Management of Strawberry Grey Mold Disease Using Biocontrol Agents and Plant Extracts

Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) is a significant global soft fruit crop, prized for its nutrient content and pleasant flavor. However, diseases, particularly grey mold caused by Botrytis cinerea Pers. Fr. poses major constraints to strawberry production and productivity. Grey mold severely impacts fruit quality and quantity, diminishing market value. This study evaluated five B. cinerea isolates from various locations in the Ri-Bhoi district of Meghalaya. All isolates were pathogenic, with isolate SGM 2 identified as highly virulent. Host range studies showed the pathogen-producing symptoms in the fava bean pods, marigold, gerbera, and chrysanthemum flowers and in the fava bean, gerbera, and lettuce leaves. In vitro tests revealed that neem extract (15% w/v) achieved the highest mycelial growth inhibition at 76.66%, while black turmeric extract (5% w/v) had the lowest inhibition at 9.62%. Dual culture methods with bio-control agents indicated that Bacillus subtilis recorded the highest mean inhibition at 77.03%, while Pseudomonas fluorescens had the lowest at 20.36% against the two virulent isolates. Pot evaluations demonstrated that B. subtilis resulted in the lowest percent disease index at 20.59%, followed by neem extract at 23.31%, with the highest disease index in the control group at 42.51%. Additionally, B. subtilis significantly improved plant growth, yielding an average of 0.32 kg compared to 0.14 kg in the control. The promising results of B. subtilis and neem leaf extract from this study suggest their potential for eco-friendly managing grey mold in strawberries under field conditions.

Differential Expression of Iron Deficiency Responsive Rice Genes under Low Phosphorus and Iron Toxicity Conditions and Association of OsIRO3 with Yield in Acidic Soils

With the hypothesis that iron(Fe) deficiency responsive genes may play a role in Fe toxicity conditions,we studied five such genes OsNAS1,OsNAS3,OsIRO2,OsIRO3 and OsYSL16 across six contrasting rice genotypes for expression under high Fe and low phosphorus(P) conditions,and sequence polymorphism.Genotypes Sahbhagi Dhan,Chakhao Poirieton and Shasharang were high yielders with no bronzing symptom visible under Fe toxic field conditions,and BAM350 and BAM811 were low yielders but did not show bronzing symptoms.Hydroponic screening revealed that the number of crown roots and root length can be traits for consideration for identifying Fe toxicity tolerance in rice genotypes.Fe contents in rice roots and shoots of a high-yielding genotype KMR3 showing leaf bronzing were significantly high.In response to 24 h high Fe stress,the expression levels of OsNAS3 were up-regulated in all genotypes except KMR3.In response to 48 h high Fe stress,the expression levels of OsNAS1 were3-fold higher in tolerant Shasharang,whereas in KMR3,it was significantly down-regulated.Even in response to 7 d excess Fe stress,the transcript abundances of OsIRO2 and OsNAS3 were contrasting in genotypes Shasharang and KMR3.This suggested that the reported Fe deficiency genes had a role in Fe toxicity and that in genotype KMR3 under excess Fe stress,there was disruption of metal homeostasis.Under the 48 h low P conditions,OsIRO2 and OsYSL16 were significantly up-regulated in Fe tolerant genotype Shasharang and in low P tolerant genotype Chakhao Poirieton,respectively.In silico sequence analysis across 3 024 rice genotypes revealed polymorphism for 4 genes.Sequencing across OsIRO3and OsNAS3 revealed nucleotide polymorphism between tolerant and susceptible genotypes for Fe toxicity.Non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms and insertion/deletions(InDels) differing in tolerant and susceptible genotypes were identified.A marker targeting 25-bp InDel in OsIRO3,when run on a diverse panel of 43 rice genotypes and a biparental population,was associated with superior performance for yield under acidic lowland field conditions.This study highlights the potential of one of the vital genes involved in Fe homeostasis as a genic target for improving rice yield in acidic soils.

A Survey on Semantic Similarity Measures between Concepts in Health Domain

The similarity between biomedical terms/concepts is a very important task for biomedical information extraction and knowledge discovery. The measures and tests are tools used to define how to measure the goodness of ontology or its resources. The semantic similarity measuring techniques can be classified into three classes: first, measuring semantic similarity using ontology/ taxonomy;second, using training corpora and information content and third, combination between them. Some of the semantic similarity measures are based on the path length between the concept nodes as well as the depth of the LCS node in the ontology tree or hierarchy, and these measures assign high similarity when the two concepts are in the lower level of the hierarchy. However, most of the semantic similarity measures can be adopted to be used in health domain (Biomedical Domain). Many experiments have been conducted to check the applicability of these measures. In this paper, we investigate to measure semantic similarity between two concepts within single ontology or multiple ontologies in UMLS Metathesaurus (MeSH, SNOMED-CT, ICD), and compare my results to human experts score by correlation coefficient.

Double mulching improves soil properties and productivity of maize-based cropping system in eastern Indian Himalayas

A field experiment was conducted for two consecutive years at North Eastern Indian Himalayan region to assess the effect of soil moisture conservation measures on soil and water productivity of different rainfed maize(Zea mays L.)-based cropping sequences.Results revealed that double mulching with in-situ maize stover mulch(MSM)+fresh biomass of white hoary pea(WHP-Tephrosia candida)and MSM+fresh biomass of ragweed(RW-Ambrosia artemisiifolia)improved soil moisture content(SMC)and leaf relative water content of crops during dry season.The soil organic carbon(SOC)content and stocks under MSM+WHP and MSM+RW mulches were significantly higher than that under no mulch at 0-15 cm depth.The soil microbial biomass carbon and dehydrogenase activity were maximum under MSM+WHP/RW.The highest system productivity was obtained from maize-French bean(Pole type-PT)sequence under MSM+RW followed by MSM+WHP.The water productivity was the highest under MSM+WHP.While SOC content was the highest under maize-French bean(PT),the maximum plant available nitrogen and phosphorus were obtained under maize-black gram sequence.Thus,double mulching technology involving MSM and RW(available in plenty)is a viable option for improving soil,crop and water productivity under rainfed hill ecosystems of eastern Indian Himalayas.