Breeding, genetics, and genomics approaches for improving Fusarium Wilt resistance in major grain legumes

Fusarium wilt (FW) disease is the key constraint to grain legume production worldwide. The projected climate change is likely to exacerbate the current scenario. Of the various plant protection measures, genetic improvement of the disease resistance of crop cultivars remains the most economic, straightforward and environmental-friendly option to mitigate the risk. We begin with a brief recap of the classical genetic efforts that provided first insights into the genetic determinants controlling plant response to different races of FW pathogen in grain legumes. Subsequent technological breakthroughs like sequencing technologies have enhanced our understanding of the genetic basis of both plant resistance and pathogenicity. We present noteworthy examples of targeted improvement of plant resistance using genomics-assisted approaches. In parallel, modern functional genomic tools like RNA-seq are playing a greater role in illuminating the various aspects of plant-pathogen interaction. Further, proteomics and metabolomics have also been leveraged in recent years to reveal molecular players and various signaling pathways and complex networks participating in host-pathogen interaction. Finally, we present a perspective on the challenges and limitations of high-throughput phenotyping and emerging breeding approaches to expeditiously develop FW-resistant cultivars under the changing climate

STUDIES ON CONTINUOUS GRINDING PROCESS FOR DRIED WATER CHESTNUT KERNEL

Grinding is a unit operation to break big solid material into smaller pieces. As far as process of grinding is concerned, power consumption, specific energy consumption and particle size distribution and mill capacity are main considerations from engineering point of view. The experiments were conducted to study the effect of speed of mill, sieve size, feed rate and time of grinding on power consumption and average particle diameter of water chestnut in continuous grinding process. Power consumption was measured for a constant feed rate of 1 and 2 kg/h at different speed of the mill varied from 800 to 1200 rpm for the sieve openings of 0.5 mm, 1.0 mm and 2.0 mm. For all the sieve sizes and feed rates, it was observed that as the speed of the mill increases, there is an increase in power consumption and found significantly low for higher sieve size and lower feed rate. The size distribution of the water chestnut kernel for different speeds and sieve sizes at constant feed rate were obtained by sieve analysis. The milling speed has no significant effect on particle size distribution of ground product and mass fraction was minimum at lower feed rate and higher sieve size. Harris model was found best suitable to describe the size distribution in continuous grinding process. Fineness modulus decreases with increase of milling speed for experimental sieve size and feed rate

KamLAND Bounds on Solar Antineutrinos and neutrino transition magnetic moments

We investigate the possibility of detecting solar electron antineutrinos with the KamLAND experiment. These electron antineutrinos are predicted by spin-flavor oscillations at a significant rate even if this mechanism is not the leading solution to the SNP. KamLAND is sensitive to antineutrinos originated from solar ${}^8$B neutrinos. From KamLAND negative results after 145 days of data taking, we obtain model independent limits on the total flux of solar electron antineutrinos $\Phi({}^8 B)< 1.1-3.5\times 10^4 cm^{-2}\ s^{-1}$, more than one order of magnitude smaller than existing limits, and on their appearance probability$P<0.15%$(95antineutrino production by spin-flavor precession, this upper bound implies an upper limit on the product of the intrinsic neutrino magnetic moment and the value of the solar magnetic field$\mu B< 2.3\times 10^{-21}$MeV 95LMA$(\Delta m^2, \tan^2\theta)$values). Limits on neutrino transition moments are also obtained. For realistic values of other astrophysical solar parameters these upper limits would imply that the neutrino magnetic moment is constrained to be, in the most conservative case,$\mu\lsim 3.9\times 10^{-12} \mu_B$(95CL) for a relatively small field$B= 50$kG. For higher values of the magnetic field we obtain:$\mu\lsim 9.0\times 10^{-13} \mu_B$for field$B= 200$kG and$\mu\lsim 2.0\times 10^{-13} \mu_B$for field$B= 1000$ kG at the same statistical significance.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Trityl thionitrite: a potential transfer nitrosating agent for metal nitrosylation

Several known nitrosyl complexes of Ru, Rh, Ir, Co, Mo and W have been synthesized using trityl thionitrite as nitrosylating agent at elevated temperatures. Reactions of trityl thionitrite with different salts of Cr, Fe, Co and complexes of Ni, Pd and Pt whose nitrosyls have been obtained only at lower temperatures failed to yield their nitrosyls

An SCS-CN-based long-term daily flow simulation model for Be River catchment, Vietnam

Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Hydroscience and Engineering, Philadelphia, PA, September 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1860/732This paper presents a simple four-parameter Soil Conservation Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN)-based daily flow simulation model for the Be River catchment located in Vietnam. The model is calibrated with a part of five years of total available data (1986-1990), and tested on the remaining data. It is found to perform reasonably well in calibration and fairly well in validation. An investigation revealed the watershed to have experienced a significant change to favour greater runoff generation in 1990 than in other years; the infiltration and baseflow mechanisms to be significantly dominating watershed processes compared to the surface flow process; and the initial curve number CN0 and baseflow coefficient bf to be respectively the least and most sensitive model parameters, and the remaining surface and ground water storage coefficients K and Kb to be the least sensitive

Genomics and molecular breeding in lesser explored pulse crops: Current trends and future opportunities

Pulses are multipurpose crops for providing income, employment and food security in the underprivileged regions, notably the FAO-defined low-income food-deficit countries. Owing to their intrinsic ability to endure environmental adversities and the least input/management requirements, these crops remain central to subsistence farming. Given their pivotal role in rain-fed agriculture, substantial research has been invested to boost the productivity of these pulse crops. To this end, genomic tools and technologies have appeared as the compelling supplement to the conventional breeding. However, the progress in minor pulse crops including dry beans (Vigna spp.), lupins, lablab, lathyrus and vetches has remained unsatisfactory, hence these crops are often labeled as low profile or lesser researched. Nevertheless, recent scientific and technological breakthroughs particularly the next generation sequencing (NGS) are radically transforming the scenario of genomics and molecular breeding in these minor crops. NGS techniques have allowed de novo assembly of whole genomes in these orphan crops. Moreover, the availability of a reference genome sequence would promote re-sequencing of diverse genotypes to unlock allelic diversity at a genome-wide scale. In parallel, NGS has offered high-resolution genetic maps or more precisely, a robust genetic framework to implement whole-genome strategies for crop improvement. As has already been demonstrated in lupin, sequencing-based genotyping of the representative sample provided access to a number of functionally-relevant markers that could be deployed straight away in crop breeding programs. This article attempts to outline the recent progress made in genomics of these lesser explored pulse crops, and examines the prospects of genomics assisted integrated breeding to enhance and stabilize crop yields

Environmental management in semiconductor and printed circuit board industry in India - Part I: Survey results and case studies

The issues related to environmental management in semiconductor and printed circuit board industry in India are discussed in relation to a program developed by the Department of Information Technology in collaboration with United Nationals Development Programme. This program was developed to foster environmental management and pollution prevention Indian Electronics and IT industry. The National Programme consists of setting up of demonstration units in identified thrust areas, creating awareness about environmental issues and remedial measures through seminars/workshops and technical reports. The programme achieves its goal by integrating cleaner production technologies and by adopting design for environment techniques