Antibacterial activity of Boenninghausenia albiflora Reichb. (Rutaceae)

Various organic and aqueous extracts of aerial part of Boenninghausenia albiflora (Rutaceae) obtained by infusion and maceration were screened for their antimicrobial activity against eight animal and plant pathogenic bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Erwinia chrysanthemi, Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Xanthomonas phaseoli, Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Xanthomonas campestris) using disc diffusion method. Out of total 32 tests performed, 27 tests showed positive antibacterial activity at 1000 mg/ml concentration, whereas 15 instances exhibited zone of inhibition ³ 10 mm at same concentration. The activity shown by some of the extracts was found higher than ampicillin (10 mcg) and erythromycin (15 mcg), standard antibiotic used

Kwanu Local – A High Yielding Traditional Maize Cultivar of Jaunsar Tribal Region of Uttarakhand and a Promising Genetic Resource for Maize Improvement

Globally maize is the second most important crop in terms of acreage where as in India it ranks third after wheat and rice. Maize productivity has been breaking unprecedented barriers owing chiefly to wide scale cultivation of high yielding hybrids. Sustaining high yields of hybrids necessitates continued efforts for creation of novel gene assemblages and/or discovery of such naturally existing constellations. Traditional local cultivars are an important source of the latter. Kwanu Local is an example of such a traditional cultivar that contributes significantly towards sustaining food, fodder and fuel requirement of Jaunsari tribal community of Kwanu cluster in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand. It is a tall, high yielding, medium duration, semi-dent yellow bold-grained cultivar and owes its characteristic present form to multiple infusions from diverse populations that have taken place over the long history of its cultivation in the region. Its cultivation over a vast contiguous expanse and the selection practices followed by the farming community ensure maintenance of high heterozygosity in the population, assuring sustained high yields. The cultivar possesses many desirable features that make it a potential genetic resource for a variety of traits of agronomic importance (cob length, cob girth, number of kernels/row and kernel size). Its use for increasing kernel size has been well demonstrated. Kernel size in the backcross progenies involving inbreds VQL 1 (255 g) and V 400 (215 g) as recipients and Kwanu Local (343 g) as donor exhibited kernel size range of 260-293 g (VQL 1 x Kwanu Local) and 228-245 g (V 400 x Kwanu Local), showing increase of 6-14 and 2-15%, respectively, in the two crosses. With its local adaptability and high yield coupled with other desirable traits, Kwanu Local holds potential as a promising genetic resource for maize improvement

Wild Progenitor and Landraces Led Genetic Gain in the Modern-Day Maize (<em>Zea mays</em> L.)

Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) originated from Mexico and Central America and grew worldwide for food, feed and industrial products components. It possesses ten chromosomes with a genome size of 2.3 gigabases. Teosinte (Z. mays ssp. parviglumis) is the probable progenitor of the modern-day maize. The maize domestication favored standing gain of function and regulatory variations acquired the convergent phenotypes. The genomic loci teosinte branched 1 (tb1) and teosinte glume architecture 1 (tga1) played a central role in transforming teosinte to modern-day maize. Under domestication and crop improvement, only 2% (~1200) genes were undergone selection, out of ~60000 genes. Around ~98% of the genes have not experienced selection; there is enormous variation present in the diverse inbred lines that can be potentially utilized to identify QTLs and crop improvement through plant breeding. The genomic resources of wild relatives and landraces harbor the unexplored genes/alleles for biotic/abiotic tolerance, productivity and nutritional quality. The human-made evolution led to the transformation of wild relatives/landraces to the modern-day maize. This chapter summarized the maize’s wild relatives/landraces and the genetic gain over time in biotic/abiotic, productivity, and nutritional quality traits

Barnyard millet global core collection evaluation in the submontane Himalayan region of India using multivariate analysis

Barnyard millet (Echinochloa spp.) is one of the most underresearched crops with respect to characterization of genetic resources and genetic enhancement. A total of 95 germplasm lines representing global collection were evaluated in two rainy seasons at Almora, Uttarakhand, India for qualitative and quantitative traits and the data were subjected to multivariate analysis. High variation was observed for days to maturity, five-ear grain weight, and yield components. The first three principal component axes explained 73% of the total multivariate variation. Three major groups were detected by projection of the accessions on the first two principal components. The separation of accessions was based mainly on trait morphology. Almost all Indian and origin-unknown accessions grouped together to form an Echinochloa frumentacea group. Japanese accessions grouped together except for a few outliers to form an Echinochloa esculenta group. The third group contained accessions from Russia, Japan, Cameroon, and Egypt. They formed a separate group on the scatterplot and represented accessions with lower values for all traits except basal tiller number. The interrelationships between the traits indicated that accessions with tall plants, long and broad leaves, longer inflorescences, and greater numbers of racemes should be given priority as donors or parents in varietal development initiatives. Cluster analysis identified two main clusters based on agro-morphological characters

Barnyard millet – a potential food and feed crop of future

The two species under genus Echinochloa, E. frumentacea (Indian barnyard millet) and E. esculenta (Japanese barnyard millet), are cultivated for food and fodder by hilly and tribal communities in Asia particularly in India, China and Japan. The crop has wide adaptability and occupies a special place in marginal rainfed areas because of its short life cycle. Although the area under the crop has come down drastically in last 50 years, the crop ability to survive under harsh conditions makes it a better choice during famine years. In the Indian Himalayan region, the crop was traditionally used as a substitute for rice. It has been identified as a suitable choice for climate-resilient agriculture. High nutrient content and antioxidant effects make it to be considered as a functional food crop. Recently, the demand of the crop has increased due to its highly nutritious grains. Thus, it has the potential to provide both food and nutritional security particularly in hills where nutritional deficiencies are in abundance. Despite enormous potential, the crop has not gained the popularity among masses and is still considered as poor man’s food. This work therefore is an attempt to compile the meagre information available on crop history, evolution, crop breeding and present status to make the crop competitive and revamp its cultivation

Space science applications for conducting polymer particles: synthetic mimics for cosmic dust and micrometeorites

Over the last decade or so, a range of polypyrrole-based particles have been designed and evaluated for space science applications. This electrically conductive polymer enables such particles to efficiently acquire surface charge, which in turn allows their acceleration up to the hypervelocity regime (>1 km s(-1)) using a Van de Graaff accelerator. Either organic latex (e.g. polystyrene or poly(methyl methacrylate)) or various inorganic materials (such as silica, olivine or pyrrhotite) can be coated with polypyrrole; these core-shell particles are useful mimics for understanding the hypervelocity impact ionisation behaviour of micro-meteorites (a.k.a. cosmic dust). Impacts on metal targets at relatively low hypervelocities (10 km s(-1)) generate predominately atomic species, since many more chemical bonds are cleaved if the particles impinge with higher kinetic energy. Such fundamental studies are relevant to the calibration of the cosmic dust analyser (CDA) onboard the Cassini spacecraft, which was designed to determine the chemical composition of Saturn's dust rings. Inspired by volcanism observed for one of the Jupiter's moons (Io), polypyrrole-coated sulfur-rich latexes have also been designed to help space scientists understand ionisation spectra originating from sulfur-rich dust particles. Finally, relatively large (20 mu m diameter) polypyrrole-coated polystyrene latexes have proven to be useful for understanding the extent of thermal ablation of organic projectiles when fired at ultralow density aerogel targets at up to 6.1 km s(-1) using a Light Gas Gun. In this case, the sacrificial polypyrrole overlayer simply provides a sensitive spectroscopic signature (rather than a conductive overlayer), and the scientific findings have important implications for the detection of organic dust grains during the Stardust space mission