Heterosis for Fruit Yield and its Components in Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

An experiment was conducted with 14 parents and 40 F1s to study heterosis in brinjal. Crosses showing significant heterosis over the better parent were: HE12 X Aruna for first fruit set; BR-112 X Aruna for fruit length and diameter; Pant Samrat X Punjab Neelam for number of fruits per plant; H-7 X Aruna for fruit weight; H-9 X S-16 for total yield per plant; Negative heterosis were recorded in KT-4 X Aruna for borer and Pant in Rituraj X Punjab Neelam for nematode infestation

Effect of humic acid and nutrients mixture on quality parameter of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) under polyhouse condition

An experiment was conducted on Effect of humic acid and nutrients mixture on growth and yield parameter of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) under polyhouse condition at Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur (Raj.). The data was analyzed statistically following completely randomized design. The results revealed that treatment T7 [(RDF + humic acid 10 kg/ha soil application + humic acid 0.1% foliar spray + nutrient mixture foliar spray (0.2% Ca + 0.5% Mg + 0.2% B + 0.5% Zn)] was recorded superior to enhance leaf nutrients analysis Ca (1.656%), Mg (0.763%), Zn (25.07ppm) and B (61.94ppm), fruit nutrient analysisCa (1.904%), Mg (0.877%), Zn (58.98ppm) and B (61.84ppm), total Soluble Solids (TSS) (6.020%), ascorbic acid content (39.85mg/100g), lycopene content (3.75 mg/100g) and cost benefit ratio (4.81)

Physiological responses of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) cultivars to water deficit stress: status of oxidative stress and antioxidant enzyme activities

From a field experiment, the changes in oxidative stress and antioxidant enzyme activities was studied in six Spanish peanut cultivars subjected to water deficit stress at two different stages viz. pegging and pod development stages. Imposition of water deficit stress significantly reduced relative water content, membrane stability and total carotenoid content in all the cultivars, whereas total chlorophyll content increased at initially and decreased at later stage. Chlorophyll a/b ratio increased under water deficit stress in most of the cultivars signifying greater damage to chlorophyll b rather than increase in chlorophyll a content. Oxidative stress measured in terms of H2O2 and superoxide radical content, and lipid peroxidation increased under water deficit stress, especially in susceptible cultivars viz. DRG 1, AK 159 and ICGV 86031. Relationship among different physiological parameters showed level of oxidative stress build-up was negatively correlated with activities of different antioxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase and glurathione reductase. The study concluded that in peanut water deficit stress at later stages of growth was more detrimental and an efficient antioxidant defense system manifested by higher activities of antioxidant enzymes was responsible for better stress tolerance in cultivars like ICGS 44 and TAG 24

A review on human exposure to indoor radon concentration and measuring techniques in Garhwal Himalaya, Uttarakhand

237-244Radioactive materials which occur naturally have widely presence in the earth’s crust and these materials are the most common sources of ionizing radiation present in an environment. Radon and its decay product contribute significant amount (more than 50%) of ionizing radiation in the atmosphere. This ionizing radiation increases the exposure of radiation to human being in the surroundings. The risk due to radon-222 and its decay products is more in poorly ventilated houses, mines and caves etc. This paper presents a review study on radon-222 and thoron-220 concentration/level done previously in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand state. In this review paper, the various outcomes of indoor radon-222 and thoron-220 concentration measured in the Garhwal Himalaya region are mainly discussed in details

A molecular approach to reveal the genetic identity of parrot mussel and other sympatric mussel species distributed along the Kerala coast

Two commercially important mussel species are recorded from the Indian coast: green mussel Perna viridis (Linnaeus, 1758) and brown mussel P. indica (Kuriakose and Nair, 1976). Apart from this, a third type referred to as parrot mussel, which has shell shape of brown mussel, but with green shell colouration and suspected to be the hybrid of the above two species has also been reported from Kollam coast of Kerala, where both the species co-occur. In the present work, genetic identity of parrot and sympatric mussel species was determined using protein and genomic DNA markers. Protein markers viz. Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and allozymes and the genomic DNA marker Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) were used for determining genetic identity of the three mussel groups. The green and brown mussels could be clearly differentiated using SDS PAGE. The parrot mussel protein pattern was similar to that of brown mussel, except for an additional band of molecular weight 48.7 Kda which is unique to brown mussel. Genus specific protein bands for Perna viz. 66 Kda, 43 Kda and 14.3 Kda, were detected in this study. Allozyme electrophoresis also followed a similar pattern. Of the 10 allozyme loci studied, seven revealed speciesspecific diagnostic differences between P.viridis and P.indica. They were AAT-1* (Aspartate Amino Transferase-1*), AAT-2*, ME (Malic Enzyme)*, PGM-2*(Phospo Gluco Mutase-2*), EST-1* (Esterase- 1*), EST-2*, IcDH* (Isocitrate Dehydrogenase)*. Parrot mussel shared all the alleles of brown mussel, and no hybrid pattern was observed. Species-specific alleles clearly differentiated green mussel from both brown and parrot mussel. The genetic distance of green mussel from brown mussel, estimated from allozyme data was 1.1145 and with parrot mussel it was 1.105. The genetic distance between parrot mussel and brown mussel was negligibly low (0.0005). Using allozyme and RAPD data, the Nei’s Unbiased Measures of genetic distance were calculated and the dendograms prepared based on these values clearly depicted the separation of parrot mussel from green mussel as well as the close resemblance of parrot mussel with brown mussel. The higher gene flow (1.1539) determined using RAPD marker also hints that brown and parrot mussel may be acting as single interbreeding population. Hence this study using molecular tools to test the genetic identity of parrot mussel has helped to conclude that parrot mussel is only a morphotype of brown mussel and not a true hybrid of the two

DNA barcoding Indian marine fishes

DNA barcoding has been adopted as a global bio-identification system for animals in recent years. A major national programme on DNA barcoding of fish and marine life was initiated in India by the authors during 2006 and 115 species of marine fish covering Carangids, Clupeids, Scombrids, Groupers, Sciaenids, Silverbellies, Mullids, Polynemids and Silurids representing 79 Genera and 37 Families from the Indian Ocean have been barcoded for the first time using cytochrome c oxidase I gene (COI) of the mtDNA. The species were represented by multiple specimens and a total of 397 sequences were generated. After amplification and sequencing of 707 base pair fragment of COI, primers were trimmed which invariably generated a 655 base pair barcode sequence. The average Kimura two parameter (K2P) distances within species, genera, families, orders were 0.30%, 6.60%, 9.91%, 16.00%, respectively. In addition to barcode-based species identification system, phylogenetic relationships among the species have also been attempted. The neighbour-joining tree revealed distinct clusters in concurrence with the taxonomic status of the species