Studies on the biochemical basis of resistance to Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee and their correlation with shoot and fruit borer damage in five selected brinjal genotypes done at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India during June to December 2005 showed that both shoot and fruit of less susceptible genotypes had the higher amount of poly phenol oxidase (PPO), phenylalanine ammonium lyase (PAL) and lignin and lower amount of reducing sugar. Significant negative correlation was found between percent infestation (shoot and fruit) with PPO, PAL and lignin content, whereas it was positively correlated with reducing sugar content. Among the biochemical constituents, PPO, PAL and lignin contents were negatively correlated with reducing sugar but PPO were positively correlated with PAL and lignin content and vice-versa. Keywords: Biochemical basis; resistacace; eggplant; Leucinodes orbonalis. DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v35i1.5876Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 35(1) : 149-155, March 2010

Five brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) genotypes were selected for characterization using Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers. All the genotypes showed considerable variation in respect of morphological, anatomical and biochemical aspects. For study of relatedness, plant genomic DNA was extracted by CTAB based method using 11 randomly selected primers produced from Calgene Inc. USA. The primers developed 22 bands through PCR amplification out of which 15 from 3 primers and were polymorphic. Genetic similarities of SSR profiles were estimated based on Jaccard's coefficient value. The dendrogram generated two clusters and they were clearly distinct and separated from each other. Cluster-I consisted of genotypes TURBO and BL009; and cluster-II comprised of genotypes EG058, EG075 and ISD006. Genotype TURBO and BL009 were identified as the diverse genotype and showed a maximum of 17% dissimilarity from EG058, EG075 and ISD006. The similarity value ranged from 0.83 to 1.00 which indicated the presence of narrow range of genetic diversity at molecular level but have still a possibility of crossing among the genotypes of two clusters. The banding pattern of different genotypes could be utilized as reference for further comparisons.

Seedling bed netted with mosquito net barrier against red pumpkin beetle, Aulacophora foveicollis (Lucas) in sweet gourd was evaluated with other chemical, mechanical, and botanical approaches during 2006-07 and 2007-08 cropping seasons. Among six treatments, results indicated that seedling bed of sweet gourd covered with mosquito net barrier upto 45 days before planting was found to be most effective and provided 97.59 and 100% protection with higher benefit cost ratio of 21.99 compared to 9.74 with Furadan 5G applied in soil; as of 4.35 using neem seed oil for the average of two years applied against red pumpkin beetle.