99 research outputs found
Develop and optimize quick crop protocols for sorghum and pearl millet & Rancidity in pearl millet
No full textTrip report of Dr Pooja Bhatnagar to Corteva HQ (agricultural division of DowDuPont) in Johnston in the United states
NO to drought-multifunctional role of nitric oxide in plant drought: Do we have all the answers?
No full textNitric oxide (NO) is a versatile gaseous signaling molecule with increasing significance in plant research due to its association with various stress responses. Although, improved drought tolerance by NO is associated greatly with its ability to reduce stomatal opening and oxidative stress, it can immensely influence other physiological processes such as photosynthesis, proline accumulation and seed germination under water deficit. NO as a free radical can directly alter proteins, enzyme activities, gene transcription, and post-translational modifications that benefit functional recovery from drought. The present drought-mitigating strategies have focused on exogenous application of NO donors for exploring the associated physiological and molecular events, transgenic and mutant studies, but are inadequate. Considering the biphasic effects of NO, a cautious deployment is necessary along with a systematic approach for deciphering positively regulated responses to avoid any cytotoxic effects. Identification of NO target molecules and in-depth analysis of its effects under realistic field drought conditions should be an upmost priority. This detailed synthesis on the role of NO offers new insights on its functions, signaling, regulation, interactions and co-existence with different drought-related events providing future directions for exploiting this molecule towards improving drought tolerance in crop plants
Aquaporins A Promising Gene Family for Tackling Stresses for Crop Improvement
No full textAquaporin (AQP) discovery allowed the understanding of a new notion about the dynamics of rapid and controlled water transport across membranes at the rate exceeding that of water diffusion. The small basic intrinsic proteins define the fourth plant AQP subgroup that was first uncovered from genome sequence analysis. Plant AQPs expressions are often triggered or suppressed by the symbiotic association of micro-organisms. A powerful tool in elucidating the AQP function is given by reverse genetics that can also reveal unexpected functions of water channel proteins, which benefit our understanding of sequence–structure and structure–function relationships in plants. The AQP family is a set of genes whose functions are intuitively perceived as important; much isolated information has been accumulated, yet their function is far from being understood in living plants, and we still have a long way to go to fully understand the significance of these proteins
Genome editing technologies in sorghum
No full textGenomes editing tools such as TALEN (transcription activator-like effector nuclease) and CRISPR/Cas9 technologies have emerged as two robust additions in the breeder’s tool kit that hold tremendous potential to precisely and efficiently modify the genetic makeup of crops for specific agronomic traits. Not only these have tremendous potential for narrowing the gaps between DNA sequence and phenotype, these critical set of tools in the breeders toolbox will greatly assist in moving towards “trait based” rather than “methods based” crop improvement that will have far reaching implications for agricultural production systems. Under this project we have developed genome-editing platforms for sorghum under which a set of simple vectors for high-efficiency and precise gene editing to enable basic research and agricultural applications in this dry land cereal crop
Genetic transformation of pigeonpea: An overview
No full textBiotechnology over the years has
emerged as a promising tool to overcome
biotic and abiotic constraints in crop species
that lack the required traits for crop
improvement through conventional and
molecular breeding approaches. New
engineering tools are now available not only
for single gene traits, but also to engineer
multiple genes or plant regulatory machinery
for driving the expression of different stressresponsive
genes. Here, we discuss the
recent progress and current status of
transgenic technology in pigeonpea towards
developing host plant resistance to various
biotic and abiotic stresses and its use in the
improvement of this important pulse cro
Establishing genome editing platforms for efficient traits and genetic-gain optimizations in sorghum
No full textThe utilization of de novo site-directed variations is an attractive alternative for expanding the genetic base of a crop species, particularly for high-value traits. The development of efficient and reliable ways to incorporate useful genes and to precisely modify plant genomes has been a long-standing goal for crop breeders and biologists.
Towards this genome editing innovations could be the “game changers” to speed introduction of genotypes with valuable new traits that are not achievable in reasonable timeframes using conventional/ modern breeding techniques. In this context, precise gene editing will be developed in sorghum applications for inclusion in the breeder’s toolbox for crop improvement
Identification and Validation of Reference Genes and Their Impact on Normalized Gene Expression Studies across Cultivated and Wild Cicer Species
No full textQuantitative Real-Time PCR (qPCR) is a preferred and reliable method for accurate quantification
of gene expression to understand precise gene functions. A total of 25 candidate
reference genes including traditional and new generation reference genes were selected
and evaluated in a diverse set of chickpea samples. The samples used in this study
included nine chickpea genotypes (Cicer spp.) comprising of cultivated and wild species,
six abiotic stress treatments (drought, salinity, high vapor pressure deficit, abscisic acid,
cold and heat shock), and five diverse tissues (leaf, root, flower, seedlings and seed). The
geNorm, NormFinder and RefFinder algorithms used to identify stably expressed genes in
four sample sets revealed stable expression of UCP and G6PD genes across genotypes,
while TIP41 and CAC were highly stable under abiotic stress conditions. While PP2A and
ABCT genes were ranked as best for different tissues, ABCT, UCP and CAC were most stable
across all samples. This study demonstrated the usefulness of new generation reference
genes for more accurate qPCR based gene expression quantification in cultivated as
well as wild chickpea species. Validation of the best reference genes was carried out by
studying their impact on normalization of aquaporin genes PIP1;4 and TIP3;1, in three contrasting
chickpea genotypes under high vapor pressure deficit (VPD) treatment. The chickpea
TIP3;1 gene got significantly up regulated under high VPD conditions with higher
relative expression in the drought susceptible genotype, confirming the suitability of the
selected reference genes for expression analysis. This is the first comprehensive study on
the stability of the new generation reference genes for qPCR studies in chickpea across
species, different tissues and abiotic stresses
Evaluation of Sorghum [Sorghumbicolor(L.)] Reference Genes in Various Tissues and under AbioticStress Conditions for Quantitative Real-Time PCRD at a Normalization
No full textAccurateandreliablegeneexpressiondatafromqPCRdependsonstablereferencegeneexpressionforpotentialgenefunctionalanalyses.Inthisstudy,15referencegeneswereselectedandanalyzedinvarioussamplesetsincludingabioticstresstreatments(salt,cold,waterstress,heat,andabscisicacid)andtissues(leaves,roots,seedlings,panicle,andmatureseeds).Statisticaltools,includinggeNorm,NormFinderandRefFinder,wereutilizedtoassessthesuitabilityofreferencegenesbasedontheirstabilityrankingsforvarioussamplegroups.Forabioticstress,PP2AandCYPwereidentifiedasthemoststablegenes.Incontrast,EIF4αwasthemoststableinthetissuesampleset,followedbyPP2A;PP2Awasthemoststableinallthesampleset,followedbyEIF4α.GAPDH,andUBC1weretheleaststablyexpressedinthetissueandallthesamplesets.Theseresultsalsoindicatedthattheuseoftwocandidatereferencegeneswouldbesufficientfortheoptimizationofnormalizationstudies.Tofurtherverifythesuitabilityofthesegenesforuseasreferencegenes,SbHSF5andSbHSF13geneexpressionlevelswerenormalizedusingthemostandleaststablesorghumreferencegenesinrootandwaterstressed-leaftissuesoffivesorghumvarieties.ThisisthefirstsystematicstudyoftheselectionofthemoststablereferencegenesforqPCR-relatedassaysinSorghumbicolorthatwillpotentiallybenefitfuturegeneexpressionstudiesinsorghumandothercloselyrelatedspecies
Accomplishments and challenges of pigeonpea breeding research in India
No full textigeonpea [ Cajanus cajan (L. ) Millsp. ] is a prot einrich pulse crop which can grow well under soil moist ure limit ed environment s. The
crop can play a signif icant role in meet ing t he challenges of global f ood securit y under t he looming t hreat s of climat e change, soil
degradat ion and rising product ion cost s. This would be possible t hrough f ast t rack breeding of new cult ivars wit h high and st able
perf ormances. This paper reviews t he achievement s of pigeonpea breeding research and suggest s t he growt h t raject ory f or f ut ure
programmes relat ed t o breeding of high yielding pure line and hybrid cult ivars. I n t he past f ew decades, t hree pigeonpea breeding
milest ones have made t heir mark. These include development of (i) medium mat uring disease resist ant pigeonpea cult ivars f or great er
yield and st abilit y, (ii) high yielding early mat uring pigeonpea cult ivars f or area expansion involving new product ion niches, and (iii) a
t rend set t ing hybrid breeding t echnology f or breaking t he decadesold low yield plat eau. These innovat ions are showing t heir posit ive
impact on pigeonpea product ion and product ivit y and hold promise f or achieving nut rit ional securit y of masses in t he count r
Three FLOWERING LOCUS Tlike genes function as potential florigens and mediate photoperiod response in sorghum
No full textSorghum is a typical short-day (SD) plant and its use in grain or biomass production in temperate
regions depends on its flowering time control, but the underlying molecular mechanism
of floral transition in sorghum is poorly understood.
Here we characterized sorghum FLOWERING LOCUS T (SbFT) genes to establish a molecular
road map for mechanistic understanding. Out of 19 PEBP genes, SbFT1, SbFT8 and
SbFT10 were identified as potential candidates for encoding florigens using multiple
approaches.
Phylogenetic analysis revealed that SbFT1 clusters with the rice Hd3a subclade, while SbFT8
and SbFT10 cluster with the maize ZCN8 subclade. These three genes are expressed in the leaf
at the floral transition initiation stage, expressed early in grain sorghum genotypes but late in
sweet and forage sorghum genotypes, induced by SD treatment in photoperiod-sensitive
genotypes, cooperatively repressed by the classical sorghum maturity loci, interact with
sorghum 14-3-3 proteins and activate flowering in transgenic Arabidopsis plants, suggesting
florigenic potential in sorghum.
SD induction of these three genes in sensitive genotypes is fully reversed by 1 wk of longday
treatment, and yet, some aspects of the SD treatment may still make a small contribution
to flowering in long days, indicating a complex photoperiod response mediated by SbFT
genes
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