[en] Artemisinin and its derivatives are phytochemical constituents of genus Artemisia. Demand of these plant secondary metabolitesis increasing due to their immense therapeutic significance. Besides their established antimalarial role, recent studies have also disclosed their anticancer potentials. It has made imperative to develop new and efficient sources of these compounds. Inherent synthetic challenges give biological sources preference over chemical synthesis of artemisinin and its derivatives. Therefore, genetic improvement of plants and, rather less preferentially, microbes is focus of current research to gain increase productivity of these valuable drugs. This study has analyzed A. dubiaas potential source of artemisinin and its derivatives. Transformation of Artemisia dubia was carried out using A. tumefaciens strain LBA 4404 containing rolA gene constructed on pRB 29. Healthy and acclimatizable transgenic plants were produced using optimized concentrations of BAP and NAA. Previously acclimatized rol ABC transgenic plants were also In vitro regenerated for comparative analysis of artemisinin and its derivatives. PCR amplification of rolA gene was done to confirm the integration of T-DNA in transgenic plants.TLC analysis was performed to evaluate comparative production of artemisinin and derivatives in rolA and rol ABC transgenic A. dubia. It revealed that rolA transgenic plants contain comparable amounts of these metabolites. Both type of transgenic plants manifested the enhancement of other uncharacterized compounds as well. Besides systematic optimization of In vitro regenerative protocol for Artemisia dubia, relative regeneration ability of rol transgenic and controlplants was also assessed at four regenerative stages. It was observed that unlike control, rol transgenic plants showed best root induction only on combination of auxins and cytokines. It was concluded that rol genes transformation of plants is an efficient tool to enhance their secondary metabolites production. RolA transgenic A. dubiaare cultivable, viable and efficient source of artemisinin and its derivatives to meet their ever-growing demands. (author)

[en] Aeluropus lagopoides is a salt tolerant grass which propagates both through genets and ramets. Six disjunct populations of A. lagopoides from Pakistan were selected to test the hypothesis that genetic diversity would be low within but higher among populations. Genetic diversity was investigated using RAPD markers. AMOVA showed higher genetic diversity within population (74%) and lower among population (26%). Furthermore, there were no genetic differences between coastal and inland populations. However, substantial (11%) genetic variation existed among populations of Sindh and Balochistan. Higher genetic diversity within populations are possibly due to physical disturbances that may provide more opportunity for establishment of seeds and increase the possibility of out crossing. Low diversity among populations or between coastal and inland populations indicates fragmentation of a single meta-population due to anthropogenic activity. Geographical barrier between Sindh and Balochistan, appears to mediate gene flow among populations of A. lagopoides. (author)

[en] Due to emerging demands of organic foods, lentil, one of the most primitive legumes was investigated for genetic diversity including cause and effect relationships among various clusters under eco-agricultural system. The 73 lentil genotypes were investigated for qualitative and quantitative traits to identify the potential lines under rain-fed conditions for organic farming using no chemical fertilizers for crop production. Variation existed for all the qualitative traits including orange cotyledon colour in 27 genotypes which is a preferred trait by Asian consumers including Pakistan. Five clusters revealed that average intra-clusters distances were more or less similar, whereas inter-cluster distance indicated higher level of genetic diversity. First three PCs contributed more than 3/4 of the variability and the results were in coordination with clustering pattern amongst 73 genotypes. The populations contributing the first PC were late in maturity possessed higher number of branches, pods, better biomass and grain yield. The PC/sub 2/ was more contributed by seeds pod-1 and seed diameter, whereas pod length and harvest index contributed 13% variability. The cause and effect relationships indicated differential response for selection of lentil genotypes suitable for eco-agricultural system within each cluster. (author)

No abstract available

[en] Walnut is one of the most important nutritive nut crops and widely grown in Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. In the present study 19 local landraces were analyzed for morphological traits to investigate genetic diversity and identify promising landraces for cultivar development. Multivariate analyses showed high variation for morphological traits and nut and kernel characteristics. Cluster analyses depicted diversity among the local land races which separated them into 2 major clusters groups, showing more association to morphological differences. PCA revealed that the 1st four principal components (PCs) possessed Eigen value >1.0, where PC1 and PC2 contributed total variance of 41.65 percent and 23.42 percent respectively with total variance (65.05 percent) showing maximum factor loadings by kernel ratio, shell percent, kernel yield and nut width by the first two PCs. Pearson correlation coefficient among walnut landraces revealed positively significant correlation between shell yield and nut weight(r=0.96), kernel yield and nut width(r=0.85), whereas negative correlation were observed (r = -0.89 and r = -0.76) between kernel ratio with shell yield and nut weight respectively. A wide range of diversity was observed among the local landraces from Karakoram regions and the landrace HKK and GNAG were reported as promising one with highest kernel ratio. These landraces are potential for future breeding of nut crops with distinct morphological traits. (author)

[en] The term nutraceutical was coined almost thirty years ago (Stephen De Felice, 1989) by the union of the two terms nutrition and pharmaceutical. According to the definition, for 'Nutraceutical' refers to 'any substance that can be considered a food (or part of a food), and which provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and / or the treatment of a disease'. At the Casaccia Research Centre ENEA, are developed and validated methodologies analytics for detection and quantification of nutraceutical substances. This is to highlight some cultivars in relation to genotype, geographical area production, cultural practices, or for the purpose to assess the content relative to conservation techniques or transport of raw materials and processed products.

[en] The intra and inter genetic diversity among 20 genotypes of Pakistani Quercus species viz., ten genotypes of Q. incana, eight Q. baloot and two Q. dilatata were analyzed using morphological characterization and proteomic profiling. A total of 14 morphological traits were scored for estimation of genetic diversity through descriptive statistics, traits similarity index and cluster plotting. Similarly, seven loci (bands) were detected in the collected germplasm of Quercus sp. Intra species locus contribution to genetic diversity (LCGD) was 42.9 percent in Q. baloot and 14.2 percent in Q. incana. Similarly, inter species LCGD was 71.43 percent in the collected germplasm. Out of seven loci, locus-1, 5 and 6 showed polymorphic in Q. baloot and locus 6 in Q. incana. Importantly, locus 3 and 4 was monomorphic in all collected lines and marked as generic specific locus for Quercus (sp.). SDS-PAGE profiling based on one-way cluster plotting successfully resolved the three species into separate clusters. The present data reflect that though the Quercus sp. showing intra and Inter species genetic diversity, but maintained species specific identity in the area regardless of environmental fluctuation. (author)

[en] Alpacas from Puno, Junin and Huancavelica were analysed by a panel of 10 microsatellite markers in order to determine the level of genetic diversity among these populations. A sample of two hundred and sixty five non-related alpacas showed allelic polymorphism identifying a total of 144 microsatellite alleles. Alleles number ranged from 6 (YWLL40) to 28 (YWLL08), with a mean number of alleles per locus (MNA) of 14.40. The polymorphic information content ranged from 0.635 (YWLL40) to 0.942 (YWLL08) with a mean of 0.7975, while expected heterozygosity (H_E) ranged from 0.692 (YWLL40) to 0946 (YWLL08) with a mean of 0.8207. All loci except LCA37 (heterozygote deficit, P < 0.01) were in HWE and all populations except one from Munani - Puno (heterozygote deficit P < 0.01) were in HWE. All population pairs were genic and genotypic differentiation (exact G test) except for two Junin populations (P < 0.01). The relative magnitude of gene differentiation among populations was evaluated with F-statistics, frequency of private alleles and number of migrants. FIS value for all populations was 0.014 (Rho_IS = 0.015) with the highest value of 0.046 for Sector Carniceria B - Huancavelica. No significant (P > 0.01) inbreeding effect (FIS) was detected in alpaca populations. FIT value was 0.037 (Rho_IT = 0.0318) for all population and FST value for all populations was 0.024 (Rho_ST = 0.0171). A F_ST value of 0.024 (P < 0.01), implied that 97.6% of the total genetic variation was from genetic differentiation within each population and only 2.4 % of the genetic variation existed among populations. Two populations from Huancavelica (Sector Pallccapampa and Sector Carniceria A) have highest F_ST value (0.753) and RhoST (0.736) with a frequency of private alleles of 0.0207 and number of migrants of 7.8359 in all alpaca populations. A Neighbor-joining tree was constructed based in Nei's genetic distance D_A and standard genetic distance D_S using DISPAN software. Four cluster were identified: Junin (Cochas and Pachacayo), Puno (Munani and Lacchoc), Huancavelica 1 (Sector Carniceria A) and Huancavelica 2 (Sector Pallccapampa). Individual assignment test and Bayesian clustering analysis were used to evaluate population structure using Structure v2.2 software. Structure analysis showed three clusters: (i) Sector Carniceria A - Huancavelica, (ii) Sector Pallccapampa - Huancavelica (include Sector Carniceria B) and (iii) Junin - Puno (include Cochas, Pachacayo from Junin, Munani from Puno and Lacchoc from Huancavelica). Substancial genetic differentiation between Huancavelica with Junin and Puno were found. The preliminary results showed that alpaca populations in Peru maintained high genetic diversity within populations and a low, although significant, genetic differentiation between populations. (author)

[en] The objective of this article is to present a general focus on the use of induced mutations in the improvement of plants. This article describes some basic aspects that must be well known by the breeder that hopes to incorporate in his programm the technique of induced mutation by radiations. In this paper are included the results of two trials done by the researchers of the department of plant breeding so that it can be used as reference to determinate the importance of this technique

[en] An experiment to evaluate the genetic variability and yield potential in cotton cultivars was conducted at the Cotton Research Station, D.I.Khan, Pakistan, during 2013. The experiment was carried out in Randomized Complete Block design replicated four times. The genetic material comprised nine cotton cultivars viz., Gomal-93, SLH-373, BH-186, BH-172, CIM-573, CRIS-342, CIM-591, CIM-608 and DNH-105. Results depicted the significant (P=0.01) differences for the investigated parameters. The genotype DNH-105 was the highest yielding genotype with seed yield of 2610.75 kg ha, 42.3 bolls plant, 3.57 g boll weight and 144.5 cm height in comparison to other eight genotypes. The cultivar Gomal-93 and SLH-373 also showed comparable yield and contributing parameters. The genetic variances of the studied parameters were higher in comparison to variances of environment and highly heritable in broad sense. These instant results suggest that these breeding materials have the room for further improvement and can be successfully utilized in future breeding programmes. (author)