Study DesignA prospective genetic association study.PurposeThe etiology of Modic changes (MCs) is unclear. Recently, the role of genetic factors in the etiology of MCs has been evaluated. However, studies with a larger patient subset are lacking, and candidate genes involved in other disc degeneration phenotypes have not been evaluated. We studied the prevalence of MCs and genetic association of 41 candidate genes in a large Indian cohort.Overview of LiteratureMCs are vertebral endplate signal changes predominantly observed in the lumbar spine. A significant association between MCs and lumbar disc degeneration and nonspecific low back pain has been described, with the etiopathogenesis implicating various mechanical, infective, and biochemical factors.MethodsWe studied 809 patients using 1.5-T magnetic resonance imaging to determine the prevalence, patterns, distribution, and type of lumbar MCs. Genetic association analysis of 71 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 41 candidate genes was performed based on the presence or absence of MCs. SNPs were genotyped using the Sequenome platform, and an association test was performed using PLINK software.ResultsThe mean age of the study population (n=809) was 36.7±10.8 years. Based on the presence of MCs, the cohort was divided into 702 controls and 107 cases (prevalence, 13%). MCs were more commonly present in the lower (149/251, 59.4%) than in the upper (102/251, 40.6%) endplates. L4–5 endplates were the most commonly affected levels (30.7%). Type 2 MCs were the most commonly observed pattern (n=206, 82%). The rs2228570 SNP of VDR (p=0.02) and rs17099008 SNP of MMP20 (p=0.03) were significantly associated with MCs.ConclusionsGenetic polymorphisms of SNPs of VDR and MMP20 were significantly associated with MCs. Understanding the etiopathogenetic mechanisms of MCs is important for planning preventive and therapeutic strategies.

In the present era of genomics, ionomics is one of the major pillars for the structural and functional genomic study. The complete set of ions present in an organism is referred to as the ionome of the organism. Hence, the ionomics is defined as the, "study of quantitative complement of low molecular weight molecules present in cells in a particular physiological and developmental state of the plant" [1]. The complete ionomic profiling of the plants are done by using a number of analytical tools like ICP-MS, ICP-OES, X-Ray crystallography, Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) etc. All these analytical tools gave complete profile of the ions present in the plants. These data are stored in a database called PiiMS (Purdue Ionomics Information Management System) [2]. The huge data available in the database helps in the forward and reverse genetic approach for studying the structural and functional genomics of the particular organism. This review describes the role of the ionomic study in crop plants like arabidopsis, rice and maize.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food of the majority of the population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Enriching rice with nutritional and therapeutic contents can improve its benefits for patients with lifestyle disorders. This study aimed to profile the phytochemical contents of the therapeutically known traditional rice Mappillai Samba against white rice CBMAS 14065 using non-targeted gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). An analysis of the data using a mass spectrometry–data independent analysis (MS-DIAL) and MetaboAnalyst identified 113 metabolites belonging to 21 different classes of metabolites. A partial least square-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) revealed 43 variable importance in projection (VIP) metabolites. This study identified therapeutically important metabolites, including phenylpropanoids, phytosterols, flavonoids, and polyamines, in the grains of Mappillai Samba. Three significant metabolic pathways, viz., phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, ubiquinone and other terpenoid-quinone biosynthesis, and steroid biosynthesis, were responsible for the grain metabolome variation between CBMAS 14065 and Mappillai Samba. Overall, the results of this study unravelled the biochemical complexity of Mappillai Samba, paving the way for the genetic mapping of the therapeutic compound accumulation in rice and the development of similar therapeutic rice varieties through molecular breeding.

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are a group of root-associated beneficial bacteria emerging as one of the powerful agents in sustainable plant disease management. Among the PGPR, Bacillus sp. has become a popular biocontrol agent for controlling pests and the diseases of several crops of agricultural and horticultural importance. Understanding the molecular basis of the plant growth-promoting and biocontrol abilities of Bacillus spp. will allow us to develop multifunctional microbial consortia for sustainable agriculture. In our study, we attempted to unravel the genome complexity of the potential biocontrol agent Bacillus subtilis Bbv57 (isolated from the betelvine’s rhizosphere), available at TNAU, Coimbatore. A WGS analysis generated 26 million reads, and a de novo assembly resulted in the generation of 4,302,465 bp genome of Bacillus subtilis Bbv57 containing 4363 coding sequences (CDS), of which 4281 were functionally annotated. An analysis of 16S rRNA revealed its 100% identity to Bacillus subtilis IAM 12118. A detailed data analysis identified the presence of >100 CAZymes and nine gene clusters involved in the production of secondary metabolites that exhibited antimicrobial properties. Further, Bbv57 was found to harbor 282 unique genes in comparison with 19 other Bacillus strains, requiring further exploration.

Yellow mosaic disease (YMD), incited by mungbean yellow mosaic virus (MYMV), is a primary viral disease that reduces mungbean production in South Asia, especially in India. There is no detailed knowledge regarding the genes and molecular mechanisms conferring resistance of mungbean to MYMV. Therefore, disclosing the genetic and molecular bases related to MYMV resistance helps to develop the mungbean genotypes with MYMV resistance. In this study, transcriptomes of mungbean genotypes, VGGRU-1 (resistant) and VRM (Gg) 1 (susceptible) infected with MYMV were compared to those of uninfected controls. The number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the resistant and susceptible genotypes was 896 and 506, respectively. Among them, 275 DEGs were common between the resistant and susceptible genotypes. Functional annotation of DEGs revealed that the DEGs belonged to the following categories defense and pathogenesis, receptor-like kinases; serine/threonine protein kinases, hormone signaling, transcription factors, and chaperons, and secondary metabolites. Further, we have confirmed the expression pattern of several DEGs by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis. Collectively, the information obtained in this study unveils the new insights into characterizing the MYMV resistance and paved the way for breeding MYMV resistant mungbean in the future.