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The current study sought to investigate the influence of chitosan biopolymer against microbial decay in tomato. In the present study, bulk-chitosan at different concentrations (0.01, 0.04, 0.08, 0.12, 0.16, 0.20% w/v) along with control were evaluated on tomato variety ՙDev՚ by dipping fruits for 6 min and stored at ambient temperature (27ºC±2). Bulk-chitosan at 0.16% was found most effective to prevent microbial decay and maintain sensory evaluation from day 1 to days 21 as compared to control. Based on the aforementioned results and comparative evaluation of different doses of bulk-chitosan, we concluded that chitosan is very effective at less concentration and thus exert minimum chemical load on the treated tomatoes. Therefore, it may claim that chitosan biopolymer have potential to protects tomato against microbial decay.

Herbal plants have been the primary source of medicines for humans since ancient times, and currently around eighty per cent of global population depends on traditional medical system. World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that the international market value for herbal products is approximately equivalent to $6.2 billion till the date and is believed to reach up to $5 trillion at the end of 2050. The main objective of the study is to identify the traditional uses of ashwagandha root extracts for health and longevity, keeping focus on pharmaceutical and biochemical scientific evidence to support the validity. National and international journals have been examined for concrete evidence.

Environment fluctuations have become the greatest threat to global food security. Of various abiotic stress factors, aridity hampers the most yield contributing attributes. In the context of agriculture, term “aridity” refers to a protracted period of insufficient precipitation, having detrimental influence on crop development and overall biological output. A sustained drought has considerable negative effects on crops and livestock, including the reduced production, destruction of property, and livestock sell-offs. Consequently, plants themself exert various kinds of defensive mechanisms to combat the ill effects of climate change. For example, plants with small leaves, benefit from aridity as part of their strategy for modifying the soil to water shortages and nutrient restrictions. Furthermore, low genetic diversity among significant crop species, together with ecological productivity limits, must be addressed in order to adapt crops to episodic drought spells in the coming days. A deeper understanding of the molecular and genetic underpinnings of the most important intrinsic adaptation responses to drought stress seems to be beneficial for gene engineering as well as gene-based expression investigations in plant systems under hostile environment. Recently, molecular markers and “omics” have opened a huge opportunity to identify and develop specific gene constructs governing plant adaptation to environmental stress.

Yield is a polygenic character, usually depends on its various contributing traits like days to 50% flowering, plant height, and panicle length as well as panicle girth. A study was conducted during kharif 2018 to evaluate the relationship between grain yield and its components in pearl millet using correlation and path analysis studies. In the current study, significant genotypic and phenotypic correlations were found among five yield contributing traits in eighteen pearl millet hybrids. The traits including days to 50% flowering, plant height, and panicle length were found to have positive correlation with grain yield per plant that implied the importance of those traits in selection of high yielding hybrids. Grain yield per plant was used as a dependent character in path-coefficient analysis at the genotypic level. Plant height and panicle length were the independent variables (cm). The highest positive and direct effect was found for days to 50 percent flowering (0.9946) followed by panicle diameter (cm) (0.5726). Pearl millet having deep root system are often found to survive even in various stressful conditions including water stress. These characteristics have made it popular in dry and semi-arid regions around the world; nevertheless, compared to other major cereals, less work has been put into the study of climate-resilient characteristics of pearl millet. We have revealed here some basic ideas of correlation between the grain yield of pearl millet with its yield contributing constituents under drought condition.

Nitrogen (N), being the most limiting macroelement for optimal plant growth and development needs synthetic N fertilizer usage for uplifting crop yields; nevertheless, an excessive and inefficient use of N fertilizer is a global concern incurring high production costs, environment pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, developing crop plants with high nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is an essential research target to achieve a better agricultural sustainability. NUE being a complex trait depends on our understanding of genetics (G), environment (E), management (M), and their interrelationships (G x E x M). NUE improvement is preceded by key processes such as nitrogen capture, utilization efficiency, nitrogen partitioning, trade-offs between yield and quality aspects, as well as interactions with the capture and utilization of other nutrients. An in-depth knowledge can be attained on NUE mechanisms through the UK Wheat Genetic Improvement Network project (http://www.wgin.org.uk/) using an integrated strategy that look into the physiological, metabolic, molecular, and genetic aspects influencing NUE in wheat. The current book chapter highlights the recent progress in understanding and improving NUE in wheat, focussing on N impact on plant morphology and agronomic performances, using a combination of approaches, including whole-plant physiology and quantitative, forward and reverse genetics.

Quorum sensing is a bacterial cell-cell communication process that regulates gene expression. The search and binding of the autoinducer molecule (AHL)-bound LuxR-type proteins to specific sites on DNA in quorum-sensing cells in Gram-negative bacteria is a complex process and has been theoretically investigated based on a discrete-state stochastic approach. It is shown that several factors such as the rate of formation of the AHL-bound LuxR protein within the cells and its dissociation to freely diffusing AHL, the diffusion of the latter in and out of the cells, positive feedback loops, and the cell population density play important roles in the protein target search and can control the gene regulation processes. Physical-chemical arguments to explain these observations are presented. Our calculations of the dynamic properties are also supplemented by Monte Carlo computer simulations. Our theoretical model provides physical insights into the complex mechanisms of protein target search in quorum-sensing cells.

Transition paths refer to the time taken by molecules to cross a barrier separating two molecular conformations. In this work, we study how memory, as well as inertial contribution in the dynamics along a reaction coordinate, can affect the distribution of the transition-path time. We use a simple model of dynamics governed by a generalized Langevin equation with a power-law memory along with the inertial term, which was neglected in previous studies, where memory effects were explored only in the overdamped limit. We derive an approximate expression for the transit-time distribution and discuss our results for the short- and long-time limits and also compare it with known results in the high friction (overdamped) limit as well as in the Markovian limit. We have developed a numerical algorithm to test our theoretical results against extensive numerical simulations.

Protein-DNA interactions are important for all biological processes and involve the process of proteins searching for and recognizing specific binding sites on the DNA. Many aspects of the mechanism of the protein search for targets on DNA are not well understood. One important problem is the effect of DNA conformation on the protein search dynamics. Using a theoretical method based on a discrete-state stochastic approach, we obtained an analytical description of the dynamic properties. We investigated a system with two DNA conformers. It was found that the average search time on one DNA conformer via 1D or 3D motions depended on the dynamics of the search process on the other DNA conformer.