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Not AvailableVertical cup feed metering device was designed and evaluated at Division of Agricultural Engineering, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi during 2013–14 for singulation and uniform placement of urea briquettes in two forms, viz. UB1 (3 g) and UB2 (2 g). Performance parameters like average spacing, multiple index, missing index, quality feed index and precision were measured. The metering device was tested for different cup size depth of 6.5mm (CS1), 3.5mm (CS2) and 2.5 mm (CS3) with hemi-spherical shape. The average spacing was signicantly (P<0.05) inuenced by different sizes of cup and sizes of briquette. Miss index was highly inuenced by different cup sizes (P<0.05). The cup size (CS) inuenced missing the most, followed by briquette size, but UB size did not inuence missing index signicantly. The briquette size inuenced the multiple index most, followed by cup size of the metering mechanism (P<0.05). Quality of feed index was highly inuenced by UB size, followed by CS of the metering mechanism. General mean of quality of feed index was 94.77%. The effect of urea briquette and cup size was found to be non-signicant in case of precision. The general mean of precision was 13.30%. Based on the above parameters, optimum metering cup size was selected 6.5 mm and size of urea briquette UB1 for applicator developmenNot Availabl

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Unraveling Microbial Volatile Elicitors Using a Transparent Methodology for Induction of Systemic Resistance and Regulation of Antioxidant Genes at Expression Levels in Chili against Bacterial Wilt Disease

Microbial volatiles benefit the agricultural ecological system by promoting plant growth and systemic resistance against diseases without harming the environment. To explore the plant growth-promoting efficiency of VOCs produced by Pseudomonas fluorescens PDS1 and Bacillus subtilis KA9 in terms of chili plant growth and its biocontrol efficiency against Ralstonia solanacearum, experiments were conducted both in vitro and in vivo. A closure assembly was designed using a half-inverted plastic bottle to demonstrate plant–microbial interactions via volatile compounds. The most common volatile organic compounds were identified and reported; they promoted plant development and induced systemic resistance (ISR) against wilt pathogen R. solanacearum. The PDS1 and KA9 VOCs significantly increased defensive enzyme activity and overexpressed the antioxidant genes PAL, POD, SOD, WRKYa, PAL1, DEF-1, CAT-2, WRKY40, HSFC1, LOX2, and NPR1 related to plant defense. The overall gene expression was greater in root tissue as compared to leaf tissue in chili plant. Our findings shed light on the relationship among rhizobacteria, pathogen, and host plants, resulting in plant growth promotion, disease suppression, systemic resistance-inducing potential, and antioxidant response with related gene expression in the leaf and root tissue of chili