eChapters

17.1 Introduction

Self-pollinated vegetable, spice and ornamental crops may be heterogeneous. It is exemplified by landrace cultivars. They may have originated from single plant selections but have been grown over a long period of time. Landrace cultivars are a mixture of genotypes, perhaps because of breeders’ lack of appreciation of selection techniques to produce a pure line, spontaneous mutations, chance hybridization, or a combination of factors. Natural selection in landraces has resulted in a cultivar that is well adapted to the local environment. Depending on amount of human selection, differences among genotypes in a landrace cultivar may be small and inconspicuous. On the other hand, a lack of human intervention may mean that differences among plants in a landrace cultivar will be conspicuous. After years of self-pollination, individual plants are homozygous. Selection of such individuals would result in a true-to-type reproduction of their phenotype within the limitations imposed by the environment.

18.1 Introduction

The genetic variability present in populations of self-pollinated vegetable, spice and ornamental crops is rapidly exhausted by pureline selection. For further improvement, genetic variability must be created. This is generally achieved by hybridization. After the cross has been made, F₁ is grown and seeds set on it are harvested. This makes the seed source for raising F₂ population, and so on. The segregating populations from crosses are handled according to a suitable method. The three basic methods available for this purpose are: (1) pedigree method, (2) bulk method, and (3) backcross method. There are also certain modifications of these methods.

18.2 Pedigree Method

Pedigree method is developed from the pureline system and widely used method of plant breeding for self-pollinated crops. A main difference between pedigree selection and mass selection or pureline selection is that hybridization is used to create variability for the base population in case of the former, whereas in mass and pureline selections variability is naturally present in the base populations. The pedigree method was first described by H.H. Lowe (1927). This method predominated the crop improvement programme throughout the world until 1980s. Pedigree method is common in horticultural crops, especially where readily identifiable qualitative traits are involved. Vegetable crops in which pedigree system is used include tomato, cucumber, pepper, pea, lettuce, snap and field beans, all self-pollinated crops. In general, selection is done on F₂ plants. Yield is important in many horticultural plants, but quality is equally or even more important. Quality may be associated with identifiable traits, making the pedigree system ideal for self-pollinated vegetable crops.

Vegetable breeding is the purposeful genetic manipulation of qualities in vegetable crops to create new varieties with a set of desired characteristics that are better suited for cultivation, give better yield, quality and are resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses. Vegetable breeding can be accomplished through many different techniques ranging from plant introduction, simply selecting plants with desirable characteristics, to more complex molecular techniques. Classical plant breeding includes hybridization followed by selection and mutation to develop the desirable plant types. With the advancements in genetics, molecular biology and in vitro culture, different molecular genetics tools are also being used in vegetable breeding.
Sexually propagated vegetable crops
1. Plant Introduction
The term “Plant introduction” describes the movement of crop plants, species, varieties, wild species, etc. from their original growing sites to other locations where it was not grown earlier. Plant introduction is essentially the method of cultivating crop plants in a new environments. The agro-climatic conditions can differ greatly depending on the origin of the plant species and the area where they are introduced. Plant introduction is a time-honored strategy for improving crop diversity.

1. Forecasting Rain and Frost

i. Behavior of Ants and Goats:

• Ants: When ants come out of their nest carrying their pupae, it indicates that rain will come soon.

• Goats: Goats can sense approaching rain and signal it 2 to 3 days in advance through behavioral changes. They change their usual resting places, show little interest in taking food or water, and bawl and shout throughout the day.

2. Tree Fruiting Patterns:

• Neem Tree (Azadirachta indica): If the neem tree bears plenty of fruit.

• Baval Tree (Acacia nilotica): If the baval tree produces plenty of pods.

• These observations suggest that the total rainfall for the monsoon will be high.

Skeleton Leaves

Skeleton leaves are semi-transparent leaves, also called fossil leaves. They are prepared by soaking the fresh leaves in bleached water and then by hand rubbing the soft green flesh from the network of veins. The leaves can be then dyed to variant colors to give them a beautiful and pleasing appearance. Although delicate by nature, they are actually sturdy and can easily be glued to a variety of surfaces. They come in several colors and sizes to meet a complete line of crafting needs. The delicate beauty of these leaves is sometimes meant to capture life, hope and memories. These delicate, gorgeous skeleton leaves are a perfect accent for all craft projects. They make a beautiful and elegant statement when they adorn your wedding invitations. They work surprisingly well on gift tags, greeting cards, scrapbooks, collages, papermaking, stenciling, and stamping. They are perfect for decorating bridal bouquet, wedding reception table, candles, and wedding favors.

Methylene-cyclo-propyl-glycine (MCPG), is a cyclopropyl derivative, grouped into the amino acids that have been isolated from the higher plants (Fowden, 1960). MCPG was identified to be closely related to two other cyclopropyl derivatives (Fig. 1), 1-aminocyclopropane – 1 – carboxylic acid from Vacciniumvitis-idaea and perry pears (Vahatalo and Viertanen, 1957; Burroughs, 1957) and â- methylenecyclopropyl alanine (MCPA or Hypoglycin A) from Blighia sapida (Hassall and Rayle, 1955; Anderson et al., 1958; Ellington, Hassall and Plimmer, 1958).

Micro propagation in also called as in vitro propagation. In vitro is a Latin word, meaning ‘in glass’. It refers to procedures done in controlled artificial environment, outside a living organism. These procedures naturally occur in the living system. Opposite to in vitro is in vivo which is also a Latin word, meaning ‘in living’. Biological processes that occur within the living system.

Micro propagation refers to the multiplication of plants, in aseptic conditions in containers under controlled nutritional and environmental condition. Micropropagation is done in artificial growth medium from various plant parts like meristem tip, embryos, anthers, axillary buds, leaf section, shootlips etc. It is a method by which a true to type and disease free plant can be regenerated from a miniature piece of plant throughout the year. Some popularly grown crops from tissue culture are as follows

Ornamental plants - orchids, lilium, gerbera, cordyline, begonia, ficus, etc.

Micropropagation refers to the production of plants from very small plant parts, tissues or cells, grown aseptically in a test tube or containers under controlled nutritional, environmental and aseptic conditions. It is also called as in vitro propagation, which implies clonal, true-to-type propagation of plants by a variety of tissue and cell culture methods and is considered as the most efficient and commercial method of plant propagation. Tissue culture or in vitro culture is two broadly used terms for micropropagation, which basically include aseptic culture of various plant parts. Micropropagation was developed as the result of accidental findings of French Professor G. Morel in 1958, when he was attempting to obtain virus-free plants through meristem culture in dahlia and orchids. All the biological principles of micropropagation technique are based on the phenomenon of totipotency of cell, in which a cell of a plant has the capacity to regenerate in to a full-fledged plant having different organs. German plant physiologist, Haberlandt (1902) is known as the father of tissue culture technique, who for the first time coined the term totipotency.

1. INTRODUCTION

Flavour is a distinctive property of a substance affecting the gustatory sense. It may be defined as “The sum of those characteristics of any material taken in the mouth, perceived principally by the senses of taste and smell, and interpreted by the brain.” Flavour perception is a complex process which requires the particles to be mixed with saliva and salivary enzymes to promote the release of flavour. Flavour molecules are very diverse in nature. More than 5000 compounds in food have been identified as flavour components which can be detected at very low concentration and are thus, used in products at very low levels. Hexenols and hexenals, characteristic of green taste of fresh fruits and vegetables, can be perceived at a concentration of about 1 part per million (ppm). Naturally occuring flavour compounds are present at a very low concentration ranging from parts per trillions (ppt) to parts per millions (ppm) level. Majority of these compounds are volatile, with boiling points in the range of 20-300 °C. Most of these compounds are lipophilic and possess a great diversity of chemical group and structure with molecular weight ranging between 50-250 g/mol.

Flavour and fragrance compounds are a part of expanding industry with an estimated cost of nearly $27 billion. These comprise of diverse molecules with unique structures and functional groups that contribute to varied aroma and flavour, ranging from floral to fruity notes. The processing operations modify the equilibrium between the different components in raw food that might weaken the original flavour, which require subsequent supplementation. These flavour supplements can be natural or chemically synthesized. Of all the available flavour compounds, around 80% are produced by chemical synthesis whose use is limited due to formation of racemic mixtures and lack of substrate specificity. The growing awareness of consumers towards chemicals supplemented to food has led to the development of the flavouring compounds of biological origin referred to as natural flavours or bioflavours. The first major source of flavour compounds was primarily from plants. Identification of microbes producing vital food flavourants paved the way for alternative low cost, efficient and flexible method for the commercial production of flavour compounds.

1. INTRODUCTION

Many food components are encapsulated and stabilized by nature inside plant cells, but, with the growth in use of functional ingredients and product fortification with vitamins, antioxidants and nature-identical synthetic compounds, there is a need to stabilize and protect these ingredients from the rigours of processing and degradation during storage.

Many food products whose development was thought to be technically unfeasible are possible today because of the wide availability of encapsulated ingredients. Such ingredients are products of a process that totally envelops the ingredient in a coating or ‘capsule’ thereby conferring many useful and otherwise unusual properties to the original ingredients.

Encapsulation is a technique that is applied to preserve and/or protect numerous ingredients. In the flavour industry, the encapsulation process is used chiefly to convert liquid flavour materials to free-flowing, dried powdered products. In a broad sense, encapsulation technology includes the coating of minute particles of ingredients (e.g., acidulants, fats, and flavours) as well as whole ingredients (raisins, nuts, and confectionery products) that may be accomplished by microencapsulation and macro-coating techniques, respectively.

ABSTRACT

Wood apple is a hardy tree grown in arid and semiarid regions of the country. It is generally propagated through seeds. The traditional methods like budding and inarch grafting require 9 to 12 months for the root stock to come buddable size and thus 1½ to 2 years to become ready for transplanting. The present study was initiated to prepare a grafts within eight months by adopting the micrografting technique. The seeds were sown in the month of April in polybags filled with FYM, sand and soil in equal proportions with a pinch of blitox. The micrografting was done on 1½, 2, 2½ and 3 month old seedling root stock having a diameter of 0.13 to 0.15 cm, 0.17 to 0.19 cm, 0.20 to 0.22 cm and 0.23 to 0.26 cm, respectively. The seedling root stocks were decapitated with the surgical blade and 1 to 2 cm deep split was made. The scion micro bud (1 to 2 cm length and 1 to 2 mm width) of previous season’s growth was inserted in the split. The micropipette cap (0-200 μl) was inserted on the grafted portion. After sprouting of the micro bud, the micro pipette cap was removed. The study revealed that, micro bud grafting success was significantly influenced by the root stock age. Early bud take was observed when the micrografting was done on 2½ month (10.73 days) and 3-month (11.00 days) old root stock. The percent bud take on 3-month old root stock was significantly higher (99.33 per cent) than the rest of root stocks. Micrografting done on 3-month old seedling root stocks in June-July is suggested for quick multiplication of woodapple.

Purpose of Growing Microgreens in Space Farming

Microgreens are a perfect dietary ingredient in space because of their special benefits, which have been explained in earlier chapters. In an atmosphere of a spaceship with limited water and electrical power for artificial illumination, their comparatively low light and water consumption are advantageous. Furthermore, because spaceships and shelters have limited capacity, microgreens' tiny size might be advantageous. Given the right sanitization procedures, microgreens may be harvested fresh and consumed right away. Their striking colour and robust flavour may also improve meal presentation and pique astronauts' appetites. 

ABSTRACT

Dissected shoot tips from healthy suckers of banana var. Meitei Hei (local variety) were inoculated on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with different concentrations and combinations of plant growth regulators viz., NAA and BAP. After 15 days of incubation 50% of the shoot tips turned green in the medium with 5.0 mgl^-1 BAP. A maximum of 85.7% of the explants produced phenolic exudates in MS + 5.0 mgl^-1 BAP. After one month the explants were subcultured in fresh medium with the respective concentrations and combinations of plant growth regulators. After 75 days of incubation an average of 2.20 microshoots were induced in 78.57% of the explants in MS + 5.0 mgl^-1 BAP. The regeneration of shoots, leaves and roots was more proportionate in MS + 0.1 mgl^-l NAA + 0.5 mgl^-1 BAP. Under the treatment the microshoots had an average height of 1.19 cm with 4.13 leaves and 2.40 roots. The multiple microshoots were separated and subcultured on MS + 0.1 mgl^-l NAA + 0.5 mgl^-1 BAP for proper development. After 120 days the completely regenerated plantlets were hardened under green house environment.

ABSTRACT

The present experiment was conducted to standardize the composition of nutrient media for callus regeneration. Shoot tip, internodal segment, leaf and hypocotyls of seedling grown under controlled condition were used as explants for callus induction. The study revealed that explants collected from younger seedlings showed greater proliferation of callus as compared to those collected from older one. The basal MS medium as well as WP medium fortified with different concentrations of auxins and cytokinins were tried. Initial better results of profuse callus growth with green colour and compact texture having regenerative capacity were obtained by using leaf explants. In all the treatments, the callus initiation occurred at the cut ends and then spread over the surface of the explant as a result of injury. The level of auxins presumable rises and quiescent cells were stimulated to divide rapidly producing callus. The leaf segment explant induced the callus after 9.50 days in medium WPM + NAA 2.5 mg/l with maximum callus growth (976.75 mg) with green, friable callus which was difficult to subculture. White and friable callus occurred within 12.00 days in MS + 2, 4 - D 5 mg/l. The green and compact callus having vigorous growth was observed in MS + NAA 2.5 mg/l within 12.75 days when subcultured on different regeneration media proved recalcitrant for shoot regeneration. On the regeneration medium the callus turned brown while some callus proliferates to produce white growth around it and dried later on.

ABSTRACT

Myriophyllum aquaticum (Velloso) Verdcourt, commonly known as ‘parrot feather milfoil’ is the aquatic plant belonging to the family Haloragaceae. The plant gets the name ‘parrot feather’ from its feather-like leaves arranged around the stem in whorls of 4 to 6 giving it the value of a beautiful aquarium plant. It is a commercially valuable imported aquatic plant used in aquarium plant trade. These plants are exclusively females and as such no seeds are produced. Moreover, current macropropagation techniques are insufficient to produce sufficient propagules for the domestic and export market. Tissue culture techniques offer great opportunities in this regard and attempts were made for micropropagation of this valuable species. A viable protocol has been outlined for the in vitro mass multiplication of Myriophyllum aquaticum. Shoot regeneration was induced from nodal segments and leaves in half strength Murashige and Skoog (1962) medium supplemented with 1.0 mg l^-1 benzyl adenine. Incorporation of 0.2 mg l^-1 kinetin along with benzyl adenine in the culture medium resulted in a marked increase in the frequency (1:20) of multiple shoot formation. The in vitro raised plantlets were successfully rooted, hardened and planted out. The protocol is ready for commercialization.

ABSTRACT

Cultivated turmeric consists of fertile short duration types with a chromosome number of 2n=84. In vivo crossing was done between two short duration types VK 70 and VK76 to develop a high yielding variety with high curcumin and curing percentage. Seed set and seed development was obtained by in vivo stigmatic pollination. Hybrid seed germination was obtained under in vitro in dark on moist filter paper and the seedlings were micropropagated to establish a population of six plantlets /seedling with in a period of 10 months. The multiple shoots were obtained in the medium of half strength MS + 3 per cent sucrose+ BA 2.5 mg l^-1+ NAA 0.5 mgl^-1. Coupling conventional breeding with tissue culture reduces the breeding time.

1. DEFINITION

Micropropagation is the growing of plants from meristematic tissue or somatic cells of superior plants on nutrient suitable media under controlled aseptic physical conditions.

The term micropropagtion is also known as tissue culture. Micropropagation refers to aseptic culture of various plant parts in artificial growth medium to produce new plant. This means is recently applied in propagation of horticultural crops e.g. Orchid, banana, strawberry, papaya, grape and many other plants.

Requirements for tissue culture: It includes basic facilities including equipment, asepsis, culture medium and culture environment.

• Basic facilities including equipment: Provision of working space, large sinks, washing machine to wash glassware, oven, dryers, dust free storage, space for glass house and chemicals, autoclave for sterilizing media, solutions, water culture and instruments, supply of distilled or deionized water and various essential instruments and appliances.

Minimally processed fruits and vegetables are products that have the attributes of convenience and fresh like quality. Their forms vary widely, depending on nature of unprocessed commodity and how it is normally consumed. In many cases, minimally processed product is raw and cells of tissues are alive, but these characteristics are  not regarded as essential. It is important that products have fresh-like character, regardless of   state of cells.  Minimally processed products for both retail and food service applications have increasingly appeared in market place recently.  In coming years, it is commonly perceived that this industry will have unprecedented growth.

1. INTRODUCTION

In recent years, fruit and vegetable consumption has grown rapidly. Today’s society is characterized by an increasing health consciousness and growing interest in the role of food for maintaining and improving human well-being and consumer health. Due to consumer’s profile being ‘‘rich in cash/poor in time’’, there is a demand for ready-to-eat products As a result of changes in consumer attitudes, the market of minimally processed (MP) fruits and vegetables has grown rapidly. In addition to their nutritional and sensory properties, foods are currently recognized as active and protective agents. Among the others, minimally processed products stand out as convenient novel foods that fit the many needs of a modern lifestyle as they combine technical content with an innovative food concept. Fresh fruits and vegetables are an essential component of a healthy diet, able to decrease the risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Their consumption has continued to grow rapidly, linked to the increased public awareness of their health benefits.

Minimal Processing’ (MP) is a concept describing approaches to food safety and preservation that are designed to retain the natural and as-fresh properties of foods. Minimally processed fruits are new forms of product marketing, intended to meet the consumers’ desires for convenience and fresh-like quality. Minimally processed fruits and vegetables, also called ready-to-use, fresh-cut or pre-cut produce, are raw fruits and vegetables that have been washed, peeled, sliced, chopped or shredded into 100% usable product that is bagged or packaged to offer to the consumers high nutrition, convenience, and flavour while still maintaining its freshness.