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Salinity of cultivable land is a growing global concern that has been affecting the yields of major crops worldwide such as pigeon pea. In the current study, transgenic pigeon pea plants were developed using an in-planta Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation method wherein OsRuvB, a rice DNA helicase gene, was incorporated to induce salt tolerance in pigeon pea plants. Transformation efficiency of 35.7% was achieved with stable insertion of OsRuvB in transgenic lines. When subjected to salinity stress induced by 75 mM NaCl increase in chlorophyll content, relative water content, peroxidase and catalase activity in transgenic lines was observed over the wild type plants. Membrane injury index and lipid peroxidation were significantly reduced in transgenic lines. Proline and Total Soluble Sugar content were enhanced in both transgenic plants and wild type strains. It was inferred that transgenic lines were tolerant to salinity stress and tolerance may be imparted through an alternative unknown pathway. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Background: The silent estrus problem in buffaloes is one of the major bottlenecks in buffalo management. Here, we present for the first time a simple and urine-based non-invasive seed germination inhibition test to detect the early estrus in buffaloes.Methods: The urine samples were collected from buffaloes on 0, 6, 10, 14, 18, 21 and 28 days after detection of signs of heat. The mungbean and wheat seeds (n=15 each) were treated with diluted (1:2 and 1:4) and undiluted urine samples. The results were analyzed in terms of germination inhibition percentage (GI%) and shoot length (SL) measurements. Control was established using distilled water in place of urine.Conclusion: In 1:4 dilution urine samples, a significant (P ≤ 0.05) decrease in GI% and SL were observed after 48 hours and 5 days, respectively in both the seeds, which could be useful as an estrus test. No significant results were observed for GI% and SL with undiluted and 1:2 diluted samples in both seeds. Our findings demonstrate that GI% and SL were inhibited around peri-estrus events, increased from 10th-14th days and then gradually decreased with 1:4 dilution of urine. This estrus test may assist the farmers in timing AI.

Field experiment was undertaken at research farm of IARI, New Delhi to study the effect of change in the microenvironment under different colour shade nets during summer and rainy season, of 2012 on yield of spinach. Spinach crop was sown under different colour shade nets such as red, green, black, white along with control (without shade net) during summer and rainy season. Crop duration from sowing to harvesting was 62 days in summer and 58 days in rainy season. Different weather parameters were measured at regular interval in each treatment. Results showed that the light intensity, incoming radiation, canopy temperature, air temperature, soil temperature were found to be lower under different colour shade nets compared to the control. However the relative humidity, soil moisture were found to be higher under colour shade nets compared to control.