Wheat Summer Nursery e-newsletter - Indian Institute of Wheat ...

Volume 1 No.2

Aug – Oct 2012

Wheat Summer Nursery e-newsletter Regional Station, Directorate of Wheat Research, Dalang Maidan, Lahaul-Spiti, Himachal Pradesh - 175140

Progress Report of the Station Contents  Progress Report of the Station  Dalang Maidan: Site for storage of wheat and barley germplasm under natural condition  Utilization of DWR OffSeason Nursery in barley Improvement  Wheat X Maize system of DH production in Wheat: New initiative at Dalang Maidan

Compiled & Edited by Rajender Singh Raj Pal Meena Chandra Nath Mishra Indu Sharma

Issued by Project Director Directorate of Wheat Research Karnal- 132001, Haryana, India

The DWR Regional Station located at Dalang Maidan (Himachal Pradesh) acts as a national facility for providing various kinds of support to wheat and barley researchers of the country. The following is the progress made under different mandates of station during the year 2012: Generation advancement of wheat and barley: During the year 2012, about 36,000 lines of wheat and 900 lines of barley from 19 co-operators were advanced at DWR regional station Dalang Maidan, which was a record in the history of this national service centre. The station received three species of wheat i.e. Triticum aestivum, T. durum and T. dicoccum which were advanced at the station during this season. Apart from this some wild species were also grown at the centre. All the material was harvested and supplied to the respective researchers well in time. Corrective hybridization: During this year about 1000 corrective crosses were attempted by the researchers across the institutes. DWR, Karnal attempted 254 crosses followed by IARI, New Delhi (232 crosses). A new initiative for doubled haploid production was also initiated by the scientist of DWR in which 500 spikes of wheat were crossed with maize pollen collected from nearby areas. In order to utilize the potential of winter wheat a new experiment has been initiated in the current year for establishing winter wheat crossing block.

Email: [email protected] Screening important wheat and barley material against rust: [email protected] The station provides good location for screening for yellow rust [email protected] Tel.: 01900-252185 0184-2267490 Fax: 0184-2267390

and powdery mildew. Approximately 15,000 lines were screened by various centres. This season showed that this station could also act as screening centre for powdery mildew.

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Wheat Summer Nursery e-newsletter Vol 1(2)

Seed multiplication of important cultures/varieties: The multiplication of HPW 349 was done for CSKHPKV, Malan and seed was supplied to the respective centre. High altitude wheat and barley varietal trial: During the year eight wheat entries were evaluated in four replications under AVT-TSVHA 2012 trial. All the ancillary and disease data were recorded. Natural repository for wheat and barley germplasm: The regional station acts as natural repository for wheat and barley germplasm and at present 8697 accessions of wheat germplasm are being conserved under natural conditions.

Dalang Maidan: Site for storage of wheat and barley germplasm under natural condition Sushila Kundu, Arun Gupta and Charan Singh Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal-132001 Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal is one of the National Active Germplasm Site with the responsibility to collect, acquire, evaluate, catalogue, maintain and share the wheat and barley germplasm to bonafied users within the country. At present more than 11000 wheat accessions are conserved for around 10 years in the medium term module facility (Temperature at 4oC and Relative humidity at 30-35%) at Karnal. Utmost care is being taken for storing germplasm at Karnal; even then we are dependent on continuous power supply or generator. Creating alternate gene bank for storing germplasm at some other place is a capital intensive and expensive. Whereas the average maximum monthly temperature prevailing at DWR-RS, Dalang Maidan, Lahaul-Spiti (HP) from September to April under normal condition matches or less than the temperature, what we maintain in medium term storage module at Karnal and during remaining months it remains 90%. At present 8697 accessions of wheat germplasm are being conserved at Dalang Maidan. It is concluded that DWR-RS, Dalang Maidan is a cost effective site for conservation of germplasm. However, continuous monitoring of viability of conserved material and replacement of conserved material with fresh harvest is needed after a gap of 10 years.

Utilization of DWR Off-Season Nursery in barley improvement RPS Verma, Vishnu Kumar, AS Kharub, Dinesh Kumar Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal-132001 DWR-RS, Dalang Maidan is a suitable place for growing off-season nursery (May to October) mainly for rabi, crops as wheat, barley etc. with temperature nearly 15 oC during summers. The barley breeders from Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal are continuously exploring all the possibilities of barley improvement utilizing the centre for generation advancement, corrective crossing and seed multiplication, to keep faster pace and reducing time delay to deliver a technology. They are also screening different generations, families and advance bulks for stripe rust tolerance, as the climatic conditions at the Lahaul-Spiti are very congenial for this disease development. The centre also DWRUB 64 plays an important and vital role in the conduction of Very High Altitude (VHA) summer trial under the coordinated trials of All India coordinated wheat and Barley Improvement Project (AICW&BIP) with wheat and barley entries to cater the need of cold desert of Leh-Laddhakh in J&K and Lahaul-Spiti & many other valley of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Every year the barley programme at DWR is sending material about 250 crosses for advancement from F1 to F2 seed for generation advancement and 30-35 new bulks for disease screening. In addition the facility has been also used for seed multiplication of important genotypes and making corrective crosses in malt barley programme. The recently developed/ released varieties (DWRUB52, DWRB73, DWRUB64, DWRB91 etc.) of malt barley have also been evaluated at this summer nursery facility. 3


Wheat X Maize system of Doubled Haploid production in Wheat: New initiative at Dalang Maidan Vikas Gupta, C N Mishra, Satish Kumar and Indu Sharma Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal-132001 In recent times, wheat X maize system of producing haploids in wheat has emerged as a method of choice. Out of various methods of haploid production, like anther culture, microspore culture, ovary culture, chromosome elimination technique following wide hybridization, haploid inducer genes; the wheat x maize system via chromosome elimination has proved to be most efficient method. The purpose of this initiative was to establish the protocol for haploid production via maize pollination in wheat at DWR, RS, Dalang Maidan. The off-season facility at Dalang provides a good option for developing haploids during off season and then transferring the plantlets to Karnal during the main season (Oct-March). This not only provides favourable environment required by the plantlets to grow, but is also helpful in application of colchicine for doubling the chromosomes as the number of tillers are more in main season than during the off-season. This also enhances the frequency of doubled haploids plants produced. About 400 F1’s were sown in the month of May, 2012 for the purpose of producing Doubled Haploids (DH). The F1’s were made with the purpose of incorporating disease resistance into commercially grown wheat varieties. Major focus was on yellow rust, leaf rust, loose smut and karnal bunt. Maize was planted in makeshift polyhouse on 10th May, 2012 followed by three staggered sowings at an interval of one week, so that flowering in both wheat and maize synchronizes. During the month of July, 2012 crossing of wheat with maize was initiated. The partially emerged wheat spikes were selected for hand emasculation. Emasculations were done without removing the glumes to prevent the ovary from desiccation due to dry weather at Dalang Maidan. About 500 spikes were emasculated and covered with glassine bags to avoid any cross-pollination. The maize pollen was used for pollinating the emasculated spikes after 3-4 days of emasculation. The emasculated tillers were detached from the plant before pollination and were kept in tiller culture media containing MS, sucrose, sulfurous acid and 2,4-D. Pollination was done with camel hair brush (No. 0) in the morning around 10 am and each emasculated spike was pollinated at least twice on successive days. A photoperiod of 8-10 hrs, temperature (Day: 22oC, Night: 18oC) with relative humidity ~ 80% were maintained. Twenty four hours after pollination, the pollinated tillers were sprayed with 2,4-D solution (~200ppm). The spray was repeated after 48 and 72 hours.

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The tillers were transferred to MS media containing sucrose and sulfurous acid on sixth day. After 12-15 days of pollination caryopsis were harvested from the spikes and embryos were cultured on to MS medium containing sucrose, myo-Inositol and kinetin. The pH was maintained at 5.8 and gelrite (2-3%) was used as solidifying agent. Out of 500 maize pollinated spikes, 120 embryos were harvested and cultured. The embryo carrying caryopses were surface sterilized with 0.1% mercuric chloride solution for eight minutes followed by treatment with absolute ethanol for 2 minutes and subsequent 3-4 washings with sterile distilled water. The embryos are dissected from each caryopsis and transferred to test tubes containing embryo rescue media. The embryos were incubated in dark till germination. The plantlets so obtained were then transported to Karnal. The successful implementation of the protocol at the off-season location will further encourage the setting up of this facility at Dalang Maidan. This will be helpful for breeding purpose as homozygous lines can be produced in two cycles of breeding.

Distinguished visitor at DWR-RS, Dalang Maidan

Dr. (Mrs.) Indu Sharma, Project Director, Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal

Dr. S. S. Singh, Consultant, Biodiversity International, New Delhi & Former PD, DWR, Karnal

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Visit of Dr. (Mrs.) Indu Sharma, Project Director, DWR at DWR-RS, Dalang Maidan, Lahaul-Spiti (HP)

Traditional welcome

Discussion about experimental activities

Keenly observing yellow rust in field

Suggesting to renovate irrigation facility

Meeting with Pradhans of villages

Visit to DH facilities at PAU centre, Keylong

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