Genetic variability, characters association and principal component study for morphological and fodder quality of Opuntia and Nopalea sp. in India

Genet Resour Crop Evol https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-023-01773-8 RESEARCH ARTICLE Genetic variability, characters association and principal component study for morphological and fodder quality of Opuntia and Nopalea sp. in India Rahul Dev · Shamsudheen Mangalassery Devi Dayal · Mounir Louhaichi · Sawsan Hassan · Received: 16 June 2023 / Accepted: 7 October 2023 © The Author(s) 2023 Abstract A morphological and quality analysis of 64 global core collections of cactus genotypes was conducted using 30 growth and fodder quality traits. Results indicated a high coefficient of variation for primary cladode perimeter (91.0%), root fresh weight (50.8%), and number of cladodes per plant (47.7%). The length, width, and thickness of the Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi. org/10.1007/s10722-023-01773-8. R. Dev · S. Mangalassery · D. Dayal ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Regional Research Station, Kukma, Bhuj, Gujarat, 370105, India Present Address: R. Dev (*) ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Almora, Uttarakhand 263601, India e-mail: Present Address: S. Mangalassery (*) ICAR-Directorate of Cashew Research, Darbe, Puttur, Karnataka 574202, India e-mail: M. Louhaichi · S. Hassan Resilient Agricultural Livelihood Systems Program, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), 1004 Tunis, Tunisia e-mail: S. Hassan e-mail: primary cladode ranged between 14.4 to 53.9 cm, 5.0 to 13.7 cm, and 1.5 to 4.3 cm, respectively. Principal component analysis showed a 77.6% variation in the first 10 major components with an eigenvalue > 1.0. The first and second principal components explained 18.5% and 14.8% of the total variation, respectively. The fresh weight of the shoot was positively correlated with the dry weight of the shoot (0.72), dry weight of the root (0.48), root length (0.38), and fresh weight of primary cladodes (0.29). The dendrogram obtained using a Ward analysis confirmed the results of the PCA analysis. The cactus pear accessions were grouped into four major clusters with a further four sub-clusters, containing 6, 26, 17 and 15 genotypes, respectively. Genotypes, CAZRI-Kukma, Clone 1308, Jalpa, Mexico Unknown, Trunzara Bianca Bronte, Copena F1, CAZRI Botanical Garden, Piantra-25 and IPA-90-18 are positioned at a wider angle and are more diverse and useful genotypes for use as parent populations for developing new genotypes in future breeding programs. Keywords Cactus pear · Correlation · Diversity · Fodder quality Introduction Cactus (prickly pear or green gold) is an important species in the cactaceae family. There are approximately 130 genera and 1500 dicotyledonous Vol.: (0123456789) 13 Genet Resour Crop Evol angiosperm species under Cactaceae (Shetty et al. 2012). Within the cactaceae family, Opuntia and Nopalea genera are the two most valuable to humans (Valdez and Osorio 1997). Cactus is well recognized for its fodder, food and medicinal uses (Nazareno 2017). There are 258 known Opuntia species, and only 10 recorded species in the genus Nopalea (Bravo-Hollis 1978). These species are found in almost every climatic regions of the world (Feugang et al. 2006). However, they are most abundant in arid and semi-arid regions between 35o N and 35o S (Oldfield 1997). It is cultivated widely in Brazil (600,000 ha), Tunisia (600,000 ha), Mexico (230,000 ha), Morocco (150,000 ha), Algeria (150,000 ha), and South American countries (75,000 ha) (De Waal et al. 2015) to produce forage and fodder for cattle, sheep, and goats (Inglese 2010). In arid and semi-arid regions, the cactus pear is an important and useful food and forage crop due to its ability to retain food and moisture in its cladodes even under extreme heat and prolonged drought conditions (Bomfim et al. 2013; Kumar et al. 2017). Therefore, it can serve as an excellent food and fodder source for animals in arid and semi-arid regions, particularly in hot months when other green fodder sources are insufficient. Cactus plants can grow up to 3.5–5 m. The succulent cladodes are the major part and the main source of fodder and food (Sudzuki et al. 1993). In addition to food and fodder value, cactus cladodes are an excellent source of nutrients (betalains), amino acids (taurine), minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants. The young and thin green pads (leaves) can be used cooked as a vegetable, used in salads, pickled, and juiced. Cactus flowers can also be cooked as a vegetable (Villegas y de Gante 1997). To mitigate fodder scarcity in arid and semi-arid regions in India, thornless cactus accessions were introduced initially to ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) through the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) during the 1970s. Various investigations on adaptation and fodder quality were carried out on these limited accessions in Central Western India (Mathur et al. 2009; Pareek et al. 2003). However, field-level adoption was limited and exploitation of the cactus in other dryland regions of the country was poor. Cactus introduction and evaluation were revived with the introduction of more thornless accessions Vol:. (1234567890) 13 through ICARDA’s South Asia and China Regional Program, India. Since the thornless accessions were introduced to many habitats, their adaptability needs to be studied through characterization (Lutatenekwa et al. 2020). The Kachchh region in Gujarat was chosen for large-scale research and adaptation trials. In this study, 64 core cactus accessions were evaluated to select genotypes for high forage yield. The initial evaluation at the experimental farm of Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Regional Research Station, Bhuj, and on farmer’s fields showed an average survival rate of 86.0% (Feugang et al. 2006). This high survival is attributed to low water requirements, high-temperature tolerance and high growth rate (Louhaichi et al. 2015). Additionally, the cactus pear uses crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) pathways that are four times more effective than either C4 or C3 plants in transforming water into biomass (Han and Felker 1997). Of India’s 141 million ha of agricultural land, 80 million ha are under dryland farming systems producing 40% of the agricultural commodities and supporting at least 65% of the livestock population (Ravindranath et al. 2011). A recent study indicates that of the 329 total geographical areas of India, about 102 million ha falls under the ’suitable’ (29%) and ’most suitable’ (3%) category for cactus cultivation, mainly in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka (Acharya et al. 2019). The western and eastcentral part of India is the most suitable for cactus cultivation. However, the performance of different cactus accessions varies by region. Therefore, it is essential to identify the best-suited accession for a particular region. In the present study (...truncated)