<div><strong>Background: </strong>Pulicat lake is the second largest brackish water lagoon in the country, lying partly in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states along the Coromandel Coast of South India. The present paper gives information on occurrence, habitat preference, trophic level, human utility and fishery status of finfish and shellfish species of the Pulicat Lake.&nbsp;<br />
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<strong>Methods: </strong>An extensive survey was conducted on finfish and shellfish diversity of Pulicat Lake from November 2019 to March 2021, selecting four fish landing centres <em>viz</em>, Pazhaverkadu, Arambakkam (fishing villages in Tamil Nadu), Venadu and Vatembedu (fishing villages in Andhra Pradesh) situated along the Lake.&nbsp;<br />
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<strong>Result:</strong> In the present study, A total of 145 species including species of finfishes (95), prawns (8), crabs (7) and 35 molluscs (35) were documented from the Lake. Among the four selected landing centres, the highest diversity was observed in Pazhaverkadu, registering 143 species followed by Arambakkam (123), Vatembedu (85) and Venadu (77).&nbsp;</div>


<p>​An Annotated Checklist of Finfish and Shellfish Diversity of Pulicat Lake, Southeast Coast of India</p>

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<p><strong>Background: </strong>The present study was undertaken to analyse the monthly and seasonal finfish bycatch diversity of trawler fishery of Nagapattinam coast situated in the state of Tamil Nadu, South India from January 2017 to August 2019.&nbsp;<br />
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<strong>Methods: </strong>Samples of finfish bycatch were collected fortnightly from the commercial shrimp trawlers operating in the coastal waters off Nagapattinam. The collected bycatch of finfish species was identified and month-wise and season-wise trawl finfish bycatch occurrence data collected were subjected to univariate and multivariate analysis using PRIMER Version 6.1.7. software.&nbsp;<br />
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<strong>Result:</strong> In this study, the annual average total landing was estimated at 15,414.41 tonnes with an annual average fishing effort of 9327 boat days. Of this total landing, commercial catch constituted 70.75% (10,905.78 tonnes), whereas finfish bycatch formed 21.12% (3,256.14 tonnes) and rest by other groups. The peak fishing effort was observed in every March during the study period. A total of 210 finfish species belonging to 15 orders, 79 families and 153 genera were recorded, in which the order, Perciformes alone shared 53.81% of the total number of species. The monthly univariate analysis revealed that bycatch diversity was the highest in every September and the lowest in every June during the study period, while&nbsp; the season-wise analysis revealed the highest diversity during monsoon seasons. Likewise, the&nbsp; month-wise multivariate analysis performed through cluster analysis divulged the highest similarity between September&rsquo;17 and September&rsquo;18, while the season-wise analysis revealed the highest similarity between postmonsoon&rsquo;17 and postmonsoon&rsquo;18. Further, the K dominance plot divulged that the highest density of finfish species was in every September and in monsoon seasons during the study period.&nbsp;</p>


<p>Finfish Bycatch Diversity of Trawl Fishery of Nagapattinam Coast, Tamil Nadu, South India</p>


<div><strong>Background:</strong> Thamirabarani is a major east-flowing river originates from the Pothigai Hills of Southern Western Ghats (8&deg;36&#39;07.1&quot;N 77&deg;15&#39;50.9&quot;E) at an altitude of 2074 m with a catchment area of 5482 km<sup>2</sup> and meanders through a distance of 120 km (24 km in hilly terrain and 96 km in plains) in Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts and drains into the Bay of Bengal. Present paper provides information on abundance, distribution, human utility, Trophic level, L<sub>m</sub> and IUCN status of the Thamirabarani River.<br />
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<strong>Methods:</strong> The present study was conducted by monthly intervals on Ichythyofaunal diversity of the Potamon Zone of Thamirabarani River from November 2019 to October 2021, selecting seven sampling stations <em>viz </em>Cherenmahadevi, Vannarpettai, Murappanadu, Karungulam, Srivaikuntam, Eral and Authoor.<br />
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<strong>Result:</strong> In the present study, a total of 57 species comprising 11 orders, 19 families and 38 genera were documented from downstream stretch of Thamirabarani River, of which three fish species namely <em>Horadandia atukorali</em>; <em>Oreochromis mossambicus</em> and <em>Wallago attu</em> are under vulnerable category and three fish species namely are <em>Hypselobarbus dubius</em>; <em>Labeo fisheri </em>and <em>Dawkinsia tambraparniei </em>endangered listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list. Among the 11 orders reported, the order Cypriniformes (52%) was observed to have the highest contribution to the Ichthyofaunal diversity and the family Cyprinidae (32%) was recorded the highest contribution to the finfish diversity. The trophic level community structure of recorded fish species revealed the dominance of mid-level carnivores (48%). The human utility of recorded finfishes was found to be the highest was observed as edible (72%) and IUCN status was the highest with least concern (72%).</div>


<p>An Annotated Checklist of Ichthyofaunal Diversity of the Potamon Zone of Thamirabarani River, South India</p>


<div style="text-align: justify;">Genetic diversity among 54 genotypes of field and garden pea of India were studied using 30 RAPD primers. A total of 168 amplicons were scored, of which 154 were polymorphic revealing 89.3% of polymophism. Out of 30 RAPD primers tested, 22 primers produced clear and reproducible bands. The number of products generated by these primers ranged from 04 to 14 with primer OPU-17 giving maximum (14) and primer OPC-08 giving minimum number of amplicons (04). Genetic similarity estimates based on the binomial data using Jaccard&rsquo;s coefficient ranged from 0.34 (Kaza-2/IC-218991) to 0.89 (IC-209118/IC-209123) with an average similarity index of 0.54 exhibiting considerable diversity among the pea genotypes studied. The dendrogram showed clear pattern of clustering according to the source of germplasm. This study indicated that Himalayan region germplasm exhibited higher diversity.&nbsp;</div>

Diversity analysis of pea genotypes using RAPD markers

<div><strong>Background: </strong>Intercropping and mixed cropping based on two or more different crops have been widely used in Insect Pest Management to manage the population density of insect pests in various crops like maize with soybean, sorghum with soybean and sunflower with soybean. Genotypic diversity is the mixture or combination of various varieties/lines/genotypes of a crop. It decreases the insect-pests population by unfitness of crop to them due to intraspecific diversity such as mixture of susceptible and resistant varieties. Also, it increases the natural enemy population more due to longer period of flowering, availability of wide diverse food, more movement of herbivores <em>etc</em>. This concept has also been used successfully to manage insect-pests in maize, wheat and potato. In India, this connect is used in very small scale in crop. The objective of this study was to determine effects of genotypic diversity by comparing the population densities of major insect pests between monoculture of single variety and mixture of varieties.<br />
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<strong>Methods: </strong>To test the effects of genotypic diversity on soybean insect-pest and their natural enemy population an experiment was laid in<em> kharif </em>2018 and 2019 at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Soybean Research, Indore. All recommended agronomic package of practices were followed for raising of crop. Randomized block design with three replication having plot size of 9 rows of 5 meter row length was used. Totally 20 treatments were chosen for this experiment and out of 20 four treatments namely, T1, T6, T11 and T16 were the treatments of four varietal mixture treatments of almost similar maturity duration and agronomic traits and rest of treatments were of sole varietal treatments. Observations were made on insect-pests from 10 selected plants in each plot on three leaves selected at top, middle and lower portion of plant.<br />
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<strong>Result: </strong>Effects of genotypic diversity in soybean revealed that for whitefly management T11 (NRC-86, JS-335, JS-2098 and RKS-45) was found most effective treatment. In case of mite, thrips and treehoppers management T1 (JS-9560, JS-20-34, MAUS-47 and MAUS-1460) was found most effective treatment. For leafhopper and mealy bug T6 (JS-9305, JS-2029, RVS-2001-4 and Dsb-28-3) was found most effective treatment. While for spittlebug T16 (NRC-37, JS-9752, RSC-1046 and RKS-113) was found most effective treatment. So, genotypic diverse treatments were found more effective than their respective sole varietal treatments.</div>

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<p>​Effects of Genotypic Diversity on Insect-pests of Soybean</p>


<div style="text-align:justify">Modern intensive monocropping system is becoming unproductive, pest ridden, loss incurring, and resource depleting and hence turning out to be untenable. Lack of discrimination in input use by farm managers and overall poor management are accelerating degradation and desertification processes, and loss of biodiversity particularly add in endangered regions. &nbsp;While, properly designed diverse and strategically located tree/seasonal crop based land use systems can contribute to ecologic services by mitigation land degradation, climate change and desertification, while conserving natural resources and biodiversity. Besides providing, diverse goods and services, on-farm diversity can be considered as an adoptive strategy in areas climatically and biologically vulnerable. Being a potential C sink, tree based land use systems can also mitigate negative impacts of CO2 emission. As green belt/bank these have an important role in maintaining air, water and soil quality in mining and industrial areas. The so-called cellulosic feedstocks can be grown on marginal land, enhance soil fertility by promoting the growth of various soil organisms, and provide a climate- friendly source of energy. There are plenty of underexploited but potential plant species which can find niche in the existing agroecosystems with substantial addition to total production while contributing sufficiently to ecological services. These needs to be identified and useful models are developed for specific situations.</div>

On-farm crop diversity for sustainability and resilience in farming - A review

<div><strong>Background: </strong>The variety of indigenous duck germplasm contribute maximum to the poultry industry in India, besides chicken population. In southern part of India, the available duck genetic resource, particularly Arni ducks (comprises of Sanyasi and Keeri ducks) of Tamil Nadu, has its own characteristics with innate potentiality of higher productivity without any input system of management. Genetic characterization and diversity of indigenous duck genetic resources has not been properly studied. In the present study, the genetic diversity of Arni ducks with other indigenous and exotic duck germplasm were analysed with microsatellite markers.&nbsp;<br />
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<strong>Methods: </strong>Genomic DNA was isolated from the blood samples of six duck populations. Molecular characterization was carried out with duck specific FAO recommended microsatellite markers. The genotyping of ducks was done based on the size of 4324 PCR amplicons of 23 microsatellite loci, which were subjected to capillary electrophoresis using automatic sequencer.<br />
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<strong>Result: </strong>A total of 222 alleles in six duck populations across 23 microsatellite loci with a mean of 9.65&plusmn;0.95 alleles were found. Kuttanad duck variety had the highest number of alleles (139) followed by Sanyasi (136), Keeri (129), Muscovy (118), Assam (91) and White Pekin (78) ducks. The mean observed number of alleles was 6.04&plusmn;0.59, 5.91&plusmn;0.76, 5.61&plusmn;3.17, 5.13&plusmn;0.44, 3.96&plusmn;0.76 and 3.39&plusmn;0.40 in Kuttanad, Sanyasi, Keeri, Muscovy, Assam and White Pekin ducks respectively. The overall mean polymorphism information content (PIC) values among the six duck populations was 0.6269. &nbsp;In most of the duck populations, the mean PIC value was more than 0.5 except in Assam (0.4815) and White Pekin (0.3725) ducks. The observed heterozygosity was the highest in Keeri ducks (0.5217) and lowest in White Pekin ducks (0.2766), while, the mean expected heterozygosity was the highest in Sanyasi (0.5628) and lowest in White Pekin (0.4038) ducks. The variations in the observed and expected number of alleles, differences in PIC of various microsatellite loci might be attributed to the genetic variability of the duck populations, number and type of microsatellite primers utilised for analysis and the genetic diversity of the duck breeds under study. Higher FST value indicates the substantial degree of breed differentiation among the studied duck populations.</div>


<div>Genetic Diversity of Six Duck Populations in India</div>


<div>The study was undertaken to document the elasmobranch diversity and their abundance along Wadge Bank. Species were collected fortnightly during June 2015 to May 2016 from three landing centres viz., Chinnamuttom,Colachel and Vizhinjam of Wadge Bank. A total of 1,575 specimens were collected during the period and 44 species were identified belonging to 8 orders, 13 families and 25 genera. Among the recorded \families,Carcharhinidae is the most dominant family with 12 species. The Colachel landing centre was rich in diversity with 43 species followed by Chinnamuttom 39 species and Vizhinjam26 species. The highest Shannon Weiner diversity (H&rsquo; value) was observed at Colachel (4.17) followed by Chinnamuttom (4.11) and Vizhinjam (3.76). The Margalef&rsquo;s species richness (&lsquo;d&rsquo;) value was assessed at Colachel (4.55) followed by Chinnamuttom (4.01) and Vizhinjam (2.91). The Pielou&rsquo;s evenness (J&rsquo;) estimated was 0.7786, 0.7700 and 0.8005respectively, for Chinnamuttom, Colachal and Vizhinjam. The highest taxonomic diversity value was observed at Colachel (60.33) and the lowest during at Vizhinjam (54.08). Among the three landing centres studied, the total phylogenetic diversity (sPhi+) was found to be the lowest at Vizhinjam (940) and highest at Colachel landing centre (1720). Bray Curtis similarities measure was also calculated, fish communities were separated into several clusters based on seasons. The conservation of elasmobranchs and the management measures to be followed along the Wadge Bank is also discussed.</div>


<div>Elasmobranch diversity, conservation and management along Wadge Bank, South India</div>


<div><strong>Background: </strong>Livestock&nbsp;genetic diversity studies focus on their within and diversity, breed history, adaptive variations, ancestral information, site of domestication and parentage testing and assess the genetic uniformity, admixture or subdivision, inbreeding, or introgression in the population which is helpful in breed formation and their sustainable utilization.<br />
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<div style="text-align:justify"><strong>Methods:</strong> The present research work was conducted during the year 2016-17 at National Bureau of Animal Genetics Resources, Karnal-132001. STR data of 25 markers on 1237 random samples of 27 goat populations was used for analysis. The genetic diversity analysis of new population &nbsp;<em>viz</em>: Narayanpatna, Raighar, Kalahandi, Malkangiri of Odisha state and Rohilkhandi (UK) and their association studies with other Indian goat breeds was performed.<br />
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<strong>Result: </strong>It was found that used markers are highly polymorphic- and the studied breeds/population showed great diversity and distributed mostly on the basis of physio-geographical condition and type of production but among new populations diversity was least which might be due to exchange of animal for breeding purposes. The studied new goat populations were well differentiated from other goat breeds which might be due to physio-geographical condition and breeding practices, so these may be considered as separate breeds/populations. In conclusion, the results showed high level of conserved genetic diversity in the Indian goat breeds. The smaller and isolated new population showed less diversity and a higher inbreeding level as compared to registered breeds.</div>


<div>Genetic Diversity Analysis among 27 Indian Goat Populations using Microsatellite Markers</div>


<div><strong>Background:</strong> The estimation of genetic diversity in pigeonpea is crucial for desiging breeding programmes and germplasm conservation. Morphological studies alone do not provide sufficient information to understand genetic diversity. Molecular analysis using SSRs can provide additional information on genetic diversity that can be used for selection of diverse parents.<br />
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<strong>Methods:</strong> The experimental material for present study consisted of 50 diverse genotypes of pigeonpea. The fifty genotypes were planted in Randomized Complete Block Design consisted of three replications during the <em>kharif</em> 2020-21. The estimation of morphological genetic diversity was done by Mahalanobis D<sup>2</sup> statistics. The molecular genetic diversity analysis was done by using 30 molecular markers in same genotypes.<br />
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<strong>Result:</strong> The assessment of morphological diversity revealed that the fifty pigeonpea genotypes were grouped into four different clusters with cluster I as the largest cluster (33 genotypes). The molecular markers differentiated the 50 genotypes in five major clusters with cluster II as the largest cluster (24 genotypes). The results of present study suggested that morphological and molecular diversity in pigeonpea is different. On the basis of genetic distance, the genotypes RVSA 2014-1 and PA 406 were found most genetically distant and may be used in hybridization programme to create diverse progenies.</div>
