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A field study was conducted from 2021 to 2023 in a rice–wheat cropping system in the Terai agro-ecological zone of West Bengal, India, using different management practices, i.e., tillage (conventional tillage, CT, and zero tillage, ZT), crop residue (R), and plant growth-promoting bacteria (B). This study was a part of long-term research on resource conservation technology (conservation agriculture, CA), undertaken on a research farm in Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari (Cooch Behar), West Bengal. The project was established in 2006 in acidic alluvial soil. The aim of this study was to evaluate rice–wheat productivity, nutrient uptake, soil quality, and profitability after the 16th and 17th crop cycles under the above-mentioned management practices. The results revealed that the pooled yield of rice grain and straw was significantly higher under the CT + R + B treatment than under the other treatments (ZT, ZT + B, ZT + R, ZT + R + B, CT, CT + B, and CT + R). However, the wheat grain and straw yields were significantly greater under the ZT + R + B treatment than under other treatments. The system's grain yield and straw yield were significantly higher under the CT + R + B treatment, on par with ZT + R + B, compared to the other treatments. Nutrient uptake (nitrogen, N; phosphorus, P; and potassium, K) was increased by retaining R and inoculating B compared to the sample without R and without B. Soil properties, including organic carbon, available N, available P, and available K, were improved in all the treatments compared to the initial values, but the impact was greater in the treatments with R and B than in those without R and without B. In the 5–10-cm soil layer, the above-mentioned soil properties were also improved over the initial (2006) values by 37, 126, 65 and 60%, respectively, by applying the best treatment (ZT + R + B). In economic terms, the benefit–cost ratio was significantly higher under the CT + R + B treatment for rice crops (2.99) and ZT + R + B for wheat crops (3.37). Therefore, we can conclude that, after 17 years of cultivation, for rice, CT-based treatments performs better than ZT-based treatments; meanwhile, for wheat cultivation, ZT-based treatments produces greater yields than CT-based treatments in the Terai agro-ecological zone of West Bengal, India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a significant role in plant response to different abiotic stresses. Thus, identification of abiotic stress-responsive miRNAs holds immense importance in crop breeding programmes to develop cultivars resistant to abiotic stresses. In this study, we developed a machine learning-based computational method for prediction of miRNAs associated with abiotic stresses. Three types of datasets were used for prediction, i.e., miRNA, Pre-miRNA, and Pre-miRNA + miRNA. The pseudo K-tuple nucleotide compositional features were generated for each sequence to transform the sequence data into numeric feature vectors. Support vector machine (SVM) was employed for prediction. The area under receiver operating characteristics curve (auROC) of 70.21, 69.71, 77.94 and area under precision-recall curve (auPRC) of 69.96, 65.64, 77.32 percentages were obtained for miRNA, Pre-miRNA, and Pre-miRNA + miRNA datasets, respectively. Overall prediction accuracies for the independent test set were 62.33, 64.85, 69.21 percentages, respectively, for the three datasets. The SVM also achieved higher accuracy than other learning methods such as random forest, extreme gradient boosting, and adaptive boosting. To implement our method with ease, an online prediction server "ASRmiRNA" has been developed. The proposed approach is believed to supplement the existing effort for identification of abiotic stress-responsive miRNAs and Pre-miRNAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassland is a highly dynamic land use system and it provides vital ecosystem services, mainly consisting of carbon storage in the tropics and subtropics. The objective of this study was to delineate grassland in India according to soil characteristics and carbon pools in comparison to native forestland, and to discuss management strategies for improving soil carbon (SC) storage in grassland. A total of 675 paired datasets from studies on grassland and forestland in India generated during the period of 1990–2019 were used for meta-analysis study. The analysis shows that soil pH and bulk density (BD) in grasslands were greater by 1.1% and 1.0% compared to forestlands while soil organic carbon (SOC) declined by 36.3% (p < 0.05). Among carbon pools, labile carbon (LC), non-labile carbon (NLC), and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) were 35.5%, 35.3% and 29.5% lower, respectively, in the grassland compared to the forestland. Total carbon (TC) was 35.0% lower in the grassland than the forestland (p < 0.05). Soil carbon stocks (SCS) were 32.8% lower in the grassland compared to the forestland. In the grassland, MBC/SOC (%) from the surface layer and subsurface layer were lower by 2.4% and 8.5%, respectively compared to forestland. The percentage effect size was found to have decreased from surface soil to subsurface soil. Relative SCS loss and carbon dioxide equivalent emission from the grassland compared to forestland were 15.2% and 33.3 Mg ha−1, respectively (p < 0.05). Proper management strategies like agroforestry, legume introduction, silvipastoral system, fertilization, irrigation, and quality grass species could improve SC storage and reduce SCS loss in grassland. Overall, this study gives an idea that conversion of native forestland into grassland in India has declined the SC content and hence it is necessary to adapt proper strategies to manage the soil-atmosphere carbon balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgrounds and Aims: We previously demonstrated that serum hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in HBV infected humanized mice exhibited a highly dynamic multiphasic kinetic pattern from infection initiation to steady-state. Here, we investigated whether this pattern is consistent across different HBV clones or in the presence of hepatitis D virus (HDV) co-infection. Methods: We analyzed early serum viral kinetics using 26 HBV genotype C (GtC) mono-infected mice [clones: PXB, Hiroshima GtC CL4 (CL4) and Hiroshima GtC CL5 (CL5)] and four HBV CL4/HDV genotype one co-infected mice. Results: The HBV kinetics observed with clones CL4 and CL5 were similar to that previously defined in HBV PXB infected mice. Additionally, no significant differences in HBV DNA levels were observed between HBV mono-infected and HBV/HDV co-infected mice through 4 weeks post-inoculation (p.i.). However, HBV DNA levels at 6 weeks p.i. in HBV/HDV co-infected mice were significantly lower than those in HBV mono-infected mice (P = 0.002), consistent with HDV suppression of chronic HBV. Conclusions: HBV infection initiation is multiphasic across multiple viral clones and is not altered by HDV co-infection. The latter suggests that higher HDV titers (>8 log IU/mL) and/or longer duration of HDV infection might be needed to trigger HDV-induced suppression on HBV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over years of intensive cultivation and imbalanced fertilizer use, the soils of the Indian subcontinent have become deficient in several nutrients and are impoverished in organic matter. Recently, this region has started emphasizing a shift from inorganic to organic farming to manage soil health. However, owing to the steadily increasing demands for food by the overgrowing populations of this region, a complete shift to an organic farming system is not possible. The rice–wheat cropping system (RWCS) is in crisis because of falling or static yields. The nations of this region have already recognized this problem and have modified farming systems toward integrated nutrient management (INM) practices. The INM concept aims to design farming systems to ensure sustainability by improving soil health, while securing food for the population by improving crop productivity. Therefore, this paper was synthesized to quantify the impact and role of INM in improving crop productivity and sustainability of the RWCS in the context of the Indian subcontinent through meta-analysis using 338 paired data during the period of 1989–2016. The meta-analysis of the whole data for rice and wheat showed a positive increase in the grain yield of both crops with the use of INM over inorganic fertilizers only (IORA), organic fertilizers only (ORA), and control (no fertilizers; CO) treatments. The increase in grain yield was significant at p < 0.05 for rice in INM over ORA and CO treatments. For wheat, the increase in grain yield was significant at p < 0.05 in INM over IORA, ORA, and CO treatments. The yield differences in the INM treatment over IORA were 0.05 and 0.13 Mg ha−1, respectively, in rice and wheat crops. The percent yield increases in INM treatment over IORA, ORA, and CO treatments were 2.52, 29.2, and 90.9, respectively, in loamy soil and 0.60, 24.9, and 93.7, respectively, in clayey soil. The net returns increased by 121% (INM vs. CO) in rice, and 9.34% (INM vs. IORA) and 127% (INM vs. CO) in wheat crop. Use of integrated nutrient management had a positive effect on soil properties as compared to other nutrient management options. Overall, the yield gain and maintenance of soil health due to INM practices over other nutrient management practices in RWCS can be a viable nutrient management option in the Indian subcontinent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]