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Nutrient deficiencies lead to various health issues and are common worldwide. Potato germplasm is a rich source of natural variations and genetic variability present in it can be exploited for developing nutrient-rich high-yielding potato varieties. In this study, variations in the yield, dry matter (DM) and mineral nutrients concentrations were evaluated in both peeled and unpeeled tubers of 243 highly diverse tetraploid potato accessions. These were raised under field conditions for two consecutive years. The germplasm studied has a wider range of variations in peeled tubers DM (13.71–27.80%), Fe (17.08–71.03 mg/kg), Zn (9.55–34.78 mg/kg), Cu (2.13–13.25 mg/kg), Mn (7.04–25.15), Ca (117.4-922.5 mg/kg), Mg (656.6-1510.6 mg/kg), S (1121.3-3765.8 mg/kg), K (1.20–3.09%), P (0.21–0.50%) and Mo (53.6–1164.0 ppb) concentrations compared to popular Indian potato varieties. Higher nutrient concentrations in whole tubers compared to tuber flesh suggest that these are present in high concentration in the tuber peripheral layers and peeling off the tubers results in the loss of nutrients. Highest loss due to peeling off the tubers was observed in Fe (35.63%) followed by Cu (22.80%), Mn (21.69%), Ca (21.27%), Mg (12.89%), K (12.75%), Zn (10.13%), and Mo (9.87%). The GCV and PCV for all the traits in peeled tubers ranged from 9.67 to 29.91%, and 13.84 to 43.32%, respectively. Several significant positive correlations were observed among the parameters and the first two principal components accounted for 39.37% of total variations. The results of this study will pave a way for the development of nutrient-rich high-yielding potato varieties. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-022-01197-1.

The enzyme prolyl endopeptidase is a member of serine peptidase group belonging to the MEROPS peptidase family S9 of clan SC. It is popularly known for its preferential cleavage of small peptides usually 30 amino acid long at the carboxyl end of proline residues. This characteristic cleavage property makes prolyl endopeptidase a therapeutic in treating gluten allergy which is triggered by 33 amino acid long (gliadin α-2) or 26 amino acid long peptides rich in proline and glutamine residues. Digestion of gliadin peptides to a length lesser than 9 amino acids can impede an autoimmune response and thus gluten sensitivity in genetically susceptible individuals. To address this issue, we have investigated the prolyl endopeptidase interactions with gliadin peptide by docking studies. Based on the docking exercises, interacting residues of endopeptidase can be further subjected to introduction of in silico mutations. A series of favourable mutations sites such as N477, I478, N483 and A682 in human PEP corresponding to which sites A548, G549, A555 and I737 have been identified respectively in Candidatus sulfotelmatobacter sp. sbA7, a non-pathogenic acidophilic human PEP homolog. Simulation of single substitution mutation at site A548 was tested capable to catalyse complete digestion of immunogenic gliadin α-2 peptide.

Abstract: Fungal diseases cause more deaths as compared to combined deaths due to malaria and tuberculosis. There are around 3.8 million fungal species, but only about 300 of them are pathogenic to humans. Invasive fungal diseases are majorly caused by Aspergillus, Candida, Cryptococcus, Histoplasma, Mucorales, and Pneumocystis. It has been estimated that around 1.5 million people die because of these infections across the globe. The emergence of resistance against the major classes of antifungal drugs poses a serious threat to public health. Moreover, the commonly used antifungal drugs are loaded with side-effects. Some of them are nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic, cause cardiomyopathy, and in acute cases, cytotoxicity. Hence, it is important to seek novel molecules that can be safe and effective antifungal drugs. Naturally occurring molecules in plants and various microorganisms can be a safe and effective alternative to the existing antifungal drugs. In this review, the role of various phytochemicals, such as alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, and phenols, as potential antifungal agents has been discussed. Similarly, naturally occurring molecules in other microorganisms like algae, bacteria, and various other fungi have been summarized. The information discussed in this review can be useful in the identification of novel antifungals.

Simvastatin (SIM) is known to lower cholesterol levels and is speculated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. In this study, the bioanalytical method of SIM SNEDDS was developed and validated for the estimation of SIM in the rat's plasma using reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. C-18 reverse-phase octadecylsilyl column was used to validate the method. Atorvastatin (ATV) was used as an internal standard. Gradient elution was performed using acetonitrile and water in a ratio of 90:10 with a flow rate of 1 mL/min. The chromatogram of these both compounds SIM and ATV was detected at a wavelength of 238 and 244 nm. The drugs were extracted from the plasma samples using the protein precipitation method. The retention time of SIM and ATV was found to be 3.720 and 8.331 min, respectively. The developed method was found to be linear in the range between 50 and 250 ng/mL, with a regression coefficient (r

Background: Halari donkey is a distinct breed of India that comes from the community of migrants from the regions of Halar, Bharwad and Rabaris of Gujarat. They have a brief history of travel and migration from arid and semi-arid regions of India. The population of Halari donkeys has fallen drastically in past and is further declining; therefore, these donkeys may be recognized as a threatened breed in near future. Methods: The genetic diversity of this breed was determined using the D-loop gene of 542 bp size belonging to mitochondrial DNA and compared with the complete mitochondrial genome of Equus asinus (NC_001788.1). In the present study, a total of 8 haplotypes were identified with haplotype diversity of 0.8152 and nucleotide diversity of 0.1281 indicating that the population has high genetic diversity. The Median-joining network tree and neighbour-joining trees revealed close clustering of the Halari donkeys. Result: The high nucleotide and haplotype diversity suggest Halari donkeys as a unique population and proper management and conservation is the need of the hour.

Iron deficiency is a serious global issue, particularly in developing countries. Individuals are suffering from iron deficiency due to monotonous consumption of cereal based diets, which are unable to provide adequate amounts of iron. The majority of these people cannot afford a diversified diet, iron supplements and iron fortified food products. The development of iron biofortified potatoes could provide a sustainable solution to this problem. The leading strategies for crop biofortification include agronomic practices, plant breeding and transgenic approaches. Previous reports have highlighted that agronomic practices are not very effective for iron biofortification of potato. However, extensive genetic variability for iron content in potato gene pool makes it an ideal crop for iron biofortification through genetic approaches. Therefore, genotypes with high iron content could be used as parental lines in potato breeding programs. The screening of genes or QTLs responsible for high iron content in these genotypes could pave the way for the development of iron biofortified potatoes through marker-assisted selection, speed breeding and transgenic approaches.

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The frequently changing climate has resulted in plants facing more biotic and abiotic stresses than ever before, leading to yield and quality losses. The global population is increasing at an alarming rate and feeding the world has become a huge challenge. Being a staple crop of many countries, potato can help to overcome this challenge. A comprehensive knowledge of physiology, biochemistry and molecular genetics of development and wound healing of potato tuber periderm (skin) is very important as the periderm protects the tubers from skinning injuries, dehydration, bruising and biotic and abiotic stresses. Improvements in tuber periderm are essential to enhance tuber quality and shelf life and reduce financial losses. In this paper, we have reviewed the protective roles of tuber periderm layer in response to stress and injuries. Moreover, molecular regulation of native and wound-induced periderm formation has been discussed. Since suberization is an important aspect of tuber periderm formation and wound healing, we have also reviewed the key genes involved in this process. This review will pave the way for obtaining potato tubers resistant to various abiotic and pathogenic stresses.

Circadian clock regulated CDF (CYCLING DOF FACTORs) are a cluster of transcriptional repressors, that accentuates a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) for earliness in potato. Earliness in the plant is a desirable agronomic trait for higher productivity and also enable it to withstand various biotic and abiotic stresses. Since potato is a temperate crop, its tropicalization in the Indian subcontinent is a major agricultural challenge. StCDF1 induce a photoperiod-dependent tuberization pathway by interacting with other molecular regulators such as CONSTANS (StCO1/2) and StSP6A. The present study was conducted to elucidate the allelic variation, expression, role in flowering and tuberization of StCDF1 in contrasting tuberization behaviour of diverse Indian potato cultivars, Kufri Surya (KS) and Kufri Chandramukhi (KCM). Our results confirmed two allelic forms of StCDF1 viz. CDF1.2 and CDF1.3. Their expression profile suggests a higher upregulation of both CDF1.2 and CDF1.3 expression at dawn (6:00 am) than noon (12:00 pm). Virus-Induced Gene Silencing was used to validate the role of these alleles with respect to earliness and tuberization in KS. Real-time confirmed the upregulation of StCO and StSP5G and downregulation of StSP6A in VIGS plants. Phenotypic observations suggested delayed tuberization and a low tuber number in VIGS plants. This present study confirms the allelic variation, the importance and functionality of StCDF1.2 in conferring earliness in tetraploid potato cultivars.

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) ranked third most important crop and ranked first among the non-cereal crops. Further, its demand is increasing because of its high-industrial value and population bla...

Hidden hunger is leading to extensive health problems in the developing world. Several strategies could be used to reduce the micronutrient deficiencies by increasing the dietary uptake of essential micronutrients. These include diet diversification, pharmaceutical supplementation, food fortification and crop biofortification. Among all, crop biofortification is the most sustainable and acceptable strategy to overcome the global issue of hidden hunger. Since most of the people suffering from micronutrient deficiencies, have monetary issues and are dependent on staple crops to fulfil their recommended daily requirements of various essential micronutrients. Therefore, increasing the micronutrient concentrations in cost effective staple crops seems to be an effective solution. Potato being the world’s most consumed non-grain staple crop with enormous industrial demand appears to be an ideal candidate for biofortification. It can be grown in different climatic conditions, provide high yield, nutrition and dry matter in lesser time. In addition, huge potato germplasm have natural variations related to micronutrient concentrations, which can be utilized for its biofortification. This review discuss the current scenario of micronutrient malnutrition and various strategies that could be used to overcome it. The review also shed a light on the genetic variations present in potato germplasm and suggest effective ways to incorporate them into modern high yielding potato varieties.

The advancements in the field of bioinformatics provide a huge amount of information regarding plant genomes and transcriptomes. However, information related the function of most of these genes is ...

Plant diseases bring radical problem in the agriculture sector. Phytopathogens mediate diseases that pose considerable loss of yield and quality deterioration which eventually bring down the crop yield and the rural economy. The present study is, thus, focused on developing the optimized protocol for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by green chemistry approach and revealing their antimicrobial potential against phytopathogens. The synthesis of AgNPs was carried out by using aqueous plant extracts of three medicinal and aromatic plants, namely Allium cepa (onion), Allium sativum (garlic) and Zingiber officinale (ginger). AgNPs were characterized by various analytical techniques including UV–visible spectra, PSA, FTIR, TEM and XRD analysis. The AgNPs were spherical with size ranging from 1 to 10 nm, crystalline in nature and relatively stable up to 3 months after synthesis. The AgNPs conferred strong antimicrobial activity against selective bacterial and fungal phytopathogens. The antimicrobial activity of the AgNPs was observed against Erwinia sp., Pseudomonas syringe, Bacillus megaterium, Fusarium graminearum, F. avenaceum and F. culmorum. The effective concentration against bacterial pathogens was found to be between 50 µg/ml (garlic/Erwinia sp.) and 130 µg/ml (onion/B. megaterium). In the case of fungal pathogens, the range was 90 µg/ml (garlic/F. avenaceum) to 110 µg/ml (onion/F. graminearum) for an effective dose.

Metagenomics employs present-day genomics mechanization to microbial communities in their innate habitats, omitting the obligation of culturing. Assembly of metagenomics sequence components is an arduous step, which involves quality check, assembly, binning, mapping, re-assembly, gene annotation and visualization. Numerous metagenomics scrutiny conduits along with visualization means are being refined from time to time to aid aforementioned process. This chapter furnishes a compendium of metagenomics applications in crop improvement via understanding and mitigating plant diseases through their appropriate management and control. Here, the role of metagenomics for plant disease management is illustrated with suitable examples for understanding microbial systems and microbiomes, plant-microbial interactions, disease diagnostics and phytopathology studies. Also, applications of metagenomics in isolation of novel microbial species for disease control, production of protective compounds for exogenous application and plant breeding for disease resistance and for production of disease-resistant genetically modified crops are elaborated. The chapter will be efficacious for students and researchers involved in plant stress and genomic studies and also to the coterie of scientists who have discerned the potentiality of metagenomics and are traversing the strategies involved.

International audience; The use of medicinal plant species for different therapeutic effects is well recognized around the globe. Nardostachys jatamansi (D.Don) DC. (Family: Caprifoliaceae Juss.), commonly known as Indian spikenard is a critically endangered medicinal plant which grows at high altitudes in the alpine and sub-alpine regions of the Himalayas. Its medicinal use is well-recognized in the Bhutanese, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Nepalese and Tibetan medicine. Moreover, its medicinal properties are well established in traditional medicines including Ayurveda, Ben-Cao- Shi-Yi, Homer's Iliad, the Old Testament, as in conventional systems. The increasing national and international demand of N. jatamansi, mostly for the rhizomes (underground tissue), as well as illegal/unsustainable harvesting has brought this valuable species to the edge of extinction. Therefore, more research input including in vitro biotechnological approaches is required to ensure its sustainable utilization and long-term conservation. Further research is also needed to improve our current knowledge about its conservation status, clinical relevance, and bioactive components. This review comprehensively summarizes the currently available information on the ethnomedicinal uses, pharmacology, phytochemistry, trade value and potential role of modern plant biotechnology tools for the conservation of this high value plant. (c) 2020 SAAB. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Plant diseases caused by microbial pathogens limit crop production and economic growth. Fungal pathogens cause a negative agronomic impact on agriculture-based industry; their mycotoxins affect both the yield and quality of the crop. Thus, the current need for environmentally friendly agronomic solutions has led to the development of RNA interference (RNAi) technology. RNAi has emerged as a promising approach in agricultural research for plant disease management. It is a gene-silencing technology induced by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), which can be either injected in the pathogen exogenously or produced endogenously by transgenic plants. This dsRNA can cause the death of the pathogen or affect its viability. Thus, RNAi is likely to be the new approach underlying the next generation of resistant transgenic plants.

Diatoms are one of the unicellular algae with a rare presence of unaltered, durable, transparent and species-specific silica frustules that persist even after cell death in the deposits of water bodies. Diatom has high capacity for absorption of metals for maintaining the water quality and high rate of multiplication. These characters promoted the use of this microbial biomass for effluent detoxification. These diatoms can also solve metal toxicity problems in aquatic ecosystems in the water polluted environment. In the present review, the focus is on several nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, iron and silica) that are essential for the growth of diatoms at very low concentrations, but most of them are toxic at high concentrations. It also shows the relationship between heavy metal stress and lipid body induction which may be a valuable indicator for the evaluation of heavy metal contamination of fluvial ecosystems. HIGHLIGHTS Diatoms are eukaryotic, unicellular, photosynthetic, silica-containing microscopic algae with distinct geometric forms Diatoms are used for biomonitoring purposes for taxonomic and morphological properties of ecosystems, community and human disturbances Diatoms are also the primary producer of oil in the world responsible for fixing 25 % of CO2 and 30 % of crude oil diatoms Many diatoms are appropriate for lipid development up to 70 % of their body volume and are investigated for biofuel as a hotspot GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Wheat (Triticum spp.) is one of the important cereals in the world. Discoloration of wheat grains and accumulation of by product due to polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activities is an important problem faced by food industries. In this study, seeds of 115 Indian bread wheat cultivars representing different six agroclimatic zones were screened for their PPO activities using different PPO substrates, like caffeic acid, catechol, tyrosine and L-DOPA. Among these substrates, L-DOPA was found as best substrate to detect PPO activity. Highest PPO activity with L-DOPA was found in wheat cultivar HS 207, while lowest was detected in HP 1633. Among different agroclimatic zones, seeds of 40% of the cultivars representing NWPZ showed low PPO activity (

In modern agriculture, horticultural crops are an integral component and play a vital role in sustaining human life. Although conventional approaches have contributed to the enhanced agricultural production, innovative breeding technology is required to further increase horticultural and nutritious crop worldwide. Genome editing has revolutionized the plant world by precisely edit the targeted modification of plant genome, including model plants, agricultural and horticultural crops. Recent advances in Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR/associated protein 9 (Cas9) genome editing tool have emerged as an efficient targeted modification in most fruit, vegetable and ornamental plants thus promising to accelerate crop improvement due to its high accuracy and efficiency. Several reports of the development of improved fruit, vegetable and ornamental plants using CRISPR/Cas9 tool has been documented. CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing efficiency depends on several factors such as promoter sequence, RNA polymerase specificity, Cas9 expression, types of vectors, guide RNA expression etc. In the present review, we summarize the applications of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system in fruit, vegetable and ornamental crops. This article also provides its origin, mechanism, an existing pitfall and future possibilities for bright future in development of horticultural crops.

Heat stress as a yield limiting issue has become a major threat for food security as global warming progresses. Being sessile, plants cannot avoid heat stress. They respond to heat stress by activating complex molecular networks, such as signal transduction, metabolite production and expressions of heat stress-associated genes. Some plants have developed an intricate signalling network to respond and adapt it. Heat stress tolerance is a polygenic trait, which is regulated by various genes, transcriptional factors, proteins and hormones. Therefore, to improve heat stress tolerance, a sound knowledge of various mechanisms involved in the response to heat stress is required. The classical breeding methods employed to enhance heat stress tolerance has had limited success. In this era of genomics, next generation sequencing techniques, availability of genome sequences and advanced biotechnological tools open several windows of opportunities to improve heat stress tolerance in crop plants. This review discusses the potential of various functional genomic approaches, such as genome wide association studies, microarray, and suppression subtractive hybridization, in the process of discovering novel genes related to heat stress, and their functional validation using both reverse and forward genetic approaches. This review also discusses how these functionally validated genes can be used to improve heat stress tolerance through plant breeding, transgenics and genome editing approaches.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the most important leguminous crops grown predominantly in tropical and temperate areas. The beneficial effects of chickpea on soil health and human health are well recognized. The area under chickpea production in India is 9.6 million ha with an average production of 8.8 million tons. Yield of chickpea is largely affected by exposure to both abiotic and biotic stresses. It has been observed that insects and diseases cause around 50–100% yield loss in chickpea in temperate regions. Among various diseases caused by a variety of pathogens, fungal diseases have shown to have devastating effects on the chickpea yield. Among various fungal diseases, the diseases caused by Fusarium oxysporum (fusarium wilt) and Ascochyta rabiei (Ascochyta blight) are the most common root and foliar diseases, respectively, causing severe loss to crop yield. Identification of pathogen, variation in genome and pathology, development of disease-resistant varieties, and organizing the resistant genes in different regions play an important role in fungal disease management. Implication of conventional methods is both time-consuming and slow process. Development of new genomic tools and resources aid the employment of genomics selection in improvement of chickpea. This will provide greater insight to the breeding program to work with high precision and accuracy to develop resistant chickpea cultivars.

Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the fourth most produced noncereal crop worldwide. Among various biotic stresses, late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans is the most devastating disease. It affects both potato foliage in the field and tuber in the storage which can absolutely destroy a crop, producing a 100% crop loss. The occurrence and rigorousness of late blight caused by Phytophthora can be reduced by adopting effective and durable control methods. The use of conventional control methods (cultural practices and fungicides) was limited due to their inefficiency and non-biodegradable nature. Control of the disease has been achieved up to a great extent through the use of fungicides, but their extensive application is harmful for the environment. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find alternative eco-friendly crop protection methods. The use of microorganisms as biological control agents owing to their different modes of actions (i.e. antagonistic effects or induction of plant defence mechanisms) has proved to be a potential approach. Another economical and eco-friendly remedial measure for plant diseases being adopted involves the use of nanoparticles against plant pathogens. Providing genetic resistance against pests and diseases is another crop protection approach. Multiple resistance (R) genes have been introduced in potato varieties to provide durable resistance to late blight. Genetic modification using cisgenes is preferable as it is a feasible and highly efficient approach with low risks and high societal acceptability. Accumulation of new virulent P. infestans strains decreases the effectiveness of R-genes. Therefore, the loss of function in susceptible gene via gene silencing is the emerging approach which helps in exploring plant-pathogen interactions and provides potential strategies for disease control. RNA silencing without altering the plant genome overcomes the risk associated with transgenic plants.

Glutenins, the polymeric proteins are composed of high molecular weight (HMW) and low molecular weight (LMW) glutenin subunits. High molecular weight glutenin subunit (HMW-GS) plays a key role in determining bread making quality. The HMW-GS encoded by Glu-1 loci (GluA1, GluB1 and GluD1) are highly polymorphic. Thus it is very important to identify the alleles at Glu-1 loci for all three genomes for wheat quality improvement. In the present study 53 Indian wheat genotypes were evaluated for HMW-GS composition using PCR-based DNA markers. In total, two alleles (Ax2*, Ax1 or Axnull) at Glu-A1, four allele/allelic pairs (Bx7, Bx7 + By8, Bx7 + By9, Bx17 + By18) at Glu-B1 and two allelic pairs (Dx2 + Dy12 and Dx5 + Dy10) at Glu-D1 were identified using diagnostic DNA markers. Allele or allelic pair Ax2* (62.3 %) at Glu-A1, Bx7 + By8 (64 %) at Glu-B1 and Dx2 + Dy12 (58.5 %) at Glu-D1 were present most frequently in wheat genotypes taken for study. Moreover, the allelic combination Ax2*, Bx17 + By18 and Dx5 + Dy10 exhibited highest bread loaf volume in comparison to other allelic combinations studied. The set of markers used here thus represents a useful alternative for screening of HMW-glutenin allele (s) for improvement of bread making quality in Indian wheat genotypes.

Global biomass demand for industrial applications is ever increasing especially in biofuels and pulp industries. Poplar is likely to have great biological advantages over the other forest trees which include small genome size, large number of species, rapid juvenile growth, ease of clonal propagation, easy recovery of genetic transformants, and available genome draft. Wide and sustainable farming of rapidly growing trees such as poplars may supplement to attain the requirement of renewable resources. This chapter covers the progress in both basic and applied studies in poplar genetic tailoring. Certain advices are given for future direction of the research in poplar genetic tailoring so as to achieve the needs of environmental cleansing system and the timber industries. Emerging new thoughts for designing wood improvement approaches are discussed.