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Zero hunger and good health could be realized by 2030 through effective conservation, characterization and utilization of germplasm resources1. So far, few chickpea (Cicer arietinum) germplasm accessions have been characterized at the genome sequence level2. Here we present a detailed map of variation in 3,171 cultivated and 195 wild accessions to provide publicly available resources for chickpea genomics research and breeding. We constructed a chickpea pan-genome to describe genomic diversity across cultivated chickpea and its wild progenitor accessions. A divergence tree using genes present in around 80% of individuals in one species allowed us to estimate the divergence of Cicer over the last 21 million years. Our analysis found chromosomal segments and genes that show signatures of selection during domestication, migration and improvement. The chromosomal locations of deleterious mutations responsible for limited genetic diversity and decreased fitness were identified in elite germplasm. We identified superior haplotypes for improvement-related traits in landraces that can be introgressed into elite breeding lines through haplotype-based breeding, and found targets for purging deleterious alleles through genomics-assisted breeding and/or gene editing. Finally, we propose three crop breeding strategies based on genomic prediction to enhance crop productivity for 16 traits while avoiding the erosion of genetic diversity through optimal contribution selection (OCS)-based pre-breeding. The predicted performance for 100-seed weight, an important yield-related trait, increased by up to 23% and 12% with OCS- and haplotype-based genomic approaches, respectively., Whole-genome sequencing of 3,171 cultivated and 195 wild chickpea accessions is used to construct a chickpea pan-genome, providing insight into chickpea evolution and enabling breeding strategies that could improve crop productivity.

The main focus of this review is to discuss the current status of the use of GWAS for fodder quality and biofuel owing to its similarity of traits. Sorghum is a potential multipurpose crop, popularly cultivated for various uses as food, feed fodder, and biomass for ethanol. Production of a huge quantity of biomass and genetic variation for complex sugars are the main motivations not only to use sorghum as fodder for livestock nutritionists but also as a potential candidate for biofuel generation. Few studies have been reported on the knowledge transfer that can be used from the development of biofuel technologies to complement improved fodder quality and vice versa. With recent advances in genotyping technologies, GWAS became one of the primary tools used to identify the genes/genomic regions associated with the phenotype. These modern tools and technologies accelerate the genomic assisted breeding process to enhance the rate of genetic gains. Hence, this mini-review focuses on GWAS studies on genetic architecture and dissection of traits underpinning fodder quality and biofuel traits and their limited comparison with other related model crop species.

Background: Production of biofuels from lignocellulosic crop biomass is an alternative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The biofuel production involves collecting biomass, breaking down cell wall components followed by the conversion of sugars to ethanol. The lingo-cellulosic biomass comprises 40-50% cellulose, 20-30% hemicellulose, and 10-25% lignin. Sorghum is a widely adapted energy crop for biofuel production. Biomass with low lignin, high cellulose, and high hemicellulose contents are exploited to attain maximum biofuel production efficiency. Resistance to lodging, pest, disease, and abiotic stresses related to cell wall components is well documented, and quantitative trait loci were identified to understand these traits' genetic correlation. Selection for reduced lignin and increased cellulose content in stover can increase the ethanol yield. The Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) is a complementary approach to evaluating the marker and phenotype associations among large diversity panels. Single nucleotide polymorphisms were scanned to identify loci associated with the traits of interest. In this study, the GWAS was performed on 245 sorghum minicore genotypes to analyze agronomic traits (days to 500lowering, fresh biomass yield, dry biomass yield) and cell wall components (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin). Further, in-silico validation of the candidate genes was performed in a global gene expression data from large-scale RNA sequencing studies in sorghum available in the NCBI GEO database was used. Objective: The objectives of this study are to evaluate native variations in biofuel related agronomic traits and stalk cell wall components and to identify significant SNPs or loci related to the cell wall components. Methods: In this article, an association mapping panel, comprising of 245 sorghum minicore germplasm accessions, was evaluated during two post rainy seasons of 2013 and 2014, and observations were recorded on the whole plot- for days to 50% flowering, fresh biomass yield (tha-1), and dry biomass yield (tha-1). The biomass of sun-dried plants from both seasons was collected separately, chopped, dried, and ground to powder. The cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin contents were determined in the powdered. The content of each of these three components in sorghum was expressed in percent of dry matter. The data on agronomic traits and composition analysis was subjected to Analysis of Variance. For the current study, we remapped the raw GBS data with the sorghum assembly version v3.1. A total of 27,589 SNPs were obtained with a minor allele frequency (MAF)>1% and missing data Results: High broad-sense heritability was exhibited for all the traits in individual seasons along with significant genotype × environment interaction across seasons except lignin. Association mapping with a P-4 revealed genomic regions associated with the- (i) agronomic traits (days to 50% flowering, fresh and dry biomass), and (ii) biochemical traits (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) associated with biofuels production, in individual seasons. Twelve significant SNPs for flowering time, 30 fresh biomass yields, and 24 for dry biomass yield, 25 for cellulose, 7 for hemicellulose, and 21 for lignin were identified. CIRCOS plot was constructed to identify and analyze similarities and differences while comparing the sorghum genome with different crops. For cellulose high similarity of >80% was observed for all sorghum gene sequences with the maize homologs. The overall similarity of sorghum homologs with foxtail millet was >65%, for Arabidopsis from 30.6% to 48.6%, and rice from 28.2% to 92.8%. SNPs for hemicellulose displayed maximum similarity to foxtail millet followed by maize. The sequence similarity of lignin SNPs in sorghum was highest with the maize genome followed by Arabidopsis. Both rice and foxtail millet showed >55% similarity to the sorghum genome. Conclusion: This study reports large variability for agronomic and biofuel traits in the sorghum minicore collection with high heritability. The genetic architecture of cell wall components using the GWAS approach was studied and candidate genes for each component were annotated. These results give a better understanding of the genetic basis of the sorghum cell wall composition. The association analysis identified regions of the genome that could be targeted to enhance the quality of biomass and yield along with the desired composition promoting breeding efficiency for enhanced biofuel yield.

Anthracnose is a prevalent disease of mungbean in Asian countries and Sub-Saharan Africa. It is caused by multiple Colletotrichum species. The high levels of anthracnose resistance in mungbean have not been studied in depth in India, but genetic resistance is desired. In this study, we identified the causal agent of mungbean anthracnose in two regions of India as Colletotrichum truncatum through morphological and molecular methods. A set of 296 mungbean mini-core accessions developed by WorldVeg was screened under a natural disease pressure from July to September (kharif season) in 2016, 2017, and 2018 in Hyderabad (a hot spot for anthracnose) to identify anthracnose resistance. Based on disease severity scores, 22 accessions were consistently anthracnose resistant under the categories of immune, highly resistant, and resistant with scores ranging from ≥1.0 to ≤3.0 during the period of study. Furthermore, based on the agronomic performance, anthracnose resistance in Hyderabad, and other desirable traits, a subset of 74 mungbean accessions was selected from 296 mini-core accessions. These accessions were evaluated under natural disease pressure from July to September in 2018 and 2019 in Palampur (another hot spot for anthracnose) to determine the variation in anthracnose resistance. Out of the 74 accessions, two accessions were resistant in 2018; in 2019, one was immune, nine were highly resistant, and 15 were resistant. Combined analysis of variance of 65 accessions common in Hyderabad and Palampur revealed highly significant effects of environment, genotype (accessions), and genotype × environment interaction on the disease severity. The combined GGE biplot analysis of data across years and locations confirmed that the seven accessions MC-24, MC-51, MC-75, MC-127, MC-207, MC-208, and MC-292 were resistant during 2016 to 2018 in Hyderabad, and only in 2019 in Palampur, and the same accessions were moderately resistant in 2018 in Palampur. The seven resistant accessions identified from both test locations could be used as potential donors in the anthracnose resistance breeding program. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .

Due to evolutionary divergence, sorghum race populations exhibit vast genetic and morphological variations. A k-mer-based sorghum race sequence comparison identified the conserved k-mers of all sorghum race accessions and the race-specific genetic signatures identified the gene variability in 10,321 genes (PAVs). To understand the sorghum race structure, diversity and domestication, deep learning-based variant calling approach was employed in a set of genotypic data derived from a diverse panel of 272 sorghum accessions. The data resulted in 1.7 million high-quality genome-wide SNPs and identified selective signature (both positive and negative) regions through a genome-wide scan with different (iHS and XP-EHH) statistical methods. We discovered 2,370 genes associated with selection signatures including 179 selective sweep regions distributed over 10 chromosomes. Localization of these regions undergoing selective pressure with previously reported QTLs and genes revealed that the signatures of selection could be related to the domestication of important agronomic traits such as biomass and plant height. The developed k-mer signatures will be useful in the future to identify the sorghum race and SNP markers assist in plant breeding programs.

Background: Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy is the gold standard procedure and in spite of having all investigations done, surgeons face many difculties while operating which also effects outcome of surgery. It's a Methods: 18 month prospective study, 8 parameters were decided on which study was done on randomly selected patients. 35 surgeries were graded as Results: easy, 35 surgeries as difcult and 9 surgeries were very difcult to operate. Out of 79 Cholecystectomy performed by laparoscopic means, in 44 c Conclusions: ases we faced difculty (55.69%)

Pearl millet is an important crop of the arid and semi-arid ecologies to sustain food and fodder production. The greater tolerance to drought stress attracts us to examine its cellular and molecular mechanisms via functional genomics approaches to augment the grain yield. Here, we studied the drought response of 48 inbreds representing four different maturity groups at the flowering stage. A set of 74 drought-responsive genes were separated into five major phylogenic groups belonging to eight functional groups, namely ABA signaling, hormone signaling, ion and osmotic homeostasis, TF-mediated regulation, molecular adaptation, signal transduction, physiological adaptation, detoxification, which were comprehensively studied. Among the conserved motifs of the drought-responsive genes, the protein kinases and MYB domain proteins were the most conserved ones. Comparative in-silico analysis of the drought genes across millet crops showed foxtail millet had most orthologs with pearl millet. Of 698 haplotypes identified across millet crops, MyC2 and Myb4 had maximum haplotypes. The protein–protein interaction network identified ABI2, P5CS, CDPK, DREB, MYB, and CYP707A3 as major hub genes. The expression assay showed the presence of common as well as unique drought-responsive genes across maturity groups. Drought tolerant genotypes in respective maturity groups were identified from the expression pattern of genes. Among several gene families, ABA signaling, TFs, and signaling proteins were the prospective contributors to drought tolerance across maturity groups. The functionally validated genes could be used as promising candidates in backcross breeding, genomic selection, and gene-editing schemes in pearl millet and other millet crops to increase the yield in drought-prone arid and semi-arid ecologies.

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is one of the world’s hardiest warmseason cereal crop cultivated for food and animal feed in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa. This crop faces terminal drought during rainy and flowering-stage heat stress during summer seasons. Blast is emerging as a serious threat affecting its production and productivity in India. Using wild P. violaceum (Lam) Rich. and pearl millet cultivars, prebreeding populations were developed following backcross method. These populations were evaluated in target ecologies in India at three locations during the 2018 summer season for flowering-stage heat stress and at two locations during the 2018 rainy season for terminal drought stress.Atotal 18 introgression lines (ILs) from Population (Pop) 3 exhibited improved seed set under high heat stress vs. the cultivated parent, whereas no IL was better than the cultivated parent in Pop 4. Under rainfed conditions at Hisar and Bawal, India, 19 ILs from Pop 3 and 16 ILs from Pop 4 showed significantly higher dry fodder yield than the cultivated parents. Further, screening of ILs for five diverse pathotype isolates—Pg 45, Pg 138, Pg 186, Pg 204, and Pg 232—of blast resulted in the identification of resistant ILs. Use of these promising ILs in breeding programs will assist in developing new varieties and hybrids with improved tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. The study indicated the genetic differences between the parents involved in crossing and also highlighted the importance of precise phenotyping of wild species for target trait prior to use in prebreeding work.

BACKGROUND Thrombosis associated with thrombocytopenia is a vascular paradox which we seldom encounter in our clinical practice. We hereby describe four real world clinical situations and their therapeutic management. Since there are no guidelines regarding this subset, most of the treatment is based on few anecdotal reports and consensus data. Hence, we have reviewed the literature to throw light on some pertinent clinically relevant questions. Our objective is to describe and discuss the probable reasons of vascular paradox and its management. METHODS It is a descriptive study of four cases collected over one-year period including patients of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia. RESULTS In the first case, the patient had pulmonary embolism as a presenting manifestation of leukaemia. Only 5 % cases of AML-M3 sub type acute promyelocytic leukaemia present with normal peripheral blood smear. Patient had thrombocytopenia with deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. In the second case, secondary antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APLS) presented with ilio-femoral deep vein thrombosis associated with thrombocytopenia and bleeding tendency. In the third case, antiphospholipid antibody syndrome with thrombocytopenia was associated with severe pulmonary hypertension and deep vein thrombosis. In the fourth case, patient presented with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) with thrombocytopenia. He was diagnosed with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. He had angiographic evidence of critical triple vessel disease. He was treated with coronary bypass surgery after initiating treatment with oral eltrombopag and steroids. CONCLUSIONS We have highlighted four clinical situations ranging from frank malignancy to pure vascular pathology, where we have encountered and tackled the vascular paradox of ‘thrombosis and thrombocytopenia’ and reviewed the literature pertaining to these case scenarios. KEYWORDS Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia, APLS, AML-M3, Pulmonary Hypertension, ITP

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is a staple food crop of arid and semi-arid regions of Asia and Africa. Forty-five pearl millet populations of Asian and African origin were assessed for genetic diversity using 29 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The SSR-based clustering and structure analyses showed that Asian origin–Asian bred (As-As) and African origin–African bred (Af-Af) populations were distributed across seven clusters, indicating no strong relationship among populations with their geographical origin. Most of the African origin–Asian bred (Af-As) populations had a higher average number of alleles per locus than As-As or Af-Af populations, and the majority of them clustered separately from As-As or Af-Af populations, indicating that introgression of African origin breeding materials led to the development of new gene pools adapted to the Asian region. Fourteen populations representing seven clusters were crossed according to a diallel mating design to generate 91 population hybrids (seeds of direct and reciprocal crossesweremixed) and evaluated at three locations in 2016. All the 91 hybrids when partitioned into three groups based on genetic distance (GD) between parental combinations (low,moderate, and high), revealed no correlation between GD and panmictic midparent heterosis in any of the groups, indicating that grain yield heterosis cannot be predicted based on GD. Two population hybrids (GB 8735 × ICMP 87307 and Sudan I × Ugandi) exhibited high levels of yield heterosis over standard checks and can be further utilized using different breeding schemes to develop high-yielding pearl millet cultivars.

The genome sequences of 16 Streptomyces strains, showing potential for plant growth-promotion (PGP) activities in rice, sorghum, chickpea and pigeonpea, isolated from herbal vermicompost, have been decoded. The genome assemblies of the 16 Streptomyces strains ranged from 6.8 Mb to 8.31 Mb, with a GC content of 72 to 73%. The extent of sequence similarity (in terms of shared ortholog) in 16 Streptomyces strains showed 70 to 85% common genes to the closest publicly available Streptomyces genomes. It was possible to identify ~1,850 molecular functions across these 16 strains, of which close to 50% were conserved across the genomes of Streptomyces strains, whereas, ~10% were strain specific and the rest were present in various combinations. Genome assemblies of the 16 Streptomyces strains have also provided genes involved in key pathways related to PGP and biocontrol traits such as siderophores, auxin, hydrocyanic acid, chitinase and cellulase. Further, the genome assemblies provided better understanding of genetic similarity among target strains and with the publically available Streptomyces strains.

Iron deficiency chlorosis is an important abiotic stress affecting groundnut production worldwide in calcareous and alkaline soils with a pH of 7.5–8.5. To identify genomic regions controlling iron deficiency chlorosis resistance in groundnut, the recombinant inbred line population from the cross TAG 24 × ICGV 86031 was evaluated for associated traits like visual chlorosis rating and SPAD chlorophyll meter reading across three crop growth stages for two consecutive years. Thirty-two QTLs were identified for visual chlorosis rating (3.9%–31.8% phenotypic variance explained [PVE]) and SPAD chlorophyll meter reading [3.8%–11% PVE] across three stages over 2 years. This is the first report of identification of QTLs for iron deficiency chlorosis resistance- associated traits in groundnut. Three major QTLs (>10% PVE) were identified at severe stage, while majority of other QTLs were having small effects. Interestingly, two major QTLs for visual chlorosis rating at 60 days (2013) and 90 days (2014) were located at same position on LG AhXIII. The identified QTLs/markers after validation across diverse genetic material could be used in genomics-assisted breeding.

Dengue virus (DENV) is a vector-borne human pathogen that usually causes dengue fever; however, sometime it leads to deadly complications such as dengue with warning signs (DWS+) and severe dengue (SD). Several studies have shown that fusion (Fu) and bc loop of DENV envelope domain II are highly conserved and consist some of the most dominant antigenic epitopes. Therefore, in this study, Fu and bc loops were joined together to develop a short recombinant protein as an alternative of whole DENV envelope protein, and its immunogenic potential as fusion peptide was estimated. For de novo designing of the antigen, Fu and bc peptides were linked with an optimised linker so that the three dimensional conformation was maintained as it is in DENV envelope protein. The redesigned Fubc protein was expressed in E. coli and purified. Subsequently, structural integrity of the purified protein was verified by CD spectroscopy. To characterise immune responses against recombinant Fubc protein, BALB/c mice were subcutaneously injected with emulsified antigen preparation. It was observed by ELISA that Fubc fusion protein elicited higher serum IgG antibody response either in the presence or in absence of Freund’s adjuvant in comparison to the immune response of Fu and bc peptides separately. Furthermore, the binding of Fubc protein with mice antisera was validated by SPR analysis. These results suggest that Fu and bc epitope-based recombinant fusion protein could be a potential candidate towards the development of the effective subunit vaccine against DENV. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00253-020-10541-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The present investigation aimed to study genetic divergence and clustering pattern of 37super-early pigeon pea genotypes. Analysis of variance and hierarchical cluster analysis of tocher’s method revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the traits under study. Based on genetic distance (D2 value), the 37 genotypes were grouped into 9 distinctive clusters, of which cluster I and II formed the largest clusters with 10 genotypes in each. Among all the characters understudy, leaf area index(LAI) at 60 DAS contributed more to the divergence followed by leaf area (17.02) and leaf area index (12.71) at maturity. Based on the average inter-cluster distance, the cluster III and IX (66.93) tailed by cluster III and VIII (64.86) and cluster VI and VIII (64.06) showed higher inter-cluster distance depicting the wider divergence. Trait-wise selection of diverse parents from the above clusters aids in exploitation of heterosis in superearly pigeon pea.

Pearl millet breeding programs can use this heterotic group information on seed and restorer parents to generate new series of pearl millet hybrids having higher yields than the existing hybrids. Five hundred and eighty hybrid parents, 320 R- and 260 B-lines, derived from 6 pearl millet breeding programs in India, genotyped following RAD-GBS (about 0.9 million SNPs) clustered into 12 R- and 7 B-line groups. With few exceptions, hybrid parents of all the breeding programs were found distributed across all the marker-based groups suggesting good diversity in these programs. Three hundred and twenty hybrids generated using 37 (22 R and 15 B) representative parents, evaluated for grain yield at four locations in India, showed significant differences in yield, heterosis, and combining ability. Across all the hybrids, mean mid- and better-parent heterosis for grain yield was 84.0% and 60.5%, respectively. Groups G12 B × G12 R and G10 B × G12 R had highest heterosis of about 10% over best check hybrid Pioneer 86M86. The parents involved in heterotic hybrids were mainly from the groups G4R, G10B, G12B, G12R, and G13B. Based on the heterotic performance and combining ability of groups, 2 B-line (HGB-1 and HGB-2) and 2 R-line (HGR-1 and HGR-2) heterotic groups were identified. Hybrids from HGB-1 × HGR-1 and HGB-2 × HGR-1 showed grain yield heterosis of 10.6 and 9.3%, respectively, over best hybrid check. Results indicated that parental groups can be formed first by molecular markers, which may not predict the best hybrid combination, but it can reveal a practical value of assigning existing and new hybrid pearl millet parental lines into heterotic groups to develop high-yielding hybrids from the different heterotic groups.

The concept of reparameterization is rarely employed in forecasting fish yield, even though reparameterization method is computationally more efficient especially when estimation involves an iterative method. Further, a reparameterization of the growth functions whose new parameters correspond to scientifically interesting characteristics of the growth process (Choi et al, 2009). Reparameterization of the same basic model produce the same goodness-of-fit and the same fitted values, etc. but they may differ greatly in their estimation behavior. Further, a class of parameters that exhibits close-to-linear behavior is the class of expected-value parameters. The extent of non-normality and excess variance of the least squares estimates of an expected value parameter is generally small (Ratkowsky, 1990). The only restriction on expected-value parameters is that they should fall within the observed range of the data and not correspond to asymptotes or extrapolations outside the data range. Expected-value parameters outside the range of the observed data are less efficacious. Also, the derived expressions due to expected-value parameters are usually more cumbersome in appearance than the original expressions, and the expected-value parameters may appear more than once. As compensation for this loss of aesthetics, however, parameterizations with expected-value parameters offer three advantages. First, one obtains rapid convergence to the leastsquares estimates using the new parameterization, since the new model close-to-linear. A second benefit is that initial parameter estimates are very easy to obtain. Third, the expected-value parameters are more suitable for inference than the original parameters since their least-squares estimates are close-to being unbiased, normally distributed, minimum variance estimators. Although the role of expected-value parameters is very important, algebraic limitations prevent the universal application of expected-value parameters. However, in most of the cases a few parameters (one or two parameters only) are responsible for the far-from-linear behavior of a nonlinear regression model, it is seldom necessary to replace all the parameters of a model by expected-value parameters (Ratkowsky, 1990). Singh (2011) derived an explicit expression for partial reparameterization of Schaefer model with autoregressive of order one using expected-value parameters and fitted to catch-effort fishery data.

Advancement of internal combustion engines has resulted in engines with increased power, ultimately which increases the loads imposed on the engine block. An engine block is a combination of “n” numbers of cylinder liners. A cylinder liner play’s a vital role by providing the boundaries in which piston reciprocates efficiently. These cylinder liners have capabilities to tolerate high pressure and temperature due to the chemical reactions occurring in the combustion chamber. Most commonly, cast iron and aluminum alloys are the favored materials that are used to manufacture conventional petrol and diesel engine blocks. Also, magnesium alloys are used for performance-oriented vehicles. In this paper, comparison between aluminum (Al-7Si) and magnesium (WE43A) alloy is done on the basis of thermal and stress analysis with help of ANYSIS software.

With the emerging sequencing technologies and cost reduction, the sequence data generation has accelerated from a single individual to multiple (thousands of) individuals of a species. The terabytes of sequence data generated from thousands of individuals include the majority of the redundant sequence which depends on the level of sequence similarity within the population of individuals. Managing large datasets and creating the unique catalogue sequence from such a large population is challenging to analyze, store, and retrieve the information. In this chapter, we discuss the practical haplotype graph (PHG) which addresses the above said challenges and also able to retrieve required information such as variants and sequences more efficiently, which enable researchers to manage and assess large genomic data.

Pearl millet is an important food and fodder crop cultivated in the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia, and is now expanding to other regions for forage purpose. This study was conducted to better understand the forage quantity and quality traits to enhance the feed value of this crop. Two sets of pearl millet hybrids (80 single cross hybrids in Set-I and 50 top cross hybrids in Set-II) along with their parents evaluated multi-locationally for the forage-linked traits under multi-cut (two cuts) system revealed significant variability for the forage traits in the hybrids and parents. The mean better parent heterosis (BPH) for total dry forage yield (TDFY) was 136% across all the single cross hybrids and 57% across all the top cross hybrids. The mean BPH for in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) varied from −11 to 7% in the single cross hybrids and −13 to 11% in the top cross hybrids across cuts. The findings of TDFY and IVOMD heterosis in these sets indicated the potential of improvement of the hybrid cultivars for forage quantity and quality in forage pearl millet. The parental lines single cross parent (SCP)-L02, SCP-L06, and top cross parent (TCP)-T08 found superior in the forage quantity and quality traits can be utilized in the future breeding programs. Most of the forage traits were found to be controlled by using the non-additive gene action. A diverse panel of 105 forage-type hybrid parents (Set-III) genotyped following genotyping by sequencing (GBS) and phenotyped for crude protein (CP) and IVOMD under multi-cuts for 2 years identified one stable significant single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on LG4 for CP, and nine SNPs for IVOMD distributed across all the linkage groups except on LG2. The identified loci, once validated, then could be used for the forage quality traits improvement in pearl millet through marker-assisted selection.

Background: Vitamin D is an integral part of bony health. Its deficiency leads to multiple bony pains, including costochondritis. Aims and Objectives: Present study aimed to evaluate the association of costochondritis with vitamin D deficiency. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 patients with chest pain with costochondral tenderness were taken. Clinical history, examination, investigation, including electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, and chest x-ray was made. Results: 63% and 37% were female and male, respectively. Mean vitamin D level was low in females as compared to males (21.9±8.47 and 31.7±6.23 respectively). Prolonged duration of chest pain was associated with low vitamin D level that was statistically significant (p

Livestock provides an additional source of income for marginal cropping farmers, but crop residues that are used as a main source of animal feed are characteristically low in digestibility and protein content. This reduces the potential livestock product yield and quality. The key trait, which influences the quality and the cost of animal feed, is digestibility. In this study, we demonstrate that sorghum breeding can be directed to achieve genetic gains for both fodder biomass and digestibility without any trade-offs. The genotypic variance has shown significant differences for biomass across years (13,035 in 2016 and 3,395 in 2017) while in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) showed significant genotypic variation in 2016 (0.253) under drought. A range of agronomic and fodder quality traits was found to vary significantly in the population within both the control and drought conditions and across both years of the study. There was significant genotypic variance (σg2) and genotypic × treatment variance (σgxt2) in dry matter production in a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population in both study years, while there was only significant σg2 and σgxt2 in IVOMD under the control conditions. There was no significant correlation identified between biomass and digestibility traits under the control conditions, but there was a positive correlation under drought. However, a negative relation was observed between digestibility and grain yield under the control conditions, while there was no significant correlation under drought population, which was genotyped using the genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) technique, and 1,141 informative single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were identified. A linkage map was constructed, and a total of 294 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were detected, with 534 epistatic interactions, across all of the traits under study. QTL for the agronomic traits fresh and dry weight, together with plant height, mapped on to the linkage group (LG) 7, while QTL for IVOMD mapped on to LG1, 2, and 8. A number of genes previously reported to play a role in nitrogen metabolism and cell wall-related functions were found to be associated with these QTL.

Background: Incidence of ischemic stroke in younger patients in increasing leading to higher morbidity and mortality. Data on carotid intimal medial thickness (CIMT) as atherosclerotic marker in young ischemic stroke patients are scarce. Aims and Objective: To evaluate bilateral CIMT thickness and its correlation with various CVD risk factors in young ischemic stroke patients. Methods: Total 40 patients (15 to 45 age group) and age matched 40 controls were taken. Demographic profile and risk factors were evaluated. All subjects were taken for CIMT assessment by B mode ultrasonography scan in multiangle measurements in the common carotid artery (CCA), carotid bifurcation (BIF) and internal carotid artery (ICA). Results: 72.5% of patients were in 35- 45 years age group. Stroke incidence was higher in male. Age specific value of CIMT was higher in all cases as compared to age matched controls in all age group. (p? 0.01) Increasing age, smoking and hypertension were significantly associated with higher bilateral CIMT. Conclusion: Ischemic stroke young population is associated with increased CIMT. Risk factors burden is contributory in speeding up atherosclerotic process leading to higher CIMT with multiple co morbidities. Keywords: carotid intimal medial thickness, carotid bifurcation, ischemic stroke

Cytoplasmic male sterility(CMS), a maternally inherited trait, provides a promising means to harness yield gains associated with hybrid vigor. In pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Huth], nine types of sterility‐inducing cytoplasm have been reported, of which A2 and A4 have been successfully deployed in hybrid breeding. Unfortunately, molecular mechanism of the CMS trait is poorly understood because of limited research invested. More recently, an association between a mitochondrial gene (nad7) and A4‐CMS has been demonstrated in pigeonpea; however, the mechanism underlying A2‐CMS still remains obscure. The current investigation aimed to analyze the differences in A2‐CMS line (ICPL 88039A) and its isogenic maintainer line (ICPL 88039B) at transcriptome level using next‐generation sequencing. Gene expression profiling uncovered a set of 505 genes that showed altered expression in response to CMS, of which, 412 genes were upregulated while 93 were downregulated in the fertile maintainer line vs. the CMS line. Further, gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analyses revealed association of CMS in pigeonpea with four major pathways: glucose and lipid metabolism, ATP production, pollen development and pollen tube growth, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging. Patterns of digital gene expression were confirmed by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR) of six candidate genes. This study elucidates candidate genes and metabolic pathways having potential associations with pollen development and male sterility in pigeonpea A2‐CMS. New insights on molecular mechanism of CMS trait in pigeonpea will be helpful to accelerate heterosis utilization for enhancing productivity gains in pigeonpea.