Temporal transcriptome of tomato elucidates the signaling pathways of induced systemic resistance and systemic acquired resistance activated by Chaetomium globosum

C. globosum is an endophytic fungus, which is recorded effective against several fungal and bacterial diseases in plants. The exclusively induce defense as mechanism of biocontrol for C. globosum against phyto-pathogens is reported. Our pervious study states the effectiveness of induced defense by C. globosum (Cg), in tomato against Alternaria solani. In this study the temporal transcriptome analysis of tomato plants after treatment with C. globosum was performed for time points at 0 hpCi, 12 hpCi, 24 hpCi and 96 phCi. The temporal expression analysis of genes belonging to defense signaling pathways indicates the maximum expression of genes at 12 h post Cg inoculation. The sequential progression in JA signaling pathway is marked by upregulation of downstream genes (Solyc10g011660, Solyc01g005440) of JA signaling at 24 hpCi and continued to express at same level upto 96 hpCi. However, the NPR1 (Solyc07g040690), the key regulator of SA signaling is activated at 12 h and repressed in later stages. The sequential expression of phenylpropanoid pathway genes (Solyc09g007920, Solyc12g011330, Solyc05g047530) marks the activation of pathway with course of time after Cg treatment that results in lignin formation. The plant defense signaling progresses in sequential manner with time course after Cg treatment. The results revealed the involvement of signaling pathways of ISR and SAR in systemic resistance induced by Cg in tomato, but with temporal variation

Marker-assisted enhancement of bacterial blight (Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae) resistance in a salt-tolerant rice variety for sustaining rice production of tropical islands

IntroductionBacterial blight (BB) caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae is a major disease of rice, specially in the tropical regions of the world. Developing rice varieties with host resistance against the disease is the most effective and economical solution for managing the disease.MethodsPyramiding resistance genes (Xa4, xa5, xa13,and Xa21) in popular rice varieties using marker-assisted backcross breeding (MABB) has been demonstrated as a cost-effective and sustainable approach for establishing durable BB resistance. Here, we report our successful efforts in introgressing four resistance genes (Xa4, xa5, xa13, and Xa21) from IRBB60 to CARI Dhan 5, a popular salt-tolerant variety developed from a somaclonal variant of Pokkali rice, through functional MABB.Results and discussionBoth BB and coastal salinity are among the major challenges for rice production in tropical island and coastal ecosystems. Plants with four, three, and two gene pyramids were generated, which displayed high levels of resistance to the BB pathogen at the BC3F2 stage. Under controlled salinity microplot environments, the line 131-2-175-1223 identified with the presence of three gene pyramid (Xa21+xa13+xa5) displayed notable resistance across locations and years as well as exhibited a salinity tolerance comparable to the recurrent parent, CARI Dhan 5. Among two BB gene combinations (Xa21+xa13), two lines, 17-1-69-334 and 46-3-95-659, demonstrated resistance across locations and years, as well as salt tolerance and grain production comparable to CARI Dhan 5. Besides salinity tolerance, five lines, 17-1-69-179, 46-3-95-655, 131-2-190-1197, 131-2-175-1209, and 131-2-175-1239, exhibited complete resistance to BB disease. Following multilocation testing, potential lines have been identified that can serve as a prospective candidate for producing varieties for the tropical Andaman and Nicobar Islands and other coastal locations, which are prone to BB and coastal salinity stresses

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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Not AvailableConsidering the huge negative imapct of chemical pesticides, there has been gradual shifting towards sustainable and ecofriendly option for the management of pests and diseases. Microbial biopesticides emerged as one of the safest alternative to chemical pesticides. In recent decades there has been gradual increase in biopesticides usage in global market. This is an indicative of its significance towards sustainable food production by reducing use of chemical pesticides. However, thier efficacy, reproducibility, availability, unawareness, optimisation and implementation are the major constraints associated with use of microbial biopesticides. Nevertheless, considerable amount of research and development still required to address the limitations associated with microbial biopesticides to increase their utilization by stake holders.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableVegetable is the most emerging sector of the horticultural commodity, which contribute not only to nutritional richness but, also on-farm and off-farm income. The begomoviruses, member of geminiviridae family are the largest contributor in devastation of these crops. Tomato, chilli, cassava, okra, cucurbits, and pulse vegetables suffer greatly due to these viruses. The conducive environment, continuous cropping of one or more host crop throughout the year, emergence of new viruleferoius vectors biotypes, and evolution of new recombinant virus strains are the most important factors in the spread of these diseases. The begomoviruses are either mono or bipartite, can be associated with alpha or betasatellite DNA, which has role in symptom development and virulence. Management of virus vector should be the major strategy to inhibit the contact between host and pathogen. Cultural practices like, removal of alternate hosts, destruction of unwanted weeds, and uprooting and burning of initially infected plants are commonly practiced. Management of sucking pest, mainly whitefly at regular interval with insecticide significantly reduces the chances of transmission of these viruses, however insecticide resistance is frequently observed among these group of pests. The viable and naturally safe method to control these diseases is through host plant resistance, by identification and transfer of resistance governing genes in cultivated backgrounds. Transgenic approaches targeting viral genes are also widely used for development of resistant lines. The most recent technology like genome editing with CRISPR/Cas-9 was also found promising in development of resistant tomato and cassava lines however, its widespread use is limited due to unavailability of information about susceptibility genes in several crops.Not Availabl

First Report of Diaporthe phaseolorum Infecting Indian Trumpet Flower (Oroxylum indicum) from India

Seed health testing, using the blotter method, revealed some fungal growth on the seed surface of one accession of Indian trumpet flower/Broken bones tree (Oroxylum indicum (L.) Kurz) collected from Kokrajhar, Assam, India. The fungus was identified as Diaporthe phaseolorum (Cooke & Ellis) Sacc. based on morphological characters. Later, the identity was re-confirmed by DNA sequencing using ITS gene sequencing (NCBI Sequence Id: MT154253.1) and a large subunit of rRNA (NCBI Sequence Id: OL798081.1). Literature reveals that D. phaseolorum is a destructive pathogen causing severe yield losses in various host crops. However, detection of D. phaseolorum in Indian trumpet flower seed followed by pathogenicity on its seedlings confirms that O. indicum is a new host record. Being a destructive pathogen of several other crops, such as seed decay and stem canker in soybean, it may pose a serious threat to future cultivation of this herbal plant

Factor effecting disease development of fruit rot of chilli caused by Colletotrichum capsici

Not AvailableThe minimum period of 12 hrs in saturated atmosphere after inoculation was required to cause infection on red fruits of chilli but no infection were observed for 0 as well as 6 hrs. Maximum disease severity was recorded on plants having red fruits kept under saturated atmosphere for 72 hrs. The pre inoculation moist period also increased the infection but not as much as post inoculation Disease seventy was significantly higher on the red fruits kept under saturated atmosphere 24 hrs before and 72 hrs after inoculation under screen house conditions.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableVegetable is the most emerging sector of the horticultural commodity, which contribute not only to nutritional richness but, also on-farm and off-farm income. The begomoviruses, member of geminiviridae family are the largest contributor in devastation of these crops. Tomato, chilli, cassava, okra, cucurbits, and pulse vegetables suffer greatly due to these viruses. The conducive environment, continuous cropping of one or more host crop throughout the year, emergence of new viruleferoius vectors biotypes, and evolution of new recombinant virus strains are the most important factors in the spread of these diseases. The begomoviruses are either mono or bipartite, can be associated with alpha or betasatellite DNA, which has role in symptom development and virulence. Management of virus vector should be the major strategy to inhibit the contact between host and pathogen. Cultural practices like, removal of alternate hosts, destruction of unwanted weeds, and uprooting and burning of initially infected plants are commonly practiced. Management of sucking pest, mainly whitefly at regular interval with insecticide significantly reduces the chances of transmission of these viruses, however insecticide resistance is frequently observed among these group of pests. The viable and naturally safe method to control these diseases is through host plant resistance, by identification and transfer of resistance governing genes in cultivated backgrounds. Transgenic approaches targeting viral genes are also widely used for development of resistant lines. The most recent technology like genome editing with CRISPR/Cas-9 was also found promising in development of resistant tomato and cassava lines however, its widespread use is limited due to unavailability of information about susceptibility genes in several cropsNot Availabl

Not Available

Not AvailableConsidering the huge negative imapct of chemical pesticides, there has been gradual shifting towards sustainable and ecofriendly option for the management of pests and diseases. Microbial biopesticides emerged as one of the safest alternative to chemical pesticides. In recent decades there has been gradual increase in biopesticides usage in global market. This is an indicative of its significance towards sustainable food production by reducing use of chemical pesticides. However, thier efficacy, reproducibility, availability, unawareness, optimisation and implementation are the major constraints associated with use of microbial biopesticides. Nevertheless, considerable amount of research and development still required to address the limitations associated with microbial biopesticides to increase their utilization by stake holders.Not Availabl