Host-plant resistance to sorghum stem borer

Sorghum is an important cereal crop in the semi-arid tropics. In India it is grown during the rainy (Kharif) and the post rainy (rabi) seasons Grain yields under farmers conditions are generally low (500-800kg ha-1)one of the reasons for low yields is crop damage by insect pest. Nearly 150 insects species have been reported on sorghum (young and teetes 1977 Seshureddy and Davies 1979 b)of which most widespread and economically important pests are shoot fly stem borers, army worm, midge, head bugs, and head caterpillar

Breeding for resistance to Chilo partellus Swinhoe in sorghum

Host-plant resistance plays an important role in the insect-pest management either alone or in combination with other control methods. A number of sorghum genotypes showing varying levels of resistance to spotted stem borer, Chilo partellus Swinhoe have been identified using natural and artificial infestations. Major resistance mechanisms are antibiosis and tolerance, though some genotypes exhibit ovipositional non-preferences. There have been a number of factors involved in spotted stem borer resistance; a resistant genotype possesses either one or a combination of these traits. Progress has been made in developing borer resistant breeding lines with moderate yield and acceptable grain quality. Borer resistance is a quantitatively inherited trait governed by additive and non-additive genes. Epistatic gene effects are more pronounced under artificial borer infestation. Cytoplasmic effects appear to be presen

Distrust Profiles: Identifying the Factors That Shape Journalism's Credibility Crisis

Trust in news is declining globally and has been for some time a phenomenon that has been amplified in the context of a global pandemic, the rise in anti-media populism, and social and political unrest. Overall, public trust in journalism remains low (44% globally), according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021. Building on a growing body of research on predictors of (dis)trust among news audiences, this study examines survey data from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021 to explore distrust profiles - comparative profiles of users based on their relative distrust in news in general, news they consume, and news accessed through digital intermediaries like social and search - across distinct news environments: India, South Korea, and the US. We conclude that, across all three countries, there are large segments who either trust everything or distrust everything, suggesting a trust polarization phenomenon. Moreover, the results identify segments of swing trusters, users who trust some news and distrust other types but do not indicate a blanket tendency to trust or distrust everything. Normative expectations about the institution of journalism (i.e., folk theories) seem to be the most powerful factors in explaining the relative likelihood of membership in all profiles, where expectations regarding impartiality, concern about fake news, and fair coverage were important indicators of (dis)trust, with varying degrees depending on the media, political, and technological contexts in which they are situated. These findings suggest that to regain trust, journalists should consider how they can change people's folk theories when it comes to news by comprehensively taking into account the unique trajectory of a given country's media system

Sorghum Improvement for Pest Resistance at ICRISAT

ICRISAT has identifiocl four major pests on sorghum as priority for its research. These are shootfly, stem borer, rniclgc and headbugs. Sources of resistance have been identified for shootfly, stern borer and niidge, and are being utilized in the breeding program. Headbug resistant sources are being searched for

Establishment of a Wolbachia Superinfection in Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes as a Potential Approach for Future Resistance Management.

Wolbachia pipientis is an endosymbiotic bacterium estimated to chronically infect between 40-75% of all arthropod species. Aedes aegypti, the principle mosquito vector of dengue virus (DENV), is not a natural host of Wolbachia. The transinfection of Wolbachia strains such as wAlbB, wMel and wMelPop-CLA into Ae. aegypti has been shown to significantly reduce the vector competence of this mosquito for a range of human pathogens in the laboratory. This has led to wMel-transinfected Ae. aegypti currently being released in five countries to evaluate its effectiveness to control dengue disease in human populations. Here we describe the generation of a superinfected Ae. aegypti mosquito line simultaneously infected with two avirulent Wolbachia strains, wMel and wAlbB. The line carries a high overall Wolbachia density and tissue localisation of the individual strains is very similar to each respective single infected parental line. The superinfected line induces unidirectional cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) when crossed to each single infected parental line, suggesting that the superinfection would have the capacity to replace either of the single constituent infections already present in a mosquito population. No significant differences in fitness parameters were observed between the superinfected line and the parental lines under the experimental conditions tested. Finally, the superinfected line blocks DENV replication more efficiently than the single wMel strain when challenged with blood meals from viremic dengue patients. These results suggest that the deployment of superinfections could be used to replace single infections and may represent an effective strategy to help manage potential resistance by DENV to field deployments of single infected strains

Caucasian and Asian Specific Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk Loci Reveal Limited Replication and Apparent Allelic Heterogeneity in North Indians

Genome-wide association studies and meta-analysis indicate that several genes/loci are consistently associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in European and Asian populations. To evaluate the transferability status of these findings to an ethnically diverse north Indian population, we performed a replication analysis. We investigated the association of 47 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at 43 of these genes/loci with RA in a north Indian cohort comprising 983 RA cases and 1007 age and gender matched controls. Genotyping was done using Infinium human 660w-quad. Association analysis by chi-square test implemented in plink was carried out in two steps. Firstly, association of the index or surrogate SNP (r2>0.8, calculated from reference GIH Hap-Map population) was tested. In the second step, evidence for allelic/locus heterogeneity at aforementioned genes/loci was assessed for by testing additional flanking SNPs in linkage equilibrium with index/surrogate marker