Person:
Vasal, S.K.

Loading...
Profile Picture
Email Address
Birth Date
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Job Title
Last Name
Vasal
First Name
S.K.
Name
Vasal, S.K.

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • H-442 C, Hybrido de maíz con calidad proteínica mejorada para el noroeste y subtrópico de México
    (Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias, 2004) Ortega Corona, A.; Cota Agramont, O.; Guerrero Herrera, M.; Vasal, S.K.; Cordova, H.S.; Barreras Soto, M.A.; Wong Pérez, J.; Reyes Méndez, C.A.; Preciado-Ortiz, R.E.; Torreón Ibarra, A.D.; Espinosa Calderón, A.
    Publication
  • Stability in performance of quality protein maize under abiotic stress
    (Consiglio per la Ricerca e la sperimentazione in Agricoltura, Unità di Ricerca per la Maiscoltura, 2008) Zaidi, P.; Vasal, S.K.; Maniselvan, P.; Jha, G.C.; Mehrajjudin; Singh, R.P.
    Quality protein maize (QPM) has emerged an affordable and viable option to alleviate protein malnutrition and reduce animal feed costs, given that its grain protein contains more than double the lysine and tryptophan concentrations of normal endosperm maize. For commercial success, QPM cultivars must be competitive with normal maize in productivity and should show stable performance across environments, especially with respect to yield and protein quality traits. In the tropics, drought and low-nitrogen (N) fertility are major constraints to maize productivity. In this study, we analyze the stability of performance of CIMMYT tropical and subtropical elite QPM hybrids across stressed (drought and low N) and unstressed environments. In general, stress significantly affected all agronomic traits except male flowering. The effect was comparatively large under drought stress. Among the quality traits, grain protein, tryptophan, and lysine contents showed significant variation across environments. There was an increase in grain protein (12.7%) and in lysine (10.3%) and tryptophan contents (8.1%) under drought stress, while levels of these grain quality traits were reduced under low N by 17.0, 12.5, and 15.6%, respectively. However, the effect of stressed environments was comparatively small on protein quality traits, including tryptophan and lysine content in protein. The variation in protein quality across environments was statistically significant but largely due to genotypic variability. Variation due to environment and genotype by environment (G x E) interaction was statistically non-significant for protein quality traits, except in the case of lysine content in protein, where G x E was significant. Our results suggest that grain yield and grain protein content are the most unstable traits, whereas tryptophan followed by lysine content are the most stable, across stressed and unstressed environments.
    Publication
  • Heterotic patterns of ninety-two white tropical CIMMYT maize lines
    (Consiglio per la Ricerca e la sperimentazione in Agricoltura, Unità di Ricerca per la Maiscoltura, 1992) Vasal, S.K.; Srinivasan, G.; Pandey, S.; Cordova, H.S.; Han, G.C.; Gonzalez Ceniceros, F.
    Development of inbread-based populations which are heterotic to each other was considered one of the primary goals when CIMMYT started of this study were to determine the combining ability and heterotica patters of tropical maize(Zea mays L.) inbred lines developed at CIMMYT and to identify and form beterotic grous for the topics. 92 tropical late white inbred lines at S3-S6 levels of inbreeding derived from nine CIMMYT populations and pools were crossed to four tester lines(two dent and two flint).
    Publication
  • A comparative study of protein changes in normal and quality protein maize during tortilla making
    (American Association of Cereal Chemists, 1986) Ortega Martinez, E.I.; Villegas, E.; Vasal, S.K.
    Protein changes were evaluated in two different maize genotypes of contrasting protein quality made into tortillas. In both types of maize, albumins, globulins, zeins, and glutelinlike components became insoluble after interacting with other biochemical entities catalyzed by the alkaline pH and the heat produced in tortilla-making. Increased nitrogen recovery with solvents having alkaline pH, a reducing agent, and sodium dodecyl sulfate indicate that hydrophobic interactions may have been involved in this change in solubility of proteins that are more easily solubilized in the unprocessed maize grain. In vitro protein digestibility with pepsin declined as nitrogen content increased in the glutelin fraction and in the residue after fractionation. Tortillas made from quality protein maize (QPM) had a superior amino acid score mainly because of their very high lysine and tryptophan content, which was not significantly affected during tortilla preparation. The superiority of the product obtained with the QPM sample was demonstrated by its high content of available lysine. Although the in sulfate indicate that hydrophobic interactions may have been involved in vitro digestibility of protein with pepsin and the amount of available lysine this change in solubility of proteins that are more easily solubilized in the changed during tortilla-making, no evidence was found of a specific unprocessed maize grain. In vitro protein digestibility with pepsin declined detrimental effect on the protein quality of the original QPM grain.
    Publication
  • Proceedings of the Seventh Asian Regional Maize Workshop
    (PCARRD, 2000) Vasal, S.K.; Gonzalez Ceniceros, F.; XingMing, F.
    The regional maize workshop is an important scientific event that brings together maize researchers regionwide to interact, exchange ideas, share knowledge, and review progress of important research activities. This was the seventh maize workshop organized jointly by PCARRD, UPLB, DA-BAR. and CIMMYT. I was impressed with the program and would very much like to thank the organizing committee for choosing Los Banos, Philippines, as the venue for the workshop and to PCARRD IRRI for providing effective logistical support. I would also like to recognize other national institutions and seed industry groups, who kindly and successfully assisted in various deliberations. I would also like to comment on attendance, which in my opinion was excellent. The 200 or so researchers participating in this workshop represent diverse areas and disciplines and included seed industry representatives from several countries. Scientists were invited from each country to make this workshop truly interdisciplinary, and many participants hailed from outside Asia, coming from countries such as Mexico. Guatemala, Colombia, the U.S.A., and Canada. CIMMYT participants and presenters included the Director General, Prof. Timothy Reeves, and practically all program directors, as well as maize program staff scientists. A plenary lecture by Prof. Reeves was attended by dignitaries such as Dr. William Dar, Executive Director, PCARRD; Bob Havener, Interim Director General, IRRI; Dr. R.S. Paroda, Director General, ICAR. The contents and technical agenda of the workshop covered a wide spectrum of topics and reflected the concerted effort of many dedicated researchers from different disciplines; all deserve our appreciation for their contributions. Topics addressed by inaugural papers included the Asian economic crisis and its implications for the maize sector, the role of biotechnology for maize improvement. intellectual property rights. networking, advances in com borer rPM research, expanding possibilities for research in hybrid maize technology in the next century, and productivity and sustainability issues. Technical sessions covered public-private research collaboration, new hybrid-oriented and bioscience technologies, stress tolerance, agronomy research, speciality com types, and maize seed industry reports. The country reports have improved, and can still be made even better. Participation was enthusiastic, and the general impression was that even more time was needed for in-depth discussion on each project, particularly for drought, waterlogging, downy mildew, borers, banded leaf and sheath blight, and quality protein maize. Presenters in the future should make sure to leave time for ample discussion. Finally, participants should be allowed more time to look at demonstration plots, to observe materials from different national programs. In the end, I commend the participants for the diversity of papers and themes, and am confident that readers of these proceedings will find the information and ideas herein useful in guiding future research efforts.
    Publication
  • Suwan-1: maize from Thailand to the world
    (CIMMYT, 1993) Sriwatanapongse, S.; Jinahyon, S.; Vasal, S.K.
    The CIMMYT Maize Program is committed to helping national programs develop and disseminate improved germplasm and production technology. Our contributions are well documented; our work could be deemed a success story. This is satisfying but, in a sense, source of little wonder. CIMMYT pools the energies of some of the world's most talented and dedicated researchers, supported by first-class facilities at selected locations. Our mission is clear and, although there may be room for improvement, we are simply doing the job we set out to do. The story of Suwan-l, though, cannot help but kindle a sense of wonder. Here is a maize product developed by Thai researchers for Thai farmers, yet so we.11 crafted that its welcome has extended far beyond the borders of that nation. In retrospect, this outcome may also seem natural. Several factors combined serendipitously in Thailand of the 1960s to make the development and diffusion of Suwan-l possible. The government began to promote maize as part of a national policy to diversify agriculture away from rice. The Rockefeller Foundation moved its InterAsian Corn Program headquarters to Thailand, bringing in financial resources and experienced human capital. The country's previously fragmented national maize breeding efforts were consolidated into a single program under Kasetsart University and the Ministry of Agriculture. The Rockefeller Foundation and Thai researchers established a collaborative breeding program at Farm Suwan, a state-of-the-art research station where irrigation permitted up to three crops each year. Close collaboration with CIMMYT began which, in addition to providing useful germplasm, opened training opportunities for many Thai maize researchers. Later on, fruitful cooperative arrangements between public and private entities in Thailand benefited farmers with a steady supply of quality seed. These circumstances alone, however, are not enough to account for the development and spread of a variety as successful as Suwan-l. The principal credit for this accomplishment belongs to a group of persons who saw an opportunity and worked hard and intelligently to bring it to fruition. I am referring, of course, to the collaborative breeding team at Farm Suwan. Theirs was the strategy of assembling a genetically heterogenous composite from which to develop a broadly adapted variety; theirs was the work that led to steady improvements in grain yield and other important characteristics of the composite; theirs was the successful incorporation of resistance to downy mildew as an additional trait that would ensure the usefulness of this material to farmers throughout Asia. It is therefore fitting that, in honor of the 50th Anniversary of Kasetsart University, members of that team should undertake an account of the research that brought forth Suwan-l. This is the first time the story has been told in such detail. I hope that, in addition to providing interesting reading, the report will prove a welcome source of strategy and inspiration for breeders throughout the developing world in their efforts to offer farmers highly productive, resource conserving maize varieties.
    Publication