A study was conducted on a 15×15 diallel set of tomato excluding reciprocals to find out the extent of heterosis, combining ability and nature of gene action for yield with two important quality traits: ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and total soluble solids (TSS). Significant differences among genotypes were obtained for all three traits. Positive high significant heterosis was found for yield (41·97, 157·84 and 28·94%), for ascorbic acid (16·68, 54·57 and 161·33%) and for TSS (25·97, 11·93 and 19·02) over the top, the better parent and the commercial control respectively. The magnitude of variance due to general as well as specific combining ability were highly significant indicating the importance of both additive and non-additive gene action. However degree of dominance (o−2 g/o−2 s) revealed the prevalence of a non-additive gene effect. Cross combinations Arka Vikas×Sel-12 (13·19), KS-10×Pant T-3 (1·66) and EC 818703×EC 13042 (0·88) were best specific combiners for ascorbic acid, total soluble solids and yield/plant. Predominance of non-additive gene action plays a greater role in the inheritance of ascorbic acid and total soluble solids in tomato under hill conditions.

Noble metal NPs are highly attractive candidates because of their unique combination of physical, chemical, mechanical, and structural properties. A lot of developments in this area are still fascinating the materials research community, and are broadly categorized in various sectors such as chemical sensors, biosensors, Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), and microelectronic applications. The related function and properties of the noble metals in these areas can be further tailored by tuning their chemical, optical, and electronic properties that are influenced by their size, shape, and distribution. The most widely used Au and Ag NPs in dispersed phase below 100 nm exhibit strong color change in the visible range which alters upon aggregation of the NPs. The chemical sensing of the analyte is influenced by these NPs aggregates. In this article, we have summarized the uniqueness of noble metal NPs, their synthesis methods, nucleation and growth process, and their important applications in chemical sensing, microelectronic packaging, and Förster resonance energy transfer.

A set of 99 common bean germplasm collected from central Himalaya was investigated for their genetic variability using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. Ten oligonucleotide primers, selected from 60 initially screened, generated 123 amplicon products. Of these, two amplicons were shared by all the accessions whereas 112 were polymorphic at least in two pair wise comparison. Nine unique bands identified were as low as 0.32 kb M.W. to as high as 3.5 kb and were confined to eight collections. All primers produced polymorphic amplicons though the extent of polymorphism varied with each primer. The primer OPF-17 was found to be most powerful and efficient as it generated a total of 17 bands of which 15 were polymorphic. RAPD markers data were analysed statistically using NTSYSpc.2.02e software and a dendrogram was generated using Jaccard's similarity coefficient. The similarity coefficient values varied from 0.19 to 0.91. Grouping analysis revealed the categorization of 99 germplasm into 12 major branches with different level of similarity. Three branches namely branch 2, 3 and 5 out of 12 had only one accession. Branch 1 which consisted of three accessions was the most divergent as revealed by Jaccard's similarity coefficient. Branching pattern of the accessions did not show any correlation with morphological data or altitudinal alignment of the accessions.

Efficient plant regeneration via shoot tip provided a basis for the optimization of the genetic transformation protocol. Therefore, experiments were conducted to establish an efficient in vitro regeneration protocol in summer squash for genetic cotransformation. 6-benzylaminopurine at 0.05 mg l -l was found to be optimum concentration of direct regeneration from shoot tip. Effective root system was induced in shootlets in indole-3-aceticacid 0.5 mg l -l . Two vectors namely pCAMBIA 2200 harboring marker gene nptII and pCAMBIA 0390 harboring gene, encoding C-repeat binding factor (cbf1) were used for co-transformation taking shoot tips as explants from in vitro germinated seeds. Explants were selected after co-cultivation on kanamycin supplemented medium and shoots and roots were induced. The transgenic plants were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and further southern blot analysis confirmed the integration of nptII and cbf1 genes in genome of summer squash with co-transformation efficiency of 0.7 percent.

Among the diazotrops, great attention has been paid to the genus Azotobacter and its role in increasing the growth and health of plants. In the present study, forty two strains of Azotobacter were isolated from soil. These strains were purified and characterized through microscopical and biochemical test for cell shape, pigmentation, colony size, Gram reaction and catalase activity were identified as Azotobacter sp These strains showed wide variability to these characters. Among 42 isolates, 7 were single cocci, 7 coccidal chain and 4 were cocci in clumps. Majority of isolates i.e. 24, were small, medium and large rod shaped. Thirty two isolates were Gram -ve, catalase positive and 10 were Gram +ve, catalase negative. Finally from these isolates, twenty two were confirmed as Azotobacter strains on cyst formation. The carbon-source utilization pattern revealed that out of 22 strains that 16 strains resembled the characters of A. chroococcum, 3 matched with A. vinelandii and 3 with A. beijerinckii. All 22 isolates were analyzed for its nitrogen fixing ability by using Microkjeldhal method. The highest amount of N 2 (18.88 mg g -1 sucrose) was fixed by Azo-SBT 72 while lowest (6.04 mg g -1 sucrose) by Azo-SUR 25 strain. However, injudicious and hazardous use of chemical fertilizers have degraded the soil health and there is need of ecofriendly management of soil by screening and hunting of potential nitrogen fixing strains to protect the soil environment and health. In this context, biofertilizers hunting natural environment is the need of soil to ensure better health of future generations.