Phenotypic characteristics are known to vary substantially among different ethnicities around the globe. These variations are mediated by number of stochastic events and cannot be attributed to genetic architecture alone. DNA methylation is a well-established mechanism that sculpts our epigenome influencing phenotypic variation including disease manifestation. Since DNA methylation is an important determinant for health issues of a population, it demands a thorough investigation of the natural differences in genome wide DNA methylation patterns across different ethnic groups. This study is based on comparative analyses of methylome from five different ethnicities with major focus on Indian subjects. The current study uses hierarchical clustering approaches, principal component analysis and locus specific differential methylation analysis on Illumina 450K methylation data to compare methylome of different ethnic subjects. Our data indicates that the variations in DNA methylation patterns of Indians are less among themselves compared to other global population. It empirically correlated with dietary, cultural and demographical divergences across different ethnic groups. Our work further suggests that Indians included in this study, despite their genetic similarity with the Caucasian population, are in close proximity with Japanese in terms of their methylation signatures.

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After the fruits and vegetables are harvested, the value of fruits and vegetables is added in successive stages and remain in living phase. Losses due to postharvest disease may occur at any time during postharvest handling. The aim of postharvest management of diseases is to maximise the quality and storage value. The postharvest products are living and respiring materials, and from field to eating, several factors influence quality and there are many fungal and bacterial pathogens which affect them. The quality of these delicate products peaks at harvest when they are green and crisp, but during handling and storage their quality attributes may be deteriorated, resulting in products of inferior quality when they reach the consumers. Important genera of anamorphic postharvest pathogens include Penicillium, Aspergillus, Geotrichum, Botrytis, Fusarium, Alternaria, Colletotrichum, Dothiorella, Lasiodiplodia and Phomopsis. Some of these fungi also form ascomycete sexual stages. There should be integrated approaches to management the postharvest diseases to reduce the qualitative and quantitative loss of vegetables and fruits as fresh and during storage.

The present study aimed to investigate the biocontrol and growth enhancement potentials of Trichoderma spp., against R. solani. A total of 31 Trichoderma spp. were examined for their antagonistic potentials against R. solani in dual culture, effect of volatile and nonvolatile metabolites on the growth inhibition of test pathogen under in-vitro condition. The efficacy of Trichoderma spp. were further evaluated for controlling sheath blight and promoting rice growth under in-vivo conditions with different mode of applications. The results of in-vitro confrontation assay revealed that among the different Trichoderma spp. tested, T. harzianum (SVPRT-THLi06) and T. atroviride (SVPP-4) exhibited excellent biocontrol efficacy with 90.9% and 72.0% mycelial growth inhibition, respectively. The culture filtrate of T. harzianum (SVPRT-THLi6) at 50% was highly effective in reducing R. solani mycelial growth up to 95.9% and in case of volatile metabolites, maximum inhibition (72.5%) in mycelial growth of R. solani was recorded with T. harzianum isolate SVPP-8. A combined mode of application (soil treatment+ root dipping+ foliar spray) with T. harzianum (SVPRT-THLi06) was found most effective under greenhouse condition, which showed the least disease severity (12.4% vs control 49.6%) and disease incidence (27.1% vs control 96.4%). The present study revealed that T. harzianum (SVPRT-THLi06) has potential to control sheath blight disease as well as improve growth of rice crop. Therefore, in future it may be used as bio-based formulation for plant growth enhancement and managing sheath blight disease in rice cultivation and further may be applied in organic rice cultivation. Necrotrophic fungus, Rhizoctonia solani, Rice, Sheath blight, Trichoderma spp. Biocontrol and growth enhancement potential of Trichoderma spp. against Rhizoctonia solani causing sheath blight disease in rice

Different cis acting elements of gamma kafirin gene from Sorghum bicolor var. M 35-1 were amplified and cloned using different combination of the primers. The amplified promoter was replaced with CaMV35S promoter of vector pCMBIA-1304 and resultant vector contained beta-glucuronidase (gus) gene under the control of amplified gamma-kafirin promoter. The resulting fusants were then transformed in to different explants of sorghum via particle bombardment. The regulation of uid gene expression was analyzed to find out the minimum required 5' regulatory sequence and cis acting elements for the efficient expression. However no gus expression was detected in leaves of micropropagated plants, scutellum and calli at any stage of growth. The expression of gus, with pKaf gus-P4 gene construct, was detected in immature embryos and endosperm 20 days after pollination (DAP). The result suggest that at least three motifs (two GCN4 and one prolamin box) besides TATA and CATC boxes are required for the efficient expression of the kafirin gene of sorghum. The study shows that PCR based isolation of different motifs and regions can be used as an alternate to deletion analysis for observing the role of various motifs and their importance in the gene expression and regulation.