Isolation, identification of Phytophthora nicotianae var. parasitica and screening of tomato parental lines for buckeye rot resistance

Buckeye rot disease of tomato which is one of the most devastating diseases of tomato crop is caused by soil born fungus Phytophthora nicotianae var. parasitica. In present study, the pathogen was isolated, morphologically identified and its pathogenicity was proved on susceptible commercial variety Solan Lalima and resistant line EC-251649 of tomato. Isolation of pathogen from the infected tomato fruit was achieved on Corn Meal Agar (CMA) out of two different media viz., Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and CMA. Fungal inoculum was prepared on Corn Meal broth. Inoculation with 10 ml of inoculum was found optimum in plant parts namely, stem, leaves and fruits. Parental lines were inoculated to test their disease reaction to buckeye rot. Symptoms of infection appeared on leaves and fruits only. Solan Lalima was found to be highly susceptible to with disease severity of 92 % and 100 % disease incidence, while EC-251649 was found moderately resistant on the basis of 16 % disease severity and 10 % disease incidence to the disease. After confirmation of resistance and susceptibility, the parental lines were surveyed for polymorphism using 42 primers and 32 were recorded to be polymorphic revealing that the differences are present at DNA level also. This is the very first study which evaluated parental lines for buckeye rot disease reaction on morphological as well as molecular basis. These lines will be further used for quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis/gene tagging for buckeye rot and marker assisted selection to provide improved varieties to the farmers

Fire Debris Analysis: A Need to Develop Databases

Fire debris analysis is a branch of forensic chemistry which deals with the examination and analysis of fire debris samples in order to detect and identify ignitable liquid residues in them. In addition to arson, fire debris analysis is usually performed in cases of fires of suspicious origin [1]. In addition to this, petrol bombs are used in social or religious riots, and terrorist activities. In a developing country like India, “bride burning” for dowry presents another aspect of such crimes and includes cases of homicidal or suicidal burning which require such examination [2]. Fire debris analysis is performed to determine the presence or absence of ignitable liquids in samples, to identify the chemical composition of ignitable liquid, the class of ignitable liquid, and to establish an association between ignitable liquid residues and its source

Gut Microbiota Promotes Tumor Growth in Mice by Modulating Immune Response

We studied the effects of gut microbiome depletion by oral antibiotics on tumor growth in subcutaneous and liver metastases models of pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, and melanoma. Gut microbiome depletion significantly reduced tumor burden in all the models tested. However, depletion of gut microbiome did not reduce tumor growth in Rag1-knockout mice, which lack mature T and B cells. Flow cytometry analyses demonstrated that gut microbiome depletion led to significant increase in interferon gamma–producing T cells with corresponding decrease in interleukin 17A and interleukin 10–producing T cells. Our results suggest that gut microbiome modulation could emerge as a novel immunotherapeutic strategy