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Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is one of the most important food crops worldwide, providing up to 20% of the caloric intake per day. Developing high-yielding wheat cultivars with tolerance against abiotic and biotic stresses is important to keep up with the increasing human population. Tiller number is one of the major yield-related traits, directly affecting the number of grains produced per plant; however, only a small number of QTL and underlining genes have been identified for this important factor. Identification of novel genetic variation underlying contrasting traits and their precise genetic mapping in wheat is considered difficult due to the complexity and size of the genome; however, advancements in genomic resources have made efficient gene localization more possible. In this study, we report the characterization of a novel tillering number gene using a mutant identified in the forward genetic screen of an ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS)-treated population of cv. "Jagger." By crossing the low tillering mutant with the Jagger wild-type plant, we generated an F2 population and used the MutMap approach to identify a novel physical interval on 11 Mb on chromosome 2DS. Using an F 2 population of 442 gametes and polymorphic SNP markers, we were able to delineate the tin6 locus to a 2.1 Mb region containing 22 candidate genes., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Water quality assessment relies mostly on physico-chemical-based characterization; however, eutrophication and climate change advocate the abundance of toxic microcystins (MCs) producing cyanobacteria as emerging bio-indicator. In the present study, a spatial-temporal analysis was carried out at ten sampling sites of Prayagraj and Varanasi during June 2017 and March 2018 to determine the Ganga River water quality using physico-chemical parameters, cyanobacteria diversity, detection of MCs producing strains and MC-LR equivalence. Coliform bacteria, COD, NO 3 -N, and phosphate are the significant contaminated parameters favoring the growth of putative MCs producing cyanobacteria. National Sanitation Foundation WQI (NSFWQI) indicates water quality, either bad or medium category at sampling points. The morphological analysis confirms the occurrence of diverse cyanobacterial genera such as Microcystis, Anabaena, Oscillatoria, and Phormidium. PCR amplification affirmed the presence of toxic microcystin (mcy) genes in uncultured cyanobacteria at all the sampling sites. The concentration of MC-LR equivalence in water samples by protein phosphatase 1 inhibition assay (PPIA) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods was observed in the range of 23.4-172 ng/L and 13.2-97.5 ng/L respectively which is lower than the harmful exposure limit by World Health Organization (WHO). Ganga isolate 1 was identified as Microcystis based on partial 16S rDNA sequence and its toxicity was confirmed due to presence of mcy genes and MCs production potential. These findings suggest the presence of MCs producers as new emerging parameter to monitor water quality index and identification up to species level will be valuable for restoration strategies of river Ganga., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Cyanobacteria, photosynthetic prokaryotic microorganisms having a simple genetic composition are the prospective photoautotrophic cell factories for the production of a wide range of biofuel molecules. The simple genetic composition of cyanobacteria allows effortless genetic manipulation which leads to increased research endeavors from the synthetic biology approach. Various unicellular model cyanobacterial strains like Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 have been successfully engineered for biofuels generation. Improved development of synthetic biology tools, genetic modification methods and advancement in transformation techniques to construct a strain that can contain multiple foreign genes in a single operon have vastly expanded the functions that can be used for engineering photosynthetic cyanobacteria for the generation of various biofuel molecules. In this review, recent advancements and approaches in synthetic biology tools used for cyanobacterial genome editing have been discussed. Apart from this, cyanobacterial productions of various fuel molecules like isoprene, limonene, α-farnesene, squalene, alkanes, butanol, and fatty acids, which can be a substitute for petroleum and fossil fuels in the future, have been elaborated., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)