Zakir Husain Delhi College

Heavy metal accumulation, particularly lead, poses a significant threat to agricultural productivity and food safety, necessitating effective amelioration strategies. The non-degradable nature of lead ensures its persistence in soil and water, leading to long-term environmental and health risks through bioaccumulation in the food chain. Triticum aestivum, a vital global crop, is highly susceptible to lead stress. Lead toxicity severely disrupts plant physiological and biochemical processes, including reduced photosynthetic rates, altered stomatal conductance, decreased nutrient uptake, and impaired seed germination, ultimately leading to significant yield losses. This stress often induces oxidative damage through reactive oxygen species overproduction. Phytohormones like ethylene are crucial regulators of plant responses to abiotic stress, influencing photosynthetic efficiency and antioxidant systems. Ethylene production can be enhanced under metal stress, and its signaling pathways are implicated in plant adaptation and tolerance to toxic metals. Simultaneously, beneficial fungi such as Trichoderma spp . are known for their plant growth-promoting abilities and stress mitigation. Trichoderma can modulate plant hormone pathways, including ethylene, and some species produce ACC (1-Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid) deaminase, which reduces ethylene levels, thereby enhancing plant tolerance and root development. This research investigates the synergistic interactions of exogenously applied ethylene and Trichoderma spp . on wheat’s physiological and biochemical responses under lead stress. We hypothesize that while lead stress will severely disrupt photosynthetic proficiency and increase oxidative damage, both ethylene and Trichoderma will individually enhance stress resistance. Their co-application is predicted to synergistically boost photosynthesis, enhance antioxidant defense mechanisms, and decrease lead accumulation, offering an eco-friendly approach to alleviate heavy metal stress in wheat.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) promote plant invasions through enhanced colonization of invasive species in introduced ranges compared to their native ranges or native species or congeners in the introduced range. Quantitative differences in AMF communities have been observed between roots of invasive and native plant species, but data on qualitative differences in AMF communities between roots of invasive and its native congeneric species is lacking. Here, we generate empirical evidence to propose a hypothesis that invasive species harbour host-specific AMF phylotypes that are distinct from native congeners. We compared AMF communities in roots of the global invader Prosopis juliflora and its native congener P. cineraria at two geographically separated sites in India. The aim was to determine whether invasive species host AMF communities distinct from native congeners in introduced ranges. Root AMF communities were analysed by amplifying a 550 bp portion of the AMF 18S small subunit rDNA. Soils from rhizospheres of P. juliflora and P. cineraria at the two sites were analyzed for pH, organic matter, NH4+ and PO4 3−. No site-specific divergence in root AMF communities of the congeners was observed, but a significant host-specific divergence in root AMF communities of both Prosopis species was detected.

Algae, particularly microalgae, are recognised for their pharmacological potential due to their bioactive compounds with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. These compounds include polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), polysaccharides, carotenoids, and bioactives like eicosapentaenoic acid, which are beneficial for human health. Microalgae are easy to culture and maintain, offering a sustainable source of novel drugs. They are prevalent as health supplements and are used in manufacturing capsules, vitamins, antibiotics, and other products. The increasing antimicrobial resistance and intolerance to existing medications have renewed interest in algae for breakthroughs, particularly in treating neurodegenerative diseases. The market for microalgae is projected to grow significantly, driven by the health sector, including dietary supplements and nutraceuticals. Despite their benefits, challenges in working with natural compounds and the dependency on natural algal sources pose significant hurdles. Bioactive compounds from microalgae have antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidative, anticancer, neuroprotective, and chemopreventive activities, making them promising for managing various diseases. Microalgae are also harnessed in the pharmaceutical industries to produce recombinant proteins and peptides, and they are used as drug delivery systems for cancer therapy. However, optimising the production chain and competing with established platforms remain challenging. The future of algae-based pharmaceuticals is promising, with potential applications in drug delivery systems, recombinant protein production, and bioactive compound exploration. Despite limitations, sustained efforts and cooperation from stakeholders can lead to a better and stronger value chain, making microalgae a key player in the pharmaceutical industry.

Robotic waste segregation systems achieve high accuracy in controlled settings but lack mechanisms to explain failures during industrial deployment. Current evaluation frameworks provide classification metrics without diagnostic insights, forcing engineers to manually analyze logs. This work proposes an LLM-based framework for automated, explainable evaluation of vision-guided robotic waste sorting systems. The framework processes structured logs from perception and manipulation modules to generate multi-criteria assessments, identify failure patterns, and provide natural-language recommendations. We validate the approach across six test scenarios including contamination, occlusion, and high clutter conditions. Results show strong correlation between LLM evaluations and human expert assessments $r=0.85, p<0.001$ with $\mathbf{0. 6 7}$-point mean absolute error. The LLM identifies systematic failure patterns matching expert analysis and generates actionable recommendations. Closed-loop experiments demonstrate 6.3 % detection accuracy improvement and 5.8 % manipulation success improvement after implementing LLM suggestions. These results constitute preliminary evidence of the framework's utility for iterative system refinement, representing a promising first step toward LLM-assisted evaluation in unstructured waste management environments.

Mycorrhizal association is one of the most primitive and essential symbiotic associations found in terrestrial ecosystems known to play a crucial role in regulating growth and nutrient cycle in plants. It helped plants to survive in extreme conditions by influencing production of various important compounds required for survival. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) establish a reciprocal relationship with roots of terrestrial plants and helps host plants in uptake of water and nutrients by its extraradical hyphae to promote health, growth and productivity in return of photo- synthetically fixed organic carbon. Among all terrestrial plants, medicinal plants have diverse applications and are invaluable for combating various deadly diseases without any side effects. They are cultivated worldwide for its highly significant secondary metabolites. Association of AMF with medicinal plants are known for enhancing various active compounds with great pharmacological values. It escalates the production of sugars, chlorophyll, carotenoids, polyphenols, proteins, terpenoids and many more. AMF association with medicinal plants has improved resilience and secondary metabolite synthesis can possibly promote sustainable herbal agriculture to improve quantity and quality of active compounds. At present, day there is a need to focus on the potential role of AMF in a sustainable way to enhance secondary metabolites production in medicinal plants for the interest of society.