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Among several abiotic stresses, heat stress has a large negative impact upon agricultural productivity worldwide. Moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia (Jacq.) Marechal) attracts a great deal of attention due to its better performance under drought and heat stress conditions. An experiment was designed to find out the effects of heat stress on relative water content (RWC), membrane stability index (MSI), and proline, protein, and chlorophyll (Chl) contents using 10 genotypes of moth bean. Physiological and biochemical parameters indicated that RMO 40 followed by Jadia, IC 36157, Jwala, and Marumoth were heat-tolerant (HT) genotypes, and IC 121051, IC 36392, IC 39702, IC 472257, and IC 140725 were heat-susceptible (HS) genotypes of moth bean. Under heat stress, the HT genotypes showed minimal reduction in RWC, MSI, and protein as compared to the susceptible ones, revealing that the HT genotypes performed well under heat stress. Many heat shock proteins and dehydration proteins are synthesized in plants under heat stress. Expression analysis of three such genes was performed in ten genotypes of moth bean. The analysis revealed that the HT genotypes showed better performance under stress conditions for survival. The above studied parameters would be very useful in the identification of HT varieties for future breeding programs in moth bean and related Vigna species.

Severity of root rot (Rhizoctonia solani and Rhizoctonia bataticola) of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) was reduced by 42.7 and 42.0%, respectively over control following the application of 10 μg/g Mn as manganese sulphate. Reduction in disease incidence was associated with increased levels of polyphenol oxidase (PPO), peroxidase (PO) and total phenols. PO activity was several times more as compared with PPO‐specific activity and increased markedly after infection either with R. solani or R. bataticola. Contrary to PPO and PO, the specific activity of catalase declined sharply. Infection also caused an increase in the content of reducing sugars, Cu, Zn and Mn but a decrease in o‐dihydric phenols, flavanols, total soluble sugars, non‐reducing sugars and Fe contents. It is suggested that Mn at the rate of 10 μg/g soil can be used to manage the root rot of cowpea.

Moth bean is the most drought and heat tolerant cultigens among Asian . We performed comparative transcriptome analysis of moth bean cultivar "Marumoth" under control and stress condition. De novo transcriptome assembly was carried out by using Velvet followed by Oases softwares. Differential expression analyses, SSR identification and validation and mapping of pathways and transcription factors were conducted. A total of 179,979 and 201,888 reads were generated on Roche 454 platform and 48,617,205 and 45,449,053 reads were generated on ABI Solid platform for the control and stressed samples. Combined assembly from Roche and ABI Solid platforms generated 16,090 and 15,096 transcripts for control and stressed samples. We found 1287 SSRs and 5606 transcripts involved in 179 pathways. The 55 transcription factor families represented 19.42% of total mothbean transcripts. In expression profiling, ten transcripts were found to be up-regulated and 41 down-regulated while 490 showed no major change under moisture stress condition. Stress inducible genes like Catalase, Cyt P450 monooxygenase, heat shock proteins (HSP 90 and HSP 70), oxidoreductase, protein kinases, dehydration responsive protein (DRP), universal stress protein and ferridoxin NADH oxidoreductase genes were up-regulated in stressed sample. Genes which might be involved in moisture stress tolerance in moth bean were identified and these might be useful for stress tolerance breeding in moth bean and other related crops.

A simple and efficient protocol for recurrent somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration is one of the prerequisites

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Absorption of glucose, sucrose, glutamic acid and methionine was studied using the intestinal everted sac technique. Rats were fed with potato tubers of Kufri Ashoka, Kufri Chipsona-1 and Kufri Chipsona-2 in combination with casein in 1:1 ratio and casein as a control at eight per cent, protein level. Absorption of sucrose, glucose, glutamic acid and methionine was monitored spectrophotometrically and of glucose, sucrose and glutamic acid by 14 C radio assay using scintillation counting. In general, glutamic acid showed higher absorption values than glucose, sucrose and methionine by both the techniques. Rats fed on casein diet exhibited maximum absorption of glutamic acid and methionine. Incorporation of 10 ?mole of lithium decreased considerably the absorption of glucose, sucrose, glutamic acid and methionine. Absorption of nutrients differed between casein and casein-potato tubers diets.