UPHESC Assistant Professor Horticulture 2025 PYQs

Concept: Michal, Tamar and Vered are low-chill apple cultivars bred in Israel for warm winters.

1. Normal apples need 1000–1500 chilling hours; these Israeli cultivars need only about 300–500.
2. Other well-known low-chill apples: Anna, Ein Shemer, Dorsett Golden.
3. In India such cultivars suit lower hills and the subtropical plains.

Short trick: Israeli names (Michal, Tamar, Vered, Anna, Ein Shemer) → low-chill apple.

Concept: Highgate is a dwarf mutant of Gros Michel; Krishna Vazhai is likewise listed among banana mutants.

1. Highgate arose by mutation in Gros Michel (Jamaica) – short stature, same fruit quality.
2. Such somatic mutants are classed under mutation breeding in banana improvement.
3. Hybridization is difficult in triploid bananas, so mutation/selection is the common route.

Short trick: Highgate = dwarf mutant of Gros Michel → mutation.

Concept: Shoot-tip grafting (micrografting) was developed in Citrus by Murashige et al. (1972) and refined by Navarro (1975).

1. Purpose: obtain virus/viroid-free citrus plants (tristeza, exocortis, psorosis).
2. A 0.1–0.2 mm shoot tip is grafted on an in vitro grown seedling rootstock.
3. Later extended to apple, peach etc., but citrus was first.

Short trick: STG + virus-free citrus = Murashige 1972.

Concept: Sphagnum moss is a highly acidic, light, sterile medium with pH about 3.5–4.0.

1. It holds 10–20 times its weight of water and has fungistatic properties.
2. Used in air layering, seed germination and orchid/potting mixes.
3. pH 1–2 is impossible for a medium; 6–10 is neutral–alkaline (not moss).

Short trick: Sphagnum = sour moss → pH 3.5–4.

Concept: Synthetic growth retardants (anti-gibberellins) include B-995 (daminozide/Alar), AMO-1618, CCC (cycocel), phosfon-D and paclobutrazol.

1. a (B-995) and d (AMO-1618) are the true growth retardants.
2. Kinetin (c) is a cytokinin – a growth promoter, so options B and C are wrong.
3. Ethylene (b) is a natural hormone/inhibitor, not counted among the synthetic growth retardants; yet every option contains b. The correct set ‘a and d only’ is not offered, and options A and D each contain only one of the two retardants – so no option is correct as printed (bonus).

Short trick: Retardants = anti-GA chemicals: B-9/B-995, CCC, AMO-1618, Phosfon-D, PP333.

Concept: Recalcitrant seeds lose viability when dried below a high moisture level and cannot be stored long; orthodox seeds tolerate drying.

1. Jackfruit, cocoa, rubber, mango, litchi, coconut – recalcitrant.
2. Onion seed is orthodox (dry storage possible), though short-lived in open storage.
3. So onion is the odd one out.

Short trick: Big fleshy tropical tree seeds = recalcitrant; small vegetable seeds = orthodox.

Concept: Japan pioneered commercial F₁ hybrids in vegetables; the first brinjal F₁ hybrid was released there (1924).

1. Japan also produced early hybrids in cucurbits and tomato.
2. India's first brinjal hybrids (e.g. Arka Navneet, Pusa Hybrid series) came much later.
3. China and Taiwan (AVRDC) were not the first.

Short trick: First vegetable hybrids → Japan (brinjal 1924).

Concept: Year of establishment decides the oldest board.

1. Coffee Board – 1942 (Coffee Act 1942).
2. Rubber Board – 1947; Tea Board – 1954 (Tea Act 1953).
3. Coconut Development Board – 1981.

Short trick: Order: Coffee 42 → Rubber 47 → Tea 54 → Coconut 81.

Concept: Under the PFA/FSS rules, tomato puree and paste may contain benzoic acid up to 750 ppm.

1. Tomato ketchup/sauces – also 750 ppm benzoic acid.
2. Squash/cordial: 600 ppm benzoic acid or 350 ppm SO₂; RTS: 100 ppm.
3. Jam/jelly: 40 ppm SO₂ or 200 ppm benzoic acid.

Short trick: Tomato products (puree, paste, ketchup) → 750 ppm benzoate.

Concept: In cucurbits, ethephon, MH (maleic hydrazide), NAA, CCC and TIBA increase female flowers; GA₃ and silver nitrate increase male flowers.

1. MH (50–150 ppm) at 2–4 leaf stage is a standard sex-modifying chemical.
2. 2,4-D is a herbicide/fruit-set auxin; IBA is a rooting hormone; IPA is not used for sex expression.
3. Hence maleic hydrazide.

Short trick: Female ↑: Ethrel, MH, NAA, CCC, TIBA; Male ↑: GA, AgNO₃.

Concept: In flower seed production, annuals are grouped as self- or cross-pollinated.

1. Self-pollinated: larkspur, sweet pea, lupin, China aster.
2. Cross-pollinated (insects): alyssum, clarkia, portulaca, petunia, antirrhinum, marigold, zinnia.
3. So larkspur is not cross-pollinated.

Short trick: Self group: 'Sweet Lady Loves Chinese Asters' – Sweet pea, Larkspur, Lupin, China aster.

Concept: Citrus tristeza virus (CTV, a closterovirus) causes quick decline of citrus, especially on sour orange rootstock.

1. Vector: brown citrus aphid Toxoptera citricida (semi-persistent).
2. Symptoms: stem pitting, vein clearing, decline; 'tristeza' = sadness (Portuguese).
3. Control: tolerant rootstocks (Rangpur lime, Rough lemon, trifoliate), virus-free budwood.

Short trick: Tristeza → citrus 'quick decline', aphid-borne.

Concept: Acridity (itching of mouth/throat) of colocasia and elephant foot yam is due to needle-like calcium oxalate crystals (raphides).

1. Raphides pierce the mucosa when eaten raw.
2. Boiling, adding tamarind/lemon (acid) reduces the irritation.
3. Capsaicin is the pungency of chilli – not colocasia.

Short trick: Arvi/suran itching = Ca-oxalate raphides.

Concept: Green Express (F₁ hybrid) and Chieftain (Savoy type) are cabbage cultivars.

1. Other cabbage cultivars: Golden Acre, Pride of India, Copenhagen Market, Pusa Drumhead, Pusa Mukta.
2. Cauliflower: Pusa Snowball, Pusa Katki; Onion: Pusa Red, Agrifound Dark Red.
3. Hence cabbage.

Short trick: ‘Chieftain Savoy’ → cabbage.

Concept: Camphor-rich basils: Ocimum kilimandscharicum and O. canum (hoary basil).

1. O. basilicum (sweet basil) – methyl chavicol, linalool.
2. O. viride / O. gratissimum – thymol, eugenol.
3. O. sanctum (holy basil) – eugenol.

Short trick: Camphor basil = kilimandscharicum / canum; Eugenol = sanctum.

Concept: Aonla is monoecious; male flowers vastly outnumber female flowers, the ratio reported being about 307.9 : 1.

1. Male flowers are borne in clusters in leaf axils at the base of determinate shoots; female flowers few, towards the tip.
2. This low female proportion makes pollination/pollinizers important.
3. Ratios like 10:1 or 1:100 do not match observations.

Short trick: Aonla: ~308 males for 1 female.

Concept: The National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) was set up on 24 November 2000 by Government resolution.

1. It is now under the Ministry of AYUSH, New Delhi.
2. It coordinates conservation, cultivation and trade of medicinal plants.
3. It runs the National AYUSH Mission (medicinal plants component).

Short trick: NMPB – millennium year 2000.

Concept: A GI tag links a product to its place of origin.

1. Feni – Goa (2009) and Alibag White Onion – Maharashtra (2021) are correct.
2. Badlapur Jamun is a GI of Maharashtra (Badlapur, Thane district, 2022), not Uttar Pradesh – incorrect.
3. Assam's GI from Tezpur is Tezpur Litchi (2015); there is no registered GI ‘Tezpur Chilli’ (Assam's chilli GI is Bhut Jolokia/Naga chilli of the North-East). So option C is also incorrect – two incorrect options as printed (bonus). The intended answer is B.

Short trick: Badlapur (Thane) jamun – Maharashtra; Tezpur – Litchi.

Concept: Onion and garlic originated in the Central Asiatic centre (Afghanistan–Tajikistan–NW India) and Near East.

1. Brinjal – Indo-Burma (Hindustan centre).
2. Lettuce – Mediterranean.
3. Tomato and hot pepper – South/Central America.

Short trick: Allium → Central Asia; Solanum tomato/chilli → America; brinjal → India.

Concept: SCAR (Sequence Characterized Amplified Region) markers are developed by sequencing a RAPD/AFLP band and designing specific long primers – a sequence-based marker.

1. RFLP – hybridization (probe) based.
2. ISSR – PCR with arbitrary microsatellite-anchored primers (no prior sequence needed).
3. STMS (SSR) primers also come from flanking sequence, but in the standard classification they are grouped as microsatellite (PCR-based) markers; SCAR is the textbook 'sequence characterized' marker.

Short trick: SCAR = sequence characterised; RFLP = hybridisation; ISSR/RAPD = arbitrary PCR.