Conventional and Molecular Breeding Approaches for Biofortification of Pearl Millet

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is an essential diet of more than 90 million people in the semi-arid tropics of the world where droughts and low fertility of soils cause frequent failures of other crops. It is an important nutri-rich grain cereal in the drier regions of the world grown on 26 mha by millions of farmers (IFAD 1999; Yadav and Rai 2013). This makes pearl millet the sixth most important crop in the world and fourth most important food crop of the India, next to rice, wheat, and maize with annual cultivation over an area of ~8 mha. Pearl millet is also primary food crop in sub-Saharan Africa and is grown on 15 mha (Yadav and Rai 2013). The significant increase in productivity of pearl millet in India is attributed to development and adoption of hybrids of early to medium duration maturity. More than 120 diverse hybrids/varieties have been released till date for various production environments. The heterosis breeding and improved crop management technologies increased productivity substantially achieving higher increased production of 9.80 mt in 2016–2017 from 2.60 mt in 1950–1951 in spite of declined of area under the crop by 20–30% over last two decades (Yadav et al. 2012)

Structure of Plasmodium falciparum Triose-phosphate Isomerase-2-Phosphoglycerate Complex at 1.1-Å Resolution

Triose-phosphate isomerase, a key enzyme of the glycolytic pathway, catalyzes the isomerization of dihydroxy acetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate. In this communication we report the crystal structure of Plasmodium falciparum triose-phosphate isomerase complexed to the inhibitor 2-phosphoglycerate at 1.1-Å resolution. The crystallographic asymmetric unit contains a dimeric molecule. The inhibitor bound to one of the subunits in which the flexible catalytic loop 6 is in the open conformation has been cleaved into two fragments presumably due to radiation damage. The cleavage products have been tentatively identified as 2-oxoglycerate and meta-phosphate. The intact 2-phosphoglycerate bound to the active site of the other subunit has been observed in two different orientations. The active site loop in this subunit is in both open and "closed" conformations, although the open form is predominant. Concomitant with the loop closure, Phe-96, Leu-167, and residues 208–211 (YGGS) are also observed in dual conformations in the B-subunit. Detailed comparison of the active-site geometry in the present case to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae triose-phosphate isomerase- dihydroxy acetone phosphate and Leishmania mexicana triose-phosphate isomerase-phosphoglycolate complexes, which have also been determined at atomic resolution, shows that certain interactions are common to the three structures, although 2-phosphoglycerate is neither a substrate nor a transition state analogue

A polarization census of bright pulsars using the ultrawideband receiver on the Parkes radio telescope

We present high signal-to-noise ratio, full polarization pulse profiles for 40 bright, 'slowly' rotating (non-recycled) pulsars using the new ultrawideband low-frequency (UWL; 704-4032 MHz) receiver on the Parkes radio telescope. We obtain updated and accurate interstellar medium parameters towards these pulsars (dispersion measures and Faraday rotation measures), and reveal Faraday dispersion towards PSR J1721-3532 caused by interstellar scattering. We find general trends in the pulse profiles including decreasing fractional linear polarization and increasing degree of circular polarization with increasing frequency, consistent with previous studies, while also revealing new features and frequency evolution. This demonstrates results that can be obtained using UWL monitoring observations of slow pulsars, which are valuable for improving our understanding of pulsar emission and the intervening interstellar medium. The calibrated data products are publicly available

Two years of pulsar observations with the ultra-wide-band receiver on the Parkes radio telescope

The major programme for observing young, non-recycled pulsars with the Parkes telescope has transitioned from a narrow-band system to an ultra-wide-band system capable of observing between 704 and 4032 MHz. We report here on the initial 2 yr of observations with this receiver. Results include dispersion measure (DM) and Faraday rotation measure (RM) variability with time, determined with higher precision than hitherto, flux density measurements and the discovery of several nulling and mode changing pulsars. PSR J1703-4851 is shown to be one of a small subclass of pulsars that has a weak and a strong mode which alternate rapidly in time. PSR J1114-6100 has the fourth highest |RM| of any known pulsar despite its location far from the Galactic Centre. PSR J1825-1446 shows variations in both DM and RM likely due to its motion behind a foreground supernova remnant

The impact of glitches on young pulsar rotational evolution

We report on a timing programme of 74 young pulsars that have been observed by the Parkes 64-m radio telescope over the past decade. Using modern Bayesian timing techniques, we have measured the properties of 124 glitches in 52 of these pulsars, of which 74 are new. We demonstrate that the glitch sample is complete to fractional increases in spin frequency greater than Delta \nu 90{{\ \rm per\ cent}} \mathrm{ g}}/\nu \approx 8.1 \times 10 -9}$. We measure values of the braking index, n, in 33 pulsars. In most of these pulsars, their rotational evolution is dominated by episodes of spin-down with n > 10, punctuated by step changes in the spin-down rate at the time of a large glitch. The step changes are such that, averaged over the glitches, the long-term n is small. We find a near one-to-one relationship between the interglitch value of n and the change in spin-down of the previous glitch divided by the interglitch time interval. We discuss the results in the context of a range of physical models