Ecological and Economic Potential of Major Halophytes and Salt Tolerant Vegetation in India

Soil salinization is a global and climatic phenomenon that affects various spheres of life. The present rate of salinization is perilously fast because of global climate change and associated events leading to enhanced land degradation, loss of soil fertility and crop productivity. In this chapter, we tried to focus on the arid and semiarid regions of India along with our coastal zone which are economically fragile regions and need much closer attention. In future, India will face extreme pressure on its land resources in agriculture because of likely rapid degradation of these resources. Thus, salt affected soils must be brought under cultivation by adopting site specific strategies to ensure national food and nutritional security. In this regard, a comprehensive review of the major halophytes of these ecological zones, its mechanism of salt tolerance, ecological and economic potential is done. The potential applications of saline land vegetation including halophytes in climate change mitigation, phytoremediation, desalination, food, secondary metabolite and nutraceutical production, medicine, and saline agriculture have been discussed. Further, we tried to focus on popular farmer adopted halophytic species including edible ones, their uses, products of economic significance etc. which is highly imperative for effective utilization of these saline soils leading to improved livelihood and sustenance of resource poor farmers along with improved ecological balance

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Not AvailableGlobally, water deficit is one of the major constraints in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) production due to substantial reduction in photosynthesis. Photorespiration often enhances under stress thereby protecting the photosynthetic apparatus from photoinhibition. Application of bioregulators is an alternative to counter adverse effects of water stress. Thus, in order to analyze the role of bioregulators in protecting the photosynthetic machinery under water stress, we performed an experiment with two contrasting chickpea varieties, i.e., Pusa 362 (Desi type) and Pusa 1108 (Kabuli type). Water deficit stress was imposed at the vegetative stage by withholding water. Just prior to exposure to water stress, plants were pretreated with thiourea (1,000 mg L−1), benzyladenine (40 mg L−1), and thidiazuron (10 mg L−1). Imposed water deficit decreased relative water content (RWC), photosynthetic rate (PN), quantum efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm), and enhanced lipid peroxidation (LPO). However, bioregulator application maintained higher RWC, PN, Fv/Fm, and lowered LPO under water stress. Expression of Rubisco large subunit gene (RbcL) was low under water stress both in the Kabuli and Desi type. However, bioregulators strongly induced its expression. Although poor expression of two important photorespiratory genes, i.e., glycolate oxidase and glycine decarboxylase H subunit, was observed in Desi chickpea under imposed stress, bioregulators in general and cytokinins in particular strongly induced their expression. This depicts that the application of bioregulators protected the photosynthetic machinery by inducing the expression of RbcL and photorespiratory genes during water deficit stress.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableWater deficit is undoubtedly one of the most important environmental stresses limiting the productivity of chickpea around the world. Exogenous application of bioregulators has been found to be a novel technology for imparting stress tolerance in crop plants. This study evaluated the changes brought about by two bioregulators viz., thiourea (TU) and thidiazuron (TDZ) under water deficit stress in chickpea leaf anatomy, chloroplast ultrastructure and photosynthesis. The experiment was conducted using Pusa 362 (Desi type) chickpea variety. Imposed water deficit treatment decreased relative water content (RWC), membrane stability index (MSI) and photosynthetic rate (PN). However, bioregulators application maintained higher RWC, MSI and PN under water deficit stress. Under imposed water stress, compact palisade layers of the mesophyll tissue were disrupted and cell size of the mesophyll cells displayed drastic reduction. Chloroplast, under water stress, displayed a number of grana with lose type of thylakoid, large increase in osmiophillic granules, reduction in the amount of starch granules and overall disruption of the thylakoid membrane. Foliar application of bioregulators maintained the integrity of mesophyll tissue and chloroplast structure thereby protected the chickpea plants from the detrimental effects of water deficit stress.Not Availabl

Host Defense Peptides from Asian Frogs as Potential Clinical Therapies

Host defense peptides (HDPs) are currently major focal points of medical research as infectious microbes are gaining resistance to existing drugs. They are effective against multi-drug resistant pathogens due to their unique primary target, biological membranes, and their peculiar mode of action. Even though HDPs from 60 Asian frog species belonging to 15 genera have been characterized, research into these peptides is at a very early stage. The purpose of this review is to showcase the status of peptide research in Asia. Here we provide a summary of HDPs from Asian frogs