Screening for disease resistance in barley cultivars against Bipolaris sorokiniana using callus culture method.

Screening for resistant barley genotypes in response to fungal toxin of Bipolaris sorokiniana was assessed on standing barley plants as well as in selected callus lines of the same. For the standing lines tested, those manifesting chlorosis in response to toxin infiltration showed a significantly slower disease progress as compared to the necrotic lines. Also, necrosis in the callus tissues of the susceptible cultivar in MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of the crude toxin was significantly higher than in the callus tissues of the chlorotic lines studied. Similar host response to the toxin in in vitro and field situations open up the possibility of screening barley cultivars for resistance to spot blotch using callus culture as against classical methods of screening in order to increase accuracy and save time and space.

Identification of molecular marker and aggressiveness for different groups of Bipolaris sorokiniana isolates causing spot blotch disease in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

One hundred fifty-five isolates of Bipolaris sorokiniana of wheat were studied for their morphopathological characterization. These isolates were grouped in five categories--black, brown/dull black, gray cottony growth, dull white/greenish black, and white--on the basis of their growth pattern. The frequency of the black suppressed type was maximum (45.63%), whereas the white isolate displayed lowest frequency (6.96%) in the natural population. Twenty RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) primers were used to observe the variability among the identified groups of B. sorokininana. From each group, eight random isolates were investigated. A total of 143 bands were amplified, out of which 107 (74.83%) were polymorphic and 36 (25.17%) were monomorphic. On an average, the total numbers of bands generated per primer were 7.15, of which 5.35 and 1.80 were polymorphic and monomorphic, respectively. Dendrograms based on molecular polymorphism unveiled a considerable amount of diversity among the isolates. Specific DNA bands were identified for selected isolates. The distinct markers appeared to be potential enough to be employed as genetic fingerprints for future strain identification and classification. The study indicated that the RAPD primers provide an easy, rapid, and simple technique for the preliminary assessment of genetic diversity among the fungal isolates.

Studies on automatic hot gas reader used in the countrywide personnel monitoring programme.

In India, approximately 58,000 radiation workers are monitored using locally made CaSO4:Dy teflon embedded thermoluminescence dosemeter (TLD) badge system. The automatic hot gas readers developed locally are also used in TL measurements. The hot gas reader system has many advantages over the manual readers used previously and has completely replaced the manual reader system in all TLD personnel monitoring units in India. In the present study, the new reader system is studied and a theoretical attempt has been made to interpret the experimentally obtained results. The glow curves are generated theoretically and are also plotted experimentally. It has been found that the heat capacity of the heating gas, which is responsible for the transfer of heat, has a role in deciding the position of peak and is verified experimentally using different gas flow rates of nitrogen and argon as heating gases in the reader. The theoretical study may also be helpful in fitting the experimentally obtained glow curves and, therefore, the elimination of unwanted non-radiation-induced contributions, such as dark current, electronic spikes, light leakage and triboluminescence that generally distort the glow curve shape, can be achieved.