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*Corresponding author’s e-mail: drmishra_1969@yahoo.co.in.

Legume Research, 39 (3) 2016 : 349-354Print ISSN:0250-5371 / Online ISSN:0976-0571

Online database and information system for mungbean germplasmDevraj*, Deepak Singh and Aditya Pratap

ICAR-Indian Institute of Pulses Research,Kanpur-208 024, India.Received: 05-05-2015 Accepted: 19-10-2015 DOI:10.18805/lr.v0iOF.9390

ABSTRACTOnline database and information system for mungbean germplasm addresses the data management need in this crop byproducing a user-friendly menu driven system that generates data entry forms, queries and reports and maintains acomprehensive database. The basic objective of this experiment was to develop online database and information systemfor mungbean germplasm, alongwith their characteristics and to analyze relationships between these characteristics. Thedeveloped system provides statistical summary for each evaluation descriptor and its various descriptor states. Presently,the database contains data on 550 mungbean germplasm accessions with evaluation for 26 descriptors. It provides securedata storage that can be shared over Intranet of Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur and will be linked with thewebsite of Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur for access by genetic resource specialists, breeders and planners todifferentiate genetic materials from possible duplications. A user-friendly interface for data entry has been developed forentry of data related to different characters of germplasm. 4 main reports viz., qualitative report, quantitative report, query-based report, and details report have been designed to enable quick and accurate retrieval of data.

Key Words: ASP.NET, C#., Database, Descriptors, DUS, Germplasm, Information system, Mungbean, SQL Server 2008.

INTRODUCTIONMungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek] is one of

the most important pulse crops of the Vigna group and isgrown throughout Asia, Australia, West Indies, South andNorth America, Tropical and Subtropical Africa. India is thebiggest producer of mungbean and alone accounts for 65%of the world acreage and 54% of the world production (Pratapet al., 2013). Also known as green gram, it is an importantshort duration grain legume having wider adaptability andlow input requirements. Mungbean is well-suited to a largenumber of cropping systems and constitutes an importantplace in vegetarian diets. The food values of mungbean liein its high and easily digestible protein. The mungbean seedscontain approximately 24-28% protein, 1.0-1.5% oil, 3.5–4.5% fiber, 4.5–5.5% ash and 62–65% carbohydrates on dryweight basis (Tsou et al., 1979).

A more practical approach of researchers towardsintrogression of useful genes from exotic into the cultivatedbackground through hybridization is expected to developmore promising material. Wild and exotic germplasm offersnew sources of variability hitherto not found in the cultivatedspecies and therefore, provides additional avenues ofselection for agronomic traits (Pratap et al., 2014). Severalnew recombinants with desirable agronomic traits andcultivars with improved characteristics have been developed

through hybridization using germplasm resources which arefinding popularity in farmers fields across different croppingsituations.

Indexing the genetic variability is a mega task forplant genetic resource workers to provide the end users witheasily accessible as well as assessable information onmaterials they are working with. As more information isavailable about the germplasm, the wider selection anddiversity of materials can be utilized for varietalimprovement. Ambiguous germplasm identification,difficulty in tracing different characteristics of germplasmdata and lack of integration between genetic resources,characterization, evaluation and utilization data have beenidentified as major constraints in developing knowledgeintensive crop improvement programmes (Miliar et al., 1982and Kumar et al., 2013). The number of mungbeangermplasm collected and evaluated is being maintainedwithout proper computerized databases. There is a great needto develop online user-friendly database and informationsystem to store and retrieve the large amounts of mungbeanplant genetic resource data by genetic resource specialists,crop scientists and information technicians to allow users tointeract search and locate information based on their queries(Chen et al., 2007 and Kumar et al., 2006). This system isalso designed to facilitate authentic users through valid

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login-id and password for add, delete or update information.Presently, the database contains information on 550accessions evaluated for 26 important descriptors(18 qualitative traits and 8 quantitative traits) for eachaccession under Indian agro climatic conditions. Thedatabase provides safe data storage that can be secured andshared over Local Area Network (LAN) at Institute leveland will be linked with the Institute’s website for access bycrop breeders and growers.

MATERIALS AND METHODSGermplasm database: The database of mungbeangermplasm has been created based on information collectedduring the exploration, evaluation, conservation anddistribution management at Indian Institute of PulsesResearch (IIPR), Kanpur. The database facilitates to storegermplasm data on agro-morphological traits characterizedand evaluated as per DUS descriptor. The database containsinformation on 550 accessions evaluated for 26 importantdescriptors. Statistical analysis of the data was done on thevariable with continuous variation to determine the mean,range, variance standard deviation, skewners and kurtosis.

Morphological data : The database contains morphologicaldescriptors developed for test of DUS (DistinctivenessUniformity and Stability) under the Protection of PlantVarieties and Farmers Right Act 2001. Under this Act, certainparameters/descriptor states have been decided for differentdescriptors for different crops in India. The details of thesedescriptors and distinguishing states are shown in Table1for mungbean germplasm. Total 18 important morphological(qualitative traits) evaluation data were included in thedatabase.

Agronomical data: In addition to morphological data, thedatabase also contains agronomical evaluation data. In DUSdescriptors for mungbean crop, some of the characters viz.,days to 50% flowering, plant height, number of primarybranches, number of clusters per plant, pod length, numberof seeds per pod, 100-seed weight and yield per plant havebeen included. Details of these agronomical (8 quantitativetraits) data for mungbean germplasm are presented in Table 2.

System architecture : The system architecture containsthree-tier architecture namely, client side interface layer,server side application layer and database layer (Dahiya etal., 2004 and Dahiya et al., 2008). The system architecturedesigned to develop efficient mungbean germplasminformation system is shown in Fig 1. The client side interfacelayer has been developed using HTML and JavaScript thatcontains the browser based platform to access the desiredinformation from the database using input entry forms andreports. The Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is used Fig 1: System Architecture.

Descriptor Descriptor States Anthocyanin Colour (AC) Absent

Present Growth Habit (GH) Erect

Semi-spreading Spreading

Plant Habit (PH) Determinate Indeterminate

Stem Colour (SC) Green Green with purple splashes

Stem Pubescence (SP) Absent Present

Leaflets Lobes (LL) Absent Present

Leaf Shape (LS) Deltoid Ovate Lanceolate Cuneate

Leaf Colour (LC) Green Dark green

Leaf Vain Colour (LVC) Green Greenish purple purple

Petiole Colour (PC) Green Green with purple splashes Purple

Leaf Size (LSi) Small medium Large

Flower Colour (FC) Yellow Light yellow

Pod Colour Premature (PCoP) Green Green with pigmented sutures

Pod Pubescence (PP) Absent Present

Pod Colour Mature (PCoM) Brown Black

Pod Curvature (PCV) Straight Curved

Seed Lusture (SL) Shiny Dull

Seed Shape (SSh) Oval Drum shape

Table 1: Descriptors (Morphological Evaluation Data) andDescriptor states selected for mungbean accessions

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in conjunction with JavaScript to give aesthetically pleasingweb interface for users. The server side application layer isimplemented using ASP.NET with C#. It was used to provideinterface between user and database. The queries areimplemented in this layer for inserting, modifying andretrieving data. The access rights are also specified in theapplication layer. Last, the database layer stores the data ofthe germplasm for which the relational and normalizeddatabase structure was used with its implementation doneusing SQL Server 2008. The IIS (Internet InformationServer) has been used to support web-based applicationsthat access the databases. It is tightly integrated with thewindows server in a number of ways, resulting in faster webpage serving.

For accessing the system world wide, it has beendeveloped in “English” language. The hardwarespecifications include high end server and storage devices.The system operates on Windows 2008 Server operatingsystem, SQL Server 2008 and IIS 7.0 have been used fordatabase management server and web server, respectively.C# language for server side scripting and JavaScript for clientside scripting has been used in developing the system.

Fig 2: A Home Page of Germplasm Information System.

Table 2: Descriptors (Agronomical Evaluation Data) selected for mungbean accessions

Descriptor DescriptionDays to 50% flowering (DF) Number of days when 50% plants had flowersPlant Height (PH) Plant height measured in centimeterNumber of Primary Branches (NPB) Branches arising from main shoot were countedNumber of Clusters per Plant(NCP) Number of clusters per plant were counted and average was calculatedPod Length (PL) Length of premature pod measured in centimeterNumber of Seeds per Pod (NSP) Number of seeds per pod were counted harvesting and average was calculated100-Seed Weight (SW) After harvest, 100 seeds were counted and weighted in gramYield per Plant (YP) Yield per plant was recorded in gram after sun drying of seeds

Fig 3: Screen showing the System Modules.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe system is online user-friendly menu driven and

allows users without knowledge of computer to store,modify and update germplasm information as and whenrequired and perform search operations efficiently(Mundankar et al., 2008; Ravishankar et al., 2009 and Sarkaret al., 1996). A home page for Germplasm InformationSystem has been designed to facilitate the authenticate usersthrough valid user-id and password (Fig. 2). System has twocomponents one for data management and other forgenerating queries and reports (Fig. 3). Germplasm DataManagement Module has been designed for data entry, dataupdation and data submission. For security reasons, thismodule is restricted to System Administrator only. TheGermplasm Report Generation Module has been developedto retrieve/search germplasm information based on singlecharacter or combination of more than one characters. Thismodule of the system is operated by the End User withoutany security restrictions.

Germplasm data management module: Under this module,a data entry form has been designed and developed forentering the basic information related to each accession of

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mungbean germplasm. A sample screen-shot provides theinterface to add records of new germplasm into the database(Fig. 4). To avoid any typographic error of descriptors data(especially for morphological evaluation data), the systemhas the facility of drop down menu options for selecting theappropriate descriptor state for a particular descriptor(Morris et al., 1993 and Sharma et al., 2006).

Germplasm report generation module: User customizedreports have been designed in PDF format to generate theinformation on various parameters of interest for mungbeangermplasm (Stafne et al., 2001). The brief descriptions ofoutputs/reports that can be generated from the developedsystem are as follows:

1.Reports on qualitative characters (morphological evaluation data) generate information about summary of statistics in tabular form and frequency distribution for a particular character in graphical form(Pie Chart) (Fig. 5). System also generates report on all qualitative characters in same manner stored in PDF format.

2.Reports on quantitative characters (agronomical evaluation data) shows the summary of statistics and frequency distribution for a selected character and/or all characters. Summary of statistics for selected character contains Number of accessions, Minimum value, Maximum value, Mean, Variance, SD (Standard Deviation), Skewness and Kurtosis, and frequency distribution comprising graphical representation (Bar Chart) of all accessions in a given range (Fig. 6).

3.Query based report generates report on single character and report on more than one character. After selecting the required parameters (Descriptor Name, Descriptor State and Value) and selection based on more than one characters (both morphological as well as agronomical characters) (Fig. 7), the following retrieval of information (Fig. 8) is generated.

4.Detail report (Fig. 9) displays all the information for each and every accession. This is a very significant report for the System Administrator. After generating this report it can be saved as PDF format in tabular form.CONCLUSION

Database and Information System for MungbeanGermplasm is an online user-friendly menu driven systemthat can be used by various users viz., genetic resourcespecialists, crop breeders, researchers, planners, extensionspecialists and farmers. The user needs web browser andinternet connectivity to access the system. The database ofthe system can also be updated by the valid users whoare authorized and having rights for updation. The system

Fig 4: Screen showing Data Entry for Mungbean Gerplasm.

Fig 5: Screen showing Report on Qualitative Characters.

Fig 6: Screen showing Report on Quantitative Characters.

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Fig 8: Screen showing retrieval of information.

Fig 9: Screen showing germplasm detail report.

Fig 7: Screen showing selection of parameters based on more thanone characters.

contains information on 550 germplasm accessionsincluding 18 morphological and 8 agronomical descriptors.It helps in retrieving the information for a single attributeor any combination of more than one attribute by identifyingthe most appropriate accessions with particular traits andinterest. The system also provides statistical summary foreach evaluation descriptor and its various descriptor

states. The system is expected to be of great significanceto the end users and will help them in identification andselection of desired genotype. Nevertheless a continuousupdation of the system is required to have most recentinformation of mungbean germplasm accessions to makeit more useful. This system will be extended to other foodlegumes as well.

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