The Marine-Derived Filamentous Fungi in Biotechnology

For a long time considered as essentially terrestrial organisms, filamentous fungi have recently disclosed to be widespread in marine habitats. Such a pervasiveness not only concerns obligate marine species but also a multitude of taxa known from disparate terrestrial substrates whose occurrence at sea, at first considered incidental, is now regarded as an evidence of extreme ecological flexibility. Actually, the peculiar physico-chemical properties of the marine environment are presumed to have induced special physiological adaptations that could be considered in view of a possible biotechnological exploitation of fungal strains recovered from marine sources. The potential of filamentous fungi reported from marine contexts for the manifold applications in biotechnology involving microbial strains is revised in this chapter

Insights into Insect Resistance in Pulse Crops: Problems and Preventions

Globally, insect pests cause considerable damage to pulse crops. Hence developing broad-spectrum resistance against insect pests has been a major challenge to pulse growers and scientists. Traditionally, cultural practices and synthetic insecticides are being utilized for effective control of insect pests since ages. Apart from these, other strategies such as host plant resistance, insect-resistant transgenic crops, and IPM are also being used to manage the infestation in pulse crops. Though screening of genetic resources for insect resistance has been promising in some pulse crops, fertility barriers and linkage drag minimize the effective utilization of identified resistance in commercially viable crop breeding programs. In parallel, insect-resistant transgenic plants have been developed using various insecticidal proteins from various sources including Bacillus thuringiensis endotoxin, plant protease inhibitors, chitinases, alpha-amylase inhibitors, secondary metabolites, and vegetative insecticidal proteins (VIPs). Deploying transgenic plants with high levels of toxin expression by gene pyramiding is another practical option to delay the resistance development in insects. Nevertheless, the success achieved so far in managing insect pests is limited mainly due to the complex mechanisms underlying the defense strategies together with the lack of precision in screening techniques. Here, we discuss the recent progress and current status of studies toward developing resistance to the most common insect pests of pulses. This chapter points the lack of detailed molecular studies exploring the insect resistance that can advance our knowledge on plant resistance mechanisms and the genes involved. Therefore, a step forward now will be on exploiting natural variations with novel technologies in combination of eco-safe management practices to develop durable insect-resistant pulse crops. Despite technical and regulatory difficulties, developing insect resistance should be the major priority area for future breeding and genetic engineering studies aiming at pulse crop improvement