1. KAUTIR (Kerala Agricultural University Theses Information and Retrieval)
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Item Barcoding and biosystematic studies on Hymenopteran pollinators of cucurbitaceous vegetables(Department of Agricultural Entomology, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 2019) Erra Harisha; Shanas, S PThe study entitled “Barcoding and biosystematic studies on hymenopteran pollinators of cucurbitaceous vegetables” was conducted during the year 2017- 2019 at the Department of Agricultural Entomology, College of Agriculture, Vellayani with an objective to study the diurnal activity and dynamics of hymenopteran pollinators of cucurbitaceous vegetables and to explore their morphological and molecular diversity. To determine the composition and relative abundance of different hymenopteran pollinators visiting the flowers of five selected cucurbitaceous vegetables viz., culinary melon (Cucumis melo var. acidulus), bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.), ash gourd (Benincasa hispida Thunb. and Cogn.), pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata L.) and ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula (Roxb.) L.) collections were made throughout the blooming period in Thiruvananthapuram and four other districts of Kerala viz., Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Kasaragod from 06:00 h to 18:00 h of the day with a cone type hand net. Among the above mentioned vegetables, culinary melon was selected for detailed study on diurnal activity at College of Agriculture, Vellayani. The study on composition and relative abundance of hymenopteran pollinators revealed that, A. cerana indica was the dominant pollinator in culinary melon (42.51 %), pumpkin (38.76 %) and ridge gourd (35.16 %) whereas, T. travancorica was the dominant pollinator in bitter gourd (31.86 %) and ash gourd (33 %). Observations on diurnal activity were carried out at College of Agriculture, Vellayani in culinary melon during two crop seasons for 3 weeks at weekly intervals. For foraging rate, the number of flowers visited by each bee for 1 minute and for foraging speed, time spent by each bee per flower were observed respectively. During two seasons, the foraging speed of A. cerana indica, T. travancorica and Halictus sp. was found to be highest during 10:00-11:00 h (10.61 and 10.63, 11.23 and 11.46, 10.26 and 10.40 seconds) respectively. The foraging speed of C. hieroglyphica and Lasioglossum sp. was found to be highest during 09:00-10:00 h (9.02 and 9.11, 11.06 and 11.30 seconds) respectively. The foraging rate of T. travancorica, C. hieroglyphica and Lasioglossum sp. was found to be highest during 10:00-11:00 h (9.16 and 9.23, 4.83 and 4.85 flowers/m2/5 min) respectively. The foraging rate of A. cerana indica and Halictus sp. was found to be highest during 11:00-12:00 h and 09:00-10:00 h (10.60 and 10.88, 4.03 and 4.13 flowers/m2/5 min) respectively. Samples which were unidentified through morphological characterization were given for DNA barcoding. The sequence of 2 samples viz., Tetragonula sp. nov.1 and T. travancorica were obtained. Among these, new species (Tetragonula sp. nov.1) of stingless bee, based on adult worker specimen is described. Differences in morphology and genetic analysis based on partial sequences of the mitochondrial COI gene barcode region support the recognition of the new species. The above results revealed that A. cerana indica was dominant in culinary melon, pumpkin, and ridge gourd and T. travancorica was dominant in bitter gourd and ash gourd. The foraging speed during two seasons in the descending order was T. travancorica > Lasioglossum sp. > A. cerana indica > Halictus sp. > C. hieroglyphica. The foraging rate during two seasons in the descending order was A. cerana indica > T. travancorica > C. hieroglyphica > Lasioglossum sp. > Halictus sp. Among the pollinators, five species viz., P. phalerata phalerata, C. annulata annulata from ash gourd, M. disjuncta from bitter gourd, C. simillima, and C. unimaculata javanica from culinary melon were reported for the first time pollinating cucurbitaceous vegetables. Tetragonula sp. nov.1 of stingless bee, collected from pumpkin flower, is the new species report from the study and it is morphologically characterised.Item Development of tropical gynoecious lines in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)(Department of Olericulture, College of Horticulture, vellanikkara, 2016) Karthika, A K; Pradeepkumar, TThe present study ‘Development of tropical gynoecious lines in (Cucumber sativus L.) was carried out at Department of Olericulture, College of Horticulture, Kerala Agricultural university, Vellanikkara, Thrissur during August - November 2014 and February - May 2015 to evaluate the F1 hybrids and their F2 population for identifying stable tropical gynoecious lines of salad cucumber. Twelve hybrids produced by crossing gynoecious line EC 709119 with selected tropical monoecious parents were evaluated for gynoecy under rainshelter. Observations on important quantitative and qualitative characters were recorded. These hybrids were selfed to generate F2 population. F2 population was evaluated for expression of gynoecious character, viz., days taken for female flower anthesis, node at which first female flower emerged and total number of female flowers. The data was subjected to analysis of variance and variability among the genotypes was calculated. Most of the characters exhibited high heritability except for fruit parameters like fruit length, fruit girth and flesh thickness. For gynoecy F2 population from the cross EC 709119 x IC 538186 was observed as the most promising one. This population took only minimum days to form female flower and took minimum number of nodes to form female flower with highest number of female flowers and minimum male flowers. Sex ratio was estimated for parents, F1 hybrids and F2 population. Some of the parents having high sex ratio failed to transmit the same to its hybrid progenies. Among the parents, IC 538186 exhibited highest sex ratio. The highest sex ratio among the F2 population was for EC 709119 x IC 538186. Two populations viz., EC 709119 x IC 527427 and EC 709119 X IC 538186 exhibited a sex ratio of more than 2. The 4 F2 population evaluated for gynoecious trait were classified into monoecious and gynoecious character and tested for goodness of fit based on chi square test with monohybrid ratio of 3:1 being monoecy dominant over gynoecy. Out of the 4 populations, 2 populations were found to express significant value and fit in 3:1 ratio for dominant monoecious trait. The other 2 populations failed to fit in the 3:1 ratio. Bitterness was an important quality character which was absent in most of the parents except three of them during initial harvest. The crosses involving parents prone to bitterness were found to be bitter during later harvest, though all crosses were free of bitterness during initial stage. During later harvests, five parents were found to be bitter. Downy mildew incidence on parents and F1 hybrids were analyzed and Percentage of Disease Intensity (PDI) was estimated. Among parents, IC 538186 exhibited minimum infection and falls under the category of moderate resistance. Hybrid, EC 709119 x IC 538186 exhibited minimum infection and falls under the category of moderate resistance. Among 12 F2 populations, EC 709119 x IC 538186 produced maximum number of true gynoecious plants whereas eight F2 populations failed to produce even one true gynoecious plant. This population also exhibited moderate resistance against downy mildew disease and could be selected for developing true breeding stable gynoecious line for future breeding programme. Present investigation proved the scope of developing tropical gynoecious line from temperate lines by crossing with potential-monoecious lines and making selection in advance segregating generations for gynoecy.Item Breeding for gynoecy in bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.)(Department of Vegetable Science, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 2019) Minnu Ann, Jose; Pradeepkumar, TItem Characterization, host range and management of papaya ringspot virus (PRSV)(Department of Plant Pathology, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 2018) Atheena Harish; Anita Cherian, KItem Standardisation of grafting in bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) and watermelon Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.)(Department of Olericulture, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 2018) Akhila, A N; Sarah T GeorgeItem Effect of growing environment and climate change on growth and yield of cucumber [Cucumis sativus (L.)] under organic management(Academy of Climate Change Education and Research Vellanikkara, 2017) Abishna, P V; Usha, K EItem Cause-consequence analysis of human-wildlife conflict at Nemmara forest division, Kerala(Department of Forest Management and Utilization, College of Forestry, Vellanikkara, 2017) Anand, R; Gopakumar, SA study titled “Cause-consequence analysis of human-wildlife conflict in Nemmara forest division, Kerala” was conducted during 2013-2017. The main objectives of the study were to portray the nature and distribution of human-wildlife conflict, study the land use and land cover change pattern. Another objective of the study was to assess the attitude and awareness of the people including the victims of human-wildlife conflict about forest conservation and human- wildlife conflict. The observations of the study would be made useful to evolve location specific management strategies at Nemmara Forest Division. A detailed pre tested questionnaire was used to gather information regarding socio-demographic details, land use and land cover change patterns, human wildlife conflict data, crop farming details and also attitude and awareness of the people. A total of 398 individuals were surveyed from Alathur, Kollengode and Nelliyampathy ranges of the forest division. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods such as oral history, time line and problem tree methods were used to collect additional information. The study found out that major conflict areas were along the fringes of the forest areas. The type of conflict even though was mainly crop raiding, the nature of damage and the animal causing the damage were found to be different in different ranges in the forest division. Over the past 30 years there was significant change in the land use and land cover in the division. Over all, cropping pattern has changed from food crops to cash crops. The number of wild animals has increased and this was portrayed as the main reason for human-wildlife conflict. The people found the forest department as the best responsible agency to look up to take action regarding conflict mitigation and were also ready to join hands with them to resolve such issues. Even though the people had a positive attitude towards forest conservation and wildlife they were not satisfied with the conservation policies and human-wildlife conflict mitigation schemes of the government. The people did not favour compensation or insurance schemes as a mitigation strategy towards crop raiding mainly because of the low compensation amounts and difficulty in applying for such schemes. Site specific plans, based on the data generated from this study can be used to develop not only location specific plans but also both animal as well as people specific plans for conflict management and mitigation.Item Genetic diversity and combining ability in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)(Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 2017) Suma, A; Elsy, C RAssessment of genetic diversity is the key tool in any crop improvement and germplasm management programme. Evaluation of genetic variation will help to provide valuable information about new sources of genes. The studies on combining ability and heterosis can support utilization of promising lines in further crop improvement programmes. Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L. 2n= 2x= 14) is an indigenous vegetable crop of India. Even though rich diversity for cucumber is available in India, studies on genetic diversity of this crop are scanty. Therefore, the present project was proposed to explore genetic diversity in cucumber using morphological and molecular markers and to study combining ability and heterosis in selected genotypes. Morphological characterization of 50 accessions of cucumber revealed presence of significant difference among accessions for majority of vegetative, floral and fruit characters. Mean days to first male and female flower opening was 36 and 43 days respectively. Majority of the accessions possessed elliptical elongated fruits with light green skin colour and white flesh colour. Sixteen accessions exhibited significantly higher fruit length than AAUC-2, the standard check, the maximum being exhibited by IC613472 (20.85 cm). Accessions with oblong ellipsoid fruits possessed higher fruit diameter. Mean fruit weight showed high variability among accessions with a range of 33 g to 343 g. Fourteen accessions exhibited significantly high yield than AAUC-2. Number of fruits per plant, yield per plant, loss of weight during storage and sex ratio showed high values for all the genetic parameters studied. IC613481 was the promising genotype identified in morphological characterization, followed by IC613480. Cluster analysis grouped accessions into seven distinct clusters based on the level of similarity in quantitative characters. Random grouping of accessions into various clusters indicated absence of parallelism between genetic diversity and geographical diversity. Cluster II and III were the largest clusters, with 14 accessions each and Cluster V and VI, the smallest ones with single accession each. Results of Principal component analysis revealed that first three principal components, with Eigen values more than unity accounted for 85.80 per cent of cumulative variance, contributed by fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter and days to first harvest. The diversity analysis of the accessions was done using DIVA-GIS by generating grid maps. The results of the study indicated that highly diverse accessions with respect to the selected characters were sourced from Mizoram, Tripura and West Bengal. Molecular characterization revealed high level of genetic distinctness between genotypes. SSR11742 and AF202378 were found to be highly polymorphic markers, with high polymorphism information content and number of polymorphic bands. In-depth evaluation of selected 22 genotypes revealed significant difference for all fruit characters except days to last harvest and harvest duration and further revealed the superiority of IC613480. Evaluation of 15 hybrid combinations developed through half diallel mating design and their parents indicated presence of significant difference among parents and hybrids for various characters studied. Among the parental genotypes, IC613480, exhibited significantly high GCA effects for fruit length, number of fruits per plant and yield per plant whereas IC595508A, for fruit weight and loss of weight during storage, and IC613485 for fruit diameter, thus proving to be promising parents for accumulating genes for these characters. The hybrids, IC613480 x IC595508A and IC613480 x IC613471 showed significant SCA effects for yield per plant and sex ratio. IC613480 x IC613471, IC613480 x IC595508A and IC613471 x IC595508A were exhibiting significantly high relative heterosis, heterobeltiosis and standard heterosis for number of fruits per plant and yield per plant. IC613480 and IC613485 were the most promising genotypes identified from the study whereas IC613480 x IC613471 was the most promising hybrid based on SCA effects, heterosis, per se performance on yield contributing characters and organoleptic qualities. This hybrid showed high fruit length (17.01 cm), yield per plant (2163.45 g), number of fruits per plant (11.43) and sex ratio (0.11). IC613480 x IC613476 and IC613485 x IC595508A were the other promising hybrids.