Four exotic high oleic acid safflower germplasm and five conventional high linoleic acid varieties were taken for crossing in this investigation. Nine F2:3progenies of the crosses were screened for fatty acid profile. The fatty acid C18:1 recorded retention time of 18.20 minutes where as C18:2 recorded the retention time of 19.17 minute. Among the five crosses of F3 progenies EC-755669 x GMU-370878.06), SSF-748 x EC-755659 (47.11), Nari-57 x EC-755681 (40.37) and Nari-57 x EC-755669 (39.89) mg/g of oleic acid showing improvement in oleic acid content. The amplification of genomic DNA of F3 progenies of EC-755669 x EC-523373 and EC-755669 x GMU-3708 crosses with three SCAR primers linked with high oleic acid trait showed expected amplicon of 365, 730 and 150 bp with CAR FAD2–1, IASCA-73, IASCA-74 primers. The high linoleic acid parents SSF708, Nari-57, GMU-3708, SAF-1244 and SSF-748 also exhibited an expected amplification band when amplified with high linolate specific SCAR primer. The cross transferability with ORS-371 (550bp), ORS-488 (180 bp) and N1–3F (280bp) SSR primer which are previously used in high and low oleate sunflower genotypes is confirmed in our study with expected amplicon in F3 EC-755669 x EC-533373 and EC-755669 x GMU-3708.

Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium udum is the most important disease of pigeonpea that adversely affect the yield and production. Development of cultivars resistant to fusarium wilt could be an effective strategy in decreasing the production costs, improving production quality and reducing the detrimental effect of chemical on ecosystem. Twenty four different genotypes and local germplasm of pigeonpea was field tested on wilt sick soil for percent wilt incidence and the percent wilt incidence were ranged between 6.98 and 24.44. The mean wilt incidence of resistant pigeonpea genotypes was 8.53 whereas that of susceptible genotypes was 24.15%.Only five pigeonpea genotypes (BDN-711, ICP-8863, PT-012-2,PT-012-1, PT-03-129-2) recorded field wilt incidence of less than 10% and categorized as resistant. The four genotypes (PT-04-111, PT-04-360-1, PT-03-104-1 and PT-012-12) were categorized as susceptible with wilt percent between 20.1 and 40.00 and remained genotypes were moderate resistant. The mean phenol and OD phenol content of leaf tissues of resistant genotypes under wilt sick conditions was significantly higher than susceptible genotypes. The mean activity of defense related enzymes viz., β1,3-glucanase, chitinase and phenylalanine ammonia lyase was 90.11 nmoles of glucose released/mg protein/min, 12.27 nmoles of N-acetyl glucosamine released/mg protein/min and 3.46 nmoles of transcinnamic acid formed/mg protein/min respectively, in resistant genotypes under wilt sick conditions. On the basis of wilt resistant and susceptible pigeonpea genotypes screened for different defense related enzymes out of twenty four genotypes PT-012–18, ICP-8863 and BDN 711 were found promising. A reported RAPD primer OPG 08 and SCAR1 marker showed 920 and 937 bp respectively, in pigeon pea wilt resistant genotypes.

The soybean seed is highly susceptible to field weathering and mechanical damage which adversely affect its longevity. Mechanical injury can occur at any time during harvesting, drying and storage conditioning of seeds. The seed coat color and leachate conductivity of soybean has been correlated with seed longevity and black seed coat color has been reported to be positively correlated with better seed longevity. In order to understand the physico-chemical attributes related to soybean seed longevity, biochemical and molecular analysis of the parents exhibiting black (Birsasoya-1) and yellow seed coat colour (EC 241780) and the eleven F3 progenies of the cross exhibiting brown, yellow and black seed coat colour was carried out. The results revealed that vita-E, lignin, calcium content and activity of antioxidative enzymes appeared to be positively correlated with soybean seed longevity and levels were higher in black and brown seed coat color progenies. The lipid peroxidation rate was inversely related to membrane injury caused by ROS and comparatively much less lipid peroxidation rate was recorded in black and brown seed coat colour parents and progenies having better seed longevity. The SSR primers Satt162, Satt523 and Satt453 which are either linked with seed coat colour and seed permeability exhibited a specific size allelic fragments in soybean genotypes and crosses with better seed longevity.

The genomic DNA of six high sugar varieties (CoC 671, CoM 0254, Co 94012, MS 202, CoM 9908 and Q 63) and a low sugar variety CoM 0251 were amplified using 20 RAPD primers in order to identify their diversity. The result showed that all the primers produced polymorphic bands. However, based on percent polymorphism eleven primers (OPB-01, OPB-02, OPB03, OPB-04, OPB 07, OPB 09, OPB-11, OPB-12, OPB-13, OPB-14, OPB-16, OPB-18 and OPB-20) were found to be most informative. In the present investigation, eight amplified products were obtained using primers OPB 02 (1827, 1524, 883 bp); OPB 03 (1456 bp); OPB 04 (881 bp); OPB 07 (1889 bp, 946 bp) and OPB 09 (2001 bp) which were consistently present in six high sugar varieties and found to be absent in low sugar variety. A variety, Q 63 is quite often used as a parent in sugarcane breeding programme aimed at evolving high sugar varieties. Primer OPB-08 and OPB-03 showed a distinct band of ∼550 bp and ∼750 bp, respectively, in CoC 671, Co 94012 and Q 63. Q 63 is one of the parents of CoC 671 and Co 94012 is a somaclonal variety of CoC 671. Dice Similarity Coefficient revealed similarity index range from 0.513 to 0.710. Consensus tree indicates that the seven sugarcane varieties studied fall into three clusters. The low sugar content variety CoM 0251 was found to be most distinct and formed an independent cluster. The study suggest that converting the sequence information of these amplified products into SCAR marker can definitely help in reliable screening of sugarcane genotypes.

: Three consistently resistant genotypes viz. , Co-6806, Co-6201 and CoM-0265 and four highly susceptible genotypes viz. , Co-740, Co-7219, Co-7527 and CoM-08093 to whip-smut under artificial conditions were further evaluated for constitutive and induced defence response. The level of phenols and activities of chitinase,  -1,3-glucanase and PALase were higher in resistant genotypes than the susceptible ones even when not inoculated with the pathogen, suggesting a constitutive in-built defence mechanism. However, these defence responsive enzymes were triggered in response to challenge inoculation with the pathogen more in resistant than susceptible varieties. The smut resistant genotype, Co-6806 recorded higher level induction of  -1,3-glucanase (129.5%) and chitinase (138.0%) with moderate level induction of PALase (45.3%). The genomic DNAs were also evaluated with SSR primers. The primer NKS 11 showed a specific amplicon only in resistant genotypes whereas NKS 49 and NKS 56 showed specific amplified products in susceptible genotypes. These SSR primers could be used to identify whip-smut resistant sugarcane genotypes at early stage which will save time and labour required for the traditional method requiring 12 months.

Pomegranate peel the byproduct of pomegranate industry when extracted with different solvents revealed that methanol: Water (80:20) and acetone: water (80:20) to be equally effective solvents for extraction of various antioxidants. The peel extract of Ganesh variety of pomegranate had more amount of antioxidant viz., phenol, proathocyanidin and flavonoid with more antioxidant activity in terms DPPH and FRAP value when compared with the synthetic butylated hydroxyl toluene (BHT). The methanolic extract when tested against different plant pathogens viz., Xanthomonas spp.(Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. punicae, Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. malvacearum and Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri), Aspergillus flavous and Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceri was found to inhibit the growth of bacteria and fungi.