Strategies for mitigation of pesticides from the environment through alternative approaches: A review of recent developments and future prospects.

Chemical-based peticides are having negative impacts on both the healths of human beings and plants as well. The World Health Organisation (WHO), reported that each year, >25 million individuals in poor nations are having acute pesticide poisoning cases along with 20,000 fatal injuries at global level. Normally, only ∼0.1% of the pesticide reaches to the intended targets, and rest amount is expected to come into the food chain/environment for a longer period of time. Therefore, it is crucial to reduce the amounts of pesticides present in the soil. Physical or chemical treatments are either expensive or incapable to do so. Hence, pesticide detoxification can be achieved through bioremediation/biotechnologies, including nano-based methodologies, integrated approaches etc. These are relatively affordable, efficient and environmentally sound methods. Therefore, alternate strategies like as advanced biotechnological tools like as CRISPR Cas system, RNAi and genetic engineering for development of insects and pest resistant plants which are directly involved in the development of disease- and pest-resistant plants and indirectly reduce the use of pesticides. Omics tools and multi omics approaches like metagenomics, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics for the efficient functional gene mining and their validation for bioremediation of pesticides also discussed from the literatures. Overall, the review focuses on the most recent advancements in bioremediation methods to lessen the effects of pesticides along with the role of microorganisms in pesticides elimination. Further, pesticide detection is also a big challenge which can be done by using HPLC, GC, SERS, and LSPR ELISA etc. which have also been described in this review.

Dissecting chickpea genomic loci associated with the root penetration responsive traits in compacted soil.

MAIN CONCLUSION: Soil compaction reduces root exploration in chickpea. We found genes related to root architectural traits in chickpea that can help understand and improve root growth in compacted soils. Soil compaction is a major concern for modern agriculture, as it constrains plant root growth, leading to reduced resource acquisition. Phenotypic variation for root system architecture (RSA) traits in compacted soils is present for various crops; however, studies on genetic associations with these traits are lacking. Therefore, we investigated RSA traits in different soil compaction levels and identified significant genomic associations in chickpea. We conducted a Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) of 210 chickpea accessions for 13 RSA traits under three bulk densities (BD) (1.1BD, 1.6BD, and 1.8BD). Soil compaction decreases root exploration by reducing 12 RSA traits, except average diameter (AD). Further, AD is negatively correlated with lateral root traits, and this correlation increases in 1.8BD, suggesting the negative effect of AD on lateral root traits. Interestingly, we identified probable candidate genes such as GLP3 and LRX for lateral root traits and CRF1-like for total length (TL) in 1.6BD soil. In heavy soil compaction, DGK2 is associated with lateral root traits. Reduction in laterals during soil compaction is mainly due to delayed seedling establishment, thus making lateral root number a critical trait. Interestingly, we also found a higher contribution of the  GxE component of the number of root tips (Tips) to the total variation than the other lateral traits. We also identified a pectin esterase, PPE8B, associated with Tips in high soil compaction and a significantly associated SNP with the relative change in Tips depicting a trade-off between Tips and AD. Identified genes and loci would help develop soil-compaction-resistant chickpea varieties.

In Vitro Culture Technology and Advanced Biotechnology Tools Toward Improvement in Gladiolus (Gladiolus species): Present Scenario and Future Prospects.

In the world's flower trade, gladiolus (Gladiolus spp.) is ranked first among bulbous flowers and eighth among cut flowers, with more than 30,000 different cultivars being grown. Mass multiplication and commercialization are restricted by the traditional propagation methods. However, the large-scale proliferation and improvement of the gladiolus have been accomplished with the aid of plant tissue culture and other biotechnological techniques. The current review includes a thorough examination of the growth and development parameters required for successful in vitro gladiolus development as well as cormel formation. Moreover, focus is being given to various techniques and methods such as in vitro cytogenetic stability and modification of chromosome number, in vitro mutagenesis and selection of pest resistance, in vitro identification and selection to develop virus-free germplasm, cryopreservation, synthetic seed technology, identifying virus diseases by RT-PCR, somaclonal variation, and protoplast and somatic hybridization. Molecular markers and their applications for genetic diversity analysis, relationships between different genotypes, and clonal stability analysis in Gladiolus species have been conducted by several research groups worldwide and are also being discussed. The article also covers efforts to enhance the functionality of plant phenotypes through genetic transformation. Future prospects for further improvement of ornamental gladiolus are also explored. Overall, the current review provides insight into the applications of basic and advanced biotechnological tools for gladiolus improvement.

Economically viable flower drying techniques to sustain flower industry amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Imposing lockdown amid COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected flower cultivation and their trades. Flower plants are very sensitive to the harvesting, and any unexpected delay may cause great loss (~ 50-60%) to the farmers. In 2018-2019, the worth of total production of floriculture products was ~ Rs 571.38 crore. During lockdown, the availability of human laborers and restricted transport has disrupted the supply of flowers to the market. Hence, some alternative options are suggested here for the farmers, for example, conversion of decorative flowers (e.g., anthurium, China aster, globe amaranthus, sweet-william, anemone, sea lavender, etc.) and inflorescence (e.g., Michaelmas daisy, zinnia, statice, ferns, aspidistra, eucalyptus, magnolia, etc.) can also be into value-added products through drying and dehydration technologies. Many dehydration methods such as hot air oven, solar drying, press drying, freeze-drying, embedded drying, glycerine drying, and microwave oven drying polyester drying can be used for flower drying at room temperature (~ 25 °C). These floral and foliage dehydration techniques are quite simple, which can also be operated by unskilled persons. Moreover, it will generate self-employment for the youth and women along with increased revenue than selling fresh flowers. In this review, different techniques of flower drying have been discussed in detail along with the influencing factors, efficiency, economic feasibility, flower waste management and sustainability. Further, it has also been suggested how these techniques could be useful for farmers, researchers, and traders to create value-added products? Hence, the present paper could be very interesting for the flower growers, retailers, students, as well as floricultural scientists who are involved in flower production worldwide.

Complete Genomic RNA Sequence of Tuberose Mild Mosaic Virus and Tuberose Mild Mottle Virus Acquired by High-Throughput Sequencing.

Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa) is an ornamental flowering crop of the Amaryllidaceae family. Tuberose mild mosaic virus (TuMMV) and tuberose mild mottle virus (TuMMoV), members of the genus Potyvirus, are ubiquitously distributed in most tuberose growing countries worldwide with low biological incidence. Here, we report the first coding-complete genomic RNA of TuMMV and TuMMoV obtained through high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and further, the presence of both the viruses were confirmed using virus-specific primers in RT-PCR assays. Excluding the poly (A) tail, the coding-complete genomic RNA of TuMMV and TuMMoV was 9485 and 9462 nucleotides (nts) in length, respectively, and contained a single large open reading frame (ORF). Polyprotein encoded by both the viral genomes contained nine putative cleavage sites. BLASTn analysis of TuMMV and TuMMoV genomes showed 72.40-76.80% and 67.95-77% nucleotide sequence similarities, respectively, with the existing potyviral sequences. Phylogenetic analysis based on genome sequences showed that TuMMV and TuMMoV clustered in a distinct clade to other potyviruses. Further studies are required to understand the mechanism of symptom development, distribution, genetic variability, and their possible threat to tuberose production in India.

CRISPR/Cas9 System: A Potential Tool for Genetic Improvement in Floricultural Crops.

Demand of flowers is increasing with time worldwide. Floriculture has become one of the most important commercial trades in agriculture. Although traditional breeding methods like hybridization and mutation breeding have contributed significantly to the development of important flower varieties, flower production and quality of flowers can be significantly improved by employing modern breeding approaches. Novel traits of significance have interest to consumers and producers, such as fragrance, new floral color, change in floral architecture and morphology, vase life, aroma, and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, have been introduced by genetic manipulation. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein (Cas) system has recently emerged as a powerful genome-editing tool for accurately changing DNA sequences at specific locations. It provides excellent means of genetically improving floricultural crops. CRISPR/Cas system has been utilized in gene editing in horticultural cops. There are few reports on the utilization of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in flowers. The current review summarizes the research work done by employing the CRISPR/Cas9 system in floricultural crops including improvement in flowering traits such as color modification, prolonging the shelf life of flowers, flower initiation, and development, changes in color of ornamental foliage by genome editing. CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing could be useful in developing novel cultivars with higher fragrance and enhanced essential oil and many other useful traits. The present review also highlights the basic mechanism and key components involved in the CRISPR/Cas9 system.

Assessment of genetic diversity and population structure in gladiolus (Gladiolus hybridus Hort.) by ISSR markers.

ISSR (Inter simple sequence repeat) markers were used to assess the genetic diversity and population structure in 53 indigenous and exotic genotypes of gladiolus (Gladiolus hybridus Hort.). Molecular markers analysis showed PIC ranges from 0.42 (ISSR 861) to 0.99 (ISSR 855, ISSR 856 and ISSR 889) with an average 0.812, marker index ranged from 0.99 (ISSR 889) to 9.26 (ISSR 851) with an average 4.66 and resolving power of the primers ranged from 0.03 (ISSR 889) to 11.58 (ISSR 861) with an average value 3.80. The dendrogram based UPGMA clustering showed that all the 53 genotypes grouped into three main clusters. Nei's gene diversity (Na) varied from 0.929 to 1.717, effective number of alleles (Ne) varied from 1.262 to 1.369, Shannon's information index (I) ranged from 0.251 to 0.359 and gene diversity (He) was in the range from 0.167 to 0.229. Population structure analysis revealed three groups in which 32 genotypes were admixture types.