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Although feed cost is the greatest concern in aquaculture, the inclusion of carbohydrates in the fish diet, and their assimilation, are still not well understood in aquaculture species. We identified molecular events that occur due to the inclusion of high carbohydrate levels in the diets of genetically improved ‘Jayanti rohu’ Labeo rohita. To reveal transcriptional changes in the liver of rohu, a feeding experiment was conducted with three doses of gelatinized starch (20% (control), 40%, and 60%). Transcriptome sequencing revealed totals of 15,232 (4464 up- and 4343 down-regulated) and 15,360 (4478 up- and 4171 down-regulated) differentially expressed genes. Up-regulated transcripts associated with glucose metabolisms, such as hexokinase, PHK, glycogen synthase and PGK, were found in fish fed diets with high starch levels. Interestingly, a de novo lipogenesis mechanism was found to be enriched in the livers of treated fish due to up-regulated transcripts such as FAS, ACCα, and PPARγ. The insulin signaling pathways with enriched PPAR and mTOR were identified by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome (KEGG) as a result of high carbohydrates. This work revealed for the first time the atypical regulation transcripts associated with glucose metabolism and lipogenesis in the livers of Jayanti rohu due to the inclusion of high carbohydrate levels in the diet. This study also encourages the exploration of early nutritional programming for enhancing glucose efficiency in carp species, for sustainable and cost-effective aquaculture production.

Small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum), is one of the costliest spices across the globe. It is grown in limited coastal tropical countries. It is widely exported agri-produce with global turnover of > 10 billion USD. It is majorly affected by the mosaic or marble disease and hence warrants the deep study at molecular level. Till now, there is no availability of whole genome sequence along with any genomic resources. Under such cases, RNA seq approach can be a rapid and economical alternative to gather the information at genomic level. De novo transcriptome assembly was carried out using Illumina Hiseq data. Analysis revealed a total of 5317 differentially expressed genes, 2267 transcription factors, >100 pathways and 175,952 genic region putative markers. Gene regulatory network analysis was performed to see the molecular events playing role in marble disease. We report the first transcriptomic results that shows the disease mechanism mediated by perturbation in auxin homeostasis and ethylene signaling. These events lead to senescence. We also developed the web-genomic resource, SCMVTDb which houses putative molecular markers, candidate genes and transcript information. Such web resource can be used in small cardamom germplasm improvement against mosaic disease in endeavour of its increased productivity.

Rice sheath blight (ShB) disease, caused by the fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani AG1-IA, is one of the devastating diseases and causes severe yield losses all over the world. No completely resistant germplasm is known till now, and as a result, the progress in resistance breeding is unsatisfactory. Basic studies to identify candidate genes, QTLs, and to better understand the host-pathogen interaction are also scanty. In this study, we report the identification of a new ShB-tolerant rice germplasm, CR 1014. Further, we investigated the basis of tolerance by exploring the disease responsive differentially expressed transcriptome and comparing them with that of a susceptible variety, Swarna-Sub1. A total of 815 and 551 genes were found to be differentially regulated in CR 1014 and Swarna-Sub1, respectively, at two different time points. The result shows that the ability to upregulate genes for glycosyl hydrolase, secondary metabolite biosynthesis, cytoskeleton and membrane integrity, the glycolytic pathway, and maintaining photosynthesis make CR 1014 a superior performer in resisting the ShB pathogen. We discuss several putative candidate genes for ShB resistance. The present study, for the first time, revealed the basis of ShB tolerance in the germplasm CR1014 and should prove to be particularly valuable in understanding molecular response to ShB infection. The knowledge could be utilized to devise strategies to manage the disease better.

Cucumber fruits are perishable in nature and become unfit for market within 2-3 days of harvesting. A natural variant, DC-48 with exceptionally high shelf life was developed and used to dissect the genetic architecture and molecular mechanism for extended shelf life through RNA-seq for first time. A total of 1364 DEGs were identified and cell wall degradation, chlorophyll and ethylene metabolism related genes played key role. Polygalacturunase (PG), Expansin (EXP) and xyloglucan were down regulated determining fruit firmness and retention of fresh green colour was mainly attributed to the low expression level of the chlorophyll catalytic enzymes (CCEs). Gene regulatory networks revealed the hub genes and cross-talk associated with wide variety of the biological processes. Large number of SSRs (21524), SNPs (545173) and InDels (126252) identified will be instrumental in cucumber improvement. A web genomic resource, CsExSLDb developed will provide a platform for future investigation on cucumber post-harvest biology.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is second largest grown legumes worldwide contributing 75% of total pulse production. It is a cool season legume crop and grown in tropical and subtropical areas. Due to drastic climatic changes, chickpea suffers from many biotic (blight and wilt) and abiotic (salinity, drought, cold) stresses that directly impact the growth and yield. In our study, we predicted and annotated the genes related to biotic and abiotic stresses. Total 20162 ESTs for salinity, 34346 for drought and 191 for cold stress were downloaded. For biotic stresses, viz., wilt and blight disease, 7866 and 56 ESTs were collected, respectively from public domain. All these ESTs were assembled into contigs and blast against protein non-redundant database. Each blast results were mapped to get the corresponding GO terms. Total 1631, 3133 and 13 contigs for salinity, drought and cold stress showed 1333, 2693 and 7 GO terms respectively, while 1144 contigs for Fusarium wilt and 6 contigs for Ascochyta blight disease showed 955 and 4 GO terms. These GO terms describe biological process, molecular function and cellular components of corresponding stresses. Remaining 298 (salinity), 440 (drought), 6 (cold), 189 (wilt) and 2 (blight) contigs were mapped to reference genome and further used for annotation using gene prediction methods and promoter analysis. This study provide insight to novel gene related to abiotic and biotic stress mechanism that can be further analyzed in molecular biology studies for breeding programs.

Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) has global significance in agriculture and industries due to its nutritional and medicinal properties. Coconut Root Wilt Disease (RWD) causes huge economic loss, thus molecular approach for improved varieties is needed. Since whole genome sequence is unavailable, transcriptomic approach is imperative for deciphering pathways as well as genic region marker discovery from contrasting genotypes. This is the first report of RWD transcriptome database having candidate genes and pathway discovery along with genic simple sequence repeats, SNPs, indels to be used as functional domain markers. A relational database, CnTDB ( http://webtom.cabgrid.res.in/cntdb/ ), based on three-tier architecture has been developed having 285235 transcripts with all blast information, annotations, pathways, 22021 DEGs, transcriptional factors, 10126 and 97117 SSR markers mined from DEGs and de novo transcriptome assembly, respectively. Putative markers with primers can be valuable genomic resource in endeavor of RWD resistant variety development for higher coconut productivity.

Vigna mungo (Urdbean) is cultivated in the tropical and sub-tropical continental region of Asia. It is not only important source of dietary protein and nutritional elements, but also of immense value to human health due to medicinal properties. Yellow mosaic disease caused by Mungbean Yellow Mosaic India Virus is known to incur huge loss to crop, adversely affecting crop yield. Contrasting genotypes are ideal source for knowledge discovery of plant defence mechanism and associated candidate genes for varietal improvement. Whole genome sequence of this crop is yet to be completed. Moreover, genomic resources are also not freely accessible, thus available transcriptome data can be of immense use. V. mungo Transcriptome database, accessible at http://webtom.cabgrid.res.in/vmtdb/ has been developed using available data of two contrasting varieties viz., cv. VM84 (resistant) and cv. T9 (susceptible). De novo assembly was carried out using Trinity and CAP3. Out of total 240,945 unigenes, 165,894 (68.8%) showed similarity with known genes against NR database, and remaining 31.2% were found to be novel. We found 22,101 differentially expressed genes in all datasets, 44,335 putative genic SSR markers, 4105 SNPs and Indels, 64,964 transcriptional factor, 546 mature miRNA target prediction in 703 differentially expressed unigenes and 137 pathways. MAPK, salicylic acid-binding protein 2-like, pathogenesis-related protein and NBS-LRR domain were found which may play an important role in defence against pathogens. This is the first web genomic resource of V. mungo for future genome annotation as well as ready to use markers for future variety improvement program.

Enhanced Disease Susceptibility1 (EDS1) is a nucleo-cytoplasmic protein, known to be a key regulator of plant basal defense and effector-triggered immunity. Sequence of a single copy brinjal EDS1 gene (SmEDS1) was mined from draft brinjal genome assembly. The extracted sequence was found to be incomplete and polished with the help of transcriptome sequence data. Full-length SmEDS1 gene is 4.5kb long having three exons that coded for 1.8kb mRNA. SmEDS1 protein is a 602 amino acid long protein consisting of Lipase3 and EP domain regions. Predicted tertiary structure of SmEDS1 using homology modelling had a mass of 68.8kD and was made of 10 strands, 26 alpha helices, five 310 helices and 43 beta turns. Phylogenetic analysis based on protein sequence grouped the species in clades defined by botanical family suggesting that EDS1 protein has evolved through the speciation process. Phylogenetic tree based on EDS1 structures grouped Solanum species of American origin (tomato, wild tomato and potato) together but brinjal EDS1 (Asiatic origin) occupied a unique position. In silico information generated in this study is expected to be the first step toward cloning and expression analysis of SmEDS1 gene.

Drought is one of the major impediments in wheat productivity. Traditional breeding and marker assisted QTL introgression had limited success. Available wheat genomic and RNA-seq data can decipher novel drought tolerance mechanisms with putative candidate gene and marker discovery. Drought is first sensed by root tissue but limited information is available about how roots respond to drought stress. In this view, two contrasting genotypes, namely, NI5439 41 (drought tolerant) and WL711 (drought susceptible) were used to generate ~78.2 GB data for the responses of wheat roots to drought. A total of 45139 DEGs, 13820 TF, 288 miRNAs, 640 pathways and 435829 putative markers were obtained. Study reveals use of such data in QTL to QTN refinement by analysis on two model drought-responsive QTLs on chromosome 3B in wheat roots possessing 18 differentially regulated genes with 190 sequence variants (173 SNPs and 17 InDels). Gene regulatory networks showed 69 hub-genes integrating ABA dependent and independent pathways controlling sensing of drought, root growth, uptake regulation, purine metabolism, thiamine metabolism and antibiotics pathways, stomatal closure and senescence. Eleven SSR markers were validated in a panel of 18 diverse wheat varieties. For effective future use of findings, web genomic resources were developed. We report RNA-Seq approach on wheat roots describing the drought response mechanisms under field drought conditions along with genomic resources, warranted in endeavour of wheat productivity.

Heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70), a 70-kDa protein, also known as a molecular chaperone, is highly conserved. It plays a major role in cellular functions such as protein folding, regulation of protein degradation, translocation of proteins across membranes, receptor signaling, and protein assembly or disassembly.

The rise of New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1 (NDM-1) producers is a major public health concern due to carbapenem resistance. Infections caused by carbapenem-resistant enterobacteria (CRE) are classified as a serious problem. To understand the structure and function of NDM-1, an amino acid replacement approach is considered as one of the methods to get structural insight. Therefore, we have generated novel mutations (N193A, S217A, G219A and T262A) near active sites and an omega-like loop to study the role of conserved residues of NDM-1. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of ampicillin, imipenem, meropenem, cefotaxime, cefoxitin and ceftazidime for all mutants were found to be reduced 2 to 6 fold, compared to a wild type NDM-1 producing strain. The Km values increased while Kcat and Kcat/Km values were decreased compared to wild type. The affinity as well as the catalysis properties of these mutants were reduced considerably for imipenem, meropenem, cefotaxime, cefoxitin, and ceftazidimem compared to wild type, hence the catalytic efficiencies (Kcat/Km) of all mutant enzymes were reduced owing to the poor affinity of the enzyme. The IC50 values of these mutants with respect to each drug were reduced compared to wild type NDM-1. MD simulations and docking results from the mutant protein models, along with the wild type example, showed stable and consistent RMSD, RMSF and Rg behavior. The α-helix content values of all mutant proteins were reduced by 13%, 6%, 14% and 9% compared to NDM-1. Hence, this study revealed the impact role of active sites near residues on the enzyme catalytic activity of NDM-1.

The present study was aimed to analyse bioactive compounds (total phenolics, ascorbic acid and sinigrin) and antioxidant activity in 14 mid-early cauliflower genotypes. Significant differences (pb 0.05) were observed among the genotypes for all bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity. Total phenolics content of curd were ranged from 20.36 to 48.93 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE) 100 g(−1) fresh weight (FW) which showed 2.5 times variation. The ascorbic acid content was maximum in DC522 (88.53 mg 100 g(−1) FW) followed by Pusa Sharad (65.64 mg 100 g(−1) FW) while minimum in DC310 (39.62 65.64 mg 100 g(−1) FW). Wide variation was observed for cupric reducing antioxidant capacity and ferric reducing antioxidant power ranging from 9.04 to 20.83 mg GAE 100 g(−1) FW and 13.11 to 26.31 mg GAE 100 g(−1) FW, respectively. Sinigrin was found to be highest in DC306 (39.50 µmol 100 g(−1) FW) for leaf and in DC326 (36.93 µmol 100 g(−1) FW) for curd sample. The cauliflower genotypes were classified based on chemometric approaches namely principal component analysis (PCA) and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC). The first two principal components (PC1 and PC2) explained 50.62% and 23.28% of total variance, respectively. The AHC as revealed by heat map classified cauliflower genotypes into four main groups based on measured traits. The information is useful for developing varieties and/or hybrids rich in bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity.

The liver is an important central organ, which controls carbohydrate metabolism through maintaining glucose homeostasis by a tightly regulated system of genes or enzymes. The microRNAs are small non-coding RNAs playing an important role in the regulation of genes associated with developmental biology, physiology, metabolism, etc. Thus, in this study, we have intended to detect liver-specific microRNAs in farmed carp, Labeo bata, upon being fed a diet with different levels of carbohydrates. Here, we have conducted the experiment for 45 days using fingerlings of farmed carp fed with 20% (control), 40%, and 60% gelatinized starch levels. The liver tissues were collected from each treatment and processed for RNA isolation, small RNA library preparation, and high-throughput sequencing using Illumina NexSeq500. Through sequencing, 15,779,417 reads in 20% CHO, 13,959,039 in 40% CHO, and 13,661,950 in 60% CHO reads were generated for control and treated fishes using three small RNA libraries. We have investigated 445 novel and 231 conserved microRNAs in 20%, 40%, and 60% carbohydrate (CHO), respectively, through computational analysis. The differential expression analysis of miRNAs was carried out between different treatments compared with control and this study depicted 117 known and 114 novel miRNA genes involved in carbohydrate metabolic pathways. Further, target prediction and gene ontology analysis revealed that miRNAs were involved in several pathways such as signaling pathway, G protein pathway, complement receptor–mediated pathway, dopamine receptor signaling pathway, epidermal growth factor pathway, and notch signaling pathway. The predicted miRNA sites in targeted genes were associated with cellular activities, developmental biology, DNA binding, Golgi apparatus, extracellular region, catalytic activity, MAPK cascade, etc. Overall, we have generated a vital resource of liver-specific miRNAs involved in metabolic gene regulation. These studies further will help develop miRNA inhibitors to study their role during carbohydrate metabolism in farmed carp.

The role of microRNA in gene regulation during developmental biology has been well depicted in several organisms. The present study was performed to investigate miRNAs role in the liver tissues during carbohydrate metabolism and their targets in the farmed carp rohu, Labeo rohita, which is economically important species in aquaculture. Using Illumina-HiSeq technology, a total of 22,612,316; 44,316,046 and 13,338,434 clean reads were obtained from three small-RNA libraries. We have identified 138 conserved and 161 novel miRNAs and studies revealed that miR-22, miR-122, miR-365, miR-200, and miR-146 are involved in carbohydrate metabolism. Further analysis depicted mature miRNA and their predicted target sites in genes that were involved in developmental biology, cellular activities, transportation, etc. This is the first report of the presence of miRNAs in liver tissue of rohu and their comparative profile linked with metabolism serves as a vital resource as a biomarker.

Crop varieties or genotypes of a given species are pivotal for agricultural production and ownership, management and improvement of their germplasm is a great challenge. Its morphological identification requires time, cost and descriptors are often compromised statistically due to phenotypic plasticity. Development of DNA based signature of varieties can overcome these limitations. There is a global need to implement world trade organization (WTO) and intellectual property rights (IPR) guidelines of Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) where DUS (distinctness, uniformity and stability) testing can be supplemented by DNA profile. Universalization and minimization of SNP number without compromising identification accuracy is the major challenge in development of varietal profile by rapid genotype assay. Besides this, there is no server-based approach reducing computational skill with global accessibility of referral phenotypic and genotypic data. We report world’s first model web server for crop variety identification using >350 Indian wheat varieties and Axiom 35 K SNP chip data. Standard filtering and linkage disequilibrium approach were used to develop varietal signature in Linux using HTML, Java, PHP and MySQL with provision of QR code generator to facilitate bar-coding. Phylogenetic tree constructed by selected SNPs confirms six major trait based clusters of varieties and their pedigree. Our user friendly server based tool, VISTa (Variety Identification System of Triticum aestivum) (http://webtom.cabgrid.res.in/vista) can be used in DUS testing having dispute resolution of sovereignty and access benefit sharing (ABS) issues. This model approach can be used in other crops with pan-global level management of crop germplasm in endeavour of crop productivity.

Onion ( Allium cepa L.), often regarded as a crop having an antediluvian coexistence with humans, is by far one of the most challenging plant species to be worked on, especially with respect to delineating its genomic information. It is considered as a plant of immense culinary and medicinal importance. However, there are very limited genomic ventures that have so far been established that could shed light on some of the most captivating aspects of the onion genome. Onion Genomic Resource (OGR), with three-tier architecture , is the first of its kind, comprehensive web-resource/database, built in MySQL database and PHP that catalogues the genomic developments specific to onion. It houses information of assembly of 20,204 publicly available onion expressed sequence tags (ESTs), available 20,755 assembled transcripts and 249,987 unigenes from Allium cepa transcriptome shotgun assembly (TSA) along with their annotations and functional significance. A total of 1915 SSRs from Onion ESTs and 123,282 SSRs from Onion TSA data have been catalogued in OGR. Also, 135,424 SNPs and 11,891 Indels identified from Onion TSA data as well as 15 and 13 SNPs and Indels identified, respectively from Onion ESTs have been put in database. The resource also contains information of gene annotations, linked with KEGG pathways and 7 previously reported and 1 predicted onion miRNAs with their associated targets, which range from cytoplasmic globular proteins to membrane ion channels. Additionally, gene prediction was carried out for the unannotated sequences, of which few were observed to harbor coding regions for novel protein coding genes and transcripts that so far have not yet been identified. Over 200 different ready-to-use experimentally validated molecular markers were also mined from the existing literature to further enrich the lab-based studies targeting variety improvement. The OGR can be useful for onion molecular breeders as well as a valuable tool for confirmation of predicted ORF once the whole genome of onion is sequenced. The OGR is an open resource freely accessible at http://webtom.cabgrid.res.in/ogr/ .

Even though cultivated rice is highly sensitive to salinity, significant variability exists in the primary and secondary gene-pool of rice with respect to traits of salinity tolerance. Breeding salinity tolerance rice varieties is imperative due to climate change and increasing rice demand for global population. A meta-analysis of plethora of genomic data and published literature available on various genes/factors associated with response to rice salinity and tolerance can be used to enlist selected candidates genes affecting salinity. Such genes can be utilized to identify potential candidate salinity resistance genes from donor rice genotypes and facilitate their transfer to high yielding varieties of rice through marker-assisted breeding. This approach has tremendous advantage over transgenic approach as no bio-safety or regulatory issues are involved in exploiting the variability. Meta-analyses were performed on three datasets viz., rice microarray data of 166 series comprising of 2586 samples, 1228 published research literature in the last one and half decades and RNA-Seq data of 454 and Illumina from Sequence Retrieval Archive (SRA) at NCBI. Among microarray dataset, six salinity related series were finally selected and multi experiment analysis revealed 2289 differentially expressed genes belonging to 44 gene families. Out of these, 13 families viz., AP2-EREBP, AUX/IAA, bZIP, C2H2, bHLH, C3H, HB, HSF, MYB, MYB-related, NAC, Tify and WRKY were selected. Applying various parameters on the published literature data, 13 genes were selected, of which five were common to the different microarray datasets. From RNA-Seq data, total of 751 differentially expressed genes were obtained from 21 gene families, out of which 11 genes were common with those obtained from microarray data and five genes, viz., AP2-EREBP/DREB, MYB, HSF, bZIP and NAC were common to all the three data sets. Based on the results obtained, a total of 31 meta-analyzed genes have been selected and recommended for use in genetic improvement programs aimed at salinity resistance in rice. The meta-analysis of microarray, RNA-Seq and published literature has been successfully used to select 31 best salinity tolerance associated genes which can be exploited by candidate gene approach for targeted introgression through marker assisted breeding. This approach has multi-fold advantages, as it obviates statutory and ecological issues. Such endeavors are more warranted for combating the key abiotic stresses like salinity, whose effects are increasing due to a changing climate.

Microbial diseases in fish, plant, animal and human are rising constantly; thus, discovery of their antidote is imperative. The use of antibiotic in aquaculture further compounds the problem by development of resistance and consequent consumer health risk by bio-magnification. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been highly promising as natural alternative to chemical antibiotics. Though AMPs are molecules of innate immune defense of all advance eukaryotic organisms, fish being heavily dependent on their innate immune defense has been a good source of AMPs with much wider applicability. Machine learning-based prediction method using wet laboratory-validated fish AMP can accelerate the AMP discovery using available fish genomic and proteomic data. Earlier AMP prediction servers are based on multi-phyla/species data, and we report here the world's first AMP prediction server in fishes. It is freely accessible at http://webapp.cabgrid.res.in/fishamp/ . A total of 151 AMPs related to fish collected from various databases and published literature were taken for this study. For model development and prediction, N-terminus residues, C-terminus residues and full sequences were considered. Best models were with kernels polynomial-2, linear and radial basis function with accuracy of 97, 99 and 97 %, respectively. We found that performance of support vector machine-based models is superior to artificial neural network. This in silico approach can drastically reduce the time and cost of AMP discovery. This accelerated discovery of lead AMP molecules having potential wider applications in diverse area like fish and human health as substitute of antibiotics, immunomodulator, antitumor, vaccine adjuvant and inactivator, and also for packaged food can be of much importance for industries.

Genus Vigna represented by more than 100 species is a source of nutritious edible seeds and sprouts that are rich sources of protein and dietary supplements. It is further valuable because of therapeutic attributes due to its antioxidant and anti-diabetic properties. A highly diverse and an extremely ecological niche of different species can be valuable genomic resources for productivity enhancement. It is one of the most underutilized crops for food security and animal feeds. In spite of huge species diversity, only three species of Vigna have been sequenced; thus, there is a need for molecular markers for the remaining species. Computational approach of microsatellite marker discovery along with evaluation of polymorphism utilizing available genomic data of different genotypes can be a quick and an economical approach for genomic resource development. Cross-species transferability by e-PCR over available genomes can further prioritize the potential SSR markers, which could be used for genetic diversity and population differentiation of the remaining species saving cost and time. We present VigSatDB—the world’s first comprehensive microsatellite database of genus Vigna, containing >875 K putative microsatellite markers with 772 354 simple and 103 865 compound markers mined from six genome assemblies of three Vigna species, namely, Vigna radiata (Mung bean), Vigna angularis (Adzuki bean) and Vigna unguiculata (Cowpea). It also contains 1976 validated published markers. Markers can be selected on the basis of chromosomes/location specificity, and primers can be generated using Primer3core tool integrated at backend. Efficacy of VigSatDB for microsatellite loci genotyping has been evaluated by 15 markers over a panel of 10 diverse genotype of V. radiata. Our web genomic resources can be used in diversity analysis, population and varietal differentiation, discovery of quantitative trait loci/genes, marker-assisted varietal improvement in endeavor of Vigna crop productivity and management.

A massive bovine, Bos frontalis, also known as Mithun or Gayal, found at higher altitude is very promising meat and milk animal. For candidate gene and marker discovery, RNA-seq data was generated from longissimus dorsi muscle tissues with Illumina-HiSeq. Such markers can be used in future for genetic gain of traits like feed conversion efficiency (FCE) and average daily gain (ADG). Analysis revealed 297differentially expressed genes (DEGs) having 173 up and 124 down-regulated unigenes. Extensive conservation was found in genic region while comparing with Bos taurus. Analysis revealed 57 pathways having 112 enzymes, 72 transcriptional factors and cofactors, 212 miRNAs regulating 71 DEGs, 25,855 SSRs, mithun-specific 104,822 variants and 7288 indels, gene regulatory network (GRN) having 24 hub-genes and transcriptional factors regulating cell proliferation, immune tolerance and myogenesis. This is first report of muscle transcriptome depicting candidate genes with GRN controlling FCE and ADG. Reported putative molecular markers, candidate genes and hub proteins can be valuable genomic resources for association studies in genetic improvement programme.

Pearl millet, (Pennisetum glaucum L.), an efficient (C4) crop of arid/semi-arid regions is known for hardiness. Crop is valuable for bio-fortification combating malnutrition and diabetes, higher caloric value and wider climatic resilience. Limited studies are done in pot-based experiments for drought response at gene-expression level, but field-based experiment mimicking drought by withdrawal of irrigation is still warranted. We report de novo assembly-based transcriptomic signature of drought response induced by irrigation withdrawal in pearl millet. We found 19983 differentially expressed genes, 7595 transcription factors, gene regulatory network having 45 hub genes controlling drought response. We report 34652 putative markers (4192 simple sequence repeats, 12111 SNPs and 6249 InDels). Study reveals role of purine and tryptophan metabolism in ABA accumulation mediating abiotic response in which MAPK acts as major intracellular signal sensing drought. Results were validated by qPCR of 13 randomly selected genes. We report the first web-based genomic resource (http://webtom.cabgrid.res.in/pmdtdb/) which can be used for candidate genes-based SNP discovery programs and trait-based association studies. Looking at climatic change, nutritional and pharmaceutical importance of this crop, present investigation has immense value in understanding drought response in field condition. This is important in germplasm management and improvement in endeavour of pearl millet productivity.

Mango is one of the most important fruits of tropical ecological region of the world, well known for its nutritive value, aroma and taste. Its world production is >45MT worth >200 billion US dollars. Genomic resources are required for improvement in productivity and management of mango germplasm. There is no web-based genomic resources available for mango. Hence rapid and cost-effective high throughput putative marker discovery is required to develop such resources. RAD-based marker discovery can cater this urgent need till whole genome sequence of mango becomes available. Using a panel of 84 mango varieties, a total of 28.6 Gb data was generated by ddRAD-Seq approach on Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. A total of 1.25 million SNPs were discovered. Phylogenetic tree using 749 common SNPs across these varieties revealed three major lineages which was compared with geographical locations. A web genomic resources MiSNPDb, available at http://webtom.cabgrid.res.in/mangosnps/ is based on 3-tier architecture, developed using PHP, MySQL and Javascript. This web genomic resources can be of immense use in the development of high density linkage map, QTL discovery, varietal differentiation, traceability, genome finishing and SNP chip development for future GWAS in genomic selection program. We report here world’s first web-based genomic resources for genetic improvement and germplasm management of mango.

Eleven coloured hybrids and their 9 parental genotypes were evaluated for bunch weight, berry weight, juice recovery, total soluble solids (TSS), total monomeric anthocyanins (TMA), total phenolics (TP), total flavonoids (TF) and antioxidant activities (AOX) in terms of CUPRAC, FRAP and DPPH. Data analysis indicated significant differences in the traits under study. The substantial positive mid-parent and better-parent heterosis was found for TSS, TMA, total flavonoids, CUPRAC and FRAP. The negative mid-parent heterosis and heterobeltiosis was exhibited for bunch weight, berry weight, juice recovery, total phenolics, and DPPH activity. The results suggest that hybrid ERR2P36 and hybrid 16/2A-R1P8 can be considered as good source of natural antioxidants and having higher TSS content.

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.

Six pomegranate varieties (Mridula, Bhagwa, Ganesh, Jyoti, G-137, Kandhari) grown in semiarid regions of India were studied for biochemical parameters including total antioxidant content and antioxidant activities. Total antioxidant activities were evaluated using ferric reducing antioxidant power (5.54–7.67 μmol TE/g), cupric reducing antioxidant power (7.87–16.24 μmol TE/g) and 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (8.98–15.47 μmol TE/g) assays. Hypoglycemic potential was evaluated using α-glucosidase inhibitory assay and color attributes using L*, a*, b*, hue angle and chroma values. Total phenolics, flavonoid and anthocyanin content range of 87.62–153.62 mg gallic acid equivalent/100 g, 8.54–23.99 mg QE/100g and 6.45–457.99 mg/kg, respectively. Total soluble solid, acidity, pH and ascorbic acid content varied between 15.72 and 18.18 Brix, 0.24 and 0.28%, 2.83 and 3.20, and 3.68 and 13.65 mg/100 g, respectively. However both “Mridula” and “Bhagwa” had the highest content of total phenolics, flavonoids, total anthocyanin, ascorbic acid, antioxidant activity and hypoglycemic potential. Overall, antioxidant composition of pomegranate, especially total phenolics and total anthocyanin content, could provide an attractive strategy to manage postprandial hyperglycemia. Practical Applications Postprandial hyperglycemia plays an important role in the development of type II diabetes mellitus and complications associated with the disease. The enzyme α-glucosidase is a key enzyme responsible for the increase in blood glucose level. α-Glucosidase inhibitors from natural food sources are an attractive strategy for managing postprandial hyperglycemia. This paper presents the findings of a comprehensive investigation of total antioxidant content and activity in terms of free radical scavenging and reducing capacities of six different pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) varieties grown in semiarid regions of India. Total anthocyanin and total phenolics content of pomegranate varieties reported in this study make them potential candidates for managing postprandial hyperglycemia related to type II diabetes.

Karnal bunt disease caused by the fungus Tilletia indica Mitra is a serious concern due to strict quarantines affecting international trade of wheat. We announce here the first draft assembly of two monosporidial lines, PSWKBGH-1 and -2, of this fungus, having approximate sizes of 37.46 and 37.21 Mbp, respectively.

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is known as the ‘king of fruits’ for its rich taste, flavor, color, production volume and diverse end usage. It belongs to plant family Anacardiaceae and has a small genome size of 439 Mb (2n = 40). Ancient literature indicates origin of cultivated mango in India. Although wild species of genus Mangifera are distributed throughout South and South-East Asia, recovery of Paleocene mango leaf fossils near Damalgiri, West Garo Hills, Meghalaya point to the origin of genus in peninsular India before joining of the Indian and Asian continental plates. India produces more than fifty percent of the world’s mango and grows more than thousand varieties. Despite its huge economic significance genomic resources for mango are limited and genetics of useful horticultural traits are poorly understood. Here we present a brief account of our recent efforts to generate genomic resources for mango and its use in the analysis of genetic diversity and population structure of mango cultivars. Sequencing of leaf RNA from mango cultivars ‘Neelam’, ‘Dashehari’ and their hybrid ‘Amrapali’ revealed substantially higher level of heterozygosity in ‘Amrapali’ over its parents and helped develop genic simple sequence repeat (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Sequencing of double digested restriction-site-associated genomic DNA (ddRAD) of 84 diverse mango cultivars identified 1.67 million high quality SNPs and two major sub-populations. We have assembled 323 Mb of the highly heterozygous ‘Amrapali’ genome using long sequence reads of PacBio single molecule real time (SMRT) sequencing chemistry and predicted 43,247 protein coding genes. We identified in the mango genome 122,332 SSR loci and developed 8,451 Type1 SSR and 835 HSSR markers for high level of polymorphism. Among the published genomes, mango showed highest similarity with sweet orange (Citrus sinensis). These genomic resources will fast track the mango varietal improvement for high productivity, disease resistance and superior end use quality.

High temperature has detrimental effects on growth and yield of any crops. A total of 62 two eggplant genotypes were evaluated for growth and yield traits at two growing season during summer season (March-July) and kharif season (July-November). Average of three replications was used for each trait in statistical analysis involving one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Agglomerative Hierarchial Clustering (AHC) using SAS ver. 9.3 and R package. Analysis of variance indicated high variability for all the traits among the eggplant genotypes. Highest yield per plant was recorded in Guhala Chatua Local (1.8 kg) in summer season whereas in kharif season, yield per plant was maximum in Swarnamani Black (5.97 Kg). The mean yield per plant (1.83 kg) was more in kharif season as compared to summer season (0.09 kg). The percentage yield reduction in summer season was more than 90% in almost all the genotypes and the lowest yield reduction (22.11%) was found in Guhala Chatua Local followed by DBL-21 and DBL-08. In summer season, the first principal component (PC1) and second principal component (PC2) could explain 48% and 14% of total variance, respectively where yield per plant contributed positively to PC1. In kharif season, first principal component (PC1) and second principal component (PC2) could explain 33% and 20% of the variance, respectively where total number of fruit weight per plant, fruit diameter and yield per plant traits contributed positively to PC1. The Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed five clusters based on the similarities among the genotypes in both summer and kharif season but the clustering pattern was different among season. Based on the study, promising heat-tolerant genotypes (Guhala Chatua Local, DBL-21 and DBL-08) have been identified which could be novel source for heat tolerance gene (s) for utilizing in breeding programme.

Pearl millet, (Pennisetum glaucum L.), an efficient (C4) crop of arid/semi-arid regions is known for hardiness. Crop is valuable for bio-fortification combating malnutrition and diabetes, higher caloric value and wider climatic resilience. Limited studies are done in pot-based experiments for drought response at gene-expression level, but field-based experiment mimicking drought by withdrawal of irrigation is still warranted. We report de novo assembly-based transcriptomic signature of drought response induced by irrigation withdrawal in pearl millet. We found 19983 differentially expressed genes, 7595 transcription factors, gene regulatory network having 45 hub genes controlling drought response. We report 34652 putative markers (4192 simple sequence repeats, 12111 SNPs and 6249 InDels). Study reveals role of purine and tryptophan metabolism in ABA accumulation mediating abiotic response in which MAPK acts as major intracellular signal sensing drought. Results were validated by qPCR of 13 randomly selected genes. We report the first web-based genomic resource ( http://webtom.cabgrid.res.in/pmdtdb/ ) which can be used for candidate genes-based SNP discovery programs and trait-based association studies. Looking at climatic change, nutritional and pharmaceutical importance of this crop, present investigation has immense value in understanding drought response in field condition. This is important in germplasm management and improvement in endeavour of pearl millet productivity.

DNA marker plays important role as valuable tools to increase crop productivity by finding plausible answers to genetic variations and linking the Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) of beneficial trait. Prior approaches in development of Short Tandem Repeats (STR) markers were time consuming and inefficient. Recent methods invoking the development of STR markers using whole genomic or transcriptomics data has gained wide importance with immense potential in developing breeding and cultivator improvement approaches. Availability of whole genome sequences and in silico approaches has revolutionized bulk marker discovery. We report world’s first sugarbeet whole genome marker discovery having 145 K markers along with 5 K functional domain markers unified in common platform using MySQL, Apache and PHP in SBMDb. Embedded markers and corresponding location information can be selected for desired chromosome, location/interval and primers can be generated using Primer3 core, integrated at backend. Our analyses revealed abundance of ‘mono’ repeat (76.82%) over ‘di’ repeats (13.68%). Highest density (671.05 markers/Mb) was found in chromosome 1 and lowest density (341.27 markers/Mb) in chromosome 6. Current investigation of sugarbeet genome marker density has direct implications in increasing mapping marker density. This will enable present linkage map having marker distance of ∼2 cM, i.e. from 200 to 2.6 Kb, thus facilitating QTL/gene mapping. We also report e-PCR-based detection of 2027 polymorphic markers in panel of five genotypes. These markers can be used for DUS test of variety identification and MAS/GAS in variety improvement program. The present database presents wide source of potential markers for developing and implementing new approaches for molecular breeding required to accelerate industrious use of this crop, especially for sugar, health care products, medicines and color dye. Identified markers will also help in improvement of bioenergy trait of bioethanol and biogas production along with reaping advantage of crop efficiency in terms of low water and carbon footprint especially in era of climate change. Database URL: http://webapp.cabgrid.res.in/sbmdb/

The high-throughput technologies generating large-scale biological data, as well as the development of related computational tools, have united global efforts and brought revolutionary changes to the research of biology during the last decade. Today, biologists work in association with scientists from a broad spectrum of disciplines to unravel how complex biological systems work. Bioinformatics is a multidisciplinary field that makes use of computers to store and analyse molecular biology information with integration of statistical algorithms. The genome sequencing of a number of organisms has led to the discovery of many fascinating things. Today, the world feels the need of this discipline to save resources and time. This chapter emphasises on a number of applications of bioinformatics in agriculture in view of functional genomics, data mining techniques, genome-wide association studies, high-performance computing facilities in agriculture and various bioinformatics tools/databases important for breeders, biotechnologists and pathologists. Agricultural genomics leads to the global understanding of plant/animal and pathogen biology, and its application would be beneficial for agriculture.

Biotic stress is a major cause of heavy loss in grape productivity. In order to develop biotic stress-resistant grape varieties, the key defense genes along with its pathway have to be deciphered. In angiosperm plants, lipase-like protein phytoalexin deficient 4 (PAD4) is well known to be essential for systemic resistance against biotic stress. PAD4 functions together with its interacting partner protein enhanced disease susceptibility 1 (EDS1) to promote salicylic acid (SA)-dependent and SA-independent defense pathway. Existence and structure of key protein of systemic resistance EDS1 and PAD4 are not known in grapes. Before SA pathway studies are taken in grape, molecular evidence of EDS1: PAD4 complex is to be established. To establish this, EDS1 protein sequence was retrieved from NCBI and homologous PAD4 protein was generated using Arabidopsis thaliana as template and conserved domains were confirmed. In this study, computational methods were used to model EDS1 and PAD4 and simulated the interactions of EDS1 and PAD4. Since no structural details of the proteins were available, homology modeling was employed to construct three-dimensional structures. Further, molecular dynamic simulations were performed to study the dynamic behavior of the EDS1 and PAD4. The modeled proteins were validated and subjected to molecular docking analysis. Molecular evidence of stable complex of EDS1:PAD4 in grape supporting SA defense pathway in response to biotic stress is reported in this study. If SA defense pathway genes are explored, then markers of genes involved can play pivotal role in grape variety development especially against biotic stress leading to higher productivity.

Labeo rohita, popularly known as rohu, is a widely cultured species in whole Indian subcontinent. In the present study, we used in-silico approach to resolve complete mitochondrial genome of rohu. Low-depth shotgun sequencing using Roche 454 GS FLX (Branford, Connecticut, USA) followed by de novo assembly in CLC Genomics Workbench version 7.0.4 (Aarhus, Denmark) revealed the complete mitogenome of L. rohita to be 16 606 bp long (accession No. KR185963). It comprised of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs, 2 rRNAs and 1 putative control region. The gene order and organization are similar to most vertebrates. The mitogenome in the present investigation has 99% similarity with that of previously reported mitogenomes of rohu and this is also evident from the phylogenetic study using maximum-likelihood (ML) tree method. This study was done to determine the feasibility, accuracy and reliability of low-depth sequence data obtained from NGS platform as compared to the Sanger sequencing. Thus, NGS technology has proven to be competent and a rapid in-silico alternative to resolve the complete mitochondrial genome sequence, thereby reducing labors and time.

Sorghum, barley and horse-gram are excellent source of bioactives (phenolics, miner-als, β-glucan) with documented health effects. Effect of four different extrusion variables, viz. high temperature, high moisture (HTHM, 120°C, 20%); high temperature, low moisture (HTLM, 120°C, 14%); low temperature, high moisture (LTHM, 100°C, 20%); and low temperature and low moisture (LTLM, 100°C, 14%) on three com-posite blends from sorghum, barley and horse-gram was examined in the present study. Extru-sion processing significantly (p