Identification of SSR markers which could differentiate blast disease resistance accessions in finger millet (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Eleusine coracana</Emphasis> (L.) Gaertn.)

Microsatellites also known as SSR are the class of repetitive DNA sequences present throughout the genome of all eukaryotic organisms. The present study identified SSRs using biotinylated beads capture method. Ten sets of primers were designed based on sequences having at least (CT)10 repeats. A total of 27 accessions having a mix of both African (resistant) and Indian origin (resistant and susceptible) were assessed using 30 microsatellite markers. Amplification products were obtained for all 30 primers studied; 25 out of these primers were found to be polymorphic with 13 primers showing two alleles per locus. The current study identified markers which could differentiate between resistant and susceptible accessions and also segregate accessions based on geographical region. These informative SSR markers can be used in finger millet genetic improvement projects.     

Rehabilitation of saline soil with biogas digestate,humic acid,calcium humate and their amalgamations

ABSTRACT

Amelioration of saline soil is a requisite in order to increase crop productivity. A soil incubation study was performed for 60 days using digestate, humic acid, calcium humate and their combinations to investigate the influence on physical, chemical, microbial and enzyme activities of saline soil. Overall, digestate combined with calcium humate followed by humic acid treatments have shown their potency in decreasing the soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and sodium ion (Na⁺) concentration, and increase in potassium ion (K ⁺), calcium ion (Ca ²⁺), magnesium ion (Mg ²⁺), mean weight diameter (MWD), soil enzyme activities, microbial biomass carbon (MBC), MBC: microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) and soil respiration than control. The digestate, humic acid individually and their amalgamation evidenced greater MBN among all the treatments. The digestate alone efficiently improved the soil properties than humic acid and calcium humate individual groups except for the MWD where it is pronounced more in the latter groups. The greater metabolic quotient (qCO₂) was observed in control than organic matter amended treatments indicating the stress conditions. The increase in water-extractable organic matter (WEOM) with minimal aromaticity (specific ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm-Suva ₂₅₄) in integrated amendments comprising groups, laid the ground reason to improve the properties of saline soil. Therefore, this study concludes that the fusion of fresh and humified substrates could facilitate reclamation.