Search Results (4)

Legumes are a better source of proteins and are richer in diverse micronutrients over the nutritional profile of widely consumed cereals. However, when exposed to a diverse range of abiotic stresses, their overall productivity and quality are hugely impacted. Our limited understanding of genetic determinants and novel variants associated with the abiotic stress response in food legume crops restricts its amelioration. Therefore, it is imperative to understand different molecular approaches in food legume crops that can be utilized in crop improvement programs to minimize the economic loss. ‘Omics’-based molecular breeding provides better opportunities over conventional breeding for diversifying the natural germplasm together with improving yield and quality parameters. Due to molecular advancements, the technique is now equipped with novel ‘omics’ approaches such as ionomics, epigenomics, fluxomics, RNomics, glycomics, glycoproteomics, phosphoproteomics, lipidomics, regulomics, and secretomics. Pan-omics—which utilizes the molecular bases of the stress response to identify genes (genomics), mRNAs (transcriptomics), proteins (proteomics), and biomolecules (metabolomics) associated with stress regulation—has been widely used for abiotic stress amelioration in food legume crops. Integration of pan-omics with novel omics approaches will fast-track legume breeding programs. Moreover, artificial intelligence (AI)-based algorithms can be utilized for simulating crop yield under changing environments, which can help in predicting the genetic gain beforehand. Application of machine learning (ML) in quantitative trait loci (QTL) mining will further help in determining the genetic determinants of abiotic stress tolerance in pulses. Full article

Aluminium (Al) toxicity acts as a major delimiting factor in the productivity of many crops including lentil. To alleviate its effect, plants have evolved with Al exclusion and inclusion mechanisms. The former involves the exudation of organic acid to restrict the entry of Al³⁺ to the root cells while latter involves detoxification of entered Al³⁺ by organic acids. Al-induced secretion of organic acids from roots is a well-documented mechanism that chelates and neutralizes Al³⁺ toxicity. In this study, F₆ recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between L-7903 (Al-resistant) and BM-4 (Al-sensitive) were phenotyped to assess variation in secretion levels of malate and was combined with genotypic data obtained from 10 Al-resistance linked simple sequence repeat (SSRs) markers. A major quantitative trait loci (QTL) was mapped for malate (qAlt_ma) secretion with a logarithm of odd (LOD) value of 7.7 and phenotypic variation of 60.2%.Validated SSRs associated with this major QTL will be useful in marker assisted selection programmes for improving Al resistance in lentil. Full article

Salvadora persica is the most used medicinal shrub in the Arab world. This experiment was conducted to evaluate seedling performance at different rates of NPK. Seedlings were treated with N:P:K at 4:2:2 (N:P:K 2:2:2 g + 2 g of nitrogen supplemented as ammonium sulfate), 6:3:3 (N:P:K 3:3:3 g + 3 g of nitrogen supplemented as ammonium sulfate), 2:1:1S (N:P:K 1:1:1 g + 1 g of nitrogen supplemented as ammonium sulfate), 2:1:1U (N:P:K 1:1:1 g + 1 g of nitrogen supplemented as urea), 4:1:1S (N:P:K 1:1:1 g + 3 g of nitrogen supplemented as ammonium sulfate), 4:1:1U (N:P:K 1:1:1 g + 3 g of nitrogen supplemented as urea), 6:1:1S (N:P:K 1:1:1 g + 5 g of nitrogen supplemented as ammonium sulfate), 6:1:1U (N:P:K 1:1:1 g + 5 g of nitrogen supplemented as urea) in addition to the control. The results indicated that NPK application significantly affected the vegetative and root growth parameters and the chemical contents. Among the various treatments of NPK, the application of 6:3:3 rates showed the highest values for aboveground parts, root parameters, and greenness level. Therefore, the present study demonstrates the optimum NPK levels that can enhance seedling growth throughout the nursery period. Full article

An increasing number of emerging and developing countries have adopted or are transitioning towards full-fledged inflation targeting (FFIT) as the main monetary policy framework to anchor inflation. In this paper, we explore the FFIT regime as a means for Mauritius to achieve stable inflation, anchor inflationary expectations and establish credibility in committing monetary policy towards price stability as its primary goal. This paper reviews and highlights issues experienced with the current monetary policy framework and the challenges in transitioning towards FFIT. Given that forecasting is central to FFIT, we develop a practical model-based forecasting and policy analysis system (FPAS) to support transition to FFIT, taking into account structural features and shocks that are specific to the Mauritius economy. Full article