Family Matters: Citizenship and Marriage in India, 1939-72.

India’s system of separate Hindu, Muslim, and Christian family laws is often cast as a threat to national unity. In contrast, I argue that Indian law was structured by the emphasis of English law on preserving the marriage tie and wives’ legal dependence on their husbands. Based on a study of judicial and bureaucratic decisions about families in Indian law,I show that a patriarchal English family structure based in coverture influenced Indian women’s experiences of the law at least as much as religious norms did.I focus on three legal devices: domicile, restitution of conjugal rights, and maintenance. I argue that “law of the family” is a better category with which to consider women’s rights than “family law.” “Law of the family” suggests the ways in which family statuses structured many aspects of Indian law, including those concerned with family disputes as well as matters such as citizenship. The dissertation is divided into two parts. The first part studies bureaucratic and judicial decisions about the status of wives and sons in Indian citizenship law. Through the legal device of domicile, coverture structured Indian citizenship law.The second part is based in a survey of matrimonial litigation in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh between 1939 and 1972. Litigants of all religious communities used restitution of conjugal rights suits and maintenance suits to seek marital redress even after important statutory reforms such as the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act (1939) and the Hindu Marriage Act (1955). Courts ruled in favor of wives without condemning marital violence. An individual wife could win her suit without necessarily challenging the patriarchal structure of marriage.Wives faced difficulties in proving matrimonial violence and often won their suits on the grounds of more easily proved social offenses. Husbands often challenged wives with arguments about both geographic and religious jurisdiction, in a pattern found in England as well. The dissertation concludes with a study of the 1962 UP Amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act, which made cruelty a ground for divorce in the state, providing a model for national reform fourteen years later.PhDHistoryUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116682/1/grapevin_1.pd

Efficacy testing of novel organic fungicides and elicitors: from the lab to the field

Novel organic fungicides and elicitors against downy mildew on grapevines were evaluated on grapevine seedlings in a series of indoor screening experiments under controlled conditions and, if they have shown a good efficacy indoors, in a screening vineyard under field conditions. From 39 products tested under controlled conditions 10 were further examined under field conditions. All of the new products tested under field conditions showed at least partial efficacy. However, the efficacy was not good enough to protect grapevine plants sufficiently from downy mildew. For a complete re-placement of copper in plant protection against downy mildew on grapevine in organic agriculture, additional new products are needed

Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3.

Grapevine leafroll disease (GLD) is one of the most important grapevine viral diseases affecting grapevines worldwide. The impact on vine health, crop yield, and quality is difficult to assess due to a high number of variables, but significant economic losses are consistently reported over the lifespan of a vineyard if intervention strategies are not implemented. Several viruses from the family Closteroviridae are associated with GLD. However, Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3 (GLRaV-3), the type species for the genus Ampelovirus, is regarded as the most important causative agent. Here we provide a general overview on various aspects of GLRaV-3, with an emphasis on the latest advances in the characterization of the genome. The full genome of several isolates have recently been sequenced and annotated, revealing the existence of several genetic variants. The classification of these variants, based on their genome sequence, will be discussed and a guideline is presented to facilitate future comparative studies. The characterization of sgRNAs produced during the infection cycle of GLRaV-3 has given some insight into the replication strategy and the putative functionality of the ORFs. The latest nucleotide sequence based molecular diagnostic techniques were shown to be more sensitive than conventional serological assays and although ELISA is not as sensitive it remains valuable for high-throughput screening and complementary to molecular diagnostics. The application of next-generation sequencing is proving to be a valuable tool to study the complexity of viral infection as well as plant pathogen interaction. Next-generation sequencing data can provide information regarding disease complexes, variants of viral species, and abundance of particular viruses. This information can be used to develop more accurate diagnostic assays. Reliable virus screening in support of robust grapevine certification programs remains the cornerstone of GLD management

Ecological Aspects and Conservation of Wild Grapevine Populations in the S.W. of the Iberian Peninsula

Populations of wild grapevine, Vitis vinifera L. subsp. sylvestris (Gmelin) Hegi, were discovered in S.W. of the Iberian Peninsula over the last years. Location, ecological aspects, sanitary characteristics, including the ELISA test to detect specific virus attack, are described. In vitro propagation and conservation are also considered. The paper also contains a global description of female and male individuals. This material could be used to start breeding programs of cultivated varieties and also to restore riverbank forests, which constitute one of the worst preserved ecosystems in the area

Molecular analysis of the early interaction between the grapevine flower and Botrytis cinerea reveals that prompt activation of specific host pathways leads to fungus quiescence

Grape quality and yield can be impaired by bunch rot, caused by the necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea. Infection often occurs at flowering, and the pathogen stays quiescent until fruit maturity. Here, we report a molecular analysis of the early interaction between B. cinerea and Vitis vinifera flowers, using a controlled infection system, confocal microscopy and integrated transcriptomic and metabolic analysis of the host and the pathogen. Flowers from fruiting cuttings of the cultivar Pinot Noir were infected with green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labelled B. cinerea and studied at 24 and 96 hours post-inoculation (h.p.i.). We observed that penetration of the epidermis by B. cinerea coincided with increased expression of genes encoding cell-wall-degrading enzymes, phytotoxins and proteases. Grapevine responded with a rapid defence reaction involving 1193 genes associated with the accumulation of antimicrobial proteins, polyphenols, reactive oxygen species and cell wall reinforcement. At 96 h.p.i., the reaction appears largely diminished both in the host and in the pathogen. Our data indicate that the defence responses of the grapevine flower collectively are able to restrict invasive fungal growth into the underlying tissues, thereby forcing the fungus to enter quiescence until the conditions become more favourable to resume pathogenic development

Incidence of grapevine leafroll associated viruses -1, -2, and -3 in Mendoza vineyards

Indexación: ScieloViticulture is important in Argentina's economy, especially in the province of Mendoza, which is responsible for more than 75% of the crop cultivated area. In this work, we evaluated the incidence of Grapevine leafroll-associated viruses (GLRaV) -1, -2, and -3 in Vitis vinifera clones of cultivars Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Sauvignon Blanc, planted in different zones of Mendoza. The selected clones were previously reported as putatively infected by GLRaV-2. All selected samples were analyzed by DAS-ELISA for GLRaV-1,-2 and -3. GLRaV-2 was the only virus identified in all the analyzed clones. The overall infection rates were 0.6%, 18.8% and 1.2 % for GLRaV-1, 2 and 3 respectively. For the clone Cabernet Sauvignon 337, the infection rate was very high (68.3%).http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1982-56762010000600007&nrm=is

Control of anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway gene expression by eutypine, a toxin from Eutypa lata, in grape cell tissue cultures

Eutypine, 4-hydroxy-3-(3-methyl-3-butene-1-ynyl) benzaldehyde, is a toxin produced by Eutypa lata, the causal agent of Eutypa dieback in grapevine. The effect of the toxin on anthocyanin synthesis has been investigated in Vitis vinifera cv. Gamay cell cultures. At concentrations higher than 200 μmol/L, eutypine reduced anthocyanin accumulation in cells. The reduction in anthocyanin accumulation was proportional to the eutypine concentrations and HPLC analysis showed that eutypine affected the levels of all anthocyanins. The effect of eutypine application on the expression of five genes of the anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway, including chalcone synthase (CHS), flavonone-3-hydroxylase (F3H), dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR), leucoanthocyanidin dioxygenase (LDOX), and UDP glucose- flavonoid 3-O-glucosyl transferase (UFGT) was determined. Expression of CHS, F3H, DFR and LDOX was not affected by the addition of eutypine to grapevine cell cultures. In contrast, expression of the UFGT gene was dramatically inhibited by the toxin. These results suggest that in grapevine cell cultures, eutypine strongly affects anthocyanin accumulation by inhibiting UFGT gene expression. The mechanism of action of eutypine is discussed