Pigeonpea hybrids and their production: a manual for researchers

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.) is crowned as poor man’s crop which provides much needed protein to farming families with least inputs.. It is a versatile plant species which can grow successfully in a range of soil types, temperatures and photoperiods. Its deep root system enables it to overcome intermittent drought and other stresses. In India, the crop is grown annually on about 4.04 m (FAO, 2012) ha and the major pigeonpea growing states are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat (Table 1). The high protein pigeonpea dal (decorticated dry splits) is widely consumed across the country in various cuisines. The annual national production of pigeonpea is about 2.56 m tones. This produce, however, is not sufficient to feed the ever growing population of the country, and hence, necessitates huge (500,000 tons) imports of this pulse. In spite of its importance in food security and sincere research efforts, its national productivity could never cross the bar of 800 kg/ha (Fig 1) since independence. Since last 50 years ICAR have been very seriously pursuing the issue of genetic enhancement with huge investments and some outstanding pure line varieties with about 10% more grains over the best local varieties were developed. These achievements, however, were not enough to feed the nation with nutritious food and a major breakthrough in pigeonpea productivity was needed. Intensive national efforts in this direction could not succeed in raising the stagnant productivity level. Recently, an opportunity had come in our way when cytoplasmic nuclear male sterility (CMS) based hybrid pigeonpea technology was developed jointly by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The release of the world’s first commercial hybrid ICPH 2671 by Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia, Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh has already become a milestone in pulse breeding (Saxena et al., 2013). This hybrid has demonstrated huge (>40%) yield advantage in farmers’ fields. This research development has given the breeders an option to break the decades-old yield plateau in pigeonpea. For realizing high yields from hybrids and reap the benefits of this technology, the availability of both quality seed and optimum agronomy are essential. Since in hybrids every year new crossed seeds are required for sowing, the production of large quantities of quality seed is the key for their success. In this book efforts are made to describe various methods of breeding new hybrid combinations and large scale seed production of promising hybrids and their parents..

Detection of Landmine Signature using SAW-based Polymer-coated Chemical Sensor

The explosive charge within a landmine is the source for a mixture of chemical vapours that form a distinctive chemical signature indicative of a landmine. The concentrations of these compounds in the air over landmines is extremely low (parts-per-trillion or lower), well below the minimum detection limits of most field-portable chemical sensors. This paper describes a portable  surface acoustic wave-based polymer-coated sensor for the detection of hidden explosives. The sensitivity and selectivity of polymer-based sensors depend on several factors including the chemo-selective coating used, the physical properties of the vapour(s) of interest, the selected transducers, and the operating conditions. The polymer-based sensor was calibrated in the  laboratory using the explosive vapour generator. The preliminary results indicated that the carbowax 1000 could be a very good chemical interface to sense low levels of chemical signature of explosive material. Response for 50 ppb of TNT vapours was observed to be 400 Hz for an exposure of 2 min

Enhanced Mucosal Antibody Production and Protection against Respiratory Infections Following an Orally Administered Bacterial Extract

Secondary bacterial infections following influenza infection are a pressing problem facing respiratory medicine. Although antibiotic treatment has been highly successful over recent decades, fatalities due to secondary bacterial infections remain one of the leading causes of death associated with influenza. We have assessed whether administration of a bacterial extract alone is sufficient to potentiate immune responses and protect against primary infection with influenza, and secondary infections with either Streptococcus pneumoniae or Klebsiella pneumoniae in mice. We show that oral administration with the bacterial extract, OM-85, leads to a maturation of dendritic cells and B-cells characterized by increases in MHC II, CD86, and CD40, and a reduction in ICOSL. Improved immune responsiveness against influenza virus reduced the threshold of susceptibility to secondary bacterial infections, and thus protected the mice. The protection was associated with enhanced polyclonal B-cell activation and release of antibodies that were effective at neutralizing the virus. Taken together, these data show that oral administration of bacterial extracts provides sufficient mucosal immune stimulation to protect mice against a respiratory tract viral infection and associated sequelae

Effect of eclampsia on pregnancy outcome at the tertiary care center

Background: Eclampsia is a common medical and life-threatening emergency condition mainly seen in 5-10% of all pregnancies and that is a major cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality The aim of the study to find out the fetomaternal outcomes of eclampsia in tertiary care hospital and to analyse the trend of eclampsia and associated epidemiological variables.Methods: This retrospective analytical study was undertaken with 40 clinically diagnosed women with eclampsia in their third trimester of pregnancy in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at tertiary care hospital from July 2020 to December 2021. Women who came to the hospital with eclampsia or developed eclampsia during hospital stay were included in our study.Results: In our study, the antepartum eclampsia was in 32 cases (80%), primigravida 27 cases (67.5%), maternal age (21-30 years) 26 cases (65%). Cesarean section was the mode of delivery in 26 cases (65%). NICU admission is required by 20 neonates (50%).Conclusions: Eclampsia is an important cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Providing quality antenatal health care services, increasing awareness of patients about warning symptoms, proper investigations, timely delivery, and proper monitoring in the intrapartum and postpartum period have the potential to improve maternal and perinatal outcomes.

Utility of first trimester ultrasound before 12 weeks of gestation at tertiary care centre in western India

Background: The first trimester begins on the first day of the last menstrual period (LMP) and lasts until the end of 12 weeks of gestation. Transvaginal ultrasound is modality of choice for establishing the presence of an intrauterine pregnancy in the first trimester. The focus of our study is routine early pregnancy ultrasound. The purpose of this study was to diagnose various conditions of pregnancy at an early stage by using ultrasound.Methods: We conducted retrospective data analysis of random 250 pregnant patients who had undergone first-trimester ultrasonography USG) (transvaginal/abdominal) in their first antenatal visit at S.V.P. Hospital, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India from March 2021 to February 2022. The patient was selected by a simple randomized method. Maternal age, parity, gestational age, and special features regarding maternal gestational history were compared with USG findings. Patients were divided into 13 groups on the basis of ultrasonographic diagnosis.Results: We noted 76.8% of patients had single, viable, intrauterine pregnancies, while 23.2% had complicated pregnancies with uterine anomalies, ovarian cysts, leiomyoma, caesarean scar pregnancy or subchorionic hematomas.Conclusions: Ultrasound measurement of fetus in first trimester is most accurate method to confirm gestational age. It is less expensive and easily available modality. First-trimester ultrasound is useful to define embryonic landmarks in developmental stages with reference to gestational age, early diagnosis of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy, multifetal pregnancy, major fetal malformation. And also, to diagnose pregnancy with leiomyoma, caesarean scar pregnancy, uterine anomaly and pre-eclampsia with the help of uterine artery PI

Assay of Genetic Architecture for Identification of Waterlogging Tolerant Pigeonpea Germplasm

The experiment was conducted to identify the waterlogging stress tolerant genotypes in pigeonpea. Waterlogging treatment was given to the plants at vegetative stage after treatment the survival rate was assessed. Out of 128 germplasm pool, 38 survived and the survival rate was estimated along with Mahalanobis D2 cluster analysis. The range of survival percentage for both pot and field were found between 26.6 and 73.3 with the standard deviation of 14.82 for pot screening and 14.29 for field screening. The pot survival percentage mean for all 38 accessions were found higher than field survival which clearly indicates that environment poses an effect on the performance of the genotypes. The Mahalanobis cluster analysis revealed five clusters. Out of five clusters, two were found comparatively tolerant than the others. The tolerant germplasm can also be used as donor parents in hybridization programs for development of water logging-tolerant genotypes. The identified tolerant germplasms may be utilized to incorporate waterlogging tolerance in the short-duration pigeonpea pool

An analysis of interspecific hybrids and phylogenetic implications in Cucumis (Cucurbitaceae)

Investigations on interspecific crossability in 8Cucumis species (2n = 24) and chromosome pairing and pollen fertility of their hybrids from 15 combinations have been utilized for tracing the phylogenetic relationships among these taxa and factors responsible for their differentiation. A collective evaluation of data suggests that there are three broad groups of species, one of the spiny fruited interfertile species, whose hybrids show varying degree of chromosome associations and low to high pollen fertility; the second of species with non-spiny fruits, which are completely incompatible with the former but weakly compatible with the cultivated species,C. melo L. to produce partly developed seeds, and the third group ofC. metuliferusE. Mey. exSchrad. andC. melo and its different botanical varieties. The species with spiny fruits can be further divided based on karyomorphological similarities and/or on relative genomic affinity, indicated by chromosome pairing and hybrid pollen fertility

The Putative Drp1 Inhibitor mdivi-1 Is a Reversible Mitochondrial Complex I Inhibitor that Modulates Reactive Oxygen Species

Mitochondrial fission mediated by the GTPase dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) is an attractive drug target in numerous maladies that range from heart disease to neurodegenerative disorders. The compound mdivi-1 is widely reported to inhibit Drp1-dependent fission, elongate mitochondria, and mitigate brain injury. Here, we show that mdivi-1 reversibly inhibits mitochondrial complex I-dependent O2 consumption and reverse electron transfer-mediated reactive oxygen species (ROS) production at concentrations (e.g., 50 μM) used to target mitochondrial fission. Respiratory inhibition is rescued by bypassing complex I using yeast NADH dehydrogenase Ndi1. Unexpectedly, respiratory impairment by mdivi-1 occurs without mitochondrial elongation, is not mimicked by Drp1 deletion, and is observed in Drp1-deficient fibroblasts. In addition, mdivi-1 poorly inhibits recombinant Drp1 GTPase activity (Ki > 1.2 mM). Overall, these results suggest that mdivi-1 is not a specific Drp1 inhibitor. The ability of mdivi-1 to reversibly inhibit complex I and modify mitochondrial ROS production may contribute to effects observed in disease models. © 2017 Elsevier Inc

Identification of Ideal Locations and Stable High Biomass Sorghum Genotypes in semiarid Tropics

The dearth of proper delineation for energy sorghum cultivation has led to a prerequisite for evaluation and identification of test environments for the newly developed lines. This becomes of vital importance as the biomass yield is highly influenced by genotype and environmental (G × E) interactions. Several agronomic traits were considered to assess the biomass yield and the combined analysis of variance for G (genotype), L (location) and interaction effect of G × L. The variations in the yield caused by the interaction of G × L are very essential to acquire knowledge on the specific adaptation of a genotype. Thus, the multi-location trials conducted across locations and years have helped to identify the stable environments with specific adaptation for biomass sorghum. The presence of close association between the test locations suggested that the same information about the genotypes could be obtained from fewer test environments, and hence the potential to reduce evaluation costs. The two genotypes—IS 13762 and ICSV 25333—have shown stable performance for biomass traits across all the locations, in comparison with CSH 22SS (check). The top ten entries with stable and better performance for fresh biomass yield, dry biomass yield, grain yield and theoretical ethanol yield were ICSV 25333, IS 13762, CSH 22SS, IS 25302, IS 25301, IS 27246, IS 16529, DHBM2, ICSSH 28 and IS 17349