Not Available

Not AvailableClimatic vagaries of arid zones make cultivation of annual crops risky and unsustainable. Horticultural sector proved beyond doubt its potentiality for gainful economy in such fragile ecosystems. Immense opportunity existed in arid zone for quality production of some of the most water economizing horticultural crops. In recent years arid and semi-arid regions witnessed a greater shift from traditional to commercial horticulture with constant government support and technical input of research and development institutions. Technologies developed on ber, pomegranate, date palm and other arid fruits by Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur, Rajasthan showed significant impact on development of dry regions at national level. However, after near plateau for some time, horticultural scene in arid region was brightened up with introduction of newer options viz. commercial tissue culture techniques in date palm and pomegranate, protected cultivation of high value crops and new varieties and technologies in region's adapted species. However, expanding the scale of horticultural production is often hindered by lack of market access, technological awareness and abiotic stresses.Not Availabl

Reconstructing the population history of the Sinhalese, the major ethnic group in Śrī Laṅkā

Summary: The Sinhalese are the major ethnic group in Śrī Laṅkā, inhabiting nearly the whole length and breadth of the island. They speak an Indo-European language of the Indo-Iranian branch, which is held to originate in northwestern India, going back to at least the fifth century BC. Previous genetic studies on low-resolution markers failed to infer the genomic history of the Sinhalese population. Therefore, we have performed a high-resolution fine-grained genetic study of the Sinhalese population and, in the broader context, we attempted to reconstruct the genetic history of Śrī Laṅkā. Our allele-frequency-based analysis showed a tight cluster of Sinhalese and Tamil populations, suggesting strong gene flow beyond the boundary of ethnicity and language. Interestingly, the haplotype-based analysis preserved a trace of the North Indian affiliation to the Sinhalese population. Overall, in the South Asian context, Śrī Laṅkān ethnic groups are genetically more homogeneous than others

Genome-wide and fine-resolution association analysis of malaria in West Africa

We report a genome-wide association (GWA) study of severe malaria in The Gambia. The initial GWA scan included 2,500 children genotyped on the Affymetrix 500K GeneChip, and a replication study included 3,400 children. We used this to examine the performance of GWA methods in Africa. We found considerable population stratification, and also that signals of association at known malaria resistance loci were greatly attenuated owing to weak linkage disequilibrium (LD). To investigate possible solutions to the problem of low LD, we focused on the HbS locus, sequencing this region of the genome in 62 Gambian individuals and then using these data to conduct multipoint imputation in the GWA samples. This increased the signal of association, from P = 4 × 10(-7) to P = 4 × 10(-14), with the peak of the signal located precisely at the HbS causal variant. Our findings provide proof of principle that fine-resolution multipoint imputation, based on population-specific sequencing data, can substantially boost authentic GWA signals and enable fine mapping of causal variants in African populations