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The objective of the study was to assess the direct and indirect effects of 13 important morphological and biochemical traits on yield enhancement in 28 advanced breeding lines of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) in the foothills of north-western Himalayas. Tuber yield was positively correlated with number of tubers per plant (r = 0.76), number of stems per plant (r = 0.53), number of leaves per plant (r = 0.43) and tuber weight (r = 0.37). Furthermore, tuber yield exhibited a significant negative correlation with days to maturity (r = − 0.39). Days to 50% emergence had a significant negative correlation with protein content (r = − 0.42). Path analysis revealed that the components of yield, number of tubers per plant and tuber weight, had high positive direct effects (0.876 and 0.618, respectively) on tuber yield, whereas the effects of other traits were low (≤ 0.128). Furthermore, tuber weight had an indirect negative effect on tuber yield through the number of tubers. Tuber size had a low correlation (0.19) with tuber yield because a positive indirect effect (0.451) through tuber weight was balanced by a negative indirect effect (− 0.254) through tuber number. The number of stems and number of leaves had positive indirect effects (0.377 and 0.377, respectively) on tuber yield through tuber numbers, whereas days to maturity had a negative indirect effect (− 0.298) through tuber numbers. There were virtually no indirect effects through the biochemical traits. The implications for potato breeding are discussed.

Malnutrition, heart, respiratory and pulmonary diseases are becoming most critical in Mid Himalaya. Vegetables rich in micronutrients, antioxidants and bioactive compounds can help to solve the issue. Sweet pepper is one of the best choices but as it is a warm and humid loving crop and bioactive compounds are highly varied with attitude and temperature condition, the study was conducted to identify promising antioxidant rich sweet pepper lines adapted to hill condition. Thirty eight advanced breeding lines (ABLs) of sweet pepper were evaluated for variations in total polyphenol, total carotenoids, ascorbic acid and antioxidant activity in mid Himalayan region. Antioxidant activity was measured using two in vitro assays viz. 2, 2-diphenyl-1-icrylhydrazyl (DPPH) 2, 2′-Azino-bis(3-Ethylbenzothiazoline-6-Sulfonic Acid) (ABTS). Additionally colour parameter capsanthin, pungency compound capsaicin and fruit firmness were evaluated. Among ABLs, significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) were obtained with respect to antioxidant composition and antioxidant activity. Ascorbic acid and total phenol varied from 39.42–85.12 mg/100 g and 13.01–71.24 mg GAE/100g fresh weight (fw) respectively, while ABTS % Inhibition and DPPH % Inhibition varies from 10.95–80.05 and 11.19–49.18 respectively. Chemometric tools like principal component analysis (PCA) and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) were applied to understand possible classification sweet pepper ABLs based on bioactive antioxidant compounds, antioxidant potentiality and fruit firmness. PCA revealed that the first two components represented 67.78% of the total variability in the total variation. AHC classified cultivars into four main groups on the basis of the measured parameters. Results suggested that VLCP-16-1, VLSM-3 and Mukteshwar for Vitamin C; VLCP-16-57, VLCP-16-54, Mukteshwar and VLCP-16-52 for polyphenols, VLCP-16-54, VLCP-16-57, VLCP-2016-52 and showed highest antioxidant activity. The result will help in advance breeding of sweet pepper for development of nutritionally rich varieties.

Wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum Schlechtend. Fr. f.sp. pisi is a devastating disease of garden pea in India and worldwide. The pathogen being soil-borne fungus is quite difficult to manage by chemical methods and the development of resistant varieties seems to be the only alternative. In the present study 34 garden pea genotypes collected from different sources were evaluated during winter 2012–13 and 2013–14 under wilt sick plot as well as artificial controlled conditions to identify genetic sources of resistance against Fusarium wilt. Three genotypes (GP-6, GP-55 and GP-942) were found to be highly resistant, four genotypes (GP-17, GP-48, GP-473, GP-941) were resistant and identified as new donor source. All the popular cultivated varieties (Arkel, Pusa Pragati, AP-3, VRP-6, VL-7, VL-10 and Arka Ajit) were highly susceptible to wilt. The inheritance of Fusarium resistance gene(s) was also studied using F1, F2, B1 and B2 progenies of three crosses, viz., Pusa Pragati × GP-55, Pusa Pragati × GP-6 and Arkel × GP-17. Chi-square analysis was performed to determine the Mendelian segregation ratios of resistance and susceptibility among the inoculated progenies. The F1 and backcross progenies to the resistant parents segregated in the ratio of 1:0, while the F2 progenies segregated in the ratio of 3:1. The backcross progenies to the susceptible parent segregated in the ratio of 1:1. The results obtained revealed that the resistance to Fusarium wilt in garden pea is governed by monogenic dominant gene. The resistance gene can easily be introgressed by backcross breeding in desired genotype.