ICRISAT Archival Report 2006 - The seedlings of success in the ...

Output target C.1: Core and mini core subsets of germplasm established for utilization (2010)
Activity C.1.1: Establish core and mini core collections of staple crops and small millets
Milestone C.1.1.1: Mini core sub set of pigeonpea germplasm established (HDU/CLLG, 2006)
A mini core of pigeon pea consisting of 146 accessions was constituted, by evaluating a core collection of 1256
accessions. Validation of mini core by examination of data for various morphological and agronomic traits
indicated that almost the entire genetic variation and a majority of co adapted gene complexes present in core
subset are preserved in the mini core collection. Due to its greatly reduced size, the mini core subset will provide
a more economical starting point for proper exploitation of pigeonpea genetic resources for crop improvement
for food, feed, fuel, and other agricultural and medicinal purposes. A journal article on the development of
finger millet mini core subset has been published Crop Science (46: 2127-2132).
HD Upadhyaya and CLL Gowda
Milestone C.1.1.2: Mini core subset of sorghum established (HDU/CLLG, 2008)
Data analysis and assessment of diversity is in progress for establishment of sorghum mini core subset.
HD Upadhyaya and CLL Gowda
Milestone C.1.1.3: Mini core subset of finger millet established (HDU/CLLG, 2009)
Milestone C.1.1.4: Core subset of foxtail millet established (CLLG/HDU, 2010)
Output target C.2: Composite sets of germplasm established for utilization (2008)
Activity C.2.1: Establish germplasm composite sets of staple crops and small millets
Milestone C.2.1.1: Germplasm composite sets for groundnut, pigeonpea, and pearl millet (1000 accessions
each) established (HDU/RB/CLLG/RKV/DH/CTH/SS/SC/KBS/RPT/KNR, 2007)
Groundnut: Composite collection comprising of 911 accessions from ICRISAT and 192 from EMBRAPA was
developed using phenotypic characterization & evaluation data. The composite set included 184 accessions each
of groundnut mini core collection (Upadhyaya et al, 2002) and mini core comparator. Among these 50
accessions are chilling tolerant at germination (Upadhyaya et al., 2001) and 18 accessions are drought tolerant
(Upadhyaya, 2005a). We included 50 accessions from groundnut mini core for Asia region and 60 accessions
having traits of economic importance from groundnut core collection for Asia region (Upadhyaya et al., 2005b).
We included 36 elite/released varieties (27 from breeding and 9 from germplasm), and lines resistant to biotic
stresses (5 leaf miner, 1 aphid, 10 jassid, 4 thrips, 7 termite, 2 PMV, and 12 rosette, 27 A. flavus/aflatoxin, 9
bacterial wilt, 7 bud necrosis, 7 early leaf spot, 14 late leaf spot, and 5 LLS & rust resistant interspecific
derivates, 15 rust, 9 stem and pod rot, 41 multiple resistant). (Table 1). We also included 41 drought tolerant, 6
fresh seed dormancy lines, 4 high nitrogen fixing lines, 5 non-nodulating, 25 early maturing, 16 large seeded, 10
high shelling percentage, 9 high oil containing, 9 high protein containing, beside 26 accessions for
morphological variants. To represent wild species of Arachis species, 52 accessions of 14 species were included
(Table 2).
Table 2. Composite collection of groundnut
Character
Number of
accessions
Character
Number of
accessions
Mini core (50 chilling tolerant, 184 Rust resistant 15
18 high SPAD)
Mini core comparator 184 Stem & pod rot resistant 9
Asia mini core 50 Multiple resistant 41
Best accessions from Asia core 60 Drought tolerant 41
Released/elite cultivar 36 Fresh seed dormancy 6
Leaf miner 5 High biological nitrogen 4
fixation
Aphid resistant 1 Non-nodulating 5
Jassid resistant 10 Early maturing 25
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