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The article presents a study which evaluated the variation in fruit morphometric and bio-chemical traits and select superior clones for establishing large scale plantation of tamarind, a multipurpose tree species. The study was conducted in clonal assemblage of tamarind established in randomized complete block design. Significant variations in all the morphology and biochemical characters among the tamarind forms were found.

Tamarind is important agroforestry tree species grown largely due to the multipurpose utility. Tamarind exhibits high cross-pollination and significant variability recorded in phenological, vegetative and reproductive traits. The variation in pulp color and acidity tamarind delineated into red, brown, sour, and sweet Tamarind variants. This investigation aimed to evaluate the diversity in leaf and stomatal morphometric traits among the sour, red, and sweet tamarind variants. Mature leaves from different tamarind variants were collected and subjected to SEM and fluorescent microscopy for detailed leaf morphoanatomical assessments at microscopic laboratory in the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Coimbatore. The analysis revealed significant variations in rachis length, stomata count, stomatal density, stomatal length, stomatal width, and pore length on both adaxial and abaxial leaf surfaces. A comparison indicated similarities in characteristics between sour and sweet tamarind, distinguishing them from the red variant. Furthermore, the data analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between Stomatal Index, stomatal density, and stomatal count across all variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice bean is an underutilized legume crop cultivated in Asia, and it is a good source of protein, minerals, and essential fatty acids for human consumption. Moreover, the leaves left over after harvesting rice bean seeds contain various biological constituents beneficial to humans and animals. In our study, we performed a de-novo transcriptome assembly of rice bean, characterized the WRKY transcription factors, and studied their response to aluminum stress. A total of 46.6 million clean reads, with a GC value of 43%, were generated via transcriptome sequencing. De novo assembly of the clean reads resulted in 90,933 transcripts and 74,926 unigenes, with minimum and maximum lengths of 301 bp and 24,052 bp, and N50 values of 1801 bp and 1710 bp, respectively. A total of 27,095 and 28,378 unigenes were annotated and subjected to GO and KEGG analyses. Among the unigenes, 15,593, 20,770, and 15,385 unigenes were identified in the domains of biological process, molecular function, and cellular component, respectively. A total of 16,132 unigenes were assigned to 188 pathways, including metabolic pathways (5500) and secondary metabolite biosynthesis (2858). Transcription factor analysis revealed 4860 unigenes from 98 different transcription factor families. For WRKY, a total of 95 unigenes were identified. Further analysis revealed the diverse response of WRKY transcription factors to aluminum stress. Collectively, the results of this study boost genomic resources and provide a baseline for further research on the role of WRKY transcription factors in aluminum tolerance in rice bean.