The number of seeds and seed yield per plant were higher in chickpea crops raised from water and mannitol (4 %) primed seeds in comparison with the control non-primed crops. In primed plants, an enhanced acid invertase activity in the apical part of the main stem and the part immediately below it at 100 and 130 days after sowing (DAS) might result in an increased availability of hexoses to these plant parts. In addition, decreased acid invertase activity at the point of initiation of branches and in the internodes of stem observed in primed plants indicated restricted hydrolysis of sucrose during its transport through the stem, resulting in its more supply to the actively growing sinks. The activities of sucrose-cleaving enzymes, i.e. invertase and sucrose synthase (SS) in podwall of primed plants were higher at 110 DAS. At 140 DAS, a stage of rapid seed filling, increased activities of SS and sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) were observed in seeds of primed plants. Increased SPS activity in seeds of primed crop could meet the increased assimilate requirements of the developing seeds. Higher activity of SS in seeds of primed crop may facilitate seed filling. These data suggest that enzymes of sucrose metabolism play an important role in increasing the yield of chickpea crops raised from primed seeds.

Nano-thin coatings of glutaraldehyde cross-linked polyethyleneimine effectively and selectively accumulated copper from natural seawater.

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) bacterium is found in various ecological habitats, and has natural entomo-pesticidal properties, due to the production of crystalline and soluble proteins during different growth phases. In addition to Cry and Cyt proteins, this bacterium also produces Vegetative insecticidal protein (Vip) during its vegetative growth phase, which is considered an excellent toxic candidate because of the difference in sequence homology and receptor sites from Cry proteins. Vip proteins are referred as second-generation insecticidal proteins, which can be used either alone or in complementarity with Cry proteins for the management of various detrimental pests. Among these Vip proteins, Vip1 and Vip2 act as binary toxins and have toxicity toward pests belonging to Hemiptera and Coleoptera orders, whereas the most important Vip3 proteins have insecticidal activity against Lepidopteran pests. These Vip3 proteins are similar to Cry proteins in terms of toxicity potential against susceptible insects. They are reported to be toxic toward pests, which can’t be controlled with Cry proteins. The Vip3 proteins have been successfully pyramided along with Cry proteins in transgenic rice, corn, and cotton to combat resistant pest populations. This review provides detailed information about the history and importance of Vip proteins, their types, structure, newly identified specific receptors, and action mechanism of this specific class of proteins. Various studies conducted on Vip proteins all over the world and the current status have been discussed. This review will give insights into the significance of Vip proteins as alternative promising candidate toxic proteins from Bt for the management of pests in most sustainable manner.

Nano-thin coatings of glutaraldehyde (GA)-crosslinked polyethyleneimine (PEI) are extremely selective and effective in binding copper from seawater. Here it was demonstrated that GA-PEI performs significantly different from PEI. The copper-selectivity of self-assembled PEI coatings on silicon substrates was greatly improved by GA-crosslinking. After submersion in artificial seawater containing 200 ppb copper and equimolar amounts of 11 competing ions only copper and trace amounts of Zn were detected in the GA-crosslinked coatings, while for non-crosslinked PEI there was about 30% Zn present relative to copper. The coatings were demonstrated to be highly stable under acidic conditions and retained their copper-binding selectivity after repeated cycles of binding and acid-mediated elution. After self-assembly of the GA-crosslinked coating on mesoporous diatomaceous earth particles, significant amounts of copper could be extracted from 200 ppb in artificial seawater and eluted under acidic pH. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43954. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

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