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Blast disease causes significant damage to millets (pearl millet, finger millet and foxtail millet) and rice in India. This study investigates strains of Pyricularia, the causal agent of blast disease, in rice and millets in India in terms of their diversity, host preferences and phylogeny. One hundred and thirty‐six Pyricularia isolates causing rice and millet blast were collected from 46 locations in India. They displayed morphological diversity irrespective of host or location. All Pyricularia isolates were separated into two major clusters by a multilocus sequence‐based phylogenetic tree, which also demonstrated that most isolates are grouped according to their host associations. In contrast, a few finger millet isolates were found to be grouped with foxtail millet isolates. We explored how Pyricularia isolates behaved when exposed to rice and millets. Finger millet isolates were shown to be pathogenic on a wide variety of millets, whereas rice isolates were only found to infect rice and wheat. The majority of the blast isolates of millets were shown to be pathogenic on common weed species of the millet ecosystem, such as Echinochloa crusgalli, Eleusina indica and Erogrotis gagantica. Our findings emphasize the importance of pathogen surveillance in both cultivated crops and weed hosts, as well as the possible risk of blast fungus infection in Indian millets due to host expansion. Blast disease control programmes in India will be greatly enhanced by the knowledge gained in this study on the diversity and host association of Pyricularia strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zinnia peruviana (Asteraceae) is an annual flowering plant cultivated in various gardens of Mysore, the south of Karnataka state, India. During 2021, phytoplasma‐like symptoms such as virescence and phyllody were observed on Zinnia in Mysore local gardens. A total of 10 symptomatic and five asymptomatic samples were collected, and the DNA was amplified by PCR using primers specific to 16S RNA and secA genes. The nucleotide sequence analysis showed that the 16S RNA and SecA gene sequences were most similar to those of 'Ca. P. aurantifolia', with identities greater than 99%. The phytoplasma sequence from this study shared a common clade with 'Ca. P. aurantifolia' when phylogenetic analysis was done. Similarly, the reference sequences for the 16S rRNA and SecA region confirmed the identity of the phytoplasma associated with the leaves of Zinnia. This is the new host record for 'Ca. P. aurantifolia' (16SrII‐D) phytoplasma associated with Z. peruviana from India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generation of free radicals and oxidative stress has been linked to several neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The use of free radical scavenging molecules for the reduction of intracellular reactive oxygen species is one of the strategies used in the clinical management of neurodegeneration. Fungal secondary metabolism is a rich source of novel molecules with potential bioactivity. In the current study, bikaverin was extracted from Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici and its structural characterization was carried out. Further, we explored the protective effects of bikaverin on oxidative stress and its anti-apoptotic mechanism to attenuate HO-induced neurotoxicity using human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. Our results elucidate that pretreatment of neurons with bikaverin attenuates the mitochondrial and plasma membrane damage induced by 100 µM HO to 82 and 26 % as evidenced by MTT and LDH assays. HO induced depletion of antioxidant enzyme status was also replenished by bikaverin which was confirmed by Realtime Quantitative PCR analysis of SOD and CAT genes. Bikaverin pretreatment efficiently potentiated the HO-induced neuronal markers, such as BDNF, TH, and AADC expression, which orchestrate the neuronal damage of the cell. The HO-induced damage to cells, nuclear, and mitochondrial integrity was also restored by bikaverin. Bikaverin could be developed as a preventive agent against neurodegeneration and as an alternative to some of the toxic synthetic antioxidants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]