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Not AvailableWith the accelerated human population explosion, demand for fish is also increasing rapidly. In Indian context, total fish production comes from the two sectors, marine and inland. It is well evident from the production trend that the fish landings from marine sector have become either almost static or declining. So, aquaculture can be a possible avenue to increase production for meeting the fish demand. Presently, aquaculture contributes around 85-90% of total inland fish production. Aquaculture is defined as the system of breeding and farming of aquatic species in a controlled environment. While innovative aquaculture involves the applications of new and more effective ways or solutions for aquaculture management, there may be interventions related to breeding and farming techniques, aquatic environment management, disease control or animal health monitoring, nutrition and feed management of the cultured organisms, genetics and biotechnological tools which directly or indirectly play roles in improvement of aquaculture production in an environment-friendly and sustainable manner. Here are some innovations which have played or are playing or will play a significant role in the development of aquaculture sectorNot Availabl

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Not Available'Bioprospecting' is a word that has been recently coined to describe the centuries- old practice of collecting and screening plant and other biological material for commercial purposes, such as the development of new drugs, seeds and cosmetics. Bioprospecting is also defined as the systematic search, classification and research on new sources of chemical compounds, genes, proteins, and micro- organisms, for commercial purposes with real or potential economic value, which are found in biodiversity. Bioprospecting is the collection of biological material and the analysis of its material properties, or its molecular, biochemical or genetic content, for the purpose of developing a commercial product. It is otherwise called as Biodiscovery. Biological material for bioprospecting activities can come from two main sources: directly from its natural environment, or from a collection. If biological material is collected from its freshwater or marine. If the biological material has already been taken from its natural environment and placed in a collection, for example, in a zoo, an aquarium or a culture collection, this can be an alternative source of interesting material for bioprospecting activities. History of Bioprospecting Humans have always looked for plants and animals they could use to make life easier. However, they discovered that certain foods and beasts of burden could be used for more than basic subsistence. Archeologists are finding that some biotechnologies, such as the use of herbs for medicine and the use of fermentation and yeast in food products, date back 5,000 to 10,000 years (De Miranda, 2004). Many of the historical uses of enzymes, proteins, and other biological materials have been understood by scientists, physicians, and nutritionists for quite some time, while others are still being discovered.Not Availabl

Molecular genetics and breeding of grain legume crops for the Semi-Arid Tropics

Grain legumes are important crops for providing key components in the diets of resource-poor people of the semi-arid tropic (SAT) regions of the world. Although there are several grain legume crops grown in SAT, the present chapter deals with three important legumes i.e. groundnut or peanut (Arachis hypogaea), chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan). Production of these legume crops are challenged by serious abiotic stresses e.g. drought, salinity as well as several fungal, viral and nematode diseases. To tackle these constraints through molecular breeding, some efforts have been initiated to develop genomic resources e.g. molecular markers, molecular genetic maps, expressed sequence tags (ESTs), macro-/micro- arrays, bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs), etc. These genomic resources together with recently developed genetic and genomics strategies e.g. functional molecular markers, linkage-disequilibrium (LD) based association mapping, functional and comparative genomics offer the possibility of accelerating molecular breeding for abiotic and biotic stress tolerances in the legume crops. However, low level of polymorphism present in the cultivated genepools of these legume crops, imprecise phenotyping of the germplasm and the higher costs of development and application of genomic tools are critical factors in utilizing genomics in breeding of these legume crops