Agonistic Association of Lepidoptera and Fungus in the Development of Leaf-spot Disease in High Altitude Mango and its Control

Plants are common prey for pests, though plants at high altitudes are less prone to diseases. However, our sample proved to be an exception, as disease in plants have become a major problem in North India, especially in old, crowded orchards where there is excessive shade .Mango, our test plant, is well adapted to tropical and subtropical climate. Here we considered the mechanism of disease initiation in the mango leaves by the entry of a fungal pathogen- Cercospora mangiferae, and its possible agonistic association with an insect of the Lepidoptera group, Procontarinia sp . Our aim is to suggest a pesticide to avert the entry and reduce the occurrence of the disease. The specimen, collected from a place called Jorolle (NH 88) near Sundernagar, is 10 kms away from the Beas-Sutlej confluence in the state of Himachal Pradesh, during the months of January-February, the temperature recorded was between 7-14°C. The environment in the vicinity of the mango orchard was dry, windy, and grimy and plagued by vehicular emissions. There were predominantly 2 kinds of leaf spots-a white and a brown spot. The spread of the disease started from the lower mature leaves to the upper younger leaves. Enormity of the infection was much greater in leaves having galls along their margins. The gall formation results due to the mechanical damage caused by the infection due to a midge fly (Procontarinia sp). The average diameter of galls ranged between 3-4mm. As affirmed earlier, the leaves with large number of galls are the primary  home for the fungus- Cercospora mangiferae where they reside in larger numbers. Although the mechanism of an agonistic association is obscure but the possibility of such an association cannot be ruled out completely; where the primary infection caused by the midge insect paves the way for secondary infection by the fungus. Our sole intention was to prevent occurrence of such an association, by inhibiting both the infections from occurring individually. Our test pesticide belonged to the Malathione group. Its main component is monocrotophos which interferes not only with the nerve impulse transmission of the insect but also damages the cell wall of the fungal pathogen thereby attending both the problems. The experiment was performed with different concentrations of pesticide and it was observed that at 43.5%w/w it was effective enough to prevent 100% germination. Our studies provide a conclusive result which suggests that if the pesticide, at the effective concentration is sprayed till run-off, the young tender leaves of Mangifera indica will be protected from both the midge insect as well as the fungal pathogen.Key words: Chausa, Langra, Dashehari, Leaf spot, Cercospora mangiferae, White spot, Brown Spot, Gall, Procontarinia sp., pesticide, Malathione, Hilcron, Monocrotophos Arup Kumar Mitra et al. Agonistic Association of Lepidoptera and Fungus in the Development of Leaf-spot Disease in High Altitude Mango and its Control.  J Phytol 2/7 (2010) 28-36

An Eight-year Study Report on Arsenic Contamination in Groundwater and Health Effects in Eruani Village, Bangladesh and an Approach for Its Mitigation

Based on several surveys during 1997-2005 and visits of a medical team to Eruani village, Laksham upazila, Comilla district, Bangladesh, the arsenic contamination situation and consequent clinical manifestations of arsenicosis among the villagers, including dermatology, neuropathy, and obstetric outcome, are reported here. Analysis of biological samples from patients and non-patients showed high body burden of arsenic. Even after eight years of known exposure, village children were still drinking arsenic-contaminated water, and many of them had arsenical skin lesions. There were social problems due to the symptoms of arsenicosis. The last survey established that there is a lack of proper awareness among villagers about different aspects of arsenic toxicity. The viability of different options of safe water, such as dugwells, deep tubewells, rainwater harvesting, and surface water with watershed management in the village, was studied. Finally, based on 19 years of field experience, it was felt that, for any successful mitigation programme, emphasis should be given to creating awareness among villagers about the arsenic problem, role of arsenic-free water, better nutrition from local fruits and vegetables, and, above all, active participation of women along with others in the struggle against the arsenic menace

Genetic Similarity between Cotton Leafroll Dwarf Virus and Chickpea Stunt Disease Associated Virus in India

The cotton leafroll dwarf virus (CLRDV) is one of the most devastating pathogens of cotton. This malady, known as cotton blue disease, is widespread in South America where it causes huge crop losses. Recently the disease has been reported from India. We noticed occurrence of cotton blue disease and chickpea stunt disease in adjoining cotton and chickpea fields and got interested in knowing if these two viral diseases have some association. By genetic studies, we have shown here that CLRDV is very close to chickpea stunt disease associated virus (CpSDaV). We were successful in transmitting the CLRDV from cotton to chickpea. Our studies indicate that CpSDaV and CLRDV in India are possibly two different strains of the same virus. These findings would be helpful in managing these serious diseases by altering the cropping patterns

Screening of Biocontrol Potential of Indigenous Bacillus spp. Isolated from Rice Rhizosphere against R. solani, S. oryzae, S. rolfsii and Response towards Growth of Rice

Different Bacillus strains were isolated and selected to assess their capability to inhibition of rice soil borne pathogens and evaluated in terms of plant growth promotion activities. Out of seventeen strains, four strains B-1, B-2, B-3 and B-4 showed strongly antagonistic activities against pathogens and showed significant plant growth promoting (PGP) activity. Based on the morphological and several biochemical approaches like P-solubilization, IAA production, HCN production, different specific C-utilization, catalase, oxidase activities and mechanism of antagonism was studied through protease and chitinase activities, all these six isolates were identified as Bacillus sp. All the strains showed strongly inhibited (upto 90%) the growth of phytopathogens like Rhizoctonia solani, Sclerotium rolfsii and Sclerotium oryzae invitro. For Plant growth promoting assay, strains B-1, B-2 and B-3 were capable of enhancing the vegetative growth and yield parameters (shoot/root length, biomass, chlorophyll content and yield) and showed significant increase than non-inoculated control plants. The present findings suggest that these three indigenous isolates may be exploited as a potential bioinoculant agent for biocontrol as well as plant growth promoter

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Not AvailableVarious stresses which include majorly drought, salt and metal ions present in the soil adversely affects the growth and survival of the rice cultivars produced by various methods. To combat these researchers and scientist with the help of computational and systems biology are characterizing proteins involved for the resistance of these stresses to have the availability and reach of the rice cultivar across the globe with cost effectiveness keeping in mind. There are many of the proteins which are yet to be discovered, and many of them which have been discovered do not have their 3-D structure determined. So, there comes the application of homology modelling. Another reason for choosing homology modelling is, since proteins which are targeted here are membrane bound, they are hard to crystallize hence homology modelling becomes the most suitable way to determine and study their functionality. Proteins such as remorin 1.4, Phospholipase D, HIR protein LT1A, LT1B are some of the proteins which came into light after some research from already uploaded data from various journals and protein databases such as the UniprotKB. Using the database proteins were characterized based on biotic and abiotic stresses and proceeded accordingly. For modelling, an online software named SWISS Model was used to select the template and even helped in making the whole model with required scores to assess the quality of the model, respectively. To further refine the model modrefiner online software was used to refine the model to the extent where its score is better with bad angles and bonds removed respectively hence giving us a refined version of the model compared to the ones made by SWISS model directly. Templates or reference sequences were chosen based on ideal characteristics seen in Arabidopsis thaliana also seeing their sequence similarity which were automatically shown in the SWISS Model. Managed to model three of the total proteins mentioned which showed great scores after refining models. ERRAT online software was also used to give us the verification of the structure obtained.Not Availabl

Assessment of genetic diversity in a highly valuable medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus using molecular markers

Genetic diversity was evaluated among 14 cultivars of Catharanthus roseus using RAPD and ISSR markers.The RAPD primers resulted in the amplification of 56 bands, among which 46 (82%) bands were polymorphic Four ISSRprimers amplified 31 loci out of which 17 were polymorphic and 14 are monomorphic. The Jaccard's similarity derived fromthe combined marker system showed that the varieties First Kiss Coral and Cooler Orchid were the most closely relatedcultivars, with 98% similarity. In the dendrogram constructed on the basis of both RAPD and ISSR data two clear clusterswere obtained. The smaller cluster included C. roseus Cv Blue Pearl and C. roseus Cv. Patricia White and the larger clusterwas subdivided into two sub clusters with C. roseus Cv. First Kiss Polka Dot isolated from the rest of the cultivars. This maybe useful for breeding for improved quality

<smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place" downloadurl="http://www.5iantlavalamp.com/"> A diagnostic report on cluster development programme of Shantipur handloom cluster, Nadia, West Bengal Part I – Evolution of the cluster and cluster analysis </smarttagtype>

502-509Integrated Handloom Cluster Development Scheme (IHCDS) is being implemented by the Development Commissioner for Handloom, Ministry of Textile, GOI since the year 2005-06 with a broad objective to develop traditional Indian handloom clusters in an inclusive and holistic manner. One of the important objectives of this scheme is to build the clusters’ capacity to meet the challenges of the market and make them globally competitive. Presently, IHCDS is operational in 20 selected clusters spread across 12 states. Identification of potential markets and promotion of market driven designs are some of the essential approaches for the development of any handloom cluster and till now modest attention has been paid towards market developmental activities like market assessment, study of market trends and export potential for its products. The three-part series of papers reports on the cluster development programme of Shantipur handloom cluster to formulate a sustainable business plan as well as marketing plan to assist this historic cluster to compete in the ever challenging textile business. Part I describes the evolution/historical back ground of the cluster, its geographical location, existing cluster structure and infrastructure analysis to facilitate formulation of a sustainable business-cum-marketing plan to be reported in subsequent parts for the development of the cluster

Concepts of programming languages

815 p. ; 24 cm

Concepts of programming languages

815 hlm.; illus.; 23 cm