Archaeoparasitological Strategy Based on the Microscopic Examinations of Prehistoric Samples and the Recent Report on the Difference in the Prevalence of Soil Transmitted Helminthic Infections in the Indian Subcontinent

Archaeoparasitology is a study to acquire data concerning the parasite infection of ancient people through the examination of the specimens obtained in the excavation sites. Although this research has achieved many successes worldwide, there has been few noteworthy reports from South Asia countries. In 2011 to 2016, we thus conducted parasite examinations on Indian archaeological specimens (n = 247) collected at excavation sites of Mature Harappan period (4600–3900 BP) and their contemporary rural Chalcolithic sites. To derive effective strategy of archaeoparasitological works in Indian Subcontinent, our data were analyzed together with previous clinical report on the soil transmitted helminth infection in the Indian Subcontinent. We propose that future paleoparasitological studies in India should be conducted more intensely on ancient specimens from the states of Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal etc

Not Available

Not AvailableOnion (Allium cepa L.) contributes more than 50% of the net export earnings among fresh vegetable exports in India. Stemphylium blight and purple blotch are the most destructive fungal diseases in the tropics and cause 80–90% losses in bulb and seed crop. Our aim was to screen multiple onion accessions against Stemphylium blight under artificially inoculated conditions, assess morphological and biochemical traits and correlate the observed trait with disease incidence. Screening of fifty-nine accessions resulted in identification of ‘Pusa Soumya’ (A. fistulosum L.) and ‘Red Creole2’ (A. cepa L.) as moderately resistant and ‘Red Creole1’ as susceptible. Highest marketable yield was recorded in ‘AFW’ (28.00 t/ha) followed by ‘Punjab Naroha’ (25.85 t/ha) in New Delhi, whereas in Karnal, ‘AKON555’ (45.85 t/ha) performed best. Pooled analysis revealed highest marketable yield in ‘PWF’ (44.56 t/ha). These varieties have exhibited field tolerance and in the absence of credible resistance can be recommended for areas where Stemphylium blight is the major problem. Significant variation in foliage weight, gross yield, marketable yield, dry matter, total soluble solids, total phenolic content and pyruvic acid content were recorded between non-inoculated and inoculated field trials which suggests the devastating effect of this disease on onion crop. Pearson’s correlation coefficient exhibited that percent disease index (PDI) was significantly and positively correlated with average bulb weight, gross yield, marketable yield. Significant negative correlation (r = −0.30) between dry matter and PDI (p < 0.05) and significant negative correlation (r = −0.35) between ATP (total foliar phenols after inoculation) and PDI were observed. This signifies that dry matter and total foliar phenol content can be used as a biochemical marker for high throughput screening against Stemphylium blight at preliminary screening stage. Further, ‘Pusa Soumya’ and ‘Red Creole2’ can be used as parent material to study the inheritance mechanism and for breeding of Stemphylium blight resistant onions under short day tropical conditions.Not Availabl

Not Available

Not AvailableIn this changing climate scenario, rapid increase of human population resulted in increased demand of food production. During the last century crop plants have been improved through classical breeding techniques and numerous varieties of several crops have been developed across the world. However conventional breeding in improving crop plants is constrained due to genetic erosion, genetic drag, reproductive obstacles and usually take longer time. Thus, there is an urgent need for the novel breeding and biotechnology-assisted crop improvement, which ultimately aimed to obtain novel plant traits. Many novel techniques such as marker assisted selection, marker assisted back cross breeding, marker assisted gene pyramiding plays crucial role in improvement of crop plants. Advancement in plant genetic engineering (genetic transformation and genome editing) have made it possible to transfer gene into crop plants from unrelated plants and even from non-plant organism. These biotechnological approaches are a great option to improve crop plants with significant commercial properties such as increased biotic stress resistant or abiotic stress tolerances; nutrition; yield and quality.Not Availabl