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Natural hazards have caused a great deal of trouble for mankind throughout history, and their effect on national economies has also been noted. Landslides, cloudbursts, earthquakes, and floods are all common natural hazards in the Himalayan region. Floods have proven to be the most destructive of them all. Floods have had a major effect on the socio-economic lives of those who live near river basins or low-lying areas. The study aims to see how floods affect people's socio-economic lives in sampled villages in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district. The study is based on categorical (qualitative) and computable (quantitative) data which is collected from 3 sampled villages ( Raini, Tapovan, Payya Chormi). The qualitative data is collected through in-depth interviews with local people during the post-flood period, and the quantitative data is collected through random sampling of the population in selected villages. Following data collection, MS Excel was used to analyze the data, and Arc-GIS was used to create the study map. The study's findings show that the recent flash flood in Chamoli district harmed the villages' social and economic conditions. 46% of people say floods are quite frequent in the sampled villages which in turn impacts their employment. 54% of people in the sampled village suffered from unemployment. It is also evident from the results that floods have caused infrastructure damage (84%) which in turn had impacted the children's education as well. To deal with such issues we should promote group engagement in disaster coping strategies by increasing individual participation through seminars about coping methods and also provision of emergency food, water, drugs, and shelter for those affected.

Citrus is growing commercially worldwide for its nutritious value and economical aspects. By 2030, citrus fruit demand will be more around 50 percent as human diet. However, the environmental stresses are badly affected citrus production and productivity as well as fruit quality. These factors are reduced citrus production by 30-60 per cent in traditional citrus growing area in the world due to the lack of suitable rootstocks. The polyploidy rootstocks can play pivotal role to mitigate the environmental impacts and sustainability in citriculture for vigor and fruit quality. Polyploid citrus rootstocks have great importance in crop improvement programmes due to their attributes to the higher vigor, dwarfism, resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses when compared to their diploid counterparts. They exhibit deep and thick root system with less number of secondary roots, more ABA synthesis, leathery and thick leaves, bigger sized stomata with less density, high antioxidant system etc. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to elucidate and discuss the importance of polyploidy rootstocks developed so far for various horticultural traits in citrus.

Performance of an inter-specific hybrid Fremont mandarin was assessed on different rootstocks in the hot arid regions of India as a potential scion species to expand citrus fruit availability in an arid region. Fremont scion attained superior growth and yield characteristics on Karna khatta rootstock by displaying the greatest plant canopy parameters followed by Rough lemon rootstock. However, the Pectinifera as well as the Troyer citrange resulted in dwarfness of the scion. The scion-rootstock compatibility indicators such as scion rootstock ratio, stionic difference and TCSA which were greatest in the Fremont/Pectinifera combination, confirm that the inhibited tree growth on Pectinifera rootstock was caused by intrinsic features of the rootstock rather than an incompatibility reaction. Furthermore, Karna khatta rootstock resulted in highest fruit yield and related traits followed by Rough lemon and Pectinifera rootstocks. The Pectinifera rootstock resulted in a similar response to all fruit physical attributes i.e., fruit weight, fruit diameter, fruit index and fruiting density, except fruit number. The fruit maturity of Fremont was obtained earliest on Pectinifera, while it was most delayed on Karna khatta and Rough lemon rootstocks. Fruit quality parameters on Pectinifera rootstock were superior to those of common rootstock species (Rough lemon or Karna khatta) including fruit juice content as well as its nutritional constituents like TSS, ascorbic acid, pH, total sugar, organoleptic taste, ripening index, lower content of acidity and rind thickness. The total AAE, total flavonoids, total phenol contents were also noticeably higher than those obtained on other rootstocks, except Troyer citrange. Overall, Fremont mandarin can be considered a promising scion in arid regions to extend the harvesting period of superior quality fruits, especially on dwarfing Pectinifera rootstock. It would further ease harvesting operations vis-a-vis possible attainment of a better micro-climate due to small tree stature and high-density orcharding.

Aim: The aim of the study was Identification and quantification of phenolic compounds, total flavonoides content and antioxidant potential of flower buds, foliages, bark and root of a perennial herb, Calligonum polygonoides (Phog) of Thar Desert. Methodology: The methanolic extracts of different plant parts of C. polygonoides were subjected to LC-MS/MS (Waters Acquity UPLC-PDA, TQD) analysis for phenolic identification and spectrophotometric assay of total phenolic and flavonoids content and total antioxidant activity was estimated. Results: A total of 15 phenolic compounds were identified and quantified, among which gallic acid content was abundant, followed by catechin. Besides these, the other major phenolic compounds detected in different plant parts were vanillic, chlorogenic acid, epicatechin, coumeric acid, catechol, vanillic acid, epicatechin and syringic acid. Extremely higher values were recorded for total phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant capacity. The values for phenol, flavonoids and total antioxidant activity in bark extracts were higher than that of clove extract. Interpretation: The identified phenolic compounds possess high antioxidant potential. These results provide scientific evidence for use of C. polygonoides as safe natural antioxidant compounds in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industry.

Few decades back, a Nano word with big promising has been precipitously implying itself into the world's realization and associates with everyday life, economics and globally consequences. Functionalization of textile polymers has been practiced by different techniques to confer new properties on to the fibre so as to enable their application in fields other than textile industry. Nanotechnology may deliver the better performances and functionality to the textile materials due to the high surface area and energy. Further, Nanoparticles can apply on the fabrics by coating method without affecting the comfort and feel of the fabrics. It has improved the various properties like ultra violet protection, antibacterial and stain proof etc. LBL techniques is used to produce a thin polymeric film in a controlled manner on a surface of fabrics by using of different size of molecular weights and charges of polyelectrolytes. The unique feature of this technique is that it forms a very thin layer on fabric surface (1-10 nm) as compared to other available techniques; thus, no deterioration of surface properties of the substrate on which they are deposited. Nano TiO2 and ZnO particles along with polyelectrolytes and produce PEM on the Nylon 66 substrate by using LBL technique to get the antimicrobial and Ultraviolet protection property.

Brassica juncea, a major oilseed crop, suffers substantial yield losses due to infestation by mustard aphids (Lipaphis erysimi). Unavailability of resistance genes within the accessible gene pool underpins significance of the transgenic strategy in developing aphid resistance. In this study, we aimed for the identification of an aphid-responsive promoter from B. juncea, based on the available genomic resources. A monosaccharide transporter gene, STP4 in B. juncea was activated by aphids and sustained increased expression as the aphids colonized the plants. We cloned the upstream intergenic region of STP4 and validated its stand-alone aphid-responsive promoter activity. Further, deletion analysis identified the putative cis-elements important for the aphid responsive promoter activity. The identified STP4 promoter can potentially be used for driving high level aphid-inducible expression of transgenes in plants. Use of aphid-responsive promoter instead of constitutive promoters can potentially reduce the metabolic burden of transgene-expression on the host plant.

Thaumatin-like protein (TLP) is the well-known sweetest protein which plays a crucial role in diverse developmental processes and different stress conditions in plants, fungi and animals. The TLP gene family is extensively studied in different plant species including crop plants. Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is an important cucurbit crop cultivated worldwide; however, the comprehensive information about the TLP gene family is not available in watermelon. In the present study, we identified the 29 TLP genes as gene family members in watermelon using various computational methods to understand its role in different developmental processes and stress conditions. ClaTLP gene family members were not uniformly distributed on 22 chromosomes. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the ClaTLP gene family members were grouped into 10 sub-groups. Further, gene duplication analysis showed thirteen gene duplication events which included one tandem and twelve segmental duplications. Amino acid sequence alignment has shown that ClaTLP proteins shared 16 conserved cysteine residues in their THN domain. Furthermore, cis-acting regulatory elements analysis also displayed that ClaTLP gene family members contain diverse phytohormone, various defense, and stress-responsive elements in their promoter region. The expression profile of the ClaTLP gene family revealed the differential expression of gene family members in different tissues and abiotic stresses conditions. Moreover, the expression profile of ClaTLP genes was further validated by semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR. Taken together, these results indicate that ClaTLP genes might play an important role in developmental processes and diverse stress conditions. Therefore, the outcome of this study brings forth the valuable information for further interpret the precise role of ClaTLP gene family members in watermelon.

A total of 15 phenolic compoundswere identified and quantified, amongwhich gallic acid content was abundant,followed by catechin. Besides these, theother major phenolic compounds detectedin different plant parts were vanillic,chlorogenic acid, epicatechin, coumericacid, catechol, vanillic acid, epicatechinand syringic acid. Extremely higher valueswere recorded for total phenolics,flavonoids and antioxidant capacity. Thevalues for phenol, flavonoids and totalantioxidant activity in bark extracts werehigher than that of clove extract.

Sucrose plays pivotal role in energy metabolism and regulating gene expression of several physiological processes in higher plants. Here, fourteen sucrose synthase (SUS) genes have been identified in the allotetraploid genome of Indian mustard, Brassica juncea. The identified SUS genes in B. juncea (BjSUS) were derived from the two-progenitor species, B. rapa and B. nigra. Intron-exon analysis indicated loss or gain of 1-3 introns in diversification of SUS gene family. Phylogenetic analysis revealed discrete evolutionary paths for the BjSUS genes, originating from three ancestor groups, SUS I, SUS II and SUS III. Gene expression study revealed significant variability in expression of the BjSUS paralogs across the different tissues. BjSUS genes showed transcriptional activation in response to defense hormones and a late response to wounding. Tissue and temporal specificity of expression revealed importance of specific SUS paralogs at different developmental stages and under different stress conditions. The study highlighted differential involvement of SUS paralogs in sucrose metabolism across the tissues and stress-responses, in a major oilseed crop B. juncea.

Indian gooseberry, Emblica officinalis popularly also known as Aonla,amla, amrit phal is found attacked various number of insect-pests causingconsiderable damage. In India, the major insect-pests reported from aonlaare shoot gall maker Betousa stylophora; leaf roller, Caloptilia(Garcillaria) acidula; hairy caterpillar, Selepa celtis; bark eatingcaterpillar, Indarbela quardrionotata; leaf roller, Tonica (Psorosticha)ziziphy; bag worm, Zeuzera sp.; fruit borer, Meridarchis sp.;pomegranate butter fly, Deudorix isocrates; fruit sucking moth, Achaeajanata; fruit midge, Clinodiplosis sp.; cow bug, Tricentrus congestus; plant hopper, Seliza truncate; spherical mealy bug, Nipaecoccus viridis;weevil, Myllocerus discolour; termite, Odontotermes obesus; leaf miner,Phyllocnistis citrella and hairy caterpillars, Euproctis fraterna.&nbsp

The cucurbitaceous family has comprised with diverse economically important cucurbits. It primarily comprised of 118 genera and 825 species which being consumed as food worldwide since the domestication of the plants. In India, cucurbits are being grown throughout regions of the country including hot semi-arid and arid zones. With the advent of genomic breakthrough, a large number of genomic and biotechnological interventions have been developed in cucurbitaceous crops. The plenty of molecular markers are available in cucurbits and these markers were deployed to assess the genetic diversity and mapping of the QTLS/genes of interest. The success in development of genomic tools may happens by genome sequencing of mostly important cucurbitaceous crops such as watermelon, cucumber, muskmelon, bottle gourd, pumpkins. Transgenic and non-transgenic plants were developed in various cucurbitaceous crops by employing of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and CRISPR/CAS9 approach, respectively. Thus cucurbitaceous crops have been considerably exploited at molecular level and biotechnological interventions were developed for crop improvement. However, a comprehensive report in cucurbitaceous crops regarding genomic and biotechnological developments is not available in public domain. Therefore, in the present review, we have collected the information related to genomics and biotechnology in cucurbits and emphasized on some successful interventions.

Tree species in the arid and semi-arid regions use various strategies to combat drought stress. Ziziphus nummularia (Burm. f.) Wight et Arn., native to the Thar Desert in India, is highly drought-tolerant. To identify the most drought-tolerant ecotype of Z. nummularia, one ecotype each from semi-arid (Godhra, annual rainfall >750 mm), arid (Bikaner, 250–350 mm) and hyper-arid (Jaisalmer

Novel genes from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are required for effective deployment in agriculture, human health, and forestry. In an improvement over conventional PCR-based screening, next generation sequencing (NGS) has been used for identification of new genes of potential interest from Bt strains, but cost becomes a constraint when several isolates are to be sequenced. We demonstrate the potential of a DNA pooling strategy known as pool deconvolution to identify commercially important toxin genes from 36 native Bt isolates. This strategy is divided into three steps: (a) DNA pooling, (b) short read sequence assembly followed by gene mining, and (c) host isolate identification. With this approach, we have identified insecticidal protein (ip) genes including nine three-domain (3D) cry genes, three cyt-type genes, three mtx genes (mosquitocidal toxin), and one bin and vip-type gene each. Three cry-type and three cyt-type genes were cloned, out of which, two cry-type genes, ip11 and ip13, were named as cry4Ca2 and cry52Ca1, respectively by the Bacillus thuringiensis nomenclature committee ( http://www.biols.susx.ac.uk/Home/Neil_Crickmore/BT/ ). Our results show that the pool deconvolution approach is well suited for high-throughput gene mining in bacteria.

The cucurbitaceous family has comprised with diverse economically importantcucurbits. It primarily comprised of 118 genera and 825 species which beingconsumed as food worldwide since the domestication of the plants. In India,cucurbits are being grown throughout regions of the country including hot semi-arid and arid zones. With the advent of genomic breakthrough, a large numberof genomic and biotechnological interventions have been developed incucurbitaceous crops. The plenty of molecular markers are available incucurbits and these markers were deployed to assess the genetic diversity andmapping of the QTLS/genes of interest. The success in development of genomictools may happens by genome sequencing of mostly important cucurbitaceouscrops such as watermelon, cucumber, muskmelon, bottle gourd, pumpkins.Transgenic and non-transgenic plants were developed in various cucurbitaceouscrops by employing of Agrobacterium-mediated transformationandCRISPR/CAS9 approach, respectively. Thus cucurbitaceous crops have beenconsiderably exploited at molecular level and biotechnological interventionswere developed for crop improvement. However, a comprehensive report incucurbitaceous crops regarding genomic and biotechnological developments isnot available in public domain. Therefore, in the present review, we havecollected the information related to genomics and biotechnology in cucurbitsand emphasized on some successful interventions.&nbsp

Background: Calligonum polygonoides is an endemic plant species, belongs to Polygonaceae family, native to the "Thar Desert" of India. It is highly tolerant to multiple stresses with dominant biomass and phytochemical producer under extreme niche. It has significant ethnopharmacological applications, but not yet scientifically validated. Materials and Methods: The methanolic extract of C. polygonoides flower bud was subjected to gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) analysis and antioxidant potential assay was done on different radical scavenging scales. The phytochemicals were identified based on retention time and matching their mass spectra to spectra in NIST 14 library. Results: The results revealed the presence of fatty acids, phenolics, terpenoides, flavanoids, alkaloids, tannins, steroids, ketones, esters, and amino acid derivatives, which comprises 93 compounds. Most of the detected compounds have been proved to possess important bio-activities such as anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, anti-diabetic, hepatoprotective, cardiovascular, antioxidant, and antimutagenic. Interestingly, some compounds such as furan-2,5-dimethyl, 2,3-dihydro-2,5-dihydroxy-6 -methyl-4H-pyran-4-one (DDMP), dehydromevalonic lactone, deoxyspergualin, 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, benzeneethanol-4-hydroxy-, quinic acid, lauric acid, linolenic acid, and squalene were detected which have proved pharmaceuticals applications against major diseases such as cancer, diabetics, cardiovascular, and some other chronic diseases. Furthermore, the methanolic extract also attributed very high level of antioxidant potential on cupric reducing antioxidant capacity, ferric reducing antioxidant power, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, and phosphomolybdenum assay scales. Conclusion: The identified phytochemicals with ample pharmaceutical application explore the worthiness of this endemic plant species. Along with pharmaceutical, it has an immense scope in nutraceutical and functional food industry. These medicinal importance advised for its conservation and artificial regeneration, to sustain the agro-ecological balance of Thar Desert of India.

Bottle gourd [ Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standl.] is an easy growing climber that has made great impact due to its medicinal importance. For estimating genetic diversity among accessions in breeding programs, SSR markers are an essential tool, but for the species that have meager number of these markers available, their development is a challenging aspect. In the present study a microsatellite-enriched library was constructed from the genotype ‘Pusa Santushti’. Sequencing of 100 putative SSR-positive clones from a total of 220 clones provided 44 SSR repeats and primer pairs could be designed for a total of 40 SSRs. Of these, 30 (75%) primer pairs yielded scorable amplicons and seven (17.5%) primers showed polymorphism among 40 bottle gourd accessions. The 20 polymorphic alleles from seven polymorphic markers were used for UPGMA dendrogram and population structure analysis; both revealed that five populations are present in the 40 accessions that did not group consistent with their geographical origins probably due to gene flow. The results of this study provide 30 novel SSR markers that would be valuable in agriculture via plant breeding, phylogenetic relationships, cultivar identification and linkage mapping in cultivated bottle gourd as well as related cucurbits species. Significantly, 49 partial genome sequences were also isolated that can be helpful in further gene based studies in this vegetable crop.

Brassica juncea is a chief oil yielding crop in many parts of the world including India. With advancement of molecular techniques, RT-qPCR based study of gene-expression has become an integral part of experimentations in crop breeding. In RT-qPCR, use of appropriate reference gene(s) is pivotal. The virtue of the reference genes, being constant in expression throughout the experimental treatments, needs to be validated case by case. Appropriate reference gene(s) for normalization of gene-expression data in B. juncea during the biotic stress of aphid infestation is not known. In the present investigation, 11 reference genes identified from microarray database of Arabidopsis-aphid interaction at a cut off FDR ≤0.1, along with two known reference genes of B. juncea, were analyzed for their expression stability upon aphid infestation. These included 6 frequently used and 5 newly identified reference genes. Ranking orders of the reference genes in terms of expression stability were calculated using advanced statistical approaches such as geNorm, NormFinder, delta Ct and BestKeeper. The analysis suggested CAC, TUA and DUF179 as the most suitable reference genes. Further, normalization of the gene-expression data of STP4 and PR1 by the most and the least stable reference gene, respectively has demonstrated importance and applicability of the recommended reference genes in aphid infested samples of B. juncea.

Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum L.) is known for its high nutritive value, dietary fiber, antioxidant activity, as well as for drought tolerance. It is primarily grown as a grain in India and in Africa it is either cultivated or harvested in wild. Neutral—ISSR (inter simple sequence repeat) as well as functional—SCoT (start codon targeted) and SRAP (sequence-related amplified polymorphism) markers were employed for genetic diversity studies in 96 accessions of kodo millet collected from diverse regions of India. The genetic diversity parameters like average bands per primer, Polymorphic information content, Nei’s gene diversity and Shannon’s information index of 11.22, 9.69; 0.12, 0.11; 0.15 ± 0.14, 0.13 ± 0.13 and 0.26 ± 0.21, 0.22 ± 0.19 was observed with neutral and functional markers respectively. Neutral markers were showing higher values as compared to functional markers for the genetic diversity parameters as discussed. Structure based analysis placed all the accessions into four sub-groups not strictly according to their geographical locations. The accessions from Bihar followed by Karnataka were showing high diversity based on both the marker systems useful for designing exploration, conservation and germplasm enrichment strategies. Further, the set of diverse accessions selected based on these markers would serve as potential sources of unique alleles and may be exploited in future for enhancement and utilization of kodo millet germplasm. Usage of African gene pool and wild species for broadening the genetic base of Indian kodo millet was also suggested based on the present studies.