Water deficit stress affects photosynthesis and the sugar profile in source and sink tissues of groundnut (<i>Arachis hypogaea</i> L.) and impacts kernel quality

Water deficit stress conditions disturb photosynthetic activity of plants and thereby affect further growth and the mobilization of assimilates towards sink tissues. The influence of mid-season drought on sugar metabolism in both source and sink tissues and its sustained effect on kernel quality across three different habit groups of groundnut was investigated. The experiment was conducted in Kharif  2012 and water deficit stress was created by withholding irrigation for 40 days between 30−70 days after sowing under rain-out shelter to simulate mid-season drought condition. Imposition of water deficit stress reduced net photosynthesis rate, which significantly altered the sugar profiles in leaf. The content of glucose, fructose and sucrose decreased in the leaf tissue, whereas the content of sugar alcohol (inositol and mannitol) and trehalose increased. The sugar profile of the sink tissue (kernel) was also altered under stress but changes were slightly different. The sugar alcohol and oligosaccharides (RFOs) showed significant increase, but the level of mono- and di-saccharides did not show significant change. The results suggest different drought tolerance strategies in source and sink tissues. The kernel quality was also affected under stress with lower oil and higher protein content. The content of oleic acid was reduced, while linoleic acid increased resulting in a decrease of the O/L ratio and oil stability. Alteration of quality traits was least in Spanish genotypes, suggesting a relatively better tolerance of this group for water deficit stress

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Not AvailableSalinity is one of the most serious factors limiting the productivity of agricultural crops, with adverse effects on germination, plant vigor, and crop yield. During the onset and development of salt stress within a plant, all the major processes such as photosynthesis, protein synthesis, and energy and lipid metabolism are affected, thereby, increasing or decreasing the levels of different metabolites involved in various metabolic processes. The universality of stress responses is probably the most salient feature in plants. The network of interactions between different inputs and signaling channels that is formed in a plant-specific way drives metabolic adjustments that include reactions that are common to all or nearly all plant species. The advancement of metabolomics is providing a detailed fingerprint of metabolites upregulated or downregulated in plant cells during adverse environmental conditions. This database may generate information for the dissection of the plant response to salinity and try to find future applications for ameliorating the impact of salinity on plants, improving the performance of species important to human health and agricultural sustainability.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableSalinity is one of the most serious factors limiting the productivity of agricultural crops, with adverse effects on germination, plant vigor, and crop yield. During the onset and development of salt stress within a plant, all the major processes such as photosynthesis, protein synthesis, and energy and lipid metabolism are affected, thereby, increasing or decreasing the levels of different metabolites involved in various metabolic processes. The universality of stress responses is probably the most salient feature in plants. The network of interactions between different inputs and signaling channels that is formed in a plant-specific way drives metabolic adjustments that include reactions that are common to all or nearly all plant species. The advancement of metabolomics is providing a detailed fingerprint of metabolites upregulated or downregulated in plant cells during adverse environmental conditions. This database may generate information for the dissection of the plant response to salinity and try to find future applications for ameliorating the impact of salinity on plants, improving the performance of species important to human health and agricultural sustainability.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableAntioxidants are substances that can prevent oxidative damage in the living cells. The dietary sources of natural antioxidants are derived from both plant and animal foods; they can also be extracted from natural sources or synthesized. In recent years, due to increasing concern with possible hazardous side effects from synthetic antioxidants, emphasis is being given on natural antioxidants. Dietary antioxidants have the potential to prevent diseases caused by oxidative stresses and hence are used for treatment of these diseases.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableIron (Fe) and Zinc (Zn) are vital micronutrients for plants and their deficiency causes severe impairments in physiological and biochemical responses of plants. In response to stress emerging due to their deficiency, plants evolve different strategies to regulate the homeostasis network to ensure optimum Fe and Zn uptake. Fe and Zn biofortification of food crops offer a promising approach to alleviate the malnutrition caused due to their deficiency. However, the complex mechanism underlying the fine-tuned processes of mineral uptake, transport and accumulation in seeds involve a multitude of regulatory insights including alteration in root morphology, nutrient partitioning and subsequent accumulation in seeds mediated by different transporters, chelators, transcription factors and post transcriptional regulation which act in a coordinated manner to elicit responses in plants regulating Fe and Zn acquisition. These insights into the regulatory mechanisms will provide a better understanding for improving the Fe- and Zn- use efficiencies, maximization of Fe and Zn bioavailability in edible parts, the deficiency tolerance attributes and subsequent Fe and Zn- biofortification in plants.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableJack (Artocarpus heterophyllus) is a multipurpose fruit-tree species with minimal genomic resources. The study reports developing comprehensive transcriptome data containing 80,411 unigenes with an N50 value of 1265 bp. We predicted 64,215 CDSs from the unigenes and annotated and functionally categorized them into the biological process (23,230), molecular function (27,149), and cellular components (17,284). From 80,411 unigenes, we discovered 16,853 perfect SSRs with 192 distinct repeat motif types reiterating 4 to 22 times. Besides, we identified 2741 TFs from 69 TF families, 53 miRNAs from 19 conserved miRNA families, 25,953 potential lncRNAs, and placed three functional eTMs in different lncRNA-miRNA pairs. The regulatory networks involving genes, TFs, and miRNAs identified several regulatory and regulated nodes providing insight into miRNAs' gene associations and transcription factor-mediated regulation. The comparison of expression patterns of some selected miRNAs vis-à-vis their corresponding target genes showed an inverse relationship indicating the possible miRNA-mediated regulation of the genes.Not Availabl

Spatio-temporal expression pattern of Raffinose Synthase genes determine the levels of Raffinose Family Oligosaccharides in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) seed

Abstract Raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) are known to have important physiological functions in plants. However, the presence of RFOs in legumes causes flatulence, hence are considered antinutrients. To reduce the RFOs content to a desirable limit without compromising normal plant development and functioning, the identification of important regulatory genes associated with the biosynthetic pathway is a prerequisite. In the present study, through comparative RNA sequencing in contrasting genotypes for seed RFOs content at different seed maturity stages, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with the pathway were identified. The DEGs exhibited spatio-temporal expression patterns with high RFOs variety showing early induction of RFOs biosynthetic genes and low RFOs variety showing a late expression at seed maturity. Selective and seed-specific differential expression of raffinose synthase genes (AhRS14 and AhRS6) suggested their regulatory role in RFOs accumulation in peanut seeds, thereby serving as promising targets in low RFOs peanut breeding programs. Despite stachyose being the major seed RFOs fraction, differential expression of raffinose synthase genes indicated the complex metabolic regulation of this pathway. The transcriptomic resource and the genes identified in this study could be studied further to develop low RFOs varieties, thus improving the overall nutritional quality of peanuts