Somatic embryogenesis from cultures of shoot apices, cotyledon and young leaves of in vitro shoots of Agave vera-cruz Mill. was studied. Embryogenic callus was obtained when explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog's (MS) medium (1962) supplemented with L 2 vitamins, 4.52 μM 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) or 5.37 μM ∝-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA). Somatic embryos differentiated from this embryogenic callus upon subculture to maturation/conversion medium containing cytokinin either alone or with auxin and L-glutamine. The best combination of growth regulators for development of somatic embryos was found to be 5.37 μM naphthalene acetic acid plus 0.91 μM zeatin and 40 g/l sucrose. The conversion frequency of somatic embryos to plantlets varied from 46-50%. Rooted plantlets were transferred directly to pots containing a soil, sand, and manure mixture without any hardening phase with 96-98% survival of the plantlets. Based on the histological observations, the potential origin of the somatic embryo is discussed.

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Current study was carried out with the intent to standardize detection and estimation method for calcium (Ca) based neutralizers in milk and milk based indigenous products (khoa and paneer) using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Neutralized milk, khoa and paneer samples were prepared using milk with developed acidity to which calculated quantity of neutralizer (Ca based) was added. Rosalic acid test results get masked at times due to developed acidity which neutralizes the alkalinity imparted by neutralizer and hence gives false result with time in neutralizer added samples. Atomic absorption spectroscopy proved to be an accurate estimate which could detect the abnormal rise in mineral concentration even with slight addition of neutralizers in comparison with control milk and milk products. Formalin, which is a commonly used preservative in milk samples for chemical analysis, did not have any significant impact on estimation of calcium in the neutralized milk during storage.

Healing of various ailments using herbal medicines is gaining much interest. Plants classified as grasses, specifically Cynodon dactylon, are an appreciated group of monocots used in many herbal remedies. In this work, C. dactylon, is grown naturally and also under market available LED Luminaires with different lighting conditions. Until 2010, most of the plants were grown under conventional lamps that are not spectrally tunable. Cynodon dactylon, the grass, was grown under two different light spectrum, two light levels and three photoperiods (9hours, 12 hours, 15 hours) to extend our experiential knowledge. The biomass accumulation was highest when grown under a lower RB ratio-12-hour-163μmol/s, and phenolic content was highest at 92.8 mg/g wt Gallic Acid Equivalents under combined light source at 15-hour photoperiod. A spectrally tunable LED light source with an optimal quantity of LEDs saves cost, space and energy. Considering the light parameters from the light sources used for growing C. dactylon , Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm is implemented to select an optimal LED quantity that composes the light source. The algorithm simulates the given target spectrum with minimum fitness error. The method applied to model LEDs, its validation against the practical LED spectrum, spectrum matching and computation of Luminous flux, Photosynthetic Photon Flux and efficacy is also presented. Many spectrums were simulated to validate the performance of the algorithm. A solution of optimal LEDs for three Photosynthetic Photon Flux (PPF) levels with LEDs derived, and it is observed that the number of LEDs increased with PPF.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is an important vegetable crop and cultivated throughout India. During 2019-20, Karnataka produced 2163 tonnes of tomato, accounting for 10.51 percent of total production (https://agricoop.gov.in/horticulture-reports). During a survey conducted in September 2019 in southern Karnataka region, severe fungi fruit rot symptoms were observed on at harvest in a 18 hectare production operation. The incidence of fruit rot disease was estimated around 12–14% in an area of 18 hectares (~62 fields). The necrotic lesions on infected fruit were covered with. The fruit rot was characterised by necrosis lesions filled with black fungal fruiting bodies, which later became soft and fully necrotic. A total of 20 samples were used for isolation and diagnostics. Infected fruit rot samples were surface sterilized with 2% NaOCl for 2 min, rinsed thrice in sterile distilled water, and plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium amended with chloramphenicol (40mg/L). The plates were incubated at 28±2 °C and pure cultures were obtained by hyphal tip excision. On PDA medium, fungal colonies were initially white, but later turned to yellow green, often intermixed with pink sections. They produced sulcate and centrally raised sporulating conidiophores which were hyaline or slightly pigmented with smooth walls. Vesicles produced on conidiophores were sub-globose to ellipsoidal with phialides borne on metulae. Conidia were globose, brownish and conspicuously echinulate. On the basis morphological and cultural characteristics, the causative pathogen was identified to be Aspergillus versicolor (Jurjevic et al., 2012). Further molecular characterization was also done by amplifying internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region using universal ITS1-ITS4 primers with three representative isolates (White et al. 1990). Genomic DNA was isolated using CTAB using 15 days old culture followed by PCR amplification using ITS1-ITS4 primer pair and sequencing. The sequences analysis had 100% (561/561 base pairs) similarity with the reference sequences of Aspergillus versicolor (KU318417.1, MT798844.1) according to BLAST analysis in GenBank. The representative sequence of ITS-rDNA for three isolates viz., A. versicolor NCM_1, NCM_2 & NCM_3 were deposited in GenBank (Accession number: MZ520551.1 – MZ520553.1). Pathogenicity tests were conducted on 10 healthy mature fruit of tomato F1 hybrid (INDAM 3003) using wound inoculation (conidial suspension 3 × 106 conidia mL−1). Several tomato fruit (n=5) were only inoculated with sterile water to serve as controls. The experiments were conducted in triplicates with 10 fruits each and repeated three times (Mahadevakumar et al. 2019). Within 7 days of post-inoculation, fruit rot symptoms similar to those in the original out break in Karnataka were observed on all inoculated fruit. Control fruit remained asymptomatic even after 10 days. The pathogen was reisolated from diseased fruit and the identity was confirmed based on morphology and ITS sequencing. A. versicolor has been reported as a post-harvest fungal pathogen on other various vegetable crops (Aidoo, 1993). Tomato fruit rots are known to be a major problem (Nizamani et al., 2021) in the region. However, there no reports of tomato fruit rot caused by A. versicolor in India (Farr and Rossman, 2021), which warrants additional attention as a potential threat to regional production.

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Chemotherapy against specific molecular targets is one of the most effective approaches used to treat cancer patients. However, lack of selectivity and development of drug-resistance reduces the efficacy of cancer chemotherapy. Therefore, development of effective and safe anticancer agents with high potency and less toxicity is a major focus for researchers across the world. In the current article, the utility of a reverse ligand similarity based approach to identify potential targets for a new series of synthesized pyrazole carbothioamides that demonstrate the potent anticancer activities against MCF- 7 cells compared to other structurally related molecules and controls is discussed. Further, in silico docking analysis provided insights into their sight of binding. Thus, these compounds show promise for development as next generation anticancer drugs.