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Background: Chickpea is the most important legume crop in India, and its productivity is significantly lowered due to biotic constraints such as wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris. Endophytes help plants to thrive better under stress conditions by regulating plant hormones and inducing systemic resistance. The aim of the present study was to identify chickpea root bacterial endophytes having antagonistic ability for the management of the Fusarium wilt. Results: Twenty endophytic bacterial strains were isolated from the susceptible and resistant chickpea cultivar, amongst which 35% bacterial endophytes gave positive results for siderophore and 15% isolates were HCN producers, whereas 55% showed good growth on ACC-supplemented medium. Based upon 16S rRNA phylogenetic analysis, efficient endophytic bacterial isolates CRBE1, CRBE3 and CRBE7 were identified as Priestia megaterium, Brucella haematophila and Microbacterium paraoxydans, respectively. Bacterial endophyte CRBE7 and CRBE3 showed pronounced antagonistic activity against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris under in vitro conditions. Inoculation of chickpea with isolated bacterial endophytes alone and in combination through seed priming resulted in significant biocontrol activity against Fusarium wilt of chickpea under screenhouse conditions. Biopriming of chickpea seeds alone with CRBE3 and as consortium of CRBE3 + CRBE7 upsurged the phenol content in susceptible and resistant chickpea varieties JG 62 and HC 3, which indicated the role of promising endophytes as potential bio-agents under in vivo conditions. Conclusions: Chickpea root bacterial endophytes Priestia megaterium (CRBE1), Brucella haematophila (CRBE3) and Microbacterium paraoxydans (CRBE7) exhibiting antagonistic activity could be incorporated in integrated disease management module against Fusarium wilt of chickpea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vateria indica L. is an endemic arborescent recalcitrant tree species, native to the South-Western-Ghats of India. The natural regeneration process of the species is hindered by many factors including seed recalcitrance. Recently the species has been categorised as vulnerable since the population is fragmented and rapidly declining. Seed development is a highly complicated process which involves the interaction between phytohormones which regulate the process at different stages of morphogenesis. The orthodox seed development is marked by three distinct stages such as histodifferentiation, reserve accumulation and drying but in recalcitrant seeds, drying phase is absent. Recalcitrant seeds show marked differences from orthodox seeds in development. The onset of different stages is marked by a definite peaking and lowering of phytohormones and the hormonal pattern varies in orthodox and recalcitrant seeds. The present study was conducted to understand the interplay of phytohormones during embryogeny and the following natural embryo desiccation in the recalcitrant seeds of Vateria indica L. The present study revealed that the embryogeny and embryo drying in the recalcitrant seeds of Vateria indica L. shows a striking dissimilarity with the characteristic pattern of hormonal flux in orthodox seeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthetic auxin like 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T and NAA were investigated on ten (10) years old tree to study the effect of different combinations of PGR on pre-harvest fruit drop at Bodak village under East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh, India during the year 2014-2015. Result showed maximum fruit retention in T6 Urea 1% + 2, 4- @ 15ppm (45.4%) followed by T5 NAA@5ppm + 2,4-D@10ppm (44.3%) resulting significantly increased the total number of fruits in (T6) (244.3 fruits / tree) followed by T5 (241.6 fruits/tree) as compared to control (17.3% fruit retention and 181 fruits/ tree) Hence, the combination of recommended dose of fertilizer i.e. 400:400:900g NPK/plant/year along with Urea 1% + 2, 4- @ 15ppm foliar spraying thrice during April, July and September can be used to control the fruit drop in Khasi mandarin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bamboos are important sources of income for rural households in India and elsewhere. Bamboo is increasingly identified as potential species for poverty reduction programs in many countries including India. The present study was carried out to develop the farmer's friendly protocol for mass multiplication of Bambusa vulgaris through ex vitro methods. During the present study rooting was obtained in three seasons except winter season and the variation in all the physiological characters with seasons & treatments were significant at P<0.001. Maximum average (62.00) rooting percentage and (24.41 cm) root length was found in rainy season followed by summer season with average (50.33) rooting percentage and (15.31 cm) root length. However, (47.33) rooting percentage and (16.80 cm) root length was achieved in spring season. Among the three auxins used for pretreatment, IBA showed more positive response on rooting as compared to IAA and NAA. In winter season no rooting and sprout were observed in any treated cuttings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we isolated and screened drought tolerant Pseudomonas isolates from arid and semi arid crop production systems of India. Five isolates could tolerate osmotic stress up to −0.73 MPa and possessed multiple PGP properties such as P-solubilization, production of phytohormones (IAA, GA and cytokinin), siderophores, ammonia and HCN however under osmotic stress expression of PGP traits was low compared to non-stressed conditions. The strains were identified as Pseudomonas entomophila, Pseudomonas stutzeri, Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas syringae and Pseudomonas monteilli respectively on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Osmotic stress affected growth pattern of all the isolates as indicated by increased mean generation time. An increase level of intracellular free amino acids, proline, total soluble sugars and exopolysaccharides was observed under osmotic stress suggesting bacterial response to applied stress. Further, strains GAP-P45 and GRFHYTP52 showing higher levels of EPS and osmolytes (amino acids and proline) accumulation under stress as compared to non-stress conditions, also exhibited higher expression of PGP traits under stress indicating a relationship between stress response and expression of PGP traits. We conclude that isolation and screening of indigenous, stress adaptable strains possessing PGP traits can be a method for selection of efficient stress tolerant PGPR strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rate of degradation of forchlorfenuron, a cytokinin-based plant growth regulator (PGR) was explored in typical grapevine soils of India with simultaneous evaluation of its effect on biochemical attributes of the test soils in terms of the activities of specific soil microbial enzymes. In all the test soils, namely clay, sandy-loam and silty-clay, the dissipation rate was faster at the beginning, which slowed down with time, indicating a non-linear pattern of degradation. Degradation in soils could best be explained by two-compartment 1st + 1st order kinetics with half-life ranging between 4-10 days. The results suggest that organic matter might be playing a major role in influencing the rate of degradation of forchlorfenuron in soil. The rate of degradation in sandy-loam soil was fastest followed by clay and silty-clay soils, respectively. Comparison of the rate of degradation in natural against sterilized soils suggests that microbial degradation might be the major pathway of residue dissipation. Changes in soil enzyme activities as a consequence of forchlorfenuron treatment were studied for extra-cellular enzymes namely acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase and β -glucosidase and intracellular enzyme-dehydrogenase. Although small changes in enzyme activities were observed, forchlorfenuron did not have any significant deleterious effect on the enzymatic activity of the test soils. Simple correlation studies between degradation percentage and individual enzyme activities did not establish any significant relationships. The pattern and change of enzyme activity was primarily the effect of the incubation period rather than the effect of forchlorfenuron itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The impact of diseases such as Phytophthora foot rot and the replacement of unproductive cultivars by high yielding ones has brought about the disappearance of varieties in Piper species, like any other crop. Black pepper (King of spices), is a major spice crop consumed throughout the world. It is widely cultivated across various parts of the world apart from India. The different cultivars may be genetically related and could be a source of valuable genes for disease resistance and an increase in quantity and quality. Even though Western Ghats in India is believed to be the site of origin of this crop, numerous accessions from the NBPGR have not yet been evaluated. Our study aims to investigate the genetic relatedness in major cultivars of black pepper using Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism. Results: Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphic (AFLP) DNA analysis was performed in thirty popular cultivars of black pepper from National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), India. Fingerprint profiles were generated initially with, five different primer combinations, from which three primer pair combinations (EAGC/MCAA, EAGG/MCTA and EAGC/MCTG) gave consistent and scorable banding patterns. From 173 scorable markers, 158(> 90%) were polymorphic which shows there is considerable variation in the available germplasm. The dendrogram derived by unweighted pair group method analysis (UPGMA) grouped the accessions into three major clusters and four diverse cultivars with only 30% similarity. Karimunda, a widely grown and popular cultivar was unique in the fingerprint profiles obtained. Conclusion: There are currently few fingerprinting studies using the valuable spice crop black pepper. We found considerable genetic variability among cultivars of black pepper. Fingerprinting analysis with AFLP proved to be an ideal tool for cultivar identification and phylogenetic studies. It shows the high level of polymorphism and the unique characterization of the major cultivars. An extensive range of similarity value between the cultivars was noted (6.01 to 98.13). Further screening of more cultivars will provide valuable information for current breeding programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lines of research conducted within a country often reflect its focus on current and future economic needs. Analyzing "search" trends on the internet can provide important insight into predicting the direction of a country in regards to agriculture, health, economy, and other areas. 'Google Trends' collects data on search terms from different countries, and this information can be used to better understand sentiments in different countries and regions. Agricultural output is responsible for feeding the world and there is a continuous quest to find ways to make agriculture more productive, safe, and reliable. The application of phytohormones has been used in agriculture world-wide for many years to improve crop production and continues to be an active area of research for the application in plants. Therefore, in the current study, we searched 'Google Trends' using the phytohormone search terms, abscisic acid, auxins, brassinosteroids, cytokinin, ethylene, gibberellins, jasmonic acid, salicylic acid, and strigolactones. The results indicated that the African country Zambia had the greatest number of queries on auxin research, and Kenya had the most queries in cytokinin and gibberellin research world-wide. For other phytohormones, India had the greatest number of queries for abscisic acid and South Korea had the greatest number of ethylene and jasmonic acid search world-wide. Queries on salicylic acid have been continuously increasing while the least number of queries were related to strigolactones. Only India and United States of America had significant numbers of queries on all nine phytohormones while queries on one or more phytohormones were absent in other countries. India is one of the top five crop-producing countries in the world for apples, millet, orange, potato, pulses, rice, sugarcane, tea, and wheat. Similarly, the United States of America is one of the top five crop-producing countries of the world for apples, grapes, maze, orange, potato, sorghum, sugarcane, and wheat. These might be the most possible factors for the search queries found for all the nine phytohormones in India and the United States of America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abiotic stresses are increasing globally at an alarming rate. On the contrary, demand for food is ever increasing with the rise in population and salts stress has been the major one reported to affect photosynthetic machinery and thereby reduce growth and yield. Halo-tolerant plant growth promoting rhizobacteria that have ability to work under salt stress and promote plant growth along-with enhanced synthesis of secondary metabolites including phytohormones (Indole Acetic Acid (IAA) and volatile compounds is being widely studied. The present work describes isolation, characterization and identification of IAA, producing halotolerant PGPR from Cumin cyminum rhizosphere cultivated in saline areas of Kachchhh, Gujarat, India. Initially, the IAA secreting ability was assessed for 20 bacterial isolates and three potential isolates that had ability to synthesize IAA under saline conditions (2% w/v NaCl) were selected for further studies. The cultures were identified as Bacillus subtilis , Rheinheimera sp. and Rhizobium sp. by partial sequencing of 16S rRNA gene, the nucleotide sequences has been submitted to NCBI, GenBank. The IAA producing ability under salt stress was assessed for all three cultures and was observed to be 250 ± 0.1 μg/ml, 220 ± 0.1 μg/ml and 200 ± 0.1 μg/ml for Rheinheimera sp. Rhizobium sp. and Bacillus subtilis respectively. The total estimation of IAA biosynthesis by Rheinheimera sp. was done by TLC and HPLC of extracted IAA and reference indolic compounds. This is the first time that Rheinheimera sp. is the being selected for IAA production and development of Halo-tolerant PGPR for field based studies and applications. • Rheinheimera sp. isolated first time from Cumin cyminum rhizosphere. • Rheinheimera sp. reported for novelity of IAA synthesis at 670 mM NaCl. • Rheinheimera sp. as plant protector against abiotic stresses. • Enhancement of Cumin cyminum growth at elevated salt concentration by Rheinheimera sp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on activities related to plant research. The "International Symposium on Pulses Research" which was scheduled for December 4-8, 1993 at Kanpur will now be held on April 2-6, 1994 at New Delhi, India. The 17th Congress of "The Scandinavian Society for Plant Physiology" will be held on August 7-12,1994 at Elsinore, Denmark. This congress will cover areas in environmental stress physiology, carbohydrates, plant hormones and signal transduction, plant symbioses, ion uptake and nitrogen metabolism, photosynthesis, plant genes, structure and regulation, plant lipids plant cell differentiation and morphogenesis and secondary metabolites.