Faculty of Agriculture

Plant Breeding &

Genetics

Research teams, viz., Cotton Research Team, Wheat Research Team, Maize and Pulses Research Team, Oilseeds and Forage Research Team, Vegetables Research Team, Sugarcane Research Team accomplish academic and applied research on the respective crops. Briefly, research studies pertaining to heritability, correlation, regression, path analysis, heterosis, genetic analysis, combining ability, selection indices, stability analysis, North Carolina Mating designs, Karyotypic analysis, random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis are being pursued to study the genetic behaviour of different agronomic, morphological, physiological and quality characters in different cultivated crops.

The Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics is one of the oldest departments of the University and has a brilliant history in training manpower and conducting scientific agricultural research. The department comprises of 15 members academic body, 75% of the staff members are Ph.D. qualified and the others are on their way at final stages to qualify. For the moment the department has the privilege to produce 29 Ph.D. scholars, 995 M.Sc.(Hons)Agri and 1423 B.Sc.(Hons)Agri graduates both indigenous as well as foreign. The department has evolved versatile wheat variety LU-26 and number of elite lines in other agricultural crops which are at different stages of evaluation. The department has been perpetuating brilliant history of medal winning students. Besides academic activities the teaching staff endeavors research of the genetic improvement of cotton, wheat, pulses, sugar, oilseeds and fodder crops through classical breeding, mutation, biotechnology and genetic engineering at graduate- and post-graduate levels and the training we impart to our students is reflected by the achievement of the status of not only self sufficiency rather surplus exportable production of wheat, cotton, rice and sugar through improved variety development.
The departmental scope is marvelous, most of the agricultural research institutes in Pakistan like AARI, PARC, NARC, CCRI, NIAB and NIBGE etc. etc. recruit the plant breeders. Our graduates are working to evolve genetically improved special purpose crop varieties, which are high yielding, insect pest resistant, salt and drought tolerant and are adapted to green house farming. They are also recruited in hundreds of seed companies, pesticide companies and the agricultural extension work. Our graduates are busy in their own farming and producing incredibly high harvests.
Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics is a place of brilliant future to fight against hunger, to open up the new avenues of science, to evolve the crop varieties which are multipurpose, producing food and fiber together, and to transform the plants that are capable of producing high harvests under normal and natural stressful conditions to make Pakistan green and prosperous.

Wheat

• A versatile wheat variety LU26 was released in 1976

• Promising wheat lines viz; 8538, 8547, 8881, 8864, 8975 and 9068 performed better than the local check varieties in yield trials

• The wheat lines viz; 8881 and 8975 have been contributed as candidate varieties for inclusion in Medium tall wheat varieties trials, AARI, Faisalabad and National Uniform Wheat Yield Trials, PARC, Islamabad, respectively

• The wheat lines 9277, 9317, 9386 and 9407 showed acceptable performance under simulated drought conditions showing higher rate of survival under various stress components

• Some wheat lines viz. LU26S, 243-1, 7 HTN and 51 HTN have also been identified as salt tolerant on the basis of seedling traits.

Cotton

• The cotton genotypes B 284, B 818, B 840 performed significantly better than the standard varieties FH-900 and FH-901.
   

• The bulks viz. B-622 and B-630 developed in the department have shown top ranking in the National Coordinated Varietal Trials and Directorate of Cotton Trials.
   

• Work on coloured cotton to develop coloured cotton with good quality traits and yield have been initiated as well.

Pulses
Chickpea

• A promising line of chickpea AUG-786 has been ear-marked which is fairly tolerant to both blight and wilt. It has higher yield potential than the existing varieties and suitable for cultivation both in irrigated and rainfed areas.

Mungbean
 

• An early maturing, high yielding Mungbean lines 562-1 and 56-2 have been ear-marked which are resistant to mungbean yellow mosaic virus.

Lentil

• A lentil strain AUL 18-10 has been evolved which is more productive than the present day varieties.
   

Mash
 

• A new mash line 133 has been developed which is high yielding compared to existing varieties.

Maize

• A promising maize synthetic US-1 has been developed which is early maturing, medium stature, low bearing and has high yield potential.

Brassica Oil Seeds
 

• Brassica lines i.e. AUB-99 of B. juncea and AUB-2000 of B. napus developed in the department have higher yield than standard varieties.

Sunflower
 

• Sunflower elite lines, G-2, G-5, G-68, G-72 developed in the department are higher yielder than standards and are charcoal rot resistant.

Sorghum

• Sorghum elite lines, PBG-Sorg-I and PBG-Sorg-II, in the department possess higher fodder yield and stays green for longer time than the standard