Soil organic carbon (SOC) pools are important for maintaining soil productivity and reducing the net CO2 loading of the atmosphere. An 18‐year old long‐term field experiment involving pearl millet‐cluster bean‐castor sequence was conducted on an Entisol in western India to examine the effects of chemical fertilizers and manuring on carbon pools in relation to crop productivity and C sequestration. The data showed that even the addition of 33.5 Mg ha−1 C inputs through crop residues as well as farm yard manure could not compensate the SOC depletion by oxidation and resulted in the net loss of 4.4 Mg C ha−1 in 18 years. The loss of SOC stock in the control was 12 Mg C ha−1. Conjunctive use of chemical fertilizers along with farm yard manure produced higher agronomic yields and reduced the rate of SOC depletion. The higher average seed yields of pearl millet (809 kg ha−1), cluster bean (576), and castor (827) over six cropping seasons were obtained through integrated use of fertilizers and manure. For every Mg increase in profile SOC stock, there was an overall increase of 0.46 Mg of crop yield, comprising increase in individual yield of pearl millet (0.17 Mg ha−1 y−1 Mg−1 SOC), cluster bean (0.14) and castor (0.15). The magnitude of SOC build up was proportional to the C inputs. Carbon pools were significantly correlated with SOC, which increased with application of organic amendments. Threshold C input of 3.3 Mg C ha−1 y−1 was needed to maintain the SOC stock even at the low antecedent level. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Modern genome editing (GE) techniques, which include clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system, transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) and LAGLIDADG homing endonucleases (meganucleases), have so far been used for engineering disease resistance in crops. The use of GE technologies has grown very rapidly in recent years with numerous examples of targeted mutagenesis in crop plants, including gene knockouts, knockdowns, modifications, and the repression and activation of target genes. CRISPR/Cas9 supersedes all other GE techniques including TALENs and ZFNs for editing genes owing to its unprecedented efficiency, relative simplicity and low risk of off-target effects. Broad-spectrum disease resistance has been engineered in crops by GE of either specific host-susceptibility genes ( S gene approach), or cleaving DNA of phytopathogens (bacteria, virus or fungi) to inhibit their proliferation. This review focuses on different GE techniques that can potentially be used to boost molecular immunity and resistance against different phytopathogens in crops, ultimately leading to the development of promising disease-resistant crop varieties.

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Bioactive functional groups identified in the study may contribute to the understanding of larvicidal activity of acetyl derivatives and may help in the development of ecofriendly mosquito larvicidal compounds.