grain yield and yield contributing traits is important for sorghum development programs. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine correlations and path-coefficients between grain yield per plant and yield contributing traits. The experiment was conducted during Kharif 2019 in the Department of millets, TN...

Maize (Zea mays L.) is the most important food and feed crop grown under diverse soil and climatic conditions. Among the cereals, demand for maize is increasing year after year, but fluctuation in climatic conditions especially the temperature extremes is the current and future threat in maize cultivation. Each degree Celsius increase in global mea...

The cassava variety YTP2 (Me 681) has been developed through selection from Thondamuthur type at Tapioca and Castor Research Station, TNAU, Yethapur. The performance of YTP2 in the Adaptive Research Trial (ART) and On Farm Trial (OFT) in the farmer’s field inferred that this new variety is well adapted to cassava growing districts of Tamil Nadu. In...

Background: Mungbean is an important pulse crop and it is mainly cultivated in Asia for human consumption. Its small genome and diploid nature make it a well-suited model organism among legume crops. Thus, cost-effective, reliable and highly polymorphic molecular markers distributing the whole genome are needed for diversity, mapping and functional...

Book of Abstracts: International conference on Ag’Omics-2021 (Agricultural Genomics: Progress and Prospects) Oct.21st to Oct.23rd, 2021.

In India, fifteen million farmers have been engaged in maize cultivation. Among them, only 15% area of maize is cultivated under irrigation and remaining nearly 80 % area is still under rainfed condition. Hence, water shortage has been a greater challenge for sustainable maize production. The yield loss may vary from 30–90% depending on the crop s...

Greengram is one among the prominent Fabaceae crops cultivated in India, which serves as a rich source of good quality proteins. In order to find an appropriate method for selection of best genotypes of greengram, to fetch higher yields, the following study was undertaken. This research was conducted to study the gene action in the populations P ,...

Mungbean serves as an excellent source of high quality protein in the form of dry edible seeds and fresh sprouts, but the major constraint in mungbean production is the bruchid infestation. The bruchids or seed weevils causes total destruction of seed lot within 3–4 months under storage. Among the bruchids, cowpea weevil (Callosobruchus maculatus)...

Knowledge about phenotypic diversity is a basic and important step in the selection for parents in hybridization program due to its invaluable aid in crop improvement program. In order to assess the genetic diversity among the seed parents and restorers, a study was conducted to identify the potential parents and variables for further selection. A...

Rice is the most important cereal crop which belongs to the family Poaceae. It feeds two third of world population. Mutation is the primary source of all genetic variations existing in any organism, including plants. The effect of new source of physical mutagen of electron beam over gamma rays was studied in M generation of rice Anna (R) 4 variety...

The present investigation was conducted with four lines and five testers in Line × Tester fashion to study the per se performance, combining ability effects of parents and hybrids, heterosis, gene action. Four high yielding varieties viz., ASD 16, ADT 37, MDU 6 and TKM 13 were used as female parents. Five varieties with good grain quality traits vi...

Cowpea is a versatile legume, with plethora of nutrients and its ability to grow in drought and unforgiving climatic conditions makes it climate resilient and nutritional rich crop. The twining and indeterminate growth habit of cowpea limits mechanical harvesting and modernized agricultural practices. Induced mutagenesis was carried out to create t...

Senna (Cassia angustifolia Vahl.) is a medicinal crop with laxative properties, and it has significant demand in the global pharmaceutical market. Senna pods are highly susceptible to aflatoxin contamination, and the successful export of pods is hindered due to the regulatory limits of importing countries. The senna pod water activity (aw) from har...

Phytate is an antinutrinal compound which chelates available micronutrients, decreasing it’s bioavilability and hence the introgression of low phytic acid locus into adapted maize inbreds was done to minimize the problem by developing low phytate maize through marker assisted back cross breeding. Back cross population was developed by introgressing...

In the North Eastern Himalayan region (NEHR) of India, maize is an important food crop. The local people cultivate the maize landraces and consume them as food. However, these landraces are deficient in β-carotene content. Thus, we aimed to incorporate the crtRB1 gene from UMI285β+ into the genetic background of the NEHR maize landrace, Yairipok Ch...

A study was designed with a total of 20 pigeonpea extra-early introgression lines along with the checks in RCBD for genetic variability and other genetic parameters for 10 agronomic traits. Data was recorded on days to flower, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, the number of primary branches, the number of secondary branches, th...

Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is the sixth most important cereal crop in the world. The genomic resources available in Pearl millet can be utilized for fingerprinting and screening of hybrids using SSR markers and will be helpful for the assessment of seed purity. Hence, the present study was focused on fingerprint popular pearl millet varietie...

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and arachidonic acid (ARA) are long-chain polyun-saturated fatty acids (PUFAs) that play a significant role in human growth and development, which deficiency can trigger several metabolic-related diseases. Since the availability of PUFA sources is limited, there arises a need to explore alternative sources. Therefore, th...

This study aimed to track the inheritance and identify the expressed sequence tag (EST) ‐ simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker (s) associated with the anthocyanin pigments in barnyard millet (Echinochloa spp.). The F1 and F2 generations were developed using the anthocyanin pigmented genotype ACM 331 (purple inflorescence) and three non‐pigmented gen...

Grow out test is used for assessing the genetic purity but molecular markers like simple sequence repeats can be used as alternative. The present study aims at evaluating the efficacy of SSR marker in genetic purity assessment. SSR marker RM570 which differentiate the CMS 23A and CB 174R lines with the allelic size of 260 and 300 bp respectively. F...

The presence of high genetic diversity in physiological traits among maize inbreds had scope for improving the inbreds for better canopy architecture. Eight maize inbreds were characterized by twelve morpho-physiological traits and four yield-related traits. Among the physiological traits, the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) is evenly dis...

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is a cultivated nutritional cereal, which originated in South Asia and is considered one of the oldest cultivated millets in India. DNA fingerprinting is mandatory for registration of newly developed varieties with National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) and Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Righ...

In North Eastern Himalayan region (NEHR), Maize is the most important crop for food security after Rice, with a wide variety of landraces, each with its own set of features.In India Northeast Himalayan region (NEHR) has been the cornerstone of Maize diversity. The Northeast Himalayan region (NEHR) landraces are differ in agronomic and nutritional...

In the present study, fifty-two mungbean (Vigna radiata) genotypes were evaluated for seven morphological traits at three different environments in South Indian state Tamil Nadu, namely Virinjipuram (E1), Eachangkottai (E2), and Bhavanisagar (E3) during Kharif 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively. The data collected were subjected to variability and...

Identification and characterization of crop varieties are crucial for ensuring the genetic purity of seeds. The present investigation was carried out to identify suitable chemical methods which are fast, reliable and easy for seed analysts, breeders and seed producers for identification of a variety. Twenty-five popular rice varieties in the seed s...