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Not AvailableCucumber mosaic virus (CMV) is a major production constraint in black pepper causing stunted disease. Resistant varieties are unavailable and control measures are not effective till now. Recently, RNA interference is the most promising strategy for combating virus infection in plants but the effectiveness depends on sequence specificity between the transgene and the targeting virus. This study was undertaken to design the most suitable region for double stranded RNA synthesis with maximum specificity and minimized off–targets for all the five genes of CMV from black pepper. A 400 bp off–target minimized region identified from each of the five genes was subjected to sequence polymorphism study with selected CMV subgroup IB strains and common siRNAs were designed in silico. As 3b gene had the least variations (of 17%) with four common and potential siRNAs designed from this region in silico, a hairpin construct was assembled using this region in Agrobacterium that can be used for developing black pepper resistant to selected CMV subgroup IB strainsNot Availabl

Development of Aloe vera based edible coating for tomato

The effect of formulated Aloe vera based edible coating on mass loss, colour, firmness, pH, acidity, total soluble solid, ascorbic acid and lycopene on the coated tomato was investigated. The tomato in control showed a rapid deterioration with an estimated shelf life period of 19 days, based on the mass loss, colour changes, accelerated softening and ripening. On the contrary, the coating on tomatoes delayed the ripening and extended the shelf life up to 39 days. The physiological loss in weight was 7.6 and 15.1%, firmness was 36 and 46.2 N on 20th day for control and coated tomatoes, respectively. From the results, it was concluded that the use of Aloe vera based edible coating leads to increased tomato shelf-life

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Not AvailableA loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and real-time LAMP based assays were developed for quick and sensitive detection of transgenic black pepper plants. Primers (six each) were designed based on the nucleotide sequence of two target regions [kanamycin and Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35 S promoter] integrated into the genome of transgenic black pepper. The following conditions proved optimal for amplification: 6 mM of magnesium sulphate, 0.4 M of betaine and 1 h of reaction time. The assay successfully detected the transgenic plants whereas no cross-reaction was recorded with non-transgenic plants. The detection limit for LAMP was up to 10000 times that for conventional PCR and 1/1000 times that for real-time LAMP. The assays were validated by testing putative transformants of black pepper. The results presented clearly showed that LAMP and real-time LAMP assays developed in this study can provide a rapid and simple approach for screening transgenic black pepper plants.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableThe badnavirus, piper yellow mottle virus (PYMoV) is known to infect black pepper (Piper nigrum), betelvine (P. betle) and Indian long pepper (P. longum) in India and other parts of the world. Occurrence of PYMoV or other badnaviruses in other species of Piper and its variability is not reported so far. We have analysed sequence variability in the conserved putative reverse transcriptase (RT)/ribonuclease H (RNase H) coding region of the virus using specific badnavirus primers from 13 virus isolates of black pepper collected from different cultivars and regions and one isolate each from 23 other species of Piper. Of these, four species failed to produce expected amplicon while amplicon from four other species showed more similarities to plant sequences than to badnaviruses. Of the remaining, isolates from black pepper, P. argyrophyllum, P. attenuatum, P. barberi, P. betle, P. colubrinum, P. galeatum, P. longum, P. ornatum, P. sarmentosum and P. trichostachyon showed an identity of >85 % at the nucleotide and >90 % at the amino acid level with PYMoV indicating that they are isolates of PYMoV. On the other hand high sequence variability of 21–43 % at nucleotide and 17–46 % at amino acid level compared to PYMoV was found among isolates infecting P. bababudani, P. chaba, P. peepuloides, P. mullesua and P. thomsonii suggesting the presence of new badnaviruses. Phylogenetic analyses showed close clustering of all PYMoV isolates that were well separated from other known badnaviruses. This is the first report of occurrence of PYMoV in eight Piper spp and likely occurrence of four new species in five Piper spp.Not Availabl