University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore (UAS Bangalore) is located in Bengaluru, India. It was established in 1964 as UAS Bangalore by a legislative act.
Browntop millet (Urochloa ramosa L.), is traditionally cultivated in Southern India and it was remained as underutilized crop for very long period. On the basis of its high fiber and protein content browntop millet is receiving interest among scientific community. Dearth of genomic resources is one of the vital constrain for genetic improvement. The study evaluated the cross transferability of finger millet SSR primers in browntop millet and genetic variation among 27 browntop millet genotypes. For preliminary evaluation, 100 SSR primers of finger millet were screened against 2 browntop millet genotypes. Among 100 SSR primers 30 were successfully amplified in 2 browntop millet genotypes and they were subsequently screened on 27 browntop millet genotypes. About 25
Grape ripe rot caused by Colletotrichum species is a significant limitation on fruit quality and yield in viticulture and requires integrative pathogen characterisation for precise diagnosis and management. Symptomatic bunches harvested during the 2025 growing season from Maharashtra (Sangli) and Karnataka (Athni) showed typical anthracnose lesions of high field severity (PDI = 50–70%). Both isolates formed circular colonies on potato dextrose agar with regular radial expansion (~ 1.01 to 1.1 cm/day), grey-pigmented aerial mycelium, conidiomata, and hyaline, aseptate, cylindrical conidia measuring 12–16 × 4.6-6.0 µm. Pathogenicity assays revealed deep necrotic lesions at seven days post-inoculation (PDI = 30–46%), and re-isolation confirmed Koch's hypothesis. ITS amplification and neighbour-joining phylogeny resolved GRR1 and GRR2 within a strongly supported Colletotrichum viniferum clade—whole-genome sequencing of GRR1 assembled into a 69.88 Mb draft genome with 5,670 contigs. Annotation predicted 5,158 protein-coding genes, with a focus on amino acid (184 genes), carbohydrate (89 genes), energy (50 genes) and secondary metabolic (50 genes) pathways, while ANI analysis validated species identity. Comparative orthology classified 16,151 proteins into clusters, including 1,405 lineage-specific groups and identified 50 virulence-associated proteins, 29.8% of which are potential effectors, as well as several CAZyme families (GH5, GH13, GH43) involved in host cell wall breakdown. Secretome prediction identified signal peptides in 7.85% of proteins, highlighting their potential for host interactions. This study represents the first report of Colletotrichum viniferum infecting grapevine in India. These combined phenotypic, phylogenetic and genomic datasets identified both isolates as C. viniferum and provide a quantitative framework for studying pathogenic specialisation, evolution and disease management in grapevine pathosystems.
The research on the evaluation of traps for managing Phthorimaea absoluta (Meyrick) was conducted at the College of Agriculture, Karekere, Hassan, during Rabi 2023-24. Among the traps tested, Delta sticky traps and yellow sticky trap proved most effective, with an average of 194.15 and 173.78 moths/trap/week demonstrated significant superiority in capturing adult moths and controlling larval populations, along with reducing foliage and fruit infestation in field conditions. This suggests that Delta sticky trap with TLM lure are highly economical, feasible, and easily adoptable by farmers.
The global chocolate industry is increasingly seeking sustainable alternatives to cocoa butter due to fluctuations in cocoa production and supply. The extraction of Shorea robusta (Sal) seed oil was optimized in this study by response surface methodology (RSM)-based microwave-assisted extraction (MAE). The potential of Sal seed oil as an alternative to cocoa butter in dark chocolate was assessed. The optimized extraction conditions were 879 W microwave power, 38.81 min extraction time, and a seed-to-solvent ratio of 1:18.86 (w/v; 10 g seed powder:188.64 mL n-hexane), to obtain 21.28 ± 0.68% oil. The extracted oil had low moisture (0.35%), density (0.873 g/mL), peroxide (1.12 meq O2/kg), and acid (2.54 mg KOH/g) values, and a fatty acid profile dominated by stearic (43.37%) and oleic (40.81%) acids. Differential scanning calorimetry showed a melting profile resembling that of cocoa butter. Dark chocolates made with 5% Sal oil substitution exhibited physicochemical, textural, and thermal properties similar to the cocoa butter control, while maintaining desirable storage stability over one month, with minimal changes in peroxide value, free fatty acid content, water activity, and bloom development. The MAE was more efficient than the previously optimised conventional solvent extraction process, with 9% less solvent required per gram of oil recovered 84.5% reduction in total extraction time. Overall, the RSM-optimized MAE process provides an efficient and relatively greener approach for the recovery of high-quality Sal seed oil and supports its potential as a sustainable alternative to cocoa butter in dark chocolate formulations within currently permitted substitution levels.
Balanced nutrient management using multi-nutrient fertilizers has gained increasing attention for improving crop productivity and nutrient use efficiency in rainfed areas. Multi-nutrient fertilizers have received considerable attention in recent years, particularly for fields with multi nutrient deficiencies. A two-year field experiment was conducted during rainy season of 2023 and 2024 on acidic sandy loam soil to evaluate the agronomic performance of co-granulated urea–polyhalite (Urea-POLY) fertilizer in comparison with conventional farmer fertilizer practices under rainfed maize cultivation. The experiment included six nutrient management treatments comprising Farmer Practice (NP), Farmer Practice (NPK), Urea-POLY bag-for-bag, Urea-POLY recommended N, DAP + MOP and SSP + MOP treatments in randomized block design with three replications. Pooled analysis showed that Urea-POLY recommended N recorded the highest plant height (149.1 cm), leaf area index (3.14) and biomass accumulation (114.4 g plant-1), this was statistically comparable with Farmer Practice (NPK) (p ≤ 0.05). Similarly, Urea-POLY recommended N produced the highest grain yield (4669 kg ha-1), representing a 6.3% grain yield increase over Farmer Practice (NPK) and stover yield (7978 kg ha-1), Yield improvements were associated with enhanced cob length, grain number and test weight. Urea-POLY treatments also improved post-harvest soil available N, P, K and S along with exchangeable Ca and Mg compared to conventional control treatments, and the difference was statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05). Furthermore, in terms of nitrogen use efficiency (NUE); application of Urea-POLY rec. N resulted in more pronounced agronomic use efficiency and partial factor productivity of N, P, K and S compared with the Farmer Practice (NPK) treatment. This nutrient management strategy, which particularly emphasized the importance of N, S and K levels, optimized maize productivity and quality. However, the study was conducted at Gungal, Telangana region and the findings should be validated further across different soil types, agro climatic seasons and crops. Overall, this study showed the potential of cogranulated Urea-POLY as an efficient multi-nutrient commercial fertilizer to supply N, K, S, Ca and Mg nutrients under dryland agriculture.
