Over the past decade, there have been accumulating reports from researchers, farmers, and field extension personnel on the increasing incidence and spread of onion basal rot in India. Onion basal rot disease is mainly caused by Fusarium spp. This study aimed to validate the information on the active prevalence of F. falciforme and F. acutatum causing Fusarium basal rot (FBR) in Maharashtra. A survey was conducted, and the infected plants/bulbs were collected from fields of 38 locations comprising five districts of Maharashtra, namely, Nashik, Aurangabad, Solapur, Ahmednagar, and Pune, in 2023. This disease was prevalent in high-moisture and high-oil-temperature conditions and the symptoms were observed in most of the fields, with the FBR incidence ranging from 17 to 41%. The available data of basal rot incidence from 1998 to 2022 were analyzed, based on which the prevalence of FBR was 11–50%. Tissue from the infected samples of onion bulbs was used for the isolation. The identification was performed based on colony morphology and microscopic features and confirmed through molecular markers using ITS and Tef-1α gene primers. Of the ten Fusarium isolates collected from selected locations, six species were confirmed as F. acutatum and four as F. falciforme. The pathogenicity tests performed with onion seedlings and bulbs under moist conditions proved that both F. acutatum and F. falciforme independently could cause basal rot disease symptoms but with different degrees of virulence. Koch’s postulates were confirmed by reisolating the same pathogens from the infected plants. Thus, the active prevalence of FBR was confirmed in Maharashtra and also, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of F. falciforme and F. acutatum causing basal rot of onion independently in Maharashtra, India.

The use of beneficial microbes is hitherto known and constantly increasing in agriculture due to their positive impact on crop growth and yield, and their minimal negative impact on the environment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of eight Trichoderma strains of diverse origin on crop growth and yield of onion under field conditions. The identity of the strains used in the current study was confirmed by ITS and Tef1 gene sequencing. Field experiments were conducted in the Rabi season for 2 years (2020–21, and 2022–23) to evaluate the effect of the application of eight different Trichoderma strains that were applied individually and separately as eight different treatments (T1–T8) in experimental plots. In the plant growth promotion assay conducted in vitro, all strains showed the ability to produce IAA (indole-3-acetic acid), with levels ranging from 23.52 μg/mL (T6) to 45.54 μg/mL (T3). Our results revealed that Trichoderma treated experimental plots displayed better growth indices (plant height, pseudostem diameter), RWC (Relative water content), leaf chlorophyll content, and yield-attributing features like biomass (bulb and root dry mass), bulb diameter, and harvested bulb yield compared to the untreated control plants. In terms of yield, the T2 strain exhibited the highest bulb yield consistently for both the years (2020–21 and 2022–23) followed by T3 being statistically at par with T5. Among all the evaluated Trichoderma strains, the strain T2 (OGRDT2) and T3 (GRDT1), taxonomically identified as Trichoderma longibrachiatum, registered bulb yield of 32.24 t/ha and 30.76 t/ha, respectively while T5 (GRDT3), identified as Trichoderma asperellum, registered 30.55 t/ha average yield for 2 years compared to 24.08 t/ha average yield recorded for untreated control plants with an increase of 34, 28 and 27%, respectively. Based on our findings, it is concluded that the T. longibrachiatum strains OGRDT2 (T2) and GRDT1 (T3), T. asperellum strain GRDT3 (T5) are the best inducers of the onion crop growth and yield in the Rabi season and would be explored further for its commercial application in onion farming.

The anthocyanins (ACN) are watersoluble pigments present in the pericarp or aleurone layer of maize kernel. The authentic color landraces being grown by the farmers at a smaller scale restricted to local consumers. These color ears (cob with color kernels) which are receiving more prominence not only for their environment friendly and natural colorant properties but also to their numerous health benefits from edible food pigments. Since anthocyanin pigments have significant effects on animal health, it is also catching the attention of food processing companies as well as highend culinary markets. In this review, we have represented functional properties of anthocyanins present in maize. Earlier, studies best on in vitro tests were extrapolatory but now using cell models and animal trials are providing foolproof evidence for functional significance of corn anthocyanins. The mechanisms of action at the cellular and molecular level have been understood.

A desert represents a large, extremely dry, barren landscape with sparse or no vegetation due to the exposure to concurrent abiotic stresses such as prolonged drought, poor edaphic nutrient status, extreme temperatures, and high incident radiation. Based on the temperature extremes, deserts are classified as hot deserts and cold deserts. Although many life forms struggle to survive in deserts, specialized microbial groups have best evolved to survive under such extreme conditions. Recently, there is growing interest in extremophiles of deserts (xerotolerant microbes and psychrophiles) for biotechnological exploitation of the elite gene pool of stress-tolerant microbes. The arrival of metagenomics has paved the way for studying the microbial communities of the desert ecosystem. This chapter deals with the metagenomic insights into microbial communities of hot and cold desert ecosystems. Studies describing the microbial communities associated with different biotypes (desert soils, endoliths and hypoliths, desert plant microbiomes, permafrost, snow, halites, glacier fore-fields, etc.) are discussed. A description of metagenomic techniques used to explore desert microbial communities is also presented in the chapter.

The effect of zinc, molybdenum and urea has been studied on chlorophyll, nitrogen and protein content of mungbean crop.Two varieties of mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek] i.e., Pant Mung-4 and Narendra-1 were studied in the Department of Botany, Meerut College, Meerut (U.P.) in the years 2011-2012.Simple Randomized Block Design was followed with 4 replications and 11 treatments along with control.The treatments were Zn (5, 10, 15 and 20 ppm), Mo (1, 2, 3 and 5 ppm) and urea (1% and 2%).The results were found significant of both varieties of mungbean.

The effect of zinc, molybdenum and urea has been studied on plant height (cm), number of productive branches, number of leaves, leaf area (sq.cm.), fresh weight (g), dry weight (g), number of pods per plant, seed yield per plant and 1000 seeds weight (g) (Test weight) of mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek] Var.Pant Mung-4 and Narendra-1.The experiment was conducted at Meerut College, Meerut (U.P.) during the years 2011-2012.Randomised Block Design was followed with 4 replications and 11 treatments.The doses of zinc were 5, 10, 15 and 20 ppm.The concentrations of molybdenum were 1, 2, 3 and 5 ppm and of urea were 1 and 2 per cent along with control.The results were found significant of both varieties of mungbean.

In recent years, metagenomics has emerged as a powerful tool for mining of hidden microbial treasure in a culture independent manner. In the last two decades, metagenomics has been applied extensively to exploit concealed potential of microbial communities from almost all sorts of habitats. A brief historic progress made over the period is discussed in terms of origin of metagenomics to its current state and also the discovery of novel biological functions of commercial importance from metagenomes of diverse habitats. The present review also highlights the paradigm shift of metagenomics from basic study of community composition to insight into the microbial community dynamics for harnessing the full potential of uncultured microbes with more emphasis on the implication of breakthrough developments, namely, Next Generation Sequencing, advanced bioinformatics tools, and systems biology.

Guar is the first agriculture commodity registered on NCDEX. Earlier its prices used to be very low, i.e. ` 2,000-3,000/q. But because of its increasing industrial uses particularly in oil industry and demand in international market the prices of guar suddenly soared up to the level of Rupees 30,000/q in 2011- 12 which were merely Rupees 4,000/q in 2010-11. However, an embargo on guar seed guar gum future trading for last one year has resulted in price distortion. The prevailing market prices of guar seed is around Rupees 10,000/q and frocking market in USA and Europe seems to increase so the government should immediately lift the ban on future trading of guar and its products. This will motivate the farmers for crop diversification to grow more industrial crops and therefore transfer the benefits of higher prices to the farmers in distress particularly of dry regions which will in turn give a boost to the national economy.