.Which of the following is a wheat variety rich in proteins and developed through biofortification?
(1) Himgiri
(2) Atlas 66
(3) Sonalika
(4) Kalyan Sona
Answer ▽ ✅Verified
Answer (2) Atlas 66 a wheat variety rich in proteins and developed through biofortification.
Biofortification – breeding crops with higher levels of vitamins and minerals, or higher protein and healthier fats – is the most practical means to improve public health.
Breeding for improved nutritional quality is undertaken with the objectives of improving – (i) Protein content and quality; (ii) Oil content and quality; (iii) Vitamin content; and (iv) Micronutrient and mineral content.
In 2000, maize hybrids that had twice the amount of the amino acids, lysine and tryptophan, compared to existing maize hybrids were developed.
Wheat variety, Atlas 66, having a high protein content, has been used as a donor for improving cultivated wheat.
It has been possible to develop an iron-fortified rice variety containing over five times as much iron as in commonly consumed varieties.
The Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi has also released several vegetable crops that are rich in vitamins and minerals, e.g., vitamin A enriched carrots, spinach, pumpkin; vitamin C enriched bitter gourd, bathua, mustard, tomato; iron and calcium enriched spinach and bathua; and protein enriched beans – broad, lablab, French and garden peas.
Swaminathan initiated collaboration with Norman Borlaug, which culminated in the ‘Green Revolution’ through introduction of Mexican varieties of wheat in India. This was highly recognised and appreciated. He is also the initiator of ‘Lab-to-Land’, food security and several other environmental programmes. He has been honoured with Padma Bhushan and several other prestigious awards, medals and fellowships by institutions of excellence.Green revolution was dependent to a large extent on plant breeding techniques for development of high-yielding and disease resistant varieties in wheat, rice, maize, etc.The development of several high yielding varieties of wheat and rice in the mid-1960s, as a result of various plant breeding techniques led to dramatic increase in food production in our country. This phase is often referred to as the Green Revolution.Wheat and Rice: During the period 1960 to 2000, wheat production increased from 11 million tonnes to 75 million tonnes while rice production went up from 35 million tonnes to 89.5 million tonnes. This was due to the development of semi-dwarf varieties of wheat and rice. Nobel laureate Norman E. Borlaug, at International Centre for Wheat and Maize Improvement in Mexico, developed semi-dwarf wheat. In 1963, several varieties such as Sonalika and Kalyan Sona, which were high yielding and disease resistant, were introduced all over the wheat-growing belt of India. Semi-dwarf rice varieties were derived from IR-8, (developed at International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines) and Taichung Native-1 (from Taiwan). The derivatives were introduced in 1966. Later better-yielding semidwarf varieties Jaya and Ratna were developed in India.
Plant Breeding for Disease Resistance: A wide range of fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens, affect the yield of cultivated crop species, especially in tropical climates. Crop losses can often be significant, up to 20-30 per cent, or sometimes even total. In this situation, breeding and development of cultivars resistant to disease enhances food production. This also helps reduce the dependence on use of fungicides and bacteriocides. Resistance of the host plant is the ability to prevent the pathogen from causing disease and is determined by the genetic constitution of the host plant. Before breeding is undertaken, it is important to know about the causative organism and the mode of transmission. Some of the diseases caused by fungi are rusts, e.g., brown rust of wheat, red rot of sugarcane and late blight of potato; by bacteria– black rot of crucifers; and by viruses – tobacco mosaic, turnip mosaic, etc.
Crop:Wheat , Variety = Himgiri , Resistant to disease: leaf & Stripe Rust, Hill bunt.
common Name = Wheat, Biological name = Triticum astivum , Genus = Triticum , Family = Poaceae , Order= Poales , Class =Monocotyledons , Division = Angiosperm ..
fungi cause diseases in plants and animals; wheat rust-causing Puccinia is an important example.
fibrous root system, as seen in the wheat plant.
THE SEED :The ovules after fertilisation, develop into seeds. A seed is made up of a seed coat and an embryo. The embryo is made up of a radicle, an embryonal axis and one (as in wheat, maize) or two cotyledons (as in gram and pea).
Plant Breeding for Developing Resistance to Insect Pests: Another major cause for large scale destruction of crop plant and crop produce is insect and pest infestation. Insect resistance in host crop plants may be due to morphological, biochemical or physiological characteristics. Hairy leaves in several plants are associated with resistance to insect pests, e.g, resistance to jassids in cotton and cereal leaf beetle in wheat. In wheat, solid stems lead to non-preference by the stem sawfly and smooth leaved and nectar-less cotton varieties do not attract bollworms. High aspartic acid, low nitrogen and sugar content in maize leads to resistance to maize stem borers. Sources of resistance genes may be cultivated varieties, germplasm collections of the crop or wild relatives.
VERNALISATION :There are plants for which flowering is either quantitatively or qualitatively dependent on exposure to low temperature. This phenomenon is termed vernalisation. It prevents precocious reproductive development late in the growing season, and enables the plant to have sufficient time to reach maturity. Vernalisation refers specially to the promotion of flowering by a period of low temperature. Some important food plants, wheat, barley, rye have two kinds of varieties: winter and spring varieties. The ‘spring’ variety are normally planted in the spring and come to flower and produce grain before the end of the growing season. Winter varieties, however, if planted in spring would normally fail to flower or produce mature grain within a span of a flowering season. Hence, they are planted in autumn. They germinate, and over winter come out as small seedlings, resume growth in the spring, and are harvested usually around mid-summer. Another example of vernalisation is seen in biennial plants. Biennials are monocarpic plants that normally flower and die in the second season. Sugarbeet, cabbages, carrots are some of the common biennials. Subjecting the growing of a biennial plant to a cold treatment stimulates a subsequent photoperiodic flowering response.
Pollen grains of many species cause severe allergies and bronchial afflictions in some people often leading to chronic respiratory disorders– asthma, bronchitis, etc. It may be mentioned that Parthenium or carrot grass that came into India as a contaminant with imported wheat, has become ubiquitous in occurrence and causes pollen allergy.
How long do you think the pollen grains retain viability? The period for which pollen grains remain viable is highly variable and to some extent depends on the prevailing temperature and humidity. In some cereals such as rice and wheat, pollen grains lose viability within 30 minutes of their release, and in some members of Rosaceae, Leguminoseae and Solanaceae, they maintain viability for months. You may have heard of storing semen/ sperms of many animals including humans for artificial insemination. It is possible to store pollen grains of a large number of species for years in liquid nitrogen (-196 degree C). Such stored pollen can be used as pollen banks, similar to seed banks, in crop breeding programmes.
The number of ovules in an ovary may be one (wheat, paddy, mango) to many (papaya, water melon, orchids).Endosperm may either be completely consumed by the developing embryo (e.g., pea, groundnut, beans) before seed maturation or it may persist in the mature seed (e.g. castor and coconut) and be used up during seed germination. .Mature seeds may be non-albuminous or ex-albuminous. Non albuminous seeds have no residual endosperm as it is completely consumed during embryo development (e.g., pea, groundnut). Albuminous seeds retain a part of endosperm as it is not completely used up during embryo development (e.g., wheat, maize, barley, castor). Occasionally, in some seeds such as black pepper and beet, remnants of nucellus are also persistent. This residual, persistent nucellus is the perisperm.
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