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Not AvailableAntimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are the hosts’ defense molecules against microbial pathogens and gaining extensive research attention worldwide. These have been reported to play vital role of host innate immunity in response to microbial challenges. AMPs can be used as a natural antibiotic as an alternative of their chemical counterpart for protection of plants/animals against diseases. There are a number of sources of AMPs including prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms and are present, both in vertebrates and invertebrates. AMPs can be classified as cationic or anionic, based on net charges. Large number of databases and tools are available in the public domain which can be used for development of new genetically modified disease resistant varieties/breeds for agricultural production. The results of the biotechnological research as well as genetic engineering related to AMPs have shown high potential for reduction of economic losses of agricultural produce due to pathogens. In this article, an attempt has been made to introduce the role of AMPs in relation to plants and animals. Their functional and structural characteristics have been described in terms of its role in agriculture. Different sources of AMPs and importance of these sources has been reviewed in terms of its availability. This article also reviews the bioinformatics resources including different database tools and algorithms available in public domain. References of promising biotechnology research in relation to AMPs, prospects of AMPs for further development of genetically modified varieties/breeds are highlighted. AMPs are valuable resource for students, researchers, educators and medical and industrial personnel.Not Availabl

Computational deciphering of biotic stress associated genes in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum)

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the major vegetable plant and a model system for fruit development. Its global importance is due to its lycopene pigment which has anti-oxidative and anti-cancerous properties. Though >1.5 M biotic stress associated ESTs of tomato are available but cumulative analysis to predict genes is warranted. Availability of whole genome de novo assembly can advantageously be used to map them over different chromosome. Further, available 0.14 M catalogued markers can be used to introgress specific desirable genes in varietal improvement program. We report here 57 novel genes associated with biotic stress of tomato along with 50 genes having physical location over different chromosomes. We also report 52 cis-regulating elements and 69 putative miRNAs which are involved in regulation of these biotic stresses associated genes. These putative candidate genes associated with biotic stress can be used in molecular breeding in the endeavor of tomato productivity along with its sustainable germplasm management

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Not AvailableThe genetic parameters, character association, path coefficient analysis and clustering pattern were studied on a large number of lentil germplasm accessions (one thousand eighty six) during 2009 and 2010 at New Delhi. Significant variation was noticed for all the traits. High heritability estimates were observed for all the traits except number of primary branches/plant followed by seeds/pod. In general phenotypic coefficients of variability were greater than their corresponding genotypic coefficients of variability, High estimates of heritability coupled with high genetic advance and moderate to high GCV were observed for days to 50% flowering (67%) maturity (57%) and pods/plant (24%) and seed yield (80%) indicating that these characters are mainly governed by additive genes and selection of such traits might be effective for the improvement of seed yield. Inclusion of diverse parents in hybridization programme serves the purpose of combining desirable genes in new recombinations. Non-Heirarchial euclidean cluster analysis distributed the genotypes into three broad clusters. Crosses if attempted between cluster 1 and either of cluster II or III would produce desirable recombinants for grain yield. Based on the results of the means of the two years considering together for various traits the following accessions were found superior for early flowering (IC-560333, IC-559639, IC-560111, IC-311161, IC-345491) for extra tall (IC-559744, IC-559608, IC-560040, IC-560291, IC-559763) and for higher number of pods/plant (IC-398094, L-7740, L-169, JBT-3164, L-322) Diversified germplasm possessing different desirable traits may prove useful for incorporation of these traits in the lentil improvement programme.Not Availabl

Discovery of putative herbicide resistance genes and its regulatory network in chickpea using transcriptome sequencing

Background: Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) contributes 75% of total pulse production. Being cheaper than animal protein, makes it important in dietary requirement of developing countries. Weed not only competes with chickpea resulting into drastic yield reduction but also creates problem of harboring fungi, bacterial diseases and insect pests. Chemical approach having new herbicide discovery has constraint of limited lead molecule options, statutory regulations and environmental clearance. Through genetic approach, transgenic herbicide tolerant crop has given successful result but led to serious concern over ecological safety thus non-transgenic approach like marker assisted selection is desirable. Since large variability in tolerance limit of herbicide already exists in chickpea varieties, thus the genes offering herbicide tolerance can be introgressed in variety improvement programme. Transcriptome studies can discover such associated key genes with herbicide tolerance in chickpea. Results: This is first transcriptomic studies of chickpea or even any legume crop using two herbicide susceptible and tolerant genotypes exposed to imidazoline (Imazethapyr). Approximately 90 million paired-end reads generated from four samples were processed and assembled into 30,803 contigs using reference based assembly. We report 6,310 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), of which 3,037 were regulated by 980 miRNAs, 1,528 transcription factors associated with 897 DEGs, 47 Hub proteins, 3,540 putative Simple Sequence Repeat-Functional Domain Marker (SSR-FDM), 13,778 genic Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) putative markers and 1,174 Indels. Randomly selected 20 DEGs were validated using qPCR. Pathway analysis suggested that xenobiotic degradation related gene, glutathione S-transferase (GST) were only up-regulated in presence of herbicide. Down-regulation of DNA replication genes and up-regulation of abscisic acid pathway genes were observed. Study further reveals the role of cytochrome P450, xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolase, glutamate dehydrogenase, methyl crotonoyl carboxylase and of thaumatin-like genes in herbicide resistance. Conclusion: Reported DEGs can be used as genomic resource for future discovery of candidate genes associated with herbicide tolerance. Reported markers can be used for future association studies in order to develop marker assisted selection (MAS) for refinement. In endeavor of chickpea variety development programme, these findings can be of immense use in improving productivity of chickpea germplasm

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Not AvailablePukzing cave, the largest cave of Mizoram, India was explored for bacterial diversity. Culture dependent method revealed 235 bacterial isolates using three different treatments. Identity of the microbial species was confirmed by 16S rDNA sequencing. The highest bacterial population was recovered from heat treatment (n = 97;41.2%) followed by normal (n = 79;33.6%) and cold treatment (n = 59;25.1%) indicating dominance of moderate thermophiles. Antimicrobial potential of isolates showed 20.4% isolates having antimicrobial ability against tested pathogens. Amplicon sequencing of PKSI, PKSII and NRP specific genes revealed presence of AMP genes in the microbial population. Six microbial pathogens were selected for screening as they are well known for different disease cause organism in various fields such as agriculture and human health. Cave environment harbors unique microbial flora and hypervariable region V4 is more informative. Higher activity of AMP assay against these microbes indicates that cave microbial communities could be potential source of future genomic resources.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableWhole genome sequencing (WGS) using next generation sequencing technologies paves the way to sequencethe mitochondrial genomes with greater ease and lesser time. Here, we used the WGS data ofClarias batrachus,generated from Roche 454 and Ion Torrent sequencing platforms, to assemble the complete mitogenome usingbothde novoand reference based approaches. Both the methods yielded almost similar results and the bestassembled mitogenome was of 16,510 bp size (GenBank Acc. No. KM259918). The mitogenome annotationresulted in 13 coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes and one control region, and the gene order wasfound to be identical with other catfishes. Variation analyses between assembled and the reference (GenBankAcc. No. NC_023923) mitogenome revealed 51 variations. The phylogenetic analysis of coding DNA sequencesand tRNA supports the monophyly of catfishes. Two SSRs were identified inC. batrachusmitogenome, out ofwhich one was unique to this species. Based on the relative rate of gene evolution, protein coding mitochondrialgenes were found to evolve at a much faster pace than theD-loop, which in turn are followed by the rRNAs; thetRNAs showed wide variability in the rate of sequence evolution, and on average evolve the slowest. Among thecoding genes,ND2evolves most rapidly. The variations present in the coding regions of the mitogenome andtheir comparative analyses with other catfish species may be useful in species conservation and management programsDepartment of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology,Gov. of India, New Delhi, India vide Sanction Grant No. BT/PR3688/AAQ/3/571/201

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