Nutritional evaluation of the supplementary value of low-cost and locally available foods to a poor rice or ragi diet: V. Carotene utilisation of ten selected combinations

Carotene utilisation of combinations of ten low-cost local foods was tested in this investigation, along with two unsupplemented basal diets, one rice-based and the other ragi-based. Among the rice-based diets, diet 4 consisting of sweet potato, horse gram, sesame, amaranthus, and ground-nut flour came out as the best combination in terms of carotene utilisation with 64.20 µg retinol/g liver in rats. Next to diet 4, diet 5 was best in relation to the utilisation of carotene. Though its content of carotene was the lowest among the rice diets and it provided the lowest intake to the rats over a period of 21 days, its comparatively higher quality protein may have increased the utilisation of carotene from this diet.Among the ragi diets, diet 8 stood best with 57.30 µg retinol/g liver in rats. The components of this combination were sweet potato, field beans, sesame, drumstick leaves, ground-nut flour and cotton-seed flour as supplements to the basal ragi diet. Diet 11, which was adjudged to be the best in protein quality, ranked second among the ragi-based diets in carotene utilisation.     

Analysis of genetic variability and agronomic performance of Indian lettuce (Lactuca indica L.)

Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution - Lactuca indica L. is an undomesticated medicinal crop in the Asteraceae family. The study was carried out to identify elite genotypes for lettuce cultivation...     

Landraces-potential treasure for sustainable wheat improvement

Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution - Agricultural production is facing serious threat from various biotic and abiotic stresses specifically under climatic challenges. It is becoming increasingly...     

Association of staygreen trait with canopy temperature depression and yield traits under terminal heat stress in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

The presence or absence of the staygreen trait was screened for 3 consecutive years in 963 wheat lines from various sources, including Indian and CIMMYT germplasm. Staygreen was assessed at the late dough stage by visual scoring (0–9 scale) and the leaf area under greenness (LAUG) measurement. Around 5.5 % of the lines were staygreen, 10.5 % were moderately staygreen, and the remaining lines showed little or no expression of the trait. One hundred lines showing diversity for the staygreen trait were sown under three different sowing dates (timely, late and very late) for 3 consecutive years in three replications to determine the association of staygreen with heat tolerance. There was a decline in yield, biomass, grain filling duration (GFD) and 1,000 grain weight (TGW) under late and very late sowing conditions owing to terminal stress at anthesis and later stages. However, the decline was relatively less in staygreen genotypes compared to the non-staygreen (NSG) ones. The correlation study showed that LAUG and canopy temperature depression (CTD) were strongly correlated. LAUG and CTD were also significantly associated with grain yield, GFD and biomass. To further confirm the association of the staygreen trait with terminal heat stress, individual F₂-derived F₇ progenies from the cross of the ‘staygreen’ lines with NSG were evaluated for yield and yield traits at the three sowing dates. In each cross, the staygreen progenies showed a significantly smaller decline in yield and TGW under heat stress than the NSG progenies. These results appear to suggest an association between the staygreen trait and terminal heat stress and, thereby, that the staygreen trait could be used as a morphological marker in wheat to screen for heat tolerance.     

Effect of supplementing different concentrations of organic trace minerals on performance, antioxidant activity, and bone mineralization in Vanaraja chickens developed for free range farming

An experiment was conducted to determine the performance, antioxidation activity, and bone mineral content in Vanaraja chickens fed diet supplemented with organic trace minerals (oTM) at reduced levels. A total of 360 day-old chicks were selected and distributed randomly into 60 battery brooder pens. A maize–soybean meal-based control diet was supplemented with inorganic trace minerals (iTM), i.e., Mn, Zn, Fe, and Cu at 50, 45, 40, and 7.5 mg/kg, respectively, and varying concentration of oTM, i.e., Zn, Mn, Cu, Fe, I, Se, and Cr at 45, 50, 7.5, 40, 2, 0.30, and 0.25 mg/kg (diet II); 33.75, 37.50, 5.63, 30.0, 1.50, 0.23, and 0.19 mg/kg (diet III); 22.5, 25.0, 3.75, 20.0, 1.0, 0.15, and 0.13 mg/kg (diet IV); 18.0, 20.0, 3.0, 16.0, 0.80, 0.12, and 0.10 mg/kg (diet V); and 13.5, 15.0, 2.25, 12.0, 0.60, 0.09, and 0.08 mg/kg (diet VI), respectively. Each diet was allotted randomly to ten replicates and fed ad libitum from 1 to 42 days of age. The body weight at 14, 28, and 42 days was not affected by reducing the supplementation of oTM concentration in the diets. Similarly, feed intake at 14 days of age was not affected but reduced significantly (P?<?0.05) in the group fed diet IV (50 % oTM) compared to that in the other groups. The higher feed conversion ratio and increased concentration of Ca, P, and trace minerals in tibia were evident in the group fed oTM-supplemented diets compared to the diet containing iTM. Activities of glutathione peroxidase and ferric reducing ability in plasma did not differ in the groups fed on lower concentration of oTM compared to those fed on diet I (control diet). Therefore, it is concluded that the dietary supplementation of trace minerals can be reduced greatly when supplemented as organic form without affecting growth and antioxidant status in Vanaraja chickens.     

Mining of rice blast resistance gene Pi54 shows effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms on phenotypic expression of the alleles

The rice blast resistance gene Pi54 (formerly Pi-k ^h ) isolated from indica rice line Tetep confers broad spectrum resistance to different strains of Magnaporthe oryzae in India. In this study, we performed PCR based allele mining for blast resistance gene Pi54 from six cultivated rice lines and eight wild rice species to understand its structural variation and its impact on the phenotypes. Sequence analysis indicates presence of more variation between cultivated and wild species (35–90 %) than variation found among cultivated species (1–20 %). Structural analysis of alleles showed presence of variable number of Open Reading Frames (0–2) principally having point mutations in the leucine rich repeats (LRR) regions. The Ka/Ks ratio of LRR region was >1, which shows the effect of selection pressure at this domain. The Pi54 alleles have 142 polymorphic sites with average nucleotide diversity of 0.04522. The K_a/K_s ratio of coding region ranged from 0 to >1 and Tajima’s D test showed negative as well as Darwinian selection within the alleles, which corresponded well with their phenotypic reaction to M. oryzae. The results obtained in this study shows divergent nature of Pi54 allele in wild species and land races of rice. The resistance alleles identified in this study can be used in effective management of rice blast disease through gene pyramiding.     

Comparative analysis of innate immune parameters of the skin mucous secretions from certain freshwater teleosts, inhabiting different ecological niches

The innate immune system of fish is considered first line of defense against a broad spectrum of pathogens. Being a component of innate immunity and lying at the interface between fish and the aqueous environment, skin mucus plays a frontier role in protecting fish from infections. In the present study, skin mucus of Cirrhinus mrigala, Labeo rohita, Catla catla, Rita rita and Channa punctata, inhabiting different ecological niches, was analyzed to characterize potential innate immune factors such as lysozyme, proteases, phosphatases, esterase and sialic acid. The enzyme activities were high in bottom dweller species, C. punctata and C. mrigala, and low in clean water inhabiting species, L. rohita and C. catla. An inverse relationship was observed between the level of enzyme activity and the sialic acid content in these fish species. In R. rita, however, the levels of all factors were found to be low. Zymographic analysis with labeled Micrococcus lysodeikticus revealed three isoforms of lysozyme in C. punctata and two in each species, C. mrigala, L. rohita and C. catla. In R. rita, lysozyme could not be detected. Gelatin zymography revealed that serine and metalloproteases were the major mucus proteases in all fish species investigated. In addition, trypsin-like protease and Ca(++)-specific serine proteases were observed in skin mucus. Increased knowledge of these parameters could be useful in understanding the role of skin mucus in the innate immune system of fish species inhabiting different ecological niches.     

Reactions of hydrated electrons with triazine derivatives in aqueous medium

A study is made of the kinetics and mechanism of the reaction of radiolytically produced hydrated electron (e-(aq)) with some triazine derivatives [1,3,5-triazine (T), 2,4,6-trimethoxy-1,3,5-triazine (TMT), 2,4-dioxohexahydro-1,3,5-triazine (DHT), 6-chloro N-ethyl N-(1-methylethyl)-1,3,5-triazine 2,4-diamine (atrazine, AT), and cyanuric acid (CA)] in aqueous medium using pulse and steady-state radiolysis techniques. The second-order rate constants were determined from the pseudo first-order decay of e(-)(aq) in the presence of triazines at 720 nm, and the values obtained with T, TMT, AT, and CA are in the order of 10(9) dm(3) mol(-1) s(-1) and that of DHT was 10(8) dm(3) mol(-1) s(-1) at pH 6. The transient absorption spectra from the reaction of e(-)(aq) with T and TMT are characterized by their lambda(max) at 310 nm, and those of DHT and CA are around 280 and 290 nm, respectively. However, a very weak and featureless absorption spectrum is obtained from AT. On the basis of the spectral evidence and on the quantitative electron transfer from the transient intermediates to the oxidant, methyl viologen (MV(2+)), the intermediate radicals are assigned to N-protonated electron adducts (with the unpaired spin density at carbon) of triazines. The degradation profiles, monitored as the disappearance of parent triazine concentrations as a function of dose, obtained with AT, TMT, CA, and DHT, highlight the potential use of e-(aq) in the degradation of triazines.     

Molecular characterization and SNP identification in HSPB6 gene in Karan Fries (Bos taurus x Bos indicus) cattle

Tropical Animal Health and Production - Heat shock proteins (HSPs) act as molecular chaperones which are preferentially transcribed in response to severe perturbations of the cellular homeostasis...