Population structure and association studies for reproductive stage salinity tolerance in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Salinity is a major abiotic stress responsible for yield loss in rice as it severely affects various yield contributing traits. Rice is categorised as salt sensitive crop and it is important to identify genomic regions associated to salinity tolerance. In the present study, association mapping was performed to investigate the functional relationship between microsatellite markers and salinity related traits in a set of 180 diverse rice accessions. Association analysis was carried out by employing mixed linear model (MLM) approach. Population structure analysis revealed four subgroups in entire study panel while the admixture level ranged from 0.7-57.2%. A total of 22 marker-trait associations were discovered and four marker-trait associations explained phenotypic variation (R2) greater than 10%. Furthermore, 7 markers were found close to the candidate genes loci. Several markers were significantly associated with more than one trait, suggesting pleiotropic effects. The phenotypic variation explained by associated markers ranged from 2.92 to 18.50%. Comparative genomic search revealed that associated markers were close to candidate genes which play significant role in signal transduction, metabolic pathways and transcription factor activity. The significant associations identified in the present study could be used to improve salt tolerance in rice with introgression of favourable alleles through marker assisted breeding

Facilitators and barriers to the uptake of COVID-19 vaccine precaution dose among adult population: qualitative analysis across six different states of India

IntroductionIndia launched the COVID-19 vaccination drive on 16th January 2021 by vaccinating the adult population above 18 years of age. This was followed by the introduction of an additional precaution dose. As on 18th October 2022, 1,02,66,96,808 (1.02 Billion) first dose and 94, 95, 39,516 (949 Million) second doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered. However, when compared to the uptake of the primary doses, the precaution dose uptake lagged behind with only 21,75, 12,721 (217 million) doses administered. Even though, the uptake of the primary doses remained optimal, irrespective of different interventions by the Government of India, the uptake of the precaution dose remained poor. In this context, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare wanted to understand the facilitators and Barriers for precaution dose uptake among adults so that future immunization campaigns could address these issues.MethodsAn exploratory qualitative study was conducted to assess the facilitators and barriers for COVID-19 precaution dose uptake at community level across 6 different states in India. From each of the states, two districts with the highest and lowest rates of COVID-19 vaccine precaution dose uptake were selected. In each of these districts, 2 block Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), one with high and one with low uptake were identified. Within these block PHCs, a PHC field area with high and low precaution dose uptakes was identified. From the identified sites a minimum of four IDIs, four FGDs were conducted among the community members. KIIs of the State Immunization Officers, District Immunisation Officers, PHC Medical Officers, healthcare workers like Accredited Social Health Activist/Auxiliary Nurse Midwife were also conducted. The data was audio recorded and it was transcribed, translated and analysed using framework approach.ResultsIt was observed that rise in COVID-19 cases prompted the community to take the precaution dose, this along with the cost of hospitalization and the number of productive days being lost as a result of being infected resulted in vaccine uptake. The fear of non-availability of COVID-19 vaccines latter on also prompted people for vaccine uptake. While the barriers were, poor accessibility to vaccination centers, long hours of travel, poor road connectivity and lack of transportation facilities. However, the most prominent barriers observed across all study sites was that a sense of pandemic fatigue and complacency had developed both among the providers as well as the beneficiaries. Other barriers include differences in vaccination schedules and longer duration between the primary doses of some vaccines. Media was identified to be both a barrier and facilitator for Covid-19 Precaution dose uptake. Even though media played an important role in disseminating information in the beginning of the campaign, it was soon followed by the circulation of both misinformation and disinformation.DiscussionThe study identified that dissemination of accurate information and community involvement at each stage of planning and implementation are crucial for the success of any campaign. Efforts should be constantly made to address and re-invent strategies that will be most suitable for the needs of the community. Therefore, in order to ensure successful vaccination campaigns, it is crucial that along with political will it is also important to have a decentralized approach with inter-sectoral coordination with different stakeholders such as healthcare workers, community members and the different departments such as the local self-governments, education department, law & order department etc. These lessons learnt from COVID-19 vaccination campaigns must not be forgotten and must be applied in future vaccination campaigns and while framing public health policies

Coherent scattering cross sections of some lanthanides for

In this paper, we report the coherent scattering cross sections of some lanthanides at low momentum transfer in four angular ranges of (0°−4°), (0°−6°), (0°−8°) and for 241Am (59.54 keV) and 137Cs (661.6 keV) gamma rays. The coherent scattering cross sections were derived by subtracting the small contribution of the corresponding angle integrated incoherent scattering cross sections from the experimentally measured total (coherent + incoherent) scattering cross sections for the elements and energies of interest. The coherent scattering cross sections were found to agree with the corresponding theoretical cross sections within the range of experimental errors. The theoretical coherent scattering cross sections were computed by numerically integrating the S-matrix data of the elements in the angular ranges of interest. The incoherent scattering cross sections were based on the compilations which make use of the non-relativistic Hartree-Fock (NRHF) model for the atomic charge distribution

Morphophysiological Diversity and Haplotype Analysis of Saltol QTL Region in Diverse Rice Landraces for Salinity Tolerance

Rice is sensitive to salinity stress at both the seedling and reproductive stages. The present study used 145 rice genotypes comprising of 100 landraces and 45 advanced breeding lines collected from different regions of India. These genotypes were evaluated in hydroponics under control [electrical conductivity (ECe) ∼1.2 dS/m] and saline (ECe ∼10.0 dS/m) environments along with susceptible (IR29) and tolerant (FL478) checks. The stress susceptibility index for eight morphophysiological traits was estimated. Analysis of variance showed significant differences among the genotypes for all the parameters studied in control, stress and relative stress conditions. We identified 3 landraces (Kuttimanja, Tulasimog and IET-13713I) as tolerant and 14 lines as moderately tolerant to salt stress. Strong correlations in the morphological (root and shoot lengths) and physiological traits (shoot Na+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ contents, and Na+/K+ ratio) were observed under all the conditions. The hierarchical cluster analysis grouped the genotypes into five clusters, among which cluster II comprised salt-tolerant lines. Haplotyping of Saltol region using 11 simple sequence repeat markers on 17 saline tolerant and moderately tolerant lines was conducted. Markers AP3206F, RM10793 and RM3412b, located close to SKC1 gene (11.23‒12.55 Mb), displayed diverse allelic variations and they were not related to the FL478 type. In this region, tolerant lines like Kuttimanja, IET-13713I and Tulasimog have new alleles. As a result, these lines may be suitable candidates for novel genomic regions governing rice salinity tolerance. Salt-tolerance ability of Kuttimanja, Tulasimog and IET-13713I was validated in two years in three salinity stress environments. These promising lines can be used in breeding programs to broaden the genetic base of salinity tolerance in rice, and it may help to dissect key genomic regions responsible for salinity tolerance

Photosynthetic machinery under salinity stress: Trepidations and adaptive mechanisms

Chloroplasts and photosynthesis are the physiologically fateful arenas of salinity stress. Morphological and anatomical alterations in the leaf tissue, ultrastructural changes in the chloroplast, compromise in the integrity of the three-layered chloroplast membrane system, and defects in the light and dark reactions during the osmotic, ionic, and oxidative phases of salt stress are conversed in detail to bring the salinity-mediated physiological alterations in the chloroplast on to a single platform. Chloroplasts of salt-tolerant plants have evolved highly regulated salt-responsive pathways. Thylakoid membrane remodeling, ion homeostasis, osmoprotection, upregulation of chloroplast membrane and stromal proteins, chloroplast ROS scavenging, efficient retrograde signalling, and differential gene and metabolite abundance are the key attributes of optimal photosynthesis in tolerant species. This review throws light into the comparative mechanism of chloroplast and photosynthetic response to salinity in sensitive and tolerant plant species