Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important non-cereal crop all over the world and is remarkably recommended for ensuring global food security. Potato being a vegetatively propagated crop provides an ample opportunity for the pathogen to perpetuate from one generation to another through tubers and because of its succulence; it prevents desiccation of the pathogens. Among many diseases, common scab caused by Streptomyces scabies is a serious disease in India where the yield loss on account of the disease is not much but it drastically reduces the market value of the produce due to inferior quality. In the present investigation, a set of fifteen germplasms of potato was screened against common scab caused by S. scabies under natural and controlled conditions during 2012-13 to locate sources of resistance. As a result, out of fifteen germplasms/cultivars of potato screened against common scab, none of the germplasm was proven to be resistant to common scab. Whereas, four potato germplasms were categorized as moderately resistant; three genotypes were categorized as moderately susceptible; six potato germplasms were proven to be susceptible and two genotypes were found to be highly susceptible to common scab caused by S. scabies. Use of resistant cultivars for the management of common scab disease of potato is the best and most economic method. Hence, moderately resistant germplasms like MF-1, MS/95-1307, DSP-287 and Kufri Sutlaj should be cultivated to deal with the common scab of potato.

Present investigation was carried out to evaluate the eight varieties of wheat against spot blotch disease and their performance under different date of sowing. Among the three different sowing date the plant height of all genotypes increased with delayed sowing, except in Shatabdi the plant height remained more or less unaltered, no correlation was found between the plant height and disease resistance however strong correlation was recorded in thousand kernels weight and disease resistance in almost all varieties except Francolin, however early date of sown recorded higher thousand kernels weight (48.16 g). The Area under disease progress curve was significantly lower in 16th November (D1) (423.37) sowing and increased with every date of delayed sowing. Irrespective of varietal mean AUDPC found highest in Sonalika (487.77) and lowest in Shatabdi (248.95). Among the variety and date of sowing maximum yield was obtained in 16th November (D1) in all eight varieties and tend to decrease with every day of delayed sowing. The varietal mean revealed that highest yield in Shatabdi (1796.81 g), though the lowest yield was found in DBW-14 (1487.00 g). It may be concluded that different varieties gave different response to spot blotch disease. The AUDPC and yield of crop were also highly influenced by date of sowing. The optimum date of sowing for all varieties in North Bengal is 16th November.

A systematic survey on characterization and assessment of guava (Psidium guajava) production technology in Bundi district of Rajasthan was carried out with the objective to ascertain adoption status of improved production technologies, prevailing insect-pests & diseases and to identify constraints in the production of guava. The outcomes of the study indicated that the majority of respondent farmers (70.83 %) had the poor adoption status of improved guava production practices. Bark eating caterpillar and fruit fly were the major insect pests and wilt and anthracnose were major diseases while bronzing of guava and fruit drop were physiological disorders prevailed in the study area. Lack of knowledge, unavailability of genuine planting material and lack of marketing facilities were the major constraints in guava production reported by respondents.

Author already published article in other journal, Article is retracted from publication process

Transcription factors are the early responsive genes which up on receiving stimulus from both biotic and abiotic stress lead to expression of various kind of proteins which can cope up with stress. Furthermore, the expression of genes takes place only when specific transcription factor (TF) binds to 6 to 15 nucleotide region present in upstream of corresponding gene called as transcription factor binding site (TFBSs). In present study, in silico based approach was used to predict the putative TFBSs and their TF responsible for fiber strength in G.barbadense. The data pertaining to differential expression of genes corresponding to fiber strength was retrieved from NCBI GEO database. A total of 70 significantly up regulated and down regulated ESTs were retrieved and assembled to 5 contigs. The contigs were functional annotated to know its exact role. The upstream sequences of the contigs were retrieved from G. raimondii genome. The upstream sequence subjected to NNPP software for promoter prediction. Using position weight matrix of experimentally validated TFBSs deposited in JASPAR database was used to predict the TFBS in promoter regions. The newly identified TFBSs were in the range from 6 to 20 nucleotides with multiple binding sites, except for Glucuronosyl transferases. With discovery of TFBSs and their TF for fiber strength will lead to better understanding of fiber strength development, which intern may lead to genetic manipulation of TFs and their introgression in G. hirsutum species which could help in achieving high fiber strength in addition to higher yields